Most improved position groups during the 2023 NFL offseason

We’ve entered a point of the NFL offseason where rosters are largely finalized. Free agents are mostly signed, veterans extended or traded, the draft is nearly two months in the past and only a few big names are still on the open market. They, to some degree, are awaiting potential injuries or just looking to skip OTAs before they sign somewhere.

So at this stage, I think it’s a helpful exercise to compare what rosters and specific position groups/units look like compared to a year ago. I went through each of them and outlined the one team that improved the most in that area, along with another group or two, which deserved an honorable mention.

Please keep in mind that I tried to judge the upgrades made as a whole, rather than just pointing at a franchise that brought in only one true difference-maker. This is just based on player acquisitions from the end of this past season onwards, meaning no injuries or other factors that kept guys already under contract off the field.

Quarterbacks – Carolina Panthers

Additions: Bryce Young & Andy Dalton

Subtractions: Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold & P.J. Walker

Panthers QBs Bryce Young and Andy Dalton

Don’t get me wrong here – It’s not like Mayfield, Darnold and Walker can’t be legit NFL quarterbacks. However, there’s a reason that all of them are on their third team respectively in as many years and have the potential to earn a total of just over ten million dollars collectively in 2023.

To swap them out for a Heisman trophy-winning first overall pick and a veteran (who has probably been a top-20 QB for eight of his twelve NFL seasons at least, with over 100 million in career earnings, including three seasons as a backup, where he played very well when called upon), to me represents a legitimate move up.

Let’s start with what this quarterback situation has looked like these past two seasons. Among quarterbacks with 200+ combined pass and rush attempts over the last two years combined, this is where the three guys mentioned rank in terms of EPA per play – Baker 39th, Sam 43rd and P.J. 48th.

For the first among those, if you just look at the first eight weeks of last season, when Mayfield was still in Carolina, his number (-0.235) would have actually been in a completely different stratosphere to the rest of the league, in a negative sense.

Now, we can argue if Baker’s shoulder injury was managed the right way in Cleveland and what his support system looked like in Carolina. But how erratic he was as a decision-maker, some of the ways he would test tight windows late and the fact he misjudges his athleticism out of the pocket are encompassed in the fact his QBR through week eight (18.2) was the second-worst in the NFL since 2006.

Darnold actually looked a lot better over the final month-and-a-half, when the Panthers had transitioned to an offense that ran the ball on 60.6% of plays (which would’ve easily been number one in the league), where he was just asked to make simple alert and RPO reads (along with keeping the ball on zone-reads and defeat the isolated deep middle safety on vertical concepts).

However, we’ve seen that when the game is put in his hands, he lacks some situational and pressure awareness, which was on display when he took a strip-sack down by a field goal at the end of their week 17 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, that could’ve won them the division.

Finally, Walker had some nice moments after coming over as an XFL star, but as an every-down passer, he lacks the mental fortitude to pick apart defenses.

In terms of the proven asset the Panthers brought in – Looking at the EPA + CPOE (completion percentage over expected) mark for Dalton, he was tied for 20th league-wide (applying the 200+ play qualifier). In terms of guys with 100+ dropbacks, he finished ninth in passer rating (95.2) and if you were to look at PFF’s metrics, he was actually sixth among all quarterbacks in terms of passing grade.

He had 16 big-time throws vs. 10 turnover-worthy plays across 415 total dropbacks, for a career-best TWP rate of just 2.3%. What really stood out about his tape, (after being sort of a lame duck in Cincinnati, when they were going for Joe Burrow the following draft, the true backup in Dallas and a place-holder for Justin Fields in Chicago), is that he worked on his release, in order to make it more compact and be able to create velocity with a more efficient motion.

Plus, he turned himself into a much more effective deep passer, letting it rip to a collection of receivers that was below-average by NFL standards, if they were isolated down the field. That reflected itself in just his second elite PFF grade (91.2) on passes of 20+ air yards.

Meanwhile, Bryce Young was the highest-graded quarterback in the country by PFF in each of those seasons (92.0 and 91.3), with a big-time throw rate (6.0%) basically three times as high as his turnover-worthy play rate (2.1%). His average depth of target went up by a full yard in 2022 (9.0 to 10.0).

While he did plenty of damage by spreading the field out and taking advantage of leverage advantages or the way zone defenders were put into conflict, early in the play-clock, his time-to-throw rate went up by 0.23 seconds this past season, up to 3.04 seconds, which was the 20th-highest among all FBS quarterbacks. We will have to see how much of it directly translates to the next level, but Bryce’s innate feel for where all 21 other players on the field are and what secondary or tertiary routes his targets would transition to, led to plays that made defensive coordinators pull their hair out on a weekly basis.

