Former Packers executive reopens old wound for fans with brutal truth about player team clearly misvalued
Back in 2017, the Packers allowed defensive back Micah Hyde to walk in free agency, and he turned out to be one of the best at his position in football for the Buffalo Bills.
Every NFL executive will have their regrets and doubts, and nobody will hit 100% of the time. Usually, the Green Bay Packers do a pretty good job developing and retaining talent, but some misses are inevitable. Back in 2017, Ted Thompson was in his last year as a general manager, and Jon-Eric Sullivan was a director of college scouting. The Packers had found a true gem in the fifth round four years earlier, but they allowed Micah Hyde to leave in free agency.
Hyde signed a reasonable five-year, $30.5 million contract with the Buffalo Bills. Four years later, Hyde would even sign a two-year extension in Buffalo. That decision to allow Hyde to hit the market still hunts Sullivan, now the Miami Dolphins general manager.
Underrated player, incorrect decision
Back in 2017, the Packers had a high-end, ascending safety in Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and a veteran enforcer in Morgan Burnett. Damarious Randall, another former first-rounder, was still an up and down but promising cornerback, and the team would draft Kevin King early. Now, that’s a sequence of some infamous endings in Green Bay, outside of Burnett, but at the time it made some sense to allow Hyde to walk.
Sullivan, though, admitted it was a clear mistake. Asked to talk about an underrated player he worked with, the former Packers executive mentioned Hyde.
“What I would say, and I think anybody that was involved in this would tell you, we screwed it up,” Sullivan said to ESPN’s Kevin Clark. “Micah Hyde, we should have never let Micah Hyde out the door.”
Hyde was mostly a backup in Green Bay. But the former fifth-round pick offered a lot of versatility playing at safety, nickel, or special teamer.
“He was a really good football player, could line up in a bunch of different spots, could return punts, and we let him go in free agency,” Sullivan added. “I don’t think I’m saying anything that anybody else that was involved in that wouldn’t say, we probably screwed that one up.”
Micah Hyde broke out in Buffalo, being a Second-Team All-Pro twice — one of them in his first year out of Green Bay.
It’s good for Hyde that he had a strong second act in the NFL. And for everyone involved in that decision from the Packers’ side, it served as a tough lesson.
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