The Green Bay Packers seemingly didn’t make much of an effort to re-sign safety Morgan Burnett. Now he’ll be moving on.
Burnett is signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Source tells me #Packers FA Safety Morgan Burnett is headed to the #Steelers Flying out tomorrow morning to complete the deal @nflnetwork @NFL
— James Jones (@89JonesNTAF) March 20, 2018
Burnett spent his first eight seasons with the Packers. He never really became that elite-level safety the Packers hoped he would. However, Burnett’s leadership and steady play were certainly valuable.
The defense didn’t function as well without Burnett on the field in 2017. The injury factor surely played into the Packers decision-making on this one, though.
Burnett missed four games in 2017. He hasn’t played in a full 16 since 2012.
It now appears the Packers are ready to turn the position over to Josh Jones, who they drafted in the second round last year. Jones actually recorded more tackles than Burnett in 2017. Burnett finished with 68 and Jones had 71. Jones also one-upped Burnett in interceptions — one to none.
That isn’t to say Jones outplayed Burnett. Like most rookies, Jones was inconsistent and not terribly reliable. However, the team is obviously expecting him to make a jump in his second season.
It’s interesting that the Packers went into the offseason with their secondary as a glaring weakness. From there, they just let it get weaker after trading Damarious Randall and now losing Burnett in free agency.
I never would have guessed Jones had more tackles than Burnett- it seemed like he never played……..Morgan was solid early on but wasn’t worth bringing back unless he was a bargain. I’m curious what the Steelers will pay in real $. Surely not the 7-9M/year that was bandied about pre-FA.
If only he had kept running in the 2014 NFCCG……
Jones was a core special teams player and got a lot of his tackles there.
I could be wrong, but I think Jones had more penalties than tackles on special teams. When he was playing close to the line he had a decent # of tackles though.
Do the Packers have the balls to call Eric Reid? Probably not.
No thanks, balls has nothing to do with it.
Burnett’s contract is a 3-year deal worth close to $14.5M, 10M+ over the first 2 years.
The fact he signed with the Steelers for that amount rather than the Packers for $6-8 million a year plus makes me happy. Pettine can staff his own defense based on his desired type of players without a bunch of hold over stiffs from the Capers era of shitty secondary play.
Like someone else said in the last couple weeks, Pettine was the best off season acquisition. For a secondary that has sucked seemingly forever, I for one am looking forward to what he can do to fix this. Losing some of these guys, honestly, what’s to be upset about? If they were shitty before, are any new guys really going to be that much worse?
It’s the offense and front office changes that concern me more at this point. Ball, McCarthy, and Murphy don’t exactly instill a sense of leadership or confidence in there being much in the way of changes on the field. I excluded Gutekunst because I stated before, I think he was happy to accept any kind of structure to get his name on the door. The fact they neutered him under the revised structure (like they would have done to Wolf no doubt) to me says he has less culpability since unlike Ted, he doesn’t have complete control over football operations. While I like his approach to free agency, this stupid cap shit that all of a sudden became an issue has certainly affected whatever capabilities they allow him to have as the token GM.
Here’s hoping Pettine is a miracle worker and at least they stop overpaying on the defensive side of the ball like they have been. I never felt Burnett was anything special, especially when he was paired with Nick Collins. Maybe that was because of the ACL injury. The fact people feel like he is a good safety shows just how big the drop off was from Collins to Burnett. Is even worse when you throw in Clinton-Dix against Burnett. Is Burnett that good or does Clinton-Dix suck so bad he makes Burnett look better than he is?
I made the comment about Pettine. He took 2 years off of football & he comes back with a fresh & motivated mind which i feel doesn’t get enough consideration. I like the 4-3/3-4 mix he runs & I like his track record & the praise he gets from Rex Ryan.
If you look at our roster definsively, I actually think we have decent personell aside from corners
Perry, Martinez, Matthews, Lowry, King, Wilkerson, HHCD, Daniels, Clark…
There you go. I completely agree with you.
Anyone take a look at what Pettines old defenses needed to work? Did they not need great CB play to be successful?
Obviously the front office has a plan, either what we have, some trade, high draft picks, just depth draft picks, an old veteran or two. He’ll, could be as outside the box as moving clay next to blake, taking the top pass rusher for the left side, and throwing an unspeakable front 7 out there to make the DBs job easier.
The way things have worked out recently for DB’s leaving the Packers, look for Morgan Burnett to be the NFL DPOY for 2018.
Hard to judge Morgan’s worth since we was misused by Capers.
This^^^^
And that is why the Steelers will take a chance on him . . .
Burnett made tackles, but was never a playmaker. Burnett had 9 ints. In 8 years, with 3 in the last 5 years. Hyde had 8 in 4 years, with 13 total in 5 years. Hyde was the one to keep, but TT was out of it mentally and Murphy could have given a shit. Just glad Capers is gone. Pettine will put the players in a position to make plays.
Yeah the Hyde loss was a bad one, too bad for that. Maybe Jones can play, we all know Ha’Sean can’t. Packers starting corners on day 1, King and some rookie TBD in the draft. Yeeesh. Someone call Willie Buchannan.
Yes, Hyde hurt. Imagine if they played Randall at his natural position, and kept Hayward and Hyde. Didn’t waste draft picks on basketball player projects. Things might not be so bad. Unfortunately, along with those dumb decisions they also kept Capers way beyond his expiration date. I really believe the defense is going to be the least of their worries. We’ve been so accustomed to shitty defensive play for years, there is nowhere to go but up. As Howard said, Burnett wasn’t anything special. Pettine may have plenty already on the roster he likes, that the previous regime didn’t have the balls to play let alone start. If there is going to be some bloodletting, the defense is the place to start over since Pettine gets a pass to install what he wants. I believe his presence alone, and also along the sidelines during games, is going to have a rather large turnaround in how the defense performs.
I made the comment about Pettine. He took 2 years off of football & he comes back with a fresh & motivated mind which i feel doesn’t get enough consideration. I like the 4-3/3-4 mix he runs & I like his track record & the praise he gets from Rex Ryan.
If you look at our roster definsively, I actually think we have decent personell aside from corners
Perry, Martinez, Matthews, Lowry, King, Wilkerson, HHCD, Daniels, Clark…
If HHCD was decent, he wouldn’t have given up on trying to play like a professional, when things went south . The only difference between him and that FLAKE Marty Bennett, is that Bennett physically left the team and the sell out HHCD stuck around but left mentally. What a clown!!!
Agreed. But the talent is still there.