Packers Calendar: Free Agency Begins, Tender Deadline Looms

The new league year opens at 3:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday when there will be a flurry of activity across the NFL.

The new league year in the NFL begins at 3:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday, at which point free agency opens and trades are allowed.

Players entering free agency have been allowed to negotiate with other teams during the three-day window that opened this past Saturday, but no contracts can be executed until Tuesday.

The start of the new league year also represents a deadline for the Packers and all teams to tender their restricted and exclusive rights free agents.

As such, the futures of four players in Green Bay will be determined on Tuesday.

The restricted free agents are wide receiver Jarrett Boykin, offensive lineman Don Barclay and safety Sean Richardson.

In the best-case scenario, each of the three aforementioned players will receive the lowest-qualifying offer, worth roughly $1.5 million for one year, which allows the Packers the right of first refusal.

Each player would still be allowed to sign with another NFL team, but the Packers have the right to match any offer they receive. Or they can simply accept the one-year tender amount and become an unrestricted free agent, much like the Packers did with linebacker Jamari Lattimore this past year.

The Packers have two exclusive rights free agents, but it was reported on Monday that running back DuJuan Harris will not receive a tender offer. That leaves safety Chris Banjo as the only other player in the same category.

If he receives a tender offer, Banjo's only choice is to sign it or not play at all. He could not negotiate with other teams.

As free agency opens, a trio of players expected to sign fairly quickly are offensive lineman Bryan Bulaga and cornerbacks Davon House and Tramon Williams.

It's just a matter of whether they'll be coming back to Green Bay or not, and it shouldn't take long to find out.

NFL Categories: 
0 points
 

Comments (1)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
HankScorpio's picture

March 10, 2015 at 10:37 am

I would tender Barclay and Richardson at the lowest tender. I would not try to get cute and hope to re-sign them at a lower price. I just don't think screwing around over saving $700k (ish) in cap room is worth letting valuable backups get away on the open market. And both are valuable backups. Barclay is a nice 6th o-lineman. Richardson is good on ST and showed he can handle himself on defense last year.

Banjo would be tendered at the minimum anyways, so might as well offer him one. His only value is STs so I doubt he makes it through camp with the depth chart at Safety ahead of him. But the roster is at 90.

I would not tender Boykin but I would seek to re-sign him for one year at the minimum. Let him have another camp to reverse the mess that was 2014 for him.

0 points
0
0