He recorded an unheard-of 67.5 PFF passing grade under pressure in 2022 and his elusiveness was illustrated by a 12.5% pressure-to-sack conversion rate, despite the size limitations at 5’10” and ½, somewhere in the 190-pound range. I called him a special play-making point guard and even though there were more physically gifted options available, he was atop most teams’ boards because of it.

Honorable mention: Indianapolis Colts

Running backs – Detroit Lions

Additions: David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs & Mohamed Ibrahim

Subtractions: D’Andre Swift, Jamaal Williams & Justin Jackson

Lions running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs

Moving on to the running back position, I certainly had a tougher time finding as drastic of an improvement as I had with the QBs. The Falcons might be at the top of the list simply based on drafting what I believe is a generational running back prospect in Bijan Robinson, but they JUST added him and nobody else.

The team I settled on was the Lions, whose departing trio combined for 2,341 yards and 27 touchdowns from scrimmage across 475 touches. However, while we can argue if they allocated their resources optimally here (paying six million annually over the next three years for David Montgomery and using the 12th overall pick in the draft on Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs, along with an undrafted free agent in Mohamed Ibrahim), I think actually evaluating those players individually, they certainly upgraded that backfield.

It kind of hurts my heart to talk down on D’Andre Swift here, who was a top-20 overall prospect in the 2020 draft for me and I still believe he could take advantage of a tremendous situation, having been traded to the Eagles for a fifth-round pick in 2025. However, he simply hasn’t lived up to the hype up to this point and more importantly, hasn’t been able to stay healthy, missing ten total games across his three years in Detroit. He's been banged and limited in his usage for so many others.

Swift has only carried the ball more than 15 times twice in his pro career and last year he cracked double-digits just three times. His receiving skills in terms of beating linebackers across their face, adjusting to the ball and making people miss in the open field are special, but his vision has been spotty at times. He doesn’t churn out a lot of yardage after contact (only 35.4% of his career rushing total) and he hasn’t delivered enough explosive plays (only seven career carries of 20+ yards).

Jamaal Williams on the other hand is coming off the best season of his career and is one of my favorite characters in the entire league (which is why the Saints are now paying him 12 million dollars over the next three years). With that being said, while he is a great short-yardage back, his TD total (17) in 2022 was pretty inflated by the amount of work he got on the goal line, as 13 of them came from two yards or less away.

Other than his rookie season, he’s gained at least 2.3 yards before and never hit the two-yard mark in terms of yards after contact in all of his other five seasons. He’s a highly useful number two but doesn’t offer much dynamism. And finally, Justin Jackson has largely been a very effective rotational player, but is coming off career lows across several categories.

On the flipside, David Montgomery to me is one of the most underrated running backs in the NFL. After a rather underwhelming rookie campaign in terms of the efficiency of his touches, he’s put together three really strong seasons, despite being part of a Chicago offense that has never finished better than 25th in DVOA since in any of his four seasons there.

Across those 44 combined games, he’s carried the ball 673 times for 2,720 yards (51.6% after contact) and caught 130 of 159 passes for 1055 more yards (90.2% after the reception), combining for 23 touchdowns. Last season was the first time, Monty actually ran behind an above-average offensive line (based on film and PFF’s run-blocking grades), but that’s when he actually saw the lowest workload of his career.

Looking at these past three seasons combined, according to PlayerProfiler.com, he had 119 rush attempts stuffed (no or negative yardage), which accounted for 17.7% of his total. His calling card coming out of Iowa State was the ability to make tacklers miss or break free from wraps, thanks to some of the best contact balance you’ll find from a college back.

That has translated to the NFL, as his 138 missed tackles forced since 2020 rank sixth behind only Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Dalvin Cook and Jonathan Taylor. He’s turned himself into one of the best zone-runners in the league, thanks to his pacing and the ability to transfer force from horizontal movement into a vertical one. He’s also only dropped nine of 163 career catchable targets.

While Texas’ Bijan Robinson was in his own tier as a generational draft prospect, according to the majority of analysts, Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs was my clear-cut RB2 and my 17th overall prospect available. After being a very effective all-purpose player for Georgia Tech during his two years there as a former top-100 overall recruit, Gibbs turned himself into the most dangerous runner and receiver for the Crimson Tide this past season (racking up 1370 yards and ten touchdowns across 151 carries plus 44 catches at 7.0 yards per touch).

The line I had in my scouting report on Gibbs was “This kid is like a sports car that can switch gears with no issues at all and make defenders look silly.” His running style was pretty unique, yet while he’s only around the 200-pound mark, his ability to set up gap-scheme runs between the tackles conceptually and manipulate second-level defenders with impeccable footwork really stood out to me.

Plus, then of course, he can make people miss in the open field with it and has the 4.36 speed to go the distance if you give him a seam or get people out in front for him in the screen game. Overall, he forced 57 missed tackles forced across his 195 touches with Alabama.

