The Green Bay Packers tried to poach cornerback Kyle Fuller from the Chicago Bears shortly after free agency opened. The Bears had put the transition tag on Fuller, so they had the right to match any offer.
The Packers put in an offer and the Bears matched it about two hours later. So what were the Packers doing other than negotiating a contract for the Bears?
Packers’ general manager Brian Gutekunst spoke to that on Tuesday. Gutekunst said the Packers didn’t really think they were going to land Fuller anyway.
Here is #Packers GM Brian Gutekunst explaining why he signed CB Kyle Fuller to an offer sheet: pic.twitter.com/49zJvIHahu
— Michael Cohen (@Michael_Cohen13) March 27, 2018
The deal Ball negotiated was a four-year, $56 million contract. However, the first year cap hit is just $6.5 million. There doesn’t appear to be anything in the deal that would stop the Bears from matching it.
Still, Gutekunst defended it.
And here is Gutekunst’s response when asked why the #Packers negotiated a fairly palatable deal for the #Bears: pic.twitter.com/dhUwo7VLb6
— Michael Cohen (@Michael_Cohen13) March 27, 2018
The Packers still haven’t totally figured out their cornerback situation. At the moment, the starters on the outside would appear to be Kevin King and Tramon Williams. The slot would appear to be the biggest question mark.
The Packers appear to still be looking for help in free agency, but how much they’ll find remains to be seen.
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The attempt was weak, if they wanted him, they would have had to increase the guaranteed money 10-12 million i’m thinking, to make the bears raise an eyebrow. I’m not saying it would have been the right move, but it’s free agency, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do if you want a player or you want to fix a position that has been haunting you for years.
There was some strong upside….
1) There is no compensation to give on the transition tag. So you get a proven corner. When i say proven, i mean you can put him outside and have some piece of mind. He isn’t a shut down corner to me, but he’s better than average.
2) Considering all the drama, and the resources spent, wasted draft picks, time and money, swinging and missing in the draft, you finally have a cornerback.
3) Some piece of mind heading into the draft. How many years in a row are we staring at cornerbacks going into the draft? It started in 2015 and where are we in 2018? Trying to find a corner, vs giving too much money to an old band-aid. I’m not saying TW was a bad signing, i’m saying they clearly overpaid, with Fuller, you could have signed TW for playable depth, and not been so desperate that you overpay. TW made 1.9 mill last season, why he needed to be payed 2-3 times that amount is a head scratcher.
Peace out.
Ehehehehehhe, can you hear it? It’s coming…
fire gute.. Fire Gute.. FIRE GUTE!!
The other thing I am surprised isn’t being discussed is the bears waiting the maximum 4 days to file the paperwork with the league to file the paperwork. It only took them a few hours to decide they were matching, but they waited and as a result the packers were forced to hold off on other signings because they had money tied up in Fuller for those four days
Good one, Bears! Clearly they are better strategists than Gute the Bad.
You got played…! By the Bears!!
Lol the bears got played…they had to pay more for him than before the packers offer;)
Correlation is not causation you got damn mouth breathers!
None of you have any clue how this played out…
He tried… and he failed.
Criticize him all you want but Gute the Bad is a comedic genius, sort of the dry humor of Bob Newhart if Newhart was GM for an NFL franchise instead of running an inn in Vermont,
What nickname/petname does your boyfriend have for you?
You have a lot to say about Gutekunst. How about, Zygi Wilf? Zygi the crook?