NFL free agency can be an unforgiving place. The most promising players sign for significant, market-moving deals within 48 hours. The ones who miss out on those millions of dollars have a much harder time finding their new homes. While most of these notable players will end up securing some sort of opportunity, they'll be parachuting into an organization that isn't offering a multiyear guarantee for coaches who clearly didn't see them as an immediate priority.
Increasingly, the definition of "promising players" excludes veterans who have completed their second NFL contract (the deal a player signs after his rookie-scale contract ends). As I run through the 13 players who represent the best left in free agency -- though one signed on Wednesday afternoon -- nine are either already 30 or will turn 30 this year . Seven are first-time free agents, with many of those players having spent their careers as valued stars who earned extensions before ever hitting the open market.
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This is also a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, which might represent an opportunity. Many of the players here didn't have their best 2024 seasons because they were either impacted by injury or slowed by age. Could they represent potential bargains next season? Let's take a look at why each of these players has yet to find a new team and why each could still be useful in the right location. I'll also identify a few potential landing spots for each of them. And, naturally, it seems right to start with one of the league's most legendary players:
Jump to a section:
Allen | Cooper | Diggs
Dobbins | Gilmore | Hernandez
Jenkins | Judon | Robinson
Rodgers | Samuel | Simmons | White
Aaron Rodgers, QB
2024 team: Jets
Why he's still a free agent: It's now three full seasons removed from the last time Rodgers was an above-average quarterback.
Why teams should be interested: The season before that (2021) saw Rodgers win his second consecutive MVP award and his fourth such career honor. He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer at the most important position in sports. And for whatever off-field disturbances he created during his time with the Jets, quarterbacks are going to get chance after chance to prove they still have something left in the tank.
At the same time, if Rodgers had led the Jets to playoff berths and posted numbers anything close to his career in Green Bay, he wouldn't be unsigned. The simplest reason he is still a free agent is performance. In 2022, he ranked 26th in Total QBR. In 2023, he tore his Achilles after four snaps. Last season, he returned from the injury and finished ... 25th in QBR, behind fellow free agents Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson, as well as Falcons financial hostage Kirk Cousins.
On top of that, it's difficult to imagine the circumstances being much better for Rodgers in his new digs. He had coach Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, who helped immediately restore Rodgers to the MVP race before building winning offenses around Jordan Love and Malik Willis. In New York, Rodgers had a handpicked set of offensive teammates, including Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator and Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams at wide receiver at different points over the past two seasons. He won't have that level of control in his new landing spot.
Rodgers is entering his age-42 season. The only player in NFL history who was an effective quarterback at that age was Tom Brady as he played out his final season with the Patriots. Brady had been much more effective at ages 39, 40 and 41 than Rodgers has been over the past three years. The only other passer at age 42 who started the majority of his team's games was Warren Moon, who was in his final year as a regular under center. It's all but unprecedented for a player to be a solid starter at quarterback this late in his career.
It is unprecedented for a quarterback to make a massive leap forward at 42 from his prior level of play. The closest example is the last guy who left the Packers toward the end of his Hall of Fame career to join the Jets. Brett Favre was playing out his age-40 season when he joined the Vikings in 2009, and -- after a disappointing, injury-impacted year with the Jets -- he posted the best passer rating of his career, finished fourth in MVP balloting and led the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game.
Could Rodgers make that sort of step forward if he followed in Favre's footsteps and joined the Vikings? It certainly seems like his best possible landing spot. (Though sources told ESPN on Wednesday that the franchise isn't expected to pursue Rodgers.) Playing under coach Kevin O'Connell kick-started Sam Darnold's career, and after investing in interior offensive linemen with Will Fries and Ryan Kelly this offseason, Minnesota might have the best offensive infrastructure of any team. There's a distinct lack of people who knew Rodgers well in 2018, which would have disqualified many of them for jobs with the Jets, but he could improve with better players and coaches around him.
