There is no guarantee that safety Darnell Savage will rejoin the Green Bay Packers for the 2024 NFL season. After the Packers were defeated in the NFC divisional round by the San Francisco 49ers, he appeared to be ready to begin his next chapter somewhere else. The uncertainty for Green Bay’s secondary does not end there, with reports that Jaire Alexander may leave the team in the summer.
Enter ESPN’s Aaron Schatz, who predicts that the Packers would compensate for a Savage departure in free agency by signing Detroit Lions safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.
The Packers will let Savage walk in free agency and replace him with an experienced free agent safety like Jordan Whitehead or C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
A potential Darnell Savage replacement for the Green Bay Packers may be in Detroit.
Gardner-Johnson was traded by the New Orleans Saints to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022 before signing a one-year contract with the Lions for $6.5 million in March 2023. Due to injuries, the former Florida Gators star played only a few games in the 2023 NFL regular season, but he was able to participate in all three postseason games for the Lions, including an interception against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional round.
Gardner-Johnson, a fourth-round pick by the Saints in the 2019 NFL Draft, is currently unknown, but he could be a worthwhile gamble as a member of the Packers’ roster.
