Free agents that could help the Packers – defense

OK, Monday is not Thursday, but if somebody could turn off the damn snow in this city I would have more time. This is getting ridiculous. Anyway, lets talk football. There were a lot of good comments about the offensive free agents available, but things might get interesting on defense. Names like Lance Briggs, Jared Allen, Marcus Trufant, Asante Samuel top the list.

The Packers could use help at linebacker but Briggs isn’t a good fit and the only other guy probably worth signing is the Cardinals Karlos Dansby and he just got nailed with the franchise tag, which means the price is too high. Other than Kawika Mitchell, the rest are a weak crop. Look for Ted Thompson to look to the draft here.

Spending some of their cash on defensive end Jared Allen would be certainly be a wise investment, but the Chiefs probably won’t let him go, but if they do I would fully expect the Packers to be aggressive in the bidding. What a replacement he would be for KGB or Cullen Jenkins. The Packers have to decide what to do with Corey Williams as well. It would be nice to keep him in the rotation but with Johnny Jolly the likely starter next year Williams will probably look elsewhere and will certainly get an offer the Packers won’t match even if given the chance. Without Williams the Packers will likely look to a second-tier player like Justin Smith or Tommy Kelly. My guess is last year’s first round pick Justin Harrell is given the first opportunity to replace Williams.

In the secondary if New England doesn’t lock up Samuel, I would thank Charles Woodson for his two years of service and wish him well in future endeavors, then upgrade to Samuel. Wouldn’t cost the Packers’ hardly anything on the Woodson side because his contract was front-loaded big time and the addition of Samuel might put the Packers’ defense over the top. Woodson is old and hurt and should be replaced. Trufant would be cheaper and could also do the job. At safety there is not a whole lot of help available. I can’t see the Packers being interested in Ken Hamlin or Sammy Knight, maybe Gibril Wilson, but look for Thompson to again look to the draft at safety.

Allen or Samuel would be a Reggie White-like signing. Does Thompson have the brass to do it? Is that all it takes to get the Packers over the hump? A little pressure on Eli Manning, a little better coverage and toughness in the secondary and who knows what happens. The problem is there is still two weeks until free agency begins, plenty of time for their own teams to work out a deal.  I’d take either one.

More to come…

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Al Davis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Matt H

    I really do not understand the fascination with discarding players that is so chic to write about. You bring up my favorite pick up for the off-season, Asante Samuel, and then you ruin the good thought by suggesting they dump woodson. Why would you have them dump Woodson? As you said, the contract was front loaded and money isn’t the obstacle for GB. Why not keep all three great corners and have the best nickle back in the league. It worked for Philly when they had it. It would save some wear and tear on the bodies of the older corners as well as set up the future at the position. It would buffer them in case of injury, and it would shore up one of the few areas of weakness on a developing defense. Which brings me to Corey Williams. Why not sign a guy you know can play? He can play end or tackle, gives you depth at both positions and offers you incredible depth at one of the toughest positions to fill in the NFL. Justin Harrell isn’t Corey Williams. IF he pans out, he will be Ryan Pickett and then you can let that Salary go when that time comes. Until then, you have the money and a young player who already has already showed the work ethic and developed the way you want–keep him. If you end up with too much depth in camp, trade one then when teams are desparate. Lance Briggs covers and tackles well. Real well. In my humble opinion-he fits well–real well. I just think that is an area they can adress in the draft and develop. What percentage do we actually play 3 backers anyway? There is help at line and corner available. Sign it and your offense can put up 17 points a game and win most of them.