Is Rodgers really a great fit for that offense, though? The Jets ran a static offense that tried to compensate for his lack of mobility after the Achilles injury. They also played to Rodgers' desires by having little pre-snap motion and avoiding plays under center. The Vikings aren't that offense. They ranked ninth in the league in motion percentage (64.2%) and fifth in play-action rate (29.6%) last season. They were under center on 48% of their snaps. The Jets were under center about half as often. A 31-year-old Rodgers might have easily adapted to O'Connell's style. Would a 41-year-old Rodgers have the same flexibility?
If the Vikings are truly committed to second-year signal-caller J.J. McCarthy, Rodgers will have to look elsewhere. The Giants and Steelers are the most plausible alternatives as teams hoping to win now without a clear starter on their roster. The Giants retained Tommy DeVito, and the Steelers brought back old flame Mason Rudolph for another go-round, but those guys have proved themselves to be second- or third-string options over meaningful NFL samples.
If Rodgers wants to end his career on a competitive team and prove he wasn't the problem in New York, the Steelers are the better option. They've posted the league's second-best winning percentage over the past four years when scoring at least 20 points (.839). The problem is they've managed to do that just 31 times, a feat only the Titans, Panthers and Giants have failed to accomplish more often.
As a safe pair of hands who won't blow the game, Rodgers makes some sense in Pittsburgh. The Steelers thrive when they win or tie the turnover battle, and he has the best interception rate (1.4%) in NFL history. Even throughout the failures last season, he followed a slow start by protecting the football. He threw 18 touchdowns against four picks over his final 10 games. That version of Rodgers would win a lot more games in Pittsburgh than he did in New York.
If this is it for Rodgers, the end of his career will fade into history and mostly get absorbed by what we saw over the prior two decades, as it did for Favre. He has won a Super Bowl, taken home four MVP trophies and made more money in career NFL earnings than anybody else in the history of the game. In the macro picture, he has nothing else to prove. In the micro universe that is the NFL, though, Rodgers might want to end his career on a better note. And if he does, he should get one more chance to start.
Ideal landing spots: Steelers, Giants, Vikings
J.K. Dobbins, RB
2024 team: Chargers
Why he's still a free agent: Dobbins has battled injury after injury during his time in the league, including serious knee and Achilles trauma that cost him all of 2021, most of 2022 and virtually all of 2023. Even last season, in what was the healthiest season of his career, he was forced onto injured reserve for four games because of a knee sprain.
Why teams should be interested: Since 2020, the list of backs with 300 carries who have averaged more yards per rush than Dobbins' 5.2 consists of De'Von Achane and Jahmyr Gibbs. After returning from the Achilles injury last season, Dobbins averaged 4.6 yards per tote while racking up a career-high 195 carries. He didn't fumble for the third consecutive season and generated 115 rush yards over expectation, which ranked 13th among all backs.
At the same time, Dobbins' best two games of the season were the initial two, during which he racked up 266 yards. From that point forward, he failed to top 100 yards in a single game, averaged 3.8 yards per carry and generated minus-25 RYOE. Most of that was an absence of big plays: He had three runs of 40-plus yards over those first two games and none over the ensuing 16 weeks.
It's tough to project Dobbins into a full-time role, and frankly, it's probably not the best thing for his health. Given eight to 10 carries a game as a situational back, though, he could still be a useful player in the right offense.
Ideal landing spots: Browns, Steelers, Broncos
Amari Cooper, WR
Why he's still a free agent: Cooper battled injuries in his age-30 season and saw his production crater. After racking up 265 yards in one game with the Browns in Week 16 of the 2023 season, he managed only 250 yards in six starts with Cleveland in 2024 and 297 more in eight games after being traded to Buffalo. As you continue reading, you'll repeatedly see the league sour on players who are on the wrong side of 30; Cooper will be 31 in June.
Why teams should be interested: One year earlier, Cooper made it to the Pro Bowl with a 1,250-yard season for the Browns. Despite missing the final two games of the season, he was comfortably one of the league's best receivers while catching passes from Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, PJ Walker and Joe Flacco. And while that 1,250-yard mark was a career high, he had topped 1,000 yards in four of his five seasons before an injury-riddled 2024 campaign.
