We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Atlanta Falcons
Cincinnati Bengals
Dallas Cowboys
Los Angeles Chargers
New York Giants
Not long after visiting the Falcons, offensive linemen Germain Ifedi has indeed joined the team. Atlanta announced on Wednesday that they have signed the veteran to a one-year contract. 
Ifedi met with the Falcons less than two weeks ago, so this move doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The 27-year-old was a first-round pick of the Seahawks in 2016. In four seasons there, he started all 60 games he appeared in. He manned both the right guard and right tackle spots, but never graded out well in terms of PFF ratings.
Ifedi then signed with the Bears two years ago. The first of his campaigns in the Windy City saw his best performance to date, as he played every snap and earned a PFF grade of 65. Availability became a problem for the first time in his career in 2021, however; a knee injury helped limit him to seven starts and nine games played. Just like in Seattle, Ifedi spent time at both guard and tackle.
By signing in Atlanta, the Texas A&M alum becomes the fifth ex-Bear to join the Falcons. The team’s starters at the RG and RT spots – Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary, respectively – are each under contract for one more season. Ifedi could, at a minimum, provide experienced depth at each position for the 2022 campaign and perhaps earn himself an extended stay with his play there.
Throughout the pre-draft process, Liberty quarterback Malik Willis has established himself as one of, if not the most coveted prospects amongst this year’s class of signal-callers. As the build-up to the draft now shifts towards team meetings, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports (on Twitter) that Willis will meet with the Panthers and Falcons next week. 
Those two teams have long been involved in speculation with respect to drafting a QB this April. Carolina has Sam Darnold under contract for one more season since they picked up his fifth-year option, but general manager Scott Fitterer spoke recently about the possibility of drafting his replacement with the sixth overall pick.
“This will be interesting because the tackles will be the best players on the board. But we do need a quarterback, and at some point you have to take a shot, especially in the top 10” he said, adding that the decision to take a quarterback is complicated by the fact that this year’s class lacks a clear-cut top option.
The Falcons, a fellow runner-up to land Deshaun Watson, have questions of their own at the position. After trading away Matt Ryan, they signed Marcus Mariota to a two-year contract. The former Titan and Raider is in line to start for the first time since 2019, but he would likely provide a short-term solution at the position at best. That has made Atlanta – who holds the eighth overall pick – a prime candidate to draft their next franchise QB in April.
Schefter notes that Willis has already met with a number of other teams, including the Steelers, Saints, Giants and Titans. Given their respective current QB status and position in the draft, each of those clubs would likely have at least some interest in adding Willis as well. Overall, his will be one of the most important names to watch as the draft draws nearer.
Rashaan Evans‘ Falcons visit produced an accepted contract offer. The former Tennessee linebacker agreed to a one-year deal with Atlanta, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
This move will reunite Evans with Falcons defensive coordinator Dean Pees, who formerly worked as the Titans’ DC. Pees and Arthur Smith will deploy a familiar face to address the latest linebacker defection in free agency.
The Falcons lost Foyesade Oluokun last month; the breakout tackler signed with the Jaguars. This came two years after the Falcons let De’Vondre Campbell walk in free agency. Evans should be expected to line up alongside Deion Jones in Atlanta.
A 2018 first-round pick, Evans started 50 games for the Titans. He did not miss a start during the 2019 or ’20 seasons and, after a midseason IR stay last year, returned to help Tennessee secure the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The Titans did not pick up Evans’ fifth-year option in 2021, routing him to free agency.
Evans’ Titans run ended meekly. The Titans made the former Alabama standout a healthy scratch for their divisional-round game and had used him on fewer than 40% of their snaps in Weeks 17 and 18. Evans has a 100-plus-tackle season on his resume (2019); he added 2.5 sacks that year. Evans, 26, intercepted two passes and forced a fumble in his abbreviated 2021 season. This Falcons pact represents an opportunity for the former top prospect to re-establish some momentum in a familiar defensive system.
