Green Bay Packers are early bargain shoppers in 2020

The defending NFC North champions have gotten an early start on free agency. Did the Green Bay Packers add a pair of starters without breaking the bank?

Last offseason, the Green Bay Packers opened up their checkbook and added four prominent performers via free agency. The franchise certainly got their money’s worth from outside linebackers Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith, safety Adrian Amos and guard Billy Turner.

Each started all 16 games and the club rebounded from a 6-9-1 showing in 2018 and won the NFC North with a 13-3 record. Now general manager Brian Gutekunst is at it again. Only this time, it appears that the club has landed a pair of performers who won’t cost the organization a lot of cheddar and in the meantime address two players that the club is obviously willing to let test the open market.

Via the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport, respectively, the Packers have inked both linebacker Christian Kirksey and right tackle Ricky Wagner to two-year contracts. The former Cleveland Browns defender’s deal is worth $16 million while Wagner — recently released by the Lions — inked for $11 million.

And since each player was released by those respective franchises, those deals can be made immediately. In other words, there’s no waiting until 4:00 p.m. ET on March 18.

Meanwhile, Green Bay has both productive linebacker Blake Martinez and 10-year right tackle Bryan Bulaga slated to test the open market this Wednesday. With Kirksey and Wagner now in the fold, it appears Matt LaFleur’s team is headed in a different direction.

However, it is worth noting that Kirksey has played in a combined nine games the last two years. This past season, he suffered a torn pectoral tendon in the Browns’ Monday night affair with the New York Jets in Week 2 and was out for the remainder of 2019. Wagner started a combined 40 games the past three seasons in Detroit after four years with the Baltimore Ravens.

A year ago, Smith signed a four-year, $52 million with Green Bay and was a difference-maker. Now the shrewd Gutekunst has added two veteran performers at roughly half the price. All told, it looks like a job well done by the Packers’ executive.