Are Packers headed for more offensive line turmoil?
By Greg A. Bedard of the Journal Sentinel
March 4, 2010 9:25 a.m. |(57) Comments
Green Bay - Close your eyes for a second and imagine this:
In the 2010 season opener, the starting offensive line for the Green Bay Packers goes like this: left tackle T.J. Lang, left guard Mike Iupati (rookie), center Scott Wells, right guard Josh Sitton and right tackle Allen Barbre.
Backups? Breno Giacomini, Stanley Daniels, Evan Dietrich-Smith, and a few draft picks.
The league-leading 51 sacks the Packers gave up last season might not look that bad.
With 13 hours left before the start of free agency, the possibility is there that the Packers could be without four players that started games on the offensive line last season: left tackle Chad Clifton, right tackle Mark Tauscher, guard Jason Spitz and left guard Daryn Colledge.
How likely is it that all four players will not return? Not very. The Packers have gotten the reputation the past few years of not showing any indication of getting a deal done, and then all of a sudden flipping a switch and doing the deal.
But could most of them not return? Possibly.
If Clifton is going to be back next season, that contract scenario is going to have to unfold again. Because as it stands right now, a contract for the 10-year veteran that has started 106 of the last 112 regular-season games the Packers have played is not in close to fruition.
Tauscher, whose return last season solidified the line last year in coach Mike McCarthy's opinion, will only be back by the start of free agency at 11:01 p.m. CT if his coach gets his way.
General manager Ted Thompson wanted to move on from Tauscher last season. But Barbre fell on his face and opened the door for Tauscher's return.
Thompson wants to do the same thing this year -- with either Lang or Giacomini taking Tauscher's spot -- but McCarthy has been pushing for Tauscher's return privately.
The Packers' trump card with both Spitz and Colledge, who are both restricted free agents, is that they can match any offer another team may make.
But most NFL observers expect the poison pill -- a provision in a contract that makes it monetarily impossible for the player's former team to match an offer -- to return this season.
That being said, it's hard to see a team getting that creative for a player in Spitz who, while talented and healthy, is coming off back surgery. And in Colledge, any team would be getting a player that has been up and down since he entered the league.
But it would not be surprising if a team came after Spitz. On draft day after his rookie season, at least one team offered the Packers multiple later-round picks for Spitz.
As for Colledge, privately he is furious with the Packers. He expected a first-round tender and likely did not get it (Colledge said on Boise radio last night he thought it was a second-round tender).
"If it's a second round, maybe I have a chance to move," Colledge said on KTIK. "Maybe I could be coming to a city near you."
Make no mistake, Colledge would like to leave Green Bay and his agent will be working hard to get a team to offer him a contract. He is tired of being forced to play multiple positions, which Colledge feels has hurt his development.
It's not a coincidence that the two best players on the offensive line last season were right guard Josh Sitton and center Scott Wells. Both have played the same position almost exclusively since joining the Packers.
Other players know that very well. That is why Colledge is not alone in his displeasure with the way the Packers have handled their offensive line.
And it's part of the reason why the Packers could be headed for a line reckoning.
Again, a lot of that is worst-case scenario.
Here's the most likely scenario:
* Packers cave on Clifton this afternoon, knowing they have no other options at left tackle.
* Tauscher is allowed to go free. Door still open to his return depending on what happens in draft.
* Spitz gets an offer but Packers match.
* Colledge gets no offers and has to sign his tender, so he reluctantly returns to the Packers.
But the point is the Packers have left themselves in a precarious position. After what they've gone through since Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera had to be let go to stay under the cap, you have to wonder why the Packers would even dance with this devil?
But here we are, and you can hear the music.