Green Bay Packers: Offseason roster cut candidates

Aug 28, 2014; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson looks on during warmups prior to the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 28, 2014; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson looks on during warmups prior to the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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Aug 28, 2014; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson looks on during warmups prior to the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 28, 2014; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson looks on during warmups prior to the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /

Though the Green Bay Packers managed to catch fire behind Aaron Rodgers and make it to the NFC Championship Game, the season ended as a disappointment behind the Murphy’s Law of a performance to begin the contest. Because of that, another season concluded sans the Lombardi Trophy returning to Lambeau Field, and changes are necessary for the franchise.

With no signs of stepping away anytime soon for Ted Thompson in the front office and the laudable recovery from a horrid middle of the year led by Mike McCarthy on the field, those changes will come almost exclusively (as usual) in the form of personnel movements.

Free agency (likely not a big factor) and the draft (seemingly 99.9% of TT’s focus and workload) will be how the team decides upon additions to the roster, but before we get there the Packers must make some decisions regarding the players still currently under contract on their roster.

When it comes to these sort of decisions, there tend to be three main reasons a player finds himself on the chopping block — and often, we will see overlap between them:

  1. Underperformance
  2. Significant cap relief
  3. Victim of circumstance

We’ve actually already seen a couple notable moves by the Packers in this offseason, and those provide nice examples for these areas.