The Patriots’ latest wide receiver trade sent DeVante Parker from one AFC East team to another, but at least four teams from outside the division discussed acquiring the former first-round pick.
The Packers, Falcons and Texans engaged in talks with either the Dolphins or Parker’s agent about the veteran wide receiver, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes, while ESPN’s Adam Schefter adds the Cowboys resided in the mix as well (Twitter links).
Parker went to the Pats in a deal that sent the Dolphins a third-round pick, with Fowler adding talks between the rivals heated up on the pro-day circuit. The career-long Dolphin wanted to be dealt to the Patriots, per Fowler and NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (video link).
Dallas’ receiver room changed in March, when the team dealt Amari Cooper to Cleveland for little compensation — at least compared to what the Cowboys parted with to acquire Cooper — and let Cedrick Wilson Jr. defect to Miami. The Dolphins’ Wilson move and their Tyreek Hill blockbuster left Parker without a certain role in Mike McDaniel‘s offense. This led to the seven-year vet going on the trade block.
Green Bay joined Dallas in dealing its No. 1 wideout in March, sending Davante Adams to Las Vegas. Marquez Valdes-Scantling‘s Chiefs commitment leaves the Packers with little at receiver. The Falcons have seen their receiving corps gutted over the past 10 months, to the point they do not have a No. 1- or No. 2-caliber receiver on their roster. The Texans do not have much beyond Brandin Cooks at the position. And the oft-traded wideout is going into the final year of his Rams-constructed contract.
Parker is signed through the 2023 season and is on the Patriots’ books at $5.65MM and $5.7MM for the next two years. While the 29-year-old target has not been especially consistent, he has a 1,200-yard season on his resume (2019) and carried a contract that looks quite reasonable considering where Adams and Hill took the market last month.
The Falcons hosted Damiere Byrd on a visit earlier this week, becoming the second team to do so since free agency started. Byrd agreed to a deal to join them Friday.
Byrd will head to his fourth team in four years, committing to the Falcons on a one-year deal, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets. The former UDFA visited both the Falcons and Raiders recently but will partner with a team in transition at wide receiver.
After trading Julio Jones last summer, the Falcons saw Calvin Ridley step away from football near the midseason point. Ridley has since been handed a one-year gambling suspension, and the Buccaneers signed Russell Gage earlier this month. This all left Atlanta extremely shorthanded at wide receiver. While the team figures to target wideouts early in the draft, Byrd will be a candidate to contribute for the franchise’s first post-Matt Ryan squad.
Byrd, 29, played with the Bears last season, the Patriots in 2020 and the Cardinals in 2019. Prior to that, he spent three seasons with the Panthers. While Byrd played an auxiliary role with the Bears, catching 26 passes for 329 yards and a touchdown, the speedster factored in more prominently with the Cam Newton-quarterbacked Patriots team two years ago. The 5-foot-9 target posted career-high marks in receptions (47) and yards (604) for that Pats edition. Byrd broke out post-Carolina, having combined for barely 100 yards in three Panthers seasons.
This marks the Falcons’ third notable receiver deal this offseason. They have added ex-Bengal Auden Tate and former Browns backup KhaDarel Hodge to a receiver group that still features ex-UDFA Olamide Zaccheaus.
The Falcons have added another veteran to their secondary. The team announced on Thursday that they have signed safety Dean Marlowe on a one-year deal. 
The 29-year-old has spent six seasons in the NFL to date. He was in Carolina for two years after joining the team as a UDFA. It was after he followed many other ex-Panthers to Buffalo, however, that he took on a significant defensive role. His most productive campaign in Western New York came in 2020, where he totalled 22 tackles, 1.5 sacks and his only two career interceptions.
That led to a one-year pact in Detroit last offseason. In his lone season in the Motor City, Marlowe made a career-high nine starts and 16 total appearances. 2021 marked the only time he played over half of a team’s defensive snaps, staying on the field for 70% of Detroit’s plays. He made 67 tackles and registered two pass deflections.
