You all love yourself some Jamari Lattimore. Don’t pretend you don’t. Well, good news for you! Lattimore finally signed his restricted free agent tender on Wednesday.
You’re probably thinking, but Lattimore already signed. No. He was tendered, which made him a restricted free agent rather than an unrestricted one, but he didn’t sign that deal until now.
It’s a one-year deal worth $1.431 million, which is the lowest possible tender. Still, that’s better than not getting tendered at all. Just ask M.D. Jennings, who now has to play for the Bears.
So what took so long? Lattimore, who we know has designs on being a starter, obviously wanted to see if another team would make him an offer. He had until this Friday to do so, but now, he’s the Packers’ property for another season.
In 2013, Lattimore had 35 tackles, two sacks and one forced fumble. He was also a boss on special teams.
He started four games during that campaign in place of Brad Jones. And even though he played better than Jones by actually making the occasional play, the Packers handed Jones his job back when he was healthy, as they are wont to do with underachieving veteran inside linebackers.
We are going to expect Lattimore to compete for a starting spot in training camp, at least if the Packers don’t draft an inside backer who can step in right away.