Prioritizing the Packers’ free agents

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It’s the time of year when, for those of us whose teams aren’t in the Super Bowl, there’s not much to talk about besides the draft and retention of free agents. (Well, and the Pro Bowl, I guess, but if I want to see Aaron Rodgers piling up yards against a defense that neither tackles nor pass rushes, I’ll rewatch the Lions games. Zing! Heh. Detroit sucks.)

I’m just a touch mystified by what seem to be the Packers’ priorities in dealing with its crop of free agents. I’m not going to get into the whole issue of what happens in the event there’s no new collective-bargaining agreement because, well, I don’t entirely understand it, but Ted Thompson et al have given some pretty clear indications of whom they consider most important to keep and who’s disposable.

I can’t argue with signing Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher to fresh one-year deals, but the fact that we have to do so is a stunning indictment of the team’s drafting and development. Over the past decade, we’ve had, by turns, the best pair of guards in the league (Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera) and maybe the best pair of pass-blocking tackles in Clifton and Tauscher. Now we’re in a position where we’re forced to cross our fingers and hope against hope that two guys in their 30s who’ve both been surgically reconstructed from head to toe can make it through another 16 games (and hopefully more). Sad.

Apart from that, my biggest gripe is the reluctance to give Nick Collins the long-term deal he deserves and has earned with back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons. Since Collins will only be a restricted free agent thanks to the lapsing of the CBA, he’s going to feel victimized if, as looks likely, we give him only the bare minimum necessary and count on other teams to be scared off by the draft-pick sacrifices necessary to get him. And maybe he should. After all, we gave Brandon Chillar a long-term deal in the middle of the season for no obvious reason, his play having been merely adequate. After the way the Steelers and then the Cardinals exposed yawning holes in our pass defense, the idea that we’d risk pushing our second-best defensive back to hold out is bonkers.

As for the other guys, bringing Ryan Pickett back as the anchor of our No. 1-ranked rushing defense is a no-brainer. I’d like to see a little more enthusiasm for keeping Johnny Jolly. The fear that his legal problems might keep him off the field didn’t materialize this year, and he had a great season, doing his job and going beyond by setting a team record for batted passes. Of course, we can’t keep everyone, and I reluctantly acknowledge it may be time to cut bait on Atari Bigby. He’s a bruising hitter and he shows flashes of playmaking, but he’s just not good enough in coverage to be considered a lock for the second safety slot.