The initial waves of free agency may have come and gone, but there are still some serviceable veterans available on the open market.
Most of these players are on the wrong side of 30 and have dealt with injuries and other issues in recent years, but they still have something left in the tank to offer their next employer.
While they haven't found homes yet, these aging vets should end up signing before the 2023 NFL season kicks off. Roster holes are sure to appear due to injuries and other unforeseen events during the training camp grind.
Although they may not be in the primes of their career anymore, these six free agents have the potential to outperform the expectations that come with the projected modest contracts they are likely to sign at this point in the offseason.
Teddy Bridgewater, QB
An NFL team wouldn't feel good about having Teddy Bridgewater as its starting quarterback at this point in his career, but the veteran has shown he's a capable backup who could take over in a pinch if called upon.
The 30-year-old did exactly that last year, stepping up for the Miami Dolphins after both Tua Tagovailoa and Skylar Thompson went down with injury. While he didn't win either of his two regular-season starts, he did complete a respectable 62 percent of his throws for 683 yards and four touchdowns on the year.
Injuries have been the unfortunate focus of Bridgewater's NFL story, including a devastating knee injury in 2016 that altered the course of his career, and continued to haunt him in 2022.
A concussion and hand injury cost him time and led to rookie Thompson becoming Miami's QB1 when Tagovailoa was out of the lineup. Regardless, Bridgewater showed he's still a capable game-manager when healthy following a middling 2021 campaign with the Denver Broncos in which he went 7-7 as a starter.
Bridgewater may not be taking his team to a Super Bowl, but he could hold the line if called upon as a second-stringer.
It's surprising that he's looking for a new deal right now, especially given the clear lack of proven signal-callers on the open market—Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan are some of the only other options and both fared far worse than Bridgewater in recent seasons—and the relatively cheap contract he would likely command.