Detroit didn’t just draft him for a classic running back role however – Gibbs is very comfortable lining up at any of the receiver spots and running an extensive route tree from there, along with being an obvious mismatch out of the backfield. He averaged an impressive 1.83 yards per route run last season despite being involved in the pattern on 243 pass plays.

The increased flexibility and ability to create individually those two guys provide, along with one of the most physical and consistent runners in college football over the last couple of years in Mo Ibrahim – who went undrafted due to concerning knee injuries – should make this offense under OC Ben Johnson even more dangerous.

Honorable mention: Philadelphia Eagles

Receiving corp – Baltimore Ravens

Additions: Odell Beckham Jr., Nelson Agholor & Zay Flowers

Subtractions: Demarcus Robinson, Sammy Watkins, DeSean Jackson & Josh Oliver

Ravens wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr., Nelson Agholor and Zay Flowers

I don’t believe many casual fans realize how dire the receiver situation for the Ravens has been these last couple of years. Other than Marquise Brown doing it twice – who was traded to Arizona during last year’s draft – no player other than Mark Andrews has caught 50+ passes in any of Lamar Jackson’s four seasons as a full-time starter.

While Baltimore did want to utilize heavy personnel extensively under former OC Greg Roman, the fact that fullback Patrick Ricard – in the year 2022 – was on the field for 63.7% of offensive snaps, tells you about the state this group of skill-position players was in.

I’d say Demarcus Robinson is a solid WR2/WR3, but he was clearly the primary target for this unit once Rashod Bateman went down with a foot injury. Sammy Watkins was on his third team in as many years, being signed on December 20, once the Packers released him (after the Ravens had already let him walk in free agency). DeSean Jackson was brought in off the couch in Week 9 and Josh Oliver was a solid TE3 for this group, but certainly expendable with what Isaiah Likely showed as a rookie and the fact they drafted Charlie Kolar a few picks earlier in that draft. You pay up for OBJ, draft Zay Flowers in the first round and get Nelson Agholor on a bargain deal? That completely changes the picture.

With the backgrounds on the subtractions already out of the way, let me get straight to Odell here. Do I believe his service for this season on the field are worth 15 million dollars, coming off his second torn ACL in the pros? – Probably not. Yet, considering what the rest of the free agent market looked like at wide receiver, you needed to pay up if you wanted the only guy with superstar caché.

Now, he hasn’t been that type of player since 2019 at least, but up to that point, he put up over 1,000 yards in each of the prior six seasons, other than when he broke his ankle in 2017. The injuries have certainly taken away some of the explosiveness, but Odell still boasts a career mark of 2.13 yards per route run and as the number two in L.A.

The Rams used his ability to win in contested catch situations (63.2% rate in 2022), in particular as a goal-line threat, when he scored seven TDs in 12 total games and he was off to a fulminant start in Super Bowl LVI. And for the full season, his average separation gained at 2.6 yards was just 0.1 yards behind the likes of Stefon Diggs, A.J. Brown, Mike Evans and D.J. Moore.

He’s still one of the best receivers on slants, post-routes and double-moves that we have in the game and will be a great technician to learn from for those young pass-catchers in Baltimore. His effect was already felt, as it represented a sort of bridge between Lamar and the organization, in order to finally lock down that big contract.

As for Nelson Agholor, he was actually the first in line in terms of the offseason additions they made. A big reason he signed in Baltimore for this year at just 3.25 million – a third of what the Patriots paid him annually on his prior contract – was that he thought he could see a heavy target share.

In a more specific role is where you’d think he can excel more so and while his two years in New England weren’t overly productive, he’s earned elite PFF grades on passes of 10+ and 20+ yards respectively in each of the last three years. Now, by drafting another guy in the first round and Bateman coming back from injury, Agholor should be WR4 on this squad, and he’s a high-quality option.

Let’s now get to the name I’m most excited for, however – Zay Flowers, my WR1 in this previous draft. Despite being part of an underwhelming Boston College program with highly inconsistent quarterback play, he stuck around four years before leaving as their all-time leader in receiving yards (3056).

There’s room for improving his ability to manipulate defenders in off-coverage, but if this kid cleans up his focus drops, he has the chance to win at all three levels and scare defenses to go the distance on any given play. Zay has easy acceleration off the line and was routinely deployed as a vertical threat to pull away coverage, yet he still put up a yards-per-route-run mark of 2.15 or better in each of his three seasons as a starter.

Last year he hauled in 12 of 27 passes of 20+ air yards for 500 yards and four TDs. And while he’s not the biggest guy at 5’9”, he has bulked up to 183 pounds during the pre-draft process and actually had a 58.3% contested catch rate as a senior. That’s along with being able to take a shallow crosser towards the opposite sideline and run away from the pursuit, how he can stick his foot in the ground to make people miss in the open field and his underrated power to bounce off glancing hits without much delay.

