2017 NFL Free Agents: Latest Rumors and Predictions After Week 17

With the 2016 NFL regular season over, a number of fans will begin looking toward the offseason with their favorite team no longer playing. 

The close of Week 17 will also likely bring more action in the rumor mill as this year’s free agents contemplate their futures.

Below are updates for four of the top players available this winter and predictions for where they may or may not sign.

Terrelle Pryor and Jamie Collins

The Cleveland Browns will likely have to decide whether they want to keep Jamie Collins or Terrelle Pryor, both of whom are set to hit free agency.

Collins and Pryor have both said they’d be willing to re-sign with the Browns, who finished 2016 with the worst record (1-15) in the league. In affirming their willingness to stay in Cleveland, though, they indicated money will be a factor in their decisions.

“(Losing is a deterrent) but at the same time, money comes into play around that time,” Collins said, per Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. “If the money is right, then I could stay here. Obviously, I’m not going to turn it down.”

Pryor offered a similar sentiment, per Cabot:

Like I said before, I have the utmost respect for Hue (Jackson), but at the end of the day, it’s got to make sense for both sides. That’s the only thing I know about contracts, it’s got to make sense. I love to play for Hue and I played my hardest and I’m getting more experience as I go and there’s things I could do better obviously and we all can. But that’s just the thing were striving for, as LeBron, his mantra is: strive for greatness.

I love to play for him and I enjoy playing for him this year and I’d love to play for him longer. But at the end of the day, it’s got to come down to what my agents think is right for me.

Cabot wrote that the Browns are hopeful they can re-sign Collins and Pryor, but they only have one franchise tag. She added that Pryor is likely to get interest as a No. 1 wide receiver should he hit the open market.

According to Spotrac, the Browns have the most cap space—a little under $108 million—in 2017, so Cleveland could hypothetically have enough to keep Collins and Pryor, even if they become unrestricted free agents.

The Browns have a number of areas to address, though, so executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown may want to spend that money elsewhere.

Cleveland’s best decision would be franchise-tagging Pryor and letting Collins test the market. The 2017 NFL draft has a number of talented outside linebackers, whereas finding a wide receiver who could replace Pryor would be more difficult.

Also, the Browns will either be starting Robert Griffin III or a rookie at quarterback in 2017, so it will be …

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