Where will they go?
The 2024 NFL free agent market is loaded with big-named superstars across every major position. On top of that, several other household names widely mentioned in trade rumors figure to find a new home once the new league year begins.
Let’s take a dive into five superstar players who will switch teams this offseason, and five who will stay put.
New Team: Tee Higgins
After failing to reach a new deal ahead of the 2023 season, Higgins seems poised to hit the free agent market.
The Cincinnati Bengals are notoriously budget-conscious, and they still have to pay top wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase down the road. Also, Joe Burrow’s mega extension is about to kick in.
Higgins has proven that he’d easily be a No. 1 receiver on most other teams — and he’ll get paid like one if he hits the open market. It’s just hard to see the big-bodied wideout taking a hometown discount when he knows it means less targets with Cincinnati.
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There are other Super Bowl contenders that could offer Higgins a lot of money and the chance to win. The Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers are just a handful of competitive teams that make sense for Higgins.
The Bengals’ budget-conscious front office will likely just trust Burrow to make a new star wide receiver on the cheap. This is a heavy wide receiver draft class, after all.
Bottom line: Higgins is bound to get a big bag of money from another team that will make him their No. 1 receiver. Tee time in Cincinnati is over, folks.
Stay: Mike Evans
It felt like for much of the season that Evans was playing out his final days with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was entering his contract year, and Tom Brady’s departure seemingly indicated that the Bucs’ competitive window was closed.
But Baker Mayfield turned in a Comeback Player of the Year-caliber season and led the Bucs to a surprise NFC South division title. As usual, Evans was the catalyst of the offense by finishing with 79 receptions for 1,255 yards and 13 touchdowns — tied with Tyreek Hill for tops in the NFL.
Evans has always been loyal to the Bucs, even committing to years of mediocrity there long before TB12 arrived. With Evans still in his prime and forming excellent chemistry with Mayfield, why should he leave?
Assuming Tampa keeps Mayfield, they may as well ask Evans to fill out a blank check. It’s only fair for him to finish out the rest of his prime years right where it started.
New Team: Kirk Cousins
Cousins is the top quarterback eligible to enter 2024 free agency. If both Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings play their cards right, he’ll indeed hit the open market and play elsewhere next year.
Cousins, who’ll be 36 years of age before next season rolls around, suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in Week 8 against the Green Bay Packers. For one, committing to a QB in his mid-30s with a serious injury like that carries too much risk.
Secondly, Cousins and the Vikings have been the epitome of mediocre. Two playoff appearances in six years. One postseason victory. At what point will the bar be elevated higher for a franchise that is starving for its first Super Bowl title?
Surely, head coach Kevin O’Connell is dying for an athletic young QB to build around — and there are plenty of options in this year’s draft. Cousins, meanwhile, should be motivated to join a potential Super Bowl helpful at this phase of his career.
The Atlanta Falcons are a QB away from being a playoff team. The Denver Broncos could use Cousins to replace Russell Wilson. What about the Pittsburgh Steelers if they aren’t sold on Kenny Pickett? Could the Seattle Seahawks pull a stunner and replace Geno Smith with Cousins?
The bottom line is there are several QB-needy teams who offer Cousins a better chance to win a Super Bowl than Minnesota. The Vikings aren’t going to sniff a title if they commit to Cousins and this ageing core.
It’s just long overdue for both sides to finally move on. Minny gets a young QB to rebuild around, and Cousins gets to chase a ring elsewhere. Win-win.
Stay: Christian Wilkins
Surprisingly, the Miami Dolphins and Wilkins were unable to reach a long-term extension ahead of the 2023 season. That worked out just fine for Wilkins anyway, who just elevated his market by piecing together his best season yet.
The 2019 first-round pick finished with a career-high nine sacks to go along with two pass defenses, one forced fumble and a pair of fumble recoveries. Miami’s hulking defensive tackle also finished 13th in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate among defensive tackles.
So in short, why would the Dolphins let Wilkins go — and why would he play somewhere else? Coming off the team’s best regular season finish in 15 years, the window of opportunity is just starting to open in South Beach.
The Dolphins can’t let a young superstar of his caliber go — and they won’t. They’ll assign the franchise tag to Wilkins and then see if a long-term deal can be reached. Also, playing in a state that doesn’t have the income tax helps Miami’s chances of offering Wilkins more money than anybody else.
He’s not going anywhere. Nothing to see here.
New Team: Davante Adams
Adams had another excellent statistical season with the Las Vegas Raiders, but the team once again fell well short of the postseason.
Adams expressed his frustration several times throughout the 2023 season, and it’s hard to envision him wanting to finish out his prime years on a non-playoff contender. It makes sense for the Raiders to trade Adams in the offseason while his trade value is at an all-time high.
And that brings us to one team: The New York Jets.
In November, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Jets actually tried acquiring Adams ahead of the trade deadline, but the Raiders wouldn’t do business. Schefter added, however, that the Jets are expected to continue their pursuit of Adams in the offseason.
The reason why is obvious. Adams and Aaron Rodgers were at their best when they had each other. Neither has enjoyed the same level of success since Adams left the Green Bay Packers two years ago.
The Jets need another wide receiver to help Garrett Wilson, and Adams is the perfect target for a team in win-now mode. With Rodgers entering his age 40/41 season in 2024, the Jets’ time to act is NOW.
Adams caught 103 passes for 1,144 yards and eight touchdowns with Jimmy Garoppolo and Aidan O’Connell as his quarterbacks. Now imagine what he would do with Rodgers.
