Acme Packing Company
How would you grade the Packers’ decisions in free agency?
The Packers have been more aggressive in free agency under Brian Gutekunst than they ever were under Ted Thompson. Though Gutekunst’s predecessor did dabble from time to time, Gutekunst has spent more frequently and aggressively than Thompson ever did.
The 2024 offseason may not have been his biggest spending spree (2019 takes the cake there), but the Packers were plenty busy, saying goodbye to a few notable names while welcoming in a couple of more. How did those moves work out? Let’s take a look back.
Out of the Packers departing free agents, I can’t find one that would have meaningfully improved the 2024 roster with the possible exception of Aaron Jones; the brief window where it looked like Jones would be paired with Josh Jacobs was exciting, but reporting after the fact made it clear that was never going to happen. The Packers were set on moving on unless Jones accepted an unrealistic pay cut.
Outside of that, though, the Packers did well here. De’Vondre Campbell wasn’t missed in Green Bay this season (and I suspect he won’t be missed in San Francisco next season), Darnell Savage is barely a memory, and Josiah Deguara was barely a factor for the Packers before he left. Outside of that, perhaps the Packers could have used the offensive line depth that Jon Runyan or Yosh Nijman provided, but they wouldn’t have wanted Runyan for what he got from the Giants (three years, $30 million) and tackle depth was never really a problem.
Finally, Jonathan Owens and Rudy Ford were useful enough as bridge players in 2023, but the Packers were bound and determined to remake their safety room and they did. Owens and Ford were never a part of the plan for 2024 team, however fun the Simone Biles era may have been.
The Packers re-signed six of their own free agents and the results ranged from non-existent to pretty okay.
Tyler Davis and AJ Dillon represent the bottom of the barrel. Davis came back on a cheap deal after missing the 2023 season with a torn ACL, only to end up back on the shelf with a shoulder injury for 2024. Dillon, meanwhile, re-signed on a similarly cheap contract, only to himself miss the entire season with a neck injury. Neither move worked out, in retrospect, but they were so cheap it was worth trying.
Corey Ballentine, Robert Rochell, and Eric Wilson were all helpful in their own ways in 2024, though none are headline players. We made the case to keep Ballentine, Rochell, and Wilson in a recent series here at Acme Packing Company, and should Brian Gutekunst be swayed by those cases, none of these guys would probably be particularly expensive. It wouldn’t be surprising to see...
