Top 20 unrestricted free agents for 2016

boozeman

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Top 20 unrestricted free agents for 2016


By Gregg Rosenthal
Around The NFL Editor
Published: Dec. 15, 2015 at 04:08 p.m.
Updated: Dec. 15, 2015 at 06:51 p.m.


Free agent lists in December are teases. Fans see the big names and dream of offseason purchases their favorite team should acquire. In reality, most of the names on our top-20 free agent list below won't become available.

From now until March, teams will begin to re-sign the players they truly want to keep. If a long-term deal can't get done, the franchise tag will be used. Green Bay's four-year, $42 million deal for Mike Daniels on Monday was a great example of this trend. He would have been a the top-10 player on our list.

With the salary cap expected to soar this offseason, we suspect that deal will wind up looking like an absolute bargain.

Without further adieu, the list below is our early rough list of the top-20 unrestricted free agents set to hit the market. We will expand our free agency coverage dramatically in the coming months, with our annual Top 101 list coming out in February.

Top 20 2016 Unrestricted free agents

1. Von Miller, Denver Broncos linebacker: Miller has been one of the best overall defensive players in the league since he was drafted. He's as strong stopping the run as he is coming off the edge. There's no way the Broncos will let him hit the market.

2. Josh Norman, Carolina Panthers cornerback: There's nothing like having your breakout season in a contract year. Norman has been the best cornerback in football this year and is a legitimate Defensive Player of the Year candidate. He's not going anywhere.

3. Muhammad Wilkerson, New York Jets defensive end: Sheldon Richardson and Leonard Williams were splashy draft pick additions, but Wilkerson is still the best defensive lineman on the Jets. New York has played hardball in negotiations thus far with Wilkerson, but the franchise tag has to be an option here.

4. Alshon Jeffery, Chicago Bears wide receiver: He might not be the most refined receiver in the league, but few are better at catching deep balls. He's fourth in the league in receiving yards-per-game and topped 1,400 yards in 2013.

5. Cordy Glenn, Buffalo Bills offensive tackle: True franchise left tackles are awfully hard to find. That's why he's a strong candidate for the franchise tag.

6. Jason Pierre-Paul, New York Giants defensive end: He's still disruptive despite playing with a club over his injured hand. There has to be a chance JPP will only get better as he learns how best to play with his disadvantage, and the ceiling here is tremendous. Still, he has struggled to wrap up opposing running backs. Can he finish plays?

7. Eric Berry, Kansas City Chiefs safety: Berry has come back from his cancer scare better than ever. Strong safety play is hard to find and Berry has the versatility teams are looking for.

8. Malik Jackson, Broncos defensive tackle: Like Norman, he's having a career year in a contract season. It's hard to find interior pass rushers like Jackson just entering his prime.

9. Doug Martin, Buccaneers running back: He won't make the same money as the guys listed above (and below) him here because of the position he plays, but no one has helped their value more this season. Martin has gone from an afterthought to the No. 2 rusher in the NFL.


10. Bruce Irvin, Seattle Seahawks linebacker: He isn't a defense-changing talent, but he's also better than you think. Irvin is a quality versatile starter.

11. Russell Okung, Seahawks tackle: Even if Okung is only an average starter, he's going to get paid in this market. If he makes it there.

12. Eric Weddle, San Diego Chargers safety: Weddle has a skill set that tons of teams are looking for to shore up the back end of their defenses. His age (30) works against him, but few safeties have been better over the last five years.

13. Sam Bradford, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback: This season has not helped Bradford's value, yet there would be no shortage of teams willing to give Bradford a try if the Eagles don't want to re-sign him.

14. Kirk Cousins, Washington Redskins quarterback: Replacement level starting quarterbacks are worth plenty, and that appears to be Cousins' floor. At worst, he's a poor man's Andy Dalton with room to improve over time. He has more value to the Redskins than anyone else.

15. Matt Forte, Bears running back: One of the league's most complete backs has not shown many signs of age yet. Perhaps he should be paired with another quality option, but there's no doubt he could upgrade many backfields.

16. Andre Smith, Cincinnati Bengals right tackle: How will Smith react to getting paid big bucks (again)? While his career has included some ups and downs, Smith has often been a top-shelf starter.

17. Danny Trevathan, Broncos linebacker: Trevathan is a three-down linebacker entering his prime that can hold up in pass coverage. We're big fans of his skill set and he's just the type of above-average starter that gets paid like a superstar in free agency.

18. Janoris Jenkins, St. Louis Rams cornerback: He's steadily improved each season in the league and now is a playmaking starter.

19. Brock Osweiler, Broncos quarterback: It's hard to imagine John Elway letting his promising young starter hit the market, although this will be a tricky contract to pull off.

