2025 NFL Free Agents: Predictions for Potential Offseason Targets amid Rumors
The final week of the 2024 NFL season is here, but for some, the campaign has effectively been over for a while now.
The New York Giants, for instance, were eliminated from playoff contention all the way back on Thanksgiving, and a number of teams have been knocked out of the race since. Their players and coaches might be running through the finish line, but their decision-makers are surely looking ahead at ways of improving their roster through the draft and free agency.
It will be a little while before the market really gets moving, but there are already some rumblings about some of the top players available. Let's dissect the latest buzz and predict what it means.
Vikings Keeping Sam Darnold?
When the Minnesota Vikings gave Sam Darnold a one-year, $10 million pact last offseason, they wanted him to be a viable place-holder until first-round rookie J.J. McCarthy was ready to take over. Darnold apparently had greater ambitions.
Rather than just be a bridge quarterback, Darnold has given Minnesota real reasons to consider him as a building block. He has played his way into the MVP race while giving the Vikings a chance to capture the NFC's top seed. He has also potentially tied his future to this team.
The Vikings are "open-minded about bringing him back for 2025," per ESPN's Kevin Seifert, who added that the "simplest and most probable route is the franchise tag." Darnold might covet longer term security, but getting a roughly $40 million salary to quarterback one of the league's top teams isn't a bad gig.
If Darnold isn't tagged, he should have chances to start elsewhere, though the market may not treat him as your typical MVP candidate, since the 27-year-old had never flashed anything even resembling his current form. One more season in Minnesota might be best for him, then, as convincing suitors—Vikings included—that his emergence is legitimate and sustainable could lead to a gigantic payday in 2026.
Prediction: The Vikings use the franchise tag to keep Darnold.
Tee Higgins Getting Too Expensive for Cincinnati?
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is tied for fifth in touchdown catches (10) and ranks 29th overall in receptions (69). If those numbers haven't jumped off your screen yet, this should give them that boost: He missed five games due to injury. In other words, despite having way less than a full workload, he has posted some of the league's best numbers at his position.
As Fox Sports' Jordan Schultz noted, Higgins has particularly perked up in the second half and is having the kind of run that could wind up pricing him out of Cincinnati:
Higgins, for what it's worth, sounds like his first preference would be to stay in Cincinnati. And the Bengals have obviously seen the impact he has on this passing game, giving quarterback Joe Burrow another top-shelf target and keeping defenses from throwing the kitchen sink at Ja'Marr Chase.
All of that said, Cincinnati already gave Burrow the bag and presumably could make Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback at any moment. There's only so much money to go around, and the Bengals can't invest all of it in their passing attack, particularly when their defense needs serious attention. Maybe they all figure out a way to make this work together, but it feels like the door will open for a receiver-needy suitor to swoop in and lure Higgins away.
Prediction: Higgins is franchise-tagged and traded to the Los Angeles Chargers.
D.J. Reed Wants Out?
Major changes could be coming to the New York Jets following the colossal disappointment that has been their 2024 campaign.
Veteran cornerback D.J. Reed apparently plans on being among those changes.
"I'm ready to go to free agency, bro," Reed told Go Long's Tyler Dunne. "I'm ready to see what's next for me."
The Jets, who presumably hoped that having a healthy Aaron Rodgers might catapult them into Super Bowl contention, have instead lost 12 of their first 16 games and were long ago knocked out of the playoff race. They fired their coach and general manager along the way and will obviously see more subtractions in the offseason.
Reed sounds more than ready to be one of them, and he shouldn't have trouble finding interest elsewhere.
Prediction: Reed signs with the Arizona Cardinals.