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It's not all difficult for the Green Bay Packers' front office when it comes to free agency. For once, there are a handful of easy, obvious decisions for the team to make this spring when deciding on the futures of some of their unsigned players. Of course, most of these players are young and cheap, and they tend to be minor contributors to the team's success overall. Still, having inexpensive talent and depth is always critical in the NFL, which makes re-signing a few players under team control easy to do.
While one wide receiver fits that group and will look for a greater role in 2017, the Packers got a breakout season from a third-year wideout last season. Davante Adams finished second in the NFL in touchdowns last year, finishing behind only teammate Jordy Nelson. However, he had an unusually high number in one particular statistic, and one site suggests that his numbers in that area will not be nearly as strong next season.
Will that be the case, or is playing with Aaron Rodgers naturally going to inflate certain receivers' numbers? That's for us to find out over the next few years, but he's not nearly as great an outlier as one of his teammates was a few years ago.
Check out these items and much more in today's Cheese Curds.
Undrafted free agents continue to make their mark in Green Bay | Packers.com
The Packers had 17 former college free agents contribute in 2016, totaling more than 3,600 snaps. That's nearly 1,000 more snaps than the previous season.
Some easy calls on Packers' controlled free agents | Packersnews.com
A handful of these undrafted free agents hit the free agent market in 2017 with the Packers having the ability to exert some level of control over them. As far as the exclusive-rights players go, re-signing a handful of them (Geronimo Allison, Joe Thomas, and others) are no-brainer decisions.
With or without Jared Cook, Packers need another tight end to emerge - ESPN
Is that Beau Sandland? Richard Rodgers is who he is at this point, so the Packers would almost certainly need to look to the draft for the future.
Munnerlyn: NFL realizing importance of nickel backs - NFL.com
This is why Micah Hyde is probably going to get a pretty decent payday this offseason - covering the slot is essential in the modern NFL.
Brate, Adams and unsustainable fantasy scoring | PFF
On the official stats, Davante Adams scored on just under 10% of his targets in 2016: 14 touchdowns on 146 targets, including the playoffs (a scoring rate of 9.58%). That makes him a candidate for regression in 2017. However, by comparison, Jordy Nelson was not far behind, with 15 scores on 164 targets - a rate of 9.15%.
A better regression candidate was Nelson in 2011. That year, he caught a whopping 15 scores on just 103 targets, good for nearly 15%. It should then come as no surprise that the next year that rate dipped to under 10% (7 on 86) and in 2013 he was at 6.67% (9 on 135).
Jared Odrick hits free agency after release from Jaguars - SBNation.com
The Jaguars will save $8.5 million against the cap after Odrick played two of the five years on his contract. He could be a fit as a 5-technique end in a 3-4, in which he played during his first two NFL seasons in Miami.