Big trades, big signings bring in NFL's 2022 season
We are through the first week of NFL “crazy period,” and the free agency hype has been off the charts.
Big trades and big signings have most fantasy football enthusiast ready for the 2022 season to begin now.
Aaron Rodgers staying in Green Bay put the rest of the league in motion.
Russell Wilson landed in Denver after the Broncos missed out of the Rodgers sweepstakes.
Davante Adams received the franchise tag from Green Bay to only turn around and say he wasn’t playing for them unless they pay him more than the tag money. The Packers didn’t back down and traded him to Oakland for a first-round and a second-round pick in this year’s draft. The move reunited Adams with his former college QB in Derek Carr.
Pittsburgh went on a signing frenzy with its windfall of cap space the Steelers have not seen in the salary-cap era. They plucked Mitchell Trubrisky off of free agency for a 2-year deal, while shoring up their offensive line and linebacker groups.
The Cleveland Browns made waves telling Baker Mayfield they were looking for a new QB. Word came they were out of the running for Deshaun Watson early in the week to only bring the QB with off-field issues to Cleveland for a bunch of picks of Friday. This came on the heels of last weekend’s trade for Amari Cooper.
THE WILD, WILD WEST: Until the Adams trade, it appeared the Raiders were going to be struggle to get out of the AFC West cellar.
The Chiefs have dominated the division in recent years, while the Los Angeles Chargers added talented LB Khalil Mack and the Broncos added Wilson.
The Raiders made the splash they needed when they traded for Adams.
Carr and Adams played for two seasons together at Fresno State, and they were able to put up video game numbers in those two years.
They combined for 38 TD in two seasons, including their 2013 marks where Carr threw for 50 TDs and Adams caught 24 of them.
The move also allows the Raiders to game plan their passing better where elite TE Darren Waller was constantly seeing double teams after his breakout 2020 season.
And Carr proved last season that he can sustain a Top 12 WR after Hunter Renfrow finished 10th in PPR scoring.
THE QB SHUFFLE: As a Steelers fan, I follow several fellow fans on Twitter and there was no fine line on the Trubrisky signing – either they loved it (I’m in this group) or hated it.
But Trubrisky does have the numbers to back up the signing to keep the Steelers competitive in the AFC.
During Ben Roethlisberger’s final two seasons, he finished with a consistency rating of 1.95 in 2020 and 1.26 in 2021, according to my charts.
In Trubrisky final two years in Chicago, he finished with 1.63 in 2020 and 1.36 in 2019, both marks were better than Big Ben’s final season numbers.
Wilson and Watson were not the only QBs who changed teams during the free agency period as Washington traded with Indianapolis to bring Carson Wentz back to the NFC East.
Wentz finished with the 15th-best rating in my consistency chart last season, which was 13 spots higher than Taylor Heinicke’s numbers.
With a little bit better QB play and a rebound by the talented defense, the Commanders should be playing for a NFC playoff spot next season.
WR UPSIDE: Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase will be the one of the top WRs off of fantasy boards next season, but his upside could be off the charts.
Chase had 14 weeks with at least flex numbers in his 17 games but only had seven weeks with WR1 numbers. He should improve on that mark next season especially with Joe Burrow 100 percent healthy to start the season.
Seattle’s DK Metcalf and Carolina’s D.J. Moore both have chances to have better seasons than they had in 2021, but currently neither one has a top-tier QB throwing to them.
- Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog (IT’S FREE) to stay up to date on new stories, new rankings and other information I will provide during the season and the offseason.
Comments