The Green Bay Packers must’ve had a clear understanding of how the inside linebacker market was about to unfold in free agency when they moved quickly to sign veteran Christian Kirksey on Monday.
Over the next 24 hours, four of the available players at the position signed deals worth $10 million or more per year.
The Packers either weren’t interested or weren’t capable of engaging in bidding wars. Kirksey wasn’t the best player available, but he might have been the best value. His two-year deal will pay him a base of $13 million, with a cap hit under $5 million in 2020, tons of money tied into playing time incentives and a clear exit strategy should the plan bust by 2021.
Others cashed in big on the open market.
Blake Martinez signed a three-year deal worth a little over $30 million with the New York Giants, Jamie Collins signed a three-year deal worth $30 million with the Detroit Lions, Cory Littleton signed a three-year deal worth $36 million with the Las Vegas Raiders and Joe Schobert signed a five-year deal worth $53.75 million with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Nick Kwiatkoski, another top player at the position, signed a three-year deal worth $21 million with the Raiders.
The Packers were expected to explore all avenues of improving the inside linebacker position, but limited cap space and a market of rich spenders made thrift shopping the preferred play for GM Brian Gutekunst.
It’s possible it will end up being the right call. Littleton is an emerging star and Kwiatkoski might thrive in a bigger role, and both would have been great in Green Bay, but there’s real risk in paying big money for non-elite players at non-premium positions.
While the Packers didn’t get significantly better at inside linebacker over the last two days, they did dodge a few financial bullets in the process. Kirksey is a cheap, low-risk patch. Sometimes, the best moves are the ones a team doesn’t make.
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