Even in what was a down season last year, Cooper averaged 1.6 yards per route run, which was just about the league average. He was just behind Joshua Palmer, who signed a three-year, $29 million deal to replace Cooper on the Bills. And Cooper was way ahead of Mike Williams, whose 0.9 yards per route run between the Jets and Steelers still landed him a one-year, $6 million deal to return to the Chargers.
Cooper might be miscast in the No. 1 receiver role he played with the Browns in 2022 and 2023, although it also seems foolish to count out any possibility of him returning to that prior level of form. At the same time, is he really a worse bet to produce compared with Palmer, who has never commanded a significant target share, or Williams, who has battled more injuries?
Teams were aggressive in paying for speed this offseason, which is how Tutu Atwell and Dyami Brown earned one-year deals for $10 million. Cooper isn't anyone's idea of a downfield burner at this point of his career, but his size and catch radius should still make him a viable No. 2 receiver in 2025. He's probably looking at a one-year deal in the same range as that of Williams or DeAndre Hopkins ($5 million), and he would be a logical target for teams that need a veteran to help out their quarterback. Teams in need of an outside receiver with some physicality should be in the market for Cooper, a list that includes a pair of his former employers.
Ideal landing spots: Raiders, Patriots, Cowboys
Stefon Diggs, WR
2024 team: Texans
Why he's still a free agent: The four-time Pro Bowler suffered a torn ACL in October, ending his tenure with the Texans after eight games. It's fair to say there was already some trepidation around Diggs in NFL circles: After signing him to a four-year, $96 million extension in 2022, the Bills traded their star receiver to the Texans for a second-round pick last offseason, and Houston promptly voided the remaining years of his deal to keep its new wideout motivated by virtue of a contract year.
Why teams should be interested: Diggs was much better in Houston than he was in his final season with Buffalo's Josh Allen. After routinely ranking in the top 10 in ESPN's receiver score throughout his Bills tenure, he fell to 67th in 2023. With his raw numbers declining after the hiring of coordinator Joe Brady and the offense seemingly thriving by spreading the football around, it felt as if he wasn't as essential as he had been earlier in his career.
During his half-season with the Texans, though, Diggs was all the way back up to third in receiver score, buoyed by top-10 performances in open score and catch score, two of the three components that make up the metric. ESPN's analysis, which also considers plays in which he isn't thrown the football, saw a receiver who repeatedly got open, albeit in an offense with a porous line that prevented C.J. Stroud from getting the football out on time.
There's risk here, of course. Diggs is 31 and coming off a serious injury. The Texans also weren't desperate to reunite with their offseason acquisition, as they traded for Christian Kirk and will pay the former Jags wideout more than $16 million in 2025. The Bills seemed to feel as if they were better off without their No. 1 wideout, and they didn't miss a beat without him in 2024.
If Diggs really is something close to a top-10 receiver, his signing would be a massive bargain. He made four straight Pro Bowls with the Bills and was on pace for a 1,054-yard campaign with the Texans. Every team needs a wideout who can get open against man coverage. And any team acquiring him wouldn't have to absorb much off-field risk since Diggs is unlikely to command a multiyear guarantee this late in the market. Odell Beckham Jr. signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Ravens in 2023 after missing an entire year with a torn ACL, and the former Giants star hadn't been nearly as productive over his prior few seasons as Diggs has. Any team in need of a wideout should be interested in a healthy version of Diggs, especially without draft pick compensation attached.
Ideal landing spots: Jets, Cowboys, Patriots
Keenan Allen, WR
2024 team: Bears
Why he's still a free agent: Allen was one of the many players dragged down by last season's disaster in Chicago, as he failed to live up to expectations after being traded for last March. One season after posting a 1,243-yard campaign, he managed only 744 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games. His 1.5 yards per route run was a career low and down a full yard from where he had been in 2023.
Why teams should be interested: He can still get open. Maybe. Allen's 57 open score ranked 64th in the league, which isn't great given that he ranked first in the same metric in 2023, but 64th is still good enough to qualify for meaningful snaps in any offense that needs somebody to beat man coverage. Unlike Cooper, who didn't do much in a Bills offense where everyone was producing, Allen was stuck in an offense where everybody appeared to be operating at half speed and nobody played up to their potential.
