As of two weeks ago, impending free agent guard T.J. Lang hadn’t “heard a word” from the Packers about a new contract that would keep him off the open market. Lang updated his status Tuesday, telling ESPN Wisconsin’s “Wilde & Tausch” that his agent and the Packers have since had “good contact.” Nevertheless, Lang anticipates reaching free agency (via Jason Wilde of ESPN.com).
“I think every player, once they get to this point, it’s just smart business to go out and check out the market and see what you’re actually worth,” Lang said. “Because that’s the only time as a player that you get to see what your true value is — when you actually hit the open market and you get other teams letting you know what they think of you and letting you know where you rank amongst everybody else in the league.”
While Lang could leave the Packers as early as March 9, he plans on giving them a chance to match any offers he might receive as a free agent.
Continued Lang: “We told Green Bay all along that we’ll keep them updated on any other offers that come in, and really at that point it would just be, ‘Hey, this is what we’ve got sitting on the table, can you guys compete with it?’ Obviously we’re going to give them the first right of refusal. [We will] let them know, ‘Can you come close? Can you match it? This is what we’ve got, this is what the market’s set at.’
The 29-year-old Lang has spent his entire NFL career in Green Bay since it selected him in the fourth round of the 2009 draft. In 119 regular-season appearances, Lang has logged 94 starts. The last time he didn’t start a game he was healthy for came in 2010, and Lang has recorded at least 13 starts in each of the past six seasons. Lang has been a high-end blocker along the way, most recently picking up a Pro Bowl nod in 2016 after ranking eighth among Pro Football Focus’ 72 qualified guards. He now ranks as PFR’s second-best unsigned guard and figures to rake in a substantial payday in the coming weeks.
packers need to resign lang they don’t have a good replacement to tack his place.
That’s what we all said last year, when we released josh sitton who is a better guard than tj in my mind. I think we could do fine without him. Lucas Patrick or if we resign tretter for cheaper, they both can do fine.
I believe tretter can play better than lang but can he stay healthy for a entire season.
The Pack have to sign either Lang or Tretter. Lang is coming off a pro bowl year and Tretter has shown great value and versitility playing any position on the line. The problem each player is Lang’s age, 29, and Tretter has been injury prone in his short career. I personally would try to Tretter first because of his age, potential, and versitility but I’d be hard to see Lang go.