Welcome to the NFL offseason, Packers fans!  Now that we've gotten through our annual round of report cards (good job, team!) it's time to start looking ahead to the Green Bay Packers 2016 season.  I thought I'd start with what was already some low-hanging fruit in discussing the future of free agent nose tackle B.J. Raji.  With last Friday's news that the Packers have re-signed Letroy Guion to a multi-year deal (three years, $11.25 million), that fruit is now even lower.  

The question of whether the Packers should bring back Raji, Guion or both has already been debated quite a bit among Packers circles.  We now know that Guion will be back but prior to his signing, it seemed as though there was more clamoring for the return of Raji.  Some of this was likely due to the fact that he is a former first-round and top-ten overall pick of the Packers.  He's been in this defensive system for seven seasons and many hold out hope that Raji can somehow return to his 2010 form when he registered 6.5 sacks and was a very disruptive force in the middle of the Packers defense.  Since that season, however, Raji has 3.5 total sacks.  Nose tackle stats are often tough to gauge on their own merit because of what they're asked to do in a typical 3-4 defense.  Clog the middle, hold at the point of attack and clear space for your linebackers to penetrate and blow up the run or get to the quarterback.  In other words, a lot of grunt work.  

So let's look at some of the basics and numbers on Raji.  He missed all of 2014 with a biceps injury after having signed a one-year deal in hopes of landing a bigger pay day the following season.  The unfortunate injury allowed Green Bay to re-sign Raji in 2015 to another one-year deal for a very modest $1.75 million with a $500,000 signing bonus.  Raji had 13 solo tackles and one-half sack on the season in 15 games.  Those totals are about on par with the three other seasons since 2010, save for three sacks in 2011.  So what does this production equate to, in terms of Raji's projected value on the upcoming open market?

In looking at a few other true nose tackles around the league, we may get a better idea.  Terrance Knighton signed a one-year deal with Washington in 2015 and counted $4 million against the cap.  He had one more sack than Raji, but overall his stats were about the same.  Kansas City's Dontari Poe racked up more tackles and had a forced fumble this past season and the Chiefs chose to pick up his fifth-year option worth just over $6 million.  Poe is also three years younger than Raji, who will turn 30 this summer (Guion turns 29).  Lastly is Buffalo's Kyle Williams.  Williams turns 33 this year and missed half of the 2015 season, but in looking at his average over the past few seasons, he averages over twice as many tackles and around five sacks per season.  It's not the best comparison, as Buffalo has had a lot of talent on their defense, especially the line with Marcel Dareus and Mario Williams along side Kyle Williams, but there aren't a lot of others to throw into the mix.  Williams is set to count $8 million against the cap in 2016.  That could put Raji around the $4 million per season mark in 2016 and for a year or two after.

That figure isn't out of the question for Green Bay to entertain when you consider that they'll probably be around $20 million under the salary cap once the new cap figure is announced.  It's more a matter of what general manager Ted Thompson is willing to pay for another interior lineman who is obviously going to split time with Guion.  Guion will average just over $3 million per season so it would seem unlikely that the Packers would pay more for Raji right now.  With Mike Daniels already re-signed and Datone Jones entering the final year of his rookie deal, the Packers have to consider how much they want to invest in their defensive front now.  They have Mike Pennel locked up for this year at $600,000 and with a draft class deep at the defensive line, can turn in that direction to add depth.  They'll have to decide if they're going to bring Josh Boyd back and they also have Christian Ringo and William Campbell sitting on the practice squad.  

The Guion signing now, to me, says the Packers will likely let Raji test free agency.  He played well in 2015 so it wouldn't be surprising to see a team jump on Raji early on but he saw very little interest on the open market two years ago prior to his season-ending injury and he's now 30.  If he ends up back in Green Bay due to little interest elsewhere, the Packers may be able to solidify the middle of their line for quite a bargain.  If Raji can be had at a price similar to this past season, the Packers would be foolish not to bring him back.  

From the comments that Raji has made about his lack of conversations with the Packers and Guion's signing (Raji was very supportive, stating it was "well deserved"), it's clear that the Packers have other priorities right now during the offseason.  They have other pending free agents to consider, such as Casey Hayward, Nick Perry and James Starks, to name a few and there's always unrestricted free agency, but we all know better than to dive too deeply in the waters of that discussion.  For now, don't expect any movement on Raji.

In the event that we've seen the last of the big guy from Boston College in a Packers uniform, I thought it appropriate to remember Raij's biggest moment in his career in Green Bay.  Enjoy!