Green Bay Packers: Six free agents they should consider signing

Demarcus Ware, OLB, Denver

2016 Statistics (315 snaps): 15 tackles, 4.0 sacks, 1 pass defensed

PFF Rankings: 77.4 (overall); 77.1 (pass rush), 64.0 (run defense), 62.2 (coverage)

Word from around the web has it that Ware’s biggest interests for continuing his career would either reside with his current team or have him jumping back to his former one, but although these two possibilities would be the most likely scenarios, other options probably shouldn’t be ruled out quite yet.

For many players in Ware’s position, finding a team which can provide the best combination of championship aspirations, an impactful role for said player, and money (of course) will be the one they choose. The prior connections Ware has to Denver and Dallas likely hold some weight, but each side comes up short in the seemingly more important aspects of what he could be looking for.

Denver just went from Super Bowl Champions to missing the playoffs in a single season. The offense ended up lacking punch for the second year in a row and again seems destined to struggle on that side of the ball, leaving the defense to carry practically all of the burden of winning yet again (though they miraculously won that Super Bowl without much help from Peyton Manning all season, expecting something like that to happen again is just terrible planning).

Even worse, that will all come with the team trotting out a new head coach and defensive coordinator, removing a big portion of the stability which would usually be a huge draw for a player. Also notable: while Ware was missing time to injury issues in 2016, Shane Ray was proving himself ready for a larger role; should Ware return, that role he once held could be majorly reduced to spot duty.

Dallas on the other hand is a team without all that much cash to spend — exactly the situation which forced them to cut Ware in the first place. He may not be as expensive as before, but he’ll still likely desire a significant amount of cash, and that could be tough for a team like the Cowboys to muster. After restructuring deals for guys like Travis Frederick and Tyron Smith, they sit barely under the league’s $167 million salary cap number for the 2017 league year, and even if/when they eventually trade/release Tony Romo, that will only free up about $5.1 million more on their cap (or about $14 million if he were designated as a June 1st cut).

No matter the exact amount he frees up, Dallas has key players all over set to be free agents. Among them are four key members of the secondary (Morris Claiborne, Barry Church, Brandon Carr, J.J. Wilcox); if Dallas were to decide Ware is a better for the defense than keeping most/all of those players, that wouldn’t necessarily be an awful decision, but those players would need to be replaced, and, as Packers fans saw in 2016, competence in the secondary can prove difficult to find.

Though both teams would be pretty appealing from a storyline perspective, neither is nearly as desirable from a practical standpoint. Green Bay could be, however.

The Packers right now have little under contract at their pass rushing spot. What they do have is Clay Matthews, who right now is only a threat off the edge in name alone, and second-year man Kyler Fackrell. Matthews had by far his worst pro season in 2016, fighting through a litany of injuries to his hamstring and shoulder to reach a mere 6 sacks on the year (including playoffs). At this point, it’s hard to know if he’ll ever reach the level which got him his expensive contract again; the last time we saw him primarily rushing the passer at a high level was the first half of the 2014 season (remember, he switched to being an ILB for the next season and a half before returning to full-time OLB duties in 2016). Fackrell meanwhile dealt with some of his own issues, finding either injury concerns or lacking performance keeping him off the field often in the second half of 2016 despite a promising start to the season.

Beyond Matthews and Fackrell, the other two main pass rushing options are up for new contracts. Julius Peppers is still productive, but he’s 37 and could fall off at any time. Nick Perry is the biggest puzzle piece to this sort of decision though. He’s only 26 and just put together an 11 sack (12 including postseason), pressure-garnering campaign where he was the healthiest he’s ever been. Still, this season was a clear outlier from his prior performance (both on the field and in staying healthy), and it wouldn’t be a surprise if that really good, mostly healthy player we saw in last season reverted back to the underwhelming, injury-stricken participant his first four seasons showed him to be.

If Perry and Peppers both manage to come back, someone like Ware being added is purely a pipe dream (four handsomely-paid pass rushers, even with the sort of healthy cap Green Bay routinely has, would be pretty abnormal for a team).

Just one (or, unfortunately, neither) of them returning, however? That opens the door in multiple ways. If just Perry comes back, we’d have two injury-prone players manning the pass rush slots often; having a talented third guy gives the Packers someone more than capable of picking up the snap count slack when needed (much like the role Peppers played in 2016, to be honest). If Peppers came back but not Perry, that would give two older (but still highly talented) players to pair with Matthews; splitting the snaps that would normally go to two edge rush players across the three of them could help keep them all healthy, happy, and effective over the season. If neither came back, Ware would be stepping into the starting role beside Matthews; as long as his recent back issues were in the past, that outcome wouldn’t be an issue.