The Green Bay Packers shocked the world on Friday by waiving unpromising linebacker Nate Palmer.
While the rest of the planet says, “Who the eff is Nate Palmer?” Packer Nation remembers the 6th round pick who got his shot when Sam Barrington went down in Week 1. After looking like an alright cover linebacker who struggled against the run in Weeks 1 and 2, Palmer eventually turned out to be a mediocre cover linebacker who was lost against the run.
That would seem to make the move to dump Palmer a non-story, but on the contrary, this is a surprise for a couple reasons.
For one, the Packers rarely cut anyone. Secondly, the timing. A player getting cut in April is about as regular as a 4 inch snowstorm in April, which also happened in Green Bay on Friday.
By cutting the apparent third man on their depth chart just two weeks before the draft, the Packers and Ted Thompson seemed to have tipped their hand. Though it doesn’t necessitate it happening in the first round, there is no question that the Packers will be drafting a middle linebacker at some point on the first two days of the draft.
Unless they make a late signing, the Packers will got into the draft with only presumptive starters- Sam Barrington and Jake Ryan- to go along with the questionable depth of Joe Thomas and Carl Bradford on their roster.
When you combine this with the signing of Jared Cook at tight end, middle linebacker becomes the clear greatest area of need for the Packers in the draft. The fact that the Packers let Palmer go before the draft suggests that either they had a strong aversion to keeping Palmer on the roster or that they have a plan in place to replace Palmer.
This all of course assumes that Clay Matthews will not be playing in the middle in 2016. With that being the case, look for the Packers to draft two guys at the middle linebacker position this year.