NFL Free Agency Rankings: Consensus top-100 players for 2026

I’ve made a consensus board of 14 different free agency rankings, which range from top-25s to lists that go on for hundreds of names. Why? Because I wanted to get a handle on what the perception of the 2026 NFL free agency class looks like, and I’m not sure there’s a singular data point that looks like the truth to me.

I’m going to pick on Pro Football Focus here because they probably have the best and most exhaustive list on the internet, but even their rankings are wonky at times. For example, they have offensive tackle Braden Smith, widely regarded as a top-20 free agent, ranked 105th this year. They also listed linebacker Quay Walker, a consensus top-40 player, 139th. In their top-350, a name that didn’t make the cut is cornerback Alontae Taylor, who is ranked 66th by our methodology (and that’s including him being docked for missing PFF’s board).

So, I figured, why not throw all these rankings in a blender to get a feel for what the “consensus” looks like?

Here’s how this consensus board works.

Here are the rankings I used:

2026 NFL Free Agent Rankings Used

And here are the results (with Green Bay Packers players being bolded):

Consensus Top 100 NFL Free Agents – 2026

Below are the positional splits for the top-200 players, along with some Packers-specific analysis.

Even after a torn Achilles, Daniel Jones is considered to be a top-five free agent on the market, which is a little surprising to me. Green Bay’s Malik Willis is the second-ranked quarterback and should net the Packers a fourth- or fifth-round compensatory draft pick in 2027, depending on whether he’s given an outright starting opportunity or if he’s going to be used as a bridge quarterback to push a young player. If Jones and Aaron Rodgers are retained by their original teams, which at this point is the expectation, then Willis be QB1 on the open market — at least until Kirk Cousins is released by the Atlanta Falcons.

I don’t think that the Packers will be in the running back market this year, because Josh Jacobs is highly likely to return as the starter, they have two backs who were on the 53-man roster that are restricted free agents (and could probably be re-signed for cheaper than the roughly $3.5 million tender), two backs on the practice squad with a pretty high pedigree and the staff seems to like 2024 third-round pick MarShawn Lloyd, despite his series of injuries.

Romeo Doubs is WR6 on consensus, but pay very close attention to the Alec Pierce contract. The Pierce contract will probably inform the Packers on what the market is for Christian Watson, as those two are probably the most similar players to each other that you can find in this league. If the Watson extension isn’t done until after Pierce signs his contract, I assume that the Watson deal will look pretty close to a copy-paste job of Pierce’s.

It’s the Kyle Pitts show at tight end this year. Atlanta should probably just tag him.

There is one (1) full-time starter looking for a second contract in this crop: Rasheed Walker. The scarcity at the position should help Walker get the $20.5 million per year (or more) that Dan Moore Jr. got last offseason. Walker’s going to get paid, and the Packers will likely get a fourth-round compensatory draft pick in return.

To no one’s surprise, there are a ton more guards available on the market than tackles or centers. I doubt Green Bay will be active here, since they just gave Aaron Banks and Anthony Belton, their projected starters in 2026, four-year contracts last year. Many moons ago, the Packers brought in Ed Ingram for a pre-draft visit, but they often bring in players with off-field or injury concerns that they have no interest in actually adding to the team. Ingram, drafted in 2022, was suspended at LSU after he was arrested for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a minor in 2018, an event that allegedly occurred in 2015, but was reinstated by the program when the charges were dismissed in 2019.

It is slim pickings if you’re not the team that wins the Tyler Linderbaum sweepstakes, and that has to be music to the ears of Neil Cornrich and NC Sports. For what it’s worth, Sean Rhyan just missed the cutoff here, as he ranked 202nd on the consensus free agent rankings. If the Packers aren’t going to Linderbaum, they might as well bring Rhyan back, since he at least won’t count against them in the compensatory pick formula. The center crop in the upcoming draft class needs a little time to cook.

Interior Defensive Linemen

This is another weak position group, even on the relative scale of this class. The DT2 is a 39-year-old who played less than 50 percent of his defense’s snaps, despite being active for every game last year.

If you want to know who is or isn’t a nose tackle, we broke some of that down here. After looking at the data, the under-30 nose tackles who make sense for Green Bay are really Roy Lopez (#173), Tom Settle (#181, but coming off a foot surgery) and Khyiris Tonga. I’m surprised more people don’t rank Tonga. PFF and Spotrac were the only publishers who even had him on their boards.

There are TONS of edge rushers set to hit the market for teams that are looking for depth or number two options. Because of the high volume of contributors at the position with expiring deals, Green Bay’s Kingsley Enagbare, who held his own as a three-game injury replacement starter in 2025, is 25th in the pecking order right now.

Pay no attention to the Bradley Chubb ranking. The Miami Dolphins just released him, and he wasn’t on most lists. He’ll almost certainly jump Enagbare if we ever do a post-first-wave-cap-casualty update.

I’ve been told confidently that Devin Lloyd is going to hit the open market this offseason. He is going to be viewed as the top player at the position after he earned AFC defensive player of the month in September of 2025 under defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, who got the best out of Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker in the second half of 2024 as the Packers’ linebackers coach. Behind Lloyd, it’ll be the trio of the young-ish Devin Bush, Nakobe Dean and Walker before the next tier of older players and subpackage players, like Sam linebackers for 4-3 teams, begin.

If the Packers swing in free agency, they almost always swing young (Marcedes Lewis, we will never forget you). If they want to swing big, both Watson and Woolen make sense. After that, the cornerback class gets a little weird, especially if Green Bay isn’t going to look at players 28 years or older, which they rarely do, especially at positions on the perimeter.

Green Bay doesn’t have an expiring contract at the position, but there are some former Packers on this list in Rasul Douglas (#74), Eric Stokes (#75) and Trevon Diggs (#118). Green Bay also had Asante Samuel Jr. (#127) in for a visit this season before Samuel signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Little birdies have told me the Packers made calls about Alontae Taylor and Cam Taylor-Britt near the trade deadline, but the two sides clearly didn’t agree on a price point. Taylor has cycled between being a slot cornerback and an outside cornerback throughout his rookie contract with the New Orleans Saints. The Cincinnati Bengals’ Taylor-Britt is currently recovering from a Lisfranc surgery that stems from an injury that he suffered in November when he was involved in a rollover crash at 3:21 am. Taylor-Britt was a backseat passenger at the time of the crash.

Four of Green Bay’s top five safeties are still under contract in 2025, with the exception being Zayne Anderson, who the team could probably retain for pretty cheap. It’s a great year to grab a spot starter at the position, but I don’t think the Packers will be very interested in spending cap space and cash to pay a veteran to watch Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Javon Bullard play football.