NFL Free Agency 2020: Grades for every team after first wave

NFL free agency grades for all 32 teams after the first week and a half of signings, trades and a whole lot of madness to start 2020.

While the sports world as a whole has been brought to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 NFL free agency and the offseason has largely been the only show in town. And thankfully, it has delivered more entertainment than perhaps we could have ever imagined through the first two weeks (or a little more if you consider moves that happened before) of action since the legal tampering period began.

Of course, the big move on everyone’s mind is Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots for the first time in his 20-year career and now readying to suit up for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But even beyond that, we saw two stud wide receivers, DeAndre Hopkins and Stefon Diggs, traded while also seeing Philip Rivers, Teddy Bridgewater, Nick Foles, DeForest Buckner and many other big-impact players go on the move to new teams via free agency or trade.

There are undoubtedly still dominoes that have yet to fall. Most notably, Jadeveon Clowney, Jameis Winston and Cam Newton are on the market in NFL free agency market and have yet to be signed. However, given all of the signings and trades we’ve seen in the first big wave (and even the start of a second wave), it’s a good time to assess what has happened.

To do that, we’re going to hand out a letter grade to all 32 teams for 2020 NFL free agency and the offseason thus far, going in alphabetical order. And we start with a winner out of the NFC West.

Seeing the Cardinals with only a “B+” might surprise some people considering some of the big moves they made. They stole DeAndre Hopkins from the Cardinals while somehow convincing them to take David Johnson off their hands as they wanted to get out of his deal. Keeping Kenyan Drake via the transition tag and signing De’Vondre Campbell were also two really smart moves by general manager Steve Keim.

But for as good as those moves were, they just miss the top marks of grading due to some questionable deals given to Devon Kennard and Jordan Phillips, neither of which are the type of impact players the Cardinals truly need to move forward on defense. Overall, however, Arizona will be miles better with the moves they made and will certainly garner a ton of sleeper buzz if they continue to make splashes in the draft.

If you asked most people what the Falcons were going to do in 2020 NFL free agency given their cap situation coming into the offseason, there were few answers that had any certainty behind them. So for Atlanta to approach the offseason and make savvy moves to improve on both sides of the ball is quite impressive.

Hayden Hurst is not as good of a player as Austin Hooper but trading for him fills a hole and keeps the offense intact. Meanwhile, Dante Fowler Jr. is a big upgrade off the edge that will improve the Falcons defense and Todd Gurley coming to this team, especially if they can get his injuries and workload managed properly, could be one of the best moves of the offseason.