Now with Todd Monken taking over as offensive coordinator, I think we see a pretty dramatic shift. Not only in terms of using a lot more 11 personnel but also in terms of the passing concepts, with a much better understanding for putting defenders in conflict and using the newly-acquired pieces at his disposal, to have options on all three downs (thanks to how interchangeable those guys could be in terms of alignment and route depth).

Honorable mention: New York Giants

Offensive line – Pittsburgh Steelers

Additions: Isaac Seumalo, Nate Herbig, Broderick Jones & Spencer Anderson

Subtractions: Trent Scott & J.C. Hassenauer

Steelers offensive linemen Isaac Seumalo, Nate Herbig and Broderick Jones

I had two really good options here for the offensive line, between the Steelers and Bears, but I ultimately settled on the former, because they’ve given themselves more solutions I believe and actually barely lost anybody from a year ago.

The starting five from 2022 are still fully there, yet they most likely have at least two new starters along the front and at least one quality backup. Meanwhile, they’re losing a career swing tackle in Trent Scott, who had PFF grades between 39.6 and 61.7 in his four seasons prior to a very limited sample size in Pittsburgh this past year (31 snaps) and in his one season as a starter, he was charged with eight sacks and ten penalties.

Meanwhile, J.C. Hassenauer has been a solid backup for the Steelers in his three years there – primarily at center – but having brought in Kendrick Green and Mason Cole these past two offseasons, they’ve wanted to keep him in that role. Plus, we might see them move James Daniels back to the pivot, which is where he excelled at Iowa, and push even Cole to the bench.

One of the two guys I feel very good about taking over one of the starting spots is Isaac Seumalo. Coming over from Philly, this guy has started all 45 games he’s been available for over the past four seasons, as part of arguably the best offensive line in the league during that stretch.

Last season he swapped over to right guard and was equally effective as in prior years on the opposite side. With good girth throughout his 6’4”, 305-pound frame, he’s capable of creating significant lateral or vertical displacement, yet his agility to get to the far-pec of shaded defenders allows him to negate penetration on wide zone as well.

More importantly, he’s shown continuous improvement as a pass-protector, allowing just one sack and 25 total pressures across 753 pass-blocking snaps. The one thing he has to clean up is penalties. Yet, he offers the flexibility to play either side and get your best five out there.

Broderick Jones may be a young, fairly inexperienced player, but as the 14th overall pick, this guy should be a lock at left tackle, after a couple of replacement-level seasons there by Dan Moore Jr. Following some promising playing time late during Georgia’s 2021 run at a national championship, Jones took over full-time on the blindside and more than just got the job done.

This dude wants to make defenders want to leave the field whenever he’s allowed to just drive them out of the way in the run game, but he was also an extremely effective protector in his first season as a starter, not giving up any sacks and just nine total pressures across 425 pass-blocking snaps.

Pittsburgh will need to iron out his tendency of dipping his head at contact, but what he can provide getting out in space on crack-toss and screen plays and generally punishing smaller bodies on the fly could really give this unit a different attitude.

Nate Herbig began his career alongside Isaac Seumalo in Philadelphia, before spending a year with the Jets in 2022. He started 17 of 31 games over the latter of three seasons with the Eagles, before playing every single snap in the 11 contests he was used in New York this past year. He’s technically sound in terms of his first couple of steps and latching his hands in the run game, while having surrendered just four sacks and seven other QB hits across 1272 career pass-blocking snaps. To me, he’s a high-quality backup on the interior, with experience at all three spots.

Finally, I didn’t study Spencer Anderson in depth for the draft, but I thought he was a quality starter at Maryland, with starting experience at every spot along the front other than left guard and offers plus athleticism. So they can stash him probably and see what their coaches can get out of him.

The fact that Dan Moore Jr. was drafted 128th in the 2021 draft – which I actually thought was too early for him (and he immediately plugged in at left tackle, starting all but one of 34 games over the past couple of seasons, which he missed due to injury), kind of tells you where this O-line has been.

Looking at PFF grades for their primary starting centers over the last three years in comparison to the rest of the league with a 200+ snap minimum, Maurkice Pouncey finished 29th at the position (60.5) and Kendrick Green was actually a downgrade the following year at 39th (52.4), before Mason Cole put them above league-average at 13th overall (67.1).

As I mentioned at the top, if they feel like James Daniels can transfer his play to the pivot and Kevin Dotson is still part of your best five, now you have those two plus Seumalo on the interior, with a potential franchise left tackle in Broderick Jones and Chuks Okorafor starting finally really settling in on the opposite edge.

That should absolutely be a better group collectively, without even getting into the depth this provides them with, looking at whoever doesn’t make the starting lineup from that foursome I just described on the inside, Herbig as somebody with the versatility to plug into any of those three spots and Dan Moore having a couple of years of starting experience now.

