2015 NFL Free Agency: Five best players still free agents

There are a few distinct phases every year in NFL Free Agency.

First, there is the initial rush. That’s when the biggest names and hottest free agents get signed. They demand the most money, get the largest contracts and garner the biggest headlines.

This year featured names like Ndamukong Suh, Darrelle Revis and Julius Thomas.

The next phase doesn’t cost a team as much. The players aren’t in as much demand, but they still often bring a lot to the table. They cost less and often the contracts are shorter. Sometimes that’s because they are older, sometimes because they were backups and sometimes because they were injured.

Guys like Jordan Cameron, Frank Gore and B.J. Raji were among this season’s crop. Sometimes these guys represent some real bargains, if they can avoid the issues which made them risky in the first place. Normally, the risk isn’t as high as the potential reward.

Take Jordan for example—his two-year, $15 million deal isn’t so big that if he continues to have concussion issues, the Cleveland Browns are tied up in an unbelievable amount. However, if he stays healthy, they got him at what could be a relative bargain.

The last phase is a long one and just sort of drags on. It contains any other player who hasn’t found a new home and you can say it drags on either until the draft or until the start of the season.

Call it the ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ phase.

The guys left for this all have some aspect of their game or situation which has turned teams off or at least kept teams from running out to sign them. It could be personality, it could be limitations of their skill or it could be bad timing, as their position group isn’t in high demand.

Whatever the reason, here they sit waiting for the phone to ring and a contract to land in front of them to sign. There are a lot of these guys of course and we’ve put together a list of the five best.

Next: Michael Crabtree