Evan Dietrich-Smith signed his restricted free agent tender worth $1.323 million, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He’s expected to be the Packers’ starting center next season after Jeff Saturday retired.
Dietrich-Smith, 26, was handed the lowest possible restricted free agent tender with no compensation. If a team wanted to sign him, they simply would have had to make an offer that the Packers couldn’t match.
But that never happened, and Dietrich-Smith will remain in Green Bay next season.
The only restricted free agent to receive an offer sheet is Pittsburgh wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders from New England. The Steelers have a week to match the Patriots’ offer.
Dietrich-Smith is now slated to participate in the Packers’ offseason conditioning program. Green Bay’s other restricted free agent, Sam Shields, has yet to sign his tender worth $2.023 million for the upcoming season.
Now that Dietrich-Smith is in the fold for at least another season, the Packers figure they have their starting center in place. But that doesn’t mean the Packers won’t consider adding a young player at the position relatively early in this month’s draft.
California’s Brian Schwenke or Wisconsin’s Travis Frederick will likely be the first center off the board at some point on Day 2. Alabama center Barrett Jones will likely start 2013 on the PUP list due to medical concerns. He was on the same level as Schwenke and Frederick prior to the medical issues becoming public, but he’s now expected to come off the board on late Day 2 or early Day 3.
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Marques is a Journalism student, serving as the Sports Editor of UW-Green Bay\'s campus newspaper The Fourth Estate and a Packers writer at Jersey Al\'s AllGBP.com. Follow Marques on Twitter @MJEversoll.
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man, they need a center.
Welcome back EDS. I hope we still land a center in the 3rd or 4th RD. EDS provides good depth inside, though.
I remember the rush up the middle in the playoff game. EDS is not now or ever has been a starting center. He was a stop gap soilution and they need to find someone better. It’s obvious no other team tought that mush of him either.
Well he’s cheap and makes his part of the Cap a plus.
They said the same thing about Wells when he took over at Center and turned into a Pro Bowl Center. Centers often are developed over a couple years. No reason why EDS can’t develop into a good starting Center just like Wells did!
I think they might still draft a center, but Gerhart was on the PS last year and could develop into a good Center also. So while its likely they draft a center, don’t be too surprised if they don’t depending on how Gerhart looked to Thompson and the coaches.
The only way EDS is a starter is if TT personally injects him in the azz with mega steroids…
I have been very critical of EDS over the last two years, but I really thought he did a much better job than I ever expected him to when he took over for Saturday at C.
I used to think he was a career backup too.. But after seeing him late last season, I am more than willing to suspend judgment and see how he does this training camp and going forward.