Expert Analysis
12/6/24
13 min read
NFL's Least Impactful Free Agent Signings This Season
After reviewing the most impactful free agent signings earlier this week, this is the other side of the coin. The free agent moves that don’t work out hurt a team’s roster building, are damaging to the salary cap, irritate team owners due to wasted money and ultimately can cost GMs their jobs. Here’s my list of the least impactful free-agent signings this season.
Least Impactful Free Agent Signings of 2024
Kirk Cousins, QB, Atlanta Falcons 
Cousins was signed to a four-year, $180 million contract ($100 million guaranteed) with the goal of leading the Falcons to the playoffs for the first time since 2017 and winning the NFC South title (last time in 2016).
It’s been a roller-coaster season for the 36-year-old Cousins. He led an exciting Week 2 comeback win at Philadelphia and had great games in the two wins over division rival Tampa Bay (eight TD passes and one interception in those games).
After Cousins and the Falcons looked like they had the division locked up at 6-3, they’ve hit the skids with three straight losses in which Cousins has played poorly with no TD passes and six interceptions. The worst came last Sunday in the 17-13 home loss to the Chargers when he threw four picks, including a Pick-6 that was the game-winning score.
Cousins has time to turn it back around this season, but the Buccaneers have climbed into a tie with the Falcons at 6-6 and have a more favorable remaining schedule. So the pressure is on Cousins to get back on track beginning this Sunday in Minnesota against the team he led for six season,s including two playoff seasons. Cousins left the Vikings for the bigger contract guarantee in Atlanta after making three Pro Bowls during his Vikings years that followed his first six seasons in Washington (with one Pro Bowl selection).
Cousins was on pace for an excellent 2023 season when he tore his Achilles in Week 8. He was never a mobile QB but his movement in the pocket and on rollouts appears more limited since the injury and he has 0 rushing yards in 20 attempts this season.
Cousins will face a Vikings defense that leads the league with 18 interceptions. He enters the game with a league-leading 13 interceptions and a passer rating of 90.8 (18th ranked), which is on pace to be the lowest of his career since he’s been a starter over the past 10 years.
The Atlanta situation is extra tricky for Cousins, with first-round rookie Michael Penix Jr. as the backup QB. Cousins has a good enough supporting cast that he needs to lead the Falcons to the playoffs in the next five weeks and in 2025 (if he’s still the starter), or this signing will be viewed as a major mistake by Atlanta. If it winds up Cousins is one-and-done with the Falcons, there’s a $65 million dead money hit if they trade or release him in 2025 (and it drops to $25 million in 2026).
Gardner Minshew, QB, Las Vegas Raiders
Minshew came to the Raiders with modest expectations and not a huge financial commitment from the team (two years, $25 million). He was not guaranteed the starting job over second-year man Aidan O’Connell but earned the spot in training camp.
With impressive performances in wins at Baltimore in Week 2 and over Cleveland in Week 4, Minshew had the Raiders at 2-2 before he lost his next six starts, throwing six TD passes but seven interceptions over that stretch. In the Week 12 loss to the Broncos, he suffered a season-ending broken collarbone.
Minshew finished his season with an 81.0 passer rating (29th ranked). The 28-year-old began his career as a sixth-round pick and part-time starter in Jacksonville, moved on to Philadelphia as a backup to Jalen Hurts, and had his best season in 2023 as the Colts’ starter with a 7-6 record after Anthony Richardson was injured.
Minshew was selected to the Pro Bowl last season. Now, he’ll likely have to return to a backup role next season with the Raiders (who will probably pick a QB in the first round) or elsewhere.
Marquise Brown, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
As the Chiefs strategized on how to have the best chance to three-peat as Super Bowl champs, they targeted Marquise Brown as a needed deep threat for Patrick Mahomes in the passing game. Such a player had been missing since Tyreek Hill was traded to Miami in 2022.
Kansas City signed “Hollywood” to a one-year, $7 million contract plus significant incentives. As of now, it’s a bad signing as Brown has yet to play in the regular season after injuring his shoulder in preseason and undergoing surgery in early September. He reportedly will try to return late in the regular season if he is cleared physically. That is a potential boost to the Chiefs' 15th-ranked offense (with the No. 12 passing game) that also lost starting WR Rashee Rice for the year due to an October knee injury.
The Chiefs traded for DeAndre Hopkins, and he’s starting along with rookie Xavier Worthy, who leads the team’s wide receivers with 33 catches for 407 yards and four TDs. The addition of the 27-year old Brown would create a dangerous trio if he can return to his 2021 form in Baltimore when he had 91 catches for 1,008 yards and six TDs. He was the Ravens’ first-round pick in 2019.
Brown’s production fell off after signing a 2022 free-agent deal in Arizona, as he missed seven games in 2022 and three games in 2023 with various injuries. He had 51 receptions for 574 yards and four TDs last season for the Cardinals.
Gabe Davis, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaking of wide receiver free agent deals that haven’t panned out so far, Gabe Davis hasn’t fulfilled the expectations of the Jaguars when they signed him for three years and $39 million ($24 million guaranteed).
Davis had only 20 receptions for 239 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games, and just three catches for 35 yards in his last four games before suffering a season-ending knee meniscus tear against Detroit.
The 25-year-old Davis was Buffalo’s fourth-round pick in 2020. He set an NFL playoff record with four receiving touchdowns in a 2021 playoff loss to the Chiefs. His best season was in 2022 with 48 catches for 836 yards and seven TDs but he was considered an inconsistent player for the Bills.
Gerald Everett, TE, Chicago Bears
Everett signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Bears after two fine seasons with the Chargers (109 catches for 966 yards and seven TDs total in 2022 and 2023).
