It looks like the Packers will have their muscle back in the secondary next season. The team offered restricted free-agent safety Atari Bigby a second-round tender worth $1.545 million, as predicted earlier this week right here. Bigby can still sign with another team, but the Packers have the right to match and if they choose not to they will receive a second-round pick in this year’s draft. Now Bigby is a fine player and one of the up and coming safeties in the NFC, but if someone offers him a big deal, take the second-round pick and bring on Aaron “Sega Genesis” Rouse. If this happened, Thompson would essentially have turned an undrafted free agent into a second-round pick. Not bad.
The team also offered low tenders of $1.01 million to Ruvell Martin, Jarret Bush, John Kuhn and Jason Hunter; so they can match any offers for these players, but won’t receive any compensation. The only one who might receive an offer is Martin, who is burried on the depth chart and could help a team in need of receiving help (i.e. Vikings, Bears). The team did not make an offer to Tory Humphrey or Shaun Bodiford.
Now for a little bit of shocker for the day, defensive tackle Colin Cole is heading to Seattle. The shocking part isn’t that the Packers did not re-sign him, but the deal the Seahawks gave him – five-year, $21.4 million contract, which includes $6 million guaranteed. A pretty nice contract for a part-time player essentially.
It was questioned how Cole would fit in the 3-4 scheme and Thompson reportedly tried to re-sign Cole before he got free, but that point is moot now. Cole was a productive player and line depth is a premium , but not at the price Seattle values it. Let’s just hope Justin Harrell gets the memo that he is now on the clock and it is OK to not hide on the I.R. Thompson will look to add depth on the line in the coming weeks, as Chris pointed out. Apparently Chris Canty was down to the Giants and the Packers, but it looks like he will head to the Big Apple.
-Adam Somers
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