Anyone who has gone shopping for Christmas gifts knows the value of a bargain. So do NFL teams. With how much organizations have to pay their top players, every single successful team has to find a handful of players who exceed expectations and outplay their contracts in a given season.
The most common way to do that is to draft talented prospects and develop them into impactful players while they're on their rookie deals. Brock Purdy is going to win the MVP award, and he's making $870,000 this season. Puka Nacua might be a first-team All-Pro wide receiver, and he's on the books for a base salary of $750,000. As long as the league is scaling rookie deals, cost-controlled young talent is going to underpin every successful franchise.
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Let's focus on the players who aren't just bargains because they're locked into low-cost contracts. It's harder to find veterans on the open market who can contribute for less than what other teams are paying for experienced players at those same positions. Finding those players can be transformative for your team; think about how the Eagles got superstar play out of cornerback James Bradberry last season, or how the Chiefs relied on Jerick McKinnon as a receiving threat down the stretch a year ago.
As I watched the games in Week 16, I kept noticing veteran bargains making plays and impacting games, and that led me to build a roster. Leaving aside players on rookie deals (so no Purdy or Nacua, among many others), undrafted free agents who aren't eligible for unrestricted free agency (which counts out Ivan Pace) and players on tenders (such as Bryce Huff) to strictly focus on players whose contracts were negotiable, I built a team of veteran bargains for the 2023 season. You probably can guess where it starts:
Jump to a position:
QB | RB | WR | TE | O-line
D-line | LB | CB | S | K/P
Quarterback
Joe Flacco, Browns
Contract: One year, $2.5 million
For a Browns team on second- and third-string tackles that can't run the ball and doesn't have the speed to scare opposing defenses, Flacco has been a godsend. Having a quarterback who can read the full field, work deep into his progression and make any throw has been a major upgrade on what Cleveland previously had under center this season. If Flacco was simply a live arm, that would have been an exciting addition.