Chris Brouch
I am not a journalist or a reporter! Just a die hard Packer fan! During Packer football season I hope you will enjoy, ‘One Fan’s Opinion’ of our Green and Gold!
The NFL Season never rests! We blinked from the Super Bowl wrapping up and here we are at the start of the new league year (March 11th)! What that means is FREE AGENCY!
Let’s talk more about free agency! Players who are ‘free’ agents are those that have either been cut from their former team or those players who have an expiring contract that allows them to sign with any NFL team. The free agency process is actually kind of a funny dance.
In many, many cases, existing teams could find a way to resign a player to a new contract before he would become a free agent if they really felt he was crucial to the team’s success. And many players would be happy to resign with their original team. Yes, in some instances, the player has decided its time for a new workplace. And in some cases, a team has financial constraints that force them to not resign a player they really like. But, in many cases, the team that knows this player best is voluntarily letting said player move on!
So, when NFL teams sign players in free agency, there is often a large amount of excitement and high expectations! Some of the ‘splash’ moves of big money contracts for the highly sought after players produce great results for the new team! But MANY do not! Former Packers’ General Manager Ted Thompson would refer to free agency as dangerous waters. Ted recognized that for every free agent deal that could go great, another one could be a bust! Former Bears Coach Mike Ditka would say there was a lot of fool’s gold out there!
The Packers have been pretty busy in the opening week of this free agency window. So far, they have signed 3 players (and traded for a 4th) from other teams. The most notable signing being a defensive tackle named Javon Hargrave. Many have said Hargrave is a key acquisition at an area of need for the team! But, as described above, the Minnesota Vikings (Hargrave’s former team) felt he was expendable.
The point of all this! Offseason moves are exciting! But, the rubber only truly hits the road when the cleats are put on in September! Go Pack Go!
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