It’s a buyer’s market at safety again this offseason.
There was a glut of veteran safeties hitting the market when the free-agency negotiating window opened on Monday. A total of 24 who could be considered full-time starters last season were available for signing.
While the top half dozen safeties landed big deals, the glut means the going rate for most of the veterans looking for new spots will be depressed.
That is the way it often has played out for safeties in free agency in recent years.
Bills Ravens second (copy)
Bills safety Damar Hamlin, tackling Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson in a playoff game Jan. 19, faces a buyer’s market in free agency at the safety position. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
We’ll see what that means for Damar Hamlin’s job search. He started 17 games for the Buffalo Bills, counting playoffs, in establishing himself as a first-unit player in 2024. There arguably were at least a dozen safeties entering free agency who were ahead of Hamlin in the pecking order.
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The sports financial site Spotrac estimates Hamlin’s market value at $3.1 million.
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The Bills are not in position to pay Hamlin starter money because they invested a second-round draft pick in Cole Bishop in April. Bishop must be given every chance to win the starter spot next to Taylor Rapp this summer. Returning to Buffalo as a backup is not likely to be Hamlin’s Plan A or B.
The top safety on the market was Miami’s Jevon Holland, a four-year veteran with 58 career starts. Early Tuesday he agreed to terms on a deal with the New York Giants that will pay him $15 million a year, according to ESPN.
Among other big safety names on the market who are both young and proven who came to terms on deals were Minnesota’s Camryn Bynum (who landed with the Colts), San Francisco’s Talanoa Hufanga (who landed with the Broncos) and Washington’s Jeremy Chinn (who landed with the Raiders).
Among the 24 starters whose contracts were up is ex-Bills safety Jordan Poyer. He gave Miami capable play last season on a one-year deal, but he turns 34 in April.
A total of 10 safeties agreed to terms in the first 24 hours of the free-agency negotiating window.
The Chiefs were poised to lose Justin Reid, who started the last three seasons and gave them high-caliber play on the back end. Kansas City opted to re-sign budding star linebacker Nick Bolton to a $15 million-a-year deal in the hours before the free-agency window opened. That deal virtually assured the Chiefs wouldn’t carve out enough cap space to retain Reid, who ranked close to Holland in value entering the open-market period.
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