The 10 Best Remaining NFL Free Agents

Free agency begins when the league year starts in March, and the big deals happen then, but that's not the end of the process. Every season, there are those players still on the open market long into the process.

Many of those players find themselves with extra interest when training camps begin, and the preseason is right around the corner. Some of these players are still available because they're recovering from injuries. Others are still around because the idea of training camp is less than attractive. Sometimes, the players are coming off down seasons, and they need to prove they still have what it takes.

No matter the reason, here are the 10 best free agents still available — and my sense is, they won't be available for very long.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated).

Michael Thomas, WR

Father Time is undefeated, and few current NFL players know that better than Michael Thomas does. The 2016 second-round pick of the New Orleans Saints put together a 156-catch, 1.795-yard, nine-touchdown season in 2019, and then... relative crickets. Thomas hasn't played more than 333 snaps in a season since then, and in 2023, he caught just 39 passes on 63 targets for 448 yards and a touchdown.

The Saints designated Thomas as a post-June 1 cut, and it makes sense that he's still on the market given his limited availability over the last four seasons, but in the right offense, he can still provide value as a massive (6-3, 212-pound) target who can find the open voids in zones, bull through defenders for yards after the catch (333 of his total yards came that way last season), and block at a more than credible level.

D.J. Humphries, LT

At this point in the game, you're not going to find legitimate franchise offensive tackles on the open market, but there are a lot of teams with serious needs at those positions. And if you're still trying to find your ideal left tackle before the preseason kicks in, you can't do much better than D.J. Humphries, the 2015 first-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals who was released from his only NFL team in March. Humphries' three-year, $51 million contract was the albatross that got him cut (along with the torn ACL he suffered in Week 17 of the 2023 season), but in 2023, he did his best to earn it.

Last season, Humphries allowed four sacks, five quarterback hits, and 19 quarterback hurries in 568 pass-blocking reps in an offense that had its quarterbacks running themselves into sacks at a higher rate than the NFL average. And outside of Arizona's October 8 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, when Humphries gave up two of those sacks to Trey Hendrickson, Humphries was quite consistent. He's a power-blocker who can really drive it home on screens and outside runs.

Charles Leno Jr., LT

As is the case with Humphries, Leno isn't one of the best left tackles in the NFL, but he did impress in 2023 after a disastrous 2022 season when he gave up eight sacks and looked overwhelmed more often than not. In 2023, in a Washington Commanders offense that didn't always make sense, Leno allowed three sacks, five quarterback hits, and 26 quarterback hurries in 631 pass-blocking reps.

Leno isn't the biggest blocker at 6-2 and 302 pounds, but he understands leverage and technique, and that's why he keeps getting on the field. Now in his 11th NFL season, Leno can provide the right kind of stability on the left side.

Connor Williams, C

Had Connor Williams stayed healthy all the way through the 2023 season, the Miami Dolphins might have a bit of an alternate history that didn't include getting Rick-rolled by the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. At the very least, Williams — who suffered a torn ACL in December — would have made Miami's offense a lot better, because that's exactly what he did when he was on the field.

Williams allowed one sack, one quarterback hit, and four quarterback hurries in 280 pass-blocking reps last season, and when he got hurt, the Dolphins' offensive line — and by extension, the Dolphins' offense — fell apart. Especially in the passing game. Miami had a Passing EPA of 0.17 with Williams and 0.0 without. And the drop from 8.7 yards per dropback with Williams to 6.6 without tells another part of that story.

Williams is estimated to be full-go for the 2024 season, and somebody's going to get a late bargain there.

Yannick Ngakoue, EDGE

It's interesting that Yannick Ngakoue has played for six different teams since 2019 — the Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders, Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears — because he's been a productive pass rusher wherever he's been. That proved true in 2023 for Chicago, as Ngakoue spun a one-year, $10.5 million deal into four sacks, four quarterback hits and 26 quarterback hurries in 408 pass-rushing reps.

