NFL free agency is set to begin today, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Jamel Dean is going to be a popular man when it does. Tampa Bay’s defensive back was ranked as PFSN’s top free agent cornerback.
Dean also compiled an 87.1 PFSN CB Impact Score. The designation of the top free agent cornerback is well deserved, so he should have a lot of teams pursuing him. With that in mind, we look at which teams those could be.
Green Bay Packers
Cornerback was arguably the weakest position on Green Bay’s defense in 2025, and ultimately, it cost them in the postseason. They rotated through Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine, and Nate Hobbs before taking a flier on Trevon Diggs at the end of the season.
Brian Gutekunst has not been shy about going to the top of the free agent market when he has what he considers a significant need. The issue with Dean is his age: He’s set to turn 30 during the season and is likely to have already played his best football.
The Packers are also in win-now mode after the trade of Micah Parsons last August. Dean had three interceptions in 2025, and that is more than Green Bay’s entire cornerback room, even if you include Carrington Valentine’s theft of Caleb Williams. Dean’s ball skills could prompt Green Bay to pursue the pending free agent.
New England Patriots
The Patriots have a war chest of salary-cap space and need to get back to the top of the mountain after falling just short in 2025. Christian Gonzalez is one of the best players at his position and was lights out in the postseason.
Dean could help form a dynamic duo for the Patriots’ defense, which should face several top passing offenses in the AFC in 2026. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen all still occupy the conference. That does not account for other players like Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, and CJ Stroud.
The moral of the story is that if you want to get back to the Super Bowl, you’re going to have to stop teams through the air. Adding Dean and his coverage prowess across from Gonzalez would give the Patriots’ defense a legitimate strength as they try to defend their conference title.
Arizona Cardinals
Will Johnson was one of Arizona’s top players on defense a season ago as a rookie, and he has some ball skills. The Cardinals’ defense as a whole, however, was pretty dreadful, and they are now starting from scratch after Jonathan Gannon was fired at the end of the 2025 season.
Dean could help form a dynamic duo in the secondary with Johnson, and that group could be lethal with Budda Baker patrolling the last line of defense.
If Dean wants to go to Arizona, he could be a building block for Mike LaFleur and his new program in the desert.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers’ defense was truly a revelation in 2025, held together by bubble gum and paper clips by the end of the season. The job Robert Saleh did was good enough to earn him the top job in Tennessee as coach of the Titans.
Now, Raheem Morris is taking over, and he’ll need some reinforcements. He’ll get some in the form of Nick Bosa returning from injury, but the 49ers’ secondary needs some help. Deommodore Lenoir was one of their best players in 2025, but he cannot be a one-man band. Adding Dean to that secondary could give Morris a dynamic secondary to work with while getting back Bosa and linebacker Fred Warner.
Important Dates in 2026 NFL Free Agency
The legal tampering period runs for 52 hours, opening Monday, March 9, at noon ET and closing at 3:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 11, just minutes before free agency officially begins.
During that window, teams can negotiate with the certified agents of players set to become unrestricted free agents. Verbal agreements can be reached and reported, but nothing is official yet.
For the first time, teams can recruit up to five players and speak with each for up to 1 hour via video or phone, rather than routing all contact through agents. The player’s agent must be present on every call. If a team wants to meet a player in person or have him visit a facility, that still must wait until free agency is officially underway.
Free agency officially opens at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 11, when the NFL’s new league year begins. That’s when contracts become official, not when they’re reported. The trading period also opens at that moment, allowing previously agreed-upon deals to be completed.
All teams must be cap-compliant by the 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline. The 2026 salary cap is set at $301.2 million, a $22 million increase from 2025.
Most of the market’s top players will have agreed to terms well before Wednesday afternoon. The tampering window exists to give that process structure. What’s new this year is that players themselves, not just their agents, can now hear directly from the teams pursuing them.
