play2:04Kyle Van Noy: ‘I still have a lot of juice left’Kyle Van Noy joins Rich Eisen and reflects on the Ravens’ season, and he expresses his desire to continue playing.
play1:03What does Jermaine Johnson trade mean for Jets, Titans?Adam Schefter breaks down the Jets’ decision to trade Jermaine Johnson to the Titans for T’Vondre Sweat.
play2:50The Bears to Indiana? ‘Shame on them,’ Stephen A. saysStephen A. Smith reacts to the Chicago Bears potentially leaving Soldier Field to build a stadium in Indiana.
How Jesse Minter plans to build team around Lamar (1:42)Jesse Minter joins “The Pat McAfee Show” and speaks on building around Lamar Jackson and his thought process going into the 2026 NFL draft as head coach. (1:42)
Kyle Van Noy: ‘I still have a lot of juice left’Kyle Van Noy joins Rich Eisen and reflects on the Ravens’ season, and he expresses his desire to continue playing.
Kyle Van Noy joins Rich Eisen and reflects on the Ravens’ season, and he expresses his desire to continue playing.
What does Jermaine Johnson trade mean for Jets, Titans?Adam Schefter breaks down the Jets’ decision to trade Jermaine Johnson to the Titans for T’Vondre Sweat.
Adam Schefter breaks down the Jets’ decision to trade Jermaine Johnson to the Titans for T’Vondre Sweat.
The Bears to Indiana? ‘Shame on them,’ Stephen A. saysStephen A. Smith reacts to the Chicago Bears potentially leaving Soldier Field to build a stadium in Indiana.
Stephen A. Smith reacts to the Chicago Bears potentially leaving Soldier Field to build a stadium in Indiana.
Last Monday, I previewed the upcoming NFL free agent class by looking at the players likely to hit the market on offense and sorting them into tiers. This Monday, I’m doing the same — but on the defensive side of the ball.
No team spent more on defensive players last year in free agency than the Patriots, who added standouts such as Milton Williams, Carlton Davis III, Harold Landry III and K’Lavon Chaisson. You saw the results. While Drake Maye and the offense led New England to victories during the regular season, it was Williams and the defense that pushed the Pats through the AFC bracket and into the Super Bowl.
Let’s dive in, placing players across all five defensive positions into six tiers, starting with the notable edge rushers available.
There’s a player who would have been in this tier if he had hit free agency a year ago, but he comes up just short for me in 2026, instead falling into Tier 2 …
In 2024, Hendrickson was my pick for Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in the vast majority of pass-rushing metrics and creating 26 sacks for himself and his teammates — 11.5 more than anybody else in the NFL. He made NFL offensive linemen look like high schoolers. It was a truly dominant year, albeit on an otherwise hopeless defense.
But 2025 was a wasted season. Hendrickson held out for much of the offseason in the hopes of landing a new deal or a trade to a team that would give him one. He eventually relented, but he played just 285 snaps before going down because of back and hip injuries, the latter eventually requiring core muscle surgery. He finished the season with four sacks and eight knockdowns in seven games; those are solid numbers, but Hendrickson wasn’t the game wrecker in 2025 that he had been in 2024.
If a team could be sure it would get 34 games out of Hendrickson in 2026 and 2027 at his prior level of play, he would be an easy Tier 1 defender. Given his age and the injuries that impacted him in 2025, though, I’m leaning toward the conservative side and merely projecting him to be a Pro Bowl-level player. There will be plenty of teams interested in that profile, although I’d be surprised if Hendrickson landed three mostly guaranteed years, as Von Miller did in free agency in 2022.
This tier is mostly younger players who can potentially play all three downs at a reasonable level, although Bosa and Mack sneak in as higher-end veterans who can still make an impact. Bosa was leading the league in pass rush win rate earlier in the season before slowing down; he also made virtually no impact against the run, though that was a problem for the Bills on a teamwide basis.
Oweh kick-started a disappointing contract year with a midseason move to the Chargers, as all of his 7.5 sacks came after he was traded from the Ravens. Ironically enough, a move back to Baltimore would make sense, as the Ravens need an impact player on the edge. And the coach who helped turn things around for Oweh in Los Angeles was defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who is now the head coach in Baltimore.
Oweh has never really put together a Pro Bowl-caliber season, but he is very good at avoiding chip help to get after quarterbacks. Of those previously mentioned pass rushers with 1,000 attempts over the past three years, Oweh ranks fifth in quarterback pressure probability over expected (QBPOE), a metric that uses the NFL Next Gen Stats model to estimate how likely a pass rusher is to create a pressure on a given snap. There could still be some untapped upside here.
