2026 NFL Free Agency: Secret Superstars on offense

In every free agency cycle, there are those transactions that move the needle in a big-story sense, and there are those transactions that make the most difference in a purely football sense.

As we all know over time, those two kinds of deals don’t always match. For every big-ticket free-agent signing that the teams and (possibly fired) executives pull off to their eternal regret, there are more of the kind that make bad teams good, good teams great, and great teams of championship caliber.

These are the signings of underrated players constructed by those franchises that do things the right way, by paying just as much attention to the bottom third of the roster as they do to the top five players at any given time. Those types of hyper-valuable players are available at the beginning of every league year; it’s just up to which shot-callers are smart enough to realize they are.

Now that the 2026 cycle will begin unofficially on Monday, March 9, and officially on Wednesday, March 11, here are five Secret Superstars of free agency on the offensive side of the ball — players whose exploits do not get the credit deserved, and are now ready to help turn their next stops into better places to be.

Most of these players were part of our Secret Superstars list during the 2025 season; now, it’s time for the proof in the 2026 season and beyond.

RB Kenneth Gainwell

Was he a Secret Superstar? Yes.

Gainwell was selected in the fifth round of the 2021 draft out of Memphis by the Philadelphia Eagles, and over the next four seasons, he had some nice moments as a rotational back, particularly as a receiver. But what happened after the Pittsburgh Steelers signed him to a one-year, $1.79 million contract with $620,000 guaranteed was entirely unexpected. Because if Gainwell’s 2025 productivity was on anybody’s radar, he would have bagged a better deal than that.

As a runner, Gainwell totaled 557 yards and five touchdowns on 120 carries (4.6 yards per attempt), with 23 forced missed tackles, and six runs of 15 or more yards. But it was as a receiver that Gainwell shocked the league. Only Christian McCaffrey and Bijan Robinson had more catches among running backs in the 2025 season than Gainwell’s 77 on 87 targets, which he parlayed into 512 yards (6.6 yards per catch) and three more touchdowns.

And dude wasn’t just catching slip screens out of the backfield, either — 17 of his catches and 22 of his targets came when he was lined up in the slot or out wide, and overall, he made things happen with an understanding of routes that you don’t generally see from running backs.

Now that the word’s out about Gainwell as a pass-catcher, and occasional explosive play merchant as a runner, teams with a need for a particular kind of productivity out of their backs may well be looking to give him a mid-tiered deal that may have been unfathomable a year ago.

RB Rico Dowdle

Was he a Secret Superstar? Yes.

Dowdle was an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina in 2020 ultimately signed by the Dallas Cowboys, and it took him three seasons to make any sort of impact in Big D. But he finally got his shot in 2024, after then-head coach Mike McCarthy admitted that Dowdle probably should have gotten more reps than he did.

Dallas had been hoping that Ezekiel Elliott had more in the tank that season, but he didn’t, and Dowdle was able to take advantage with a season in which he totaled 1,079 yards on 241 carries (4.9 yards per attempt) with 45 forced missed tackles, and nine runs of 15 or more yards. The 6’0”, 215-pound Dowdle also caught 40 passes on 48 targets for 303 yards and a touchdown, and while his receiving profile wasn’t the same as Gainwell’s (much more of a backfield guy), Dowdle was able to prove his effective versatility.

That one season should have given the Cowboys enough to offer Dowdle a new deal, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he signed a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Carolina Panthers that had an additional $3.5 million in incentives, all of which Dowdle had no issue hitting. In Carolina, he gained 1,085 yards on 241 carries (4.5 yards per attempt) with six touchdowns, 35 forced missed tackles, and 10 runs of 15 or more yards. He also had a 23-carry, 206-yard game against the Miami Dolphins in Week 5, and followed that up a week later with a 30-carry, 183-yard barnburner against the Cowboys… just to prove a point.

Dowdle is a schematically diverse runner who isn’t tied to gap or inside/outside zone; he’s now proven that he can be productive at a surprisingly high level, and his next contract should reflect that accordingly.

