The 3pm deadline for the franchise tag came and went yesterday, and the Packers chose to eat it rather than consume some hefty contracts. I am not in the least bit surprised.
As far as I was concerned, Matt Flynn was an easy call. The risk of retaining Flynn and his approximate $14.4 million baggage was insanely high, not to mention the fact that a tag with the intent to move (or a deal in place prior to the tag), would have been a pretty deliberate disregard for the NFL’s policies that discourage teams from doing precisely that.
That’s not the kind of guy Thompson is.
Then there was Scott Wells. This too was of little shock, for under the new CBA (and I did not know this, I was enlightened) individual positions on the offensive line are no longer considered. The franchise tag applies to the top five O-linemen period. That would have put Wells around $9.4 million.
Jarrett Bush, Ryan Grant, Erik Walden (and the rest of the list) were never really in the running.
But while I am not surprised that the Packers walked away from the label, I would be quite amazed if some, if not many, of the names that become unrestricted on the 13th are not back in the Green and Gold fold when the dust settles.
That’s exactly the kind of guy Thompson is.
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