Green Bay Packers: Potential roster cut additions in free agency
By Kenn Korb
As Green Bay Packers fans know all too well, GM Ted Thompson rarely delves into the free agency frenzy which encompasses the league each March.
While it can be frustrating to watch the team forego instant improvements at positions of need however, we see evidence around this point every offseason of how erroneous this brand of thinking can be.
Around now, before the official start of free agency, we always come across news of notable players being released from bloated contracts to free up cap space.
Sometimes, this is due to those players’ contracts just outliving the individual’s productivity on the field, sure, but most often the case is that the player was massively overvalued in their year of free agency.
Millions upon millions in cash are thrown their way; often, players never have a prayer at truly living up to that agreed-upon value. Within a couple years, many of those same players tend to find themselves hunting down another contract before they originally expected, trying to recoup some of that now-lost future cash while finding a new job they never would have thought they would need.
When these players are cut, they are free agents again, but slightly different in designation. Unlike their unrestricted brethren, these players do not have to wait until the league year begins to sign with teams. Also of note, these players do not count against the annual compensatory draft pick calculations made by the NFL.
Thompson may not often participate in free agency, but when he has, this sort of fact has weighed heavily in his decisions; with the ability to add players and not damage the team’s ability to accumulate extra picks, there’s little downside to adding guys through this method he believes can make his team better.
Whether through poor play, injury, or some other unfortunate circumstance, these upcoming players could find (or already have found) themselves out on the open market again by becoming cap casualties; for those who do, the Packers could (or at least should) give them some consideration.