Honorable mention: Chicago Bears

Defensive line – Atlanta Falcons

Additions: David Onyemata, Calais Campbell, Bud Dupree, Zach Harrison & Ikenna Enechukwu

Subtractions: Abdullah Anderson, Anthony Rush, Jaleel Johnson & Matt Dickerson

Falcons defensive linemen David Onyemata, Calais Campbell and Zach Harrison

Before we get to the changed personnel on Atlanta’s defensive line, we have to first quickly address the altered front dynamics. Over the last two years under Dean Pees as defensive coordinator, this has been one of the talent-void units in the league.

They did run a hybrid scheme in terms of the front- and back-end, but generally the principles were based on a three-down line with several long bodies they would rotate through. Although the sudden retirement of recently-signed Eddie Goldman left them without a true nose tackle they wanted to play extensively – an issue they’ve had for a long time now.

In fact, the only D-linemen to play at least 42% of snaps last season was Grady Jarrett. With the DC change to Ryan Nielsen, while the base on paper may still be a 3-4, I’d expect a lot more even fronts in nickel sets, where they slide Calais Campbell out to a strong-side six-technique, while they have one of those smaller outside linebackers by designation in a wider alignment across from it.

I really don’t have that much to say about the four guys they lost or rather let walk here. It’s far from the end-all-be-all, but let me just quickly the list where those names ranked among all 423 defensive linemen in terms of PFF grade who played at least one snap – Abdullah Anderson 172nd, Anthony Rush 343rd, Jaleel Johnson and Matt Dickerson tied for 366th.

So let’s just transition to the new additions and I’ll group the two veterans on the interior primarily together. 30-year-old David Onyemata was signed for three years at 35 million dollars (24.5M of that guaranteed) and Calais Campbell – after deciding to come back for his age 37 season – was surprisingly waived by Baltimore and signed for a year at seven million.

The former is coming off a slight down year with a PFF grade of just 64.0, but the two years prior he finished top-ten among interior defensive linemen (88.2 and 81.9). Across these past three seasons, Onyemata has combined for 17 tackles for loss, 13.5 sacks and 76 total pressures across his 1065 pass-rush snaps. While he’s spent the majority of snaps in the B-gap, but he is capable of dealing with the angular element of combos from shaded alignments and you get some interchangeability with Grady Jarrett.

Meanwhile, Campbell has put together a pretty crazy career arc, where he seemingly improved every year in Arizona and then put up elite numbers throughout his three seasons in Jacksonville (198 total pressures across 1,509 pass-rush snaps), before still being a highly useful player when healthy in Baltimore, where the numbers may not quite be up to par, but he still earned PFF grades of 80.8 and 77.2 respectively these last two years.

He offers a ton of flexibility in terms of using his force to win the B-gap, and sets a physical edge or two-gap when they do run even fronts. On passing downs, both guys have been effective as set-up man on different twists and games.

The Falcons also signed Bud Dupree for one year at a three-million-dollar price tag. He’s coming off two very disappointing seasons in Tennessee after signing a five-year, 82.5-million dollar contract, putting up his lowest pressure totals (29 and 24 respectively across just under 300 pass-rush snaps) since getting hurt in his second season. But before that, he racked up at least 40 total pressures in each of his final four years in Pittsburgh.

Since his knee issues, he’s struggled to get low and flatten at the top of his rush to some degree, but as more of a power-rusher to condense the corner, he could be a useful piece for a more twitchy edge rusher across from him in Arnold Ebiketie to cash in on. And he’s generally a plus dealing with tight ends in the run game at 270 pounds.

And then we have to quickly address the rookies. Zach Harrison was drafted 76th overall as a guy that has that more traditional five-technique body type at nearly 6’6”, 275 pounds with 36 and ½-inch arms, but he’s played on the edge throughout his time at Ohio State.

He received PFF grades of 84.0 and 86.1 in his two seasons as a starter, racking up 56 combined pressures across 501 pass-rush snaps. His length to lock out against solo blockers and free himself late as a rusher is apparent. The other guy that I wanted to mention here is Ikenna Enechukwu – an undrafted free agent out of Rice. Across his final two seasons, he put together 18.5 tackles for loss and 62 pressures across 700 pass-rush snaps, while transitioning from three-technique to more of a 5-/6-technique this past year.

He’s a bit of a long shot to make the roster, but his violent hands and relentless motor are what made me outline him as a potential impact UDFA in an article a good month ago.

