Dwight Freeney calls himself an “anomaly,” at 36. Should we revisited?

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Despite posting eight sacks and three forced fumbles in 11 games with the Arizona Cardinals last season, Dwight Freeney remains on the free agent market.

The 14-year NFL veteran, now 36 years old, wants to keep playing football and fully believes he can help a team this season. While Freeney fully understands why NFL teams prefer younger players (cheaper contracts, team control, potential, etc.), he knows he can still play.

“Teams are in love with young guys,” Freeney said,” via Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report. “I get it, but teams overlook that young guys don’t always live up to that promise. How many times have you heard, ‘This guy is the next Lawrence Taylor’ or something like that?

“Teams also are in love with numbers and data when sometimes numbers can’t take into account the heart of a player. Teams back their draft picks because they don’t want their drafts to be wrong.

“Teams miss that I’m not the average guy. There are the anomalies, and I’m the anomaly. I can still play.”

Freeney had at least a sack in four of his final six games in Arizona last season, including three sacks against the Green Bay Packers in Week 16. As Mike Florio pointed out last month, Freeney’s eight sacks came on just 317 regular season snaps. While Freeney isn’t an every down player any more, that’s significant production in a limited role.

Teams are always looking for pass rushing help. Arizona came calling when injuries mounted mid-season last year. The Bengals and Falcons have looked into Freeney but haven’t elected to sign him up to this point. It’s seems unlikely that no one would give Freeney a chance given the season he had last year. It may just be more a question of when they call rather than if.

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