Tom Brady among free agency winners as 49ers, Jimmy G in neutral

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The NFL's new league year is barely 48 hours old, and we already have seen a flurry of moves both in free agency and the trade market.

Oh, and one seven-time Super Bowl winner elected to unretire right before the start of the open-negotiating window.

Tom Brady is back in Tampa, and Aaron Rodgers remains in Green Bay, but without Davante Adams. Russell Wilson went from Seattle to Denver, Carson Wentz packed his bags for Washington D.C., and Deshaun Watson is a Cleveland Brown.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Garoppolo is still a 49er.

And that's just the quarterback carousel.

We'll start with the most important position in sports and make our way through the best and worst moves from the opening of free agency.

Here are the winners and losers through the first two days of the new league year:

San Francisco 49ers

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Winner: Tom Brady

Brady took 40 days to spend time with his family and saw the NFC get weaker in his absence. Maybe he wanted to find a way to join the 49ers; perhaps he just needed to take a breath.

But Brady unretired March 13 and the Bucs got the band back together, for the most part.

Center Ryan Jensen is back, as is cornerback Carlton Davis. Chris Godwin was tagged, and the Bucs added Russell Gage to fill the hole left by Antonio Brown's self-ejection. They lost guard Alex Kappa to the Bengals but quickly filled that hole by acquiring Shaq Mason from the Patriots.

As the Bucs loaded back up for what might be Brady's last season, the Green Bay Packers lost Adams (we'll get to that), Wilson went to the AFC, the 49ers are stuck in neutral, and the Dallas Cowboys have a host of issues.

If Rob Gronkowski elects to come back, Brady will once again have a dynamic set of weapons, and the Bucs should be the favorites in the NFC.

Loser: Aaron Rodgers

Can you be a loser if you get $150 million? Not in the game of life, but if Rodgers cares about winning a Super Bowl, that task got much harder.

The Packers retained Preston Smith, which was fine. They then gave 29-year-old linebacker De'Vondre Campbell a five-year, $50 million contract, which I didn't love. They also let Za'Darius Smith go.

But the big loss happened Thursday when the Packers traded their star wide receiver to the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2022 first-round draft pick and a 2022 second-round pick.

Adams, the best receiver in football, was the only wideout in Green Bay who Rodgers trusted or had any real chemistry with. That was clear during the Packers' NFC Divisional Round loss to the 49ers, where San Francisco confused the star quarterback, and he resorted to the "f--k it, Davante is down there somewhere" offense in crunch time.

With Adams in Sin City, the Packers' best wide receiver on the roster is Allen Lazard. Can I interest you in Amari Rodgers or Rico Gafford? No? I thought not.

The Packers need to sign two of the injury-prone receivers on the market (Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr., or trade for Robert Woods) and use their first two picks on receivers. Otherwise, why did Rodgers come back? Oh, right, the money.

Winner: Raiders

The start of the Josh McDaniels era is going a lot better than the start of Jon Gruden's second go-around with the Raiders.

First, the Raiders traded for the best receiver in football and didn't even have to surrender two first-round picks. Adams and Derek Carr are good friends and should still have great chemistry from their days at Fresno State. McDaniels now has a true No. 1 receiver, a slot god in Hunter Renfrow, and a versatile tight end in Darren Waller, who he can deploy in several different ways.

But, that's not all.

The Raiders also hired a rising star defensive coordinator in Patrick Graham, signed Chandler Jones to bolster the pass rush, traded for young corner Rock Ya-Sin and made one of best under-the-radar signings when they nabbed defensive tackle Bilal Nichols for two years, $11 million.

The Raiders still have issues on the offensive line and need an upgrade at safety. But they kept pace in the AFC West, something they had to do after the Broncos and Chargers both got better.

Loser: Cowboys

You can manipulate the NFL salary cap, but fake it is not. Eventually, the bill comes due. The Cowboys found that out this offseason.

Dallas kept Michael Gallup, Dalton Schultz, and Demarcus Lawrence but had to get rid of several high-impact players.

The Cowboys traded Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns and lost Cedric Wilson in free agency. Randy Gregory was all set to re-sign but made an 11th-hour about face and left for Denver. The Cowboys also have work to do on the offensive line after releasing La'el Collins and losing Connor Williams to the Miami Dolphins.

