Morning Buzz: No House call for Packers?
Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers and the NFL from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a strong cup of coffee and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.
So, did anything happen over the weekend?
Where to start? Might as well pick it up late Friday afternoon when Packers fans went from frustration to elation when they learned the Packers were allowing Jared Cook to walk away, only to learn soon that the Packers would be signing tight end Martellus Bennett.
The Packers then followed the Bennett acquisition by announcing they also had signed Wisconsin native Lance Kendricks.
The excitement from those signings lasted a little over 24 hours until the news dropped that veteran Pro Bowl guard T.J. Lang was signing with the Detroit Lions.
The Green Bay Packers had a decision to make: Do they hold firm with their offer and trust that T.J. Lang would choose them for the sake of familiarity or do they follow the market and make him the fifth-highest paid guard in the NFL?
The decision they made resulted in Lang, their toughest and most consistent offensive lineman, signing a three-year, $28.5 million deal Sunday with the Detroit Lions. According to a knowledgeable source, the contract includes $19.5 million of guaranteed money.
Lang had solid offers from the Lions and Seattle Seahawks, but the Packers refused to match them and Lang decided he could be happy playing for the team he followed growing up in the Detroit suburbs. He said it ended up being an easy choice because he thought the Lions were an up-and-coming team and believed in him as a player.
Ryan Wood broke down Bennett’s contract.
He also wrote on Julius Peppers leaving for the Carolina Panthers.
If keeping up with all of this in real time makes your head spin and you’d prefer a one-stop shop for all the moves the Packers make or don’t make in free agency, check out our free-agency tracker.
I tried to sort it all out with bewildered Packers fans late Sunday afternoon over on our Facebook page:
Meanwhile, free-agent running back Eddie Lacy visited both the Seahawks and Vikings this weekend and is scheduled to visit the Packers on Monday.
Davon House, who reportedly had interest in returning to the Packers, will be signing with a team soon but it won’t be the Packers, according to Bill Huber of Packer Report:
Martellus Bennett asked Packers fans to choose his new jersey number:
I put up some clips of the Packers' new tight end:
Former Packers general manager Ron Wolf had some interesting things to say about free agency recently:
JC Tretter said goodbye to Packers fans:
Around the NFL lists Eddie Lacy as one of the best remaining free agents: