After leaving the Green Bay Packers two years ago for a big-money contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Davon House is returning to the team that drafted him back in 2011. This is a good return for both House as well as the Packers. While Green Bay wanted to keep him two years ago, and watched him shun them, this is a return that will help the team tremendously considering their defensive struggles last season.
Davon House’s fall from grace
The reason that Davon House left the Green Bay Packers was because the Jacksonville Jaguars offered him a big-money deal, paying him $24.5 million for a four-year contract.
House left a team that made it to the playoffs in his first four seasons and took the money to play for a team in Jacksonville that hadn’t had a winning season since 2007. Things didn’t improve for the Jaguars with House on the team. In 2015, Jacksonville went 5-11 despite House setting a Jaguars franchise record with 23 pass breakups. In 2016, House lost his starting job to Dwayne Gratz and that made him expendable. The Jaguars couldn’t find anyone to trade House to so they released a backup that was scheduled to make $6 million this season.
Packers secondary problems
While Davon House has never proven to be an NFL star, he is someone who can help the Green Bay Packers at least when it comes to depth.
He wasn’t a full-time starter when he left Green Bay and he lost his job on a Jacksonville team that only won three games in 2016. How much can House offer coming back to the Packers? For one thing, Davon knows the Packers system so that eliminates the learning curve of bringing in another free agent. The new contract is just a one-year deal so if House fails to impress the nothing else is lost for the Packers.
He joins a defense that ranked 31st in the NFL in pass defense in 2016, so there is nowhere to go but up. As long as Davon House is just the start of rebuilding this secondary, it is a good move, but the Green Bay Packers can’t just stop here. There are more pieces that they need to fill in.
