Green Bay Packers fans have to be wondering why these four former players are still available in free agency this late into the offseason.
There is obviously one former Green Bay Packers player who the Cheeseheads will have a close eye on throughout at least the 2023 season with Aaron Rodgers now on the New York Jets while Jordan Love takes over in Green Bay. When it comes to former players that wore the green and gold, it doesn't get any bigger than perhaps the greatest quarterback in franchise history suiting up for a new team.
Having said that, we're late into the offseason. The draft is completed and the bulk of free agency has concluded as well. And yet, unlike Rodgers, there are some players who Packers fans are more than familiar with because of their respective times in Green Bay who have not been signed.
Let's take a look at four of these former Packers who have not yet landed on a new team and perhaps try to understand why that's the case as well — and if Green Bay should consider bringing them back into the fold.
Packers: 4 former players who are surprisingly still free agents
4. Marcedes Lewis, TE
Just turning 39 years old last week, that probably has a lot to do with the reason that Marcedes Lewis is still available in free agency. At the same time, though, when you look at his play in recent years, it's still shocking that someone hasn't added him to the roster at this point.
Make no mistake, what Lewis offers as a receiver in the modern NFL and at his age is extremely limited. Outside of the red zone, you might see him targeted enough times to count on your fingers throughout the entire season. That's not why he's stuck around, though. Lewis has been and remains an above-average blocker both against the run and the pass. That can't be underestimated as essentially having a sixth offensive lineman that can also catch balls in a pinch.
When the early rumblings of Rodgers to the Jets started, there was reported interest for New York to bring Lews is, which most laughed at considering that he fit the bill of one of the quarterback's friends that he'd want to play with. However, he also would've made sense for the Jets as they don't necessarily have a player exactly of his ilk on the roster.
That is the case for several teams throughout the league. I don't know for sure if the Packers would be interested, but re-signing him isn't the worst idea either as they try to coach up and develop young rookies Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave. In any case, though, the expectation should still be that Marcedes Lewis will land somewhere before too long.
3. Mason Crosby, K
Now that it's all but confirmed that he won't be coming. back to Green Bay, it's weirdly now a thing to say that Mason Crosby is a former Packers player. Perhaps even more so than with Rodgers, him playing anywhere else will take some getting used to.
As of the end of May, though, Crosby isn't set to play anywhere else, which is frankly a bit shocking.
If the 38-year-old kicker had hit free agency after the 2021 season, it would've been less surprising if he was still on the market. Though he went 49-of-51 on extra points, that year saw the veteran booter post a career-worst field goal percentage of 73.5, going only 13-of-21 from 30-49 yards on the year.
But instead, the Packers showed faith and brought him back for the 2022 campaign and he bounced back, still missing two of his extra points on fewer attempts than the previous season, but converting 86.2 percent of his attempts with no misses on attempts 39 yeards or short and just one miss from 40-49 yards. Three of his four missed field goals on the year came from 50+ yards.
With teams cycling through kickers and while guys like Brett Maher, who was a disaster for the Cowboys in the postseason, are getting tryouts for clubs, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why Crosby is still available in free agency. But with the way that cycle works, I'd have to imagine his reliability on the shorter field goals will get him a job somewhere in the NFL before Week 1.
2. Dennis Kelly, OL
Dennis Kelly is an outlier on this list because the other three former Packers were with Green Bay this past season. In the case of the veteran offensive tackle, he was on the roster for the 2021 season before signing a one-year deal to play with the Colts last offseason.
With 10 years of experience under his belt, Kelly has never been a stud offensive tackle by any stretch of the imagination, even going back to his days as a draft prospect. That's why he was a fifth-round pick by the Eagles in 2012 coming out of Purdue.
Having said that, what Kelly was for Green Bay in the 2021 season is exactly what he has been for the majority of his career. He played 300 snaps across multiple positions for the Packers in his one-season tenure as a fill-in option that offensive coordinators and coaches can feel confident won't lose teams games because he's a problem.
Admittedly, Kelly did show a drop in his efficacy last year in Indianapolis — but a part of that was due to the overall ineptitude of the Colts offensive line and offense as a whole. The four seasons prior in spot work roles, he'd been a fine option.
Still only 33 years old, it's shocking that a league that is starving for more offensive line talent hasn't seen Kelly get picked up by someone. The Packers certainly don't need him back given their depth and richness in the trenches, but there are plenty of teams where the veteran would certainly be a valuable addition to the roster.
1. Adrian Amos, S
The fact that Adrian Amos remains unsigned in free agency is actually one of the bigger shocks of the offseason to this point not just related to the Packers, but overall.
Make no mistake, after three seasons of extremely high-level play from the veteran safety, we did see a dropoff in effectiveness from Amos last year. Particularly in coverage, he was inconsistent at best but, more troublingly, looked bad at times as well.
At the same time, though, Amos had been one of the better and more well-rounded safeties in the league prior to last season, grading out as good-to-elite in coverage and being a solid tackler and run defender. That latter part didn't fully go away last season, it should be said, but with the issues in coverage, it was largely overshadowed.
Safeties aren't often considered a priority in free agency in the modern NFL unless they are truly elite, or at least perceived in that light. Given the way Amos played last season, it stands to reason that teams are just waiting it out to see if any other options become available but aren't closed off to signing the 30-year-old.
A return to the Packers, however, might not be the worst idea. The safety room in Green Bay looks a bit worrisome in its current form as Darnell Savage is essentially the only player at the position with notable experience, and he had some inconsistency issues alongside Amos a season ago. So if the Pack wants to bring in another veteran who knows the system and can be a guide point, re-signing Amos is definitely not out of the cards.
