This isn’t the first time St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson has been connected to the Green Bay Packers.
There were rumors that the Packers might try to trade for Jackson as recently as October, which was actually the second time the Packers were linked to the eight-time 1,000-yard rusher.
With Jackson expected to void the final year of his contract to become a free agent, the Packers are again being mentioned. ESPN’s John Clayton suggested the Packers and Jackson would be a perfect fit.
“I think that would be a great idea. Jackson isn’t going to make $7 million this year. Jackson has until the start of free agency to void the last year of his Rams contract. Although the Rams want him back, I think he will hit the market. If that is the case, Thompson could offer $5 million and see whether that could lure Jackson to Green Bay. He would be perfect for that offense.”
The move makes sense for one reason — the Packers have some uncertainty at running back. Cedric Benson and Ryan Grant are both free agents. James Starks and Alex Green ended the season as afterthoughts and the Packers only have a small sampling of what DuJuan Harris can do.
Harris looked like he could be the lead back the Packers need down the stretch in 2012, but there’s no guarantee his 5-7 frame can hold up for a full season.
So what’s the problem?
Money. The Packers don’t have much.
They’re currently just $7.1 million under the salary cap. Around $5 million of that will go to signing their draft class. That means the Packers would have to ax someone like Charles Woodson and his $10 million salary or Jermichael Finley and his $8 million salary to accommodate such a signing. They could also renegotiate a bunch of deals.
If there’s another problem, it’s that Jackson will be 30 this summer. Grant and Benson are the same age. The Packers wanted nothing to do with Grant when he became a free agent last year and gave Benson a pretty miniscule one-year deal when they signed him.
They obviously don’t like backs of a certain age. And if they’re going to sign a back, why not save $4 million a season and just re-sign Benson? He was effective when healthy and is the same type of back Jackson is — one who can move the pile.
We know the Packers like Jackson, but at what price?
If you’re a verteran player & you suit-up for the Packers, you’re just going to get injured…
C’mon Monty,……The guy averaged 65 yards a game, and got 1 td every 4th game, and you want to offer him 5 million? Sounds like a good plan Monty, Good thinking. I’ll take my chances with a young fresh Dujuan Harris for only 555K/Year and his 4.6 yard average.
4.6 YPG over how many games? Can he do that over a full season? That has yet to been seen. How much you wanna gamble?
John Clayton suggested 5 million for Jackson not Monty. Hence the quotation marks. Monty suggested saving the Pack 4 million by re-signing Bensen. Minor details.
Why can’t we just draft a good young back or pick someone off again from waivers? See, this is the dilemma of not having a true go to guy in the backfield that’s around 215-228 lbs, which is the weight of most of the star backs in the league. DuJuan is our poor man’s CJ2K or C.J. Spiller, so we need another poor man’s AP or Foster to carry the load. Also, who’s to say that they won’t keep James Starks and that he rebounds?
Again, I’m going out on a limb and hoping the Packers nab a feature-type back in the draft.
Come on grab Montee Ball he looks sick with it
dumb article
Well, if GB sets aside $5 mil for the draft, then they’ve next to nil to offer for Restricted Free Agents:
CB Sam Shields
C Evan Dietrich-Smith
TE Tom Crabtree
OLB Frank Zombo
ILB Robert Francois
I’m OK with Zombo leaving, but Shields, EDS, and Crabtree are important enough to tender offers — but where’s the money??
I admired the way the Giants said: “You, you, and you — you’re outta here.” No hem-hawing/pussy-footing…
I’m more than ready for some press releases that include things like:
“we appreciated his contributions over the years…”
“we want to release him now to give him the best chance to avail himself to other teams…”
GBslacker, read the article about the Packers salary cap and you’ll have your answers.
The Giants had to straight cut people because they are OVER the salary cap. The Packers are not.
John Clayton is one of the few sports hacks I respect, but he is paid to fuel speculation about possible landing spots, even with little to go on other than that Jackson is “a good fit for the Packer offense.”
mxz600 and myself are once again agreeing on this one.
I love the toughness and versatility that Jackson brings, but what I don’t love is the price tag.
Jackson at $5 million a year or Dujuan Harris at $500,000?
The only move the Packers should even consider in the backfield is at fullback. They have Dujuan Harris and a healthy Alex Green next season. You have to give those guys a chance.
Draft someone. Fine. But there is no way you spend any money at this position. If you want to spend some money, do it on DEFENSE.
Everyone seems to forget James Starks as well. If he can stay healthy, granted that’s a whale-sized if, he is a hard runner that adds another element to the running game.
The 5 million price tag was just speculation as you said CLayton gets paid to do. However, the packers could easily come up with that money. They should cut woodson which they should do anyways. Basically, we know now the packers have average running backs or prospects that keep getting hurt (Alex green, James Starks). It doesn’t really make much sense to me to expect anything other than mediocre again next season. Cedric Benson was a good move but now we don’t know how thats going to turn out.
Basically, assuming Benson and Green get healthy and contribute the packers could have a slightly above average running game. Its either that or try to get someone in the draft. Its never easy to do that. Why are you so hung up on the 5 million when the packers could easily make room for it? Especially since it would only be one year..
Your right Iltarion it’s a dumb article, but you sure did write a lot for agreeing with such a dumb article — but again your right, the GB run game was stellar this year — I mean why should any organization pay a position like RB premium money when they can dish it out to players like AJ Hawk. Forget the fact that DuJuan Harris was cut by two other teams before landing with the practice squad forget the fact that Greg Jennings will be gone and next year and GB will see more deep cover 2 defenses than any other team in the league. Yeah, dumb article — we should probably just talk about how AJ Hawk should be re-signed since you can’t seem to get over your homosexual urges to masturbate to him on a nightly basis.
Let me ask you a question Mr. Iltarion. What’s the only thing that going to stop defenses from playing their safeties 30 yards deep and dropping back into cover 2 consistently? I’ll give you a hint it’s not gonna be DuJuan Harris. It might not be Steven Jackson either but I’ll take his hall of fame career and ability to run by a shit O-line over Harris and Ced Benson.
Yes, let’s spend more money on defense. Like we did last off-season right? Cause that helped out a lot. Maybe dish out a few more bucks to Hawk or Tramon, those have been solid investments. Where do you suggest this money go? I know you only like to pick apart opinions instead of having any of your own but let’s hear your solutions instead of critiques for once.
Tell ya what PackAttack, you are the wierdest, most obnoxious fan I’ve ever read on a blog.
You don’t agree with Iltarion suddenly he’s a homo and you actually make shit up in your mind like him masturbating to a football player.
If you were to ask me…. you’re the one doing this shit, where else would you come up with it?
And yea, the D went from 32nd to 11th this year. Yep, didn’t do shit genius.
JACKSON AND HARRIS MAN THEY WOULD SMASH TEAMS..
I’m sorry but Benson and grant are no Jackson. Not even close
Maybe other than Dom Capers packatttack is the only one in love with AJ Hawk. The only reason we didn’t release him is that he doesn’t count to much against the cap. Not sure about the Jackson deal he is a workhorse but I think Harris benson and maybe getting shone Greene for less money would have been enough with our offense. Goodbye to the zombos an Crabtrees of no use to us Thought they should have went after Ellerbee but no didn’t or Kruger Maybe Jennings will come back when he finds out he is not worth the money he is wanting