The midseason point in the NFL season is the perfect time to take stock of the bold moves teams made -- or avoided -- over the past eight months.
Several teams with an inside track on the playoffs swung trades that bolstered one side of the ball. Others are still reeling from unnecessary spending or overall inaction, though some rosters and front offices are more equipped to handle misses than others.
With the help of NFL personnel, here's a look at the best and worst moves as we enter Week 10.
The best moves
Buccaneers sign Tom Brady
Keep Tom Brady away from the New Orleans Saints, and he's dangerous.
Brady looked every bit of his 43 years in a baffling 38-3 loss to New Orleans on Sunday. Five of Brady's seven interceptions this season have come in two games against the Saints.
But the Bucs are paying Brady $50 million over two years to elevate the franchise, and he has largely done that. Given the Bucs' 6-3 record, their chances at their first NFC South title since 2007 are real.
Many evaluators considered Brady a fringe top-10 quarterback with declining skills late in the 2019 season. A new job has rejuvenated Brady.
"I was surprised by what I saw last year, but he looks better than what I saw in December and January," an AFC exec said. "He's throwing the ball pretty well overall. ... He should bounce back [from the loss to New Orleans], but it won't be as high as before, and the bounces will continue to be lower and lower as he gets older. But he's still better than most."
Then there's the ancillary benefit: The Bucs are relevant now.
Cardinals, Bills deal for DeAndre Hopkins, Stefon Diggs
Looking at the Hopkins deal through the prism of the Diggs deal makes the fact that Hopkins is a Cardinal even more unbelievable.
The Bills gave up a first-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-round pick for Diggs and a seventh-rounder -- and it was totally worth it. Diggs has changed the Bills' offense.
Hopkins, a tad higher than Diggs in the positional pantheon, went to Arizona for less capital: a second-round pick and aging running back David Johnson, with each side getting a respective fourth-rounder as part of the deal.
Hopkins is on pace for 1,400-plus yards, and no matter how much Kyler Murray runs or Christian Kirk gets loose, Hopkins is always a stabilizing force (see: Miami corner Xavien Howard's four penalties Sunday).
"He's perfect for that offense because they can line him up all over, in the slot or outside, and he can win on broken plays, which suits Kyler's skill set," an NFC exec said.
Diggs brought his edge to Buffalo. He wanted to be a No. 1, and he's validating that desire.
"He's so versatile," an NFC coordinator said. "You can put him anywhere on the field, and he wants the ball. He wants to be the guy."
Both contracts are fairly manageable, too. Hopkins' two-year, $54 million extension looks daunting but is offset by the three years Hopkins had remaining on his old, now obsolete deal. Diggs is due $11 million in salary in 2021.
Colts trade for DeForest Buckner
Colts GM Chris Ballard didn't hesitate to give the San Francisco 49ers a first-round pick in exchange for Buckner and then sign the defensive lineman to a deal worth $21 million per year.
The Colts believed he would help transform their defense, and Buckner has done just that. The Colts rank first in total defense and third in scoring defense, compared to 16th and 18th, respectively, a year ago.
"He uses size and leverage well, doesn't make mistakes -- he's a true anchor," an NFL coordinator said. "He won't dominate from a sacks standpoint, but he does everything so well that you can build your defense around him."
The 49es would have loved to have kept Buckner -- who has 28 tackles and 2.5 sacks this season -- but couldn't pay him and Arik Armstead, who's the cheaper option at $17 million per year.
Buckner has thus far earned a stellar 86.3 Pro Football Focus grade in the first year in his new uniform.
Giants sign James Bradberry
The Giants might be the NFC East team that an out-of-division opponent least wants to see on a Sunday. Joe Judge has the team playing really hard, and the defense looked like an improved unit in holding Tampa Bay to 25 grind-it-out points with the help of two Daniel Jones turnovers in Week 8.
Many evaluators considered free-agent addition Bradberry a quality second-tier corner, but he's proving to be a marquee player for the Giants. Despite quarterbacks testing him on 50 targets through his first nine games, Bradberry has allowed a 67.4 passer rating, with three interceptions and 12 pass deflections.
