Rundown of the Green Bay Packers 23 Free Agents
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers Restricted Free Agent: Allen Lazard
Of the three free-agent designations, the restricted free agent comes with the most intricacies.
In short, or at least as short as I can make it, a restricted free agent is a player with three years of accrued NFL experience. Restricted free agents are able to negotiate with other teams; however, their current team can place either a first, a second, an original round tender, or a right-of-first-refusal tender on the restricted free agent.
What this means is that if another team makes an offer to a restricted free agent with a second-round tender, for example, the current team has the right to match the offer in order to retain the player, or if they choose not to, they receive a second-round draft pick from the new team.
Each tender designation also has a specific contract value that must be associated with it. As another example, a second-round tender in 2021 came with a contract of $3.384 million. These values typically increase each season and are determined by the NFL and NFLPA.
For the Green Bay Packers, they have just one restricted free agent, and that would be Allen Lazard.
It was a slow start to the season, but with Randall Cobb sidelined, Lazard saw his role expand as he looked like a true No. 2 pass-catching option for Aaron Rodgers. During Green Bay’s final five regular-season games, Lazard caught 21 of his 28 targets for 290 yards and five touchdowns–he was also a very reliable third-down target for Rodgers.