Green Bay Packers safety Atari Bigby has signed his restricted free agent tender, according to Adam Schefter.
Bigby is scheduled to earn $1.759 million, according to Gregg Rosenthal. Meanwhile, Kevin Seifert says Bigby’s contract number is $1.704 million, which is the amount the Packers threatened to reduce the tender to on June 15.
Either way, the Packers are now assured of opening training camp with the No. 1 strong safety on their depth chart.
Bigby skipped all of the Packers offseason program. Although he never openly admitted it, the safety was reportedly looking for a long-term deal from the team.
Of course, he never received that deal and instead let rookie Morgan Burnett, a third-round pick from Georgia Tech, get invaluable reps with the Packers No. 1 defense.
Burnett is expected to push Bigby for the starting spot.
Currently, the Packers only unsigned player is first-round draft pick Bryan Bulaga, although he was reportedly headed to Green Bay on Tuesday, so a deal may be imminent.
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So Atari’s leverage was that if the Packers don’t pony up a long term deal their oft injured SS, who badly whiffed on two tackles in the playoffs and came out of the game in the third quarter forcing them to play Jarret Bush will give them back 55 grand to let a younger more athletic player get ahead of him on the depth chart.
Drew Roosenhaus, your a genius.