Available free agents

[JAFF]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...main-unsigned/

I saw this and thought it was interesting. No judgements on my part

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As we head into mid-April and focus more on the draft, it might seem like NFL free agency is over. It’s not.

In fact, more than one-fifth of the NFL’s Top 100 free agents remain unsigned.

At this point, the top players who have not yet signed are usually the players who didn’t get the kinds of offers they were hoping for at the outset of free agency, and are now re-assessing whether to take a contract for less than they wanted to get paid, whether to sign a one-year prove-it deal, or whether to wait and bide their time and whether some team develops a need at their position.

Our top available free agent who hasn’t been signed or given the franchise tag is cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who has had a very quiet free agency period. Despite a report early in free agency that the Raiders were interested in him, Gilmore remains available.

Next is safety Tyrann Mathieu, who acknowledged this week that he was heartbroken when the Chiefs didn’t re-sign him. Mathieu hasn’t been drawing much interest.

No. 3 of our available free agents is defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who always seems to take his free agency decisions into the late offseason.

Our fourth-best available free agent is offensive tackle Duane Brown, who will turn 37 before the season and hasn’t had many reports of teams showing much interest in him.

Our No. 5 free agent is wide receiver Odell Beckham, whose free agency remains complicated by the long recovery he has ahead of him from the torn ACL he suffered in the Super Bowl.

Other available free agents include defensive tackle Akiem Hicks, edge rusher Melvin Ingram, defensive lineman Calais Campbell, tight end Rob Gronkowski, receiver Jarvis Landry, pass rusher Jerry Hughes, edge rusher Justin Houston, cornerback Steven Nelson, cornerback Bryce Callahan, tackle Eric Fisher, center JC Tretter, linebacker Dont'a Hightower, linebacker Alexander Johnson, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, running back Melvin Gordon, wide receiver Cole Beasley, linebacker Anthony Barr, safety DeShon Elliott and tackle Riley Reiff.

[apballin]

Campbell re-signed with the Ravens after the Colts were reportedly interested

Still some good players available

[Oldcolt]

Agree with folks who think we are done until after the draft, with any major signing anyway. If we get a wr or LT (unless Ballard really is sold on Pryor) then we may go for the other in free agency. We need depth (or even a better starter) at cb and on the offensive line. I think we should be able to get an offensive guard in 4th round or later (maybe 3rd if we really like the guy) It will be interesting what our needs are after the draft.

[Ironshaft]

Part of the issue is also free cap space across the league.

Assuming you need a minimum of $10-12m to sign your draft class, sign spots 52 & 53, the parctice squad and in-season churn space, more than half the teams have to free space or have zero space and all but 2 teams have less than $10m to s8gn free agents.

There are more free agents than cap space to sign them.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by Ironshaft

Part of the issue is also free cap space across the league.

Assuming you need a minimum of $10-12m to sign your draft class, sign spots 52 & 53, the parctice squad and in-season churn space, more than half the teams have to free space or have zero space and all but 2 teams have less than $10m to s8gn free agents.

There are more free agents than cap space to sign them.

Maybe I am wrong, but I thought it was just the top 51 players that count against the cap. Am I wrong?
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

[Ironshaft]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Maybe I am wrong, but I thought it was just the top 51 players that count against the cap. Am I wrong?
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

That is one of the bad/confusing rules of the NFL.

During the off-season, you only need to count the top 51 players against your salary cap.

However, once teams cut down to 53 players, then all 53 need to be counted against the salary cap for the rest of the season.

For 2022, the difference is about $1.4-1.6m. Rookie street free agents could make as "little" as $705k while the league minimum for 1st year players is $825k (1st year being that they entered the league in 2021 but did not accrue enough time on a 53 man roster to have it "count" as being in the league one year).

Once players accrue 2 years of NFL play and are a 3rd year player, league minimum is around $1-1.1m for the season.

Why the NFL thinks the teams need that extra cap space in the off-season, I don't know but teams need to account for it.

[rcubed]

reading a lot of chatter regarding stephon gillmore today. wonder if anything is brewing...