Green Bay Packers Have Reported Interest in Edge Rusher Uchenna Nwosu
By Paul Bretl
With free agency just a week away, it’s rumor season in the NFL—and for the Green Bay Packers, they are apparently quite interested in potentially adding a veteran edge rusher to this roster.
In addition to Aaron Wilson’s report from Monday that Green Bay has shown interest in Von Miller, Wilson would report on Tuesday that the Packers are also interested in Uchenna Nwosu of the Los Angeles Chargers.
As I’ve discussed before, the Green Bay Packers’ interest in the edge rusher position shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Za’Darius Smith is likely a cap casualty, and even with Preston Smith and Rashan Gary being two of the more productive edge rushers last season, depth at this position was a concern all season for Green Bay.
Nwosu was a second-round pick out of USC in 2018 by the Chargers and is still just 25-years-old. From 2018 to 2020, Nwosu was in a rotational role and totaled 76 pressures along with 12 sacks during that span, according to PFF ($$). This past year was his first as a full-time starter, and he would record 40 pressures and five sacks.
In addition to Green Bay, Wilson would also report that other teams interested in Nwosu include Indianapolis, Buffalo, the New York Jets, and remaining with the Chargers is certainly still in play as well. Wilson also added that a contract for Nwosu could be in the $10-13 million per year range, with $7-9 million being the low end.
For the Packers, that would certainly seem to be out of their price range, given their current salary cap situation. At the moment, Over the Cap has them at $26.4 million in the hole, and while there are plenty of moves Green Bay can make to get under the salary cap, there are other expenses that have not been accounted for in that figure.
These additional expenses include the final two roster spots, the incoming draft class, the practice squad, money for in-season spending, and retaining any of their own free agents, meaning more cap space beyond the current $26.4 million deficit will need to be cleared. In short, you can expect the Packers to be somewhat restricted in free agency–and I don’t see them spending $12 million per year on a third edge rusher when they have Gary and are reportedly in extension talks with Smith.
A more likely route to solve their need at edge rusher, however, would be through the draft. This is a deep draft class, and with Gary and Smith in the fold, the Packers could bring an incoming rookie along slowly, just like they did with Gary–not to mention that rookie contracts are much more salary cap-friendly.
I don’t doubt that the Green Bay Packers are looking at veteran edge rushers–as Brian Gutekunst says, he wants to be in on every conversation. I also like the idea of them adding another edge rusher with experience, although a reunion with Whitney Mercilus makes more sense from a salary cap perspective.
With that said, plans could change if Aaron Rodgers asks to be traded and Green Bay doesn’t bring back Davante Adams. That would be quite a bit of cap space freed up by moving on from Rodgers and a lot of cap space that could be used elsewhere with it not going to Adams. While we don’t yet know what Rodgers will choose, I imagine the Packers have several plans in place depending on what he decides–and maybe one of those plans has enough available cap space for someone like Nwosu.