Acme Packing Company
According to Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated, the Green Bay Packers have signed linebacker Nick Niemann to fill out their linebacker room. The Packers only kept four linebackers on their initial 53-man roster, which was just an unfeasible number for a 4-3 defense in a league that has recently emphasized both the kickoff play.
It was obvious that Green Bay was going to bring in a fifth linebacker on Wednesday. The only question was whether it was going to be an outside player or one of Isaiah Simmons or Kristian Welch, who the team released yesterday.
Niemann was a sixth-round pick out of Iowa in 2021. After playing in 64 games for the Los Angeles Chargers over four years, he signed a two-year, $6 million contract with the Houston Texans this offseason. This included a $1.5 million signing bonus, which the Texans had to eat with his release. In total, he received $4 million in guarantees from Houston.
According to a source, Niemann’s $2.5 million in guaranteed salary over the next two years has offsets, so there’s no incentive for him to ask for more than a minimum salary. He continues to get paid that $2.5 million, and a minimum salary leaves Houston on the hook.
Niemann is known best for his special teams play, as he’s only played 363 defensive snaps to 1,298 special teams reps in his NFL career. For perspective, he only played five percent of the defensive snaps last year in the 13 games that he was active for with the Chargers. Make no mistake: This is 100 percent a special teams move.
He’s also the brother of linebacker Ben Niemann, who played with the Kansas City Chiefs, Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos and Detroit Lions. His father is Jay Niemann, who has served on Iowa’s staff as an assistant defensive line coach and the team’s defensive recruiting coordinator since 2019. The elder Niemann was Packers first-round pick Lukas Van Ness’ positional coach with the Hawkeyes.
