The NFL free agency period begins this week, with teams attempting to re-sign current roster members or sign new ones. In the lead-up to all of that officially occurring, getting under the salary cap is essential.
When it comes to that, there are a handful of teams that are currently in a good position to spend this offseason. Among them are the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Jets, who also happen to hold the top two picks in April’s NFL Draft.
As it stands, the Raiders lead the way with $111.9M in cap space. They're followed by the Tennessee Titans, who have $92.7M cap space, and the Commanders, who have $87.6M space.
Rounding out the top five teams are the Los Angeles Chargers at $75.3M and the Jets at $73.9M, with The Athletic showing which teams could be aggressive this week.
With Las Vegas, they're expected to draft Indiana's Fernando Mendoza as the No. 1 pick. With that, they'll look to get some protection for Mendoza with a starting offensive lineman for the interior and right tackle.
The Raiders recently traded their defensive star, Maxx Crosby, so they'll probably need help there, too. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them add a plethora of talent to their roster as they look to draft a stellar QB in Mendoza.
As for the New York Jets, they were also in disarray this past season, leading to another disappointing record. They finished at 3-14 and will look to address their needs this coming week.
Most importantly, they want to build their defense to add safety, linebackers, and edge-rushers. There's also talk of getting a quarterback to bridge the gap until they get a better long-term solution.
The Miami Dolphins released their quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, today, and he could be an option. However, the Jets could also sign a veteran backup QB to fill the need.
Basically, all five teams mentioned above could use help, some more than others. The Titans are another struggling squad with a good quarterback in Cam Ward and could look to add further help to the roster, while the Commanders were once playoff contenders with Jaden Daniels at QB and want to regain that success.
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