Out with the slow in with the new

[cooters22]

As long as Davis is off the team, I don't particularly care which receiver makes the team. 

[10Spinbass31]

Personally I would have preferred Lorenzo Carter in the 2nd over Jackson but other than that I can live with the draft. Lets see what these kids develop into in 2-3 years. Love having 2 First Round picks next year.

[Uffdaswede]

1 minute ago, cooters22 said:

As long as Davis is off the team, I don't particularly care which receiver makes the team. 

I'll bet he goes right to Cleveland to join up with Wolf so he can "take the top off" of their opposing defenses, to use Elliot's words.

[HyponGrey]

1 hour ago, Golfman said:

The second would only change if the others beat him out which IMO they will. The first probably doesn't change unless we have a rash of injuries at the position, which is why he was put in the RB room in the first place. I hope Monty can be productive for us, but think Jones and Williams are better at rushing the football. Monty has struggled in blitz pick up as well. 

I hope we can find productive snaps for him. 

I'd say Cobb getting hurt would be all it would take since Davis isn't making this team. If we're allegedly looking for productive snaps, then I don't see why we have to pigeonhole when he's taken those slot WR snaps before. I'd go so far as to say we wouldn't be looking that hard were we to overlook a role re-expansion in light of significant development from other players at the same position and a clear lack in the slot. Anything to get this guy on the field with the ball in his hands, right?

[PackFan4Life]

Not so sure both Davis and Allison are going to get beat out by the rooks and Yancey / Clark coming back. I think Allison would need to really bomb in camp to get left off the roster and the three rooks will need huge TCs to get Allison off the roster. We will see. Allison is actually a  pretty good 3-4th option when you have Rodgers chucking the ball around. He may even develop into a good #2 - this is his year given where he came from and where he should be now.

Davis? Depends who emerges on Special Teams. I can see him getting sent down the road and maybe Clark. Clark needs to prove a lot in TC this over last year- mainly that he can catch the ball reliably. Size is nice, but he had a long way to go last year when we last saw him. He really needed the entire year to redshirt so he saw action before he was supposed to last year. Clark really needs one more year of development to see what they have honestly. But the rooks definitely have a good shot at sending Clark and Davis down the road.

Yancey looked fine in practices and training camp practices but he needed to transform his body to be effective. If he did not take his offseason seriously I think the three rooks will push him off. He needed nor further refinement from a WR skill perspective, so either he has it coming into camp this year or he is an easy cut IMO.

[HyponGrey]

1 hour ago, Golfman said:

If all other things are equal are you keeping the 6'6 kid with more upside or the 6'1 kid with less upside? You keep calling it a bias. I call it reality. 

I've been arguing that all other things are in favor of the shorter candidate. It's a moot point in light of Manty pointing out Yancey's omission at the end of last year. To spell it out, his argument was that it's unlikely that Yancey makes any significant progress. Someone listened, someone didn't.

[Packer_ESP]

Cobb and Adams are a lock obviously, but other than that, here's some thoughts from a total football illiterate guy (me):

• Allison is close to a lock too - you need at least 3 receivers with some experience in the team and scheme. Unless Davis somehow makes a gigantic leap, Allison is in imo.
• Moore is probably in too unless he bombs terribly. Cutting a 4th rounder wouldn't be unheard of but he has to be very useless for that to happen. He looks pretty good from what we've seen and he has Incog cheering for him, which is nice.
• Davis probably relies in his skills as a returner. Personally I'd try to cover the return role with someone that can actually play and get rid of him.
• Yancey and Clark will have a hard time. Yancey didn't get a chance last year when we were this close to playing random fans so it'd take some amazing progress to make the 53 this year. Clark has all the tools in the world but I just don't trust late converts.
• ESB and MVS are battling with the above guys for the last 1-2 spots, depending on what happens with Davis and the return role. I kinda hope ESB makes it, for some reason MVS doesn't do much for me.

I'm trying to avoid getting too excited over any of these guys. I remember the last few summers we've been fretting over similar situations (Janis, Abby, Boykin, White, Dorsey in 2014 or McCaffrey, Janis, Davis, Clark, Allison last year) and most of the times we're just overvaluing these guys. Hopefully the cream will rise to the top and we'll get two or three decent players out of this bunch, just enough to have a decent 4-5 WR rotation.

