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Justin looks at the 10 biggest and most impactful moves that teams made before and during the 2023 NFL season.
The 2023 NFL season is almost over, with only a Super Bowl left to be played. It was a great season of football, but what were some of the biggest moves that led to this strong season?
From hitting on draft picks to making the right free agent signing to just playing the right guy at the right time, NFL teams are always making decisions that shape their team and their team's future.
Let's take a look at the 10 biggest NFL moves of 2023.
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10. The Falcons Sign Jessie Bates III
Atlanta missed the playoffs because of offensive struggles, but the defense played well, allowing the eighth-fewest passing yards in the league. A big part of that was Jessie Bates III, who Atlanta signed as a free agent. The safety picked off six passes and had 132 tackles, both career highs. If the Falcons can just figure out the offensive side of the ball, Bates could get a chance to showcase this skill in the playoffs next season.
9. The Dolphins Let Raheem Mostert Eat
I'm still not sure I believe that Raheem Mostert led the NFL in rushing touchdowns, but it's true. The journeyman back scored 18 of them. Mostert finished the 2023 season with 209 carries for 1,012 yards, both career highs as well. I don't think anyone expected Mostert to find the end zone 10 more times on the ground than his previous best mark, and that's not even mentioning the fact that he caught three touchdown passes as well, another new best mark for Mostert. Credit to Miami for recognizing how he could be best utilized.
8. The Lions Revamp The Running Back Room
The Lions running backs didn't get them to the NFC Championship Game single-handedly, but they sure helped. In 2022, the Lions got 17 rushing touchdowns from Jamaal Williams and some strong contributions from D'Andre Swift, but they still ended up moving on from both players before the 2023 season.
The team signed David Montgomery, who had 1,132 scrimmage yards and 13 touchdowns, and also drafted Jahmyr Gibbs, who had 1,261 scrimmage yards and 11 touchdowns of his own. Sure, you can debate the merits of using a first-round pick on a running back, but you can't deny that this was the best one-two punch at running back in the NFL.
7. The Buccaneers Sign Baker Mayfield
After bouncing around between teams in 2022, former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield landed in Tampa Bay this offseason, where he beat out Kyle Trask for the post-Tom Brady quarterback job. Expectations weren't high, but Mayfield led the Bucs to the playoffs, completing 64.3% of his pass attempts for a career-high 4,044 yards and 28 touchdowns. He threw three touchdowns in a playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
6. AFC South Teams Hit On Coaching Hires
There were five new NFL head coaches hired ahead of 2023. The two best hires were both down in the AFC South, where the Houston Texans hired DeMeco Ryans and the Indianapolis Colts hired Shane Steichen. The two are very different coaches, with Ryans coming from the defensive side and Steichen from the offense, but the results were great for both. Houston made the playoffs and the Colts just missed despite an injury to quarterback Anthony Richardson. Not long ago, this looked like it might be the NFL's worst division, but these two hires have things looking up for the AFC South.
5. The Ravens Draft Zay Flowers and Sign Odell Beckham Jr.
The Baltimore Ravens have been a dangerous team in recent seasons because of quarterback Lamar Jackson, but something was missing on offense: a go-to wide receiver for Jackson to throw the ball to. Sure, tight end Mark Andrews was an elite weapon, but not having a real No. 1 hurt.
Baltimore revamped its receiver room this offseason, which helped the team earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC. First-round pick Zay Flowers caught 77 passes for 858 yards, while Odell Beckham Jr. started slowly but had a few big performances in the middle of the season. The Ravens went 4-0 when Beckham had at least 49 receiving yards.
4. The Rams Give Puka Nacua Early Snaps
With Cooper Kupp out at the beginning of the season, there were questions about what the Rams would do at wide receiver. Sean McVay's answer? Make fifth-round rookie Puka Nacua the starter right out of the gate. Nacua responded with 10 catches for 119 yards in his debut, then had 15 catches for 147 yards in Week 2. He ended up with seven 100-yard games in the regular season as well as one in the playoffs. Oh, and Nacua broke the rookie receiving record with 1,486 receiving yards on the season.
3. The Bears Trade The No. 1 Pick
The Chicago Bears had the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, but the team felt pretty good about quarterback Justin Fields, so they shipped that pick to the Carolina Panthers for a huge haul. Two firsts, two seconds, and also wide receiver D.J. Moore.
That's a great move under any circumstances, but it was made better in retrospect when the Panthers went out and just stunk in 2023. That 2024 first that Chicago landed? It's the No. 1 overall pick, so now Chicago can either draft Caleb Williams or trade the pick for another major haul. All this is essentially because the Houston Texans won a meaningless Week 18 game back in 2022 that pushed the Bears from No. 2 to No. 1 in the draft order.
2. The Packers Trade Aaron Rodgers
This point isn't about Aaron Rodgers, who tore his Achilles one drive into his New York Jets career. It's about how trading Rodgers, who was still an elite quarterback in 2022 during his final year in Green Bay, allowed the team to hand the starting reins to Jordan Love, the team's 2020 first-round pick. Love led the Packers to a 9-8 record and a playoff appearance in his first season as a starter. The team upset the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card before losing in the Divisional Round to the San Francisco 49ers.
1. The Texans Draft C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson Jr.
The Houston Texans had the No. 2 pick in last year's draft. With Bryce Young off the board, the move there was a no-brainer: draft Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud. If that was all the team did in the first round, the move alone would have landed them a spot in the top five of this list.
But Houston wasn't done there. Houston traded two firsts, one second, and one third to move up to No. 3 and take Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. It was a risky move at the time, giving up what people thought would be a high first in 2024 for a defensive player. In the end, Houston was proven right. Anderson was arguably the best rookie defender in the NFL, while Houston shockingly won the AFC South, which meant the pick they dealt didn't end up hurting them nearly as much as it could have.
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