2026 Free Agency Depth
This year's free agency does not contain many stars. Perhaps not even many starters. How does that affect the Chiefs offseason?
Who can the Chiefs get in free agency this year? I have already written about the Chiefs’ salary cap situation. Spoiler alert: it’s tight. They have restructured Mahomes' contract and cut edge rusher Mike Danna on Monday, which gets them to just about under the cap. If they want to be players in free agency, they will need to make some more moves to clear up space.
So what does free agency look like this year? Is it a strong free agency class, or is it pretty slim pickings? Every year, PFF puts out a ranked list of its top 250 free agents. In that list, they include a projected contract for each player. Now, projections are just that, and will not be entirely accurate. Every year, it seems like these sorts of contract projections absolutely nail a couple of positions, where they get everything nearly perfect. There is usually at least one position that just flies off the rails, either way too high or way too low. Then there will be the individuals they are wrong about.
Despite these issues, these projected contracts can serve as a measure of player value for free agency. While they might be wrong about the specifics, the overarching themes shown in the projections shed light on how valuable a free agency class is seen to be. I took the projected APY for the top 100 free agents on the PFF list, compared it to the current highest APY for that position, and then calculated what percentage of that highest APY the projected APY equaled.