Green Bay Packers: Ten players to target in free agency
By Kenn Korb
Muhammad Wilkerson
Most times when people discuss free agency, they discuss the big-name players. When it comes to this year’s crop, there may be no bigger name in terms of requisite value than Wilkerson.
In Pro Football Focus’ free agency tracker, Wilkerson ranks #8; he also has at least one thing positive on each of the players above him. He just played over 300 more snaps this season than the #1 guy (Alshon Jeffery), is at least three years younger than three of them (Jerrell Freeman, Richie Incognito, and Evan Mathis), plays on all downs – and plays well on all downs – unlike his possibly former Jets teammate (Damon Harrison).
He has been consistently great throughout his career instead of just more recently (Vernon), and has never had off-field issues (Von Miller, though those issues definitely appear far in the rear-view for him).
Wilkerson just came off perhaps his best season to date, which is quite a statement on its own. He played in all 16 games for the fourth time in his five-year career. He racked up 64 tackles from his 3-4 defensive end spot (that tends to be a lot for that position, by the way), the second-highest total of his career.
He also set a new career high in sacks with 12 – the second time he’s reached double digits. Don’t let the numbers that someone like J.J. Watt puts up from that spot fool you; this is a difficult milestone for players at this position to achieve. The fact that Wilkerson could reach it multiple times himself is a testament to just how excellent of a player he is.
Looking beyond his base stats could be just as impressive. On PFF’s 0-100 rating scale, Wilkerson sits at 89.2 – the literal outskirts of what they grade as elite (which starts at 90). Percentage points aside, Wilkerson is a game-changing talent who can hold down the fort from any spot on a defensive line, no matter the play type.
The only problem regarding Wilkerson as a player would be how his season ended: with a broken leg in Week 17. Hopefully it isn’t something that continues to be an issue going forward – and luckily, I’ve seen no word of it becoming something like that to this point.
Outside of that, the only issue would be price. A player of this high caliber is always costly, and that would be the worry here. To get Wilkerson, Green Bay would have to invest a massive sum, the kind we almost never see them put towards players they didn’t draft themselves.
This would be a great time to make an exception to the usual rule though. From everything he’s shown since entering the league, Wilkerson is a high-character guy – the exact kind of player any team would love.
As mentioned before, he hasn’t had much issue with injuries in his career; barring something drastically awful showing up upon a physical, there’s nothing pointing to injuries becoming a problem in the future. Wilkerson is just now entering his prime, which mean Green Bay could reap the many benefits his expected continuation of high-level play and continued growth would provide.
Beyond the factors simply based on him, bring into the fold the bigger picture of the whole defense.
Wilkerson would be teaming with Mike Daniels (who rates as just slightly better in 2015 than him in terms of PFF ratings) to form one of the more devastating d-line duos in the league (the third spot would be less so, sure, but the Packers do play a bunch of nickel – meaning only two linemen are used on a large chunk of plays anyway).
A move like this could take this defense from merely the outskirts of the top-10 conversation to firmly inside the top-5, even if there aren’t any moves specifically made at linebacker (and there definitely will be in some manner, even if it is just through the draft or by having certain players return from injury).
Secondary Option: Damon Harrison
On at least a couple levels, Harrison actually would be the better pickup.
On one hand he is the highest-graded player in terms of run defense the past three years, as per Pro Football Focus’ rating system.
On another, he likely ends up costing a great deal less due to being used almost exclusively for his run defense talents.
Whether this is more so due to keeping his snap count lower for strategic reasons (keeping him fresh for his most effective type of plays, as well as the fact that the Jets have had a great deal of talent surrounding him) or for more unsavory reasons (health, weight, and/or pure ineffectiveness on passing downs) will likely determine just how much less he does end up earning on his next contract – wherever that may be.
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