Monday, April 15, 2019

NFC North Free Agent Moves for 2019 | Ticket King Green Bay

nfl 2019 draft
The 2019 NFL Free Agency period is about wrapped up, and many teams made headlines with surprising moves. Before we get to the draft, let’s take a look at what each of the four NFC North teams did in free agency.

Chicago Bears: The Bears top move of free agency was to add former Packers safety Ha-Ha Clinton Dix to shore up their back end. They also added two other players- quarterback Tyler Bray, and wide receiver Marvin Hall for one season each. Other than that they took care of their own in house free agents, bringing back the likes of tight end Ben Braunecker, defensive lineman Nick Williams, and punter Pat O’Donnell.

Minnesota Vikings: The Vikings entered the offseason with little cap space, but were able to move some money around enough to add running back Ameer Abdullah, then bring back kicker Dan Bailey, linebacker Anthony Barr, and defensive tackle Shamar Stephen. Their big move was to extend wide receiver Adam Thielen to a four year, 64 million dollar contract. At this point, the Vikings don’t have the cap space to sign their draft choices, so it will be interesting to see what kind of voodoo magic Rick Spielman pulls out of his hat to create the space to do so between now and the draft.

Green Bay Packers: The Packers made the biggest headlines in the entire division, and maybe league for that matter, going away from years of staying out of free agency to becoming perhaps it’s biggest players. They made four big moves on March 14, when they added offensive lineman Billy Turner, safety Adrian Amos, plus outside linebackers Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith. They released linebackers Nick Perry and Antonio Morrison, and also decided to bring back veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis for 2019.

Detroit Lions: After endless speculation towards the end of the season and into the offseason that they might trade quarterback Matthew Stafford, they elected not to. On March 14 they added offensive lineman Oday Aboushi, safety Andrew Adams, cornerback Justin Coleman, defensive end Trey Flowers and tight end, Jesse James. They also re-signed several players, including cornerback Marcus Cooper.

With free agency settled, it is time for the biggest non-competive sporting event in the world, the NFL draft.