play2:32Orlovsky: Kenneth Walker III can ‘100%’ change everything for ChiefsDan Orlovsky, Peter Schrager and Pat McAfee react to the news that Kenneth Wallker III is signing with the Chiefs.
play0:47Browns undergo offensive line overhaulDaniel Oyefusi discusses the Browns’ overhaul of their offensive line.
Why Ryan Clark is appalled at idea of Steelers signing Cousins (2:24)Ryan Clark holds nothing back as he rips the idea that the Steelers might sign Kirk Cousins. (2:24)
Orlovsky: Kenneth Walker III can ‘100%’ change everything for ChiefsDan Orlovsky, Peter Schrager and Pat McAfee react to the news that Kenneth Wallker III is signing with the Chiefs.
Dan Orlovsky, Peter Schrager and Pat McAfee react to the news that Kenneth Wallker III is signing with the Chiefs.
Browns undergo offensive line overhaulDaniel Oyefusi discusses the Browns’ overhaul of their offensive line.
Having said that, there are still plenty of useful players who can make a difference for NFL teams in 2026. The Eagles signed star running back Saquon Barkley early in the 2024 free agent window, but they waited until late April to sign Mekhi Becton, who played a key role for them up front as they won the Super Bowl. The 2025 Seahawks snapped up Sam Darnold and DeMarcus Lawrence quickly, but Cooper Kupp didn’t sign with the future title winners until Day 5 of the window.
Let’s run through some of the players who are still available in free agency. Why are they still available? What do they have to offer? And is there a team that makes sense as a likely landing spot after what we’ve seen over the first few days of the 2026 offseason? I’ll throw nine names out there and answer those questions for each player.
Cousins has made more than $321 million over the course of his career, so the first-ballot Bag Hall of Famer obviously doesn’t need to keep playing for the money.
It’s difficult to imagine Cousins being handed a starting role. He averaged just 6.4 yards per attempt in 2025 and kept the offense afloat by avoiding mistakes. He posted a 1.9% interception rate and a 4.6% sack rate, both of which were better than league average. Cousins was at his best when he could operate with heavy doses of under-center play-action, and he had a 73.8 Total QBR when given the opportunity to do so in 2025, the fifth-best mark in the NFL.
Why is he still available? A limited skill set. Robinson isn’t the sort of well-rounded back modern teams typically want from their RB1. He doesn’t catch the ball very often. He’s not great in pass protection. Robinson also fumbled eight times on 570 carries over his first three years in the league, a career that was marred at its start when the then-Commanders back was shot in an armed robbery weeks before the start of his rookie campaign.
What Robinson does is very traditional: He’s an efficient, effective runner between the tackles. Robinson’s yards per carry and success rate have increased across each of the past three years. Among backs with 400-plus carries over the past three seasons, Robinson’s 43.3% success rate as a runner ranks 11th out of 34 backs, right alongside 2025 teammate Christian McCaffrey.
Traded to the 49ers before the start of the 2025 season, Robinson spelled his star backfield mate and showed some newfound explosiveness, as 10.9% of his touches went for 10-plus rushing yards or 20-plus receiving yards. While he touched the ball only 100 times, Robinson also went all season without fumbling, which would be a major step in the right direction. He’s not going to be the lead back in an offense, but he can be useful in the right situational role.
Where he could fit: Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks need a replacement for Kenneth Walker III who can shoulder a meaningful workload, given that Zach Charbonnet is expected to miss the start of the 2026 season after tearing an ACL in the playoffs. The Seahawks signed Emanuel Wilson to a one-year deal this week, but Robinson would offer a more consistent rushing performance and ably serve as the lead back in the rotation while Charbonnet recuperates.
Orlovsky: Kenneth Walker III can ‘100%’ change everything for Chiefs
There’s no doubting Jennings’ toughness, but he has yet to complete a full 17-game season as a pro. He entered the league as a 23-year-old in 2020, didn’t make his debut until the following season and is hitting free agency for the first time a few months before he turns 29, which isn’t a point where teams typically want to pay a premium to wide receivers. Jennings was also a third wideout for most of that time and has just one season over 700 receiving yards (a 975-yard effort in 2024).
This is Jennings’ best chance of cashing in after playing the past two years on a bargain deal worth just $11.9 million. He’s still likely to get a raise on that $6 million average he made from 2024 to 2025, but it’s probably going to include only one guaranteed season. With so many other options available, the league might wait out these receivers for a while.
