Mulumba visits Patriots, Chiefs

Linebacker played 59 snaps last season

Green Bay — With the Green Bay Packers unwilling to make even a minimum-wage offer to keep him around, free-agent linebacker Andy Mulumba may soon be playing for another team.

Mulumba, signed as an undrafted free agent by the Packers in 2013, visited the New England Patriots on Thursday and was on his way for a visit with the Kansas City Chiefs, a source close to Mulumba said. Other teams have inquired about Mulumba, but the Patriots and Chiefs have shown the most interest in the fourth-year linebacker.

The Packers chose not to submit a restricted freeagent tender to Mulumba by March 9, thus making him a free agent. The team would have had to make a minimum offer of $1.671 million, which it wasn’t going to do considering Mulumba played only 40 snaps on defense and 19 on special teams last year.

Coming off a torn ACL suffered in Week 3 of the 2014 season, Mulumba, who is 6 foot 3 and 260 pounds, was active for only seven of 18 games last season and compiled just two tackles on defense and two on special teams.

The Packers had high hopes of developing Mulumba, a Canadian citizen and native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who played defensive end at Eastern Michigan. As a rookie, Mulumba was a regular on special teams and wound up playing 298 snaps on defense due to injuries to others at outside linebacker.

Because he is not a United States citizen, Mulumba had to leave the country Feb. 29. He was granted a work visa to play in the NFL and was working to establish citizenship, but because the Packers hadn’t made an offer, he was forced to return to his family home in Quebec.