After watching Pickett and Collins make key contributions in our victory over the Ravens I started to realize that we have a lot of key contributors eligible for free agency. This made me nervous, but after doing some research, I began to feel a lot better. I know a lot of you will give me the response, "We need to be worried about the Bears game and the play off hunt right now....Blah Blah Blah.... etc." But c'mon! This is a legit topic. It's up to the mods, but it might be fun to make a sticky thread with news on our guys or where we can post about guys from other teams that GB should be looking at this offseason.
I could be wrong on a few things. Please point anything that is incorrect out so we can be better educated on what's in store for the offseason.
Let's banter.
Here is a full list of Packer free agents in 2010. Our eight starters are in bold.
RB DeShawn Wynn RFA
FB John Kuhn UFA
OG Daryn Colledge UFA
C Jason Spitz UFA
DL Johnny Jolly UFA
DL Ryan Pickett UFA
LB Aaron Kampman UFACB Will Blackmon UFA
SS Atari Bigby UFA FS Nick Collins UFA FS Derrick Martin RFA
OT Mark Tauscher UFA[b ] Tramon Williams UFA?[/b]
LB Brandon Chillar UFA
With no CBA in place, the free agency system will be radically changed. Before you panic about widdle, old Green Bay not being able to keep up with the big market team you need to fully understand the new rules of free agency.
Here's a good article that discusses the changes, if no CBA is in place.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80864e15&template=with-video&confirm=true 3 Changes to Free Agency
1. Free agency will require six years of service (instead of four years in 2010 and five years in 2011)
Packers eligible for UFA:Chad Clifton
Mark Tauscher
Ryan PickettBrandon Chillar
Ahman Green
Packers eligible for RFA:FB John Kuhn UDFA
OG Daryn Colledge 2nd
C Jason Spitz 3rd
DL Johnny Jolly 6th
CB Tramon Williams UDFA
SS Atari Bigby UDFA
FS Nick Collins 2nd
CB Will Blackmon 4th
FS Derrick Martin 6th
RB DeShawn Wynn 7th
These gentlemen do not qualify for UFA (due to less than six years of service). They will be restricted free agents that we can tender at
3 levels:
Tender amount Compensation required$2.562 million First- and third-round
$2.017 million First-round
$1.417 million Second-round
$927,000 Determined by RFA's original draft status (see round selected next to name)
We should able to keep Jolly, Collins, and Williams if we tender at the highest level (1st and 3rd). Our defense is 10X better with Bigby on the field, so I think he should get at least the 1st round tender.
Spitz and Colledge should get the the second round level, because they have experience. I'm not sold on either man as the longterm answer on the o-line. Tendering them at at least the second round level may even facilitate a trade with a dumb team that could let GB net some valuable returns (who here wouldn't take a second round pick for Colledge or Spitz if offered?) Blackmon should get the lowest tender, which would net us a 4th rounder, if someone were to sign him.
2) Teams will have three tags to use to restrict free agents instead of one tag, as they do now. 1 franchise tag (paid as top 5 at position) and 2 transition tags (paid as top 10 at position). Compensation remains the same I believe (2 1st round picks for a franchise player, a draft pick equal to where the tagged players was drafted.Options for Franchise Tag (x1)
Ryan Pickett
The franchise tag would keep the 29 year old Pickett in GB for one year with a fat contract ($6,058,000 in 2009). I don't think any team in the league would pony up the 2 first rounders required to sign Ryan Pickett. We could always franchise and then trade him for a more reasonable pick (see Corey Williams in 2008). With Raji developing, it might be hard to take him off the field. It might be worth getting a second rounder for Big Grease that we could use to address the o-line or get cheaper depth behind Raji.
Options for Transition Tags (x2)
Ryan PickettSame reasons as above, except the one year deal would pay Big Grease the same as the top 10 DTs in the NFL ($5,450,000 for 2009). If a team signed him to an offer sheet, GB would have a chance to match fro be entitled to a first round pick (where Pickett was drafted). It would be tough to consider Chillar, Tauscher, and Clifton here considering the transition tag for either guy would be over $7 million for one season.
3) Teams that go deep in the playoffs could have some spending restrictions to avoid Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder trying to buy championships every season like the Yankees. Not sure on the details, but this may hurt the Pack if they make a deep run this year.
BIG PICTURE:
DON'T PANIC! We will be able to keep our young studs this offseason despite their being no salary cap. The only problem I can see might be keeping potential depth guys like Tauscher, Clifton, and Chillar who might get offered a lot more money to be a back up in Dallas or D.C. than GB can offer.
ALSO:
It is important to consider the impact of these restricting tags. Franchise tags and restriction make players upset. They feel like the team is preventing them from reaching their max-earning potential. Having 6-7 starters with tags and not contracts will probably create a lot of dissent in the locker room towards the front office and towards guys on the team with long term deals. Just something to think about.