Honorable mentions: Cleveland Browns & Houston Texans

Linebackers – Chicago Bears

Additions: Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards & Noah Sewell

Subtractions: Nicholas Morrow, Joe Thomas & Matthew Adams

Bears linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards

Moving on to the second level of the defense, we once again had two strong contenders for being outlined here. The Giants go from a complete liability in terms of what that unit represented for opposing teams to attack to fielding two linebackers who just received top-40 PFF grades among guys with 100+ snaps last season in Bobby Okereke and Jarrad Davis. This, while still having several promising now second-year players behind them, who can make their mark on special teams.

However, I would be remised to not go more into depth about how the Bears invested immense financial resources into their LB room. Once again, there’s not a whole lot to discuss about the news that departed. Obviously, they traded away Roquan Smith to the Ravens close to the deadline for a second- and fifth-round pick this year, which won’t be taken into account for this exercise.

However, by far their best remaining player at the position in UDFA Jack Sanborn is still on the roster and I’ll once again quickly mention where the three departed names finished in terms of linebackers that played 100+ snaps last season according to Pro Football Focus – Nicholas Morrow at 86th (54.0), Joe Thomas 58th (63.0) and Matthew Adams at number 34 (69.0), but that was clearly the best among his four years in the pros.

So getting PFF’s number-two ranked T.J. Edwards (84.8) was a huge move, considering he’s still an undervalued asset in the landscape of off-ball linebackers, earning 19.5 million dollars across the next three seasons, with just under eight million of that guaranteed.

This is a player I still regret to this day for “only” making an honorable mention among the undrafted free agents from the 2019 draft. Yet, I redeemed myself by detailing him as a breakout candidate following his rookie campaign and he received PFF grades of 76.3 or better in three of his four years with the Eagles. Their linebacker player – between Edwards and Kyzir White – was the most underappreciated piece in winning the NFC this past season, in large part because of the lack of value GM Howie Roseman has put in addressing that position group.

However, this guy played 94% of defensive snaps and studying his tape, the ability to ID keys in the run game, be a step early for blockers and take care of his fits was key to Philly basically never putting a third linebacker on the field. Maybe equally as important has been Edwards’ improvements in coverage, where he’s really worked on squeezing down windows in zone and sticking to guys once he needed to match them. That is illustrated by his PFF coverage increasing every single year.

Considering the signs Sanborn showed as a rookie, trading away Roquan Smith and the value signing of Edwards, I was definitely a bit surprised when they threw 72 million dollars (just over half of it guaranteed) at Tremaine Edmunds for the next four years, with most of the money coming upfront. Originally drafted in 2018 by the Bills, he’s coming off the fifth-year option, starting all 74 games he’s been available for, collecting 100+ tackles every year and making the Pro Bowl twice.

With Buffalo restructuring and then extending Matt Milano’s contract these past two offseasons, they didn’t have the cash necessary to get into a bidding war for Edmunds, but it’s obvious what any coach would be mesmerized by. At 6’5”, 250 pounds with 34 and ½-inch arms, the explosiveness of this still only 25-year-old and the range at 4.54 speed make him a true specimen at the position.

Looking at PFF’s database, that freakish athleticism didn’t lend itself to high-quality play through his first four seasons, with overall grades ranging between 47.9 and 60.6. He turned things around this past season though, with career-bests in overall grade (79.0) and in particular his coverage number (88.1).

Based on film, while Milano has cleaned up for some of his misreads against the run in the past, his movement skills and length have been major assets in passing situations for the last couple of years, as Buffalo heavily depended on their ability to minimize windows in their zone-heavy scheme. Looking at the raw coverage numbers, the 4.9 yards per target and passer rating responsible for at 69.9 were the top marks of his career, while they only charged him with one missed tackle on 103 attempts.

How exactly Matt Eberflus and company envision the role of second-year player Jack Sanborn is a bit unclear to me, since one of their second-rounders from last year in Kyler Gordon will most likely move into the slot primarily. But I’m guessing if one of their three starting corners in nickel personnel goes down, they’re comfortable with using more base and let those three LBs flood the underneath areas with a heavy focus on press-bail cover-three.

What’s clear is that the former Colts DC and now Bears HC wanted his version of Shaq Leonard in the middle in Edmunds, whose range and length can shrink the field for offenses, while Edwards’ sound reads between the tackles complement that skill set effectively.

Chicago also drafted Noah Sewell out of Oregon in the fifth round, who comes in with some similar weaknesses as Edmunds did as a young player, although he’s not nearly as light on his feet and I believe his best usage might actually end up being as a rotational edge rusher.

Honorable mention: New York Giants

Cornerbacks – Miami Dolphins

Additions: Jalen Ramsey & Cam Smith

Subtractions: None

Dolphins cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and Cam Smith

This one’s a bit odd because the Dolphins literally didn’t lose a single true cornerback even listed at pro-football-reference.com in terms of snap-counts. The obvious one that was on their books last year, but didn’t actually ever see the field, is Byron Jones, who basically announced his retirement in a passionate response to a clip of his record-setting broad jump at the combine, urging upon young players to turn down opportunities to take pain-killers and protecting their bodies.

