It's probably not a good year to test free agency. With viewership and attendance declines this year, no doubt revenues are down in the league, and that's going to reduce what clubs can afford to pay for free agents. It's a shame he couldn't have done this a year ago.
I actually think this won't affect the amount teams have to spend quite so much. First off, the television contracts are already in place, so the television viewership won't directly affect the bottom line. There is probably a little more viewership money this upcoming year due to new media being entertained, such as Facebook (
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-has-signed-a-mons... ) streaming and other services.
NFL attendance was down, but that's really when only compared with 2016, a banner year and all-time high. Attendance was down 3% from last year's all-time high (
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2018/01/12/se... ), but this season was more on-par with 2015 and before. The product on the field certainly suffered, but I think people are a little premature with the death of the NFL.
The NFL salary cap is expected to rise by $12 million per team (
https://fansided.com/2017/12/31/nfl-salary-cap-2018-proje... /). That should be quite a good chunk put into the pockets of players. I would bet that TJ will be sitting pretty very shortly.