Green Bay Packers: Signing Austin Hooper Remains Unlikely

It appears that Austin Hooper will hit the open market, and while bringing him to the Green Bay Packers sounds fun, it also doesn’t seem very realistic either.

There was some uncertainty about whether pending free agent tight end, Austin Hooper would hit the open market. However, with the recent news that the Atlanta Falcons won’t be franchise tagging him, it seems almost inevitable that he will enter free agency and as one of the more coveted targets nonetheless.

On the surface pursuing Hooper seems like a no-brainer for the Green Bay Packers. They could certainly use another viable option at tight end and the Packers also need a major boost in the passing game. Those are definitely two things that Hooper can provide.

As it currently stands, it looks like Green Bay will move on from Jimmy Graham to clear roughly $8 million in additional cap space. Meanwhile, Marcedes Lewis is a pending free agent, and Robert Tonyan is an Exclusive Rights free agent, although it’s likely that he will be brought back.

So for 2020 that leaves Tonyan and Jace Sternberger as the only two options at tight end at the moment. Both have shown that they can make plays in the passing game and that they are willing blockers, but given how difficult a position that it is for younger players, adding a veteran to the mix seems like a good idea.

Enter Austin Hooper who has been one of the more successful pass-catching tight ends the last few seasons. Having been in the NFL for four seasons now, every year Hooper has seen his targets and total receiving yards increase.

He is coming off of a career year in 2019 where he recorded 787 yards on 10.5 yards per catch with six touchdowns and that was only in 13 games. Not to mention that he has been uber-reliable having caught 77.3 percent of the passes thrown his way over his career.

Hooper has the ability to line up all over the formation, including in the backfield, in the slot, inline, and out-wide. An important factor if you’re going to be a part of the Matt LaFleur offense. And although he is a pass-catcher and hasn’t been asked to block much, he has shown that he is capable when called upon.

This signing is certainly fun to think about and in a perfect world, I’d love to see it happen. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is very realistic.

The main reason being that the Green Bay Packers just don’t have the same spending power that they did a year ago.

According to Spotrac, after re-signing Mason Crosby, the Packers have roughly $18.5 million in available cap space. Now, they can free up some more cap room by moving on from Graham as mentioned above, as well as Lane Taylor.

However, there are other expenses that have to be factored in as well. Some of these include money for the rookie draft class, the practice squad, the 52nd and 53rd players on the roster, and room for roster moves in 2020. So once it’s all said and done, they’ll likely be back in the low-$20 million range.

That coupled with their needs at other positions which include tackle, wide receiver, inside linebacker, and interior defensive lineman, along with Hooper’s projected average annual value of nearly $10 million per year – which I think is low – and I’m just not sure how feasible this move really is.

In fact, in a recent press conference with the Packers’ beat writers, GM Brian Gutekunst tried to temper expectations about this upcoming free agency period:

"“I think when you look at free agency overall, with salary-cap casualties and different kinds of things, I think we’ll be able to add some players to our roster that can help us. But we’re certainly not in the position we were in last year with the resources. We’re going to have to do some different things this year.”"

As I said, this is a fun thought but given their financial restrictions along with their needs elsewhere, signing Hooper to that kind of contract is more of a pipe dream. And if the Green Bay Packers are going to spend $10-$12 million per year on a single player, I hope it is on a tackle, which is a far more important position than tight end is.