Packers positional needs: 15 Safeties in PFF’s top 150 free agents
Safety is arguably the biggest need that the Packers have and 15 are listed on PFF’s top 150 free agents list.
Safety, once again, is a huge need for the Green Bay Packers entering the offseason—perhaps the biggest need that GM Brian Gutekunst has to address.
"Initially pretty solid at safety," said Brian Gutekunst, "as far as the draft class goes and then the free-agency class as well."
As currently constructed, the Packers are short on both depth and playmaking at the position. The only safeties under contract for the 2024 season right now are Zayne Anderson, Benny Sapp, and Anthony Johnson. Combined, the trio has played 357 career defensive snaps, with Johnson having played 334 of them.
The Packers took a band-aid approach at safety last offseason, with the position group made up mostly of one-year contracts. Darnell Savage played out the 20232 season on his fifth-year option while Rudy Ford, Jonathan Owens, and Tarvarius Moore - who was eventually cut - were signed to one-year deals. It also wasn't a particularly strong safety draft class, so the Packers didn't add to the position until they selected Johnson in the seventh round.
Savage was key in the pre-snap communication for the back end of the defense, not to mention that Matt LaFleur credited him on a few occasions for the leadership role he had taken on this season. When Owens was at his best, he was making tackles at the line of scrimmage, while Johnson played every snap at 100 mph. Anderson and Sapp were also core special teams contributors.
However, ultimately, this was a position group with a low ceiling, and when mistakes happened, they were often quite costly. Without Savage, who missed time due to injuries, poor communication led to coverage breakdowns—with the Tampa Bay game being a prime example of this. Missed tackles and a lack of playmaking were an issue as well. No Packers safety ranked in the top half of the NFL in forced incompletions.
The NFC Divisional matchup against San Francisco summed up what we saw from this group throughout the season. A missed tackle by Savage resulted in a long Christian McCaffrey touchdown run, while miscommunication led to a blown coverage assignment by Johnson on the touchdown pass to George Kittle.
"I think the back end is probably where we weren't as consistent as we needed to be and I'd like that to be shored up," added Gutekunst. "There will probably be some moving pieces there going into next year, but it's kind of like it always is, I want a fast physical, aggressive defense that plays sound.
"And again, I thought there were some really, really good moments, particularly late where we were playing some very good football teams and they played very well. But the consistency is what I always look for."
This offseason, the Packers need to take a longer-term approach at the position. Given the current state of the safety group, Gutekunst likely addresses the need both in free agency and in the draft. The type of players Gutekunst brings in will also depend on the type of system new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley wants to run—although there seems to be a lot more flexibility around that, with Hafley molding the scheme to the players he has rather than forcing the players to fit a certain style.
"I think again a little bit of that will be determined as we sit down with Jeff and get his vision for what we're going to do on defense," said Gutekunst. 'But we're going to have to add numbers there, for sure. And I think more and more in the National Football League, those positions — along with the nickel position — are becoming interchangeable positions.
"You ask a lot of those guys. And I also think you have to have depth because again, defensive backs get injured and you have to be able to adjust and be able to keep playing high-level football no matter who's in there. So, certainly that has our attention."
With that said, Hafley's Boston College defenses led college football in cover-1 usage in 2021 and 2022 and ranked fifth in 2023. Even if not utilized to the same extent in Green Bay, if single-high safety is going to be a bigger part of the Packers defensive plans, then finding a centerfield-like safety who can cover a lot of ground along with one comfortable playing in the box will be on Gutekunst's radar.
Currently, Over the Cap has the Packers at $2.8 million over the projected 2024 salary cap. Ken Ingalls, who independently tracks the Packers' salary cap situation, estimates that around $30 million in cap space will need to be created to cover typical operating expenses, such as signing the 2024 draft class, assembling the practice squad, along with having funds for in-season expenses, among other items.
That $30 million figure does not include any free agent additions, but through restructuring the contracts of Aaron Jones, Jaire Alexander, Rashan Gary, Elgton Jenkins, and Preston Smith, along with extending Kenny Clark, and releasing David Bakhtiari, Royce Newman, and De'Vondre Campbell, the Packers have the means to create cap space so they can make free agent additions.
Now, not all of those aforementioned moves will be made, and when it comes to the restructures, that only pushes cap charges to future years, leaving larger dead cap hits and giving the Packers less flexibility in 2025 and beyond. As always, there is give and take with these decisions.
"I think it just depends on the player, right," said Gutekunst about free agency. "It depends on who that is and how he can impact our football team. I don't think we'll shy away from adding impact players if we have to push things down the road. We'd prefer not to do that, but at the same time, this is about winning and trying to win a championship, so if that's something that makes sense, we'll do it."
If the Packers are going to address the safety position in free agency, here are the top available players, according to PFF's 150 best free agents list, along with contract projections from Spotrac when applicable.
Antoine Winfield Jr. ($18.4M per year)
Kyle Dugger ($16.5M per year)
Kamren Curl ($14.4M per year)
Xavier McKinney ($10.4M per year)
Geno Stone ($7.2M per year)
Julian Blackmon
Jordan Fuller
Jordan Whitehead
CJ Gardner-Johnson
Deshon Elliot
Teshaun Gipson
Alohi Gilman
Darnell Savage
Mike Edwards
Jeremy Chinn