Today’s workouts, all courtesy of veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer (on Twitter):
Cincinnati Bengals
New Orleans Saints
New York Jets
Oakland Raiders
The Jets’ Tuesday workout schedule proved to be quite specific. Only one position was brought through for Jets brass in advance of the team’s Thursday-night game against the Browns.
Five tackles auditioned for Gang Green today, with Field Yates of ESPN.com tweeting Menelik Watson, Will Beatty, Cyrus Kouandjio, Cornelius Lucas and Chaz Green comprised the quintet.
New York already has Ben Ijalana on IR, and Kelvin Beachum entered the week with a foot injury. So did guard James Carpenter. However, both upgraded to full practices by Tuesday.
Watson and Kouandjio both went to camp with the Broncos. Neither former second-round pick made Denver’s 53-man roster, although Watson pocketed some additional money thanks to guarantees in his 2017 free agent contract with the team. He made seven starts with the 2017 Broncos.
Beatty is now 33 and hasn’t been an NFL regular since his run as the Giants’ left tackle ended after the 2014 season. He did play in one game for the Eagles last season and in six for the 2016 Giants, however, and is trying his hand at latching on with a team for another season.
A third-round Cowboys pick in 2015, Green started four games last season but experienced consistent trouble blocking Adrian Clayborn during the then-Falcons defensive end’s six-sack day. A four-year veteran, Lucas started one game for the Rams last season and worked out for the Texans last week.
Will Beatty is back in the NFC East. The former Giants offensive lineman has agreed to a one-year deal with the Eagles, according to Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). 
Beatty was one of the league’s better left tackles in 2014, grading out both as a quality run-blocker and pass-blocker, according to Pro Football Focus. In that season, PFF ranked him 14th overall out of 84 qualified tackles. Unfortunately, a pectoral injury cost him the entire 2015 campaign. And, in 2016, Beatty appeared in only six games.
This year, he worked out for the Jets, Saints, and, most recently, the 49ers, but did not sign with any of those clubs. The Eagles are now going to find out what the veteran has left in the tank.
The Eagles’ offensive line recently suffered a big blow when Jason Peters suffered a season-ending knee injury. Halapoulivaati Vaitai is now the starter at left tackle with Lane Johnson on the opposite site. Beatty figures to serve as bench support for both players along with reserve Taylor Hart.
Beatty, a second-round pick in the 2009 draft, spent eight years with the G-Men, including his lost 2015 season.
Today’s workout updates, with all links going to veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer’s Twitter account unless otherwise noted:
Green Bay Packers
Jacksonville Jaguars
San Francisco 49ers
The Vikings are wary of exposing Teddy Bridgewater to the slippery turf in London next week, sources tell Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. The QB says he’s ready to go, but Minnesota is taking the cautious approach and waiting until the post-bye game in Week 10 to put Bridgewater on the roster. Of course, the Vikings may still have a tough choice to make when it comes to whether they will actually put him on the field. Case Keenum has looked sharp since stepping in for Sam Bradford, so the team could opt to continue with him as the starter.
The Saints auditioned edge rusher Lamarr Houston earlier today, but he wasn’t the only notable NFL veteran to work out for New Orleans today. Here’s who the Saints looked at on Tuesday, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (all Twitter links), Adam Caplan (Twitter links), and Howard Balzer (all Twitter links):
Beatty is perhaps the most high-profile name of the bunch, as the veteran offensive tackle 63 career starts under his belt (all for the Giants). Having served as a backup last season, Beatty would presumably play right tackle for the Saints, who are down to Senio Kelemete on the right side following starter Zach Strief‘s MCL sprain. Ola, too, would give New Orleans depth along their front five, although he doesn’t offer nearly the experience that does Beatty (only 19 starts).
As Caplan noted, the Saints essentially worked out the majority of the top free agents on the defensive side of the ball, and that comes as no surprise. Despite throwing free agent funds and draft picks at its defense, New Orleans ranks dead last in yards, 31st in scoring, and 31st in DVOA through two weeks.
