Random Packer News & Notes

[smetana34]

ESPN posted a graphic today. Rodgers has only thrown one touchdown pass to a 1st round pick in his life. Its an attempt to show how dirty we've treated him. Prepare yourselves for the stupid that will come from that. 

[TheOnlyThing]

2 minutes ago, smetana34 said:

ESPN posted a graphic today. Rodgers has only thrown one touchdown pass to a 1st round pick in his life. Its an attempt to show how dirty we've treated him. Prepare yourselves for the stupid that will come from that. 

Yep.

And then SI jumped on board by noting that all 31 NFL teams other than the Packers had selected a WR in rounds 1-3 over the past 5 years, just piling on with the unfair criticism of the Packers.

[Toddfather]

In fairness we have let the position suffer as of late. That being said he has had some damn good targets over the years. I really hope MVS comes out swinging, and Funchess has a solid year. I think if that works out some people in the media will be eating crow.. I do believe this year is once again more of a philosophy change to our offense than it was just ignorance.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Toddfather

[festiveonion]

10 minutes ago, smetana34 said:

ESPN posted a graphic today. Rodgers has only thrown one touchdown pass to a 1st round pick in his life. Its an attempt to show how dirty we've treated him. Prepare yourselves for the stupid that will come from that. 

Testament to how well we’ve drafted pass catchers 

[smetana34]

7 minutes ago, Toddfather said:

In fairness we have let the position suffer as of late. That being said he has had some damn good targets over the year. I really hope MVS comes out swinging, and Funchess has a solid year. I think if that works out some people in the media will be eating crow.. I do believe this year is once again more of a philosophy change to our offense than it was just ignorance.

I feel like you can only say these past two seasons Rodgers hasn't had much to work with. His first 10 years he's had the luxury of a plethora of weapons. Even with that, he's always been given a top offensive line, he's had Adams, and this past year he had a quality running game. I can understand the complaints about defense, but that isn't because the FO wasn't trying. They just struck out, a lot

[TransientTexan]

I have more faith in the depth in the secondary, so DL would seem to be the preference in FA. But I do see the argument where you might prefer to re-sign TWill, or sign another SCB. 
 

Not only is there no guarantee we face SF again in the playoffs (other teams could knock them out earlier in the bracket), but there were more problems with the run D against SF than just the DL. Savage graded very poorly against the run In both SF games, and he could improve in yr2. 
 

[packfanfb]

@Outpost31?????!!!!!

[incognito_man]

11 minutes ago, packfanfb said:

@Outpost31?????!!!!!

he had a turrible grade last year. Wouldn't hate this at like vet min, but would prefer to stick resources into DL by far.

[Packerraymond]

11 minutes ago, incognito_man said:

he had a turrible grade last year. Wouldn't hate this at like vet min, but would prefer to stick resources into DL by far.

Before you rely solely on PFF, just remember they graded our 2nd round pick as a UDFA this year because Boston College didn't utilize him in the pass game. 

[MacReady]

28 minutes ago, packfanfb said:

@Outpost31?????!!!!!

 

16 minutes ago, incognito_man said:

he had a turrible grade last year. Wouldn't hate this at like vet min, but would prefer to stick resources into DL by far.

Three words, one letter: ILB.

[Toddfather]

41 minutes ago, packfanfb said:

@Outpost31?????!!!!!

Has there been any conversation of a return? 

[packfanfb]

1 minute ago, Toddfather said:

Has there been any conversation of a return? 

Just his sister posting a picture of him in a Packers uniform. No one knows. 

[thrILL!]

1 hour ago, smetana34 said:

ESPN posted a graphic today. Rodgers has only thrown one touchdown pass to a 1st round pick in his life. Its an attempt to show how dirty we've treated him. Prepare yourselves for the stupid that will come from that. 

Just wait until Love succeeds and all the draft analysts and pundits change their tune and hail Gute as a genius. 

[Chili]

2 hours ago, TheOnlyThing said:

Yep.

And then SI jumped on board by noting that all 31 NFL teams other than the Packers had selected a WR in rounds 1-3 over the past 5 years, just piling on with the unfair criticism of the Packers.

