GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Pro Bowl guards don’t come around often, yet the Green Bay Packers cut Josh Sitton on Saturday in one of the most surprising moves of the NFL’s mandatory cut-down day.
General manager Ted Thompson said in a statement that it was “best for the team and the growth of the offensive line.”
Sitton took the high road, calling it “a tough business,” but deferred specific questions about his release to his agent, who earlier in the day said only that he expected his client to play for several more years.
The Packers told Sitton and fellow guard T.J. Lang they wouldn’t negotiate new contracts during this season with either of them. Both will be free agents after this season.
However, the Packers could have maintained the status quo with an offensive line that coach Mike McCarthy has praised effusively.
“I think we clearly could have one of the best lines that we’ve had here,” McCarthy said this past week. “I think I’ve said that the last two years, and frankly health is always important. I think when you look at the success of a football team, if you look at the health of the starting offensive line, there’s a lot that correlates to the success of the football team. So offensive lines that practice together every day, play together each and every week, that continue to get better throughout the season, that’s something that I’ve always believed in in my years as an offensive coach and I think will definitely hold true this year.”
McCarthy values offensive-line continuity; remember, he named JC Tretter as his starting center Aug. 22 in part because Corey Linsley had missed too much practice. Now the offensive line has only a week’s worth of practice to get ready with a new starting left guard before next Sunday’s regular-season opener at Jacksonville.
McCarthy and offensive-line coach James Campen likely already have determined Sitton’s replacement. The Packers wouldn’t make such a bold move unless they felt their roster could absorb it.
If they want as little disruption as possible, they could simply insert Don Barclay or Lane Taylor at Sitton’s spot. But if they feel neither is among their best five linemen, then some flip-flopping will take place. If rookie second-round pick Jason Spriggs fits that description, then they could play Spriggs at right tackle and shift Bryan Bulaga to guard. When Linsley is healthy (he will start the season on the physically unable to perform list because of his recurring hamstring injury), he could return to center and Tretter could shift to guard.
The Packers will have 16 games -- and, they hope, more in the playoffs -- to show whether their decision to dump Sitton now was the right move.