Keep-or-Cut Decisions for Green Bay Packers' 2015 Free Agents
When free agency is brought up in the aspect of the Green Bay Packers, it's almost always related to players who are already on the roster. Under Mike McCarthy, the Packers have rarely signed splash free agents, with Julius Peppers really being the only example in the last handful of years.
That being said, Green Bay does make plenty of moves in bringing back unrestricted free agents who have hit the market from their own team, such as Sam Shields last season. This year, the team needs to consider re-signing seven crucial free agents.
The risk of giving large long-term contracts is great. If you let the right one walk, he might beat you once or twice per year, but if you give a large contract to the wrong player, he'll beat you every day. A contract such as Brad Jones' is an example of that. It's taken years for general manager Ted Thompson to get over that mistake; it appears that the team will finally release Jones in 2015, after seasons of below-market performance.
Regarding the previously mentioned seven free agents, we'll look in-depth at how the Packers might decide.
Randall Cobb
1 of 7
Randall Cobb is clearly the most talented free agent the Packers have leaving the team, at least on paper. He was the first player born in the 1990s to score a touchdown, and his age still rivals those who are exiting college football and entering the draft. As a proven commodity, a team in need of a receiver with a bunch of cap space, such as the Oakland Raiders or Cleveland Browns, could be in the mix for him.
When you think about it logically, Cobb won't be back if he gets to hit the market. Green Bay has a limited window to give him a contract before he can field other offers. Once he does hit that market, it's not crazy to think he could sign a Percy Harvin type of deal—one that got Harvin six years for $64 million, the fourth-largest at the wide receiver position in the league, according to Spotrac.
With Davante Adams emerging as a pass-catching threat, the Packers at least have a real No. 2 option to replace Cobb if he does go, but he comes on the boundary, not in the slot. The team will need to fill the vacancy, but with all the 2015 free agents and future extensions, such as Mike Daniels, waiting for money to come across the table, it may be out of Green Bay's range to offer the Kentucky product a bit more than $10 million per year.
At the end of the day, I think Cobb walks due to the amount of money he's able to net from a team which doesn't don green and gold.
Keep or Cut: Cut
Tramon Williams
2 of 7
Tramon Williams went from undrafted to a star cornerback in a short span with the Packers. He's seen a drop-off in talent in recent years but has bounced back to the point that Green Bay still plays him as the second cornerback option, opposite of Sam Shields, in the base 3-4 look.
In nickel, you find the team's true value in him, though. Unlike most starting cornerbacks, he doesn't stay on the boundary in nickel and dime looks; instead he's thrown inside to a slot role, usually correlated to inferior defensive backs.
At his age (31), it's hard to imagine Williams is going to get any better. He has enough talent to still stick around in the league, maybe even as a full-time boundary cornerback, but it doesn't look like the Packers are the team for his future, as far as fit is concerned.
They have two talented slotbacks in Micah Hyde and Casey Hayward. Shields is locked up for the foreseeable future, and Davon House, who comes in for him in nickel at the boundary, is a much younger option (25) and is also a free agent.
Keep or Cut: Cut
Davon House
3 of 7
So while Tramon Williams is projected to walk, Davon House is still an option. A sub-package boundary cornerback, the defender took long strides in 2014. Against Atlanta, receiver Julio Jones was putting up record numbers on top cornerback Sam Shields. When House was subbed in for Shields in the mid-fourth quarter and assigned to cover Jones, House managed to get two pass breakups, winning at the catch-point when even the Packers' top corner couldn't for the majority of the game.
If Williams and House both walk, there's not much hope that the Green Bay starter opposite of Shields is currently on the roster. Micah Hyde and Casey Hayward are largely slot cornerbacks, and the Packers tend to keep those players in those roles. That would leave only Demetri Goodson, who will be a 26-year-old second-year cornerback out of Baylor when the 2016 season starts, as an option. Goodson was only active for six of the Packers' 16 games in his rookie year of 2014.
One of the cornerbacks has to come back, and the younger one looks like the better option in the long run. House should get a two- to three-year deal, which would allow him to sign a large contract in the future if he does lock up the starting role.
