Best Free Agent Signing: DE Mario Addison
Honorable Mentions: DT Quinton Jefferson, DT Vernon Butler, CB Josh Norman
This is one of the more interesting award races as all four have a great chance of becoming the best free-agent signing. Addison takes home the award due to his history of great production coming off the edge in Carolina.
Addison has 9+ sacks in each of his last four seasons and despite his age (33), has shown no signs of slowing down. Addison and sack artist Chandler Jones are the only players in the NFL who have hit that mark over the last four seasons.
Mario Addison and Chandler Jones are the only player in the NFL with at least 9 sacks in each of past 4 seasons#NFL
— SERC (@SERCenter) September 8, 2020
While Addison is now slated as the backup to Jerry Hughes at RDE, he will still be getting significant snaps because of Buffalo’s rotation dependant defensive line. The veteran edge rusher could play a similar role to what Shaq Lawson did on the Bills defense last season. Lawson played 46.62% of the defensive snaps as the third defensive end and actually reached a career-high in sacks.
There’s plenty of reason to expect Addison to play upwards of 50% but if he gets delegated to a Lawson like role, he should still be able to produce.