What will happen with the Jets' remaining free agents?
As of today, the Jets still have 10 free agents who are unsigned. With no workouts going on, it's difficult to gauge interest, so it's harder than usual to know where these players stand.
Let's consider each of them in turn:
Kelvin Beachum - Beachum is a starter level player who will surely get a deal from someone with the Jets still not out of the running despite signing George Fant. This may depend on whether or not they draft a tackle at 11, but he should get a role somewhere.
Lac Edwards - The Jets supposedly don't have much interest in bringing in Edwards, who just wasn't consistent enough with them. At some point the Jets do need to bring in competition for Ian Berryman though and maybe they have a standing offer to bring Edwards back for the minimum if he can't do better elsewhere. If not, you'd expect Edwards to get a shot to compete for a role somewhere.
Ryan Kalil - A while ago, a rumor was circulating that the Jets were going to bring Kalil back for 2020, which strongly smelt like a fake leak. It's pretty obvious he'll re-retire and he probably wishes he stayed retired after last year.
Albert McClellan - McClellan will be 34 soon so he may have to retire as well if he can't find a job. With the Jets, he still looked useful on special teams but didn't last long before he got hurt.
Rontez Miles - Another special teamer getting up there in years, Miles - who has played his whole career with the Jets - still seems to have some value in that role and perhaps the chances of him returning on a cheap deal were reignited when the Marqui Christian deal fell through.
Ty Montgomery - Montgomery is probably a player who would turn down a chance to return to the Jets after they made out he was going to be a big part of their offense and then gave him no opportunities through no fault of his own. He'll probably look to rejuvenate his career on a minimum salary deal.
Bilal Powell - It looked like Powell would retire last year but he returned and, like Montgomery, was criminally underused. As with Miles, Powell has played his entire career with the Jets so he may not feel like trying to extend his career elsewhere.
Trevor Siemian - Siemian should be fully recovered from the ankle injury he suffered in his only appearance of last season, but would still need to prove that to teams. His body of work suggests he is worthy of being on a roster but the Jets opted to bring back David Fales which may suggest they're moving on from Siemian.
Demaryius Thomas - Thomas is probably the most valuable player on this list, although he might not cost much in the current market. The Jets might be wise to bring him back as a veteran presence, but he would surely jump at the chance to play for a contender.
Paul Worrilow - Another player who came out of retirement to join the Jets and probably wishes he didn't bother after spending most of the season injured. I doubt last year has rekindled his desire to get back into the league.
Key dates to note include April 27th. Players must be signed before 4:00pm ET on that date to count towards the compensatory pick formula, so some of the deals, especially for older players, could be delayed until then.
However, some teams may be eager to fill some positions with a stop-gap veteran in case they aren't able to fill all of their main needs in the draft.
It's also possible some veterans might avoid signing until later so they aren't forced to go through a full training camp, although it's likely the offseason program will be truncated anyway.
Finally, we could see some veterans signed after week one so that their salary isn't fully guaranteed. However, we say this every year and it never seems to happen these days. More likely, the increased cost of signing older minimum salaried players could mean that teams shy away from some of these players altogether, although the new veteran salary benefit could be used on a re-signed player.
Who do you think could or should be brought back, if anyone, from this list?