Brad Jones Visits Packers - What's Going On Here?

One of the men who seems to have been forgotten in the recent stages of free agency is former Packers linebacker Brad Jones. He, as you well know, stepped in for Desmond Bishop and D.J. Smith on the inside of the Packer defense and played remarkably well. He was solid against the run and actually a step up in coverage from Bishop's performance in 2011. However, there was only one report of Jones actually meeting with a team, and that was the Tennessee Titans about a week ago.

That was the only report of a meeting until yesterday evening, when Tyler Dunne of the Journal-Sentinel found out that Jones was in Green Bay and met with team officials for about an hour at Lambeau Field. Dunne's explanation of the situation goes like this:

In a light blue hooded sweatshirt, a driver brought Jones to 1265 Lombardi Ave. around 4 CST and he departed an hour later. On his way out, Jones did not stop to speak to a pair of reporters about his situation. His agent Josh Wright did not indicate if Jones had reached a deal with the Packers.

It's fascinating that there are only two reports of Jones making visits to this point, and this looks promising for the Packers. The Titans are now stretched thin against the salary cap, with only around $2 million to spare before including the new contract of recently-signed safety Bernard Pollard. They have signed several reasonably big names this off-season, including guard Andy Levitre, running back Shonn Greene, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, defensive tackle Sammie Lee Hill, and now Pollard. It looks unlikely now that the Titans would be a player for Jones' services.

With the "stupid money" now slowing down and teams figuring out their cap situations, Jones may be down to few options, and now the team with the best situation for him both given the salary cap and his familiarity with the team may indeed be Green Bay. Perhaps the restructure of A.J. Hawk's contract will give the Packers enough room to bring Jones back to solidify the depth inside. At this point we can only speculate, but I think the odds of Jones returning to Green Bay are better now than they were a week ago.