Teams are going to look at Allen's injury history with some reticence. After repeatedly battling injuries early in his career, he strung together a series of healthy seasons between 2017 and 2019. He has failed to play a full season since, missing time with hamstring injuries in 2022 and heel injuries in 2023 and 2024. He probably profiles as a third wideout in a good offense or a second wideout in a subpar one at this point of his career, but I wonder whether this past season with the Bears might have depressed his market more than it should have. I'd expect him to land with a team that needs a wideout to win against man coverage, especially if it has a target hog who can draw attention elsewhere and ensure one-on-ones for Allen.
Ideal landing spots: Commanders, Patriots, Texans
Will Hernandez, G
2024 team: Cardinals
Why he's still a free agent: Hernandez is coming off an abbreviated campaign, as the 29-year-old suffered a knee injury in Week 5 against the 49ers and missed the rest of the season. Without access to his medicals, it's unclear whether he is on track to play in Week 1.
Why teams should be interested: Before the injury, Hernandez had quietly emerged as one of the league's best guards. After an uneven four-year run with the Giants, he found a home in the Arizona desert. Between 2022 and 2023, he ranked in the top 10 among guards by ESPN's pass block win rate and run block win rate metrics. The only other guards who ranked in the top 10 across both seasons were Landon Dickerson and Zack Martin, two of the league's highest-paid players at the position.
At 332 pounds, Hernandez has the size and mean streak that teams that lean heavily into gap schemes on the ground want from their interior offensive linemen. The appetite for those players around the league has grown to be insatiable. Look at Jonah Jackson, who signed a three-year, $51 million deal with the Rams in 2024. Even after Jackson was benched and barely played in Los Angeles, the Bears were eager to trade for him and pick up the $17.5 million in guaranteed money he was owed for 2025.
Hernandez won't get that sort of deal, and if he's healthy after the injury, his acquisition could be a bargain given what even average guards are making on the open market. As a free agent who would qualify for a compensatory pick, teams might be waiting to sign him after June 1, when his medical status should be clearer and he won't count against his new team's compensatory formula.
Ideal landing spots: Ravens, Raiders, Seahawks
Teven Jenkins, G
2024 team: Bears
Why he's still a free agent: Much was expected of Jenkins, whom the Bears took with their second-round pick in the 2021 draft. He was selected ahead of fellow guards Sam Cosmi and Aaron Banks, both of whom ended up signing significant second contracts. Jenkins pieced together stretches of solid play, but injuries and positional changes seemed to keep him from developing into a reliable solution.
Playing right tackle and both guard spots at different times during his career, Jenkins missed 23 games over his four years in Chicago. Factoring in games during which he left early because of injuries or played in a situational role, he only managed to play more than 75% of the snaps 31 times across 68 potential opportunities.
Why teams should be interested: Offensive coordinators are desperate for competent offensive linemen, and Jenkins ranked 33rd in pass block win rate and 44th in run block win rate among guards last season. He stayed healthy for a career-high 14 games and committed only four penalties. At 27, he will be in the prime of his career over the next few years, and there are going to be teams that believe the 6-foot-6 lineman will benefit from getting out of Chicago and away from a dysfunctional offense.
Organizations that weren't willing to make the sort of massive commitments that Banks and Will Fries got might look at Jenkins as a reasonable Plan B. Of the non-quarterbacks left on this list, Jenkins could end up with the largest average salary, even if it's only as part of a one-year guarantee.
Ideal landing spots: Cowboys, Ravens, Saints
Matthew Judon, Edge
2024 team: Falcons
Why he's still a free agent: After being traded to the Falcons during training camp, Judon took a while to get going. Playing just over 60% of the defensive snaps over the first 10 games, he mustered only 1.5 sacks and three knockdowns for a team that desperately cried out for any semblance of a pass rush. That's not the sort of production Atlanta was hoping to get when it traded a third-round pick to acquire Judon.
