Top 10 Free Agent Deals Of 2026

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Free agency is far from over — there remain quite a few notable names in our Top 100 Available Players — but 80 to 90 percent of the most impactful signings have already been made. The pace from here will slow to a trickle with four and a half months still to go before training camp and another month after that before Week 1. That makes this a good time to look at the best and the worst of this past free agency period. We’ll have the worst deals coming in another article later this week. For now, here are the signings that impressed me the most from last week. 49ers WR Mike Evans After spending a dozen years in Tampa Bay, Evans will become the latest in a long line of franchise legends to suit up for a different team. His contract was initially billed as a three-year, $60 million pact. The actual value is three years and $42.5 million — much, much less and a far greater win for San Francisco. The difference between that and the initial $20 million per year reports comes down to incentives. Those are classified as either likely to be earned (LTBE) or not likely to be earned (NLTBE) based on a player’s stats from the previous season. The latter don’t count against the cap, so teams usually try to structure all incentives as NLTBE. In Evans’ case, it was easy, as he’s coming off a down year due to injury with 30 catches for 368 yards and three touchdowns in eight games. If he has a similar output, the 49ers will be out $14 million and the signing will be a swing and a miss. That would be disappointing but it’s still less risky than some of the other receiver investments made this offseason. Titans WR Wan’Dale Robinson , Patriots WR Romeo Doubs and Seahawks WR Rashid Shaheed all got between $23 million and $38 million fully guaranteed at signing. Even Falcons WR Jahan Dotson got $10 million in guarantees. Evans may be turning 33 in August but he’s still got far more of a proven track record than any of these players. The 49ers are betting that last year was an aberration due to injuries, and that Evans is far more likely to get back to his formerly productive ways when he had 11 straight 1,000-yard signings. If he plays a full season as the top receiver in HC Kyle Shanahan ’s offense, would it really be all that surprising for Evans to be the most productive free agent receiver signed in 2026? If he maxes out all of his incentives and the 49ers are paying him $20 million next year, everyone will be thrilled. Panthers LT Rasheed Walker As a rule, teams will usually fall over themselves to secure even a baseline level of competency at offensive tackle. Protecting the quarterback is one of the most fundamental tasks for every offense and also one of the most challenging given the surplus of freaky pass rushers and lack of NFL-ready offensive linemen coming from the college ranks each year. There aren’t 64 starting-caliber tackles in the NFL, even before the inevitable injuries that thin the herd. This point seems to get illustrated annually. Last year, the Titans gave relatively anonymous former fourth-round OT Dan Moore Jr. $20 million a year with $50 million guaranteed. He had never finished in the top half of PFF’s tackle grades but he’d started 66 games in his first four seasons. The Jaguars signed Cole Van Lanen to a $17 million average salary with $32.5 million because of a string of solid starts after he was pushed into the lineup due to injury, even though he was a former sixth-round pick on his second team with just three career star…