There’s a lot of time between now and the start of the 2025 NFL season, which means there’s a lot of time for all 32 teams to continue tweaking their rosters. The start of free agency tends to bring most of the splashy moves, yes, but sometimes the final ingredients to a championship recipe only arrive deep into the offseason. Underscoring this reality is the fact two of the most accomplished quarterbacks of this year’s veteran market — Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson — still remain without teams for 2025.
A week after the official kickoff of free agency, however, we also have a pretty good idea of how most teams’ lineups will look come September. The heavy lifting of the veteran market is done, and now all eyes are on April’s draft, when remaining roster holes will be plugged even further. So which teams struck gold, in our eyes, during the early stages of offseason activity? Which signings and trades stand out as most likely to pay dividends? Here are 10 of our favorite player moves so far:
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Contract: 3 years, $54 million
Indianapolis may not be a wellspring of Super Bowl hope with Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson set to battle at quarterback, but the defense should be much more respectable defending the pass with Ward in tow as the new No. 1 cover man. Despite a trying finish with the 49ers, he turned in championship-level showings with both San Francisco and the Kansas City Chiefs. Fresh scenery should do him well.
9. Sam Darnold to the Seahawks
Contract: 3 years, $100.5 million
Don’t be too fooled by the money here. In some ways, Darnold feels less like an upgrade and more like a younger version of Geno Smith — gifted and aggressive but intermittently reckless when everything isn’t tidy in front of him. The seven-year age gap isn’t nothing,…
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