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!
Category Archives: NFL Free Agency
Which undrafted free agents will make an impact in 2022?
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:
One free agent to target for each NFL team in 2022:
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!
NFL 2021 Free Agency Preview
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!
Most improved position groups in the NFL for 2020:
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:
Undrafted free agents from 2020 who could make an early impact:
Like I mentioned in my big draft recap last week – this was a very unique version of the NFL draft with its positives and negatives. So much talent fell down the board and several prospects I really liked didn’t even hear the name called at all. That includes six of my top 120 overall players available. A lot of that was certainly due to the circumstances, where teams weren’t able to conduct personal meetings or let their doctors take a look at these athletes. Some prospects may have fallen for good reason, which we aren’t necessarily aware of, but every year there are a bunch of guys who didn’t get selected, but turn out to make an impact with the teams they sign with shortly after.
Those are the type of names I want to point out in this article. Since I don’t have information on all the medical reports or off-field concerns, this is purely based on my evaluations of these prospects and the situations they find themselves in.
Free agency fits for the top ten teams in terms of cap space:
With the NFL Scouting Combine less than a week away and more than a month of intense draft coverage ahead – not even counting the following analyses and undrafted free agent work – I decided to at least put together one piece about free agency. To do so I took the top ten teams in terms of cap space for 2019 according to spotrac.com and found one player I think would fit well with them. This can be due to personal connections, scheme fit or simply a combination of need at the position and the money to spend. While it is often times about all the small moves a team makes over the course of the offseason and how a team builds depth (also through the draft), I thought it would be fun to put together some pairings that I believe would make sense. I did not include likely franchise tag candidates such as DeMarcus Lawrence, Jadeveon Clowney and Nick Foles – who the Eagles will look to trade once they have secured his rights. With that being said, I still think we have a strong class of edge rushers and there are three safeties who were among the very best at the position just two years ago. On the other hand, there are no big fish at quarterback out there, assuming Foles will be tagged, such as Kirk Cousins last offseason, and I will tell you to look for your team to draft a receiver out of college, because outside of one veteran pass-catcher these guys on the market will all be overpaid. So here are some of the fits I found when looking at who is available and where these ten teams could use some help.
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