Reporters Plan on Making Mike Daniels’ Contract a Distraction

Green Bay Packers defensive end Mike Daniels is entering the final season of his rookie contract.

Naturally, that means the local media clowns will have to constantly ask him about it until the situation turns into a distraction.

“Hey Mike, how you feeling about not having a new contract yet? Huh? Huh?”

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Daniels says he isn’t going to let these questions get to him though.

“That’s just a distraction,” he said. “I’m here to play football. I’m here to get better. I’m here to watch film, re-learn the defense, get bigger, faster, stronger.

“All that [contract] stuff, that’s nothing but a huge distraction. The instant people start putting a focus on something like that, that’s when their play starts to suffer. And I don’t have time for my play to suffer.”

Daniels, who had 41 tackles and 5.5 sacks in 2014, is now likely the Packers’ No. 1 priority for an extension.

Certainly, they have the salary cap room available if they wanted to do something this offseason. The Packers currently have more than $17 million in space available.

That noted, sometimes these things get done and sometimes they don’t. We heard all last offseason and through most of the regular season how much the Packers wanted to extend receiver Randall Cobb. Then they promptly waited until the eve of free agency before they actually did anything.

The big question is what is Daniels worth?

Probably not the $16 million a year Houston is giving J.J. Watt or Buffalo is giving Mario Williams. Our guess is in the $6-8 million a year range, although Daniels’ agent surely has a larger number in mind.