You might think the Green Bay Packers’ directive in free agency is to spend nothing at all. Well, it’s not, according to team president Mark Murphy.
It’s not to overspend and that just ultimately results in the Packers not signing anyone at all.
“… some of the minimum spending rules have kicked in, so you’ve seen some teams spend a lot of money that you haven’t seen spend in the past and I feel confident in our strategy that we’re not going to overspend for players,” Murphy said. “The main focus is on keeping our own. But I know if we can help ourselves we’re looking at it. We brought Jared Cook in for a visit, and we’re going to continue to look at different ways we can build the team.”
As aggravating as it is, this is a sound strategy.
The Packers don’t need to get into bidding wars for players. When that happens, teams end up paying more for a lesser talent and that ultimately cripples their salary cap.
The way the Packers operate is they assign values to players and, we assume, if they can get those players at that number, then they’ll do so.
That just never materializes, so we have to wonder what sort of values they’re assigning.
If you go back to the beginning of free agency this year, both tight end Ladarius Green and inside linebacker Danny Trevathan — two players that would have improved the Packers — received reasonable deals. They were deals the Packers could have afforded and you’d have a hard time finding anyone who says those deals represented overspending.
At the same time, the Packers gave a one-year, $5 million deal to Nick Perry — he of the 12.5 career sacks.
So if you wanted to make a case for overspending, you might say the Packers overspend for their own free agents. If you need another example of that, look back to last offseason when the Packers gave the completely mediocre Bryan Bulaga $6.75 million annually.
That deal will likely prevent the Packers from re-signing at least one of their starting guards — Josh Sitton and T.J. Lang, both of whom are superior to Bulaga — next year.
You could also argue the Packers overpaid to sign Randall Cobb last year, as well. Cobb’s deal averages out to $10 million annually, which is No. 1 receiver money. In the absence of Jordy Nelson, we quickly learned that Cobb is not a No. 1 receiver.
Another clear example of overspending.
So, no. The Packers will not overspend for outside free agents. They probably won’t spend at all. They’ll just overspend to keep their own free agents.
And what better way to keep the status quo intact?