Green Bay Needs To Cut The… And Just Do These Things

In no order:

1. The first one is simple, Green Bay has to resign tight end Jared Cook and right guard T.J. Lang to reasonable deals. Despite Cook's age, he was a dangerous weapon for the Packers last year but he shouldn't be paid more than 5 million a year. Lang on the other hand deserves a check with bigger numbers like 7-8 million. He's a better player with a bigger impact but also because Aaron Rodgers is the most valuable asset to the Packers and they must protect him at all costs.
   

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2. Green Bay needs to open up the books and see who's being greedy. The first name on that list is Clay Matthews at $15.08 million, which makes him the third highest paid 3-4 linebacker in the league. He's not worth anywhere north of 8 million as of late. Matthews has flashes of being a beast like he once was and he's still someone you have to gameplan for but he just isn't the young buck he once was. The Packers either need to restructure his contract or cut him to save themselves $11 million.

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   It's time that the Packers let the old vet Julius Peppers fade off into the sunset. He's just not productive enough to justify bringing back to the club for another go. Green Bay also needs to let linebacker Nick Perry walk if they cannot get a deal done or keep Matthews. Perry is likely to get a deal somewhere between 8 to 10 million on the low end and the Packers have too many needs to have $25 million wrapped up in two slightly above average outside linebackers.

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4. I say this every offseason but it's time that Green Bay goes out and spoils themselves with a few big ticket items. First order of business has to be a proven/experienced cornerback. The Packers need to go out and overpay a guy like Trumaine Johnson (if he doesn't get tagged) or Stephon Gilmore. At the bare-minimum they need to get a guy like Prince Amukamara, A.J. Bouye or Logan Ryan. Secondly, they need to get a middle linebacker that knows which gap is his more than every other play and can actually control the middle. Ideally that player would be Dont'a Hightower but a more realistic option may be Zach Brown.
   • Green Bay is going to have nearly $43 million in cap space and could potentially have more if Matthews restructures or gets cut. I would say at least 30 million of it needs to be allocated to the defensive side of the ball. There is no reason to sit on this amount of money. It's time to spend the gold so the kingdom can flourish with Rodgers.