Free Agency Starts Monday
GREEN BAY, Wis. – While the rest of the world shuts down over fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL show will go on as scheduled.
The NFL alerted teams on Sunday that the league-year will begin as scheduled. That means teams can begin negotiating with outside free agents at 11 a.m. Monday and the free=agent signing period will start with the league-year at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Here are Green Bay’s free agents, who can start talking to teams during the so-called legal tampering period on Monday:
RELATED: GREEN BAY’S FREE AGENT GAME PLAN.
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RB: Danny Vitale (FB), Tyler Ervin (RB/returner).
WR: Geronimo Allison, Ryan Grant.
TE: Marcedes Lewis.
OT: Bryan Bulaga, Jared Veldheer, Jason Spriggs.
ILB: Blake Martinez, B.J. Goodson.
OLB: Kyler Fackrell.
DB: Tramon Williams, Ibraheim Campbell, Will Redmond.
How much money can general manager Brian Gutekunst spend? With the players approving a new collective bargaining agreement, Green Bay will have less salary-cap space at its disposal. Under terms of the CBA, the league’s minimum-wage players received $100,000 raises. That meant Green Bay’s cap, as projected by OverTheCap.com, went from $27.95 million to $22.83 million.
“I think when you look at free agency in the totality, we’re not going to be able to do what we did in unrestricted free agency like we did last year,” Gutekunst said. “I think that’s going to be very difficult just with the restraints that we have. But I think when you look at free agency overall, with salary-cap casualties and different kinds of things, I think we’ll be able to add some players to our roster that can help us. But we’re certainly not in the position we were in last year with the resources. We’re going to have to do some different things this year.”
Pro Football Talk had reported the league could delay the start of free agency because of coronavirus. “A decision to proceed with free agency next week would rival the decision to play games two days after the Kennedy assassination in the annals of NFL P.R. blunders. At this point, it’s likely that the NFL will see the light and not proceed with free agency next week,” Mike Florio wrote on Friday. However, free agency can be conducted almost entirely through technology. Top free agents might not be able to make visits; then again, linebacker Christian Kirksey visited Oakland, Green Bay and Buffalo. Players don’t officially sign on the dotted line until passing a physical; those physicals might either be delayed or require private flights.
