Offseason Thread

[Trudem]

I know its easrly but the season is over. No reason for any additional games to be played so I am mocking!

 

[RP-29]

I'm not a college football guy, so I have no idea who I would like the Packers to target, I just know we need to address RT, ILB and WR.

My preference would be target a solid coverage ILB who can tackle with #30. The best ILBs in the league get drafted in the first 45 picks. Once you get past the middle of the 2nd round, ILB hits drop drastically. The 2nd round seems to be a good place to take WRs and good offensive linemen can still be found in rounds 3 & 4. Beyond that, best available all the way.

 

[Trudem]

I'm not a college football guy, so I have no idea who I would like the Packers to target, I just know we need to address RT, ILB and WR.

My preference would be target a solid coverage ILB who can tackle with #30. The best ILBs in the league get drafted in the first 45 picks. Once you get past the middle of the 2nd round, ILB hits drop drastically. The 2nd round seems to be a good place to take WRs and good offensive linemen can still be found in rounds 3 & 4. Beyond that, best available all the way.

I tried to address OL earlier but I just could ignore our other needs. If we bring Martinez back it would free up that 4th round pick.

 

[RP-29]

I tried to address OL earlier but I just could ignore our other needs. If we bring Martinez back it would free up that 4th round pick.

Bulaga is a UFA and is frequently hurt. Even if he's back on a reasonable deal, we can have no confidence he'll be able to stay on the field. RT has to be a high priority because we've got no one in the pipeline ready to fill the void.

 

[Vegas]

Some interesting decisions will have to be made on the unrestricted free agents:

Bulaga
Crosby
Lewis
Veldheer,
Tramon Williams
Martinez
Allison
Fackrell
Campbell
Ervin
Goodson
Grant
Spriggs

I can't see them re-signing Bulaga given his age and injury history, even though he played very well this year.

Fackrell will likely want to go where he can get more playing time.

 

[Trudem]

Some interesting decisions will have to be made on the unrestricted free agents:

Bulaga
Crosby
Lewis
Veldheer,
Tramon Williams
Martinez
Allison
Fackrell
Campbell
Ervin
Goodson
Grant
Spriggs

I can't see them re-signing Bulaga given his age and injury history, even though he played very well this year.

Fackrell will likely want to go where he can get more playing time.

If we can get Bulaga for 2 years we should do it and draft his replacement this year

 

[Vegas]

If we can get Bulaga for 2 years we should do it and draft his replacement this year

They drafted his replacement a couple of times already. Too bad they didn't work out with Sherrod and Spriggs. Hopefully they hit on a good replacement this time around.

 

[Mack]

My take on the draft is if there is a stand out ILB, TE, WR or OL that will go in the top 15, GB should make every attempt to make a trade for a spot in the top 15. Also, I’m not sure what and who is involved in the evaluation of college talent for the draft is but GB could use some help in that department. Some picks have worked out but they need people who have the ability to find athletes that can make a difference on the field on a consistent basis.

 

[Trudem]

This is what I have worked out. Im sure im not close at all on our FA spending but I had fun with it:

 

[RP-29]

This is what I have worked out. Im sure im not close at all on our FA spending but I had fun with it:

View attachment 231004

If we've got $12M to spend, who else would be more valuable than Blake?

 

[Trudem]

If we've got $12M to spend, who else would be more valuable than Blake?

I think he gets more than that on the open market. The issue is we have people we need to extend like Kenny Clark.

 

[RP-29]

I think he gets more than that on the open market. The issue is we have people we need to extend like Kenny Clark.

You're probably right that he might get more than that on the open market. That said, your team doesn't get better by losing your best tackler. Gutenkunst should do everything in his power to retain him.

 

[Trudem]

You're probably right that he might get more than that on the open market. That said, your team doesn't get better by losing your best tackler. Gutenkunst should do everything in his power to retain him.

I think we double dip. Either one in FA and one in the draft or two in the draft.

 

[RP-29]

I think we double dip. Either one in FA and one in the draft or two in the draft.

Certainly possible. Even if we do, I think the team is significantly worse off the next two years if we lose Blake. It's pretty rare that I think that way too - I'm usually the guy saying "he's not worth all that money", but with Blake I think he actually is. You need good ILBs to make a 3-4 work. We finally had a decent season from our defense after a decade of trash and now we're potentially going to lose its centerpiece right away. Our defense has been a tackling embarrassment for the last decade too and we finally have a guy that can tackle.

Frankly, I think GB would be better off if they let Bulaga be the odd man out, give Blake some money and bring in a free agent RT to fill in while a draft pick replacement develops.

 

[Trudem]

I followed up with a mock

 

[Trudem]

Certainly possible. Even if we do, I think the team is significantly worse off the next two years if we lose Blake. It's pretty rare that I think that way too - I'm usually the guy saying "he's not worth all that money", but with Blake I think he actually is. You need good ILBs to make a 3-4 work. We finally had a decent season from our defense after a decade of trash and now we're potentially going to lose its centerpiece right away. Our defense has been a tackling embarrassment for the last decade too and we finally have a guy that can tackle.

Frankly, I think GB would be better off if they let Bulaga be the odd man out, give Blake some money and bring in a free agent RT to fill in while a draft pick replacement develops.

I think we need Blake back as well but we need a coverage LB to pair him with. It will be interesting to see how Gute addresses it

 

[RP-29]

I think we need Blake back as well but we need a coverage LB to pair him with. It will be interesting to see how Gute addresses it

Absolutely. I honestly think that's really the last key piece left to get this D into a top-5 unit. Our base D is supposedly 3-4, but we really deploy a 3-3-5 Nickel base because we don't have a LB who can cover RBs & TEs. And playing Nickel base leaves us susceptible to the run.

 

[Mack]

If we've got $12M to spend, who else would be more valuable than Blake?

Someone that is faster and can cover as well as tackle? Don’t know who that is but if there is......

 

[Trudem]

Someone that is faster and can cover as well as tackle? Don’t know who that is but if there is......

Those players don’t grow on trees.

that’s why I badly wanted Bush in the last draft

 

[packfancjh]

While Martinez was our leading tackler I wouldn't say he was our best. Most of his tackles came after the ball carrier made it at least 5 yards. I saw him out of place or picking wrong gaps on a large number of plays this year. If he came cheap I'd resign him but I sure wouldn't overpay.