6 lingering NFL free agents who could take advantage of teams' rising desperation for big contracts

More than a billion dollars of contract value was splashed around in the first 12 hours of NFL free agency. While the days that followed struck most of this offseason’s top available players off the board, pockets of steady veterans at deep positions still remain.

We’re not talking about them today. We’re not bringing up the potential late-spring additions that could impact a team’s playoff run at a minimal cost. This is about the players teams, staring down a picked over marketplace and seeing few options, may be pressured into paying up for.

Between the franchise tag and the opening salvos of the legal tampering period, some positions have been reduced to role players in free agency. That’s not the case for robust safety and center markets, but it’s become the case at wideout and defensive tackle. As a result, general managers feeling the pressure to burn some of their NFL-record $255.4 million in salary cap space could give out big money contracts to players who may not have been pegged for top-of-class payouts.

These are the players who could wind up earning more than you’d expect when they come to terms on their new contracts this spring.