WR Wan’Dale Robinson

Was he a Secret Superstar? No, but he probably should have been.

When the New York Giants selected the 5’8”, 178-pound Wan’Dale Robinson in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Kentucky, it was based on a 2021 season in which Robinson caught 104 passes on 140 targets for 1,342 yards (12.9 yards per catch), seven touchdowns, and all kinds of explosive plays you might not expect from a guy his size. Robinson wasn’t just running gadget plays; he was out there with a full route tree, ad his 22 explosive plays came in multiple concepts to every area of the field.

So, it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that Robinson has been as productive in the NFL as he has, though you’d be forgiven for overlooking it, because you’d have to watch the Giants’ offense. But the G-Men deployed Robinson in ways you would never expect from a receiver that size, and he answered the call over and over… especially on third down.

In 2024, Robinson had the NFL’s most third-down targets with 58, and he caught 34 of those targets for 304 yards, 119 yards after the catch, 17 first downs, and two touchdowns. In 2025, Robinson had the NFL’s sixth-most third-down targets with 46, catching 25 for 302 yards, 104 yards after the catch, 14 first downs, and one touchdown.

No, Robinson is never going to be anybody’s WR1 — size is a skill, and he unfortunately doesn’t have it. But in another varied passing game, he could continue to amaze with what he is able to do, especially on money downs.

WR/Returner Rashid Shaheed

Was he a Secret Superstar? Absolutely.

Statistics never tell the whole story, and that’s more true in football than in any other sport because of the interdependent nature of the thing. One player’s excellence might not show up at all from a metrics perspective, but that excellence may well be the reason you’re winning games when you otherwise wouldn’t.

Welcome to the world of Rashid Shaheed and the 2025 Seattle Seahawks.

Seattle traded 2026 fourth- and fifth-round picks to the New Orleans Saints for Shaheed’s services on November 4, and without that deal, it could be said that there would be no Lombardi Trophy in the Emerald City right now. Shaheed’s numbers were decent enough — 18 catches on 33 targets for 266 yards, as well as 32.5 yards per kick return and 15.1 yards per punt return with three special teams touchdowns — but it was the threat of his existence as a deep threat that changed Seattle’s passing game for the better down the stretch, and especially in the NFC Championship game, a 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Shaheed was in an unusual spot in that he played against the Rams four times last season — once with the Saints, and three times with the Seahawks — and every time, he made his presence known. In the game that got the Seahawks to Super Bowl LX, Rams defenders were taking him up the field two at a time because they had to, and that led directly to two of three Sam Darnold touchdown passes to other receivers.

This should make Shaheed valuable to any team that understands why the numbers don’t always tell the tale; you have to look at effect on the field, and few in the NFL made that more clear last season.

TE Dallas Goedert

Was he a Secret Superstar? Yes, because anybody who succeeded in that disaster of an offense deserves special praise.

Goedert had already been a big part of various Nick Sirianni passing games over the years, but 2025 was his best season to date, as he caught 64 passes on 85 targets for 624 yards (9.8 yards per catch) and a career-high 12 touchdowns. That Goedert did all of this in an passing game run by Sirianni and now former offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo that helped absolutely nobody should have other teams interested in Goedert as he enters his age 31 season.

Goedert has never been a vertical stretch receiver; what he does at a high level is to provide his quarterback with a safety net in that he knows how to get open in short areas and on time — something that showed up last season even when the route “concepts” were conceptual in name only. Last season, only Trey McBride of the Arizona Cardinals had more touchdowns on throws of 0-9 air yards among NFL tight ends than Goedert’s five — overall on those throws, he caught 47 passes on 57 targets for 365 yards.

Yes, Goedert can make things happen on seams and other intermediate routes, and he’s occasionally good for an air yards special downfield, but his real value would be maximized with any team getting a young quarterback up to speed. Because he’d be that young quarterback’s best friend from Day 1.