TheOnlyThing Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 The Packers finished 10-6 in 2015, with a healthy Aaron Rodgers. The Packers were 4-6 in 2016, before Rodgers played ungodly ball and they ripped off 8 straight wins before getting demolished in the playoff loss to Atlanta. The 7-7 2017 Packers rallied from 14 points down in the 4th quarter to defeat the winless (and hapless) Browns in overtime. (Meanwhile, the Vikings are about to go 13-3 or at least 12-4 with a QB they picked up in March and without their best offensive player the first quarter of the season). For those who believe that even if Rodgers had remained healthy the Packers would still have flamed out in the playoffs due to talent deficiencies (in addition to the obvious problem at DC), here are 5 moves that could immediately free up resources necessary to 1) Cut Clay Matthews: It Is Time. Clay has not reached double-digits in sacks at OLB in 5 seasons. Good franchises do not (over) pay for past production. It sends a terrible signal to the rest of the team. Clay costs $12.1M in 2018 and there is no dead money if he is cut. Now, if he wants to re-sign for a salary commensurate with his abilities at this juncture, fine. If not, fine. The rush might decline a bit in 2018, but so what as it has not been good enough WITH the soon to be 32 year old Clay. The team needs to put $ towards difference makers. Clay is no longer a difference maker. 2 & 3) Cut Nelson & Cobb & Resign Only One Of Them: No bigger fan of Jordy than myself. But time waits for no man. He can't get deep any more and is getting mugged at the line of scrimmage. His YAC ability, always a great attribute, is nearly gone. Other than his chemistry with Rodgers/red zone skill, he is a shell of his former self. The Pack saves over $10M (while eating $2M+ by cutting him). As for Cobb, he got old quick. He lacks speed to separate from DBs and his short-area quickness is just average at this point. His elusiveness/explosiveness are nothing special. His disappointing play is not just a 2017 thing. The team gains $9.5M in cap room by cutting Cobb and eats $3.25M in dead money. 4) Cut Bryan Bulaga. Another old pro who gave a lot to the franchise, Bulaga has suffered numerous injuries and missed a lot of time. He may well not be available until mid-season in 2018. Spriggs was not drafted in round 2 to watch from the bench. The team gains $8.3M in cap space and must east $3.2M in dead money if BB is cut. BTW, he could always be resigned a la Tauscher if/when he is cleared to return. 5) Do NOT Resign Morgan Burnett: A mainstay of the Packers crappy for years secondary (he's played with Tramon, Shields, Woodson, Hayward, HHCD), Burnett is not fast and is not a hitter. He is approaching 30. There is NO reason to overpay for him. If he returns on the cheap, fine. Otherwise, time to see if 2nd rounder Jones is a player. I am fully aware that GM Ted Thompson will never cut these players given he signed to them to these contracts as it is not his way and the Packers are loathe to eat dead money even on obviously bloated contracts. However, think what the team could do by freeing up this nearly $40M in cap space. Players like Calais Campbell, AJ Bouye, Riley Reiff, and Alshon Jeffrey were signed this past offseason and have immediately bolstered the Jags, Vikes, and Eagles. Tweaking the roster has been par for the course for 7 years running. It is time to at least try to add a true difference maker (or two) and freeing up $30M+ by cutting/declining to overpay for way overpriced players like Matthews, Cobb, Nelson, Bulaga, and Burnett allows the team to at least make the effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driftwood Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 im torn on some of these... -Clay is having one of his best seasons imo (even though the #'s might not show it)... his contract is clearly bloated, but i would be fine with 1 more year of his services (maybe he takes a paycut or pull an AJ hawk for us?) -cobb & jordy can both go without being resigned imo... yeah AR loses 2 safety nets but they are grossly overpaid for what they bring to the table right now. Nelson really hasnt been the same since his knee injury (used to make defenders miss after the play & he seems to avoid any kind of contact now on top of getting 0 separation) -Bulaga isnt that old, but im sort of on board with moving on for the fact he cant give us a full season consistently (his injuries are only going to add to his physical decline as well) -Burnett is still a worthwhile player, but until Capers is gone, he will continue to be misused along with 75% of the rest of the defense those are my thoughts... but capers is the first card that needs to fall this offseason (either let him go our gracefully by forcing him to retire or cut ties if he doesn't wanna). unfortunately this front office is loyal to a fault & there is a good chance capers is still coaching this D in 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexGreen#20 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Unless you have plans for what you want to do with this money, cutting players is an emotional and reactionary decision. Even if you do make all of these decisions, what the hell are you going to do with that cap space? Bulaga and Burnett would be the top FAs at those spots in the upcoming FA class. Getting rid of them because you're on an emotional low is just bad business. IF you could move on from all of those guys and lock up Demarcus Lawrence, that's something you consider doing. You'd at least have the space to have a Dream Team Eagles off season pursuing Graham and Lawrence, but does anybody really think that the top 2 FA targets are coming to GB?