The 7 teams that have to ace the 2019 NFL Draft

As the draft approaches, the pressure is on for teams like the Patriots, Steelers, and Seahawks.

There are still more than 350 free agents available in the NFL this offseason, but with the exception of a few well-known names who remain unsigned, most of the biggest moves have already taken place.

Franchises used the official start of the league’s new year to bolster their rosters in March. The Raiders added Antonio Brown via trade, then Trent Brown, Tyrell Williams, and Lamarcus Joyner as high-profile free agent pickups. The Browns snagged Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon from the Giants in 2019’s most defining swap to date, but also brought on players like Sheldon Richardson and Eric Murray to become AFC North frontrunners. In all, 16 of the top 25 already-signed free agents chose new homes in 2019.

But free agency is a zero-sum game, and the gains teams in Oakland and Cleveland made left holes behind across the league. Fortunately for the clubs that saw veterans depart, a prime opportunity to add low-cost, high-yield talent is only a couple weeks away. The 2019 NFL Draft will deliver a long list of instant starters to the league, from franchise quarterbacks to seam-busting tight ends to a tremendous cache of defensive playmakers.

So who has the most work to do in April? Here are seven teams that need to find long-term fixes on all three days of this year’s draft.

Arizona Cardinals

Draft needs (per SB Nation’s Dan Kadar): Interior defensive line, wide receiver, tight end, slot cornerback

The Cardinals need all sorts of talent for year one of the Kliff Kingsbury experiment, so they spent the offseason adding veteran players. That’s a good idea. But three of the team’s five biggest acquisitions — Terrell Suggs, Robert Alford, and J.R. Sweezy— are all at least 30 years old, and they can’t be the foundation for a rebuild.

Arizona doesn’t have a ton of capital to slide the inexpensive building blocks into place, but that could change as the draft approaches. If Kingsbury truly is enamored with Kyler Murray, he could package 2018 first-round selection Josh Rosen away to a needy team for some extra Day 2 picks. If not, he could ransom off the No. 1 overall pick for a tidy return. That’d give the Cardinals a chance to land the defensive standouts they need in the first round before turning to offensive help — so, so much offensive help — in the second round and beyond.

You could say the same about the Miami Dolphins, another team going through a purge in order to spark a rebuild under a brand new, first-time head coach.

Los Angeles Chargers

Draft needs: Offensive tackle, defensive tackle, linebacker, quarterback

The Chargers nearly beat out the Chiefs for the AFC West title last season, making a statement as Philip Rivers enters the twilight of an impressive career. A lack of salary cap space kept them from signing the extra pieces for an arms war against Kansas City, however. Now, LA goes into the 2019 draft with fewer weapons than it had in 2018.

The most significant departure is Tyrell Williams, the useful deep threat who averaged 16.3 yards per catch as a Charger (but only around 40 yards per game in 2018). LA will have to hope a returning Hunter Henry and the still-developing Mike Williams can absorb the targets he’s left behind and find a way to stretch defenses so that the rest of the Chargers’ offense can thrive.

Concerns remain on the other side of the ball, where a top-10 scoring defense provided a counterpunch to Rivers’ offense but still left plenty of room for improvement.

Darius Philon and the oft-injured Jason Verrett each left in free agency, while 36-year-old former Panthers star Thomas Davis will work to upgrade the team’s linebacker corps. Getting a full year of a healthy Joey Bosa will lead to major improvements, but adding more steady playmakers on that side of the ball — or even just some depth in case the defense gets shredded by injury again — could clear the path for Rivers’ greatest triumph as the Chargers quarterback.

New England Patriots

Draft needs: Edge defender, tight end, defensive tackle, wide receiver

The Pats didn’t have too many holes to fill months after raising the Lombardi Trophy, but one was glaring. With only Julian Edelman under contract at wideout for 2019 and Dwayne Allen (released) and Rob Gronkowski (retirement) both departing, New England entered the offseason set to lose 69 percent of its WR/TE output from the previous season. Re-signing Phillip Dorsett (32 catches in 2018) helps a little, but a 42-year-old Tom Brady still needs a lot more receiving help. Low-wattage signees like Bruce Ellington, Maurice Harris, and Matt LaCosse aren’t exactly solutions.

This is a problem, especially given Bill Belichick’s history when it comes to drafting early-round wide receivers. The Patriots have struggled to develop wideouts, missing badly on Day 2 picks like Aaron Dobson, Brandon Tate, and Taylor Price over the past decade.

That’s not all. The Patriots also lost two of 2019’s highest-paid free agents when Trent Brown and Trey Flowers signed deals elsewhere. The emergence of 2018 first-round pick Isaiah Wynn, who missed all of his rookie campaign with a torn Achilles, and a trade for veteran Michael Bennett helps address those departures, but they can’t stop there. Flowers’ ability to bring his pass rush from a multitude of different positions means he can’t really be replaced by one man — even a stalwart veteran like Bennett.

Fortunately for New England, Belichick’s built up an overflowing bank of draft picks — a league-high 12 total and six in the top 101 selections. Based on the Patriots’ past drafts, that’ll soon become eight second-round picks, four of whom will become entrenched starters for the next decade before being traded away in 2029 for more second-round picks.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Draft needs: Cornerback, tight end, safety, wide receiver

The Steelers suffered two of the biggest losses of the offseason — at least in terms of pure talent — when Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell both left Pennsylvania. Couple that with the departure of tight end Jesse James, and 62 percent of Pittsburgh’s total offense and 56 percent of its offensive touchdowns from its most recent playoff team is now elsewhere.

