Free agency is off to a fast and furious start, but more on that later. The Green Bay Packers did a little housekeeping prior the signing period opening, tendering linebacker Jamari Lattimore.
Lattimore received the low tender of $1.431 million, making him a restricted free agent. If the Packers hadn’t tendered Lattimore, as was initially expected, he would have been free to sign anywhere.
Now, the Packers have the right to match any offer Lattimore receives.
Last month, the Packers thought they could be thrifty, not tender Lattimore and still bring him back (paying him less than $1.4 million). The Packers must have been convinced there’s a market for his services in the past week and thus changed their mind.
Lattimore was a boss special teams player in 2013 and flashed some playmaking ability as an injury replacement for Brad Jones on defense. However, he was hella inconsistent.
If he can nail down the elusive consistency in 2014, he might just be able to push one of those bums out of the starting lineup. The bums I speak of are, of course, Jones and A.J. Hawk.
So it looks like Lattimore will be back. M.D. Jennings? Probably not so lucky.
Jennings was also going to be a restricted free agent, but there’s been no word that the Packers bothered to tender him. And let’s be honest. Why would they?