By Jim Owczarski Sports Editor Published Mar 06, 2014 at 1:04 PM

The free agency period in the National Football League officially begins at 3 p.m. next Tuesday. A player can’t actually sign a contract until that date and time – but teams can begin speaking with and structuring terms with agents this weekend.

You’ll start to hear about deals being "agreed upon" fairly early this weekend and, of course, fans in Wisconsin will be waiting with baited breath to hear the Green Bay Packers coming to such agreements with a variety of players.

I’ve gone on record saying I don’t believe that Packers general manager Ted Thompson will make any "big" moves, but there have been some interesting developments lately.

In early February, NFL.com reporter Ian Rapoport said the team could "sign as many as five players."

Then, in late February, head coach Mike McCarthy said he needed to get defensive coordinator Dom Capers more involved in the defense, at least in the off-season.

Earlier this week the NFL announced that the 2014 salary cap will rise about $10 million to $133 million, leading to ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert to calculate that the Packers will have nearly $33 million available in cap space, good for sixth-best in the NFL.

You can’t help but think that where there is smoke, there is fire – fire in that Thompson may, indeed, be on the lookout for high impact players in free agency.

That’s the phrase fans need to remember. There’s a difference between "high impact" and "high profile."

Thompson could agree to terms with five players over the weekend, but it’s possible that the average Joe won’t know who they are. People are banging the drum for 27-year-old Pro Bowl safety Jairus Byrd (Buffalo) or 25-year-old corner Vontae Davis (Indianapolis) but technically, Sam Shields is an unrestricted free agent, and the Packers would like to have him back. That will require a signing bonus and an increased annual salary that takes money off the top of that available cap space.

And, Packers management may feel 2014 is a good time to extend Randall Cobb and (or?) Jordy Nelson, deciding that it’s beneficial to the team’s long term cap health that one (or both) of them receive hefty signing bonuses beginning in 2014.

Would those be high impact transactions? For this team, definitely. Would they be "high profile?" Not in the way many Packers fans are expecting.

What about 27-year-old Arthur Jones?

Who?

Exactly. The four-year veteran turned into a quality player in Baltimore’s 3-4 scheme the last two years, recording 8½ sacks the last two years out of the tackle position. Would he be a high-impact acquisition in the middle? Probably. But high profile? No.

What about Antoine Bethea, who will be 30 in July? He’s got some wear on the tires as he enters his ninth year in the league, but he would bring a couple of elements the Packers have been lacking – a veteran presence in the secondary (123 regular season starts, 11 playoff starts), an elevated talent level (two Pro Bowls) and health – he’s missed just three games (and none since 2007). High impact? Probably. High profile? Probably not.

I don’t doubt that the Packers will make contact with agents over the weekend, and they may even have some deals in place. But Packers fans have to remember who is running this organization, and how he does business. Even with all that money available, Thompson is more likely to extend (or re-sign) players he knows intimately than throw money at those he doesn’t. He’ll look for value and upside.

What he’ll never do is put the Packers in a position where they can’t extend a star they developed in-house, or have to cut valued players just to avoid bumping up against the cap.

Is that high profile? No. But in Thompson’s tenure, it’s always high impact.

Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.

A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.

To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.

Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.

In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.

Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.