Believe it or not, it’s time to start thinking about Free Agency. The beginning of the Free Agent Signing Period starts at midnight on February 29th. These rankings were comprised regardless of free agent status (i.e. Restricted or Unrestricted) but the status is indicated as “RFA” for “Restricted Free Agent” and “UFA” for “Unrestricted Free Agent” to the right of the player name. The definitions of each are as follows:

UFA: A Player who has at least four years experience at the expiration of a contract can sign with any team with no compensation to his former club.

RFA: Restricted free agents have three years of experience at the end of their contracts and must be tendered an offer sheet before April 15. The player's current club has seven days to match the offer, or the player's rights revert to the team that tendered the sheet. Teams are awarded compensatory draft picks based on the quantity and quality of restricted free agents it loses to other squads in the previous year's free-agent period.

Top Five Free Agent Kickers

1. Rob Bironas – RFA- His 35 converted FG’s on the year led the NFL.

2. Josh Brown - UFA- One of the most consistent performers in the league despite playing in Seattle weather that is unfriendly to kickers.

3. Jason Elam - UFA- Has made a career of manipulating Denver’s altitude in his favor.

4. David Akers - UFA- 24 FGM in 2007 was his most since 2004.

5. Lawrence Tynes - UFA- Lucky for him, no one outside of Queens will remember the first two kicks he missed in the NFC championship game a month from now.

Best of the rest:
6. Shaun Suisham - UFA


Top Five Free Agent Punters

(No commentary here. Punters have about as much resale value as a used cigarette butt and are probably less respected. Sorry if one of these guys is your dad.)

1. Jeff Feagles- UFA
2. Michael Koenen- RFA
3. Mitch Berger- UFA
4. Kyle Larson- UFA
5. Todd Sauerbrun- UFA