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Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Value is subjective.

Merriam-Webster defines value as "a fair return or equivalent in goods, services or money for something exchanged." Value in the NFL is measured on a sliding scale. There's positional value (quarterbacks are more important than long snappers), value against the salary cap (the percentage of cap dollars used on each position) and projected value against past—and estimated future—performance.

In free agency, the third definition is the most important one. When teams gauge the value of a player to their particular franchise, it's a multifaceted process. Organizations try to get the best players for their schemes, guys who best fit their locker room and culture, and they're desperately trying to unearth a few bargains along the way.

Of course, that doesn't always happen. Merriam-Webster's third definition of value is "relative worth, utility or importance."

Teams make mistakes when evaluating potential every year, and though those players can still be good, their values can be judged in some interesting ways. When the Houston Texans signed former Denver Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler to a four-year, $72 million contract with $37 million guaranteed in March 2016, it set Osweiler up as the presumptive franchise savior—a title he was, of course, completely unprepared to handle. After one disastrous season, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns just so the Texans could offload his onerous contract.

Here's an important question, though: Would Osweiler, as unprepared as he was for the big time, been as massive a free-agent bust if he'd signed a four-year deal with $20 million guaranteed? Of course not. The pressure would have been far less on both player and team, and Houston wouldn't have had to eat major dollars just to get rid of the proverbial albatross around its neck.

When we look at the most overpaid 2017 free agents, it's not so much that they're bad players; it's as much or more about how they've been compensated—that is, in ways that aren't commensurate with their past performances or future projections. In these cases, it seems like the teams went out on various limbs, hoping they saw something other teams didn't.

They may be right, but the numbers don't yet show it. And in the NFL, the numbers rarely lie.

All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus unless otherwise indicated. All salary-cap figures courtesy of OverTheCap.com unless otherwise indicated.