Packers Offseason/Free Agency Thread

[Fritz]

His brother though also had some issues early in his career before finding his way. Got cut by Minnesota and Oakland before excelling with the Raiders. Packers will give him a chance to turn this around.

To his credit, the kid did come back from his misses. That's a sign of resiliency.

I don't follow the money side of the NFL very well, so I have no idea if any of the top free agent safeties would be affordable to the still-cash-strapped Packers, and I don't know if any of them have the skill set needed for either of the safety positions the Packers now will feature.

Anyone out there with more knowledge care to comment?

[run pMc]

To his credit, the kid did come back from his misses. That's a sign of resiliency.

I don't follow the money side of the NFL very well, so I have no idea if any of the top free agent safeties would be affordable to the still-cash-strapped Packers, and I don't know if any of them have the skill set needed for either of the safety positions the Packers now will feature.

Anyone out there with more knowledge care to comment?

The new prevailing wisdom is supposedly that you don't pay a lot for a safety. SEA has been trying to get out of the Jamal Adams deal for a while, NYJ was happy to. There aren't many who are transcendantly good.
A few will get paid (Winfield), and a guy like Geno Stone will get offers but I don't it will be bank breaking.

I think one of Ford or Savage will be back unless they want to start over. Given Ford turns 30 this Nov they might decide on that. I expect Gute to go heavy in the draft at Safety, OL and RB. Hafley's defense will ask different things from its safeties, and GB didn't field a great group last year anyway.

[Frozen Tundra]

The new prevailing wisdom is supposedly that you don't pay a lot for a safety. SEA has been trying to get out of the Jamal Adams deal for a while, NYJ was happy to. There aren't many who are transcendantly good.
A few will get paid (Winfield), and a guy like Geno Stone will get offers but I don't it will be bank breaking.

Spotrac pegs Winfield's current market value at 5 years/$92M, about $18M per year. I doubt we'll see him here.

But on the other hand, they set Stone's value at 3 years/$21M, about $7M per year.

So, there's a wide range of valuations there... Spotrac values Kyle Duggar at 4 years/$62M, about $16M a year, and Xavier McKinney is valued at 5 years/$52M, a little over $10M a year. Kamren Curl 4yrs/$57M, L'Jarius Sneed 4yrs/$65M...

There are some short-term bargains out there for older safeties, good players who are on the downside of their careers but still should be quality starters and could be gotten for one or two year deals to tide us over, like Micah Hyde ($3.8M). 26-year old Taylor Rapp may be a good "get" for 2yrs, $5.5M per year; not sure why he's valued so low.

It looks like the most affordable FA solutions would be a guy who's a quality starter but not a pro-bowler on a short term deal to stabilize the position while we look for better talent in the draft. I don't see Gute going bonkers and locking a star safety in for $10M+ per year; even a $5-7 million guy would suit our needs because we don't really need to get all that much better at safety in order to be a lot better than last year.

Personally, though, I'd prefer we draft our safety help. This is a good draft year for safeties, and we have a ton of picks in the right rounds to get quality players at that position.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/safety/