Well, that was weird. Earlier it was reported that the Green Bay Packers had offered free agent linebacker Ahmad Brooks a contract, but he left town. Now he has reportedly signed a deal with the Packers.
It’s for one year and $5 million.
The #Packers are signing LB Ahmad Brooks to a 1-year deal that can be worth up to $5M, source said. Another(!) GB free agent signing coming.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 30, 2017
That’s a nice chunk of change for the Packers to hand a guy who is expected to be a backup. Perhaps the leaving town part was just a ploy to get more money.
This is a move the Packers almost had to make. We’ve seen that they have little depth at outside linebacker. Kyler Fackrell and Jayrone Elliott haven’t really shown anything. Rookie Vince Biegel remains sidelined after foot surgery and looks like he might not be ready for the regular season.
Plus, we all know how often starters Clay Matthews and Nick Perry get injured.
Brooks comes in after being released by the San Francisco 49ers last week. At 33, he can likely still help the Packers’ pass rush, however. Brooks has 53.5 career sacks.
In addition to being a welcome veteran presence, he’ll also provide the Packers with a bit of insurance at outside linebacker.
Proactive move- Daddy like.
This is more than “insurance”; he will get plenty of snaps with Mathews and Perry in the tub.
Probably we had to sign Nick Perry, but check his contract on overthecap.com- Pack can’t get out from that deal without a hit for years. I’ve got a bad feeling about that one.
Let’s hope Perry stays on the field and not in the IR. He can be a good player when he is out there.
Slightly off topic, but it amazes me how some players cannot stay healthy (Matthews, Perry), and others barely miss any time (our hero AJ Hawk, Mike Neal).
Part of it is a player’s ability to calibrate their effort, another part is the role PEDs had in muscle development.
Peppers took plays off, but even when he was on the field he almost never relied on explosive movement to get to the passer. He took advantage of his stride length and leverage. What about Hawk? He was also good at calibrating his effort, also known as being the last guy to dive on the pile after watching his assignment blow past him.
Back to the subject of PED’s… You can add all the muscle mass you want, but if the underlying bone structure isn’t supplying an adequate attachment point, the connective tissue and muscle is going to tear itself off at some point. Neal, OTOH, missed boatloads of time and eventually wound up out of the league after testing positive repeatedly for PEDs. Since the league went to Fast Atom Bombardment Mass Spectrometry for screening, growing out your hair to dilute follicular samples doesn’t work any more. African American players never had that luxury.
Mike Neal did have his share of injuries. The thing about Neal was when he did finally play, he was one of the rare def. lineman who could actually penetrate into the backfield, then they converted him to olb. Now… he’s home watching tv.
Wasn’t Neal always getting hurt when he was on the line? His back wasn’t it? It seems like he stopped getting hurt once they moved him to OLB. Neal seems like he played 10 years ago.
Hopefully that “up to 5 mil.” means there are some not easy to achieve bonuses in the contract, and I hope Brooks reaches every single one of the bonuses. Have to wait for the details of the contract. I would think at least active game day roster bonuses, and number of sack bonuses.
5 million ! 33 years old !
Not good enough for the 49ers !!?!!
Let’s hope he doesn’t beat up Spriggs or other Packer offensive lineman he doesn’t like as he did on the 49ers.
lol….Yea, this dude has some issues, and a sexual assault case pending if i’m not mistaken. But he’s probably innocent, they’re all innocent aren’t they?
This was another desperation band-aid signing. You can pretty much tell how this played out, he left Green Bay without a deal. Then Ted over payed this clown and he couldn’t refuse. This usually happens when Ted negotiates against himself, he loses almost every time. They have built in excuses for this dude, we signed him late, he missed camp, he tweaked his ankle, he’s in prison, etc.
This draft and develop thing seems to be working out well.
I just try to laugh until the circus leaves town, but it isn’t easy.
I posted this a couple days ago, and i thought i was being witty (sarcastic) about the money Ted would pay him.
PF4L
08/28/2017 at 4:04 pm
This is from a Niners Nation writer. I don’t know what Brooks gives us, but i’ll take Hurley’s view point as he watches him every week. Does anyone else watch the 49er’s anymore? Brooks being 33, it sounds like Ted is signing another band-aid.
“It seems like every year we are discussing whether or not the 49ers should or will cut Brooks. This year, he is entering the final year of that contract extension. The obvious reason for cutting Brooks is his play, as he did not fully live up to that big extension he received.” – Jason Hurley
I don’t know Ted, What do ya think he’s worth? four or five, seven million?
The two things I will say in defense of this signing are, as follows:
1. He is a 3-4 OLB and the 49ers have switched to a 4-3. The cut was likely more of a lack of scheme fit thing. Maybe.
2. Don’t worry about the whole sexual assault thing. He’s moving to Green Bay! What is there to sexually assault? Just keep an eye on him at the away game hotels and all will be hunky dory.
Is that why you avoid family dinners where your uncle is present?
Maybe Capers should have switched back to a 4-3, when Ted outsmarted everyone and drafted all those def. lineman, then tried converting them to linebackers, that worked out well.
I’m sure he’ll have better luck turning his basketball players into football players. Next thing you know We’ll be putting 5 safety’s on the field and two will be playing linebacker.
Cue the circus music.
Well, considering how bad our CBs are, having five safeties in the field doesn’t seem too far fetched. Heck, the same goes for our LBs, should none make plays. The “safe-o” defense: four DLs and seven safeties. They won’t know where our guys will line up.
Well….in any case or scenario, when our defense gives other teams trouble, i’ll be highly impressed. I have a feeling the Falcons won’t lose too much sleep.
But imo…what you see going on now, is nothing but band-aids for position deficiencies.
I think Elliot is taking a larger role in the organization when looking at all the FA signings this off-season…
I really like this move. Don’t if he will be the same player now at 33 that he’s been in the past. If he is. He brings an attitude that says bad intentions when he arrives at the ball carrier and a lot of play making ability. Those are good traits for any defense.