PFF on Fowler, Floyd deals

PFF Free Agency Deal Grader

Falcons sign EDGE Dante Fowler Jr. to a three-year, $48 million deal

Fowler has shown improvement over the last several seasons, but that’s about where the positives for this deal end. Even with that improvement, Fowler ended the 2019 season as just the 35th highest-graded edge defender in the NFL. Similar to some of the other free agents in this class, he took advantage of cleanup/unblocked opportunities last season with over 50% of his total pressures coming in those two areas. He may be on an upward trajectory, but it’s still tough to justify a deal that comes in at $16 million dollars per year on average. The upward trend needs to continue in a big way in Atlanta to do that.

Rams sign EDGE Leonard Floyd to a one-year, $10 million deal

Floyd has been part of strong Chicago Bears defenses over the past several years, but he wasn’t one of the drivers in their success. He is a solid starting option that provides good play against the run (run-defense grades above 70.0 in each of the past three seasons), but he doesn’t add much in the way of pass rush. For his career, Floyd has a pressure rate of only 10.9%. That figure was just 8.6% in 2018 and 9.5% in 2019, some of the worst marks in the league for a player that was on the field for as many snaps as Floyd was. The Rams needed to find a way to replace the pass-rushing production that they are losing from Dante Fowler’s departure, but Floyd isn’t a guy who is going to get consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks.