Scouting the most important offensive players available in NFL free agency this year

Allen Robinson, Will Fuller, Chris Godwin, Cam Newton, and others headline a free agency class littered with big names.

The NFL offseason is fully upon us. Most fans — even Jaguars and Jets fans! (but not Texans fans) — can dare to dream that their team will make the right moves and push into contention for a run at the Super Bowl.

There’s no scouting combine in Indianapolis this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, so we’ll have to gather workout stats for draft prospects as they come out of on-campus workouts.

That leaves a lot of time to focus on free agency. It’s going to be an interesting year for that, as the salary cap has also been impacted by revenues lost due to the pandemic. The league has announced it will be no lower than $180 million, but that’s a far drop from $198 million for last year — especially since most teams plan as if the cap will continue to rise by about $10 million per year.

So market forces are going to make contracts look a little different this year. What won’t change: teams have a real chance to make franchise-altering signings.

Some of the players listed below could end up being tagged and forced to stay where they are. Teams can start using franchise or transition tags on Feb. 23 and have until March 9 to do so.

After that, the “legal tampering” period runs from March 15-17, so we’ll hear about deals being agreed to then, and the new league year begins on the 17th, allowing deals to be officially signed.

Today we’re taking a look at the top offensive players available, and this class has everything: A ton of star receivers, talented quarterbacks with question marks, a few stud offensive linemen, and even over-the-hill running backs!

Here are the players to stay focused on in free agency on the offensive side of the ball.