NFL Free Agency 

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Latest news on NFL free agency, covering NFL free agents, free agent signings, contract rumours, franchise tag and transition tag decisions, legal tampering, salary cap space, restricted and unrestricted free agents, trades, releases, extensions and compensatory picks.

NFL free agency is the annual marketplace in which players with expiring contracts can negotiate with any club, reshaping rosters across all 32 teams. A short legal tampering window lets agents and clubs agree terms before the new league year makes deals official. Hundreds of players change teams, and quarterbacks, edge rushers, wide receivers and offensive linemen usually command the biggest contracts.

Not every player reaches the open market. Unrestricted free agents have four or more accrued seasons, restricted free agents have three and exclusive-rights players fewer, while the franchise tag and transition tag let clubs hold on to a key player for a year. Extensions, trades and releases often remove top names before the market opens. The salary cap has grown beyond $300 million per team, yet restructures, void years and dead money still decide who can afford whom.

For players, free agency is often the one real chance to earn a long-term deal, and for fans it is a spring frenzy of rumours, reunions and surprise exits. Debates are constant: whether teams overpay veterans, how much of a contract is truly guaranteed, how compensatory picks reward clubs that lose free agents, and what tampering rules allow. Quarterback moves and big-name departures dominate the conversation, while bargain one-year deals shape depth charts.

Modern free agency began in 1993, when the White v. NFL settlement ended decades of restrictive rules that tied players to their clubs. Reggie White's four-year, $17 million deal with Green Bay made him the first high-profile free agent to change teams, and a salary cap system followed in 1994. The current collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFLPA runs through the 2030 season, so its rules still frame every offseason.

Our NewsNow NFL free agency feed brings together the latest headlines on free agents, signings, contracts, the franchise tag, cap space and trades from reliable sources. Whether you are tracking your team's offseason, the next quarterback move or the road to the NFL Draft, stay informed with continuously updated coverage.