newjerseynewsroom.com

BY DAVE RAGAZZO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Believe it or not, there are other free agents in the NFL besides Peyton Manning.

And although all the buzz is circling Manning and where he will continue his Hall of Fame career, there are plenty of other talented free agents looking for new teams starting today.

At 4 pm on Tuesday, free agents will finally be able to sign with teams. Every team in the NFL uses the free agency period to pick up a few players that they feel will make an impact right away.

The free agency period ends on April 20.

Besides Manning, there are other Pro Bowl caliber players that are looking for new homes. Take Mario Williams for example. It looks as if the Houston Texans may not resign Williams after they had to focus their concentration on resigning their star running back Arian Foster.

Williams, who missed most of last season with a pectoral injury, would make perfect sense for the New York Jets. One of the team’s glaring holes is a pass rusher and Williams is one of the game’s best.

Despite that, it has been reported by ESPN’s Rich Cimini that the Jets won’t be in the running for Williams, who could land himself the richest contract for a defensive player.

“Even though the Jets have a glaring need for a 3-4 OLB, they are expected to sit out the Williams sweepstakes,” Cimini wrote back on Feb. 19. “The primary reason is cap room.”

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Since then however, the Jets have created a little salary cap room to become players in free agency. The salary cap for the 2012 season will be $120.6 million. Cimini reported that Sanchez’s new contract extension freed up 6.4 million in cap space. They are expected to be about 13.5 under the salary cap for this season.

Let’s not forget about the Giants, who also have holes to fill. Even though they won the Super Bowl and don’t have as many issues as the Jets, they will still be in the running for some top new talent.

It has been indicated for about a month that third wide receiver Mario Manningham will be looking to go elsewhere next season. Manningham wants to go to a team where he will have a bigger role. He may see a nice raise from someone as he lives off his Super Bowl performance.

The Giants are also cutting ties with veteran running back Brandon Jacobs. This puts them in the position to pick up another running back to compliment Ahmad Bradshaw. Former Chargers running back Mike Tolbert would be a great fit and has already expressed interest in joining the defending champions.

“They’ve got a dynamic quarterback that puts the ball all over the field," Tolbert said of the Giants on SirusXM NFL radio. "He checks the ball down a lot to his running backs, which is something that I think I do very well is catching the ball out of the backfield. And then they had that 1-2 punch with [Ahmad] Bradshaw and [Brandon] Jacobs and without Jacobs there that kind of leaves a hole in the offense."