The Free Agency starts on 14. As of March 1, this Monday, players’ advisors with expiring contracts will be allowed to officially start talks with other teams. But who is on the market? After the defensive Free Agents ranking, SPOX looks at the best offense players available. SPOX is ticking the Free Agency from 12. March the week over until Friday live!
Jimmy Graham, TE, Seattle Seahawks
Carlos Hyde, RB, San Francisco 49ers
Dion Lewis, RB, New England Patriots
Tyler Zealot, TE, Cincinnati Bengals
Martellus Bennett, TE, New England Patriots
Paul Richardson, WR, Seattle Seahawks
John Brown, WR, Arizona Cardinals
In the meantime, almost a little bit has been forgotten how good Bradford’s 2016 season was. With permanent pressure behind a shaky line in Norv Turner’s offense as well as the change of system in the middle of the season by Turner’s departure, Bradford delivered one of his best NFL playing times: The now 30-year-old showed his enormous fit, shone against pressure and was one of the best deep-ball passers of the season.
The question of why this is already forgotten is also a reminder of why Bradford is back on the market at all. After an outstanding start to last year’s season against the Saints, a strange knee injury – at first it was not clear that he had injured himself and how long he would have been out of action – more or less for the rest of the year.
Bradford is one of the top three talents on this list – the continuing health problems that have long since taken hold make him a risk. Those who choose Bradford in the Free Agency need to invest in an experienced backup at the same time, because they have to assume that the backup will be used sooner or later.
Injuries accompany Pugh’s career, including the past season: A bruise on his back cost him the last seven games in 2017. At the same time, Pugh is not only a great leader off the field, he is also one of the NFL’s better guards when he plays.
According to Pro Football Focus, Pugh allowed only 39 pressures in 972 snaps between 2015 and 2017, the fourth lowest value for guards over this period. With Andrew Norwell there is a better, but also much more expensive version on the market. If you don’t want to take so much money into your hands, you could hit the jackpot with Pugh.
Tackle is by far the thinnest position group of this Free Agency and also in the draft at least in the top not particularly well occupied – that alone makes Solder valuable. New England’s left tackle increased and stabilized noticeably throughout the season.
Solder is a reliable tackle, which is worth a lot; possibly up to 13 million dollars a year. Should the New England become too expensive, Solder will be at the top of the wish list of several teams.
Teddy Bridgewater is the ultimate wildcard of this Free Agency – a player who will be the franchise quarterback of a team for the next ten years, but whose career could effectively be over in a year. The condition of his knee is still too uncertain. Whoever ultimately obliges Bridgewater is, on the one hand, naturally taking a risk. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be a team that relies on Bridgewater as a productive starter in win-now mode and immediately.
But what kind of quarterback is Bridgewater, should he actually get fit again? Bridgewater is a very intelligent QB that can read defenses before and after the snap and move very well in the pocket. A complex offense – such as a mixture of West Coast with option routes – in which Bridgewater is allowed to dissect the defense from the pocket with fast passes, makes most sense to him.
The third Vikings quarterback in the league, which is however in a different situation. If Bradford and Bridgewater’s health concerns affect their market, Keenum’s question is whether he can repeat his great pre-season in another scheme under different conditions – or whether he lived primarily from Pat Shurmur’s play designs and his wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen.
Nevertheless, the teams that want to win now and see their squad apart from the quarterback position in a contender role will consider Keenum if they don’t want to get Kirk Cousins. Even though he only had one season at the highest level, Keenum seems to be the “safest” quarterback option for the coming season. At least some of the features shown in 2017 – pocket-movement and behaviour against pressure, for example – should also be transferable to other offenses.
Page 1: The places 10-6
Page 2: The places 5-1