Why teams should be interested: Over the final seven games of the season, Judon got back on track, generating 4 sacks, 6 knockdowns and 1 pick-six. Admittedly, a closer look pokes some of the air out of that balloon: The four sacks include a play in which a lineman appeared to be tripped, a coverage sack and a snap in which two Commanders linemen converged on another pass rusher, leaving Judon free to take down Jayden Daniels. So, I'm not sure he was significantly better in the second half.
Judon is a sound, smart player, but as he turns 33 this year, a new team would probably need to continue spotting him in as a part-time role in an edge-rushing rotation. He had 20-plus hits in five consecutive seasons between 2018 and 2022 and nine in four games before suffering a season-ending injury with the Pats in 2023. The hope would naturally be that 2024 was an outlier on a team where nobody seemed capable of getting after the quarterback. The Falcons signaled their decision to move on from Judon by signing Leonard Floyd in free agency, but Judon should eventually find a one-year deal with a contender.
Ideal landing spots: Chiefs, Bengals, Commanders
Kyzir White, LB
2024 team: Cardinals
Why he's still a free agent: Once a safety, White can be a tweener in some NFL defenses, which might see him as more of a weakside linebacker than the middle linebacker role he played in Arizona over the past two seasons. Teams prioritized paying three-down linebackers Nick Bolton and Robert Spillane early in free agency, but even while White has been an every-down linebacker, he might not have a ton of teams seeing him as that sort of player in their own defenses.
Why teams should be interested: He's fun! White makes a ton of tackles; his 11.9% tackle share last season ranked 16th in the league, an impressive figure given that Budda Baker ranked third by the same metric. White's missed tackle rate was reasonable (5.5%), and he had 2.5 sacks and eight knockdowns as a blitzer.
White has been a favorite of coach Jonathan Gannon, as he followed the former Eagles defensive coordinator to Arizona in 2023. A reunion with the Cardinals would probably make the most sense for all parties involved, especially given that his market hasn't really developed to the point where he would be out of the mix for Arizona. The Cardinals brought in Akeem Davis-Gaither from the Bengals on a two-year, $10 million deal, but that shouldn't necessarily close the door on White in Arizona. If it does, a team with a creative defensive coordinator should find a useful role for him.
Ideal landing spots: Cowboys, Colts, Texans
Stephon Gilmore, CB
2024 team: Vikings
Why he's still a free agent: It's the wrong time to be a cornerback on the wrong side of 30. The largest contract that any 30-plus cornerback received in free agency last year was the three-year, $22.5 million pact Darious Williams inked to re-join the Rams, and even that was really just a one-year contract.
Despite playing well into his 30s, Gilmore hasn't been able to find a consistent home. Even after being named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 as a 29-year-old, he hit free agency in 2022 and languished on the market for a month before signing a two-year, $20 million deal with the Colts. After being traded to the Cowboys and playing for Dallas in 2023, he went back into free agency in 2024 and didn't sign until August, eventually inking a one-year, $7 million pact with the Vikings.
Why teams should be interested: Gilmore is the rare cornerback capable of playing man-to-man at a high level into his 30s. Between the Patriots, Cowboys and Vikings, he has played in some of the league's most aggressive defenses. And while he occasionally gets beaten, the now 34-year-old has held his own. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, he allowed an 87.5 passer rating and slightly negative EPA as the nearest defender in coverage last season. Doing that as part of a defense that often asked him to cover on an island is an impressive feat.
The Vikings only signed Gilmore last offseason after they seemed to realize they didn't have enough at cornerback. He was more than worth their $7 million investment. I wouldn't be surprised if the same scenario happened this year, where a team that looks thin at cornerback and doesn't love what it sees from some of its young guys in camp goes after Gilmore as a plug-and-play solution over the summer.
Ideal landing spots: 49ers, Eagles, Seahawks
Asante Samuel Jr., CB
2024 team: Chargers
Why he's still a free agent: A shoulder injury ended Samuel's 2024 season after four games. The initial reports around the injury were murky, but he later revealed he was dealing with a stinger and unable to get all the way back onto the field by the end of the season. The four-year pro suggested after the season that he would be ready to participate at the beginning of the offseason program when he signed somewhere, but he has yet to latch on with a new team.
