Caleb Harris
Do you know what motivates players like anything else? Simply being in a contract year. It is the only time on which financial futures depend for hundreds of people across the world. NFL. Have an inactive contract year and you could be looking at the veteran’s grandfathered minimum or a cheap one-year “trial” contract.
Erupt into your contract year and you’ll be locking in a variety of multi-year deals with signing bonuses that eclipse all the money you’ve made to date.
Which players are destined to move up in their contract years this season in the NFL? Below I have listed my five favorites.
You will not find players who have already experienced a breakout. Franchise-tagged players were also not included.
This is the fourth year that I have written this article. And while all of my previous predictions weren’t correct, it’s clear that Jordan Mailata, DJ Reed, Josh Sweat, Bryce Huff, John Franklin-Myers, Dre’Mont Jones, and Tony Pollard were all “hits.”
Shaheed is technically an imminent restricted free agent, but every now and then, an RFA is signed to offer sheets by other teams and changes locations when the original team doesn’t match.
That could very well be Shaheed after the 2024 season.
As fun as Shaheed is on the field, I’ll continue to be upset that he didn’t get tested before the 2022 draft coming out of Weber State, because the guy breaks out deep.
A regular in Next Gen Stats’ fastest ball carrier metric, routinely topping over 21 mph and proudly carrying 16.3 yards per hurdle in 2024 after his first two seasons in NFLShaheed is quickly becoming an elite deep threat before our collective eyes, even with Derek Carr throwing him the football.
And, what’s amazing about Shaheed, he’s been incredibly efficient at catching his targets despite a long average depth of target of 14.1 yards, which was 15th highest among all qualified receivers in 2023. He’s reached almost 68% of his targets to date, and his five touchdowns on deep targets rank third in the league. NFL behind only Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans last season.
With the Saints only drafting a receiver in the fifth round – ironically another linear burner in Bub Means – Shaheed is among the top three receivers in New Orleans and with another efficient and explosive season, he will be sought after, even on the restricted free agent market.
Barnett was a top-20 pick in 2017. The fascinating thing about this is that he was only 20 years old when he was drafted, so despite being as household a name as someone instantly becomes a first-round pick, the former football phenom Tennessee Volunteers was a relative disappointment in Philadelphia. Yes, he played with the Eagles for over six seasons, but his career high in sacks is just 6.5.
The lights came on for Barnett after Houston harmlessly claimed waivers in late November. Under the tutelage of DeMeco Ryans, Barnett recorded 18 pressures on 110 pass rushes in the regular season (16.3% pressure creation rate) and four in the playoff win over the Browns before being nullified by the Ravens’ offensive line in the divisional.
Barnett will only be 28 this season, so while I won’t call him crazy if you think he is who he is at this point in his NFL career, he is literally a day younger than Bradley Chubb. There is still room for growth for this former first-rounder who battled a series of injuries early in what started out as a very promising career. In Houston, alongside Danielle Hunter, Barnett is in a luxurious position to receive a sizable payday next March (if not sooner, via an extension).
When we think of the Cowboys defense, we think of Micah Parsons. And since he’s on a first-ballot Hall of Fame trajectory, no one will blame you for him coming to mind before anyone else. Then there’s Trevon Diggs who, when healthy, has been a football magnet, with 18 interceptions in 46 career games.
This is the season we begin to recognize Odighizuwa as one of the true stars of Dallas’ vaunted defense as well. The former third-round pick played nearly 600 snaps in each of his first three seasons and set a career pressure record last season with 47 on 356 pass rush attempts.
At 6-foot-2, 280 pounds with an 84-inch wingspan, he often eats running backs for lunch between the tackles and displayed the same athletic gifts that made him a star at UCLA. With a lot of attention paid to Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, inside, Odighizuwa will see ample one-on-one scenarios. If he overcomes 50 pressures in 2024, which is completely doable for him, the money will come pouring in.
If you don’t pay much attention to the Jaguars, or maybe your favorite team isn’t in the AFC playing the Jaguars twice a year, the name Andre Cisco probably doesn’t mean much to you. But let me tell you, this is one of the top young safeties in football.
The former Syracuse star, whose final season with the Orange was cut short due to an early injury, has elite ball-tracking range. After experiencing the nightmare of the Urban Meyer experiment, which went about as well as the Stanford prison experiment, Cisco had three interceptions in 2022 and added four last season.
And he just turned 24 in March. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder is built like a strong, stocky safety, but glides onto the football field like he’s transitioning from center field on a Major League Baseball team. Don’t be surprised if Cisco’s interception total increases again, which will lead to a sizable new deal during or after his fourth season in Jacksonville.
Right now, Cosmi is probably the most underrated blocker in football. Never hear or read a word about him. But the high school tackle turned pro guard started strong as a rookie and has gradually improved since 2021 on the inside, closer to football.
He went from allowing a pressure on 6.1% of his pass-blocking snaps as a second-year NFL player two years ago to just 3.9% on a significantly higher number of snaps in 2023. And if you don’t remember, Cosmi is a absolute physical aberration. Sure, his pre-workout was at the Texas Pro Day, so not as verifiable as the Combine, but for the guard position, his 10-yard dash time was in the 95th percentile. His 40-yard dash time was in the 99th percentile. 117 inch distance…98th percentile. And 7.35 three-cone time, 92nd percentile.
He turned 25 in February. Cosmi is currently a non-domestic name blocker looking to get paid well. Very soon.