His three-year, $43.5 million deal is reasonable. The Giants wrote a light $9 million signing bonus check, and his $13.9 million salary in 2021 is a good match for this caliber of player.
This is an example of free agency working.
Seahawks trade for Carlos Dunlap
Good franchises find ways to work the system.
Instead of giving up a fifth-round pick for Atlanta Falcons pass-rusher Takk McKinley -- who has one sack on the season, is battling a groin issue and was waived by the team Monday -- Seattle got the Cincinnati Bengals' all-time sack leader for a seventh-round pick and a veteran salary dump.
Dunlap has 83.5 career sacks, and his three tackles for loss and one sack in his Seattle debut on Sunday reminded that his sluggish play this season was likely a byproduct of unhappiness in Cincinnati.
Seattle knew this, so the team asked him to take a pay cut, turning his $4.59 million of prorated salary owed into a flat $2 million, and it actually worked. The Seahawks moved a $5 million roster bonus into 2021 but can release Dunlap if the move doesn't work out.
After moving center/guard B.J. Finney's $1.3 million to Cincinnati, Seattle basically paid $700,000 to address a massive hole at pass rush -- a minor investment for a championship-or-bust season. Even if Dunlap is slightly above average, the trade was worth making. Plus, there's a good chance that Dunlap, 31, will be more productive than the most coveted free-agent pass-rusher in 2020, Jadeveon Clowney, who has no sacks in his first seven games with Tennessee.
"[Dunlap's] production was down this year, and age is an issue, but he can still play, and his length will help them," an NFL coordinator said. "Having one war daddy on one of the edges can really help them. The interior rotation isn't bad, and [L.J.] Collier and [Benson] Mayowa are good rotational guys. They don't have a special nickel cover guy. But there are enough pieces to improve later in the year."
Browns fix their offensive tackle problem
Cleveland identified an issue from last season and made sure it wasn't a problem in 2020.
Last year's offensive tackle tandem of Greg Robinson and Chris Hubbard didn't scare anyone, so instead of replenishing with stopgap options in free agency, the Browns took a top free agent on the board, Jack Conklin, who offered the ideal mix of price and pedigree as a former top-10 pick with an All-Pro performance in 2016 who hadn't been dominant enough in recent years to command cap-decimating money.
Conklin's three-year, $42 million deal with the Browns includes a $15 million signing bonus and is reasonable for the market and caliber of player. Conklin has earned a steady 78.9 Pro Football Focus grade this season, and he's third in the league in pass-block win rate (95.4).
The Browns doubled down by taking Jedrick Wills Jr. in the draft, and though his seven penalties hurt his rookie campaign, his 92.9 pass-block win rate is tops among rookies.
Baker Mayfield is well protected off the edge, with the Browns giving their young quarterback every chance for success.
Saints, Vikings pay Alvin Kamara and Dalvin Cook
Both players are on MVP-caliber tracks after getting paid, which is good for suppressed tailbacks everywhere. Kamara has 1,036 total yards and eight scores on 156 touches through eight games. With Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders missing time, Kamara was the Saints' offense.
Cook single-handedly resurrected the Vikings' season the past two weeks, with a huge 478 total yards and five touchdowns.
Both teams elevated their premier backs among the highest paid at the position with $138 million in total money, but there's flexibility for the teams to leave the deals after three or four years if necessary (four years and $40 million for Kamara, three years for $27 million with Cook). It's a win for both sides in each case.
Honorable mentions:
Seahawks trade for Jamal Adams: Two first-round picks is a steep price, but that's what greatness costs.
Panthers sign Teddy Bridgewater: They can win with him or develop a draft pick behind him. He works in all scenarios under a three-year deal.
Steelers sign Eric Ebron: He's the most exotic tight end option that Ben Roethlisberger has ever had.
49ers trade for Trent Williams: He has been one of the few bright spots in an injury-ravaged year for San Francisco.
