Green Bay Packers: Grading the team’s free agency moves so far
By Joe Kipp
The Green Bay Packers have been busy in 2019 NFL free agency. Here we grade the Preston Smith, Adrian Amos, Za’Darius Smith and Billy Turner signings.
After a quiet first day of pre-free agency negotiating, the Green Bay Packers weren’t shy about what they wanted to accomplish on Day 2. Although free agency doesn’t officially start until Wednesday, March 13 at 4:00 p.m. ET, the Packers had their hands full on Tuesday.
In the second day of the legal tampering period, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst came out swinging in a big way. The second-year GM started off the day by committing to sign former Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith (first reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network). Shortly after, it was announced Green Bay would also be bringing in former Chicago Bears safety Adrian Amos (first reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network).
The Packers could’ve stopped there and been satisfied. But Gutekunst wasn’t done yet.
Later in the day, it was announced that former Washington Redskins outside linebacker Preston Smith would be signing with the Packers (first reported by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky). And finally, Green Bay signed former Denver Broncos offensive lineman Billy Turner (first reported by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein) to cap off a busy day.
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All of Tuesday’s signings appear to fill immediate needs for the Packers. Coming into the 2019 offseason, Green Bay had huge holes at both safety positions, a glaring need at pass rusher, and an opening at right guard.
In past offseasons, Green Bay was known for holding pat on the first few days of free agency. Clearly that wasn’t the plan this offseason. After a fairly successful first wave of free agent signings, could the Packers still have a few tricks up their sleeve? Perhaps Gutekunst isn’t done just yet, but for now, here are the grades for every signing so far.