If Ted Thompson is the standard, sure, Brian Gutekunst is a pretty active general manager. But the Green Bay Packers are who they are, and adding external pieces usually is not their modus operandi.

Even if they have had some activity, the Packers are still by far the least active team in free agency. The Athletic's Daniel Popper wrote a really interesting piece evaluating how much teams have spent in free agency, and how it has turned out.

First, the research only counts external additions made before the season between 2020 and 2023. The Packers are by far the least active team, spending only $20.992 million over the last four years. The second least active team is the Dallas Cowboys, at $53.706 million. Only five teams spent less than $100 million over this period, and the highest spenders are the Cincinnati Bengals, at $286.626 million.

Performance

To evaluate how free agents performed in their new teams, The Athletic analyzed a Pro Football Reference's metric called Approximate Value. Curiously enough, the Packers are the best team in AV per million spent, at 1.81, but that's mostly skewed because they got an All-Pro season from a $2 million signing in De'Vondre Campbell in 2021.

Moreover, their cutoff doesn't make justice to what the Packers had done right before. The team had an unprecedented spending spree in 2019, adding edge rushers Za'Darius Smith and Preston Smith, offensive lineman Billy Turner, and safety Adrian Amos.

Za'Darius had two strong seasons in Green Bay before being hurt for most of the year in 2021, which led to his release. Billy Turner started one year at right guard and two at right tackle before being cut. Adrian Amos played out his contract and was let go in free agency last offseason.

The best after all was Preston Smith, the only one who is still on the roster. Since the initial signing, Smith has extended his contract and accepted two real pay cuts to stay in Green Bay.

Can it change?

Right now, the Packers are in a much more comfortable cap situation than they have been since 2019. That might lead to more action, even though general manager Brian Gutekunst expressed that the team is always looking at options.

"I think we are (active) every year," Gutekunst told Packers.com. "There are good players in this free agency class, and certainly we are going to be in the mix on some of those things."

Theoretically, the Packers have needs at guard, running back, linebacker, and defensive back. The team could certainly add veteran pieces in all of these areas, but the market will probably dictate their path.

"It's really about finding the best overall football players," Gutekunst added. "There's only so many difference makers in the National Football League, so if you have a chance to acquire a difference maker, regardless of position, you're going to be in that market. It's more about what kind of quality players and people can you bring to our locker room to create the healthy competition we need for our team to move forward?"

Flexibility

At the moment, the Packers have $13.628 million in cap space. However, they can still touch some players' contracts to create more room.

Additionally, off-ball linebacker De'Vondre Campbell will be released on Wednesday. His cap hit won't immediately change because the Packers will apply a post-June 1st designation, but the move will save $10.5 million in cap space starting in June.

The final big decision is David Bakhtiari. If the team releases the left tackle, they open up $21.5 million in cap space — even though that would put more stress over the offensive line depth.

It's the first offseason for the Packers knowing what exactly they have in Jordan Love, and after the Aaron Rodgers saga. It's also an interesting exercise to understand how Brian Gutekunst and the rest of the front office will operate moving forward.

Packers 2024 free agency tracker

Green Bay enters the new league year with flexibility to invest