With veteran starter Adrian Amos a free agent and only seventh-round pick Anthony Johnson added to the mix during the 2023 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers haven’t really addressed their hole at safety.
They could, though. With Amos.
Amos remains unsigned and hasn’t been in a rush to do so. But with the draft complete and the free-agent compensatory-pick window having closed, the market is expected to heat up.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said he’s interested. Other teams are interested, too – his hometown Baltimore Ravens hosted him on a free agent visit – and a decision could come over the next handful of days.
“I think we’re not going to close the door on that,” Gutekunst said at the conclusion of the draft. “Obviously, Adrian’s done such a nice job for us over the last four years. We’ve been in communication with him along the way, so we’ll see where that goes.”
Amos was signed in free agency in 2019. He started every game during that span – 66 in the regular season and five in the playoffs – and provided consistently steady play. He ranked second on the team in tackles in 2019, first in 2020, second in 2021 and second again in 2022. After three consecutive seasons of two interceptions, he had one last year but set a career high with seven tackles for losses.
The Packers have quantity at the position but not necessarily quality. With the addition of Johnson, the free-agent addition of Tarvarius Moore and the re-signings of Rudy Ford and Dallin Leavitt, they have eight safeties on the roster.
Do they even have one starter, though? Former first-round pick Darnell Savage was benched at one point in favor of Ford, only for Ford to be benched in favor of Savage for the final couple games.
Amos turned 30 on Saturday.
“As we’ve talked about many times in here, it’s 365 [days per year] right?” Gutekunst said of roster-building. “Today’s a great day, these last three days I think we’ve really had a chance to help our football team – and we did – and we’ll enjoy this tonight. But as we get going tomorrow, we’re going to be signing some rookie minicamp guys and start looking at what’s out there on the veteran open market and continue to move forward.
“If we can make our team better, we’re going to do that. But, yeah, Adrian, obviously he’s played at a high level for a long time, played at a high level for us last year, so we wouldn’t close the door on that yet.”
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