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The Green Bay Packers have made the necessary decisions regarding their restricted and exclusive-rights free agents in accordance with the NFL’s deadline at 4 PM Wednesday, and the results are pretty much as expected. The team elected not to tender either of their restricted free agents but did issue tenders to most of their exclusive-rights players.
Here’s how the decisions broke down.
Restricted Free Agents
The Packers entered the free agent period with two restricted free agents: inside linebacker Joe Thomas and punter Jacob Schum. The team has chosen not to tender either player, making them both unrestricted free agents as of 4 PM Eastern time on Wednesday.
Thomas may still return to Green Bay on a contract that is lower than the low RFA tender (about $1.9 million), as the Packers were apparently not prepared to offer him that much money. Schum is unlikely to sign with the team, however, as the Packers have established Justin Vogel as their punter for the foreseeable future.
Exclusive-Rights Free Agents
According to an NFL press release shortly after 4 PM, two of the Packers’ exclusive-rights free agents have not received their minimum salary tenders, and are therefore free agents. Those players are long snapper Taybor Pepper and cornerback Herb Waters.
That means that the following ERFA players have indeed received their minimum salary tenders from the Packers and are therefore prevented from negotiating with other teams:
- WR Geronimo Allison
- CB Donatello Brown
- QB Joe Callahan
- WR Michael Clark
- FB Joe Kerridge
- OL Justin McCray
- OL Adam Pankey
- OL Lucas Patrick
- S Jermaine Whitehead
The players are free to either sign their one-year tenders or negotiate a different deal with the Packers.