Let's close out our series of the Green Bay Packers free agent watch list with restricted and exclusive-rights free agents.

First of all, let's explain what that means.

Restricted free agents

Packers players: RB Patrick Taylor, CB Robert Rochell

A restricted free agent is a player with three accrued seasons in the NFL. Therefore, the original team has the right to apply an RFA tender — it might be a first-round, second-round, original round, or rights of first refusal tender. Another team might sign the player to an offer sheet, and the original team has the right to match the offer or receive the equivalent compensation.

If no team signs the player to an offer sheet, he can play under the tender and hit the market as an unrestricted free agent one year later.

Projected 2024 RFA tenders (via Over The Cap):

• First-round: $6.464 million
• Second-round: $4.633 million
• Rights of first refusal: $2.828 million

Both Patrick Taylor and Robert Rochell are bottom of the roster type of players. Taylor spent the start of the season on the practice squad, being elevated multiple times. Then, he was cut and brought back from the New England Patriots PS, finishing the season on the active roster.

Rochell was signed by the Packers off the Carolina Panthers' practice squad in October. He was mostly a special teamer during his time in Green Bay.

The most likely path for the Packers with both players is that neither will receive an RFA tender, making them unrestricted free agents. But that doesn't mean they can't return. If they hit the free market, the Packers can still re-sign them for lower numbers. Neither player has done enough, though, to justify even a rights of first refusal tender — which is almost $3 million.

In the past three offseasons, the Packers used second-round tenders on tight end Robert Tonyan (2021), wide receiver Allen Lazard (2022), and tackle Yosh Nijman (2023), and both played under the tender. This year, though, the strategy will probably be different.

Exclusive-rights free agents

Packers players: RB Emanuel Wilson, OT Caleb Jones, P Daniel Whelan

This designation goes to players with two or fewer accrued seasons in the league. It's a much friendlier type of structure. If the original team wants to keep the player, it just places an ERFA tender, which is the equivalent of a minimum salary, and the player can't negotiate with other teams.

So this basically a no-brainer for the Packers in all three cases.

Running back Emanuel Wilson led the league in preseason rushing yards and finished the season as a running back three, behind Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon — with Dillon missing the last three games because of injury, Wilson was a de facto RB2 in the playoffs. It's a worthwhile developmental player.

Caleb Jones is a developmental tackle, and Brian Gutekunst decided to protect him on the 53-man roster during the season, even though he was inactive for most of the year and had just one special teams snap all season. With Nijman — and potentially David Bakhtiari — not coming back, Jones can be kept, and maybe with a bigger role.

Daniel Whelan was a decent punter throughout the season — an average starter. And this is a good return from a player so inexpensive. Maybe Green Bay wants to create a punter competition, but Whelan is good enough to keep the job under a low price tag.

Packers 2024 offseason guide: free agents, draft, big decisions

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