Yet, going back to the active players from 2022, everybody is still on the 90-man roster at the point I’m writing this. The difference is that they traded only a third-round pick to the Rams for three-time first-team All-Pro Jalen Ramsey and used the 52nd overall pick on Cam Smith out of South Carolina.

What that means effectively is that Keion Crossen, Nik Needham and Noah Igbinoghene won’t combine to play 80% of defensive snaps, to build up the Frankenstein monster that was Miami’s second outside corner, alongside Xavien Howard and Kader Kohou in the slot.

Not to say that all three of those names are horrible players. Crossen played 504 snaps through his first four seasons as a pro on three different teams, with just over 300 coming with the Texans in 2020. He’s only missed nine of 127 career tackling attempts, but his coverage profile has certainly been more down than up.

Needham I believe has been the most consistent of the bunch, where despite being thrown into the lineup as a former undrafted free agent in 2019, being targeted 201 total times through his first three seasons, where after he was picked on in the red-zone, especially as a rookie, he’s been responsible for passer ratings of 95.1 and 73.4 respectively, with three TDs vs. four INTs.

Unfortunately, I thought this past season his six weeks played presented a definite downgrade and then he tore his achilles. Igbinoghene, I believe, we can confidently say by now turned out to be a massive bust. He has a career passer rating allowed of 113.1 and while the sample size is rather small, he’s missed 20.7% of his tackling attempts so far.

Once again looking at the PFF database, had Needham stayed healthy with his grade of 63.7 they might’ve been fine, but Igbinoghene (51.8) and Crossen (50.7) were right next to each at 125th and 126th respectively among the 140 corners who played 200+ snaps last season.

So just replacing that play collectively with an All-Pro level player like Jalen Ramsey provides a MASSIVE boost. This guy finished second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting in 2016 and has at least made the Pro Bowl in every other season. He’s allowed passer ratings below 90 in each of them and he’s never missed double-digit percent of his tackling attempts.

Now, is he quite the island-type of shutdown corner he was during most of his time in Jacksonville and L.A.? – Maybe not quite, but looking at what he did in coverage over the final seven weeks this past season, he held opposing quarterbacks to 18-of-34 for 276 yards and two touchdowns, whilst picking off three passes himself. That stretch includes five contests against top-12 passing offenses, Aaron Rodgers and whatever you still think of Russell Wilson.

Ramsey is still highly capable of matching up with and frustrating the opposing team’s X receiver and flooding the coverage away from him, but he’s also spent over 500 snaps in the slot over the last two years combined, if you want him to make an impact closer to the action, recording 12 tackles for loss and 13 pressures across 42 pass-rush snaps.

Meanwhile, Cam Smith is also coming off somewhat of a down-season based on general consensus, but I’d say that’s a bit overblown. He was the fourth-highest-ranked FBS cornerback by PFF in 2021 (88.4) among guys with 100+ snaps. Looking at the coverage numbers, they’re actually very similar, only that he allowed one touchdown compared to his three interceptions as a redshirt sophomore, compared to two TDs and just one pick last year.

At the same time, he showed more versatility, by spending more than a third of his snaps in the slot and taking on different coverage assignments. His physical play style in press technique allowed him to ride receivers into the sideline regularly, yet for being a lanky dude at 6’1”, 185 pounds, he’s loose enough to completely lose phase and he’s quick to drive forward out of his pedal playing off-man or zone.

Plus, he tracks the exceptionally well and is ultra-competitive at the catch point. He certainly needs to clean up how he initiates contact with receivers further than five yards down the field, but the athletic concerns some people had were largely put to rest when he ran a 4.43 and put up jumps in the 75th and 96th percentile respectively.

With Vic Fangio taking over at defensive coordinator, we’ll see a schematic shift from these heavy-pressure looks and the cover-zero rain once installed by Brian Flowers and Josh Boyer to a much more split-field coverage-oriented approach.

With that being said, even if they’re running something quarters-based, there will be opportunities for Ramsey to be in quasi-man on the backside of three-by-one sets and we did see Fangio adapt more cover-one during his final year in Denver (more so due to necessity, but they have the bodies now to at least make it a larger focus of their third-down packages.)

While I don’t know when we might see Nik Needham back healthy, now they have Cam Smith as your primary backup for all three corner spots probably, where he and Ramsey both present some inside-out flexibility.

Honorable mention: Atlanta Falcons

Safeties – Detroit Lions

Additions: C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Brian Branch & Brandon Joseph

Subtractions: DeShon Elliott, Juju Hughes & C.J. Moore

Lions safeties C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Brian Branch

For the final position group, we’re looking at a Lions safety room, which was led in snaps by rookie standout Kerby Joseph (77.3%) and Will Harris ended up being their primary slot defender (58.1% of snaps last played), but otherwise looks very different.