It’s been a rough season thus far for Everett, who has only seven catches for 30 yards (no TDs). He played a total of five offensive snaps the past two weeks against the Vikings and Lions. He’s No. 3 in the tight end pecking order behind starter Cole Kmet and 40-year-old Marcedes Lewis.
Everett, 30, was a second-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017. He was the Rams’ No. 2 tight end for four years and a one-year starter in Seattle before joining the Chargers, where he also started. His decision to sign with Chicago is turning into a disappointment for Everett and the team.
Arik Armstead, DT, Jacksonville Jaguars
The 31-year-old former first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers was released by the Niners in March when he refused to take a pay cut. He quickly signed with Jacksonville on a three-year, $43.5 million deal (plus incentives) with $28 million guaranteed.
The signing has not paid off for the Jaguars, who have a 2-10 record with the NFL’s worst defense in yards allowed and pass defense. Armstead has only 21 tackles and one sack (back in Week 1), which hasn’t helped the pass rush, which has 23 sacks to rank 28th.
Armstead was predominantly an interior defensive lineman with the 49ers for nine years, but he’s been asked to play some defensive end, which has been an adjustment for him.
Armstead averaged 55 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 14 QB hits, and eight TFLs from 2019-2021 and had five sacks and 13 QB hits (but only 27 tackles) last season. He has two excellent defenders playing alongside him in Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker. So it appears Armstead is either having a hard time adjusting to his new team, or he’s losing steam as he ages, which is bad news for the Jaguars if things don’t turn around for Armstead considering their sizable investment in him.
Marcus Davenport, DE, Detroit Lions
It’s not a good career omen for a player when they spend the majority of two straight seasons on injured reserve with two different teams after signing sizable deals. That’s the case for Davenport, a former first-round pick of the Saints.
He never played a full season in New Orleans but had nine sacks in 2021, which was enough to convince the Vikings to sign him for one year and $13 million in 2023 (despite only a half-sack by Davenport in 2022). Minnesota got only four games and two sacks out of Davenport before he was lost for the season with an ankle injury.
The Lions were similarly blinded by Davenport’s potential ability as opposed to his injury history and signed him to a one-year, $6.5 million contract in March. He played in only two games this season (with a half-sack) before suffering a season-ending torn triceps.
The 28-year-old Davenport almost certainly will have to play next season for a minimum salary if he can find a team willing to take a chance on him. He’ll have to prove he can stay healthy for close to a full season and be highly productive before he receives another big-bucks but incentive-laden deal.
Bryce Huff, DE, Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles signed Bryce Huff to a three-year, $51 million deal after his excellent 2023 season with 10 sacks and 21 QB hits for the New York Jets. He had spent his first four seasons with the Jets as an undrafted player who developed into a rotational combo linebacker/defensive end, but he was not a full-time starter in New York.
The Eagles invested heavily in Huff with the expectation that he would replace Haason Reddick, whom they traded to the Jets. Reddick had 11 sacks last season and 16 in 2022 for Philadelphia but got embroiled in a contract dispute. So far, the 26-year-old Huff isn’t coming close to making the impact Reddick did in Philly.
Huff has produced only 2.5 sacks, four QB hits, and 10 tackles in 10 games. He’s currently on injured reserve with a wrist injury that the team hopes he can return from late in the regular season or by playoff time.
The Eagles defense is doing fine without Huff. They’re the NFL’s top-ranked D and are eighth in sacks with 36 but there should be a role for Huff when he returns since Brandon Graham has been lost for the season (torn triceps).
Devin White, LB, Signed & Released by Eagles, now with Houston Texans
The Devin White saga is strange considering his talent level as the fifth overall pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019 and his early production as a Second-team All-Pro in 2020 and Pro Bowler in 2021.
White had three straight seasons (2020-2022) with over 120 tackles and had nine sacks in 2020. But he couldn’t get a lucrative extension from the Bucs with his rookie contract in the final year, and his production dipped somewhat to 85 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 2023.
White hit the free agent market in March, and the Eagles signed him on a prove-it, one-year, $4 million contract ($3.5 million guaranteed). However, he was released in early October after being inactive for the first four games. He was deemed expendable after not being able to beat out Zack Baun or Nakobe Dean for a starting linebacker spot, and he wasn’t a special teams contributor.
White landed in Houston on a one-year, $1.125 million contract. He’s a backup linebacker with 12 tackles and no sacks in six games played. At 26 years old, he has time to revive his career, which has taken a distinct turn for the worse, much to the chagrin of the Eagles, who were hoping for a free agency coup with White.
Christian Wilkins, DT, Las Vegas Raiders
Wilkins is signed for three more years on his four-year, $110 million contract with the Raiders, so he may play well enough in future years for the team to justify this deal. So far, it’s not so good.
Wilkins earned this contract off an excellent 2023 season in Miami when he had 65 tackles and career-highs of nine sacks and 23 QB hits. That followed his 2022 season with 98 tackles, 16 tackles-for-loss, and 3.5 sacks. The 28-year-old former first-round pick of the Dolphins had developed into one of the league’s best defensive tackles who hadn’t missed a game in three years, and the Raiders paid him accordingly.
But this season has been derailed for Wilkins by a foot fracture suffered in Week 5 against Denver. He’s been out indefinitely following surgery. In his five games played this season, Wilkins had two sacks, six QB hits, 17 tackles and two TFLs.
The Raiders' defense is 15th ranked, the same as last year. They were hoping Wilkins's joining Maxx Crosby would spur them on to greater heights on defense, but that will have to come next year for the disappointing 2-10 Raiders.
Dishonorable Mention:
Denico Autry, DE, Houston Texans
Lloyd Cushenberry, C, Tennessee Titans
Curtis Samuel, WR, Buffalo Bills
