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 Inside Linebackers

1. Tedy Bruschi- UFA- Despite leading the Patriots in tackles (92) for the second straight season in 2007, Bruschi has been rumored to be considering retirement. If he does return, it would be hard to imagine the Pats letting him sign elsewhere considering what a huge impact player he has been for them over the years. Bruschi is easily the best ILB on the free agent market and should at least consider coming back for the monetary benefits if nothing else. Still an impact player at 34, Bruschi has played in five Super Bowls, winning three.

2. Mark Simoneau- UFA- Veteran linebacker was acquired in a trade with Philadelphia near the end of the 2006 preseason and proved to be a valuable addition. Simoneau is a steady player in the middle who has played in all 16 games in four of the last five seasons and appeared in a Super Bowl with the Eagles.  From 2003-05 with the Eagles, he played both middle and weakside linebacker and had a career-high 149 stops in 2003.

3. Randall Godfrey- UFA- Godfrey is a 12 year NFL vet who has likely seen his best days already but with the lack of depth amongst free agents at the inside linebacker position, someone may pick him up as a veteran backup, as he was used for the Redskins in 2007. In 2006 Godfrey started in 13 games for the Chargers and recorded 58 total tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles.

4. Jeremiah Trotter- UFA- Trotter was abruptly cut by the Eagles in 2007 with absolutely no warning and some media outlets speculated it was due to an unknown injury. It was also an odd time to cut him as Trotter had been elected to the Pro Bowl in 2005 and 2006. The Tampa Bay Bucs picked him up for the stretch run at the end of 2007 and Trotter was mainly used in specialty situations and not every down. Someone will sign Trotter because of the lack of information regarding his release (other than being known as a liability in pass coverage) from the Eagles in what many thought was the prime of his career.

5. Brad Kassell- UFA- A veteran of 72 regular-season games and 33 starts, has accumulated 278 tackles along with 27 ST stops, 10 PD, two FR, a FF and an INT returned for a TD during his five-year NFL career. Kassell is old and is no longer anything more than a special teams player.

Best of the rest:
6. Teddy Lehman- UFA-
7. Dontarrious Thomas- UFA-