The Green Bay Packers parted with one of their offseason free agent signings on Tuesday, releasing veteran defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois.
Surprising move: Packers releasing Ricky Jean Francois, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 12, 2017
Our presumption was the move was made to clear the way for receiver Geronimo Allison to return from his one-game suspension. That isn’t the case.
Although Francois played just six snaps against Seattle in week 1, the move seemingly leaves the Packers thin on the defensive line.
The remainder of the snaps in week 1 broke down like this.
- Mike Daniels: 38
- Kenny Clark: 37
- Dean Lowry: 15
You can see from this that the Packers are playing just two defensive linemen most of the time. That makes sense since they’re in some sort of a subpackage most of the time.
Perhaps this signals the return of rookie Montravius Adams, who has been only a limited participant in practice since having foot surgery.
Been nice knowing you, albeit so briefly, Ricky Jean.
7 Comments
My crystal ball has Gunter being cut for a roster spot Allison.
My crystal ball also tells me that my English needs some work.
That not problem, fren. The question is who gets Jean-Francois’ spot. Will they bring Brian Price back? He was just cut by the Bengals.
Ringo, right?
I saw something about bringing Ringo back also. Doesn’t that say your personnel department made a mistake? It almost makes no sense to do that. Why not just keep Ringo and cut Ricky. Once Ricky was on the opening day roster I’m fairly certain he is guaranteed his base salary. Maybe the team was worried about not having enough big bodies against Seattle. With Dial maybe being better prepared and maybe Adams close Ricky was not needed, and a faster pass rusher like Ringo fits better?
It is not like TT to throw money away. These late preseason and early season moves makes it appear TT is not in as much control. I don’t see TT making these type of moves unless forced or more responsibility for player procurement is in the hands of someone other than TT.
C’est Jean-Francois. Well, actually, c’etait Jean-Francois. The downside to having so few D-linemen is that those guys can get tired very easily if left on the field for too many snaps. Just ask SEA. The key difference that made their defense collapse and ours not was just the time of possession. Even though we were not scoring a lot, we managed to stay on the field and get some first downs, while SEA’s abysmal offense didn’t.
Good French grammar….
I’ll admit it, that was the perfect photo for this article. Poor guy.