Miami and Cleveland interested in Packers backup QB Matt Flynn

Green Bay Packers quarterback Matt Flynn has reportedly attracted interest from Miami and Cleveland as the free agent signing period got underway Tuesday.

As usual under General Manager Ted Thompson, the Packers did not show any signs of early activity in courting free agents. There were no last-minute contract agreements for their own free agents like center Scott Wells or safety Jarrett Bush.

Both have hit the market. Depending on the price later on, the Packers appear to be interested in re-upping with Wells if he’s not gone by then.

Wells and Chris Myers of Houston are said to be the top two available centers in free agency. Myers is still talking with the Texans and was reportedly in contact with the Tennessee Titans Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Packers could be shopping for a defensive lineman after Mike Neal was suspended for four games by the NFL yesterday for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

Neal has missed 23 of his first 32 regular season games in the league due to injuries. He has only one career sack.

Packers are under the salary cap

As free agency began, the Green Bay Packers were reported to be about $7 million under the NFL’s salary cap of almost $121 million for this year.

They can create even more cap room by restructuring the contracts of veterans Donald Driver and Chad Clifton. But as the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports, the Packers are not under the gun to do that. They could wait until at least the start of the team’s off-season workouts or beyond.

Clifton will be due to get a $250,000 bonus when the workouts start in about a month, and he’s due to get a $15,000 bonus for each week he’s on the game day roster.

Meanwhile, Driver is due to make $5 million in 2012. Almost half of that is in roster bonuses.

One and a half million is due on the first day of training camp in late July, and the rest is split up at the rate of almost $44,000 per game.

Tags: sports, football, wisconsin