2024 NFL Free Agency: 6 pending free agents on offense who deserve to get paid

• Mike Evans has earned himself a raise: At 30 years old, whether it’s with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or another suitor in free agency, Evans has consistently shown no signs of slowing down and is deserving of a big payday.

• Tee Higgins is still set to be a desirable free agent: Even after a down year in 2023, Higgins has a high-end body of work and is young enough that he’s going to be among the most sought-after wide receivers.

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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

With NFL free agency right around the corner, plenty of star players are set to receive new contracts both big and (relatively) small. Several players on the offensive side of the ball truly deserve one of those larger contracts, and they’ll be highlighted here.

These are players who deserve to be paid among the top 12 highest-paid players at their position during this free agency cycle based on their body of work thus far in the NFL.

WR Mike Evans

No pending free agent heading into this year’s free agency period has a better and more consistent body of work than Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans, who has posted 10-straight seasons of at least 1,000 receiving yards. Even at 30 years old, he’s among the best players at his position and has shown no signs of slowing down in recent years. Evans even received his best PFF receiving grade (83.2) since 2019 and posted his most receiving yards since 2018 this past year while his 13 receiving touchdowns tied for the league lead and accounted for 65% of the Buccaneers scores through the air. 

Over the past three years, he’s finished among the top-15 wide receivers in PFF WAR (wins above replacement) in each season, and his 33 regular season receiving touchdowns since 2019 are tied for the most with Davante Adams. The Las Vegas Raiders receiver serves as a great comparison because he's another wide receiver in his 30s who signed a significant contract that put him among the highest-paid receivers in the league at $28M per year. Should Evans get even five million less than that per year, as predicted in PFF’s free agent tracker, he would still be among the 10 highest-paid players at his position in annual salary. For teams looking to win now and in need of a star at the position, Evans should be the player at the top of those team’s free agent list.

Mike Evans 2023 ranks among wide receivers:

WR Tee Higgins

Unlike most names on this list, 2023 was a significant down year for Higgins, which can be viewed as concerning, but there were also injury reasons for his unproductive year, both to himself and his star quarterback. When looking at Higgins’ body of work through his rookie contract, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if 2023 turns out to be an outlier in a strong NFL career. Through his first three seasons, Higgins posted at least 900 receiving yards each year with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons heading into 2023. Unfortunately, Higgins managed just 656 receiving yards across 12 games this past year — five of which were without Joe Burrow under center.

Higgins was a top-15 wide receiver according to PFF WAR in 2021 and 2022 before this down season in 2023 and when using his efficiency metrics across his career, including 2023, he still ranks among the best in the league at just 25 years old. Whether he re-signs with the Cincinnati Bengals or finds a new home, Higgins should be considered among the very best the 2024 free agency class has to offer. He is projected to earn about $21M per year, according to the PFF free agency tracker, which would put him among the top-10 paid players at his position.

Tee Higgins ranks among wide receivers since entering the league (2020):

C Lloyd Cushenberry III

While most don’t necessarily associate the center position with “getting paid”, Cushenberry is currently projected to earn $14M per year, which would put him near the very top of the list at his position in annual salary. Cushenberry got himself in this position with a career-year in 2023, posting a top-three PFF pass-blocking grade at his position (76.4) along with a 72.4 PFF run-blocking grade (13th) and finishing as PFF's 10th-highest graded center in the league (73.3). His all-around ability to contribute as both a run and pass blocker allowed him to be the sixth-most valuable player at his position in 2023, according to PFF WAR.

Cushenberry played over 1,000 snaps in 2023, including 647 pass-blocking snaps, only allowing one sack and earning a 98.8 pass-blocking efficiency that ranked sixth among all interior offensive linemen. Dating back to Week 2 of the 2022 season, Cushenberry had a streak of 23 games without allowing a sack before that was broken in the last game of the year in 2023. There are several centers slated to hit free agency, but Cushenberry should arguably be considered the cream of the crop at just 26 years old and coming off of a career year.

OT Tyron Smith

The only thing standing in the way of a massive payday for Smith is that he’s 33 years old, so teams may not want to put a ton of cap dollars into what’s likely to be a short-term contract. With that being said, Smith proved that he is more than capable of being an excellent return on investment, posting the highest PFF pass-blocking grade (88.6) among all offensive tackles this season in a bounce-back year after missing time due to injury in 2022. He also posted a strong 70.5 PFF run-blocking grade (tied for 26th) and an 83.8 overall PFF grade that ranked fourth among all offensive tackles.

Smith allowed just 18 pressures in the regular season, which was the third-best mark among tackles who played at least 50% of their team’s snaps. He also allowed just one sack and earned a 98.1 pass-blocking efficiency score, which ranked second among qualifying offensive tackles. Smith was also the seventh-most valuable offensive tackle according to PFF WAR this season. While he’s wrapping up a huge eight-year contract, he may have just earned himself one more big payday before he calls it a career.

OG Kevin Dotson

Dotson played out the final year of his rookie contract with the Los Angeles Rams after being traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he fit right in as a crucial piece of the offensive line, specifically, as a run blocker. Dotson was about league average in the run game during his previous years in Pittsburgh, but within the Rams’ duo-heavy system, he became one of the highest-graded run blockers in the league, posting an 88.8 PFF grade that tied for the best mark among all qualifying guards. Dotson also posted the third-highest percentage of positively-graded run plays among qualifying guards. 

Dotson ranked 12th among all offensive guards in PFF WAR this season — the second-straight season that he has finished among the top 15 at his position in that regard. Even without a dramatic improvement as a pass blocker, he still managed an 85.2 overall grade which ranked second among offensive guards in 2023. Dotson is currently projected to make around $17M per year, according to PFF’s free agent tracker, which would easily put him in the top five at his position (right guard) in annual salary.

QB Kirk Cousins

Cousins is set to be the clear top prize among this year’s quarterback free agent class, not too dissimilar from when he first signed with the Minnesota Vikings back in the 2018 offseason. Throughout his six-year tenure with the Vikings, Cousins has been among the top and most consistent quarterbacks in the league, earning the sixth-highest PFF passing grade (91.2) and seventh-highest overall PFF grade (92.0) among qualifying quarterbacks over that span.

While Cousins is currently projected to come in slightly below his current contract average annual value ($35M per year), he should still get a higher AAV than any free agent in this class thanks to the position he plays. At 35 years old and coming off a season-ending Achilles injury, once healthy, Cousins can still come in as the final missing piece for certain offenses in need of a quarterback, in order to compete in the playoffs.

Kirk Cousins ranks among quarterbacks since 2021 (regular season):