Grades are in for NFL teams in free agency and the trading period this offseason while we wait to see what might happen with Tony Romo, Malcolm Butler, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jay Cutler, Colin Kaepernick and a few others.
The moves NFL teams have made thus far should make more sense following the draft. Until then, we're left to do some projecting based on how well teams have positioned themselves. There was one team with an A grade, another with an F and 30 teams in between.
Here's a team-by-team report card for what we've seen in free agency thus far. Click on the links below to go directly to your team
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN | CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND | JAC | KC | LAC | LAR | MIA | MIN | NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | OAK | PHI | PIT | SF | SEA | TB | TEN | WAS
New England Patriots
Grade: A-
Key moves: re-signed LB Dont'a Hightower, S Duron Harmon, DT Alan Branch and FB James Develin; traded for WR Brandin Cooks, DL Kony Ealy and TE Dwayne Allen; signed CB Stephon Gilmore and DL Lawrence Guy; lost CB Logan Ryan, DE Jabaal Sheard and TE Martellus Bennett
The Patriots have the coach, quarterback and culture to make their own rules in free agency. They spent big on an outside free agent (Gilmore) at the expense of retaining a younger homegrown talent (Ryan). They added welcome speed at receiver through the Cooks trade. The Patriots replaced one-year rental tight end Bennett with the younger Allen. They even re-signed Hightower after letting him test the market, a rarity when high-priced talent is involved. The bottom line? "Their roster is better now than it ever was last season," an evaluator from another team said.
