The Green Bay Packers announced they have released linebacker Antonio Morrison.
Friday’s release appears to be a cost-cutting measure for the Packers. Morrison was set to receive a performance escalator that would have raised his base salary to $2.02 million in 2019.
Originally acquired in a trade from the Indianapolis Colts last offseason, Morrison didn’t play much for the Packers defense last season despite appearing in all 16 games for the team.
Morrison was on the field for about 28 percent of the team’s defensive snaps and tallied 48 tackles, four tackles for a loss, one sack, two quarterback pressures and a quarterback hit. He earned a proven performance escalator for playing time during his first three NFL seasons, creating the base salary boost in 2019.
Losing Morrison makes the Packers already thin depth at inside linebacker even thinner, but his release does give the team some extra money to play with during a free agency period that should be an interesting one for the Packers.
Not only has the team been tied to various high-profile players earlier this month, but general manager Brian Gutenkunst has already said that his aim is to be in every player conversation. With the team in need of players at a ton of positions on the defensive side, it’ll be interesting to see how they handle things in the coming weeks.
