The Green Bay Packers were reportedly interested in safety Tyrann Mathieu after he was released by the Arizona Cardinals earlier this week. He also reportedly had some interest in them.
Then on Friday, Mathieu went and signed a one-year contract with the Houston Texans that could pay him up to $7 million. The Cardinals tried to bring Mathieu back at $8 million per year, but he went to Houston anyway.
And so you’re telling me the Packers could offer Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller a four-year deal worth $56 million — something the Bears quickly matched — but they can’t pay Mathieu $7 million?
Mathieu is the more accomplished player and he can also play cornerback.
But perhaps it was timing. Mathieu signed right around the time the Packers put their offer sheet in to Fuller. Until the Bears matched, that money was committed to Fuller, meaning the Packers didn’t have it available to sign other players.
And considering how easy the deal was for the Bears to match, it now looks pretty stupid. Most offer sheets are constructed to contain a poison pill — a contract stipulation that is somewhat outlandish. That’s designed to make sure the player’s old team either can’t match the offer sheet or is put in a compromised position if they do. The Packers offer to Fuller doesn’t appear to have contained anything like that. Basically, they just negotiated a contract for the Bears.
In the process, it appears they lost out — or gave up — any chance to land Mathieu.