GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers saw what happened last season when they let several key free agents leave. They're not letting it happen again.
They signed center Corey Linsley to a contract extension on Saturday, one day after they did a four-year, $58.75 million deal with receiver Davante Adams. Both players would have hit the free-agent market in March without new deals.
A source told ESPN that the deal is for three years and averages $8.5 million per year in new money.
Linsley, 26, is the only Packers' offensive player to be on the field for every snap this season. The former fifth-round pick from Ohio State in 2014 will make his 54th career regular-season start on Sunday at Detroit.
Last offseason, the Packers lost a pair of starting offensive linemen, T.J. Lang and JC Tretter, plus tight end Jared Cook, linebacker Julius Peppers and safety Micah Hyde. They struggled to replace Cook after the Martellus Bennett signing failed and watched Peppers post double-digit sacks for the Panthers and Hyde make the Pro Bowl for the Bills.
By signing Adams and Linsley before the end of the regular season, it allows the Packers to prorate a portion of the signing bonuses on those deals on this year's salary cap. The Packers had just under $10 million in available cap space for 2017, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
The Packers have one other key starter -- safety Morgan Burnett -- with an expiring contract after this season.
They also could now focus on a new deal for Aaron Rodgers, who is under contract through 2019 but has fallen well down the quarterback pay scale. At $22 million per year under the deal he signed in 2013, Rodgers is now the seventh-highest paid quarterback in the league.