The Packers Tender Shields and Dietrich-Smith

It's not clear if contracts will be offered to TE Tom Crabtree, LB Robert Francois, or LB Frank Zombo, but it is known that the Green Bay Packers tendered a contract to CB Sam Shields and C Evan Dietrich-Smith.

New from JS: Report: Shields receives second-round tender from Packers bit.ly/YX6U80 #packers
— tom silverstein (@TomSilverstein) March 12, 2013

The only bad news here is for Shields, who will be paid around $2 million in 2013 instead of around $3 million if he had received a first-round tender. The fact that the Packers gave him a lower tender, and would only receive a second-round pick as compensation instead of a first, if Shields signs elsewhere, is irrelevant. The restricted free agent market is dead; no team has surrendered a draft pick as compensation for a restricted free agent in years. The second-round tender is as good as a franchise tag.

Dietrich-Smith ended the season as the starting center, but I don't think the Packers view him as their starting center. I think they view him as a backup, and I wasn't expecting them to pay him $2.023 million (the cost of a second-round tender) for a backup lineman. I'm a little surprised they tendered him at all because he'll now receive at least $1.323 million for 2013, and the Packers don't pay players to be backups. Everyone on the bench is usually paid the minimum or is a young player who could become a starter in the near future. But Dietrich-Smith will never develop into what the Packers expect from a full-time starter.

The risk for the Packers is that another team will offer Dietrich-Smith a multi-year contract because the Packers probably wouldn't match it and they'll receive nothing in return. Then they'll have to find at least two interior offensive lineman in free agency or the draft. The Packers seem to like Dietrich-Smith, but they don't seem concerned about trying to replace him. If their scouting department does their usually solid work, there are probably a couple of players they already have in mind.