Packers GM shares valuable insight into why two veteran defensive additions were made to push the roster over the top
Green Bay added some veteran defensive help this offseason.
The top two moves the Green Bay Packers made this offseason to acquire players didn’t impact the compensatory pick formula, but there’s much more to the decisions beyond the desire to gain more draft capital. The Packers traded for linebacker Zaire Franklin, sending Colby Wooden to the Indianapolis Colts in return, and signed defensive tackle Javon Hargrave after he had been released by the Minnesota Vikings.
Getting experienced players with a significant track record of production, the Packers want to finally get their roster over the top — and there are specific reasons for each move.
Zaire Franklin, an old desire
Franklin has been in the NFL since 2018, when he was a seventh-round pick. But for the first four years of his career, he was mostly a special teamer and a backup linebacker. He established himself as a full-time starting defensive piece in 2022, but the Packers’ plans to acquire him preceded that.
“We’ve liked Zaire for a while,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the Annual League Meeting. “Back when he was not starting in any of his first few years, he was a really good special teams player. We tried to acquire him then. He’s been a really good player for a long time, a very good leader as well, a captain there. As we went down and realized it was going to be really tough to get Quay [Walker] back, I wanted to make sure that we had an answer at middle linebacker, particularly one that might have some veteran presence. I think we were excited to accomplish that.”
A complete defensive lineman
Javon Hargrave isn’t the run defender he was in the early stages of his career, but it’s still an upgrade over what the Packers had on the roster. As an interior rusher, he’s still produced at an elite level for his position. And that versatility to do both things at the same time is something the roster needed — the other top defensive tackles, Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks, are essentially designated interior rushers.
“[Hargrave] has been one of those guys who excelled as a run stopper and a pass rusher,” Gutekunst explained. “He’s a complete player. Because he was released, it was not part of the compensatory formula. He just fit really well.”
Ultimately, Zaire Franklin and Javon Hargrave were exactly what the Packers were looking for. They might not be the usual long-term solutions Gutekunst tends to prefer, but they are what a roster built to have a two-year window demanded.
Green Bay Packers News
Packers have extra incentive to pursue a Davante Adams reunion after a sequence of facts comes together
Money could work based on Adams’ contract.