Free agents: Mike Danna, Chiefs; Dante Fowler Jr., Cowboys; Yetur Gross-Matos, 49ers; Cameron Jordan, Saints; Arden Key, Titans; Jacob Martin, Commanders; Von Miller, Commanders; Charles Omenihu, Chiefs; Kyle Van Noy, Ravens; Jihad Ward, Titans; D.J. Wonnum, Panthers
These guys will play meaningful snaps, but they’re more likely to be on the 40% side of a rotation than the 60% side. They can still be useful in that role, of course, with players such as Boye Mafe and Jalyx Hunt making meaningful contributions for title winners as part of edge rotations over the past couple of years.
The two Titans defenders were quietly more effective than you might believe. Key has six straight years with double-digit knockdown totals, making him one of just 18 players to maintain that level of consistency since 2020. Ward had five sacks with a career-high 22 quarterback hits, although his quick pressure rate (2.9%) wasn’t exceptional. They’re both solid veterans and the sort of players no team can have enough of in January and February.
Many of these players have had effective stretches or even solid full seasons in the past as pass rushers, but they haven’t shown enough in recent years to garner guaranteed money in free agency. Howie Roseman’s track record with defensive linemen is more good than bad, but the Eagles didn’t get much out of Ojulari and Uche, who combined for just one sack on 311 snaps. Ojulari suffering a hamstring injury didn’t help matters, but he was also a healthy scratch for the first month in Philadelphia.
Chris Jones was briefly available two years ago before re-signing with the Chiefs in a rare case of a true franchise-caliber defensive tackle hitting free agency.
And then last season, Milton Williams was a cut above the rest of the defensive tackle market, landing in Tier 2. He broke the bank with a deal that exceeded even my lofty expectations, with the former Eagles tackle landing $26 million per season on a four-year pact. The Patriots won a bidding war with the Panthers for Williams and have to feel happy with the results in Year 1, as Williams was excellent for a Pats team that advanced to the Super Bowl. There’s nobody in that tier in 2026.
This is a very thin free agent class at defensive tackle, especially if the potential cap casualties I’m listing never make it to the open market. Given that there really aren’t many starters available, there might be more of a trade market for those guys than there would be in another year. The paucity of options might have also led a Jets team without much on the interior to trade for T’Vondre Sweat, even if it cost it a former first-round pick on the edge in Jermaine Johnson.
What does Jermaine Johnson trade mean for Jets, Titans?
Free agents: Calais Campbell, Cardinals; Logan Hall, Buccaneers; David Onyemata, Falcons; Sheldon Rankins, Texans; DJ Reader, Lions; Tim Settle Jr., Texans; Christian Wilkins, FA
That decision has resulted in a grievance, but Wilkins didn’t play in 2025. Given his play in Miami and the lack of options at tackle in this market, there will be interest in a now 30-year-old Wilkins if he can pass a physical.
At this level, teams are hoping to land early-down defensive tackles who can help against the run, such as Hand and Joseph. Billings and Tonga are true nose tackles, with the latter adding some extra value as a short-yardage fullback for the Patriots this past season.
The alternative would be to try to pick up a situational pass rusher who can make an impact on third down in obvious throwing situations; that’s where Autry can still be useful as he approaches his age-36 season. The veteran’s two-year, $20 million deal with the Texans was marred by a PED suspension and a knee injury, but he still managed 6.5 sacks and 10 knockdowns on 520 snaps.
These guys will be competing with middle- and late-round picks to serve as third and fourth defensive tackles around the league.
Off-ball linebacker is one of the positions where we see truly top-tier players hit the market most often relative to other spots in the lineup … but there are none of them in free agency this year.
Lloyd will be a difficult evaluation for some teams. In 2024, Lloyd struggled so badly that the Jaguars really should have considered benching their 2022 first-round pick. There wasn’t a great effort level from him on tape, and he looked like he wasn’t up to the standards of being a starting-caliber linebacker. It was easy for the new Jags regime to decline his fifth-year option.
The real Lloyd is likely somewhere in between. It’s tough to imagine him racking up five interceptions per year, although Lloyd managed three as a rookie. Most players didn’t really put their best forward playing out the string for a hopeless 2024 Jags team. I’d want to make sure Lloyd was in the right spot on a competitive team, but he can be a valuable player on a defense.
Free agents: Alex Anzalone, Lions; Leo Chenal, Chiefs; Nakobe Dean, Eagles; Alex Singleton, Broncos; Quay Walker, Packers