Both A-Rod and Adams are running out of time to win a championship together. It just makes too much sense for them to reunite in Gotham. It almost feels like it’d be a stunner if it didn’t happen.
Even if the Jets can’t complete a deal for Adams, someone else out there has to. It’s time for the future Hall of Famer to ring chase as he enters the final prime years of his career.
Stay: Stefon Diggs
Many are calling for the Buffalo Bills to cut ties with Stefon Diggs after yet another disappointing postseason exit.
For the third straight year, Diggs was a non-factor in the Bills’ season-ending postseason defeat. In the Divisional Round against the Kansas City Chiefs, he let a potential game-changing deep bomb from Josh Allens fall right through his hands.
Diggs, who has a knack for complaining about his targets, finished the loss with only three receptions for 21 yards. Incredibly, he also hasn’t caught a touchdown in his last seven postseason games.
But let’s be real here, folks. What are the odds that the Bills offense will function better without Diggs? Who else can they bring in to replace a guy with four straight seasons of 100-plus catches and over 1,100 yards receiving?
The Bills’ window to win is now while they have key guys like Diggs, Josh Allen, Tre’Davious White, Matt Milano, James Cook and Dion Dawkins in their primes. Trading Diggs makes the Bills worse, unless they’re somehow bringing in Davante Adams or Justin Jefferson as a replacement. And news flash: Neither scenario’s happening.
What Buffalo NEEDS to do is actually find a capable No. 2 receiver for once, so that Allen can be less dependent on Diggs. The latter is still a superstar-level player and No. 1 receiver, and trading or cutting Diggs simply makes the Bills a worse team.
The goal is to win a Super Bowl, so you keep a player of Diggs’ caliber. They’ve put up with his attitude problems for four years. They can do it again if it means enhancing their chances of winning a championship.
New Team: Brian Burns
The Carolina Panthers will most certainly place the franchise tag on Burns if they can’t come to an agreement on a new deal. And if that happens, Burns has to push his way out of town.
He is the only bonafide superstar on a circus of a Carolina Panthers team led by the league’s new worst owner in David Tepper. We say “new” because Dan Snyder is finally gone.
Why should Burns commit to a losing team long-term when they have no clear path to success? Tepper is too hands-on as an owner, and the Panthers have little draft capital now after last year’s ill-fated trade-up for Bryce Young.
Well, Carolina has to find a way to recoup some of those picks. So why not place the tag on Burns and then sell him to the highest bidder?
The Panthers won’t get an offer of two first-rounders like the one they turned down from the Los Angeles Rams in 2022, but a young superstar pass-rusher just entering his prime is still gonna get you multiple early-round selections.
Burns needs to hold firm and refuse to commit to Carolina long-term. Then they need to trade him and start rebuilding the defense again. With extra picks and a plethora of cap space, that’s certainly manageable.
Bottom line: It’s time for Burns to take his talents elsewhere.
Stay: Josh Allen
The Jacksonville Jaguars’ star edge rusher just completed his rookie contract and is set to earn a life-changing payday after turning in a career year.
The 2019 first-round pick racked up a career-high 17.5 sacks to go along with an interception, one pass defensed and two forced fumbles.
With the Jaguars’ Super Bowl window just beginning to open under young stars like Allen, Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Travon Walker and Tyson Campbell, the goal is to retain your core guys and WIN with them.
This is a no-brainer for the Jaguars to pay Allen whatever he wants. Allen and Walker are game-changing pass-rushers that can make a difference in a playoff game against the likes of Patrick Mahomes, THE OTHER Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson.
Allen is going nowhere, ladies and gentlemen.
New Team: Saquon Barkley
It honestly makes no sense that the New York Giants decided to hold onto Barkley rather than trade him at the deadline. Anywho, if that’s how they want to operate…
Barkley and the Giants couldn’t agree to a new deal last year, even though he was coming off his best season yet. Surely, a lousy Giants team won’t want to commit long-term to an injury-prone guy who plays a devaluing position, right?
It just makes too much sense for Barkley to thank the Giants for the six years and to move on. Why should the explosive, do-it-all running back waste his prime on a miserable Giants team when he can go ring chasing this year?
Barkley can still get a very nice payday from a team that actually has Super Bowl aspirations. We just can’t bear the idea of him following Barry Sanders’ footsteps by spending his entire career with one team that simply wasted the bulk of his prime years.
Here’s hoping Barkley goes the Christian McCaffrey route by joining a bonafide title contender that will actually maximize his talents. How fun would Barkley be in Baltimore or KC, for example?
Stay: Chris Jones
Jones missed the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 1 opener against the Detroit Lions due to a contract dispute. The two sides finally reached a compromise in Week 2, and he looked like his good-old self throughout the year.
“Stone Cold” Jones had 10.5 sacks and four pass defenses in 16 games. He also placed second in ESPN’s pass rush win rate among defensive tackles, finishing only behind none other than Aaron Donald.
Jones remains the heart-and-soul of Kansas City’s defense. His one-game holdout was a reminder of just how badly the two parties need each other — and how much happier they are together.
Jones may as well take a bit of a discount to remain with the only NFL team he’s ever known — one that promises him annual Super Bowl contention. What’s the sense of taking a few extra dollars on a team that can’t promise him multiple shots at more championship rings?
Add it all up, and Jones staying in Kansas City is the only option that makes sense. This partnership has to — and most certainly will – continue well past 2024.
Which other NFL superstars do you think will switch teams in the offseason, and which ones will stay where they are?
