NFL free agency: Gary Barnidge is ready to play after year off

Free agent tight end Gary Barnidge says he’s ready to play again after sitting out a year resting his body.

Less than a year ago, Gary Barnidge was an interesting free agent consideration for teams with a need at tight end.

Barnidge, a late bloomer in the pros, had put up a rare 1,000 receiving yard season for the Cleveland Browns (1,043 to be exact) along with an eye-popping 9 touchdowns at the position in 2015. He followed it up with another 55 catches for 612 yards and 2 touchdowns. Even that stat line would have been far beyond his previous career highs. Those seasons were his seventh and eighth in the NFL, and his previous highs were 13 catches and 242 yards.

Unfortunately for Barnidge, the Browns added one of the best young tight ends in the draft that year in David Njoku and decided to cut the veteran loose in response. The Browns were on the hook for $700K to Barnidge for the rest of 2017, so the veteran had a bit of leverage when looking for his new team. He could afford to wait for a decent payday without taking the first desperate deal to lengthen his NFL career.

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Ten months later, Barnidge hasn’t played a single down at the NFL level since December 2016. In a recent interview, he said teams were only offering him the veteran’s minimum to come play ($900K), so why not just remain home and rest for a mere $200K less?

"“I was trying to weigh, ‘Do I go play for a little bit of money or I can sit at home, rest my body, still get paid something and then be ready to go for next year and get another opportunity,'” Barnidge said. “There wasn’t a right opportunity for me to play with anybody because everybody was trying to get me for the lowest (price) they can get. It didn’t make sense.”"

One year later, Barnidge presents an interesting hire on the free agent market. On the one hand, he’s not played meaningful football or been in game-shape for well over a year. For a guy who will be 33-years-old in September, that’s a bit of a tall order.

On the flip side, if Barnidge was only given veteran minimum offers last year, he has to know that’s all he can expect on this side as well—yet he clearly wants to continue playing. Working himself into shape shouldn’t really be that big of a deal since he has all offseason to do so, and as a late bloomer, he’s been an anomaly for his age since 2015.

Why wouldn’t the Chiefs make sense here? A veteran minimum deal takes literally nothing from the team and Barnidge’s previous productivity speaks for itself. The Chiefs continue to bring on free agent flyers at the position already like Gavin Escobar last offseason and Jace Amaro this year, so it’s not as if they’re inactive at the position. The front office is clearly searching for something.

It will be interesting to see if Barnidge gets another chance at the pros in 2018. At that price and with his recent production, there’s no reason that some team shouldn’t give him an offer to come try out, even if it doesn’t come until after the dust has settled on the draft and free agency.

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