Free agency is set to begin in just a few weeks, which means there are a whole lot of players around the league who will be finding new teams pretty soon. As recently as Wednesday, it appeared that New York Giants safety Landon Collins would be one of those players. Reports have indicated that Collins and the Giants have not been engaged in discussions on a long-term deal for the safety, and on Wednesday it was further reported that he cleaned out his locker at the Giants' facility, and after some initial confusion, Collins himself confirmed that he removed everything he needs from the locker. 

All those signs seemed to point toward Collins signing with a non-Giants team, but on Thursday morning ESPN.com's Jordan Ranaan reported that the Giants are still likely to use the franchise tag on Collins, which would keep him in New York for at least another year unless a different team wanted to surrender draft-pick compensation in addition to a contract. Collins, however, is not interested in being tagged, and would hold out if that's how this plays out, according to Ranaan. 

Our own Jason La Canfora reported earlier this week that the likelihood of Collins being tagged was high, but also noted that general manager Dave Gettleman has had some interesting run-ins with the franchise tag before, such as when the Panthers rescinded the tag and allowed Josh Norman to sign elsewhere a few years back. It will be fascinating to see what happens with Collins in a safety market that also includes Earl Thomas and Lamarcus Joyner, among others, especially after last year's safety class had to wait a long time to get paid, and almost all of them ended up having to sign at discounted prices.