  • Pete H

    I have to say that I think priority one is siging Williams. If this year showed one thing its that you can’t have enough depth at d-line, and Williams plays the run and rushes the passer. With the money they have they can front load a deal and basically pay his entire contract off now, and still have space down the road. Also, you look at the premium that d-tackles are in this league. They are hard to come by. Sam Adams is still getting huge money for crying out loud. Tank johnson got a job 2 minutes after his suspension was over, and he is average. I would also love Samuel, but not to replace Woodson, yet. Why not have three of the top 10 corners in the game for a couple of years. With the amount of 3 receiver sets that are used, it plugs a hole that got exposed in the Dallas game, even though I like what Tramon Williams showed. Also, if someone gets hurt, you don’t skip a beat for starters. Who knows, maybe Woodson could even make a move to free safety where we might see some better play making ability, evenif it was just on passing downs. Collins could move to strong, and Bigby could come out, as sure fire passing downs were not his strong suit.
    I am not real high on Jared Allen though. If KGB would take a pay cut, that side is a very solid combo of Jenkins and KGB. Don’t get me wrong, I think Allen is a stud, but I just think there are better spots for the money. I would like to see some depth at linebacker. I really like our 3, with the exception of Poppinga’s pass covering inabilities, but I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the draft used for this, or maybe like they did in 97 bringing in Joyner. A guy who won’t be a glaring weakness when he comes in, but doesn’t cost much. As for safety, I really came full circle on Bigby. He had an amazing second half. I still like Collins. I would like to see some more big plays out of him, but I don’t think we see alot of what he brings to the table. with Harris and Woodson generally playing bump and run, he is responsible for the over the top, and there wasn’t thatmuch there this year…again other than Dallas. I also think he might be able to shine a little better with there being a competent strong safety there. He has had to play with a bunch of crap for alll but the second half of this season. Anyway Williams, Williams, Williams…Samuel, Samuel, Samuel.

  • Jimm G

    I don’t see Thompson signing Samuel, he is going to command a fortune and I don’t think that TT will do it. If we do I agree with Matt, why pick up a guy like that and cut Woodson? Regardless of his age he played well last year and he wasn’t the one the Giants gouged. I say keep Harris and Woodson and add Samuel if you can. I think Thompson will look for McCarthy to develop Tramon Williams and Jarrett Bush and add someone through the draft. I know there aren’t a lot of Bush fans out there but he did flash some potential in the nickel at times, heck he won’t do worse then Walker. I say bring him back and see if he has developed. Williams is probably our best bet of contributing in a meaningful way, of those still on the roster. I think Blackmon is done, too many injuries and I see him being gone before camp, unfortunate for a guy with a ton of talent. I like what Atari Bigby showed at the end of the year and remember he led the team with five interceptions, not bad for a guy who is supposed to be a liability in coverage. Aaron Rouse is an interesting guy at safety; let’s see what he can do before we go looking for another safety. Personally I think Collins is the weak link there, he always seems to make the highlight clips chasing the big play, not what I would expect from a guy wearing number 36. I like Poppinga’s attitude and disposition; unfortunately that doesn’t make him a good strong side linebacker, a position that must be addressed. Basically I like our defense but we defiantly lack depth something we should be able to address this off season. Like most of you I would like to keep Cory Williams, maybe tag him and then trade him later if Harrell lives up to a first round status, I don’t know if TT will sign him to a long term deal but the value of depth on the d-line can’t be overlooked.

  • Jon

    “Lions end their 16-game Lambeau losing streak by winning 24-17.”

  • JeffN

    I would like to see a stud strong side linebacker and stud defensive end come to Green Bay. That would certainly upgrade the entire defense. I think defensive end is the only position TT will pay a ton of money for and good luck finding one of those. Samuel is going to cost too much and would rather go to a team that doesn’t have a pro bowl corner so he can be the big stud on campus. I see Bigby and Rouse being the starting safeties next year. It’s going to depend on how much $$ Williams wants whether he stays or goes. Don’t be surprised to see TT pull out the check book for Williams. He likes to resign veterans. Would be nice to keep him. I think the strong side linebacker is going to come from the draft. Wow their drafting late this year. I wonder how much tougher that is going to make the draft for TT this year as oppossed to other years.

  • http://www.packernet.com admin

    “Lions end their 16-game Lambeau losing streak by winning 24-17.” What is that supposed to mean? Let it go already. Can I get you some help?

  • Jon

    What it means is that someone who was so wrong so many times during the season is just not very credible.

  • JeffN

    Well Jon, obviously you keep coming back to the sight so I would beg to differ on creditability issue. We are all wrong about football quit a bit of the time because the NFL is so unpredictable. The NFL being so unpredictable is what makes it the best professional sport out there. Embrace the power of the NFL instead of talking about old news. The Lions… gosh who cares that is like so 3 months old.

