Packers: Morgan Burnett to join Steelers, per report

The Green Bay Packers are expected to lose Morgan Burnett to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the past few years, the Packers have watched their secondary fall apart.

Casey Hayward and Micah Hyde departed in free agency in back-to-back years. This offseason the defensive backfield is losing another major piece.

That is according to former Packers wide receiver, and Burnett’s former teammate, James Jones.

The closer we got to free agency, the more it felt like the Packers would lose Burnett. But after almost a week passed and new general manager Brian Gutekunst missed out on a few free agent cornerbacks, it felt like a Burnett return was more realistic.

After unsuccessfully trying to land Kyle Fuller from the Bears, the Packers had more than enough cap room to bring their talented safety back.

Without him, Gutekunst will quickly have to pick up the pieces and determine whether the duo of Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Josh Jones is ready to lead the way.

Burnett has been an excellent safety over the years, and he still probably has a few more seasons of high-level play in him. After battling a number of injuries throughout his career, the key is to stay healthy.

The good news is that Green Bay has depth at safety, on paper at least. The same can’t be said at cornerback.

And while losing Burnett weakens the secondary even more, even had he re-signed the Packers would still be way behind the eight ball at the cornerback position. The depth behind Burnett at safety offers hope.

But until Burnett officially becomes a Steeler, anything can happen.

Maybe Gutekunst will call him, offer a boat load of money and tempt Burnett to remain in Green Bay. Part of me thinks that if the Packers were desperate to re-sign the safety, they would have done so by now. It wasn’t to be.

The Steelers, as a result, will get an upgrade to their secondary.

We’ll get more information on this on Tuesday. Stay tuned.