Dallas had one of the NFL's best rosters but has lost a lot of top-level talent this offseason. It's hard to replace blue-chip players like Collins and Cooper.

Winner: Rams

I don't know how the Rams keep doing it, but they added another star to their roster when they agreed to a three-year contract with wide receiver Allen Robinson.

Reports suggest the Rams still want to bring back Beckham, which would give them four dynamic receivers, assuming they keep Woods as well.

Los Angeles also was able to lock up Joe Noteboom to replace the retired Andrew Whitworth at right tackle and kept center Brian Allen.

The losses of Von Miller, Darious Williams and Sebastian Joseph-Day will hurt Raheem Morris' defense, but overall it has been a good start to 2022 for the defending champs.

Loser: Jaguars

General manager Trent Baalke didn't waste any time attempting to improve the roster around Trevor Lawrence.

In some aspects, he did. Tagging Cam Robinson and signing Brandon Scherff and Will Richardson means the protection in front of Lawrence will be better.

Signing Williams away from the Rams was a solid move, although I'm not sure Baalke's rationale holds up.

Now, to the other moves.

The Jaguars tried to beef up their supporting cast by signing Christian Kirk ($72 million), Zay Jones ($24 million), and Evan Engram ($9 million). The Kirk numbers are staggering but he's a young wide receiver with high upside. The Jones deal makes little sense. All of that money could have been put to better use by say, signing a top-level talent like Robinson and retaining D.J. Chark, who left for Detroit.

Jacksonville also gave linebacker Foye Oluokun $15 million per year. Not the best use of a lot of cap space.

Winner: Chargers

The Chargers entered free agency needing to patch many holes in what was a leaky defense in 2021.

Mission accomplished.

Los Angeles signed star cornerback J.C. Jackson and defensive tackles Joseph-Day and Austin Johnson. The Bolts also acquired Khalil Mack from the Chicago Bears, giving them the two best power edge rushers in the NFL in Mack and Joey Bosa.

With Justin Herbert on a rookie contract, now is the time for the Chargers to go all-in. The defense looks a lot better, and they also were able to retain wide receiver Mike Williams.

Wins all around in the AFC West.

Loser: Browns

The Browns landed Deshaun Watson, yes. The price? Three first-round picks, two third-round picks, a fifth-round pick and $230 million. The moral cost? Incalculable.

Cleveland reportedly wanted "an adult" at quarterback. The Browns got a guy with 22 active civil suits alleging sexual assault and misconduct against Watson.

Don't buy the "due diligence" spin they will try to sell you. The Browns cared only about wins and losses and nothing else.

Winner: Bills

The Josh Allen effect is real. The star quarterback has made Orchard Park more of a destination than it's ever been.

Exhibit A: Von Miller.

After beginning the NFL's open-negotiating window with typical Buffalo moves, the Bills made a splash, luring the star edge rusher away from Los Angeles with a six-year, $120 million contract.

RELATED: How Davante Adams Raiders-Packers trade impacts 49ers

Buffalo also watched as all four teams in the AFC West loaded up to go at each other next season. With the Patriots not doing much, the Bills might be able to coast to the No. 1 seed in the AFC next year while the Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, and Broncos throw haymakers for four months.

Loser: 49ers

Well, that plan didn't work.

The 49ers entered last season planning to rebuild Garoppolo's trade value and deal him for much-needed draft capital this offseason.

Garoppolo had surgery on his shoulder capsule on March 8, and the 49ers have seemingly had very few nibbles on the trade market thus far.

The Broncos traded for Wilson, the Washington Commanders went with Carson Wentz, Brady returned to the Bucs, and the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Mitchell Trubisky.

The Indianapolis Colts seemed like an ideal fit, but with Watson going to Cleveland, Baker Mayfield reportedly wants to be traded to Indy. Mayfield is younger, cheaper, and with him in the equation, the Colts now have leverage over the 49ers in any potential trade talks.

The New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, and Seattle Seahawks still need a quarterback. Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston remain on the free-agent market. The 49ers have few options to trade Garoppolo and no leverage.

Meanwhile, they lost guard Laken Tomlinson and defensive tackle D.J. Jones and are likely to lose K'Waun Williams and Jaquiski Tartt. The signing of cornerback Charvarius Ward was an OK signing, but overall it's been an uninspired start to the new league year. And the Garoppolo question gets harder to solve by the day.

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