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NFL free agency is finally near, and there may be no position that is more fascinating this offseason than safety. Teams spent the last week or so cutting safeties like it was going out of style in an effort to clear salary cap space, and it’s clear the position has become somewhat devalued as teams move to more two-high defenses in an effort to slow down the deep passing game.
That’s led to a situation where there are just a ton of quality safeties available right now. Because this market is now so crowded, we’re expanding the list and looking at the top 20 (TWENTY!) available safeties below.
Man, that is some group. Every player on this list is at least rotational quality. Most of them are surefire above-average starters. A couple of them are Pro Bowl-caliber players, and Simmons, Poyer and Hyde are guys who are either or recently were annually in the All-Pro conversation.
This is a really good offseason to be in need of safety help in free agency — and probably not a very good offseason to be a free-agent safety. (Especially because, in addition to this group, there’s also Antoine Winfield Jr. and Kyle Dugger, who respectively received the franchise tag and transition tag from the Buccaneers and Patriots.) There has already been talk of how the market will be depressed and how many of these players will get paid less than what their skill level suggests they should.
That’s reflected in Spotrac’s contract projections, which see Curl land the largest deal, but one that would only make him the league’s sixth-highest paid safety in terms of average annual value (four years, $57.7 million, $14.4 million AAV). That’s followed by Simmons (two years, $22.2 million, $11.1 million AAV), McKinney (five years, $52.4 million, $10.4 million AAV), Stone (three years, $21.6 million, $7.2 million AAV), Byard (two years, $14.4 million, $7.2 million AAV), and Hyde (one year, $3.7 million).
The…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-free-agency-ranking-top-20-safeties-available-projected-contracts-best-team-fits-for-stacked-class/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2024-03-08 17:42:18
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