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Pssst! Here’s Mike Clay’s NFL Free Agency Cheat Sheet – Pass It On

Three things to know about the chart

This reflects Mike Clay’s “Cheat Sheet” updated through the morning of March 13.

VIEW AS PDF

ESPN writer and analyst Mike Clay (@mikeclayNFL) contributes football and fantasy football analysis across a variety of ESPN shows and platforms. As part of his role, Clay keeps a lot of information at his fingertips and is constantly identifying new ways to share it with fans.

His Free Agency Cheat Sheet and Unit Grades chart is particularly popular this time of year as NFL teams prepare to sign players when the new league year begins at 4 p.m. ET today.

Free agency updates today on ESPN, ESPN2

ESPN hosts a pair of 90-minute NFL specials today: SportsCenter Special: NFL Free Agency (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) followed by the NFL Live: Free Agency Special (4:30 p.m., ESPN2) – with all the latest news on player signings.

“Fans seem to enjoy the convenience of the sheet, as well as the bulk of the information packed into it, and the overwhelmingly positive response more than justifies the work put into creating and updating it,” said Clay, who credits ESPN Senior NFL and Fantasy Football Insider KC Joyner for a lot of work on the offensive lines.

Clay introduced his 2019 Cheat Sheet a month ago and he continues to update and share the document based on anticipated player signings.

Three Points
  • Clay created the Unit Grades in 2017 to grade every position on all 32 NFL teams, weighing each position based on importance to determine overall team power rankings.
  • Clay’s Unit Grades have been a key indicator in helping him identify teams that will have breakout seasons, including the Raiders in 2016, Chargers, Eagles and Jaguars in 2017, and the Browns in 2018.
  • Clay posts other sheets like this year-round, including Team Previews during the summer and Box Score Projections in-season. He created a hashtag so readers can easily find them on social media (#ClayProjections).
Former Pittsburgh Steelers (L-R) Le’Veon Bell – a free agent on the verge of signing with the Jets — and Antonio Brown – who’s been traded to the Raiders – are two of the NFL’s top players changing teams this offseason. (Allen Kee/ESPN Images)
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