The writing was on the wall. The Green Bay Packers weren’t going to re-sign running back [intlink id=”77″ type=”category”]Brandon Jackson[/intlink] or offensive lineman [intlink id=”91″ type=”category”]Jason Spitz[/intlink].
Thursday, both players signed elsewhere — Jackson with the Cleveland Browns and Spitz with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jackson got a two-year, $4.5 million deal with the Browns, where he’ll serve as the team’s third-down back and play behind Peyton Hillis and Montario Hardesty.
Terms of Spitz’s deal are unknown, but it is known that he wanted a chance to start and wasn’t going to get that in Green Bay, where he went from a valuable starter three seasons ago to a liability last season.
The Packers are well prepared for both players’ departure.
They drafted running back [intlink id=”1618″ type=”category”]Alex Green[/intlink] in the third round of this year’s draft. Even if he fails to develop, the Packers are loaded at the position with [intlink id=”64″ type=”category”]Ryan Grant[/intlink] and [intlink id=”1038″ type=”category”]James Starks[/intlink].
As for the offensive line, the Packers only lose a backup who didn’t look capable of being a starter in limited action last season. The team has younger prospects they want to develop like Nick McDonald and [intlink id=”1037″ type=”category”]Marshall Newhouse[/intlink]. They also added guard [intlink id=”1625″ type=”category”]Caleb Schlauderaff[/intlink] in the draft.
The short of it is, it doesn’t look like either player will be missed.