20. Derrick Johnson, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker: Yes, he's 33 years old. But watch him play this year! He would be a great short-term pickup for a team that needs instant leadership.

Just missed: Chris Ivory, Kelvin Beachum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Haloti Ngata, Lamar Miller, Prince Amukamara, Anquan Boldin.
 

Carp

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I have been a fan of Trevathan for a long time...Jenkins is rated low IMO. I like how he plays.
 

Simpleton

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Weddle would be a nice signing if he his market is a little deflated due to his age. Ngata is another guy I'd be interested in who may have a deflated market due to his age.

We need to sign a RB, there are so many good options with guys like Ivory, Forte and my favorite, Miller. All of these guys won't be re-signed and their market should be relatively subdued due to what's happened with Murray, if a guy like Miller walks I think we could get him for around 5 a year, which is very reasonable.

Roll with a 70/30 Miller/McFadden split next year with randoms like Turbin or Dunbar mixing in here and there, then let McFadden walk after 2016 and draft a guy in the HOF RB class that's coming.
 

Carp

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Jones is the FS next year, so while Weddle would be nice, there are more pressing needs.
 

Cowboysrock55

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By the way, Wilkerson would be really badass in the middle of our defense. With his size, strength and athletic ability he would be perfect. I know he is a 3-4 DE right now but that dude can play in any defense.

With that being said, even if he hits the free agent market I doubt we go after him. We don't view DT as a big enough need and we aren't likely to go sign anyone to a mega contract (Probably for the best with a guy like that). Still, I'd love to see that guy in the middle of our defense.
 

Chocolate Lab

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Weddle would be a nice signing if he his market is a little deflated due to his age.
Agree. Not that I've paid much attention to him in a while, but if he hasn't slowed down too much yet and he doesn't cost too much, I'd go after him. I'll go against the grain and say I think Jones should be a corner. He's big enough and athletic enough, and he'll tackle, so I think he's a Marinelli type. I bet in his heart of hearts, Rod would rather play much more zone than we did this year to have more eyes on the QB and get more INTs. I think corner is what the team planned on originally, too, with both Carr and Claiborne planned to exit.

But anyway, I'm tired of these conversion projects at S. Get a real safety who has a feel for the position and knows what he's doing.

And we need to draft another one also, because Church sucks too.
 

UncleMilti

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Agree. Not that I've paid much attention to him in a while, but if he hasn't slowed down too much yet and he doesn't cost too much, I'd go after him. I'll go against the grain and say I think Jones should be a corner. He's big enough and athletic enough, and he'll tackle, so I think he's a Marinelli type. I bet in his heart of hearts, Rod would rather play much more zone than we did this year to have more eyes on the QB and get more INTs. I think corner is what the team planned on originally, too, with both Carr and Claiborne planned to exit.

But anyway, I'm tired of these conversion projects at S. Get a real safety who has a feel for the position and knows what he's doing.

And we need to draft another one also, because Church sucks too.
I'd like to see them dump Marinelli.
 

shane

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Could we bring in Ivory or Lamar Miller for not much? Those seem like those could be good fits.
 

Simpleton

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Miller played only 18 snaps against the Chargers while Ajayi had over 30, the Dolphins have always underutilized Miller despite the fact that he always averages around 5 YPC. He is young, lightly used (never more than 216 carries in a season, only one season over 200), productive and would bring a home-run hitting dimension to our running game.

If he can be had for about 5 a year we would be idiots to not go hard after him, he could put up 1400+ yards behind our OL.
 

GForce78NJ

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Miller played only 18 snaps against the Chargers while Ajayi had over 30, the Dolphins have always underutilized Miller despite the fact that he always averages around 5 YPC. He is young, lightly used (never more than 216 carries in a season, only one season over 200), productive and would bring a home-run hitting dimension to our running game.

If he can be had for about 5 a year we would be idiots to not go hard after him, he could put up 1400+ yards behind our OL.
I'd go apeshit if a talent like Miller was given to us for that. We would finally have a running back with fresh legs that we can pound into the ground with 30 carries a game. If we can pull that off I'd be ecstatic because we can go strictly defense (or WR) in the draft
 

Clay_Allison

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I'd go apeshit if a talent like Miller was given to us for that. We would finally have a running back with fresh legs that we can pound into the ground with 30 carries a game. If we can pull that off I'd be ecstatic because we can go strictly defense (or WR) in the draft
I think we could get away with signing him and not killing him with a million carries.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I think we could get away with signing him and not killing him with a million carries.
No kidding. Miller has been pretty lightly used so far in his career. Barely toppong 1000 yards only once. I sure as hell don't want to severly increase his workload.
 
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