Dont’a Hightower, linebacker, New England Patriots
It seems to be a foregone conclusion that New England won’t be able to retain Hightower. The team decided against placing either the franchise or transition tag on its former first-round pick. This, despite the fact that Hightower earned his first Pro Bowl nod in 2016.
We’ve seen this story repeated over and over again. The defending champs simply don’t value their soon-to-be free agents at the level of other teams. We can point to the team trading both Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins over the past calendar year. And while those trades seemed to suggest Hightower would be retained, letting him hit free agency throws that whole idea into question.
With Hightower set to test the free-agent market, he will be a highly-coveted option for other teams. A three-down linebacker that has proven himself to be solid in coverage, the five-year pro will draw interest from teams that run multiple defensive fronts.
Enter into the equation a Green Bay Packers squad that has stayed away from free agency in the recent past. It’s worked well for general manager Ted Thompson and Co., but the team simply needs to reverse course here. As evidenced last season, Green Bay hasn’t hit on enough draft picks to justify avoiding free agency. We touched on this recently, and it’s something that is seemingly in the minds of the Packers’ front office (more on that here).
If Green Bay were to actually sign a top-end free agent, it would be on the defensive side of the ball. More than that, it would have to be at linebacker. Former All Pro Clay Matthews has been tasked with playing inside linebacker far too often for this squad. It’s led to a lack of production from a pass-rush standpoint. That’s a clear indication inside linebacker will be a target. If so, why not go after the best of the bunch and make that one big splash?
Prediction: Green Bay Packers