Center Evan Dietrich-Smith is apparently in a hurry to get out of Green Bay.
The New York Daily News’ Ralph Vacchiano says the Green Bay Packers starting center in 2013 will sign quickly and he’ll do it with the New York Giants.
I've heard free-agent C Evan Dietrich-Smith could sign quickly tomorrow. Giants are the favorites, from what I can tell. #NYG
— Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano) March 10, 2014
First, just gotta say… is there a more New York sportswriter name than Ralph Vacchiano? I mean, this guy was either going to be a mid-level mobster or a sportswriter for the Daily News. With a name like that, those were the only two choices he had.
So anyway, not much of a surprise if it’s true about Dietrich-Smith.
The Giants have been rumored to be interested in just about all of the Packers offensive free agents at one point or another this offseason. The primary reason is Ben McAdoo. The Packers former quarterbacks coach is now the Giants’ offensive coordinator.
Also, the Packers didn’t seem to the have the same urgency to do a deal before free agency opened with Dietrich-Smith that they did with cornerback Sam Shields. In fact, we haven’t heard peep that the Packers were even talking with Dietrich-Smith about a new deal.
If that’s truly the case, then we can see why he’d be in a hurry to sign elsewhere.
The Giants are in bad need of a center as well. Word surfaced on Monday that they were cutting their starting center, David Baas. It isn’t likely they’d have made that move if Dietrich-Smith wasn’t already locked up, for all intents and purposes.
If this plays out as expected, the Packers will be left with a hole at center. The top candidate to fill that hole has to be second-year man J.C. Tretter.
Tretter lost the majority of his rookie season to a broken ankle, but the Packers drafted him in the fourth round to be the team’s “center of the future.”
That future might be now.