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Packerraymond Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Like AG said, none of these moves are that over the top or bad ideas, but you're going to have around 30m dollars this off-season, you've created about another 40 cutting Jordy, Cobb, Clay and BB. 70m dollars to spend on Adams and Linsley and then whatever we want would be awesome, but would never happen. Cobb should be cut, and a decision made on CMIII, maybe a move to ILB and a cheap extension and a push back of guarantees so we can spread out money? Either way we'll probably be around 40-45m in cap, I can't see us getting above 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevein2012 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Good on Spriggs for not being a disaster filling in here but who cares if he was a 2nd round pick? Unless he improves A LOT by next season he's not a starter quality player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Packerraymond Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 2 minutes ago, Stevein2012 said: Good on Spriggs for not being a disaster filling in here but who cares if he was a 2nd round pick? Unless he improves A LOT by next season he's not a starter quality player. He's been starter quality for every quarter save 1 where a 2 guys that have double digits sacks this year (meaning they've beat at least 9 other OTs) got him. One of those guys being the #4 all time sack leader and a first ballot HOF player. Spriggs is fine. Aaron's won with A LOT worse (Newhouse and Barclay) at tackle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 10 minutes ago, Stevein2012 said: Good on Spriggs for not being a disaster filling in here but who cares if he was a 2nd round pick? Unless he improves A LOT by next season he's not a starter quality player. Starter quality? Sure he is. Just average starter quality rn. As far as OP. Fine with all of it if Jordy comes back after. Except Burnett. I want Morgan back. I can't lose secondary players right now just for Jones with money to burn. Casey, Micah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugger Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Was Bak wonderful when he first started? I think it is a tad premature to say what kind of player Spriggs will be. Look how long it took Randall and D. Adams to come around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green19 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 The only thing on this list that will likely happen is not signing Burnett. Like AlexGreen stated... this is just an emotional response for a lost season. “Burn it down and start fresh!” Fact is everyone hates Jordy and Cobb but if you cut both or even one you are likely needed to draft a WR high... taking away from going defense. Does a WR core of Adams, Allison, Davis and Janis inspire anyone? Clay is a year away from hitting free agency... let him play his contract out. He is great in spots. The issue is this team is too heavily reliant on him being a one man wrecking crew. Put people around him and watch the old clay come back because he wouldn’t be the focus. Fact of the matter is we have plenty of cap with all these contracts on the books... cutting them would just leave holes. Everyone wants FAs.., is there a better RT out there then Bulaga? Why cut him unless you can secure a great pass rusher. Seems like we are cutting off our nose to spite our face. Also look at optics... if we start cutting and not honoring deals players see that and take notice. We won’t get players to take friendly, fair deals. We would need to give out crazy signing bonuses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LacyIsGood Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 I definitely do not want to see Clay cut. He will become more of a part time player, and maybe could restructure, but he is still good. I would cut Cobb and restructure Jordy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevein2012 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 43 minutes ago, Packerraymond said: He's been starter quality for every quarter save 1 where a 2 guys that have double digits sacks this year (meaning they've beat at least 9 other OTs) got him. One of those guys being the #4 all time sack leader and a first ballot HOF player. Spriggs is fine. Aaron's won with A LOT worse (Newhouse and Barclay) at tackle. Na from what I've seen he's not very good. Just because he doesn't give up a sack on a particular play doesn't mean he made a good block. He gets beat pretty often and pretty easily whenever I've watched him. I sure wouldn't feel good about him as a starter and certainly not enough that I'd drop Bulaga over 5m dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevein2012 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 13 minutes ago, Pugger said: Was Bak wonderful when he first started? I think it is a tad premature to say what kind of player Spriggs will be. Look how long it took Randall and D. Adams to come around... NOt talking about what he will be just about what he is currently which is not very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incognito_man Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 The only one of those that should be made is moving on from Cobb. A big reason for that is Adams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packfanfb Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 None of those moves are emotional IMO. Nelson and Matthews are WAY overpaid. There is no counter-argument there. Same with Cobb. Burnett is baarely a step above JAG on the field for the reasons stated. The biggest problem is not letting these guys go, rather its that we have a GM who won't use the extra money to improve the team. For example, we were paying Shields about $9mil per year when we cut him and instead of using that money to sign Bouye, Gilmore or another top corner to adequately replace Shields, we signed a 2nd tier player like House at a huge discount. So the team got worse overall when Shields left, not better or even an equal swap. That's the one and only reason I'm hesitant about letting these guys walk. Now if we had a GM that cut Matthews and Cobb and then went out and grabbed Graham and Golden Tate for example, I'd say let's do it. But instead, if we cut Nelson, Cobb and Matthews, the 2018 replacements will be Allison, Davis and Fackrell. Because...thats Ted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBURGE Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Nelson and Matthews are overpaid, sure. I think Jordy retires after next year, so we can let him finish here imo. Clay should either be re-structured or cut. And someone will pay him $10m a year, so we would have to cut him. Can we replace him in FA? Maybe idk. Cobb has 1 year left and he will move on likely. I wouldn't be thrilled if we let Burnett go, considering the turnover in our secondary losing Hayward and Hyde already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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