[RapidsFootball]

I love the size and speed of these wideouts... however, watching Valdes-Scantling and St. Brown body catch every ball on a highlight film is painful. How this was not coached out of them at this point is sad. If there is something that prevents them from becoming good pros it will be this. Letting a ball get in to your body negates their height/reach advantage. Hopefully Raih can catch these guys up on a skill that should have been taught at the high school level.

[Kepler]

If anything the receivers not named Cobb and Adams have been put on notice for this upcoming season. Other than the top two Allison is probably as close to a lock as Moore. Davis, Yancey, and Clark better make huge jumps this summer or it's over. 

Honestly I'd like the staff to put Clark on a weight gain program to see how he does as a TE. Probably couldn't block though but it's whatever. Might be his best chance to stick long term. 

[pollino14]

I'm not sold on Allison makes the team. I get he is experienced in our system and Rodgers likes guys he's more familiar with but I don't feel Allison is all that needed, and I don't think he has the upside to warrant him a spot. Adams, Graham, Cobb are experienced guys; and lets not forget Montgomery. He should be taking a lot more snaps at WR this year as well, so there's experience there. I would go with the youth/upside. However many WRs they want between Moore (obvious), the rookies, Clark and Yancey. 

[incognito_man]

53 minutes ago, Packer_ESP said:

and he has Incog cheering for him, which is nice

It's all he needs, really.

[vegas492]

3 hours ago, Golfman said:

No argument here, but did he make more plays for us than Janis did in the Arizona playoff game? Answer is no, and Janis never got another realistic shot after that one game.

Always thought his fate was sealed when that bomb clanked off of his facemask last year.  He catches that pass and I think he is still on the team.  But he didn't and he is gone.

I have high hopes that 2 of these 3 rookies will make the team and that one of them will see significant reps.

[mikemike778]

People need to remember that we had a decent punter and picked another one before 2 of these 3 WR draft picks.

Moving away from the whole 'should we use a 5th rounder on a punter' debate, this shows that these aren't players that the Packers are counting on. It screams of have a swing and hope for the best.

If one of the three makes a significant contribution and a second makes the team then it will be a success. Realistically though, there's a decent chance we have to take a receiver early next year. 

[Patriotplayer90]

Burks is the nickel/coverage LB who Thompson put little emphasis on acquiring.  I hope that he works out.

The WR bounty has upside which obviously outweighs the downside.  It's a difficult position to evaluate, and Gute obviously believes that Rodgers needs some easier, big-play potential targets.  

The only issue is that a receiver is needed in the offensive side of the ball immediately, assuming 2017 Graham will be  2018 Graham, and none of these strike me as guys that McCarthy can utilize in year 1.  He is a traditional coach, he does not seem to value "weapons".  Montgomery was moderately useful as a WR, and moderately useful as a traditional RB, but he had big potential as a mismatch in the backfield, which he seemed to have no interest in utilizing.   Inside run, inside run, injury.

Jones was similar, in that he was commended for his receiving skills, and I recall a beautiful sideline catch.  But McCarthy seemed interested in only ramming him up the middle into he eventually got hurt, then struggled in pass protection, and just ignored the Big play ability that he brought and we needed, and let him rot on the bench because he wasn't "reliable".  You must be capable of doing everything or you won't see the field, no matter how incredibly average you may be at all of them.

 

With his competitive nature, athleticism, size, and ball skills, I think Moore could help year 1 with a limited route tree.  I really like him. The other guys seem like great athletes who just happen to play the position, but they don't seem mentally inept, so there's hope that they could learn.

 

Technically speaking, the offense has more speed now.  The question is, will we notice it next year?

[HyponGrey]

4 hours ago, skibrett15 said:

Did anyone hear the Jaire Alexander pick interview with Gute, and hear him say "he's very close to the mendoza line" or something to that effect.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of the Mendoza line, it's from baseball  and refers to Mario Mendoza and his mediocre batting average.  When players would dip below .200, it's referred to as being below the mendoza line. Basically a line of mediocrity.

 

So, while I think Gute was mis-using this term, because he was talking about Alexander's physical attributes at the time rather than his statistics or quality of play, what it DOES indicate is that there's probably still a height cutoff in play for Green Bay, and that 5104 is probably close to that line, given that Alexander is 5102.

 

I think this confirms what @Cadmus was talking about earlier about how 5-11 was probably not a hard cutoff.  

For some weird reason they listed Alexander at 5'11 on Packers.com