NFL Free-Agent Signings That We're Still Waiting to Happen

With the 2018 NFL draft in the rearview, many fans might believe their favorite teams are done adding players who can make immediate impacts. There are still free agents on the open market, but the good ones have been scooped up, right?

Well, not exactly. While the big names are usually signed during the first week of free agency, plenty of quality players can last until after the draft and into the summer. There is a stretch every offseason in which the free-agent signings slow down as teams evaluate what they can get—and what they have gotten—in the draft.

There are good players out there right now, and when you look at some of the team needs around the league, it's amazing this is the case. Some team-player pairings just seem like natural fits.

This is what we're going to examine here. We'll take a look at some potential signings that have made sense since the start of free agency March 14. We'll examine why each hasn't happened yet and why it should.

Johnathan Hankins to the Atlanta Falcons

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The Atlanta Falcons had one of the 2017 offseason's best signings in defensive tackle Dontari Poe. Adding him gave the defensive line another playmaker at the interior next to standout Grady Jarrett. Poe gave the Falcons tremendous push up the middle, and he finished the season with 39 tackles and 2.5 sacks.

However, Poe is now with the NFC South rival Carolina Panthers.

While the Falcons did add rookie defensive tackle Deadrin Senat in the third round of April's draft, they should look to add a player who is ready to start and to dominate right away. Atlanta is ready to win now, and adding free-agent defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins is the kind of move that makes too much sense not to happen.

Hankins is an elite defensive tackle who racked up 44 tackles and 2.0 sacks last season with the Indianapolis Colts. The 2013 second-rounder is also just 26 years old.

Signing Hankins earlier in the offseason would have proved difficult, however, as Atlanta was looking at little cap space. The Falcons gave quarterback Matt Ryan a five-year, $150 million deal this month, though, which reduced his 2018 cap hit by around $4 million.

Atlanta now has $6.4 million in cap space.

The Falcons would still have to get a little creative to sign Hankins—either by restructuring another deal or signing him to a back-loaded contract—but the pairing is a realistic possibility. Hankins could replace Poe and provide Atlanta with another young piece to build around long-term.

Ron Parker to the Cleveland Browns

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The Cleveland Browns ranked 19th in pass defense with an average of 230.2 yards per game allowed last season. However, this statistic is a little skewed because several opponents were just looking to grind out the clock in the second half. The team's pass defense was actually worse than its rank would indicate.

This is why Cleveland has been looking to remake its secondary. It signed cornerbacks E.J. Gaines and T.J. Carrie in free agency. It traded for Damarious Randall, who will be moving to safety, and drafted Denzel Ward with the fourth overall pick.

Cleveland should continue adding to the secondary by signing free-agent safety Ron Parker.

Parker will turn 31 in August, which may be why he is still available. However, he's an experienced safety who has started at least 15 games in each of the past four seasons. In 2017, he finished with 67 tackles, four passes defended and two interceptions.

Adding him would make a ton of sense, as Cleveland could use depth at safety as an insurance policy in case Randall's move to free safety—he played the position in college—doesn't go as planned. New Browns general manager John Dorsey should be familiar with Parker from his time in Kansas City, so making this happen shouldn't be difficult.

There are two reasons why it hasn't taken place yet. Cleveland likely wanted to get through the draft first—it may have ended up with a guy like Minkah Fitzpatrick instead of Ward had it traded down from No. 4—and it needed to get a look at Randall at safety.

Even if Cleveland is confident in the former Green Bay Packer, it should grab Parker for his experience and for depth.

Julius Thomas to the Seattle Seahawks

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For too long, the Seattle Seahawks have relied on quarterback Russell Wilson without providing him with the proper support. Wilson has essentially been the offense over the last couple of seasons, and the lack of high-end offensive players around him has led to an alarming 248 sacks since 2012.

Adding first-round running back Rashaad Penny at No. 27 should help take some of the pressure off Wilson, who led his team in rushing last season. Unfortunately, the Seahawks also said goodbye to two of his receiving targets in free agency: Paul Richardson and tight end Jimmy Graham.

Losing Graham should be especially disappointing, as he was a reliable go-to in clutch situations and in the red zone. Graham produced 520 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Seattle didn't want to spend big to retain the 31-year-old tight end, though, and Graham landed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Packers.

Seattle added Will Dissly in the fourth round of the draft, but he's more of a blocking tight end. This is why adding a veteran receiving tight end like Julius Thomas makes sense.

Injuries and some questionable quarterback play limited Thomas' production with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins. However, when he was with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, he recorded back-to-back 12-touchdown seasons (2013-14).

Wilson is the kind of quarterback who can help Thomas return to Pro Bowl form. No, we're not saying Wilson is as good as Manning was in his prime, but he is an elite signal-caller nonetheless.

Seattle likely wanted to see what it could do in the draft before turning to the free-agent market for a new tight end. With Thomas still available, the Seahawks should make a move. The 6'5", 256-pound tight end would give Wilson a big red-zone target, and joining Seattle would allow Thomas to thrive again.

DeMarco Murray to the Indianapolis Colts

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Just like the Seahawks, the Indianapolis Colts have done a poor job of supporting their quarterback. When healthy, Andrew Luck is one of the best signal-callers in the NFL, but questionable offensive line play and a lackluster running game have left him susceptible to hits.

That is why Luck suffered his shoulder injury in 2015, and the subsequent rehabilitation left him sidelined for all of 2017.

Indianapolis bolstered the offensive line this offseason by scooping up guard Quenton Nelson in the first round at No. 6 overall. The Colts also used fourth- and fifth-round pics on running backs Nyheim Hines and Jordan Wilkins, respectively.

