The Green Bay Packers have plenty of guys entering their contract year, but safety Morgan Burnett appears to be the next guy the organization has targeted for an extension.
That goes against the conventional thinking that the bigger name guys like B.J. Raji, James Jones or even Jermichael Finley would follow Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews in signing new deals.
Not so, says Jason La Canfora.
Packers are trying to hammer out a new deal with safety Morgan Burnett.
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) July 11, 2013
Burnett is entering the final year of his rookie deal and is scheduled to make $1.3 million.
He’s proven to be durable — starting all 16 games the past two season — and he’s also now the senior Packers safety with Charles Woodson in Oakland.
Burnett led the Packers with 122 tackles in 2012. He also had two picks, two sacks and two forced fumbles. If Burnett continues to improve, as he should, he’ll be able to command some big money when his contract expires.
The first question is, can the Packers afford to do anymore extensions right now? And the answer is, yes.
Even after giving Rodgers and Matthews mega-deals, the Packers still have more than $16 million available in cap space. They still need to sign first-round pick Datone Jones, but that won’t be a big-money deal.
Signing Burnett now at a team-friendly number makes a lot of sense.
What might Burnett’s deal look like? Probably not like Troy Polamalu’s. He’s the highest-paid safety in the league at an average of $9.125 million per season.
No. 10 on that list is the perfectly mediocre (and older) LaRon Landry, who makes an average of $6 million per season. It seems unlikely that the Packers would be willing to commit that much to Burnett, but you could certainly make a case — and Burnett’s agent surely is — that Burnett is worth at least as much as Landry.
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I don’t hate this.
Morgan is our most experienced and, arguably, our most consistent player (outside of Tramon) in our secondary.
I still think we’re feeling the effects of Nick Collins’ loss years later, but Morgan is a nice piece to fill that void.
I meant to link Tramon to experience, not consistency. Because let’s be real…. LOL.
Sorry about that.
if we can get a cheaper, friendly contract right now, lets do it. get a little security at the position.
Agreed with yous twos guys. Though what’s taking ’em so long with DialTone, I thought rookie contracts were essentially cookie-cutter deals? Hopefully they’ll get Shields done as well, unless they plan on using the designation on Shields as leverage to perform this season.
“That goes against the conventional thinking that the bigger name guys like B.J. Raji, James Jones or even Jermichael Finley would follow Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews in signing new deals.”
Bigger names? Probably, but more important to the team they are not. BJ would be if he were along the lines of Wilfork, but the consistency just hasn’t been there. While there is certainly room for improvement, Morgan compares favorably with Collins at the same point in their careers, AND, the fact of the matter is, there’s just nobody behind Burnett. We need to get this deal done.
With those numbers, he’s our SS….I still think we’re missing a ballhawking Safety. How big are Shields and Hayward…can either play Free Safety? Maybe Micah Hyde is the answer? Not inspired by what I hear in early camp battles between M.D. and Jerron.
I thought you were the expert on all things football Vij? No Shields and Hayward are not big enough, besides, why you move two people so obviously adroit at their position to a new one?