The 1st round stat is beyond stupid however your stat is something we should all definitely be paying attention to. We have completely neglected drafting WRs within the first 3 rounds. I have no idea why we stopped making WRs important. Our wide receivers is a major part of our cultural identity and was something we were very proud of. 

Our WR identity probably goes further back than that but we had Driver then drafted Jennings, then we drafted Jones and by then the unit was looking very good. Then Nelson come along and then Cobb at the twilight of Driver's career. Each and every one of them benefited from learning from each other as we introduced new WRs and keeping the knowledge and culture alive as one eventually goes. The last one brought into that group was Adams and he benefited tremendously from being around Nelson, Jones and Cobb. Then the drafting stopped.

Jones left, Nelson left, then Cobb left. We never drafted a single one in. Absolutely mind boggling. What happened to the WR conveyor belt we were once so proud of?

Adams has 2 more years left on his contract with no guarantees we will give him another one. When he goes the uninterrupted stream of culture and knowledge going all the way back to Driver dies with him and if that happens it will be a very sad day.  The other WRs on the roster haven't amounted to anything and if that continues they will soon be gone and we will have no--one else left to continue the culture.

This is like Baltimore and their linebackers, The culture started with Ray Lewis and they continued their proud tradition by investing in LBs. Its part of their cultural identity and one that is still continuing today especially with their recent drafts.

We have only one opportunity left to pass on that knowledge and culture. We will need to draft a WR next year and that player will have only 1 year to learn everything he can from Adams and continue the tradition before he goes.

To TT credit he did the same for other position groups.

Our offensive line, Clifton, Tauscher, Sitton, Lang, Bulaga, Bakthari, Linsley and thankfully it seems like Jenkins will be the next one to benefit from the knowledge and culture of our OL. Hopefully it will continue to be passed on to guys like Runyan.

Our defensive backs group were the same. Harris, Woodson, Collins, Williams and continued the tradition with the next batch of players through Burnett and Shields - all part of our super bowl winning team. Whilst our defence gradually got worse I think the tradition was still there. Burnett was the last one of that group to leave in 2017. That stream was hanging on by the thread as Kevin King was here during Burnett's final season. Williams eventually came back and salvaged that culture and knowledge. Now that tradition continues through with Alexander, Savage and King. I'm not gonna lie...I would love for Williams to come back and continue influencing the rest of our defensive backs.

QB too. Happy to see the transition from Favre to Rodgers and potentially to Love. I still think Gute did the right thing drafting Love. 

Edited April 28, 2020 by Chili

[TheOnlyThing]

2 hours ago, smetana34 said:

I feel like you can only say these past two seasons Rodgers hasn't had much to work with. His first 10 years he's had the luxury of a plethora of weapons. Even with that, he's always been given a top offensive line, he's had Adams, and this past year he had a quality running game. I can understand the complaints about defense, but that isn't because the FO wasn't trying. They just struck out, a lot

Through 2014, the previous GM repeatedly struck gold with his early WR selections - Jennings, J. Jones, Nelson, Cobb, and Adams.

But since 2015, there has been a definite downward slide in WR talent in GB. 

2015 is when Nelson tore his ACL, he had one more productive year (with Rodgers at QB) in 2016, did very little in 2017 (with Hundley at QB most of the year), and was sent off for a swan song in Oakland in 2018.

Jones came back for one last dance in 2015, but was done after that.

Cobb battled injury and just looked old his last few seasons in GB. He had a bounce back year as the 4th weapon in Dallas last year, so maybe he was underutilized ... but Rodgers always loved Randall so hard to figure that he froze him out.

Adams has been the one force who has steadily gotten better and better at WR.

If anything, TE has been worse. In 2015, Richard Rodgers was the prime target at TE. Cook flashed for a few games after his injury in 2016, but that was followed by the Bennet debacle and then the Graham signing, which while not a debacle certainly can't be considered a good move.

Thus, while it is definitely deceiving to focus on the lack of 1st round picks Rodgers has had to throw to (given all the very good 2nd-3rd round picks at WR), it is also inaccurate to claim that Rodgers weapons in the passing game have not declined, and declined precipitously, since the last time the Pack used a pick in rounds 1-3 on a WR ... in 2014.