Veteran 3-4 safety Smith joins Packers

BasX · Mar 7, 2009

he Green Bay Packers’ first free agent signing of the offseason is an effort to help their conversion to a 3-4 defense.
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An NFL source said safety Anthony Smith agreed to a contract with the Packers on Friday. Smith, 25, played in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 3-4 defense the past three years and is well known to the Packers’ new safeties coach, Darren Perry, who was Smith’s defensive backs coach with the Steelers in 2006.

Details of the contract weren’t available.

The Packers activity in free agency shows they were looking to bring in a safety with experience in the 3-4 as a possible fallback starter, and for protection at safety in the future. Starters Nick Collins and Atari Bigby will be free agents next year if eligibility rules don’t change, so Smith could provide an alternative if he pans out and the team doesn’t re-sign either Collins or Bigby after this season.

The Packers probably signed Smith for a bargain price, because he was coming off a season in which he played sparingly at safety after falling out of favor with the Steelers’ coaching staff. Smith started 10 games in 2007 as an injury replacement. At 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds he is considered tough and physical, though he was not sound enough on assignments and calls for the Steelers.

The Steelers chose not to offer the former third-round draft pick a restricted free-agent tender, which left other teams free to sign him without having to compensate Pittsburgh with a draft pick.

The Packers were interested enough in at least one other safety, Cleveland’s Mike Adams, to bring him in for a visit earlier this week. But he re-signed with the Browns on Friday.

The state of the Packers’ pursuit of Dallas linebacker Kevin Burnett, in the meantime, isn’t clear. Burnett’s agent, Ricky Lefft, was unavailable for comment Friday but was believed to be in contract negotiations with Oakland and San Diego. On Thursday, Lefft said Burnett might visit the Packers as early as Saturday if he didn’t have a deal with either the Raiders or Chargers, but it was unclear whether he’d set up a trip to Green Bay as of Friday evening.

The Packers had another of their restricted free agents visit another team, this time defensive back Jarrett Bush. League sources confirmed that Bush visited the Tennessee Titans on Friday. Bush has played mostly cornerback with the Packers but might be shifting predominantly to safety this year.

The Packers tendered the minimum restricted offer to Bush, meaning they can match any contract he signs with another team. However, because he came into the league undrafted, they won’t get compensation if they don’t match.

Earlier this week, fullback John Kuhn, who like Bush is a restricted free agent who won’t bring compensation if the Packers don’t exercise the right of first refusal, visited Arizona early this week and is scheduled to visit Cincinnati early next week.

Also, free-agent defensive end Igor Olshansky signed with the Dallas Cowboys on Friday. Olshansky had played in the San Diego Chargers’ 3-4 defense the past five seasons and was one of several defensive ends the Packers were considering if he could be had at a bargain price.
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http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090306/PKR01/90306177/1058

Take him.

Hudge · Mar 8, 2009

We can't lose Collins and Bigby, I love those guys :'(

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Veteran 3-4 safety Smith joins Packers

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Veteran 3-4 safety Smith joins Packers

BasX I Win

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