You can say all sorts of things about any massive free-agency spending spree in any sport, but the one thing we do know is that the NFL teams poised to be the most successful when handing out all that money are the ones who understand schematic fit for their new players at a higher degree than the average.
Sounds obvious, right? Well, it may be, but the streets are littered with free-agency failures in which teams became overly excited about a player’s athletic potential without really thinking about how said player fits into what their coaches want to do.
When it works, players can be force multipliers and championship charters for their new teams. When it doesn’t… well, that’s when you start worrying about dead cap in a contract a lot sooner than you should.
Now that a high rate of the biggest deals in free agency have been struck (unofficially, of course — these deals aren’t real until the start of the new league year on Wednesday, March 11 at 4:00 p.m. EST), here are five of the best schematic fits on defense — the deals that have among the best chances of working out, because coaches and executives actually got together beforehand and thought about player and scheme fit.
What a revolutionary concept!
Jaelan Phillips, EDGE, Carolina Panthers
On the surface, and especially is you use sacks as the final arbiter of what makes a great edge-rusher great, the Carolina Panthers’ decision to give former Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles EDGE Jaelan Phillips a four-year, $120 million contract with $80 million guaranteed seems like a massive overpay, rooted in the desperation that happens when your edge guys grab a total of just 16 sacks, as the Panthers’ edge disruptors did in the 2025 season.
But if you fan out the view, the deal makes a lot more sense. Last season with the Dolphins and then with the Eagles after he was traded on November 3, Phillips had just six sacks, but he racked up 11 quarterback hits and 60 quarterback hurries as well, and those 79 total pressures ranked seventh-best in the NFL. Moreover, and especially with the Eagles, he was able to get to the quarterback quite often without the benefit of the blitz.
Vic Fangio famously doesn’t blitz a lot, and that held true in 2025 as well. The Eagles sent three or four defensive linemen on 80% of their snaps, one of the league’s highest rates, and it’s a tribute to Phillips’ athleticism and creativity that he was able to upset quarterbacks as much as he did without additional help.
So, when you make Phillips the main man in an Ejiro Evero-led defense that sent three or four defensive linemen on 77% of their snaps, the math begins to make sense. The Panthers needed a guy who could get home frequently with four, and that’s what they got. Whether it was an overpay is yet to be seen, but the need here was graphically obvious.
Rashan Gary, DL, Dallas Cowboys
Remember last year when the Matt Eberflus-led Dallas Cowboys defense was the joke of the NFL? Yeah, that was fun. Yikes. Now that Jerry Jones has wisely moved on, and hired former Eagles passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Christian Parker to run his defense, we can expect some concepts actually rooted in the 21st century.
As we just mentioned, the Eagles are not a high-blitzing team, and they want to run a lot of two-high safety shells while still stopping the run. To do that, you need some serious big dudes on your defensive line, and the Cowboys do already have them — especially after Dallas sent former first-round defensive tackle Mazi Smith (who never really worked out), a 2026 second-round pick, and the higher of their two 2027 first-round picks to the New York Jets for interior defensive lineman Quinnen Williams. Adding Williams to a front that already included nose tackle Kenny Clark, and highly underrated lineman Osa Odighizuwa put opposing offenses in a wringer when Eberflus deployed them the right way… which he didn’t do nearly enough.
But when it worked, it was an absolute banger.
Adding former Packers edge-rusher Rashan Gary to the mix via the March 9 trade isn’t a free-agency move er se, hut it could have major schematic implications nonetheless. Last season, Gary had seven sacks and 60 total pressures in 446 pass-rushing snaps, and 26 stops, seven tackles for loss, and a ton of negative plays created against the run. And at 6’5” and 277 pounds, Gary can line up in multiple spots to disrupt. The Cowboys saw enough of what Gary could do to their run game in last September 28’s 40-40 tie with the Packers that didn’t see a ton of defense overall, obviously.
Yes, the Cowboys still need some juice with their speed-rushers, but they have the 12th and 20th overall picks in the draft to address that — or, they could do the most Jerry Jones thing ever and send at least one of those picks to the Las Vegas Raiders for Maxx Crosby now that the Ravens trade has gone kaput.
But with the Gary addition, Dallas is well on its way to foisting a modern defense on the rest of the NFL. That’s obviously a big improvement in Big D.
