Gutekunst: Door still open for Packers and Adrian Amos reunion
By Paul Bretl
The initial waves of free agency have come and gone, and now so has the NFL Draft. However, when it comes to the safety position for the Green Bay Packers, they still have questions about it, which is why they have not closed the door on a reunion with Adrian Amos.
The current safety room is made up of Darnell Savage, who was benched at one point in 2022. Then there is Rudy Ford, Tarvarius Moore, and Dallin Leavitt, who have primarily been special teams players during their careers Innis Gaines, James Wiggins, and rookie Anthony Johnson, all with little to no NFL experience.
Unfortunately, for the Packers, this was not the draft class to have a big need at safety. Overall, it was a below-average group that also lacked high-end talent, and for those who were at the top of the position group, a number of them were more so slot options in college than traditional safeties, which is what the Packers need.
Although there is certainly room for upgrades, what you can, at the very least, say about the Packers’ safety room is that they have options. Brian Gutekunst clearly made that a priority in free agency with Green Bay’s limited spending power, and it afforded them the flexibility to not have to select a safety early in this draft just for the sake of doing so.
But nonetheless, this is still a position group with a lot of unknowns.
"“Time will tell,” said Matt LaFleur when asked about the safety position following the draft. “That’s another position that is going to be fluid, I’m sure. We are always going to try to do what’s best for us to go out and compete at our best level and win football games.”"
For these reasons, a re-signing Amos, who is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, is apparently still in play for the Packers. Truthfully, I thought this ship had sailed when the two sides didn’t come to an extension agreement prior to February 20th, which resulted in a nearly $8 million dead cap hit being left on the 2023 books for the Packers. But had the two sides come to a new contract agreement, that could have been avoided.
"“We’re not going to close the door on that,” said Gutekunst when asked about Amos. “Obviously, he’s done such a nice job for us in the last four years. We’ve been in communication with him along the way, and we will see where that goes. Adrian, he’s played at a high level for a long time and played at a high level for us last year, so we won’t close the door on that.”"
On paper, re-signing Amos seems like an easy decision to make for the Packers. However, following the trade of Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay now has less than $12 million in available cap space, some of which still has to go towards signing the draft class, establishing a practice squad, along with having reserves for in-season spending. So it’s not as if the Packers can offer Amos a lot of money.
It’s also worth noting that Amos is coming off a down season, and the Packers also find themselves in a transition season, still trying to win games but also wanting to see if Jordan Love can be their future starting quarterback. So there is something to be said for seeing if any of the players currently on the roster at that position can emerge as a long-term option.
There is still plenty of time for a deal to be made between the two sides. After all, training camp doesn’t begin until late July. With that said, while the proverbial door may still be open, my guess is if that’s the case, it’s just barely cracked.