While most of the talk in the Green Bay Packers locker room centered on departed guard Josh Sitton on Monday, the team’s priorities also became clearer.
Fellow guard T.J. Lang isn’t one of them either.
It had been rumored that the reason the Packers released Sitton on Saturday was because he was discontent about his contract. Both he and Lang were scheduled to be free agents after the season. The Packers reportedly told Sitton extending his contract wasn’t a priority. That they were going to focus on younger players first.
Sitton says he wasn’t angry about it and expected to play out the year.
Lang confirmed that conversation happened on Monday. He was told the same thing by the Packers.
“I think the reports of that causing any tension in the building were false,” Lang said. “Josh and I both got that news the same day. Obviously, we were a little disappointed. It’s not the news anybody wants to hear, but once we kind of took a day to kind of get past it, we moved on and we got back to how we normally go about business.”
Except Sitton will now be going about his business with the Chicago Bears, where he has a new three-year deal. Lang will be playing out the string with the Packers and, we now assume, signing elsewhere after the season.
Meanwhile, the Lane Taylor era begins at left guard now.
So who are the Packers’ priorities for contract extensions? Our guess is Eddie Lacy, J.C. Tretter and possibly David Bakhtiari.