John Franklin-Myers, DL, Tennessee Titans
Last season, Tennessee Titans interior defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons might have been my favorite player in the entire NFL. The man’s team went 3-14 for the second straight season, and it didn’t matter to Simmons, because he was going to unleash absolute hell on every opponent the Titans faced. That’s how he racked up 12 sacks (tied with Denver’s Zach Allen for the most among inside guys) and 64 total pressures in one of his best seasons to date.
Now, with new head coach Robert Saleh in charge of the defense, and the February 26 trade that sent tackle T’Vondre Sweat to the New York Jets in exchange for EDGE Jermaine Johnson, Saleh has made it clear that he wants guys in the interior of his fronts who are hell-bent for leather in a pursuit sense at all times. Saleh isn’t interested in big men who soak up blocks; he wants active aggressors.
Which is where John Franklin-Myers comes in on a three-year, $63 million contract with $42 million guaranteed. Franklin-Myers has seen time with the Los Angeles Rams, the Jets, and most recently the Denver Broncos, and in 2025, he was a major cog in Vance Joseph’s Denver defense. At 6’4” and 288 pounds, Franklin-Myersis just as likely to line up over the tackles as he is to take a 3-tech role attacking the guards, and wherever he did last season, he did it very well with eight sacks and 43 total pressures in 406 pass-rushing snaps, and some estimable run disruption when he was tasked to help out with that.
At his best, Franklin-Myers is a one-gap, full-go annihilator to the backfield, and the combination him and Simmons in the middle of Tennessee’s defensive line should be a major issue for enemy ballcarriers. Add Johnson and some draft additions on the edge, and Saleh could have his dream front sooner than expected.
Jamel Dean, CB, Pittsburgh Steelers
Some cornerbacks are better in press coverage, others are better when playing off the receiver, and a few are great at both. If you have the opportunity to grab a cornerback who is great at both, you should do so at your earliest convenience. That’s what the Pittsburgh Steelers did with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Jamel Dean, one of the NFL’s more underrated defenders over the last few years.
Last season, Dean allowed 25 catches on 54 targets for 311 yards, 105 yards after the catch, one touchdown, three interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 47.7 — the NFL’s best among cornerbacks who played at least 50% of their teams’ snaps.
Now, onto Patrick Graham, the Steelers’ new defensive coordinator. Mike Tomlin was a defensive backs coach before he became Pittsburgh’s head coach in 2007, so he obviously had a say in coverage concepts, but it will be up to Graham to figure that out in the Mike McCarthy era. Generally during his time as the Las Vegas Raiders’ DC from 2022 through 2025, Graham was fairly malleable with his coverage stuff, depending on the talent he had. Joey Porter Jr., Graham’s young centerpiece at the position, is a better press cornerback, but the great thing about Dean at this point in his career is that he’s great at everything, which allows Graham all kinds of effective flexibility.
And that’s why you want a cornerback who’s a scheme fit no matter what the scheme may be.
Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, CB, Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams, on the other hand, are making a massive commitment to press coverage in the 2026 season and beyond, and all you need to prove it is the cornerbacks they poached from the Kansas City Chiefs. Steve Spagnuolo has called the most press coverage every year he’s been Kansas City’s defensive coordinator, and you don’t give up what the Rams gave up for cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson without knowing that full well, and attacking the playbook thusly.
The Rams traded for McDuffie on March 4, giving up the 2026 29th overall pick, as well as 2026 fifth- and sixth-round picks and a 2027 third-round pick. They then inked a new four-year, $124 million contract with $100 million guaranteed for their new guy.
Then, on Monday, the Rams went back to the well, signing Watson to a three-year, $51 million contract with $34 million guaranteed. Just like that, a cornerback rotation that may have been the Rams’ one big ding from a roster perspective was completely transformed.
It’s not just that they’re both really good pass defenders — McDuffie and Watson are both physical, aggressive cornerbacks who have no issue getting in a receiver’s face and matching him wherever he goes. It’s that a Rams team that had at least one cornerback in press on just 36.75% of their snaps, but allowed a completion rate of 60.38%, and an EPA of -0.075, is going whole-hog into the NFL’s recent press coverage revolution.
Sean McVay has never been shy about changing radically on offense — it’s why the Rams switched from inside and outside zone to power/counter/duo in the run game a few years back, and why they embraced 13 personnel at the NFL’s highest rate in 2025 after they’d rarely ever used it before. Now, it’s up to defensive coordinator Chris Shula and his crew to make the same sort of sea change work on a global level.
