Scott Gulbransen
The NFL’s free agency frenzy is barely a week old and Yahoo Sports insider Caroline Fenton already has a team she thinks is going to look really, really bad in about 24 months.
Fenton joined the Sportsnaut Interview podcast this week and didn’t waste time getting into it. The Raiders, the Colts, DJ Moore in Buffalo — she had takes on all of it. Some of them might surprise you.
The Raiders Aggression, Maxx Crosby Trade Fiasco
Start with the Maxx Crosby mess. Everyone saw the Ravens back out of that trade the second Trey Hendrickson’s market softened. Fenton noticed something most people glossed over: the specific words Las Vegas used when it announced it had fallen apart.
“They didn’t say Maxx Crosby failed his physical,” she said. “They said the Ravens backed out of the trade. I thought that was telling.”
Her theory? Baltimore went into free agency assuming Hendrickson would cost them Myles Garrett money — somewhere in the $40 million per year neighborhood. Too rich. So they pivoted to the Crosby trade. Then Hendrickson just… sat there. And the price dropped. Suddenly Eric DeCosta is doing math in his head and realizing he can get a comparable pass rusher AND keep both first-round picks.
“It’s shady business,” Fenton said. “But let’s not act like this is the first shady business that’s been done in the National Football League.”
She thinks both teams ended up fine. For the Raiders specifically, Crosby staying puts a proven veteran next to a quarterback who’s never taken an NFL snap. That matters. So does the Tyler Linderbaum signing, which she called exactly what a rebuilding team with a young QB should be doing.
“Bad franchises fail young quarterbacks far more than young quarterbacks fail organizations,” Fenton said.
What Are The Indianapolis Colts Doing?
That brings us to Indianapolis, which apparently did not get that memo.
The Colts re-signed Alec Pierce to the largest free-agent receiver contract in NFL history. They handed Daniel Jones $50 million guaranteed. Fenton isn’t impressed by either move as part of the NFL free agency frenzy.
“Just because you pay a guy like he’s elite doesn’t make him elite,” she said. On Jones specifically, she reiterated that one good half-season followed by an Achilles tear doesn’t rewrite four years of bad football in New York. “It’s not a $50 million changed perspective.”
Chris Ballard’s seat should be hot, she said. The AFC South has been won by the Texans, Titans and Jaguars multiple times on his watch. Still waiting on Indy.
In other NFL free agency moves, Fenton loves the DJ Moore signing and said it will have a bigger impact in Buffalo and Trent McDuffie in LA, got her fired up. She went to Moore without much hesitation, and the reason was less about Moore himself than it was about Bill’s offensive coordinator, Joe Brady.
“I love what Joe Brady does with receivers,” Fenton said, noting she covered his 2019 LSU offense and even talked to Justin Jefferson about it at the Super Bowl. The short version: Brady unlocks passing games in ways that don’t show up on a depth chart.
Moore isn’t elite. Fenton said that plainly. But he’s an upgrade, he fits the scheme, and paired with Josh Allen, whom she called “the Superman,” the ceiling on that offense just got higher.
A second-round pick was a lot to give up. She acknowledged that. Then, they immediately moved on. You’re in a window. Spend.