Looking at this Lions defense as a whole in 2022 ranked, they dead-last by a wide margin in EPA (0.194 vs. 0.098 as the next-closest mark) in weeks one through eight, but from week nine on they improved drastically to 21st league-wide (0.006). More impactful actually was that they went from forcing 0.75 all the way to 1.6 turnovers per contest over those final ten weeks.

Schematically, I would say the biggest reason for that turnaround were switching to more big nickel as their standard personnel grouping. They subbed off Mike Hughes for a safety (primarily Harris), which in return allowed them to go away from as many static cover-three looks to more split-field principles and changing up the picture as the snap was imminent.

By signing one of the biggest play-makers on the back-end last year from a Super Bowl participant and using a top-50 pick on a couple of versatile DBs, they may be able to add to Aaron Glenn’s playbook. He was sort of on the hot-seat mid-way through 2022, but instead, they cut ties with their secondary coach.

In terms of the personnel losses at the safety position, the one that hurts a little bit here is DeShon Elliott. I’d say he’s been a solid starter each of his four years in the NFL (with PFF grades between 65 and 70 in all of them), taking over for what turned out to be a really poor signing of Earl Thomas in Baltimore, before playing 91% of defensive snaps across the 14 games he was available for his one season in Detroit.

The issue with him simply is that he’s missed 24 of 66 possible games in his career and that’s a big reason he just signed another one-year deal with Miami for 1.8 million dollars. Among 123 safeties, who played at least 100 snaps last season according to PFF, Juju Hughes finished 111th with an overall grade of 52.3, allowing two touchdowns (and no interceptions) on 11 career targets across three seasons and being more of a designated special teamer.

C.J. Moore is probably coming off his best season as a rotational player in the secondary, but there’s a reason he’s only totaled 345 defensive snaps, as an undersized safety who’s missed 18.2% of his career tackling attempts.

Transitioning to the additions made, I was kind of shocked to see Chauncey Gardner-Johnson sign just a one-year, fully guaranteed 6.5-million-dollar contract. Going back to the safety database of PFF for guys with 100+ snaps, the fifth-year veteran only ranked 72nd in terms of overall grade (63.9), but that was basically learning a new position as a deep safety almost exclusively, after being a designated nickel through three years in New Orleans.

He was tied for the lead-league with interceptions (six), despite playing just 12 games and he actually cut down his missed-tackle rate to 15.8%, which had been his biggest weakness up to that point. Only twice did he miss multiple opportunities despite working in expanded space, which included a couple of tremendous one-on-one stops against Isiah Pacheco in the Super Bowl, that is burnt into my brain.

I’d say he did get a little lucky on a couple of his picks, where somebody batted the ball up for him, and he’s still learning how to properly manage space as a deep zone defender, but his radar for the ball and the way he plays it in the air was apparent and you still have that flexibility to plug him into the slot, where his physicality can help throw off the timing of routes.

Along with that, Detroit also traded up three spots in the second round to select Alabama’s Brian Branch 45th overall, who fell a little bit due to being labeled a pure nickel by some teams I guess, but among guys with the cleanest tape this past season, there were only a handful of guys you could put up there with him.

Branch was the third-highest-ranked draft-eligible safety in 2022 by PFF (84.8) among guys with 100+ snaps. Right at six-foot flat and 190 pounds, running a 4.58 at the combine, there’s nothing that truly stands out about his profile on paper, but you put on the film and this guy’s presence is palpable.

Playing a heavy rate of off-man coverage for the Crimson Tide, how much he excelled at reading the hips of receivers and the fact there was almost no wasted movement really stood out, which is how he was responsible for a passer rating of just 75.5 despite facing a strong collection of SEC receivers.

Yet, Nick Saban and company deployed him in a multitude of places once they got to obvious passing downs, where his football IQ and spatial awareness consistently shined. What you really love however is what he provides in run defense, being able to discard slot receivers quickly, whilst being allowed to “shoot his shot” enabled him to collect 14(!) TFLs last season, yet he only missed a minuscule 2.3% of his career tackling attempts (four of 176).

Even though Kerby Joseph would profile physically as a guy playing closer to the line of scrimmage, he actually has excelled in his final season at Illinois and as a rookie as a ball-hawk on the back end.

So I’d expect the Lions to be in big nickel yet again as a primary personnel set, where CGJ and Branch can be used pretty interchangeably and we could see a bunch of late rotations, where those two basically swap positions. Plus, Brandon Joseph is a player who was looked at as a potential first-rounder a couple of years ago thanks to his ball skills, even though we’ve learned about his lack of physicality and high-end athletic traits, which forced him to ultimately go undrafted.

Honorable mention: Cleveland Browns

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