Raleigh Offensive Free Agent Round-up
QB
The goal: Find a significant upgrade as short term bridge QB while I see how young QB's develop
The addition: Matthew Stafford
As long as Stafford is healthy, he is a top 10 QB. He has had some injury and retirement scares over the last couple years but last year was a strong return to form. Assuming health, I should have a QB that puts me in the conversation in almost any matchup.
RB
The goal: Find an NFL starting RB at a relatively cheap contract that can back up McCaffrey
The addition: Zack Moss
Moss took full advantage of his opportunity when Taylor was out last year and the the Bengals immediately went out and got him this offseason and shipped off Joe Mixon. Moss should be a high floor RB that should be a nice compliment to McCaffrey in my game plans.
OL
The goal: to build cheap depth with upside to prevent from over paying in the tank
The additions:
Ben Cleveland
Cleveland got his opportunity to start last year after Zeitler's injury and played pretty well. The Ravens felt comfortable enough to let Zeitler go and hand the starting RG job over to him. Getting an NFL starter for $610 to backup my starters felt like a nice get.
Mekhi Becton
Targeting Becton made sense for my team in particular for a couple of reasons. 1) He is the direct backup to my starting LT in Jordan Mailata 2) He is working as the Eagles' swing tackle so he is also Lane Johnson's backup who tends to get banged up at this point in his career and miss a couple games, so he adds depth at RT too 3) in mini-camps he also was with the starting team at Guard when Dickerson missed practice. If Tyler Steen struggles in TC, the player on the Eagles' roster that is most likely takes his job is Becton, so he could give me T/G depth versatility. 4) Eagles homerism: Jeff Stoutland is probably the best OL coach in the league, and the Eagles clearly see a significant role for him. If there is someone that could get the most out of his physical gifts and give me a steal at a cheap price its Stoutland. Go Birds
Hijalte Frodholdt
After a rocky start to his career where he bounced around a few teams, Frodholdt earned the starting Center job for the Cardinals and by all accounts played very well. He has retained the starting job through the offseason when the Cards added significant upgrades to Guard and Tackle but not Center. At the end of the BDL regular season, I felt very confident in my center situation because Connor Williams was playing so well, then of course he gets a significant knee injury, because, of course he does. I wanted to leave the door open for a year to see how he recovers and see if he can regain form, so I didn't want to lock myself into a 2nd significant center contract, but also didn't want to leave free agency without a startable asset at Center. Frodholdt seemed like the best mix of price and play.