Young players JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Conner proved capable of filling the WR1 and RB1 roles, respectively, last fall, but the Steelers still need depth behind them. So far, that’s come by re-signing Eli Rogers (2.6 career receptions per game) and luring Donte Moncrief from Jacksonville. Maybe pairing Moncrief with his first competent quarterback in years — he’s caught passes from Jacoby Brissett, Blake Bortles, and Cody Kessler the past two seasons — will lead to success. But Pittsburgh will have to make more moves to restore the high-flying offense that’s defined the team over the past five seasons.

Upping the scoring could be just the thing to offset an underwhelming defense. Aging linebacker Mark Barron should shore up a weakness by providing some coverage help on tight ends over the middle, but he doesn’t bring above-average playmaking elsewhere. Former Chiefs cornerback Steven Nelson is good enough to end the Artie Burns experiment in Pittsburgh and Terrell Edmunds will grow in his second year with the team, but there’s still work to be done in the backfield.

The 2019 NFL Draft is loaded with defensive prospects, and with the 20th pick of the first round the Steelers could still find the secondary help they need or even a pass-rushing bookend across from T.J. Watt.

Seattle Seahawks

Draft needs: Defensive line, guard, safety, wide receiver

After refusing to bottom out in 2018 and rallying to the postseason, the Seahawks have seized that momentum by largely sitting on their hands. The biggest news out of Seattle this offseason wasn’t a signing to revamp a tattered defense or some surefire offensive line help, but instead a report that Russell Wilsonset an April 15 deadline for his latest contract extension.

Wilson deserves a new deal after serving as a lowkey MVP candidate for ... well, effectively his entire NFL career. He also deserves help that could have been furnished in free agency despite a limited amount of cap space. D.J. Fluker and George Fant were retained and Mike Iupati should provide an upgrade over J.R. Sweezy at guard, but the Seahawks still have massive strides to make along an offensive line that allowed Wilson to be sacked 51 times — nearly 11 percent of his dropbacks — last fall. His receiving corps, led by Tyler Lockett and a 30-year old Doug Baldwin, could stand an infusion of youth as well.

Other losses — Earl Thomas, Justin Coleman, and Shamar Stephen in particular — will threaten Seattle’s revival as well. The Seahawks’ defense last season was a far cry from the Legion of Boom that preceded it.

While retaining soon-to-be-30-year-old K.J. Wright helps, the team’s other major personnel move was to re-sign Mychal Kendricks, who could miss the entire 2019 season or beyond once he’s sentenced after pleading guilty to federal insider trading charges last year.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Draft needs: Safety, edge defender, linebacker, offensive line

The Buccaneers watched a couple starters get lured away by massive contracts when Kwon Alexander and Adam Humphries left town. It may have been prudent for them to allow that duo to sign for a combined $90 million rather than stretch the salary cap for decent players in a rebuilding period. But the gaps that remain could mean Tampa’s in for another rough year. After losing those two and trading an unhappy DeSean Jackson to Philadelphia, the Bucs’ largest free agent contract for an outside free agent was a four-year, $11 million deal for punter Bradley Pinion.

Of course, it’s difficult to make definitive moves with the direction of the franchise in doubt. Tampa Bay has to decide whether it will ink Jameis Winston to an extension before his contract expires next January. If the team does — and hiring noted quarterback whisperer Bruce Arians suggests that’s the plan — the rest of this offseason could revolve around upgrading his supporting cast. Retaining left tackle Donovan Smith was a start, but he’ll need more help up front along with some playmakers to bolster Mike Evans, O.J. Howard, and a whole bunch of unproven talent (Breshad Perriman! Ronald Jones!) around him.

If Tampa isn’t sold on handing Winston big money — or even if it is — it still has to improve one of the league’s worst defenses, too. Shaquil Barrett is a reasonable stopgap solution at linebacker, but he’s not enough to help a unit with a handful of All-Pro veterans (Jason Pierre-Paul, Lavonte David), some young potential stars (Vita Vea, Carlton Davis), and far too many replacement-level players surrounding them.

The Bucs have just one winning season over the past eight years and haven’t seen the postseason since the 2007 season. That streak probably won’t end in 2019, but Arians can lay the groundwork with a meaningful draft.

Washington

Draft needs: Left guard, wide receiver, edge rusher, offensive tackle

Washington’s most notable move this offseason was signing Landon Collins for a whopping $84 million. He’ll serve as an upgrade over an underwhelming Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, but he can’t fill the club’s other myriad of problems. New arrival Case Keenum could be an improvement over Colt McCoy at quarterback if he returns to his 2017 peak, or he could be responsible for another lost season if he plays like his 2018 regression.

Jamison Crowder and Maurice Harris both left the receiving corps, while Preston Smith, a useful edge rusher, took a massive salary bump to be part of the Packers’ newfound spending strategy in Wisconsin.

Dan Snyder’s team is in a tough spot. Last year’s squad did just well enough before Alex Smith’s potentially career-ending injury to push Washington to the 15th pick in this year’s draft, and it’s also out a fourth-rounder thanks to the Clinton-Dix trade last season. It’s been four years since Washington drafted a player who’d go on to the Pro Bowl— a trend the team needs to reverse after sending out more talent than it took in in free agency.