DK Metcalf told the Seattle Seahawks this week that he wants to be traded. The New York Jets released Davante Adams outright. Many Packers fans on social media want them both, along with a sidecar of Khalil Mack for good measure.
Grizzled Packers fans, however, aren’t taking the bait by allowing ourselves to fall into that excitation trap. Why? Because we’ve been hurt before by free agency. Not to mention teased a bit over the years by a franchise that prefers to draft and develop.
The disparity here is the perennial fan excitement that free agency is near, which seems to arouse a feeling that, “Surely, something has to happen, right?” The practical problem is matching team need with the available talent that checks the right boxes, and at the right price. As we’ve learned over the years, the team sees this equation quite differently from the way a lot of Packers fans see it. To fall prey to this trap year after year is impractical and leads to near-perennial disappointment – as a result, adjustments in expectations must be made.
Here’s a look back at how what we’ll call “Free Agency Sublimation,” for many of us, has taken shape.
Let’s start with Reggie White, the ultimate outlier. It was 1993, free agency was in its infancy, and Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren, wanting a force on defense, managed to pluck a Hall of Famer out of nowhere. Naturally, free-agency-hungry Packers fans were set up for future disappointment, because how do you ever top signing Reggie White as a free agent? Santana Dotson was another good one in that era, and of course Desmond Howard was a star kick returner for that Super Bowl season.
Surely, free agency was set to be a way of Packer life, right?
Fast forward 10 years: Charles Woodson was another brilliant signing, but one that didn’t necessarily seem so in the moment. He received no other competitive offers, he clashed with Mike McCarthy in that first training camp, and he made it all too clear he did NOT want to play his football in Green Bay.
And then an auspicious transformation took place, and the next thing we knew he was the 2009 Defensive Player of the Year, becoming a Super Bowl champion a year later. Much like the White signing, the Woodson signing was something of an outlier in terms of how it progressed. We could loosely refer to it as the Charles Woodson Polarization.
And for a second time, a key free agent helped catapult the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl title. So, surely this meant more big-name signings were finally going to become the norm, right?
It hasn’t worked out that way. A surprise signing of Julius Peppers by then-GM Ted Thompson seemed to be history repeating itself in 2014, when the Packers reached the NFC Championship Game. We all know how that ultimately ended.
But Peppers was another outlier – the late Thompson was famously loathe to dabble much in free agency during his time as the Packers’ GM, as he preferred to extend core Packers rather than reach outside the organization. (Remember the Great Randy Moss Flirtation of 2007?)
So, Free Agency Sublimation really solidified itself during the late Thompson era. It became self-destructive to expect Green Bay to sign star free agents, so we were forced to change our expectations. That’s Free Agency Sublimation in action.
In the years since Brian Gutekunst took over, however, that has changed somewhat, starting with 2019 and a handful of key signings in 2019 of Za’Darius and Preston Smith, along with Billy Turner and Adrian Amos, to help fill out a hole-riddled roster. It felt like a salve after a forgettable 2018 season and the firing of head coach Mike McCarthy.
Still, the Packers’ front office knows that for every Marcades Lewis, there’s a Jimmy Graham or a Martellus Bennett lurking. This is why I amble into the free-agency season each year eschewing false hope or expectations, because I know Gutekunst isn’t going to take a swing just to see how far he can hit it – it has to be the perfect pitch.
As it happened in 2024, he got two sizzlers right over the plate that became Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney. It was a beautiful surprise that has so far worked out marvelously.
However, can we expect this to happen again, a second year in a row? The salary cap space figures to cooperate, but will the just-right attainable targets materialize? That’s the sticking point – it isn’t realistic to expect these kinds of hits every year. Just because fans may want DK Metcalf doesn’t mean the front office sees him as the right fit or believes he can be had at the right price.
For example, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported this week that the Seahawks want a first and a third for the athletic wide receiver. Gutey just doesn’t part with prime draft capital like that. It isn’t how he wants the Packers to do business. Thus, we must adjust our expectations.
Call that one the Brian Gutekunst Paradigm.
Knowing this, I, for one, am going to sit back and relax as we approach the official opening of free agency on Monday. If Gutey sees his pitch, he’ll take a swing. If not, he’ll be more than happy to wait until the next at-bat. A lot of the fans won’t be happy, though, and they’ll voice their displeasure loudly. Oh boy. (To be fair, Free Agency Sublimation is difficult for some.)
Heck, I’m afraid to even look at Twitter/X since the Chargers released Joey Bosa. Is it time for the draft yet?
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Kevin Gibson is a professional writer and author based in Louisville, Ky. He's also a former sports writer who covered high school, college and professional sports and a Packers shareholder and a fan since 1975. Even John Hadl couldn't break him. Follow him on Twitter: @kgramone
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