Douzable, Howard, Jean-Francois, Johnson, and Langford have all served as quality starters in the very recent future, and Douzable (49ers), Howard (Bears), and Jean-Francois (Packers) have each signed contracts earlier this offseason only to be released later. Wilson, meanwhile, repeatedly bounced on-and-off the Bears’ roster a year ago, and also has a previous stint in New Orleans.
Per Pelissero, the Saints’ Week 4 contest in London is a factor in the club working out such a long list of players right now. Given that New Orleans won’t have much time to audition veterans in the coming weeks, the team will likely update its emergency list now before heading across the pond.
Former Giants tackle Will Beatty is working out for the Jets on Thursday, a source tells Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (on Twitter). Garafolo adds that Beatty is a “name to watch for teams with tackle needs in the near future,” so it sounds like he might have a bit of a free agent tour lined up for himself.
[RELATED: Jets Cut WR Marquess Wilson]
Beatty was one of the league’s more effective left tackles in 2014, grading as a positive contributor as both a run- and pass-blocker, according to Pro Football Focus. PFF ranked him 14th overall out of 84 qualified players at the position.
Unfortunately, a pectoral injury cost Beatty the entire 2015 season. And, in 2016, Beatty wound up appearing in only six games.
If Beatty is healthy, he may get an offer to serve as a reserve option behind projected starters Kelvin Beachum and Brandon Shell. Alternatively, the 32-year-old may look for a better opportunity to secure a second Super Bowl ring.
The initial wave of NFL free agency is now complete, and while many of the league’s top available players are now off the board, there are still plenty of quality options still on the open market.
Listed below are our rankings for the top 15 free agents at each offensive position. These rankings aren’t necessarily determined by the value of the contracts – or the amount of guaranteed money – that each player is expected to land in free agency. These are simply the players we like the most at each position, with both short- and long-term value taken into account.
Restricted and exclusive-rights free agents, as well as players who received the franchise tag, aren’t listed here, since the roadblocks in place to hinder another team from actually acquiring most of those players prevent them from being true free agents.
We’ll almost certainly be higher or lower on some free agents than you are, so feel free to weigh in below in our comments section to let us know which players we’ve got wrong.
Here’s our breakdown of the current top 15 free agents by offensive position for 2017:
Tony Romo is not a free agent…at least not yet. If the Cowboys do not find a suitable trade and release him, you’ll find him at the top of this list.
Laugh if you must, but Cutler is far and away the best quarterback available on the open market. While most of this year’s QB-needy teams are done with their free agent shopping, the Jets are still searching for their 2017 starter and no one would make more sense for them than Cutler. He’s not all that far removed from playing solid football and he’s a logical transitional option for the Jets until they can isolate a better, younger option for 2018. 
Kaepernick’s reps wisely told the press that he will be standing for the National Anthem this year. Still, Kaepernick is an outspoken guy who wants to use his platform to discuss hot button issues, so there’s no guarantee that the media circus around him will cease. Jets owner Woody Johnson loves seeing his team on the back pages of the New York tabloids, but even he has to have more sense than to entertain Kaepernick. McCown, who has been contact with the team, would be an okay choice if they can’t get something done with Cutler. Chase Daniel could be an option too, but there isn’t much game film on him.
Needless to say, the No. 3 ranked player on this list isn’t an option in New York.
Honorable mention: DuJuan Harris, Antonio Andrews, Khiry Robinson
The Vikings have moved on and Peterson will not be back in Minnesota. Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess. When Peterson’s option was declined by the Vikings earlier this month, there were tons of stories (likely sourced by Peterson’s camp) about interest from a litany of contenders. Since then, each team – through anonymous sources – has denied being in the mix for the veteran. It would be easy to doubt Peterson at this juncture, but he has come back from serious injuries multiple times in his career and he is only one year removed from his stellar 2015 campaign. He gets the top spot over the bruising Blount as well as Charles, who hasn’t been healthy in a long while.
Jennings was brought to New York with the idea that he would be the team’s workhorse. Unfortunately, two of his three seasons with the G-Men were marred by injury. Jennings is currently putting his agility to good use on Dancing With The Stars and it remains to be seen how committed he is to football. After that, we have a trio of vets (Hightower, Williams, CJ2K) who could still advance the ball in limited spurts.
