Green Bay (OnFocus) – The NFL offseason doesn’t take much of a break once the Super Bowl is over, with a key season opening up in the coming weeks: free agency.
Free agency begins at 4:00 pm March 17, with the two days prior labeled a so-called ‘legal tampering’ period for teams to begin negotiating with free agents.
Just like all NFL teams, the Green Bay Packers have huge decisions to make about their free agents. The Packers have 25 free agents, with different levels of free agency:
Unrestricted Free Agents (14)
- Four or more seasons in the NFL
- The number of unrestricted free agents signed or lost to other teams in the 2021 season will impact compensatory picks in the 2022 draft.
To be a UFA, a player must have four or more accrued seasons. These players are free to sign with any team as of the start of the 2021 league year at 4:00 PM Eastern on March 17. They may also begin negotiating contracts with any team during the so-called “legal tampering” period, which begins two days earlier on March 15.
- DL Montravius Adams
- WR Tavon Austin
- ILB James Burgess
- RB Tyler Ervin
- DL Damon Harrison
- RB Aaron Jones
- CB Kevin King
- TE Marcedes Lewis
- C Corey Linsley
- S Will Redmond
- G Lane Taylor
- OT Jared Veldheer
- RB Jamaal Williams
- DL Billy Winn
Restricted Free Agents (6)
- Exactly three seasons of experience
- Teams decide amount of offer they will ‘tender’ a Restricted Free Agent (RFA).
- A signing team can negotiate a ‘tender’ offer, and if the Packers decline to match, they receive the appropriate draft pick compensation.
- For undrafted RFA, the Packers can either decide to match offers or allow the player to sign with another team, not receiving any compensation in return
(2020 values below)
First-round: $4.873 million
Second-round: $3.422 million
Original round: $2.24 million
- QB Tim Boyle (undrafted)
- S Raven Greene (undrafted)
- DL Tyler Lancaster (undrafted)
- CB Parry Nickerson (6th round pick)
- CB Chandon Sullivan (undrafted)
- TE Robert Tonyan (undrafted)
Exclusive-Rights Free Agents
- Fewer than 3 seasons
- If given a qualifying offer, Packers retain negotiating rights and a long term deal can be negotiated in the meantime
- CB Kabion Ento
- WR Allen Lazard
- OT Yosh Nijman
- OLB Randy Ramsey
- WR Malik Taylor
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