In Atlanta, Marlowe will join a secondary which has already added Casey Hayward. The team’s pass defense was the strongest element of that unit, ranking 18th in the league last season. The James Madison alum will join a safety group already featuring Erik Harris, but also recent draftees Jaylinn Hawkins and Richie Grant. His special teams experience should at least make him a third phase contributor, though he has shown an ability to be a role player on defense as well.
The Browns’ decision to make a major quarterback upgrade has generated multifront pushback, given Deshaun Watson‘s off-field trouble and the contract structure’s effect on other teams’ future QB negotiations. The fully guaranteed $230MM did not surface until late in the process.
Watson initially rejected the Browns, and Jimmy Haslam said third-year GM Andrew Berry approached him with a radical idea to put the team back in the mix for the Pro Bowl passer. Berry pitched the idea of a fully guaranteed contract to move the needle, Haslam said. The result: a five-year deal that saw the Browns break the NFL’s record for fully guaranteed money authorized by $80MM.
“I don’t how much Andrew knew,” Haslam said of other teams’ contract offers, via the Akron Beacon Journal’s Nate Ulrich. “First of all, I don’t know what’s accurate. [Berry] just said, ‘Would we consider fully guaranteeing it?’ OK. What’s that mean? When’s the money due? Do you do four versus five [years]. Can we make this work? And he got us comfortable with that.”
Although four teams were finalists for Watson, it appears just one was willing to go to this extreme place. Watson refusing to waive his no-trade clause for the Browns may well have centered on Cleveland’s weather compared to the three NFC South cities in this mix. Browns co-owner Dee Haslam said Wednesday she believed this was the case. While Berry’s fully guaranteed pitch is quite the step to convince a quarterback to play in northeast Ohio, Watson had three other teams pursuing him.
The Falcons were on the verge of landing the Atlanta-area native, appearing to finish second ahead of the Saints and Panthers in this unusual pursuit. The Panthers were not comfortable guaranteeing the final two years of Watson’s contract, Ulrich adds, and Arthur Blank did not make it sound like the Falcons were prepared to authorize this landmark guarantee, either. Blank said the Falcons were only doing due diligence when they met with Watson, though the team being later reported as on the verge of landing him would contradict the owner’s view of his team’s interest.
“You have to leave that to Jimmy and Dee Haslam, to make their own judgment,” Blank said, via USA Today’s Jarrett Bell. “The fact it’s $80MM above the highest contract ever given, guaranteed, in the history of the league, 102 years old, says a lot. Whether most teams in the NFL or any other team in the NFL would have committed to that contract, I don’t know. That certainly is a huge commitment.”
It is interesting contract matters played into these talks, considering Watson had only played one season on the $39MM-per-year deal he signed with the Texans in 2020. Technically, Watson was tied to that contract for two years, since Houston deactivated him throughout the 2021 season. But that Texans deal ran through 2025. Watson having a no-trade clause gave him considerable power, and the bidding war led to the Browns making an offer he could not refuse.
Damiere Byrd is starting to generate some interest around the NFL. Per ESPN’s Field Yates (on Twitter), the Falcons hosted the free agent wideout on a visit. Yates notes that Byrd previously met with the Raiders.
The former undrafted free agent spent the first four seasons of his career with the Panthers, where he mostly played a special teams role. He saw a larger offensive role during his lone season with the Patriots in 2020, finishing with 619 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown on 49 touches.
Byrd joined the Bears last offseason, and he proceeded to collect 329 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown on 26 touches. He saw time in all 17 games with four starts.
The Falcons offense will look a whole lot different in 2022, with Matt Ryan gone and Calvin Ridley suspended. While the team can still hang their hat on Kyle Pitts, their receiving corps is questionable at best, so Byrd would provide some experience to the unit. The wideout is also familiar with Falcons exec (and former Bears GM) Ryan Pace. Similarly, Byrd is familiar with Josh McDaniels, who he played under in New England. However, Byrd wouldn’t have as clear of a path to playing time in Las Vegas. At best, Byrd would be fourth in line for targets behind Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow, and tight end Darren Waller.