In case you’re wondering – Mike Gillislee is not listed here because he is a restricted free agent.
The Giants signed former Chargers offensive lineman D.J. Fluker to one-year deal yesterday, but the club is still expected to add more pieces to its front five, as Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com details.
Fluker, who agreed to a pact worth roughly $3MM, is likely to remain at guard rather than shift back to tackle (where he began his career). But Fluker is not guaranteed a starting job, nor is any other Giants offensive lineman outside of Justin Pugh and Weston Richburg, according to Raanan. New York is still considering where to play incumbent left tackle Ereck Flowers, leaving the rest of the line in flux.
Free agent guard John Jerry could return to Big Blue, as Raanan reports the “door is not believed to be closed” on a potential reunion. Jerry, 30, started all 16 games for the Giants last season, lining up at right guard. Elsewhere among internal free agents, New York has already seen Marshall Newhouse sign with Oakland, while Will Beatty is not expected to return, per Raanan.
As PFR’s list of the Top 2017 Offensive Free Agents shows, starting options remain unsigned on the open market. At tackle, Ryan Clady, Austin Pasztor, and Andre Smith are still on the board, while T.J. Lang, Jahri Evans, and Tim Lelito are up for grabs on the interior.
NFL free agency is right around the corner! The legal tampering period starts on Tuesday and free agency officially starts on Thursday. The list of available free agents will change between now and then as players re-sign with teams or get cut loose, but we have a pretty good idea of who will be available right now. After looking at the top defensive players, we now shift our attention to the other side of the ball.
Here are our rankings for the top 15 free agents at each position. The rankings aren’t determined by earning power, they are simply the players we like the most at each position, with a combination of short- and long-term value taken into account. You won’t find restricted free agents or franchise tagged guys here since they are unlikely to go leave their current clubs.
Player evaluation is always subjective, so we encourage you to make your voices heard in the comments section in cases where you disagree with us.
Here’s our breakdown of the current top 15 free agents by offensive position for 2017:
Updated 3-7-2017, 2:55pm CT
Honorable mention: Ryan Nassib, Landry Jones, Shaun Hill 
Colin Kaepernick’s agents have (wisely) let everyone know that their client will stand for the National Anthem in 2017. That may seem like a minor point, but teams say they would have automatically removed him from consideration if he continued his attention-grabbing protest. He grabbed headlines for his actions on the sidelines last year, but he actually turned in an OK season. From a football standpoint, Kaepernick would make sense for a lot of teams as a QB2 with upside.
Interestingly, this list includes three quarterbacks who couldn’t cut it as the Jets’ starter and three rejects from the 49ers. They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and all six of those players (Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kaepernick, Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith, Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert) come with varying degrees of potential and proven effectiveness. Smith, somehow, could reportedly be retained by the Jets and installed as the starter in 2017.
Ryan Nassib is just outside of the top 15 here with EJ Manuel getting the final spot. Despite positive word about his play in practice, Nassib is unproven and the Giants’ apparent lack of interest in re-signing him says a lot. It’s also possible that he might not be 100% after ending the 2016 season on IR with an elbow injury. Manuel, for all his warts, has shown potential in small bursts.
Honorable mention: Robert Turbin, Travaris Cadet, Benny Cunningham, Lance Dunbar, Bobby Rainey, Brandon Bolden, Denard Robinson, James Starks
As expected, the Vikings have cut Adrian Peterson loose and he is expected to garner interest from contending clubs this week. Some might peg Peterson as the most talented running back in this year’s free agent class, but it all comes down to how you weigh his age and injury history. Peterson has shocked the football world in the past with an incredible comeback, but I’m a little skeptical of his ability to do it again in his age-32 season. Eddie Lacy, who has injury question marks of his own, takes the top spot at the position.
The Patriots believe they won’t be able to match the offers that come in LeGarrette Blount‘s direction. Latavius Murray could circle back to the Raiders, but he won’t be agreeing to a deal with them before free agency opens on Thursday.
Jamaal Charles has the most impressive resume of anyone on this list, with the exception of Peterson. However, no one knows exactly what he can do after playing eight games in the last two years. He’ll turn 31 in December and that’s usually not an indicator of success for running backs.