Chiefs re-sign Travis Kelce to a four-year, $57 million deal: It's a back-loaded deal that gives the Chiefs a chance to operate in a championship window more swiftly while retaining a key piece.
Eagles trade for Darius Slay: Philly's other issues have masked Slay's ability to battle top receivers each week.
The worst moves
Titans sign Vic Beasley Jr.
The Titans paid $9.5 million for three tackles and a forced fumble from Beasley, easily the worst free-agent signing of 2020.
There's no way around it. GM Jon Robinson has built a strong roster, but he misread this one.
Beasley's snippets of greatness can be intoxicating for NFL evaluators, and Beasley showed enough, with eight sacks in 2019, to garner interest. But most people around the league have a familiar knock on Beasley.
"He's always had questions of whether he loved football or not," one NFC exec said.
This sort of thing is hard to quantify, but Atlanta saw a player who never seemed to revel in the NFL routine of meetings and practice. Sources say it's not malicious; Beasley's just not that into it. Tennessee knew this, but when you need a pass-rusher, chances must be taken. The Titans gave Beasley $9.5 million guaranteed at signing, with the worst-case calculation that he'd provide a few timely sacks based on his enormous ability.
The Titans have a good thing going with Mike Vrabel's culture of toughness and hard work, and Beasley made clear that he didn't fit that description with his training camp absence.
Texans inactive at trade deadline
The Texans did a whole lot of talking behind the scenes but finalized just one minor move: defensive tackle Eli Ankou to the Dallas Cowboys for a seventh-rounder in 2022.
A team with a top-10 quarterback shouldn't have to blow up the roster. Perhaps Houston can make a second-half push to .500, starting with Sunday's win over Jacksonville as a springboard. But the word from execs through the trade deadline was that the Texans wanted too much for pieces such as Will Fuller V, a 2021 free agent.
Bill O'Brien's purge of draft capital created urgency to try to get some back, but it appears that the Texans were so desperate to recoup the high picks they lost that they eschewed trying to get the best value for April.
None of the Texans' eight draft picks in 2021 are in the first two rounds, and four of those eight are in the sixth or seventh rounds. That's a problem.
"I really thought they were going to unload. Start the new coach off right with more draft picks," an AFC exec said.
J.J. Watt, whose $17.5 million 2021 salary is not guaranteed, probably would have welcomed a chance to win elsewhere. Despite age (31) and durability concerns, he has value.
Jets spend Robby Anderson's money on bargain deals
Some who know Jets GM Joe Douglas are quick to remind you that he spent more than a decade in Baltimore, where bargain hunting is a way of life and overpaying in free agency is strongly discouraged.
So perhaps it's no surprise that Douglas hit the clearance rack to bolster his offensive line and tried to save close to $6 million by signing receiver Breshad Perriman over former Jet Robby Anderson.
But Anderson, for $12 million in first-year payouts in Carolina, has been absurdly productive, with 60 catches and 751 yards through nine games. His two-year, $20 million deal with the Panthers is a bargain -- one that Carolina is glad to pay for.
Perriman, at $6.5 million on a one-year deal, caught 11 passes for 118 yards through his four games played, missing the first month because of an ankle injury, but he broke out with two touchdowns on Monday against the Patriots.
Keeping Anderson -- and his chemistry with Sam Darnold -- would have helped New York be more competitive without stretching the team financially. Some NFL personnel I spoke to felt that would have been a sound strategy. The Jets probably could have signed Anderson and Perriman with room to spare.
On the O-line, the Jets got four new starters -- George Fant, Connor McGovern, Greg Van Roten and Alex Lewis -- for a combined $10.5 million in signing bonus money. McGovern's deal is the only one without an easy out after Year 1.
The investment is modest, and though there are some solid pieces among this group, New York is largely getting what it paid for: Through the halfway mark, the Jets ranked last in passing offense (155.9) by more than 20 yards, 22nd in rushing attack and tied for 25th in sacks allowed.
The Jets' biggest problem is several players from last year's team seemed to regress. The free agency plan wasn't enough to offset those losses, though it does offer flexibility for next year's rebuild.
