T.J. Lang will be a sought-after guard if he makes it to the free agent market, joining the likes of Kevin Zeitler, Ronald Leary and Larry Warford among a talented contingent of interior blockers. But the six-year Packers starter wants to wrap up his prime years in Green Bay.
“I think everybody in this locker room knows that this is where I want to play,” Lang said, via Ryan Wood of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It’s been eight years now. I don’t want to go anywhere. I’ve been saying that since the beginning. I love this team; I love Green Bay; I love everything about being a Packer.”
Already having two tackles signed long-term, Ted Thompson did not make a Lang extension a priority this season. Nothing emerged about the sides discussing a deal. Lang, who will undergo hip surgery for an injury that’s bothered him all year (per Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com), won’t turn 30 until September. He made his first Pro Bowl this season, but Thompson cut three-time Pro Bowler Josh Sitton last year. The Packers have depth at tackle with Bryan Bulaga, David Bakhtiari and second-rounder Jason Spriggs, but the build-from-within team doesn’t have a surefire replacement lined up at guard. Center J.C. Tretter also stands to be a UFA come March.
Here’s more coming out of Green Bay after the franchise’s second NFC championship loss in three seasons.
- Count Jared Cook as another Packer who wants to come back.Aaron Rodgers agrees with that sentiment. “Jared Cook, I think, needs to be near the top of the priority list, the way he played this year,” the All-Pro quarterback said, via Wood. Cook represented one of Thompson’s rare forays into free agency, and with the backing of the league’s most gifted quarterback — and the team finally having a viable weapon at tight end — a reunion makes sense. Wood reports a source informed him in December a Cook return was likely. An underwhelming raw talent with the Titans and Rams, Cook caught 18 passes for 229 yards and two TDs in his first playoff run. He and Martellus Bennett are the top tight end options on the current market.
- Rodgers appeared to be stumping for more talent to be added this offseason, Thompson’s free agency-phobic tendencies notwithstanding. “We need to reload,” he said, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. “I don’t think we need to rebuild; we need to reload. We got a lot of players who are young. … We just need to reload a little bit this offseason.” Green Bay’s core receivers are all under contract for 2017, with only Cook as a UFA. The Packers re-signed Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb in recent years and could do the same with Cook. Rodgers added that keeping the offensive line together was a “big part of our success.” Of the Packers’ starting line, only Lang is a free agent.
- Sam Shields does not want to retire despite suffering two concussions in a nine-month stretch, but Jason Wilde of the Wisconsin State Journal notes the Packers are likely to move on from their previous No. 1 corner. Shields stands to carry a $12.125MM cap number in 2017, his age-30 season and the last on his contract, and the Packers would save $9MM by cutting him. The team did not receive much consistency at cornerback this season due to rampant injuries, but Green Bay did draft corners in the first and second round of the 2015 draft and land promising UDFA Ladarius Gunter. So, Shields returning at that price is almost certainly a non-starter, and he might have to find another employer on a short-term deal.