The NFL offseason is packaged hope. Say what you will about the league, but the NFL knows how to command attention. Sure it is easy during the season, with the weekly build-up to a slate of games, but the league might do some of its best marketing work in the late winter and early spring. How? By selling fans hope.
Hope in the form of incoming rookies via the draft, and hope in the form of franchise-changing veterans via free agency.
When the 2021 league year begins on March 17. some huge names are going to be on the open market. Players like Allen Robinson, Kenny Golladay, Trent Williams, Anthony Harris, and more. Fans will soak up very bit of information when this process begins, believing that one acquisition or two could be the difference between a 10-6 season and a Lombardi Trophy.
The NFL offseason is packaged hope, and we love every part of that process.
Yet some of the best franchises do their work on the “secondary” free agent market. While teams pay top-dollar for the big names, other organizations nibble around the edges of free agency and spread out smaller contracts to players that are flying under-the-radar. If that sounds like the kind of team you root for, then this is your kind of piece. Here are the most underrated players to watch on the defensive side of the ball when free agency begins.