The Rundown: All-22 Price Checks After One Week of Free Agency (Offense)
After One Week of NFL Free Agency, where do our offensive players stand?
You’ve seen every jabroni on the internet offer their free agency “grades”. I’m not interested in doing that and you’re probably tired of seeing it. Instead, let’s get to the point. Of the top players on the move - whether it’s by trade or free agency - which moves helped and hurt your team the most? Here’s a quick rundown, starting with the offensive line (as I always will).
Offensive Line
Mike McGlinchey (T) ➡ DENVER
STOCK UP: Denver’s not messing around with this offensive line. Sean Payton loves to have a run blocking right tackle. Look no further than Ryan Ramczyk, who averaged an 86.4 run blocking grade and an overall PFF grade of 85.5 in Payton’s last three seasons with New Orleans. Without Payton, Ramczyk posted career lows in both categories. McGlinchey, 28, has been solid since entering the league in 2018; he’s averaged a 75.4 run grade and 72.6 overall grade over 5 years. Look for Sean Payton to bring Mike McGlinchey’s game to the next level to finish off his career.
Shaq Mason (G) ➡ Houston
STOCK DOWN: Mason’s coming off of his worst season since entering the league in 2015. To be fair, the 29-year-old guard played 1,200 snaps with a dilapidated Tampa Bay offensive line. I’ll often advise All-22 GMs to favor offensive linemen who are surrounded by good pieces within the unit. Houston’s interior offensive line doesn’t inspire much confidence. PFF ranked center Scott Quessenberry and guard Kenyon Green dead last at their respective positions - neither player graded above a 40. Expect Houston to rely on Dameon Pierce in the ground game a bit more, as they add a rookie QB to an offense with no elite receiving threats. In the 2022 season, Mason, Quessenberry, and Green posted run blocking grades of 62.4, 43.7, and 47.4 respectively. The 2023 season could be a rough one for Shaq Mason but at least he’s [still] not paying state income tax.
Orlando Brown Jr. (T) ➡ Cincinnati
STOCK UP: The 4-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl Champion, put it on a damn t-shirt, 26-year-old left tackle is headed to Cincy. His trajectory is about the same as it would have been had he remained in KC - which is great for Orlando Brown Jr. Entering the 2018 draft, some analysts pegged Brown as just a lazy run blocking right tackle. That certainly hasn’t been the case and Brown has made damn sure that everyone knows it. Since his rookie season, Brown’s PFF pass blocking grades have never dipped below 70. Furthermore, since switching over the left tackle in 2020, his overall PFF grade has never dipped below 75. Heading into free agency, the ideal situation for Orlando Brown Jr. was a pass-heavy offense, where he’d remain at left tackle. Cincinnati ranked 7th in total passing attempts in 2022 - Orlando Brown Jr. is home.
Quarterback
Jimmy Garoppolo (QB) ➡ Las Vegas
STOCK UP: Jimmy Garoppolo’s stock is up-ish right now. Assuming the top quarterbacks are off the board by the time the Raiders pick at 7, Jimmy G has a great opportunity to establish himself as the Raiders’ quarterback for the foreseeable future. Las Vegas has made it clear what they want in free agency - offensive skill players who are familiar with Josh McDaniels’ offense. Within a three-day span, the Raiders added former Patriots Jimmy Garoppolo, Jakobi Meyers, and Phillip Dorsett to compliment Hunter Renfrow and PFF’s 4th highest-graded receiver, Davante Adams. If you’re a Jimmy G manager, keep your fingers crossed that the Raiders select a tackle with the 7th pick and a tight end, to replace Darren Waller, on day two.
Baker Mayfield (QB) ➡ Tampa Bay
STOCK DOWN: After the 2020 season, no one would’ve guessed that Baker Mayfield would be joining his 4th team by the start of the 2023 season. After posting PFF grades of 83.2, 74.8, and 81.6 in his first three seasons, Baker’s grades fell off of a cliff. Instability, injuries, poor play, and inadequate rosters have put the 27-year-old QB’s career trajectory on a steep downward slope. Mayfield lands in Tampa, which I fear is more of the same. The offensive line is depleted, the roster is aging and the team is in cap hell. If the season doesn’t start so great for Baker, how long until Bucs fans are calling for Kyle Trask? How long until Tampa Bay finds itself in a position to draft another quarterback?
Tight End
Darren Waller (TE) ➡ New York Giants
STOCK UP (Man, I hope I don’t jinx this): There’s a direct correlation between Darren Waller’s targets and his PFF grades. In 2019 and 2020, the Raiders threw to Waller 115 and 140 times, respectively. In those two seasons of career-high targets, Waller also posted career-high PFF grades of 83.2 (2019) and 86.5 (2020). Expect the Giants to continue to add to a relatively thin group of weapons and demand defenses to shift focus away from Waller. Moving forward, it’ll only be a question of availability - not targets - with Darren Waller.
Jonnu Smith (TE) ➡ Atlanta
STOCK UP: I’ll be nice to the FIU product, this is a good spot for Jonnu Smith. In each of the two seasons that Smith was able to surpass a 70 PFF grade, he lined up as an inline tight end for over 530 plays. In his last two seasons, where Smith failed to eclipse a PFF grade over 60, Jonnu has also come up short of 530 inline snaps by at least 130 snaps. Atlanta is clearly still figuring out how to use Kyle Pitts but it’s just as clear that they don’t want to use him as an inline tight end. Jonnu Smith is as sure-handed as they come, so look for him to get plenty of opportunities to help a young quarterback as Atlanta’s inline tight end.
Wide REceiver
Jakobi Meyers (WR) ➡ Las Vegas
STOCK UP: Jakobi Meyers is about as consistent as they come. Since he was drafted by the Patriots in 2019, Meyers has seen a steady increase in his percentage of slot snaps, while maintaining consistent PFF grades in the mid-high 70s. Meyers has an obvious rapport with Raiders Head Coach Josh McDaniels. In McDaniels’ last season as New England’s OC, Meyers played a career-high 928 snaps and received 121 targets, also a career-high for the 26-year-old NC State product. We could see Meyers take his game to another level in this offense, opposite Davante Adams.
Running Back
Miles Sanders (RB) ➡ Carolina
STOCK DOWN: In standard formats, Miles Sanders is a hot commodity right now. Maybe not so much in All-22. In 2022, Sanders ran well on 259 attempts, earning an 82.3 PFF rushing grade. Philadelphia had the best offensive line in football last season; PFF ranked this unit 5th in run blocking and 1st in pass blocking. Carolina’s offensive line is quite different. The Panthers have yet to add to a unit that earned just a 56.0 PFF run blocking grade. Despite being inadequate in the run game, the offensive line is serviceable in passing situations. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Miles Sanders. The former Nittany Lion posted receiving grades in the 30s twice in four seasons. It may be tough for a rookie quarterback to build trust with a running back who drops 10.1% of the passes thrown his way.
Samaje Perine (RB) ➡ DENVER
STOCK UP: When a new coaching staff takes over, they tend to favor the guys they bring in themselves - not the remaining players from a previous regime. That’s not always the case but, generally, coaches seem to want to live and die by their own players. That’s not to say Javonte Williams will be cast aside in favor of Perine but, considering some of Sean Payton’s best days in New Orleans featured the one-two combo of Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram, it’s entirely possible that we’ll see a similar attack with Samaje Perine and Javonte Williams. An offense that can play to the strengths of both Perine and Williams is what’s best for their individual grades and the Broncos - although you’ll certainly hear people who play standard fantasy formats complain about it.
Want to hear about someone in specific? Don’t agree with my analysis? Let me know in the comments.
