NFL News & Notes

[AlexGreen#20]

7 hours ago, Packerraymond said:

You get a 3-4 year window after you pay your QB before those tough decisions come, Rodgers had terrible luck during his. That's my point. If Mahomes doesn't, the Chiefs will get another ring.

I'm not sure I agree with that. Most of the guys around the QB are older than the QB. I'd almost argue that you start making the tough choices a year or two before you pay your QB and it just doesn't relent from there. 

[MacReady]

4 minutes ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

This isn't true. There were issues with Jenkins beyond the cap numbers.

Shhh.

[deathstar]

3 hours ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

You and I watched different games. His inability to deliver to the outside was a huge part of their offensive problems. 

Here he delivers outside but it’s dropped again:

Seven drops on the night, 13% of passes. Including one that would’ve been a TD in the fourth by Hurst.

Their defense gave up 195 yards rushing to Henry. Ingram and Nick Boyle were hurt and their running game disappeared.

Jackson accounted for over 500 yards of offense. Three turnovers, the one above, one to the outside with Boykin that was 100% his fault, and one on the first sack given up by Stanley all season.

 

IMO the team fell apart around him and coaching couldn’t overcome key injuries.

[AlexGreen#20]

4 hours ago, deathstar said:

Here he delivers outside but it’s dropped again:

Seven drops on the night, 13% of passes. Including one that would’ve been a TD in the fourth by Hurst.

Their defense gave up 195 yards rushing to Henry. Ingram and Nick Boyle were hurt and their running game disappeared.

Jackson accounted for over 500 yards of offense. Three turnovers, the one above, one to the outside with Boykin that was 100% his fault, and one on the first sack given up by Stanley all season.

 

IMO the team fell apart around him and coaching couldn’t overcome key injuries.

Can't believe I'm making this point again.

The team around a QB playing bad, doesn't mean that the QB played well. 360 yards on 60 passing attempts is BAD.

[deathstar]

5 minutes ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

Can't believe I'm making this point again.

The team around a QB playing bad, doesn't mean that the QB played well. 360 yards on 60 passing attempts is BAD.

.... they dropped 7 passes man. 

[AlexGreen#20]

1 hour ago, deathstar said:

.... they dropped 7 passes man. 

And how many of those drops were like the first pick? Bad ball placement making a catch way more difficult than it should have been?

[deathstar]

1 hour ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

And how many of those drops were like the first pick? Bad ball placement making a catch way more difficult than it should have been?

No clue, but if whether he played well or not hinges on 7 passes that were dropped maybe the criteria is flawed.

[Leader]

Adam Schefter -   Washington Football Team officially activated QB Alex Smith off the Physically Unable to Perform List. Welcome back.

[TheOnlyThing]

On 8/14/2020 at 10:32 AM, Packerraymond said:

The Packers defense was putrid until 2014. ...

Rodgers had crap luck for those 3 years after (winning the SB). Bishop, Woodson and Collins stay healthy, Raji doesn't regress and we find room for Jenkins cap and he would have 1-2 more rings.

The Packers D was indeed mostly putrid while Rodgers was still ascending/reaching his prime and less expensive under the cap between 2011-2013.

But the putridness of the defense was hardly due merely to crap luck. Poor personnel decisions played a much greater role.

To take but one example from the post above, the notion that there was not enough $ to pay Jenkins is poppycock. There was in fact plenty of cap space to re-sign Cullen after the SB win, but the previous GM decided to instead spend that $ on A.J. Hawk. "The Packers said they valued Hawk’s contributions highly, and they proved it with this deal. He will be one of the most highly paid inside linebackers in football." https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/03/07/a-j-hawk-will-get-almost-11-million-in-2011/

The Pack's DLine immediately took a hit when Jenkins was allowed to walk and his contributions not replaced while Hawk rewarded the team for investing in him with year after year of mediocre to subpar play capped off by his never to be forgotten 2015 NFC Championship game performance. Investing significant $ in A.J. Hawk was stupid not bad luck.

And once Bishop (who was by far the best ILBer in 2010) got hurt in the 2012 pre-season, the best the Packers could do over the next couple of seasons at the other ILB spot was to overpay converted OLBer Brad Jones, who was somehow even worse than Hawk - putrid ILB play being a staple of the Packer D during the past decade.

The pitiful Safety play in 2012 and 2013 following Nick Collins's career-ending injury (in Sept. of 2011) was similarly the result of poor personnel decisions rather than just bad luck.

The Pack had the perfect opportunity to select Collins' successor in the 2012 draft in Harrison Smith. Instead, they used their first pick on Perry, a 4-3 college DE who publicly declared he did not want to play OLB, and then the Vikings took Smith with the very next pick. 

