Should the Green Bay Packers Re-Sign Randall Cobb?

In the 2015 offseason, there's no free agent larger than Randall Cobb on the Green Bay Packers' radar. They have starters at multiple positions slated to come off the books, such as Tramon Williams at cornerback and Bryan Bulaga at right tackle, but they aren't going to net anywhere near the same amount of money as Cobb potentially could in the open market.

Part of what makes Cobb so valuable is his age. At 24 years old, he's as young as some of the players in this year's draft class. The difference between those unproven commodities and the former Kentucky Wildcat is that he's accumulated 227 catches for 3,049 receiving yards and 25 touchdowns throughout his career, including 12 in 2015.

According to Pro Football Focus, he lines up in the slot the fourth-most in the league by percentage, only behind Philadelphia's Jordan Matthews, Dallas' Cole Beasley and Denver's Wes Welker. It's safe to categorize the 5'10" pass-catcher as a slot or Y receiver, making his touchdown performance even more impressive. Of players who lined up in the slot at least 50 percent of the time, Cobb leads with 12 touchdowns. Only two others, Matthews and Tennessee's Kendall Wright, scored more than four.

Overall, he's an interesting case study, as slot receivers typically don't make as much money as boundary receivers, but that's usually due to the notion that they aren't very efficient at physically scoring points. If his 2014 season doesn't dispel some of that cloud hanging over him, I don't know what would.

Of the top-10 receivers, sorted by total contract value on Over The Cap, none are truly slot targets. Larry Fitzgerald and Greg Jennings are now mostly playing a slot role, but at the time of their signings, they were looked at as primary receivers. Percy Harvin has some of the same elements to him, but he's been noted for splitting out and sprinting down a sideline, something Cobb hasn't.

So, you have to drop one more slot down, looking at the 11th receiver on the list, to get a judgement for what a top-end inside receiver should receive. That contact is Victor Cruz's, who managed to receive a five-year contract worth $43 million, netting him an average of $8.6 million a year.

That seems like a manageable task for the Packers, as they should have nearly $30 million in cap space, if they choose to cut inside linebackers A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones, according to Over The Cap's calculator function. That should be more than enough to re-sign their two large free agents in Cobb and Bulaga.

The only thing Green Bay has to worry about is the market changing on them. If a team loves Cobb to the point where they think they can essentially get a young, proven receiver, they could view money spent on him as essentially buying an extra first-round pick. For a team like the Oakland Raiders, who are looking for a deep threat to pair with rookie quarterback Derek Carr's strong arm, that could be an option. Assuming Matt Schaub, the backup quarterback with the third-largest cap hit on the team, is gone, the Raiders should have over $60 million in money to blow in free agency; twice as much as the Packers, according to OverTheCap.

If they could somehow put together an offer like Percy Harvin received from the Seattle Seahawks after they traded a first-round pick for him, the jump in per year money kicks up about four million, putting Green Bay out of range to compete.

While it seems like they can afford bringing Cobb back for the eight to nine million per year range, they still have to account for vacancies at nose tackle, cornerback and right tackle this offseason, not including the re-signing of veteran depth and the extending of defensive end Mike Daniels' contract, which will expire after next season.

Overall, it's a safe bet that the team makes a strong run for Cobb, and on paper, he is more likely to be back than not. Tempering expectations for a contract based on the history of slot receivers' extensions, the Packers can afford to keep him. That being said, if a team goes overboard and wants to just see him as a receiver, he could quickly be out of the spending range of the team, as he produces in the end zone like slot receivers typically don't.

It only takes one team to make him a massive offer, but at this point, one has to feel good that he might return.