A tight wage cap situation and a huge extension for Aaron Jones created a quiet first week of free agency for the Green Bay Packers.
In fact, they have been one of the quietest teams in the NFL since the start of the league’s new year.
The Packers and Los Angeles Rams are the only two teams that have not hired an outside free agent.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst needed to restructure half a dozen veteran contracts just to fit Jones’ contract under the reduced salary cap before the league’s new year starts on Wednesday. The team agreed to a four-year contract with Jones on Sunday, the day before the legal tampering period began.
This week, the Packers offered restricted bids to Robert Tonyan and Chandon Sullivan and four different exclusive rights bids, adding more money to the limit.
Without much in the way of purchasing power, Packers have been content to wait in the shadows, waiting for bargains that are often difficult to find during the first few days of free agency.
Packers have holes to fill in the list. Cornerback, offensive tackle, defensive line, wide receiver and linebacker could use some degree of veteran help. Finding cheap options in one or more of the positions after the first waves of free agency could really open up the Packers’ options in the draft in April.
Thanks to a complicated limit situation, the Packers were predictably quiet during the first days of the free agency. Gutekunst can free up some space by converting Aaron Rodgers’ base salary into a subscription bonus if there is an intermediate free agent or two he wants, but without other limit release moves, the Packers will have to keep the bargains at a free agency .