There’s no turning back now. The ink has dried on the contracts, and everything is official: the Green Bay Packers have signed their four big-name free agents. The team agreed to contract terms with four unrestricted free agents on Tuesday during the NFL’s negotiation period, but contracts could not be signed until 3:00 PM Green Bay time on Wednesday, when the 2019 NFL league year began.
In a few select cases around the league, players committed to one team during the negotiation window but backed out of deals and signed elsewhere. That is no longer an option for the four new Packers, however, as the team officially announced the signings of Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos, and Billy Turner on Thursday.
General manager Brian Gutekunst has a press conference scheduled for 1:45 PM Central time, presumably to announce the signings and take questions from the media.
It appears that all four players are in Green Bay already, rather than signing their contracts remotely. Preston Smith posted a photo of him and his young daughter at Lambeau Field on Thursday morning, both decked out in green and gold:
Shortly thereafter, the Packers’ official Twitter account posted videos from Za’Darius Smith and Billy Turner at the team facilities as well, and Amos posted a similar video to his Snapchat (which was later tweeted out by his representatives):
#GoPackGo ‼️@Big_Mountain77 pic.twitter.com/WFwchOAOnX
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) March 14, 2019
.@TheRealZSmith is ready to get to work! #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/H4sXcLycUa
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) March 14, 2019
— PFS Agency (@pfsagency) March 14, 2019
Tune in this afternoon to the team’s press conference — which will be broadcast live on the team’s website here — to see if these players will join Gutekunst to take questions from the media.