The Green Bay Packers have made it clear that they’re not throwing good cash after dangerous — at the least on the subject of one of the team’s huge free agent signings from a yr in the past. General supervisor Brian Gutekunst has made the considerably surprising choice to release cornerback Nate Hobbs after signing him to a four-year, $48 million contract simply one yr in the past.
Hobbs got here to Green Bay from the Las Vegas Raiders, the place he had largely performed in the slot for his first 4 seasons. However, the Packers appeared intent on making him right into a boundary nook, a place the place he gave the impression to be miscast. Hobbs ended up lacking a while resulting from accidents as properly, as he performed in simply 11 video games final yr with 5 begins. He performed simply 358 complete snaps on protection, permitting a passer score of 111.1 (in response to Pro Football Reference) with no interceptions and simply two cross breakups.
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Hobbs’ deal got here with a $16 million signing bonus, and the Packers should take up the remaining $12 million of that bonus that was scheduled to be utilized to the cap over the subsequent three years. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky experiences that the release will likely be categorized as a post-June 1st reduce, which signifies that Green Bay will carry Hobbs’ full $12.8 million wage cap cost till June 1st. After that time, $4 million will stay on the 2026 cap, with the remaining $8 million hitting the team’s cap in 2027.
The time-frame for this choice was pressured largely by a $6.25 million roster bonus that Hobbs was due on Friday. Clearly that may be a quantity that the team was clearly unwilling to pay for a participant who massively underperformed in his only season with the team. Furthermore, Hobbs’ function in the slot was questionable due to Javon Bullard’s enchancment at that spot final season, whereas Tuesday’s signing of Benjamin St-Juste provides the team extra depth at boundary nook.