The two rookies have potential, but it wouldn't hurt for the Colts to add some proven talent at the position after they let Frank Gore—who just turned 35—leave in free agency. This is where DeMarco Murray comes in.

At 30 years old, Murray is in the back half of his career. However, he is still a capable part-time back and a quality pass-catcher. While he only averaged 3.6 yards per carry in 2017, he provided the Tennessee Titans with 659 yards on the ground, 39 receptions and seven total touchdowns.

Murray also played two years in the AFC South.

If Hines and Wilkins end up as Marlon Mack's backups, the Colts will have one year of NFL experience at the running back position. There are positives with a young backfield, of course, but Indianapolis would be wise to bring in an experienced pass-blocker to help protect Luck.

Just two years ago, Murray was the second-best pass-blocking back in the league, per Pro Football Focus.

Naturally, the Colts wanted to see the draft unfold before they turned to the free-agent market—Saquon Barkley might have been on the table, after all. Now that it's passed, Indianapolis and Murray should get together.

The Colts would add a back who can protect Luck, run hard and catch passes. Murray would potentially get another starting opportunity. 

Lawrence Timmons to the Pittsburgh Steelers

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Linebacker Lawrence Timmons is another player the Dolphins decided to part with this offseason. The Pittsburgh Steelers should strongly consider bringing him back to help replace Ryan Shazier, who's out for 2018 with a back injury.

Timmons might have just turned 32 years old, but he is still a productive linebacker. In 14 games with the Dolphins last season, he amassed 84 tackles and three passes defended. In 2016 with the Steelers, he racked up 114 tackles, 2.5 sacks, five passes defended and two interceptions. He clearly knows the system of Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Keith Butler and can thrive in it.

So why didn't the Steelers jump at the chance to add Timmons? They almost certainly wanted to see what they could get in the draft, likely believing the 11-year veteran would remain available because of his age.

In the first round, Pittsburgh selected linebacker/safety Terrell Edmunds at No. 28. Though Edmunds is raw, he has the quickness and change-of-direction skills to be a sideline-to-sideline defender similar to Shazier.

Pittsburgh has already been experimenting with the rookie.

"I played...a lot of safety [and] a few of the linebacker positions," Edmunds said after the first practice of rookie minicamp, per Chris Adamski of TribLive.com. 

Edmunds will need time to develop into a dependable NFL defender, but Timmons is the kind of player who can contribute right away. Rejoining the Steelers would put him in his best situation to excel. This is a reunion that has to happen.

Elvis Dumervil to the New England Patriots

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The New England Patriots came into the offseason with plenty of needs. A legitimate edge-rusher is one of the biggest. While the Patriots did amass 42 sacks in 2017 (tied for seventh-most), much of the production came via the blitz. No one defender logged more than 6.5 quarterback takedowns during the regular season.

After losing both offensive tackle Nate Solder and cornerback Malcolm Butler in free agency, however, pass-rusher wasn't the top priority in the draft. In fact, New England didn't even add an edge-rusher, so it should turn to the open market.

Yes, New England added Adrian Clayborn, who had 9.5 sacks in 2017 with Atlanta. We need to remember, though, that six of those sacks came in one game against a Dallas Cowboys team that refused to adjust to him. Clayborn is not going to make New England's pass rush an elite unit all by himself.

This is why the Patriots should scoop up veteran linebacker Elvis Dumervil.

While Dumervil is 34 years old and is strictly a situational pass-rusher at this point, he can help New England's pass rush. He didn't make a single start with the San Francisco 49ers last season but still finished with 6.5 sacks. That's the same number Patriots sack-leader Trey Flowers produced.

New England has made a habit of extending the careers of veteran players by giving them specific roles. It did this when it took a chance on then-39-year-old James Harrison late in the 2017 season after the Steelers cut him. Dumervil is younger and can be more productive as a situational pass-rusher.

This is the kind of late-offseason value pairing that would make a ton of sense.

Dez Bryant to the Washington Redskins

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The Dallas Cowboys decided to part with star wide receiver Dez Bryant after the start of free agency, which may have prevented teams who had already spent big from pursuing him. Bryant made it clear that he'd prefer to make the Cowboys pay for letting him go.

"Dez walked out saying I'll see guys twice this year, I'm told," Mickey Spagnola of the team's official website wrote on Twitter. "So that's that."

While it's intriguing to think about Bryant on the New York Giants with Odell Beckham Jr., it would make sense for him to land with the Washington Redskins.

Washington is looking to contend in the NFC East behind new quarterback Alex Smith, who came over from the Chiefs in a mid-March trade. While Smith has some pieces to utilize—such as Josh Doctson, Jamison Crowder and newcomer Richardson—the 6'2", 220-pound Bryant is the kind of big-bodied outside threat the signal-caller could use as a security blanket.

Bryant isn't what he once was, but he was good enough last season to rack up 838 yards and six touchdowns on 69 receptions.

There are a couple of likely reasons why Washington didn't jump to sign Bryant as soon as he became available. For one, the Redskins probably wanted to see what they could add in the draft. Secondly, they may have wanted to let Bryant see what his market was before making an offer.

Fans likely remember when spending big in free agency was the norm, though it rarely yielded the desired results.

The market hasn't been bullish on Bryant, and the wideout turned down a multiyear offer worth roughly $7 million per season from the Baltimore Ravens, according NFL.com's Ian Rapoport. The belief is that Bryant would like the chance to improve his market value on a one-year deal.

Washington may be able to lure Bryant by giving him this opportunity and by offering him the chance to battle Dallas twice. Doing so would give him a shot at revenge and would give Smith a better chance to thrive in Washington.

*All contract information via Spotrac.com