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Now that free agency has had some time to get underway and the 2015 NFL Draft is right around the corner, we are going to return to the 49ers' upcoming opponents in order to see what positions they addressed in free agency and how many picks they have coming up in the draft. We will start with our non-divisional opponents before finishing with the NFC West.
Free Agency Review
In some ways, the Green Bay Packers are the ideal team to start with for this round of opponents review. As we saw earlier this offseason, the Packers are notoriously loath to sign a free agent that has played for another team. Julius Peppers is the only current member of the team who has played a game for another team. That's remarkable.
As a consequence, it is unlikely that we will miss any "major" free agency signings by the Packers in the comings weeks. They simply don't conduct business that way. They build through the draft.
That said, the Packers have been active this offseason retaining some of the their own free agents - and filling positions of need while they are at it. The Packers re-signed two of their biggest names this offseason, keeping WR Randall Cobb and OT Bryan Bulaga. Both players have contributed to the team in big ways, and by keeping them around, the Packers adhere to their free agency philosophy.
They were rather busy on Monday in particular, signing defensive linemen B.J. Raji and Letroy Guion to one-year deals.
Draft Picks
The Packers have nine picks in the upcoming draft - all their own and two compensatory picks. They are as follows:
Round 1 - Pick 30
Round 2 - Pick 62
Round 3 - Pick 94
Round 4 - Pick 129
Round 5 - Pick 166
Round 6 - Pick 205
Round 6 - Pick 210
Round 6 - Pick 212
Round 7 - Pick 247
Potential Needs
Even though the Packers brought back two of their big names, there are still a few positions of need for them to address. In our most recent review of the Packers, we mentioned that they need to address the back-up QB position. They did re-sign Scott Tolzien, though I imagine that they might take a mid- to late-round QB as well. CB is another position they might address since they lost both Tramon Williams and Davon House in free agency. The Packers might also bring in some ILB depth, even though there are a couple of players being groomed already on the roster.