2025 NFL Draft takeaways from free agency: How Patriots’ signings, other Day 1 moves impact draft decisions

In NFL verbiage, the legal tampering period means agree to deals with as many free agents as you want to and can under the salary cap. Waiting until Wednesday? Yeah right. 

NFL free agency is here, y’all. And yes, plenty of marquee names — and not so marquee names — have agreed to terms on deals with new teams. 

Even if this free-agency class lacks some of high-caliber talent of years past, money certainly hasn’t dried up in the NFL. We saw clubs with early picks in the draft, like the Patriots, Raiders, and Bears, get to work right away on the free-agent market. Having gobs of cap space certainly helped those respective endeavors. But even contenders, like the Chiefs and Bills, got in on the action early on. 

In the spirit of the free-agency floodgates now open in the middle of draft season, let’s evaluate how these Day 1 free-agency decisions will directly impact the 2025 NFL Draft. 

Here are the Day 1 free-agent signings that have influenced the strategies of specific teams on draft night.

• How it impacts the draft: Texans now in dire need of massive OL reinforcement

Starting a free-agency article with a transaction of the trade variety. And it was a seismic one. In 2024, during a season in which C.J. Stroud certainly played quality football but regressed in a few key areas — interceptions and sacks — one glaring issue with an otherwise explosive Texans offense was the porous nature of its offensive line. 

The sole stud was Tunsil at left tackle — what else is new? — who will now play for the Commanders in 2025. Even before the swap, Houston was pegged as one of the primary candidates to select a blocker in Round 1, presumably an interior player. Most of the leakiness came from inside. 

Now, Houston has a Tunsil-sized hole at left tackle, and the most perplexing part is there’s not an obvious replacement already on the roster. In most of these scenarios, there’s a quality second-year pro waiting in the wings. Technically, Houston does have a soon-to-be NFL sophomore to play tackle in 2024 second-rounder Blake Fisher, yet his rookie-season play was hardly encouraging. He allowed 28 pressures on a mere 305 pass-blocking snaps and hardly moved people on a consistent basis for the run game. 

This move signals that Houston could double (or triple?) up in the draft along the offensive line. It’ll be a shock if it goes elsewhere with the No. 25 overall pick in Round 1. 

Bears add plenty to trenches on offense and defense

• How it impacts draft: Bears free to draft any position in Round 1

Witnessing the uber-aggression from the Bears before free agency and once it began triggered two thoughts in my head: General manager Ryan Poles knows how vital it is for Chicago to rectify the play of its offensive and defensive lines, and he wants to enter the first round of the 2025 draft without telegraphing which position he’s bound to address. 

With the edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo, defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and three new blockers for Caleb Williams — Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, and center Drew Dalman — the Bears have emphatically addressed their largest area of need: the trenches. 

At this stage, with the No. 10 overall pick, the Bears now have flexibility. Tight end? Tyler Warren from Penn State? Now distinctly possible. Ashton Jeanty, superstar running back prospect? It could happen. A safety to serve as an upgrade from Kevin Byard, who’s now in his early 30s? Malaki Starks? Nick Emmanwori? Everything is on the table, and that’s precisely the way most GMs dream about going into a draft. 

Flurry of Patriots defensive signings, plus an OT

• How it impacts the draft: Gives Patriots green light to go offense at No. 4 overall

The Patriots clearly prioritized improving their 31st-ranked defense in EPA per play allowed (non-garbage time) from 2024. They poached Williams from the Panthers in the 11th hour, added longtime steady corner Carlton Davis and signed the criminally underrated Robert Spillane, along with edge rusher Harold Landry — a familiar face for Mike Vrabel.

They also snuck in an external offensive signing — veteran blocker Morgan Moses to play tackle. Drake Maye can now breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not that Moses can right all New England’s wrongs along the blocking unit. It’s that he’s as steady as they come well into his 30s now at a position that was a turnstile during Maye’s rookie season. 

With the flurry of defensive additions, de facto general manager Eliot Wolf can turn his attention to the offensive side of the ball. Maybe Travis Hunter if he’s available and the Patriots view him as an offensive weapon? Another blocker to be the bookend to Moses? This isn’t set in stone, but frankly, New England doesn’t have nearly as many defensive holes as it had a few days ago.

• How it impacts the draft: Gives Chiefs plenty of options at No. 31 overall

Given how the Super Bowl went, yeah, we all thought the Chiefs would invest another early pick at offensive tackle after drafting Kingsley Suamataia in the second round a year ago. Now, that feels unlikely. Moore was Trent Williams‘ primary backup in San Francisco and played sound football when standing in for an injured Williams in 2024. 

Actually, I don’t know why San Francisco would let Moore, the team’s fifth-round pick from 2021, walk. Add the acquisition of Moore to the franchise-tag retention of stud guard Trey Smith, and the Chiefs don’t have nearly as sizable of an offensive line problem as many of us expected they’d have entering this offseason. 

Linebacker Nick Bolton and Marquise Brown re-signed, too. And the backfield got a boost with Elijah Mitchell, who, for a brief period, was an efficient runner in San Francisco before the days of Christian McCaffrey with the 49ers.

Now general manager Brett Veach can let his board come to him, or, maybe, look to infuse more talent to the safety room or defensive tackle room.

• How it impacts the draft: Raiders firmly in offensive skill-position talent market

These are not your Josh McDaniels Raiders, or your Jon Gruden or Antonio Pierce Raiders. A season ago, Pierce’s group was 20th in defensive EPA allowed per play in non-garbage time, and there were rumblings of Maxx Crosby trade at the outset of the offseason. 

Now, one day into free agency, the following has transpired for the Pete Carroll-coached club: Chinn and Pola-Mao signed to bolster the safety group, Crosby extended, Malcolm Koonce and Adam Butler re-signed and guard Alex Cappa inked to a deal. Oh yeah, and Geno Smith is the new quarterback. 

Armed with the No. 6 overall pick, it feels like quarterback is decently unlikely. How about receiver? Maybe the first “true” wideout off the board? Tet McMillan from Arizona? Luther Burden III from Missouri? Matthew Golden from Texas? Maybe too rich for those latter two, but the Raiders have gone hard after their obvious defensive needs to start free agency after addressing their most glaring need — quarterback — right before it. Heck, even Jeanty at No. 6 feels possible at this point.