Why teams should be interested: Unlike many of the other players in this conversation, Samuel is only 25 years old and entering the prime of his career. He wasn't spectacular during his time with the Chargers, but we didn't get to see him play much for new defensive coordinator Jesse Minter before the injury. Samuel had spent the entirety of his career up to that point under Brandon Staley, and it's possible he could look better in a different defense.
Samuel has played exclusively in zone-heavy schemes with the Chargers, so I would expect teams that lean toward zone coverages to give him serious consideration. His medicals will play a big role in determining how comfortable organizations are with investing in the former second-round pick, but given his abbreviated 2024 campaign, I would expect him to sign a one-year deal with the hopes of reestablishing his health and cashing in after a complete season next spring.
Ideal landing spots: Bills, Raiders, Rams
Justin Simmons, S
2024 team: Falcons
Why he's still a free agent: Simmons, a second-team All-Pro as recently as 2023, was the most glaring example of how brutal the market was for veteran safeties last offseason. Cut by the Broncos before free agency, he remained unattached until August, when he signed a one-year deal with the Falcons for $7.5 million. Given that experience a year ago, it's probably not a surprise that he wasn't a priority addition at the beginning of the 2025 league year.
Why teams should be interested: Simmons became a star under Vic Fangio in Denver, where his range and instincts made him an essential player for the Broncos. He forced 33 turnovers from 2017 to 2023, the most of any player over that seven-year span. Missed tackles have occasionally been a problem, and he benefited from playing next to a star last season in Jessie Bates, but there's always something to be said for having Simmons' sort of experience in a critical role.
I was surprised when the Eagles didn't add Simmons last year, and he has admitted in recent weeks that he'd love to play for the Eagles. With Philly trading away C.J. Gardner-Johnson, there's an opening next to Reed Blankenship in the back end of the secondary. Could Simmons get his wish?
Ideal landing spots: Eagles, Panthers, Rams
Cam Robinson, OT
Note: Robinson signed with the Texans on Wednesday afternoon, hours after this story published.
Why he's still a free agent: Robinson wasn't very good last season. The onetime Jaguars franchise player was benched in Jacksonville before being dealt to Minnesota, where the Vikings desperately needed a left tackle to replace injured Christian Darrisaw. In purple and gold, Robinson allowed a 17% pressure rate in one-on-one situations, the highest rate in the league for any lineman from Week 8 onward, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Why teams should be interested: He's a left tackle, and as you might have noticed, left tackles you've barely heard of got paid this offseason. Dan Moore Jr., whom the Steelers have tried to replace virtually every offseason, signed a four-year deal for more than $80 million with the Titans. Jaylon Moore, who has played 827 career snaps over four years as a backup with the 49ers, got $21 million guaranteed from the Chiefs to protect Patrick Mahomes. Alaric Jackson and Ronnie Stanley signed two of the biggest deals of the offseason to stay with the Rams and Ravens, respectively.
Robinson struggled last season, but some metrics were promising. With the Vikings, he allowed quick quarterback pressures on only 2.2% of his snaps, which was below the league average for left tackles (2.8%) from Week 8 until the end of the season. He had been regarded as an average to above-average tackle in Jacksonville, although it seemed as if the organization began to lose faith in him after he was suspended for violating the league's PED policy in 2023.
At 29, Robinson is older than either of the newly paid Moores. He might also be the best left tackle of the three, though, and signing him is not going to cost anywhere near as much or require as significant of a guarantee.
This will sound like an insult, but it's not: There's something to be said for having a below-average tackle to fall back on in Week 1. Robinson could be only the 26th-best left tackle in the league, but that's a lot better than having to run out a series of replacement-level tackles, as the Patriots did last season. Organizations are going to aspire to land their left tackles of the future in April's draft, but Robinson is a reasonable fallback plan for teams that don't land their desired prospects.