2022 NFL Free Agency

[Ironshaft]

I am posting this to say that, by and large, there are too many veteran free agents still available chasing after too little available cap dollars.

In total, the league’s 32 teams have a combined $392.6m in free available cap space.

However, each team needs to do the following for in-season roster maintenance:
- Pay their rookie class
- Pay spots 52 and 53 on the active roster
- Pay their 10-man practice squad
- Have some cap space available for in-season “churn” as players go on IR and you need to sign guys off the practice squad or a street free agent to fill the slot. The number I typically hear is $3m.

Obviously, the biggest variable from team to team of the above components is the paying of their rookie class. Carolina with the #6 overall pick and a draft class of 6 picks needs to allocate $6.236m over what they are paying the bottom of their current 51 roster spots to sign them. Houston with their two first round picks (#3 and #15) and two second round picks (#37 and #44) needs to allocate $12.957m to their rookies. The Colts need to allocate $4.236m.

All this to say, I think an average number to assign to NFL teams to do all the above jobs is $11.0m for each team. I could have gone through all 32 teams and calculated exactly but…nah. Not doing it.

Given that WAG, all 32 teams need to allocate around $352m in cap space for their in-season roster maintenance which means, barring the restructuring of existing contracts or the cutting of current high paid veterans (thus adding to the glut), there is only around $40.6m of available cap space for current unsigned free agents to chase after.

From NFL.com Top 101 NFL Free Agents for 2022 – Still Unsigned

#11 – WR Odell Beckham Jr
#14 – OT Duane Brown
#18 – DE Jadeveon Clowney
#24 – DE Melvin Ingram
#25 – TE Ron Gronkowski
#26 – WR Jarvis Landry
#31 – DE Jerry Hughes
#33 – DT Akiem Hicks
#43 – DE Trey Flowers
#44 – OC J.C. Trotter
#48 – WR Will Fuller
#49 – OT Eric Fisher
#53 – WR Julio Jones
#54 – CB Bryce Callahan
#59 – OLB Anthony Barr
#63 – DE Justin Houston
#78 – DT Sheldon Richardson
#79 – DT Ndamukong Suh
#91 – CB Kevin King
#93 – DT Larry Ogunjobi
#96 – Don’t’a Hightower
#99 – OT Riley Reiff
#100 – CB Joe Haden

(Yes, T.Y. Hilton did not hit their top 101 free agents list)

All of this to say is that we could see some pretty sweet free agents signed to what appears to be low, 1-year contracts just because there is not enough money to pay them more.

OBJ, Landry, Fuller, Jones or T.Y. would be a great addition to a young Colts WR room.

Clowney, Ingram, Hughes or Flowers could add pep to our pass rush if the price were right.

Sheldon Richardson to bolster the D-Line interior for a year? Yes, please.

I don’t know if Ballard has signing any more veteran guys in his sights, but I do know that a lot of these guys will end up signing for a whole lot less than they made last season and that will be great for the team who signs them. They all still appear to have gas in the tank and will make a team better (with the exception of Gronk. I think he is done.)