Keep or Cut: Keep
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
B.J. Raji
4 of 7
During Green Bay's Super Bowl run, B.J. Raji was thought of as one of the best young nose tackles in the league. In his first contract season of 2013, Raji's play toppled, eventually leading to his one-year "prove it" deal that he signed to come back with the Packers in 2014.
In 2014, entering camp as the starting nose tackle after moving from defensive end, he was looking like his old self again. Then, in a preseason game, Raji tore his biceps, ending his year before it really started. Nothing broke right for the guy in his last two years in Green Bay, when his bank account really needed him to be on point.
He could come back for a third consecutive contract season, but at this point that just seems like a brutal task. Raji might still have talent after recovering, but a change of scenery could be best for him. Letroy Guion did well as his replacement down the stretch, and he is also a young talent (27).
If the Packers do decide to walk away from Raji, swinging toward Guion as the 2015 starter, no one would blame them.
Keep or Cut: Cut
Letroy Guion
5 of 7
One year ago, the Minnesota Vikings released Letroy Guion as a cap casualty, and their divisional rival picked him up. When B.J. Raji's season was cut short in the summer, Green Bay threw Guion into the starting lineup for Week 1, and throughout the season, he improved.
The nose tackle may have a future that extends past his one-year $1 million contract. If the Packers want to, Guion would be a great long-term addition for the franchise. Rarely are quality large bodies found in the NFL. Much like in the NBA, if you find a functional big man—and trust me, a 3-4 nose tackle is a big man—then you keep him as long as you can.
In college, with the spread consuming everything, there's really no option to replace him with later draft picks, either, so there goes the option of the draft. Behind Guion, there's only Mike Pennel, who was an undrafted free agent in 2014.
All signs point to either Guion or Raji being back, and with Raji's history with the team, it's a better option at this point to roll the dice with Guion, who proved his worth in 2014.
Cut or Keep: Keep
Bryan Bulaga
6 of 7
Bryan Bulaga was originally supposed to be the left tackle of the future for the franchise, but after multiple injuries throughout his first contract knocked him out of the lineup, he's become the starting right tackle. Even with that past, the former first-rounder is still probably the best tackle who is slated to hit the 2015 free agency market.
Behind Bulaga is Don Barclay, who missed 2014 due to a torn ACL and is also a free agent. Really, J.C. Tretter is the only player who has the promise to move into a starting right tackle role on the roster and isn't already starting somewhere else on the offensive line.
Tretter was a college quarterback, tight end and left tackle who was drafted by Green Bay in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL draft. He missed his entire rookie season but entered 2014 as the favorite to win the starting center gig. He then got injured again, missing the first half of the 2014 season and losing his starting center role. Undersized at 6'3", he's not ideal to play right tackle, but if needed, he might be able to do it, despite experience at the professional level.
Green Bay doesn't want to have to force that, though. If Randall Cobb does end up leaving, that essentially assures the Packers will be able to re-sign any and every expiring contract they wish to extend this offseason. There's no reason why Bulaga shouldn't be at the top of that list.
Keep or Cut: Keep
Jarrett Boykin
7 of 7
Jarrett Boykin was another Ted Thompson steal, or so it seemed before the 2014 season. Boykin was an undrafted free agent who didn't even make it through a camp with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he made the Packers roster as a rookie and contributed in his second year in the league. In 2014, he was slated as the third receiver, as a boundary target.
After some miscommunication issues early in the season, Davante Adams replaced Boykin in the exact same role. Adams, a second-round rookie, ended up having the best rookie season of any receiver under head coach Mike McCarthy's watch, which is saying something, considering his track record at the position.
When looking at Boykin's ability, strictly as a low-level boundary-only receiver, it's hard to see where he fits on the team when it runs so many 11 personnel looks and Jordy Nelson and Adams are established ahead of him. Really, the team's only option would be moving Nelson, its best receiver, into the slot, which isn't ideal.
It's just hard to imagine Boykin comes back in 2015, no matter the asking price.
Keep or Cut: Cut
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