Why is he still available? Wear and tear. Perpetually either the best or among the best yards-after-catch creators in football, Samuel is rarely seen at 100%. He has managed to regularly stay on the field over the past three years, missing just five games over that span, but he has been limited to a sub-50% snap share five more times over that span, including once in the postseason.
Samuel’s first-team All-Pro performance in 2021 — when he averaged 18.2 yards per catch, scored more rushing (eight) than receiving (six) touchdowns and racked up 1,770 yards from scrimmage — is a clear outlier. He has never topped 900 receiving yards in any other pro campaign, and he has topped six touchdowns from scrimmage just once across his six other pro seasons, when he scored 12 times for the 49ers in 2023.
The 30-year-old has issues with fumbles and drops, but he’s still a valuable playmaker in the right offensive scheme, where his ability to run away from defenders on crossing routes and run through them on screens would be a valuable addition.
At his peak, Njoku was able to create after the catch as part of the many multi-tight end sets the Browns ran under coach Kevin Stefanski. Cleveland moved him around a bit to create mismatches, but Njoku was usually best as an inline tight end, which might limit his flexibility for teams that do want to run 12 and 13 personnel more often in 2026.
The 2017 first-round pick will be taking a pay cut from the $13.7 million he earned annually on his last contract, and he has battled knee issues throughout his career. But in a league in which the bar is so low for tight ends who can make an impact as a receiver, Njoku should still attract interest.
Where he could fit: Baltimore Ravens. While Mark Andrews was re-signed to be the move tight end in Baltimore, the Ravens lost Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar over the first week of free agency. The Ravens signed Durham Smythe to help fill in for Kolar, and I wouldn’t be surprised if general manager Eric DeCosta used a Day 3 pick on a blocking tight end to develop over the next few years. But Njoku would be taking over for Likely here as the second tight end in Baltimore’s offense.
Walker, a three-year starter in Green Bay, was the latest young left tackle to hit the market. He is coming from a better offense and hasn’t missed a game since taking over as the starter on Jordan Love’s blindside in 2023. At 26, Walker had every right to expect that he would earn one of the largest deals in free agency. My expectation was that his deal could come in as high as $25 million per season, and ESPN’s Seth Walder projected Walker’s new contract to average $21.8 million per year.
Walker might also be heading for a short-term deal. ESPN’s Adam Schefter spoke with ESPN Milwaukee earlier this week and suggested that Walker might need to settle for a one-year deal before hitting free agency again in 2027. It looks like the significant market that many anticipated for Walker — myself included — never really materialized.
Where he could fit: Detroit Lions. A reunion with the Packers would make sense for both sides, but if Walker is going to leave for another team, the most obvious opening left on the board is in Detroit.
Why is he still available? Penalties. Taylor is a good pass-blocking tackle, as he ranked 15th, 17th and seventh in pass block win rate across his three seasons in Kansas City. He hadn’t missed a single game to injury during his pro career before an elbow injury cost Taylor the final five games of the 2025 season. While he turns 29 in November and isn’t really an option to play on the left side of the line, he has the sort of résumé that should earn him a meaningful third contract.
The only issue? He has committed 92 penalties since entering the NFL in 2019, 19 more than any other player. His 35 holding penalties are 10 ahead of second-place Garett Bolles, and the only player with more false starts than Taylor’s 31 is Laremy Tunsil (44). The league placed an emphasis on lining up at the line of scrimmage and started to flag Taylor for illegal formation during his time with the Chiefs, as he took 10 of those calls over three years in Kansas City.
Veteran guards can end up having itinerant back halves, perpetually plugging holes as reliable options on one-year deals. Teller appears to be entering that part of his career. He can still be a useful contributor in the right offense.
Daniel Oyefusi discusses the Browns’ overhaul of their offensive line.
And while Cousins tore an Achilles with the Vikings in 2023 and was ignominiously benched in the middle of a streak of interceptions during his debut year with the Falcons in 2024, the veteran returned to the lineup to replace the injured Michael Penix Jr. in 2025 and played passable football, posting a 47.6 Total QBR across 269 pass attempts. Cousins was unlucky to spend most of that time without top wideout Drake London on the field; Cousins’ Total QBR rose to a more respectable 57.1 mark with London between the lines in 2025, which was right where Jaxson Dart and Jared Goff finished over the full campaign.