Packers Cut Roster To 75 and Claim Punter Jacob Schum

The biggest news today was the terrible knee injury to Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater, which ends his 2016 season before it even begins and puts a question mark on the rest of his NFL career. There is an argument to be made that the Vikings offense might still have a good season if they focus on Adrian Peterson.

Meanwhile the Green Bay Packers had to trim their roster down to 75. From ESPN:

Packers moves: Waived -- DT Demetris Anderson, CB Randall Jette, WR Jamel Johnson, LB Derrick Mathews, P Peter Mortell, WR Ed Williams, WR Harvey Binford. Injured reserve -- TE Kennard Backman, C Jacob Flores, TE Mitchell Henry, Crockett, Walker. Traded -- McCray.

He looked like the lesser punter this preseason and unfortunately the storybook dream of Peter Mortell is not meant to be. None of the other players released had received much playing time this preseason, and I.R. takes care of a couple tough roster decisions, especially with Backman and Josh Walker.

The conditional 7th round pick received for OLB Lerentee McCray might turn out to be nothing if he can't make the Bills 53-man roster, but it's a nice return for a player that only cost them a $50,000 signing bonus and was playing at one of their deeper positions. They would have probably released him if they hadn't made this trade, despite his good preseason performance as a pass rusher.

And surprisingly the Packers also added a new player:

#Packers claim punter Jacob Schum, release Tim Masthay: https://t.co/stLr8YDn4n pic.twitter.com/HSb14e5sDa

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 30, 2016

Masthay is coming off a poor 2015 season and he didn't show much improvement this preseason (though he did punt better than Mortell), so taking a chance on Schum doesn't cost them much. But kicking the tires on the comparison of Schum over Masthay doesn't show why this is a good idea. According to Football Outsiders, the Buccaneers were worse at punting in 2015 than the Packers, and Schum had the worst gross punting average in the NFL last season. Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter praised Schum back in February and said the stats don't define him because he can kick it to a certain spot. But I heard the preseason announcers recently saying that McCarthy praised Mortell for his directional punting, and that didn't win Mortell an NFL job. Also, a month after Koetter spoke glowingly of Schum, the Bucs went out and signed free agent Bryan Anger to replace Schum anyway.

While this should be a low risk move to try and upgrade a weak position, the Derrick Frost situation back in 2008 is the counter-argument that they should stay with the punter (Masthay) who they know instead of the possibly inconsistent punter (Schum) they might have just acquired. I wouldn't have minded them going after a punter who was clearly better than Masthay or Mortell, but they don't seem to have found a clearly better punter in Schum. Of course, the market for proven punters is kind of crazy, like trade a 4th round pick crazy, so Schum is probably the best they could have done.

Packers Sign Two Players: OL Don Barclay and LB Lerentee McCray

The Green Bay Packers do occasionally sign street free agents to minimum contracts (former Giants DB Kyle Sebetic was signed in 2015, and he spent the year bouncing on-and-off the Packers' roster). Sebetic wasn't a very interesting signing, it's not a good sign when the DB starved Giants let you walk, but this year is different.

#Packers re-sign OL Don Barclay + sign free-agent LB Lerentee McCray.

Read more: https://t.co/3yqMs7Udkq pic.twitter.com/UfErl7ZXXv

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) April 18, 2016

While Barclay had some good moments pre-ACL injury, he was a disaster last season. He reportedly received zero guaranteed money, so it's worth taking a look at him this offseason to see if he looks better in his second season back, but I don't expect he'll make the team in 2016.

However McCray is an interesting signing. He was undrafted out of Florida in 2013, likely due to a shoulder injury he suffered his senior season, and he was signed by the Broncos. He wasn't tendered a contract in March as a restricted free agent and the Packers signed him for one-year and $800,000. The Broncos have a lot of talent at outside linebacker and McCray was at the bottom of their depth chart, so I can understand why the Broncos wouldn't tender him at around $1.7 million when he's unlikely to do more than play on special teams. But Bronco fans liked what they saw of him, in limited action:

Lerentee McCray is the guy in the unit that easily gets forgotten on the depth chart, but honestly I've been impressed with him as well. He's got that "playmaker" look to him when he's on the field and with a team as stacked as ours it is unfortunately hard to stand out enough.

We haven't seen enough of it, but I remember in earlier preseasons being pretty darn impressed with his pass rush speed. As a OLB he's got a role that really plays to his strengths.

As good as all of this sounds (a cheap, young playmaker who might have just gotten lost on the Broncos's deep depth chart) there is of course a reason why he's only signing now, on the eve of the draft, and he might have not received any offers from another team.

Injuries. He was hurt often in college, and he missed almost all of training camp last year with a groin injury. McCray didn't receive any guaranteed money, but he received $125,000 in bonuses if he makes the roster and stays on it all season. If he's healthy, he might have a very good shot of receiving those bonuses. If he has another injury, like his groin injury last year, I'd expect the Packers will make him one of the first players released out of camp, especially since there's no dead money involved.

I don't expect McCray's signing will effect their draft plans much, though they might feel less pressure now to draft an extra linebacker later in the draft for depth. McCray effectively slides into Mike Neal's old roster spot, for now, and the Packers still need at least one more inside LB and another outside LB to fill out their roster. And that's just for depth, they could still use a high draft choice on a linebacker to challenge Sam Barrington and/or Jake Ryan inside, and one outside to challenge Nick Perry.

McCray doesn't solve any major offseason problem at linebacker but he's an interesting prospect who could become a part of next season's linebacker rotation, if he can stay healthy.