The Green Bay Packers have just announced their second free agent signing of the season – defensive tackle Daniel Muir. Here is the information as reported by Packers.com:
Muir, a 6-foot-2, 312-pound fifth-year player out of Kent State, played for the Indianapolis Colts from 2008-11, appearing in 40 games with 26 starts. He posted a career-high 66 tackles (54 solo) and a half-sack for the Colts in 2009.
Muir originally entered the NFL as a non-drafted free agent with the Packers in 2007. He appeared in three games for Green Bay as a rookie in ’07 and recorded eight tackles (four solo). Muir was a four-year letterman (2003-06) at Kent State, playing in 46 games with 45 starts.
It’s clear Ted Thompson has identified the same holes in the team as just about everyone else. With the replacement of center Scott Wells by former Colts player Jeff Saturday, Thompson has now moved onto addressing the gaps in the defensive line. The departure of Cullen Jenkins last season coupled with the disappointing play and four-game suspension of Mike Neal have made the unit rather thin.
Muir is not guaranteed a spot on the roster, but it’s obvious the Packers are taking this need seriously. Thompson doesn’t often dip into free agency outside of his own team, so these last two signings are rather noteworthy.
Expect Thompson to continue to shore up the defensive pitfalls with draft picks in April.
——————Chad Toporski, a Wisconsin native and current Pittsburgh resident, is a writer for AllGreenBayPackers.com. You can follow Chad on twitter at @ChadToporski
Follow @ChadToporski——————
How much will these free-agent signings affect the compensatory picks that GB will be due in 2013? I suppose it depends on contract terms and all of that, but street free agents don’t have an impact, do they?
From what I have been reading on Twitter, Muir will not count against the compensatory picks since he was cut in the middle of the season.
Also, I believe Saturday won’t count since he has more than 10 years in the league.
I had no idea about the 10 year veteran exemption. That’s really great for the pack, as I would assume that they will be in line for a 3rd and 4th round compensatory pick for Flynn and Wells. Of course this is for the 2013 draft, but they will need all that young talent again next year.
Good signing for quality depth. I think we’ve just seen the end of Howard Green.
But this is not all that far outside the norm for TT. Muir has played for GB under TT before…. he’s a “TT guy”
First we’re set at Center, and now DL!
I think that saying GB is now set at DL is a bit optimistic. Of course, my sarcasm detector is not very good…
Sorry, just making fun of the contrast between these two signings…
I find it real interesting how Ted seeks out players he’s had before, signing Muir and pursuing Dave Tollefson.
Al, I think TT does that because he know’s how he’s scouted that player and then considers why they were let go or left in the past. In some cases, he may think that he can get more out of them now than we were able to before. In Muir’s case, when he was originally picked up, GB played a 4-3 defense. While he doesn’t provide much QB pressure help, he may be perfect as a clog in the middle or holding up the end to free the linebackers. GoPack!
Muir is probably a marginal upgrade over C. J. Wilson and a real upgrade over the Green of last year.
We effectively had three NT last year in Raji Green and Pickett-which has it’s upsides and downs-lot of beef but no one really happpy playing the LDE 5 technique in the base Eagle front as far as my uneducated eye can tell. If we can get Muir and/or Wilson/Guy to be at least effective in that role that would be nice and give more options…
I think he was an inexpensive option that is clearly “built” larger than Wilson or Wynn. Looks physically thicker than either of those two. I still expect Green may make the team because he is cheap. DE will still get addressed early in the draft in my opinion.– I know everyone is sick of me pimping Vinny Curry for our first round pick so I won’t go there……GoPack!
Keep it up Ted, you landed a center and now a back-up run support DL. Now let’s shore up the pass rush and add a DB. The first 4rds of the draft should be 3 D players and a O-lineman. TT should cut Driver and put his 5m towards another FA D players
I love that TT is breaking the mold with a couple of smart FA signings… Saturday was such a great signing I’m really happy about it but for those who are saying that Muir solves our d-line problems I have to disagree. He adds depth and would be the starter considering the current line up so I’m not saying it was a bad move but I just don’t see him being the end all answer to our d-line woes. To sum up IMO we still need to dedicate an early draft pick on DE/ DT. With Muir and another de/dt 1st or 2nd round pick I think we’ll be sitting pretty for next year on D-Line… If neal will actually stay healthy when he comes around after his suspension we will have a superior line if we pick up 1st or 2nd round pick.
If you listen to, or read, what TT and others in the Packers personnel dept state about how they go about their business, it’s pretty clear: They put their time in and thoroughly scout the players out there. The trust in their evaluations, because they’ve been diligently scouted by excellent talent evaluators. They keep a close eye on players across the league at all times, especially those who they have either scouted thoroughly and drafted/acquired but were unable to keep, or that they were unable to acquire for whatever reason. They find value and comfort in familiarity- one of the reasons the Packers feel FA can be dangerous is the unknowns of a new player’s persona.
The Packers signed Muir as an undrafted FA for a reason. He is now further along in his development and the Packers had the chance to reacquaint themselves with him.
Should be a good depth signing, possibly a prominent role player.
Any pieces that can be attained now puts the Packers in a better position to truly draft BPA later on.
Next up: Safety help.
Matt Giordano is available…any takers??
Muir is strickly a back up defensive lineman for run support. He will give our eventual starters a rest .he should allow the packers to cut green and should be better then Wynn and Wilson, hopefully. However, we must remember that Muir was not brought back by a 1-15 team.
He was brought back to a 15-1 offensive team but as a DL he WAS brought back to a 1-15 team.This defense was..offensive…even with the great turnover differential.