For some reason, even a significant % of knowledgeable Packers' fans seem to forget just how historically awful the Safety play was during this period. In 2013, the top 3 Safeties heading into the season were Morgan Burnett, M.D. Jennings, and Jerron McMillian. How'd they play?

"Combined, Burnett and Jennings produced a season frighteningly devoid of overall impact The two combined to play just south of 1,800 defensive snaps in 2013, counting the playoffs. Yet Burnett and Jennings finished the season with zero interceptions, zero forced fumbles, five passes defensed, four tackles for losses and four fumble recoveries. That's an underwhelming season for one safety, much less two.

Opposing quarterbacks certainly liked throwing against the pair. Overall, Burnett and Jennings allowed 46 catches on 60 attempts for 612 yards, nine touchdowns and a passer rating of 148.1. No other safety combination playing more than 1,200 combined snaps was worse in opposing passer rating in 2013. 

The idea that Burnett didn't hurt the Packers is the fallacy. He missed 11 combined tackles, which trailed only A.J. Hawk's 13. Opposing quarterbacks targeted him 40 times, completing 29 passes for 414 yards and four touchdowns. His passer rating against finished at 135.8, the eighth-worst among qualifying safeties.

Almost unbelievably, Jennings played over 850 snaps but failed to produce a defensed pass. He was the only safety in the NFL to fail to break up or intercept a pass when playing that often. The Packers inexplicably started M.D. Jennings 17 times in 2013 and 12 in 2012. The defense received next to nothing in return."

Inconceivably, McMillian was even worse than Burnett and Jennings. "McMillian, a 2012 fourth-round pick, played extensively the first six weeks but then saw nothing but special teams snaps after a bevy of mistakes nailed him to the bench. He failed to produce a turnover before the Packers gave up on him in early December. McMillian's release was telling for a team hurting so badly at safety and in a league craving better play at the position. He still doesn't have an NFL job (and never found another one)."

(Recap of the Pack's 2013 Safety play here - https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1913962-fixing-the-green-bay-packers-defense-must-start-at-safety).

"The Packers’ safeties didn’t record an interception for the first time since at least the 1950s, while the defense allowed 61 pass plays of 20 yards or more."

https://www.twincities.com/2014/01/20/green-bay-packers-safety-issues-could-be-solved-in-draft/

And it was hardly crap luck that led to the Packers relying upon these 3 Safeties heading into 2013, that was the plan all along.

"The Green Bay Packers addressed every position of need in the 2013 NFL Draft -- except for safety. General manager Ted Thompson brought in bodies at running back, defensive line, offensive line, linebacker and receiver, but a safety surprisingly was missing. That's a significant show of faith in M.D. Jennings and Jerron McMillian. 'I'm confident in those young men,' Thompson said ... They played well last year.'"

https://www.nfl.com/news/green-bay-packers-ignore-safeties-in-2013-nfl-draft-0ap1000000165055

Of course, no discussion about the Pack's putrid defensive play between 2011-2013 would be complete without mentioning the elephant in the personnel room during that time.

The Packers D finished dead last in terms of yardage allowed in 2011. It also finished 22nd in the NFL giving up 22.1 offensive points per game. Everyone was aware that there were significant holes on D. Yet, not a single veteran was added to bolster the D that offseason.

After the first 6 picks of the 2012 draft were all devoted to the defensive side of the ball, the D improved all the way up to 18th in offensive points allowed (21.4) per game  And then again no veterans were brought in to help the D that offseason. 

The Packers failure to add a single veteran free agent or to consummate a single player trade to improve the defensive talent in 2011, 2012, and 2013 was the result of conscious decisions made by the previous GM not crap luck.

[AlexGreen#20]

3 minutes ago, TheOnlyThing said:

Decade old ramblings

Great, this guy and his AJ Hawk shtick is back. 

Edited August 16, 2020 by AlexGreen#20

[Norm]

lolololol

[ThatJerkDave]

[PossibleCabbage]

6 hours ago, Leader said:

Adam Schefter -   Washington Football Team officially activated QB Alex Smith off the Physically Unable to Perform List. Welcome back.

Reminder that he had something like 6 debridements to treat the necrotizing fasciitis in his leg which completely exposed his tibia.  He had to get a muscle transplant from his other leg, and if that didn't take they were going to amputate.

[Leader]

50 minutes ago, PossibleCabbage said:

Reminder that he had something like 6 debridements to treat the necrotizing fasciitis in his leg which completely exposed his tibia.  He had to get a muscle transplant from his other leg, and if that didn't take they were going to amputate.

Yeah...dont think its a great idea myself.

[PossibleCabbage]

3 minutes ago, Leader said:

Yeah...dont think its a great idea myself.

Like, that he can walk is kind of miraculous and a testament to modern medical science.  I certainly wouldn't feel great putting him on the field, but he can hold a clipboard for some team and it would probably work.