Packers grades for biggest free agency moves including Josh Jacobs signing

The Green Bay Packers don't always make waves in NFL free agency, but when they do, they prefer to make big ones. The Packers were uncharacteristically involved in the opening week, and pretty much everyone is here for it.

General manager Brian Gutekunst knows he has a franchise quarterback. Jordan Love stepped up in a big way this past season, and now the Packers are going to be able to extend him in the near future, which will give them at least a couple of salary cap-friendly years in the early portion of that deal. And therefore, they can spend in free agency a little bit.

As we look at the Packers' moves in the first wave of free agency, which ones make sense and which ones are head-scratchers (if any)?

Let's give some arbitrary grades to the moves and evaluate what looks like it's going to work, at least on paper.

1. Signing Josh Jacobs

Whether there was legitimate interest from the Packers' side of things or not, the rumors about Green Bay having an interest in Jonathan Taylor last year certainly gained some validity with the team's decision to give Josh Jacobs a big-money contract in free agency.

Heading into this offseason for the Packers, the situations of both Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon were in question with Jones carrying a huge cap hit and Dillon hitting unrestricted free agency. The Packers got 2022 All-Pro Josh Jacobs for the price of $12 million annually, and the full contract breakdown is four years, $48 million, and $12.5 million in guarantees. This is basically a franchise tag with option years for the Packers, and Jacobs will count just over $5 million on the cap this year.

I don't know if I can love this move more for Green Bay and their context. They didn't really have a running game to lean on most of last year because Aaron Jones wasn't healthy. Josh Jacobs gives them someone they can lean on every single week on all three downs.

Grade: A