Random Packer News & Notes

[Shanedorf]

1 hour ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

I think I might need to cool on the Rodgers Haterade when my first thought was, "No defensive guys? This is how you end up with a fractured locker room."

Also: Clay went in previous years

 

[Cakeshoppe]

3 hours ago, TheGreatZepp said:

What did you expect? Highlights from the Dan Devine or Lindy Infante era? But Favre has every right to be on top, especially when you factor plays against. All those game ending INT’s! Freeman’s MNF catch, 4th and 26 anyone? 

to clarify, I didn't mean they were perhaps the most highlight-heavy in team history, I meant in league history. Obviously all of this is going to be tilted toward the era in which highlights are readily available, but this was a team with perhaps the most talented passer of all time and his flair for the dramatic and hard-on for deep balls (and willingness to take sacks), a defense predicated on using sacks and turnovers to make up for its chronic inability to maintain discipline, and a special teams unit known for its spectacular failures.

[SaginawReunion83]

On 5/7/2019 at 12:32 PM, Arthur Penske said:

@SaginawReunion83

is your name a premonition or tribute to  a Matt LaFluer/Jeff Janis Saginaw reunuion in GB?

Absolutely! Love that you picked that up. Jeff has bigger and better things to fry with his new automotive company he and his wife just opened. 

I sure don't miss people calling into the radio after games every week asking why Janis didn't play more receiver. 

[Greg C.]

Interesting article by Tom Silverstein today about the Packers management structure. He raises some legitimate concerns:

https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2019/05/09/silverstein-critics-see-cracks-green-bay-packers-new-management-structure/1142267001/

[Leader]

Acme Packing: Handicapping the Packers’ wide receiver roster battle in 2019

Locks
Davante Adams
Geronimo Allison

Safe bets
Marquez Valdes-Scantling
Equanimeous St. Brown

Bubble players
Trevor Davis
Jake Kumerow
J’Mon Moore

Dark horses
Allen Lazard
Darrius Shepherd

Long shots
Jawill Davis
Matthew Eaton
Teo Redding

[deathstar]

2 minutes ago, Leader said:

Acme Packing: Handicapping the Packers’ wide receiver roster battle in 2019

Locks
Davante Adams
Geronimo Allison

Safe bets
Marquez Valdes-Scantling
Equanimeous St. Brown

Bubble players
Trevor Davis
Jake Kumerow
J’Mon Moore

Dark horses
Allen Lazard
Darrius Shepherd

Long shots
Jawill Davis
Matthew Eaton
Teo Redding

At this point I would categorize Davis/Shepherd/Davis as returners only. But otherwise seems accurate.

[Leader]

1 minute ago, deathstar said:

At this point I would categorize Davis/Shepherd/Davis as returners only. But otherwise seems accurate.

Trevor Davis
Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Davis is essentially a return specialist. He has flashed plenty of ability there, particularly on punt returns, and the Packers don’t have another explosive option on returns — Tramon Williams is reliable but not spectacular, while Jaire Alexander will probably be kept off that job to focus on defense instead. If Davis can provide any semblance of a contribution as a receiver, he could earn a roster spot for his special teams contributions alone.

Darrius Shepherd
Shepherd provides a combination of qualities that few other players on the roster do: production from the slot plus return ability. He was a slot machine for North Dakota State over the past few years, and contributed on punt returns as well. That makes him a sneaky play to steal away a roster spot from someone like Davis.

Jawill Davis
Like Trevor, Jawill Davis is also a return specialist who will need to make his mark on special teams in order to gain any serious traction towards a roster spot. He has great straight-line speed but is not very shifty.

[{Family Ghost}]

1 hour ago, Greg C. said:

Interesting article by Tom Silverstein today about the Packers management structure. He raises some legitimate concerns:

https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2019/05/09/silverstein-critics-see-cracks-green-bay-packers-new-management-structure/1142267001/

Lets just let it play out for a while .. it just might work out.  I wish Gute had the final call on hiring and firing the coach, but outside of that I like the fact that the GM can concentrate on player acquisitions and the 53 man roster.  Ball gets to handle the mundane football and financial stuff, which is right up his alley. The key will be how well Gute and LaFleur can work together.  If it doesn't work out there will be one clear person in the crossfire .. Murphy!  It's his baby now.

[craig]

Thanks for link, yes, that was interesting.  Obviously the sources and the article are structured to make things sound ominous and problematic.  

My take:  I am concerned that Murphy is a bad decision-maker.  So having him as the ultimate CEO, that's a concern.

If he was trying to hire Ball, a non-personnel guy, as GM, super-dumb.  If he's messing with MLF's selection of coaches, or dragging his heals on the $$ for Rizzi, or whatever, super dumb.  And if he's shape-shifting with the organizational structure, that seems kinda dumb too.  

But otherwise, I have no issue with having "3 silos".  Let Gute manage personnel, and don't distract him with all the operational details that Ball can handle.  

Organizations all over the world and all over professional sports have structures similar to what Packers have, including winning teams.  The "3 silo" structure is not inherently doomed; only if the guys making the decisions make bad ones.  It's the people and the decisions they make, not the structure, that will sink or swim.  IMO.  

