Adrian Amos has been one of the best free agent additions for the Green Bay Packers since Brian Gutekunst took over as GM in 2018. Amos has been the anchor of a secondary that has looked better than it had in almost the entire decade prior. However, as we know, the Packers have a few safeties who are set to become free agents at the start of the new league year, and it seems like Gutekunst has hinted at preparing for this position group to look very different at the start of next season.
While we knew that there may be some changes coming to the secondary entering 2023, yesterday gave us as concrete of an answer as we have gotten thus far. During a press conference in Indianapolis, the Packers GM gave a quite saddening quote if you’re a fan of Adrian Amos. “We have a couple safeties that are moving on,” Gutekunst slipped into a string of consciousness about roster management.
Of course Brian Gutekunst could have meant Rudy Ford and Dallin Leavitt, and we can only hope he didn’t mean Keisean Nixon, though he probably wouldn’t have grouped him in with safeties despite his designation on the roster, but it seems likely he meant Adrian Amos.
It’s not incredibly surprising that the Packers would consider moving on from Amos, as there are several factors at play. His play declined slightly in the 2022 season and he will be 30 soon. Still, there will be a market for a player such as Amos who can probably still play at a high level and is about as competent as it gets when it comes to the responsibilities of his position. His likely market price may just be a bit higher than what Green Bay’s front office is willing to dish out, especially with their current cap situation.
Another factor to consider is that Amos is one of many pending free agents who had their contracts void on February 20th due to not being extended. The decision not to extend these players has led to the belief that they won’t be retained since their lack of extensions actively decreased the available cap space for 2023. This isn’t concrete though, as the Packers have allowed contracts to void before re-signing players plenty of times in the past, it’s actually fairly commonplace.
Gutekunst even spoke of Mason Crosby, another player who wasn’t extended by this deadline, as though he would almost surely be back with the team next year. This piece of “evidence” about voided contracts isn’t encouraging if you want Amos back in green and gold, but it’s not exactly the smoking gun either.
During his press conference, Gutekunst also briefly alluded to possible fluidity in the way the Packers can “field their best five” in the secondary. He mentioned that Darnell Savage can play as a strong safety or a nickel corner, and that Rasul Douglas may be able to move from corner to safety.
Obviously the Packers have some ideas as to how they can field a similarly potent secondary going forward, and nothing is set in stone yet, but they may just have to figure out what that picture looks like without Adrian Amos in it.
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Zack is a college student and cheesehead from California. When he’s not in class or writing, you can find him talking about the Packers on Twitter at @Zack_Upchurch.
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