Picking through the gains and losses for each team, it looks like the Bears, Falcons, Jets and Texans have had the strongest offseasons. That’s how it looks when you ballpark the value of the players switching teams, and that opinion is supported by the value of the contracts handed out.
There are a couple of good websites that list the dollar amounts for contracts. Spotrac is excellent, and so is OverTheCap. Those are sites I check regularly.
Using Average Per Year totals for contracts from OverTheCap, I calculated the value of players added and lost so far. You look at the value of contracts coming in and contracts leaving, and it should give you some sense of which teams are getting better and worse.
Those dollars indicate that three teams will be at least $50 million better this year: Bears, Falcons, Jets. The Texans are $12 million back, but with them having had two the first three overall picks in the draft (which aren’t included in the dollar totals) I think they belong in that top group.
On the figures (which are in millions of dollars) they include free agent signings and also trades. Aaron Rodgers, for example, counts as a $50.3 gain for the Jets and as a $50.3 million loss for the Packers (not showing in the chart is the value of the draft picks Green Bay got in return).
We’re talking rough numbers here. I didn’t include salary dump players like Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz and Kenny Golladay (who are all free agents). I included only players who have actually signed with new teams. (If Wentz signed a $5 million deal with a team, he would then count as a $5 million gain for that team, and a $5 million loss for the Colts).
Four teams have lost over $40 million in value, and two of them were in the NFC Championship last year – 49ers and Eagles. Both of those teams added a big-time defensive lineman (Javon Hargrave, Jalen Carter) but otherwise had a lot more losses than gains.
| OFFSEASON CONTRACTS LEDGER | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Gain | Lost | Difference |
| Chicago | $77.3 | $18.4 | $58.9 |
| Atlanta | $78.3 | $20.9 | $57.4 |
| NY Jets | $87.6 | $35.8 | $51.8 |
| Houston | $72.1 | $33.9 | $38.3 |
| NY Giants | $47.9 | $16.0 | $31.9 |
| Miami | $45.2 | $17.4 | $27.9 |
| Denver | $67.7 | $42.1 | $25.6 |
| Cleveland | $44.1 | $21.6 | $22.6 |
| Pittsburgh | $45.4 | $25.3 | $20.1 |
| Carolina | $53.4 | $34.8 | $18.6 |
| Seattle | $38.9 | $24.3 | $14.6 |
| Washington | $29.3 | $19.1 | $10.2 |
| Detroit | $39.5 | $29.9 | $9.6 |
| New Orleans | $58.1 | $54.5 | $3.6 |
| Dallas | $23.7 | $22.2 | $1.5 |
| New England | $28.1 | $28.1 | $0.0 |
| Buffalo | $26.0 | $29.8 | -$3.8 |
| LA Chargers | $6.6 | $12.4 | -$5.7 |
| Minnesota | $36.6 | $44.0 | -$7.4 |
| Kansas City | $42.5 | $50.2 | -$7.7 |
| Arizona | $25.2 | $34.1 | -$9.0 |
| Indianapolis | $23.9 | $34.3 | -$10.4 |
| Cincinnati | $26.4 | $37.0 | -$10.5 |
| Tennessee | $33.5 | $46.3 | -$12.7 |
| Tampa Bay | $14.6 | $28.5 | -$13.9 |
| Las Vegas | $67.1 | $81.4 | -$14.3 |
| Baltimore | $7.3 | $33.8 | -$26.5 |
| Jacksonville | $6.7 | $37.7 | -$31.0 |
| San Francisco | $41.7 | $86.1 | -$44.5 |
| Philadelphia | $18.3 | $74.8 | -$56.5 |
| LA Rams | $2.3 | $67.4 | -$65.1 |
| Green Bay | $3.4 | $76.7 | -$73.3 |
—Ian Allan