The 2026 NFL offseason is officially here and before we fully dive into draft content, I’m releasing my annual version of a free agency preview, matching all 32 teams with one player about to hit the open market.
We’ll go through each of them, from most to least available effective cap space, quickly discuss their roster make-up, which areas they’re looking to address and then lay out which specific player would make sense, along with a contract projection.
The 2025 NFL offseason is here and before we fully dive into draft content, I wanted to release my annual version of a free agency, where I match all 32 teams with one player about to hit the open market.
After spending the last month reflecting on what the player acquisition process looked like for all 32 teams, with a focus on the names brought in via the draft, it’s now time to take a step back and identify the positional units that improved the most throughout this process, comparing the additions and departures at those spots.
This is purely based on the players that were brought in/let go from the point the 2023 NFL season ended onwards, not taking injuries into account. So you’re not going to find the Jets here for getting back Aaron Rodgers from the torn Achilles he suffered four snaps into his time with New York for example. Along with that, I like to take a broader look at this in terms of which position groups were stocked up best rather than just talking about a singular star performer they acquired.
Let’s dive in:
We’ve arrived at the NFL offseason and while the new league year doesn’t official start until March 13th, the franchise/transition tag period was opened on Tuesday and we can already speculate on where pending free agents could end up.
So I took on the exercise of going through all 32 NFL teams listed by effective cap space, talk about some overarching decisions ahead of them and matched each with one player about to hit the open market!
We’ve entered a point of the NFL offseason, where rosters are largely finalized, in terms of free agents being signed, veterans being extended or traded elsewhere, the draft nearly two months in the past now and only a few bigger names still on the open market, who to some degree are awaiting potential injuries or just looking to skip OTAs, before they sign somewhere.
So at this stage, I think it’s a helpful exercise to compare what rosters and specific position groups/units look like compared to a year ago. I went through each of them and outlined the one team that improved the most in that area, along without another group or two, which deserved an honorable mention.
Please keep in mind that I tried to judge the upgrades made as a whole, rather than just pointing at a franchise that brought in only one true difference-maker. And this is just based on player acquisitions from the end of this past season onwards, meaning no injuries or other factors that kept guys already under contract off the field.
The 2023 NFL offseason is here and before we fully indulge in draft content, I wanted to talk a little about free agency and in particular match all 32 teams with a player bound to hit the open market. We’re going from one to 32 based on available cap space!
Even with 262 college prospects being selected in the NFL draft, there were still several talented young athletes left and we see it every year, where those guys make a significant impact and at worst are key to filling out rosters around the league, with very little investment being needed. About 30 percent of the league is made up of these UDFAs and while it may take a lot of them longer to earn playing time, I want to identify those, who I believe can make a name for themselves early on.
For this exercise, I looked through all the signings that were made once the draft wrapped up, compared them to my personal grades/rankings and looked at how these guys may fit into the roster they’re not a part of. So I will mention why I believe these ten players did go undrafted, give a quick scouting report of these players and break down their path to playing time or role they may inherit.
Two players I didn’t include – former Arizona State and now 49ers center Dohnovan West, who I had as a top-100 overall prospect and Nevada and now Eagles quarterback Carson Strong, who was actually my QB3 purely based on tape – I believe can both be long-time starters in this league, but have players in front of them, that won’t allow them to make an impact right away.
At the end, I also added one (more) UDFA to keep your eyes on for all 32 teams.
Here’s the list:
Even with 262 college prospects being selected in the NFL draft, there were still several talented young athletes left and we see it every year, where those guys make a significant impact and at worst are key to filling out rosters around the league, with very little investment being needed. About 30 percent of the league is made up of these UDFAs and while it may take a lot of them longer to earn playing time, I want to identify those, who I believe can make a name for themselves early on.
For this exercise, I looked through all the signings that were made once the draft wrapped up, compared them to my personal grades/rankings and looked at how these guys may fit into the roster they’re not a part of. So I will mention why I believe these ten players did go undrafted, give a quick scouting report of these players and break down their path to playing time or role they may inherit.
Two players I didn’t include – former Arizona State and now 49ers center Dohnovan West, who I had as a top-100 overall prospect and Nevada and now Eagles quarterback Carson Strong, who was actually my QB3 purely based on tape – I believe can both be long-time starters in this league, but have players in front of them, that won’t allow them to make an impact right away.
At the end, I also added one (more) UDFA to keep your eyes on for all 32 teams.
Here’s the list:
We are nearly two weeks into the non-playing season and while my main focus right now lies in the NFL draft, I thought it would be a fun exercise to look through all the teams in terms of available cap space heading into free agency, team needs & then find that one player that they should prioritize on trying to sign.
Thanks to overthecap.com for the graphic and cap space information!
We’re exactly two weeks away from the official start of the new league year and with that the moment these free agent deals with go through – even if a large partion of them will already come out during the tempering period. So let’s go through the characteristics for this year and break down which players are actually available!
As I’ve been working through every NFL roster to point out their biggest remaining need(s) and which players could break out for them in 2020, I wanted to look at this from a different angle. Therefore, I compared the rosters from a year to the ones heading into this upcoming season and tried to figure out who has improved the most at every single position.
For this piece, I am considering top-end play a depth. Players that are simply coming back from injury will be weighed to a smaller degree, but that can obviously vary depending on how much or if that guy actually played for them last season.
With that being said, here is my list:
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