Sunday brought word that the Packers are still considering using their franchise tag on wide receiver Greg Jennings and that doesn’t seem to be the only issue vexing them with the start of free agency approaching quickly.
Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the team is “torn” about whether or not they will keep tight end Jermichael Finley for the 2013 season. The question of Finley’s future has been batted around for months, with McGinn previously reporting that the Packers had already decided to dump Finley before the second year of the two-year deal he signed last offseason.
Now the word is that the Packers coaching staff and General Manager Ted Thompson want Finley to return for another year while “other people in the organization” favor his release. That split would seem to favor Finley’s return, although there may be a desire to revisit the financial picture on the Packers’ end of things.
Finley is due to have a cap figure of $8.75 million, a number McGinn suggests that the team might like to pare down via a restructuring although it’s unclear whether Finley would feel the need to take a pay cut to remain in Green Bay. The tight end market isn’t overflowing this offseason and Finley might decide to roll the dice on the possibility that someone else will give him a similar contract that runs beyond this season if faced with any demand to revisit his Packers contract.