  • matt i

    well, we have williams, i think TT will sign him to a long term deal and not keep the tag. so thats good. tramon, is going to be a real good corner. id like to see im at knickel. i was also thinking instead of using poppinga on pass plays, or going to the knickel all the time, put rouse out there at strong side linbacker to cover the tight end, he has the hieght and speed. i think rouse is a ball hawk too.
    i think KGB is still worth the money to keep him, i am a little disapointed in jenkins, but is lower sack numbers are probly because he was never in during pass plays. KGB also had 9 sacks before his injury wich slowed him down. i would like to see us get a CB in the draft, there a some good ones. we are aging in the cb position. screw samuels, hes not worth the money. i like that big tight end from Tenn. he would still be available at our pick in the 2nd round. he is the only blocker and receiver in the top TEs. if we could get a O line, in the 1st or second round that would be nice, especially if we dont get faneca.

  • Pete H

    How can you say a proven top corner is not worth the money? How many times are there “top corners” drafted who are pure crap? [Buckley, Edwards, Carroll], and those are just our busts. Corners are hard to come by. If you put Rouse out at linebacker all of the time on passing downs teams will just run at him, unless it is like 3rd and 8 or more. A tight end will just push him around. Poppinga alrwady comes out on pure passing downs, its the guessing downs that they have problems with him. I like KGB too. I can’t believe it took so freakin long to take him off of 1st downs..thanks Sherman.

  • matt i

    yea but a lot of FA can becrap after they sign new deals. i just think with all the corners in the draft this year we should draft, get someone younger and cheaper. someone who can build a sense of team pride, i dont know if samuel could do that, he seems like he is to into the money. corners are like second to wide outs in the ego department too, so if one of the three had to be knickelback they wouldnt be happy. you are right pete about bad corners coming out of the draft, but TT is smart and Carroll was an idiot. i was thinkin about rouse on 3rd and long, cause we know poppinga cant cover him, and corners in the knickel are to short. rouse is a pretty big boy and i dont think he would get pushed to much, safeties are used to covering tight ends, thats who they usually cover anyways. it wouldnt be smart to have him in during plays when u know a team likes to draw though, u are right about that.

  • Pete H

    Yep, corners can be ego freaks…that’s for sure. I would just rather have one that can play over one who thinks they can. I understand your point though, and I wouldn’t be too dissappointed if they went that route.

  • JeffN

    I think Rouse is going to be the starter next season anyway. Popinga either needs to improve at covering the TE or the Pack needs a new starting strong side LB. The safeties and and LBs both need to cover the TE this next season if they want to continue to improve their defense. I think Rouse can do it better than Collins but what LB is going to do a better job than Popinga? I think TT will be taking a TE in this draft but I think most of the other picks are going to be on defense again. Corner, Linebacker, D-end.

  • Jimm G

    When Rouse came out of college didn’t some see him as a LB? He’s 6’4” 223 which is an awfully big safety. I don’t know what the coaches have in mind for him but I would think that if he put on a few pounds he could take on a TE regularly. My money is on Thompson drafting a LB and leaving Rouse at safety to compete there, I think that position could use a push from within, I’m not a big fan of Collins.

  • http://www.hotmail.com Derek

    Hey guys, I am a packer fan of course, and i say that we need somone on the right end to help out Kampman. If i was Thompson i would go after Jevon Kearse. We have the corners, but look for thompson to look to the draft for that one, because Samuel just got signed and Randall Gay a 2nd tier player is signed to a New Orleans contract.
    For the Defensive Ends, as i said Kearse is out there and Allen won,t leave KC. And since Green Bay has few weaknesses going into the draft, look for them to go after a
    QB, to backup Rodgers when Favre retires, a DB to backup a guy like Woodson, a LB to backup Poppinga, a OL to add depth to that position, and maybe a TE to fill in where Bubba Franks was. But in Free Agency, Green Bay won’t go after any Offensive players, because thay will disrupt they chemistry.

  • matt i

    well, i think kearse will do what Rice did in denver, nothing. he is to old and is injury prone. but we do need another end i think. we could pick someone up in the draft at end pretty easily. i would like to draft Chris Johnson, does anyone know what round he is looking to go in? we could use a return man, if they put woodson back there agian, ill be so pissed.