NFL draft takeaways from free agency: Impact on top prospects

With most of the top names in NFL free agency off the board, teams will start to turn their attention to next month's 2023 NFL draft. But how exactly has the past few weeks of player movement changed what we can expect on draft day? How have signings and trades altered Round 1 projections? Team needs have changed since Monday. Some roster voids have been filled, some have not. And a lot of money has flown around, even though some playmakers are still available.

NFL draft analysts Matt Miller and Jordan Reid read the tea leaves and came away with six big draft-related takeaways from free agency, from how certain teams might approach the first round to which positions might be heavily targeted on April 27. What have we learned about how teams view the draft class and plan to navigate it? Let's begin with what free agency tells us about how the quarterback picks could play out.

Jump to:Who needs a QB? | Who could trade a pick?Implications for the RB, WR, DT positions?Contender strategies? | All defense for Philly?

Reid: It's definitely an obvious trend from this week. There are four quarterbacks set to go at the top of Round 1 — Alabama's Bryce Young, Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, Florida's Anthony Richardson and Kentucky's Will Levis — and if a team isn't inside the top seven picks, it's going to be hard to get one of them. There will be a drop-off to whoever ends up being QB5 in the class (probably Tennessee's Hendon Hooker) on Day 2.

That's why we saw the Panthers leapfrog everyone from the No. 9 overall pick to the top of the draft. And the teams we thought might draft a QB at the top of the draft are still here, too. That might even include the Raiders, who signed Jimmy Garoppolo but could still draft for the future at