Williamson: Breaking down every NFC team's most overrated player

Matt Williamson is a former scout for the Cleveland Browns, and spent the last 10 years at ESPN as a scout and co-host of the podcast "Football Today."

Free agency is right around the corner, and teams are starting to purge their unwanted and overpriced contracts to free up more cap space.

Very soon, players will be swapping cities at a breakneck rate.

But before we get into that frenzy, let's look at one player from each NFC team that gets more notoriety than he deserves. We avoided free agents-to-be for this exercise, concentrating on players returning to their same squad. When you're overrated in this league, though, you can be without a job in the blink of an eye, especially at this time of year.

Related: Breaking down every AFC team's most overrated player

NFC East

Cowboys - Jason Witten

Witten is an all-time great tight end and an easy Hall of Fame pick. He's also a reliable option for his young quarterback, and is considered an extremely positive influence within the organization. Despite his outstanding past accomplishments, though, Witten is no longer a difference-maker.

Giants - Eli Manning

Manning was much more of a liability than an asset to the Giants' offense in 2016, a year that saw this unit take a huge step backward. He still has an outstanding and actually underrated mind for the game, but his body has taken a beating. It's time to ask if he's on his last legs.

Eagles - Nelson Agholor

The Eagles put Agholor on the field for nearly 900 snaps in 2016. This is a player without a trump card, as he isn't quite quick or fast enough for a wide receiver of his size. In fact, the team's entire wide receiver unit could classify as overrated, which is why we saw far too much of Agholor on the field.

Redskins - Rob Kelley

Kelley pretty much came from nowhere to knock Matt Jones out of a starting job and claim the lead back duties in Washington. He's an aggressive and determined runner, but isn’t a feature back at this level, and ran behind an excellent and improving offensive line. The Redskins need a No. 1 RB, and Kelley would be an excellent No. 2.

NFC North

Bears - Jeremy Langford

Langford has been relegated to backup status with the emergence of Jordan Howard. But the reality is, he's more suited to be a third ball-carrier and core special teams player, as he lacks outstanding traits.

Lions - Zach Zenner

Coming from a tiny school where he put up video game numbers, Zenner is a great story and easy to root for. However, the Lions absolutely need to find a bigger running back that deserves touches.

Packers - Randall Cobb

We could have gone in several directions here, but Cobb just nudged out Clay Matthews as Green Bay's most overrated player. He has fought injuries, but still isn't as explosive or quick as many tend to think, and was never the type of receiver to run by defensive backs.

Vikings - Anthony Barr

Coming out of college, many saw Barr as an outside linebacker who could be an edge pass-rusher in a 3-4 scheme. There's a lot of talent here for sure, and he could rebound, but other than rushing the passer, Barr was a liability as an off-the-ball player in 2016. The Vikings may need to re-evaluate how they're using him going forward.

NFC South

Falcons - Vic Beasley

Beasley has emerged as a very good pass-rusher, and because he led the NFL in sacks in 2016, many consider him one of the best in the business. That simply isn't true, as he did most of his damage on big looping stunts and against lesser offensive tackles. There is much to like here, but Atlanta doesn't even use him in their base defense as often as many think.

Panthers - Kelvin Benjamin

Obviously there are few wide receivers in the NFL that look like Benjamin on the field, and there was much talk after he missed the 2015 season due to injury that he'd be a huge bonus prize for an offense that went to the Super Bowl. But this is a lumbering route runner whose ball skills and ability to play in traffic are average at best.

Saints - Coby Fleener

The Saints wanted to replace Jimmy Graham, so a year ago they gave Fleener a substantial contract to pry him away from Indianapolis. As he was with the Colts, Fleener remained highly inconsistent and unreliable. By no means did he replace Graham.

Buccaneers - Kwon Alexander

Alexander has very good speed and is an active second-level player with strong coverage traits. That's exactly what the Bucs are looking for at linebacker. However, he misses too many tackles and doesn't take on bigger blockers well, which makes him a liability against the run.

NFC West

Cardinals - Deone Bucannon

Finding a player that fit the bill for Arizona wasn't easy, and while Bucannon is a quality starter, he gets undue attention for his conversion from safety to linebacker. We're seeing this trend around the league, but there are also times that Bucannon's lack of size is a hindrance near the line of scrimmage.

Rams - Tavon Austin

Austin is well paid and was a very early draft pick. But as is often the case, "space players" don't translate to the NFL nearly as well as many who watched their college tape would hope. Maybe the new coaching regime can put him in better areas to succeed.

49ers - Torrey Smith

Smith was given quite a bit of money to move from Baltimore to San Francisco. While he was clearly miscast as a top receiving option, and also got little help from his supporting cast, it's clear Smith isn't nearly well-rounded enough.

Seahawks - Thomas Rawls

This exercise is difficult with this team. As one of the top organizations in the league, there isn't much dead weight on this roster, or players whose name value is greater than what they bring to the table. Rawls runs super hard and has more ability than a guy like Kelley, but he struggles to stay on the field and isn't as creative as you'd like. C.J. Prosise could be the better of the two already.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)