Ngakoue has long been one of the league's better snap-to-whistle pass rushers — no matter the reasons he's been with so many teams, his effort is unquestionably there — and it was there in 2023, as well. It was especially there in this sack of Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, when Ngakoue absolutely poleaxed left tackle Taylor Decker into the pocket. Any team looking for the perfect speed-to-power rusher to complete their defensive line would do well to speak with the veteran.

Markus Golden, EDGE

Much like Ngakoue, Markus Golden has bounced around the league over the last few seasons despite consistent, scheme-transcendent production. Selected in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Cardinals, Golden has played for Arizona, the New York Giants, the Cardinals (again) and the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2018. He took a one-year, $1,317,500 deal with Pittsburgh last season, and put up five sacks and 16 total pressures in just 116 pass-rushing snaps.

As Golden has had at least 12 sacks in two of his last five seasons, and given the way he showed up on tape in 2023, he would seem to be a dynamite addition to any defense — especially those playing five-man base fronts in which speed edge-rushers are mandatory.

Emmanuel Ogbah, EDGE

Injuries have limited Ogbah's effectiveness over the last two seasons, so the question is: Is he still the same pass-rusher who totaled 11 sacks and 61 total pressures in 2021? That Emmanuel Ogbah got himself a four-year, $65.4 million contract extension in 2022, but the Emmanuel Ogbah who had just 20 total pressures in 2023 was released to save about $14 million in cap space this February.

What teams need to pay attention to is not the 20 total pressures — it's the six sacks Ogbah had in just 172 pass-rush snaps. A quick perusal of those sacks show that Ogbah is still a player who can bull tackles into the pocket, and get around them with speed.

Stephon Gilmore, CB

When he was with the New England Patriots earlier in his career, it could be argued that Stephon Gilmore was the NFL's best cornerback in both man and zone coverage. That's not easy to accomplish, but that's how good Gilmore was at the peak of his career. Gilmore has played with four different teams over the last four seasons — the Patriots, the Carolina Panthers, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Dallas Cowboys — and in Dallas' defense last year, he allowed 54 catches on 95 targets for 734 yards, 221 yards after the catch, five touchdowns, two interceptions, 12 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 90.4.

Gilmore will be going into his age 34 season, but he's not ready for retirement. He still has a lot to offer to any defense that majors in aggressive press and press-match coverage. He will occasionally lose a step in tight coverages, but he's still on point when he's able to disrupt receivers at the line of scrimmage. Teams like the Falcons, Chiefs, Saints and Lions, who prefer all manner of press coverage over the average, would be wise to try and cut a deal.

Quandre Diggs, S

The ability to play deep-third safety is crucial in today's NFL, as today's NFL is primarily about creating and defending explosive plays, and if you don't have at least one credible deep-third defender, your ability to defend those explosive plays is going to be severely limited.

Last season, no NFL defender played more snaps at deep safety (1,113) than Quandre Diggs of the Seattle Seahawks, and Diggs was quite good at it. Why Seattle released Diggs in March is a mystery, as he allowed 20 catches on 28 targets for 247 yards, 98 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, five pass breakups and an opponent passer rating of 95.4. This was considered an off -year for Diggs, but when you watched some of the coverage stuff Seattle was throwing out there, it was kind of a miracle that anybody knew where to go half the time.

As new Seahawks head coach and former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald turned Geno Stone into a deep-third star last season, could a Seattle reunion with Diggs be in the cards? It would be a wise move. But any team playing a ton of single-high stuff would benefit from Diggs' addition.

Justin Simmons, S

Safeties who don't patrol the deep third most of the time had better be versatile enough to play everywhere from the slot to the deep third at times, and over the last few seasons, Justin Simmons of the Denver Broncos has been one of the best multi-positional safeties in the league. Last season, he was one of the few players who had his bearings on a defense that started the year at a historically awful rate , and struggled to recover. So, his metrics — 23 catches allowed on 36 targets for 324 yards, 95 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, three interceptions, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 85.9 — should be taken in context.

Before he was released by the Broncos in March, Simmons was coming off a season in which he played 594 snaps at free safety, 230 in the box, 144 in the slot and 13 on the defensive line. He's a natural creator of havoc, and he needs a bit of freedom to freelance, but he can still be a big deal in the right defense.

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