Martinez joins Giants; Bulaga goes to Chargers
GREEN BAY - News that the Green Bay Packers had agreed to terms with free-agent inside linebacker Christian Kirksey before the start of the legal tampering period Monday offered a strong indication that Blake Martinez would be headed elsewhere. That’s what happened just before midnight Central time when Martinez reportedly agreed to a $30 million deal with the New York Giants.
The Houston Chronicle reported that $19 million of that is guaranteed and $14 million coming in the first year of the deal.
PackersNews.com reported the Packers were inter
ested in keeping Martinez during the NFL scouting combine in February, but not at the price he was looking for — and ultimately received — at $10 million per year over three years.
Martinez was a fourth-round pick out of Stanford in 2016 and grew into a team leader in four seasons with the Packers. He hasn't missed a game since his rookie year and has made at least 140 total tackles each of the last three seasons.
Bulaga heads west
Bryan Bulaga, a pillar of the Packers' offensive line for the past decade, moved onto the next chapter of his career Tuesday.
The 31-year-old right tackle reached agreement on a reported three-year, $30 million deal with the Los Angeles Chargers, cashing in on one of his finest seasons in 2019.
It ends Bulaga's 10 years with the team that drafted him in the first round in 2010, then watched him develop into a player who might one day be elected to the franchise's hall of fame.
Bulaga was a starter from the beginning, becoming the youngest player in history to start a Super Bowl. In all, he started 111 of his 115 games, returning from a pair of torn ACLs in each knee in 2013 and 2017. Though he never made a Pro Bowl, Bulaga consistently played at a level comparable to the best right tackles in the NFL.
In nine seasons, Bulaga played in four NFC championship games. He developed into a leader on the offensive line, particularly after Pro Bowl guards Josh Sitton and T.J. Lang had moved on. Though All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari had surpassed Bulaga in league stature, Bakhtiari often deferred to Bulaga in leadership.
Now, that responsibility will fall on Bakhtiari and center Corey Linsley, the elder statesmen on the offensive line. The Packers also signed Rick Wagner, a veteran who has started 87 of his 102 career games, to replace Bulaga.
Fackrell joins Giants
In mid-January, the Giants hired former Packers linebackers coach Patrick Graham as their defensive coordinator. Two months later, Graham netted two of his former players in the free-agent market — first with inside linebacker Martinez and then with outside linebacker Kyler Fackrell.
PackersNews.com confirmed Fackrell
will sign a one-year, $4.6 million deal with the Giants. The 28-year-old was looking to move on from Green Bay for a chance to play more.
A third-round pick out of Utah State in 2016, Fackrell didn't see much playing time his first two years behind Julius Peppers, Datone Jones, Clay Matthews and Nick Perry, recording five total sacks.
Fackrell broke out with a 101⁄2-sack season in 2018 on 58.6% of the defensive snaps, but then the Packers signed Za'Darius Smith and Preston Smith and drafted Rashan Gary in the first round. Though Fackrell played in all 16 games in 2019, his snap count on defense fell to just 40.2%.
He played 41.9% of the special teams snaps last season.
In 61 career games with the Packers, Fackrell finished with 161⁄2 sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
Offers tendered
The Packers handled some housekeeping Tuesday, tendering exclusive rights free agent offers to wide receivers Allen Lazard and Jake Kumerow, tight end Robert Tonyan, cornerback Chandon Sullivan and defensive lineman Tyler Lancaster. The deadline to do so was 3 p.m. Wednesday, and if the club did not tender offers, those players would have become unrestricted free agents.
Exclusive rights offers are tied to accrued seasons in the league, so Kumerow, Lancaster, Tonyan and Sullivan will make the minimum $750,000 as they have two accrued seasons. Lazard will make $675,000 as he has accrued one season. Lazard earned an additional $307,304 for his playing time last year via the performance-based pay program.
NFL cancels workouts
The NFL began the legal tampering period of free agency as scheduled Monday, but by the end of the day the league had clarified parts of the freeagent process and postponed spring workouts indefinitely due to the widening coronavirus pandemic.
That means that while the league will hold the draft at the end of April as scheduled (though not for the public in Las Vegas), teams will not host voluntary workouts in April, post-draft rookie orientations or “rookie camps” in early May and will not begin organized team activities thereafter.
The Packers were scheduled to begin voluntary workouts April 20 in coach Matt LaFleur's second season.
A joint statement released by the NFL and the NFL Players Association read, in part, “the parties will periodically meet and reassess the public health situation to determine an appropriate start date for any offseason team activities and other related considerations as this situation develops.”
In 2019, three of the Packers' 10 OTA sessions were open to the public.
On Sunday the Centers for Disease Control recommended a ban on mass gatherings until the second week of May, which would have postponed any rookie camps in the league. The Packers held theirs May 3-5 in 2019.
Regarding free agency, NFL teams can still enter into a contractual agreement with a player but the player cannot visit the team facility and team personnel cannot visit the player.
“The NFL and NFLPA are developing protocols that will provide clubs with opportunities to review a free agent player's medical records from his prior club(s) and to arrange for a free agent player to have a medical exam in the player's home city or at another nearby location,” the statement read. “These steps are consistent with those announced last Friday for club contact with draft-eligible college players.”
The NFL also elected to close its facilities completely to players who do not need medical care for at least the two weeks.