Believe it or not, it’s time to start thinking about Free Agency. The beginning of the Free Agent Signing Period starts at midnight on February 29th. These rankings were comprised regardless of free agent status (i.e. Restricted or Unrestricted) but the status is indicated as “RFA” for “Restricted Free Agent” and “UFA” for “Unrestricted Free Agent” to the right of the player name. The definitions of each are as follows:

UFA: A Player who has at least four years experience at the expiration of a contract can sign with any team with no compensation to his former club.

RFA: Restricted free agents have three years of experience at the end of their contracts and must be tendered an offer sheet before April 15. The player's current club has seven days to match the offer, or the player's rights revert to the team that tendered the sheet. Teams are awarded compensatory draft picks based on the quantity and quality of restricted free agents it loses to other squads in the previous year's free-agent period.

Top Five Free Agent Cornerbacks

1. Asante Samuel- UFA- Over the last 32 regular season games, Samuel has 16 interceptions and is easily the top free agent corner on the market. The Patriots are a notoriously shrewd team so it will be interesting to see if they throw some money at Samuel since they can’t Franchise Tag him again. No matter what, Samuel is in line for a huge contract from someone.

2. Nnamdi Asomugha- UFA- After an eight-interception campaign in '06, Asomugha followed with just one pick in 2007, but he was rarely thrown at by an enemy quarterback or beaten by an opposing receiver. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder was picked on just 28 times all season long, and he allowed only 10 catches. As a result, Asomugha finished off the year with only 34 tackles and one INT.

3. Marcus Trufant- UFA- Trufant couldn’t have picked a more opportune time to have the best year of his career. Trufant had a career high seven INT’s (returning one for a TD) and averaged an impressive 21 yards a return per INT. He is also willing to step up and support in run defense as evidenced by his 85 tackles in 2007. His INT for TD in the Divisional playoff versus the Redskins essentially sealed the victory for the Seahawks.

4. Jacques Reeves- UFA- Initially regarded as strictly a role player or nickel back, Reeves saw extensive duty after injuries to Anthony Henry and Terence Newman ands performed admirably with 60 tackles and one interception in 14 starts at corner. However, Reeves was picked on by Eli Manning and Steve Smith in the playoffs, with Reeves giving up three catches for 52 yards on the Giants longest scoring drive of the season.

5. Randall Gay- UFA- Used Primarily as Asante Samuel’s back-up or as the nickel back, Gay also has the ability to play safety. Gay had a career high three INT’s in 2007 returning one for a TD. Attending college at LSU Gay won the National Championship in 2003 and won the super Bowl the following year with the New England Patriots. Gay is battle tested and knows what it takes to win.

Best of the Rest:
6. Drayton Florence- UFA
7. Chris Carr- RFA
8. Domonique Foxworth- RFA
9. Gary Baxter- UFA
10. Brian Kelly- UFA