Offseasons can get kind of boring around the Green Bay Packers at times other than NFL Draft time. There are no usually no big free agent signings, scheme changes or a lot of major things to talk about. With the Packers being about five minutes away from a Super Bowl berth expect more of the same. The biggest thing might have already happened with Mike McCarthy giving up play calling duties.
The Packers don’t have a ton of needs compared to most teams with the only glaring ones being inside linebacker and nose tackle. Tight end is up there as well. Other needs may pop up at cornerback, wide receiver and right tackle depending on who is re-signed in free agency. Overall, the Packers are in excellent shape this offseason with what should be at least $25 million in cap space assuming A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones are cut and a young and talented team returning.
The formula for the Packers this offseason is the same as always — re-sign you’re own free agents and draft and develop. It may not be very exciting now, but it produces plenty of excitement come September. You will never hear the Packers being winners during the month of March, but they always are come September through January.
Even though this free agency class is better than most, the Packers just have to re-sign Randall Cobb, Bryan Bulaga and Tramon Williams or Davon House plus have drafts like they have the last two years. Having a good draft may be more difficult than usual with questions about how good of a class this is and the fact that the Packers have the 30th overall pick. There probably aren’t 30 worthy first round picks this year. We have plenty of time to dissect that.
The only way I see the Packers dipping deeply into the unrestricted free agency pool is if Cobb or Bulaga exit, despite all the Ndamukong Suh nonsense that’s been floating around the Internet the last few days. Julius Thomas would make sense to me if Cobb were to leave. The Packers would need another dynamic playmaker if they lost Cobb, and Thomas would bring that with his crazy size and athleticism. He would be what the Packers always hoped Jermichael Finley would turn into. Thomas had 12 touchdowns in only 13 games last season and would help Green Bay’s red zone issues immensely.
Thomas is only 26 years old and has his best football still ahead of him, and the thought he would not be as good away from Peyton Manning would be alleviated playing with Aaron Rodgers. The only question with him would be that he has been injury prone. Again, this would only be if Cobb left and even then it’s hard to see Ted Thompson paying him what it would take. It’s just my own silly speculation.
There will be the inevitable point this offseason where a certain section of fans get all crazy that the Packers aren’t doing enough and they’re losing ground. As long as they stay the course and re-sign their own free agents everything else will fall into place again for another run at bringing the Lombardi Trophy back home.
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Matt Bove is a writer at PackersTalk.com. PackersTalk.com. You can follow him on twitter at @RayRobert9.
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