[craig]

12 minutes ago, {Family Ghost} said:

Lets just let it play out for a while .. it just might work out.  I wish Gute had the final call on hiring and firing the coach, but outside of that I like the fact that the GM can concentrate on player acquisitions and the 53 man roster.  Ball gets to handle the mundane football and financial stuff, which is right up his alley. The key will be how well Gute and LaFleur can work together.  If it doesn't work out there will be one clear person in the crossfire .. Murphy!  It's his baby now.

Agree, Gute really ought to have the call on hiring/firing.  

Still, I can see considerable advantage in not having that.  Those two guys need to really work together.  I think it might be easier to work as a partnership when the one partner doesn't have hiring/firing authority over the other.  I partly think, to some extent, that if guys are great colleagues and like/respect each other a ton, if anything that can make it harder to fire a guy when it's needed.  So perhaps relieving the GM of firing power might actually make it easier to fire a guy when it's needed?

[Sasquatch]

So ARod got his wish and he’s been cast in this coming Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones.  Obviously it’ll be a minor role, but Ed Sheeran actually saw pretty extensive action in one scene several seasons ago, so who knows.  Any guesses as to what his role will be?  Awards to closest and funniest guesses!

Edited May 10, 2019 by Sasquatch

[Mr Anonymous]

2 hours ago, Greg C. said:

Interesting article by Tom Silverstein today about the Packers management structure. He raises some legitimate concerns:

https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2019/05/09/silverstein-critics-see-cracks-green-bay-packers-new-management-structure/1142267001/

Nice of Tom to finally get around to writing an article about things I laid out here over a year ago. It was fun being told I didn't know what I was talking about at the time. Silverstein clearly spoke to some of the people I did.

[Greg C.]

1 hour ago, craig said:

Thanks for link, yes, that was interesting.  Obviously the sources and the article are structured to make things sound ominous and problematic.  

My take:  I am concerned that Murphy is a bad decision-maker.  So having him as the ultimate CEO, that's a concern.

If he was trying to hire Ball, a non-personnel guy, as GM, super-dumb.  If he's messing with MLF's selection of coaches, or dragging his heals on the $$ for Rizzi, or whatever, super dumb.  And if he's shape-shifting with the organizational structure, that seems kinda dumb too.  

But otherwise, I have no issue with having "3 silos".  Let Gute manage personnel, and don't distract him with all the operational details that Ball can handle.  

Organizations all over the world and all over professional sports have structures similar to what Packers have, including winning teams.  The "3 silo" structure is not inherently doomed; only if the guys making the decisions make bad ones.  It's the people and the decisions they make, not the structure, that will sink or swim.  IMO.  

That's about where I'm at with it too. I thought Murphy should've fired McCarthy and hired Wolf or Gutekunst and given them full control, letting them hire their own coach. But I don't think the current structure is necessarily bad. The writers at packersnews always mention that having a GM with full control has worked better for the Packers, but they don't talk much about success that other organizations have had with this kind of setup. (I think the Steelers are one example.) 

I thought Silversten misrepresented the thing about "silos." As I recall, that was Murphy's term for how things had gotten bad under Thompson because people in the organization were not talking to each other enough. There were groups of people who were isolated from each other. The new structure is designed to eliminate that problem by having the three main guys all report to Murphy. But that problem could have also been solved by hiring a GM who was capable of keeping tabs on everyone under his watch--something that Ted Thompson was no longer able to do. 

You can never be sure about the truth in these kinds of articles, but the two things that concern me most are the report that Murphy wanted to hire Russ Ball as GM (which I've heard elsewhere) and the report that the front office let a really good special teams coach get away by failing to immediately offer him the pay he was looking for--which turned out to be the same amount he ended up making anyway. 

For now, I will say that I feel better going into this season than I did going into last season. McCarthy needed to go. But we'll see how it all plays out over the next few years. 

[incognito_man]

2 hours ago, {Family Ghost} said:

Lets just let it play out for a while .. it just might work out.  I wish Gute had the final call on hiring and firing the coach, but outside of that I like the fact that the GM can concentrate on player acquisitions and the 53 man roster.  Ball gets to handle the mundane football and financial stuff, which is right up his alley. The key will be how well Gute and LaFleur can work together.  If it doesn't work out there will be one clear person in the crossfire .. Murphy!  It's his baby now.

I dunno. Why do we think Gute would be better at hiring a coach than Murphy? Or why do we think Gute we be better at hiring the operations and medical staff than Russ Ball?

Gute is in charge of what he knows: the final 53.

Why dilute his duties with things that people already under the roof are likely better than him at? Let him grow in his role. Let him focus on the on-the-field product. Let Murphy handled the president duties like expanding the brand and hiring other executives. Let Ball handle day-to-day operations.

This all makes sense to me. I'd have done the same.

[ThatJerkDave]

1 hour ago, Sasquatch said:

So ARod got his wish and he’s been cast in this coming Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones.  Obviously it’ll be a minor role, but Ed Sheeran actually saw pretty extensive action in one scene several seasons ago, so who knows.  Any guesses as to what his role will be?  Awards to closest and funniest guesses!

He will be a random soldier that gets killed.  Most likely has zero lines.