The significant moves of the NFL's free agency period have, for the most part, already happened. The first few days of this week at the start of the new league year is where all the action happens, and where most of the best players that will change teams during the offseason, find their new landing spots.
That's where we are right now, so this is as good a time as any to take stock of some of the most interesting transactions we've seen to date. We began on Friday by highlighting a few of our favorites on the offensive side of the ball. Below, we do the same on defense.
Danielle Hunter, Texans
Hunter's two-year deal that contains just $1 million in non-guaranteed money (out of $49 million total) was clearly designed to protect other owners from having to start handing out fully-guaranteed contracts. That aside, the fit here is fantastic.
Hunter doesn't turn 30 until October and has reached double-digit sacks in five of his last six healthy seasons, including last year. Will Anderson, the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year, now has another premiere edge rusher to push the pocket along with him, and DeMeco Ryans has the bookends of a strong defensive line to run his system the way he wants to. And after signing Denico Autry and Tim Settle, the Texans got stronger up the middle, too.
This is the kind of stuff you can do when you have a superstar quarterback in the second year of a rookie-scale contract.
Christian Wilkins, Raiders
Putting Wilkins on the same defensive line as Maxx Crosby almost seems unfair to opposing offenses. Crosbye essentially never leaves the field and just continually racks up pressures and run stops, and now he'll have a true game-wrecker working next to him on the interior. Wilkins is coming off the best season of his career, having racked up 9 sacks and 23 quarterbacks hits in addition to his standard 10 tackles for loss. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has shown an ability to coax pass rush out of huge defensive tackles before, and he should be able to do the same with Wilkins.
Patrick Queen, Steelers
Queen moved from one AFC North team to another, and gives the Steelers the type of inside linebacker they've clearly been searching for, for a while. They've taken stabs at guys like Devin Bush, Myles Jack, Joe Schobert, and Cole Holcomb over the last few years. They finally landed Elandon Roberts a season ago and seem to like him, and they doubled up with a similar kind of player -- albeit one who is both younger and a better athlete.
With pass-rushing outside linebackers like T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, the Steelers need their inside backers to be run-game thumpers and strong zone defenders. Queen certainly has the first part of that equation down and he has gotten better in coverage. He played his best football next to Roquan Smith, though, and there's nobody like that for him to work with in Pittsburgh, so it'll be interesting to see how his game translates.
Xavier McKinney, Packers
The Packers have needed safety help for some time now, and McKinney is exactly the type of center-field, sweeper type of player that fits them best. McKinney has also shown the versatility to line up both in the box and in the slot in addition to deep over the middle, and he should be a fun chess piece for new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to work with. Between him, Jare Alexander, Eric Stokes, and Keisean Nixon, there's at least the outline of a good, young, versatile group here now.
Bryce Huff, Eagles
There were 109 players who rushed the passer at least 300 times during the 2023 season. Just two of them generated pressure on more than 20% of their pass-rush snaps. One was Micah Parsons (21.8%). The other was Huff (21.3%). For a Philadelphia pass rush that did not live up to expectations down the stretch of the season and which might still lose Haason Reddick, adding Huff to the mix is a big move. We've seen the Eagles get plenty out of under-utilized pass-rush specialists before, and we have also seen Vic Fangio help take edge rushers to another level. They're counting on both of those things happening here.
Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, Vikings
The Vikings let Hunter leave in free agency and spent the money on two younger players instead. Minnesota definitely needed to add edge rush help with Hunter out the door, and this duo is a really interesting one.
Van Ginkel has experience with defensive coordinator Brian Flores from when they were in Miami, and should be a very valuable flex piece for Flores on the defensive front. Greenard is coming off a career-best 12.5 sacks and 22 quarterback hits, and he played only 62% of Houston's defensive snaps last year. He turns 27 later this offseason and could still have upside to tap into.
