Packers Sign Free Agent S Adrian Amos
The Packers have made their second significant free agent move of the day, signing former Chicago Bears safety Adrian Amos. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first reported the news, though it was telegraphed yesterday by Packer Report’s Bill Huber.
A 6-0, 215-pound safety, Smith was a fifth-round pick by the Bears in 2015. He has played in 60 of a possible 64 regular season games in his career, starting 56. He recorded two interceptions, nine passes defensed, a sack, and a fumble recovery for Chicago’s highly ranked defense in 2018.
Why they made the move:
The Packers’ safeties were a mess in 2018. Eight different players took snaps at one of the two safety positions as injuries and general unrest beset the group throughout the year.
Amos is an attractive candidate if only for his dependability. He’s played more than 97% of Chicago’s defensive snaps in two of his four seasons.
But his value to the Packers goes beyond that. Amos lined up all over the place for the Bears in 2018. Here’s a look at PFF’s best-graded game for Amos last year.
Amos’s versatility is obvious, but I particularly like the play we see just after the 40-second mark. Lined up as a deep safety, Amos breaks a little late on the ball but arrives with a big hit, jarring loose what would have been a touchdown pass. That’s exactly the sort of play the Packers have been missing in their secondary for a long time.
What it means for the Packers:
Forget penciling him in; Amos is going to be one of the Packers’ key defensive starters next season. He has to be. Even in a free agent market flush with options, safeties have been getting top dollar. Amos will be no exception.
And even if he is, the Packers need him to be a big factor in the back half of their defense. Though it’s much better than it was as recently as 2016, the Packers’ secondary has been a limiting factor for the defense for far too long. If Amos can elevate the group even a little, it will go a long way towards helping other areas of the defense.
But Amos won’t fix everything. Though he’s capable of playing deep, it’s not something he’s done with a great degree of frequency.
Grade the move: C.
A C, you say? Yep. Every free agent signing is a C until proven otherwise. There are too many variables to grade this move as anything other than completely middle of the road right now. It’s true of Amos and it’ll be true of anyone else the Packers sign.
Blue 58 host Jon Meerdink's thoughts:
Even with Amos’s limitations, he’s already the best safety the Packers have had in several years. That could be taken as damning with faint praise, but I look at it more as a step in the right direction. Amos doesn’t fix the Packers’ secondary, but he injects both talent and versatility into a unit desperately in need of both.
