Although many positions in the league lack pop, the linebacker free agency rankings help ease some of the pain caused by lackluster talent elsewhere. The position is a bit of a contradiction. Media and fans are continuing to devalue them, but linebackers would make more money on the franchise tag than any other position on the defensive side of the ball.
And that’s because the NFL, the only entity that really matters, can’t figure out that the game is in a much different place than it was 20 years ago, and today’s outside linebackers are primary pass rushers. They’re EDGEs.
In fact, because of the NFL’s buffoonery, any team wanting to tag an off-ball linebacker would be gifting them more money than Roquan Smith, who is the highest-paid true linebacker in the league.
2023 LB Free Agency Rankings
But back to the task on hand. Every linebacker inside the top five also ranks inside the top 50 of PFN’s top 100 free agents.
1) Tremaine Edmunds
Forget buying alcohol. Tremaine Edmunds could barely buy a pack of smokes when he entered the NFL from Virginia Tech. For the youngins out there, T21 wasn’t passed until 2019, a year after Edmunds was drafted. Before then, you could buy cigarettes at 18.
He’ll be just 25 when he enters his sixth NFL season in September. Naturally, as a member of the “not legally able to drink” club, he struggled a bit as an NFL linebacker. But if any of you saw what I was doing at 21, you’d be far less concerned with Edmunds’ play.
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In fact, there should be few concerns about his play at this point. Edmunds was fantastic in 2022. Playing linebacker at a high level takes a mental snap that is only natural to a few. It’s why most of the best linebackers in the league are second-contract guys or in their 30s.
Edmunds is a 6-foot-5, 250-pound monster running around at speeds that only about 60% of NFL receivers can hit. He’s still ascending as a linebacker, and because of his age, a team could legitimately see him as a decade-long option at the position, should he remain relatively healthy.
2) Lavonte David
Lavonte David is a better linebacker today than Edmunds, but he does not have a decade left in the league. In fact, PFN’s own Arif Hasan ranked Lavonte David the league’s second-best linebacker during this past season.
David has the exact mental trigger discussed in Edmunds’ blurb. Being a linebacker is a lot like being in the military. If you’re in the right place at the right time, you’re going to be alright. Do that with high-end athleticism, and you play the position like David, Demario Davis, and Bobby Wagner.
David is a menace in coverage. Few linebackers have a feel for passing lanes like David does in the Buccaneers’ single-high zone coverage scheme. It will be weird seeing him on a different team in 2023, but with Tampa Bay’s cap situation and a possible rebuild underway, paying a 33-year-old linebacker $15 million doesn’t seem like a business-savvy endeavor.
3) David Long Jr.
David Long Jr. is one of the more intriguing cases to track this offseason. With only one year of starting experience, it’s right to think he wouldn’t break the bank for teams looking for linebacker help in the offseason.
However, if his representation is smart, Long could back up a Brinks truck full of money to his house.
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He had an outstanding season in his first as a starter, and at only 26, he’s undoubtedly still growing the mental side of things. Whereas Edmunds really shines in coverage, Long resembles one of the old-school, downhill thumpers who rarely exist in this era. Except he possesses the athleticism to also be a plus coverage defender.
Any scheme that allows the undersized linebacker to play downhill and be responsible for a single gap should be looking at his services. He posted 18 pressures on only 47 pass-rush snaps, too. It’s a small sample, but he’s also flashed solid production as a blitzer.
4) Bobby Okereke
The more I watch Bobby Okereke, the more impressed I am with his game. With Shaquille Leonard missing nearly the entire season with a back injury, Okereke was the guy in Gus Bradley’s defense. While he was productive a season ago in Matt Eberflus’s defense, he shined in Bradley’s.
Not all linebackers are comfortable turning their backs to the QB in zone coverage to make it to a spot, which leads to a slow pedal or awkward half-turn into space that no receiver occupies. Okereke is comfortable enough to turn and burn, all while getting eyes on routes and back to the QB to find the ball.
He’s been a tackling machine over the past two seasons, but it’s his coverage prowess that will be getting Okereke the bag this offseason.
5) T.J. Edwards
Oh, an undrafted Wisconsin linebacker ended up being a good NFL player? Color me shocked…
Edwards had flashed in the past for Philadelphia, but he shined in his first season as a full-time starter for the Eagles. He plays a violent and cerebral brand of football not often seen in linebackers, who have continued to trend smaller and faster.
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He processes run-pass quickly and consistently remains gap sound in a defense that often struggled doing so against the run in 2022.
Although he hasn’t rushed the passer often in the NFL, he’s a Wisconsin linebacker. He had eight sacks in college, and if he’s deployed correctly, we could see Edwards have half a dozen next season.
Rest of LB Free Agency Rankings
6) Germaine Pratt
7) Leighton Vander-Esch
8) Kyzir White
9) Drue Tranquill
10) Alex Singleton