One Jets positive: Getting two first-rounders from Seattle for Adams was major value for a team that had to deal the player in short order. That's impressive work by the front office.
Vikings trade for Yannick Ngakoue
The bottom line of this deal is not kind to the Vikings, who essentially exchanged a second-round pick for a third-round pick and paid $6.8 million for five games of Ngakoue.
When they dealt for Ngakoue before the season, the move made some sense because Danielle Hunter was hurt, and Minnesota reworked Ngakoue's franchise tag to a more palatable $12 million. Giving Jacksonville a second- and a conditional fifth-round pick was justifiable for a skilled pass-rusher.
But Ngakoue -- despite registering five sacks -- never seemed to fit with Minnesota, as the Vikings cut their losses amid a 1-5 start, dealing him to Baltimore.
"That move was a change of pace for them because they usually go for bigger, heavy-handed pass-rushers [such as Hunter or Everson Griffen]," an NFC exec said. "Ngakoue is leaner and quicker. I applaud them for trying something different, but when it doesn't work, you're scrambling."
Making matters worse is the conditional pick tied to Jacksonville that could improve for the Jaguars -- and hurt the Vikings. The 2022 fifth-rounder turns into a fourth-rounder if Ngakoue earns a Pro Bowl selection.
Buccaneers sign Antonio Brown
This move could turn out to be brilliant, but the Bucs were already armed with two top-10 receivers in Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, along with good tight ends and running back depth.
Brown grew impossible to manage in his previous three stops, and even if he has changed, the Bucs are now dealing with the perception that Brady is running the show.
Maybe Brown makes huge plays and sparks a Super Bowl run. Quarterbacks are drawn to him. But the risk-reward seemed unnecessary, especially when Seattle -- known for a high threshold for strong player personalities -- didn't make a financial push to sign Brown after doing a deep dive on his background over the summer. Several teams I spoke to said they had no interest in Brown, whether they needed receiver help or not. It wasn't a palatable move for them.
"Does [the move] say more about Brady calling the shots, or does it let us know where [coach Bruce] Arians is at in his career in terms of being hands-on vs. hands-off?" an NFC exec said. "I think Arians is just at that phase of his career and life where he's trying to empower and build others."
The move doesn't sound so bad through that perspective, but the Bucs had a good thing going. The addition of Brown seems superfluous.
How the Cowboys allocated their money, from Dak to the defense
We've discussed the Dak Prescott contract thoroughly over the past year, so there's no need to rehash everything, but if another $5-10 million could have helped both sides avoid the franchise tag, consider this cold reality:
Dallas spent $14.4 million in hard cash on five defensive players who are no longer in the lineup because of injury, trade or poor performance. Gerald McCoy, Dontari Poe, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Everson Griffen and Daryl Worley each got more than $2 million from the team. They combined for 41 tackles, 2.5 sacks and two pass deflections, with Clinton-Dix getting $2.25 million to go away without playing a down. At least McCoy had an excuse, with a season-ending injury in the preseason.
Four of these players are 30 or older and on the decline. The veteran player with the lowest cap hit, Aldon Smith ($1.35 million), has been the most productive of the bunch, with five sacks.
Debating the merits of #PayDak has many layers, but the reality is that the $37 million franchise tag in 2021 is quite prohibitive, and Dallas' performance since his absence because of right ankle compound surgery accentuates his value.
The Cowboys "should have been done with it once and for all -- a while ago," an NFC exec said. "He was much more affordable about a year and a half ago."
Honorable mention:
Bears sign Jimmy Graham while targeting a tight end (Cole Kmet) high in the draft: Was $9 million in guarantees really necessary for a 33-year-old coming off a 38-catch season?
Bengals sign Trae Waynes: Cincinnati must wait until 2021 for that $42 million deal to pay off.
Bills sign Josh Norman: Buffalo gave $3 million in guarantees on a $6 million deal, and Norman has played just three games because of injury. Plus, Levi Wallace is emerging as the corner opposite Tre'Davious White.