The Tale of Two Free-Agent Signings
GREEN BAY, Wis. – In February, the Green Bay Packers pursued J.J. Watt as the potential missing piece to a defense that was good enough to get to back-to-back NFC Championship Games but not good enough with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
Ultimately, on March 1, the Wisconsin native and former University of Wisconsin star signed with the Arizona Cardinals.
Exactly 100 days later, with almost no fanfare at all, the Packers signed former Cardinals linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. While Watt got $28 million over two seasons, Campbell settled for a one-year deal worth a meager $2 million.
Fast forward to January, with the NFL playoffs on the horizon, and it’s clear which team got the better player and the most value. In seven games in Arizona, the injury-plagued Watt played in only seven games with one sack. Campbell has a career-high 145 tackles and leads the NFL with 101 solo tackles.
At his 33rd Team, former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum focused on those two players in listing his biggest hits and misses of the offseason. While Campbell has been a centerpiece of top-seeded Green Bay’s defense, Watt for the fourth time in six seasons played eight or fewer games. He has just 10 sacks the last three seasons.
“One of the lessons that I’ve learned is that you must pay a player for what they will do, not what they have done,” Tannenbaum wrote. “Watt is an aging, declining player who has lost his speed in pass rush. He has dealt with a multitude of long-term injuries just since 2019. … With the injuries that have occurred since, it is reasonable to expect, he will never regain his dominant form. Watt will now be coming into the 2022 season off of another torn bicep as well as a labrum and rotator cuff, all of which could be debilitating to his strongest trait left: his strength.”
The high-profile names, such as Watt, often grab the headlines. It’s the understated moves, however, that tend to be critical. It’s no different than Green Bay’s attempt to acquire cornerback Stephon Gilmore in October but instead getting Rasul Douglas.
“NFL front office members are constantly focused on improving their roster, thinking about who will be on the move, who we can sign to fill a need, and where we can add depth when the injuries inevitably occur,” Tannenbaum explained. “The best signings of the offseason, the teams that truly “hit” on a player, often go overlooked.”
