Packers 2022 Discussion Thread

[UpandIn]

A little piece of good news. The mysterious illness Caleb Jones was dealing with was Mono...and it's is apparently better as he was activated from the NFI.

I wouldn't be surprised to see he or Rasheed Walker get some snaps this year yet. With Bakhtiari, if the Packers want to cut him next year, better do it while he's healthy or you could risk being forced to keep him next year. Not sure that's a major issue as you only save 6M next year and I think it'd be kinda silly to move off him for savings of 6M. 

Could also be there's just no point in playing him the last few weeks when you're out of it. I'd still like to know if he's getting better and the knee is getting stronger or if he's the best he's going to be right now and it's just going to get progressively worse. 

With Walker, it might be worth trying him at OG. I don't know what the hell is going to happen with Jenkins. He's currently rated as the #3 FA in the NFL for this off-season. 

"The salary cap doesn't prevent you from signing anyone, poor personal choices do."

-Would giving a monster contract to an formerly elite OL who's struggling to come back after a torn ACL constitute the former? I don't know, but the Packers are likely a little snake bitten. 

Quote

Jenkins has graded above 65.0 for his career at center, left guard, left tackle and right tackle, and while right guard just happens to be the only spot he hasn’t received significant snaps, it’s not like he’s been bad there. He was in the midst of what appeared to be a third-year breakout in 2021, earning an 82.1 overall grade before his injury, and is a smart bet to return to form once fully healthy again.

Oh...and the Bears have 125M in salary cap space and their offensive coordinator was one of the people who apparently convinced the Packers to draft Jenkins in the first place, Luke Getsy...as he coached him at 'Ole Miss. 

So I'd guess if he hits the first day of free agency, the Bears are gonna pounce. Q. Nelson type money. 

[HarryDoyle]

18 hours ago, UpandIn said:

Well, that's the season. What are we gonna do without Sean Rhyan!

The 3rd round strikes again. Just use this years 3rd to trade up into the 2nd or to add a couple 4th round picks again. 

I don't even know what the problem with him is. I know he was getting abused by Wyatt's quickness at family night, but he also looked like he was a big, physical run blocker who could move people. And instead, he hasn't even been able to crack this lineup when Royce Newman was leaking like the Exxon Valdez...and I don't think it was because he wasn't strong enough. 

 

Yeah, I don't think those performance enhancing drugs did anything for his performance. 

[Sixtolezcano]

From JS

David Bakhtiari

Other than Rodgers, this is the big one. The guess here is because of Bakhtiari’s unpredictable knee health going forward, the Packers will cut him in the offseason at a cap savings of $5.9 million.

Bakhtiari is due $17.5 million in salary and bonuses in ’23. This season he’s played well at left tackle when he’s played. The problem is, the Packers don’t know until a couple of hours before kickoff whether he’s going to play each week, and then don’t know if his knee is going to flare up and force him to out of a game, as it did at Detroit a few weeks ago.

That’s probably how it’s going to be with Bakhtiari from here on out, and it’s an awfully tough way to do business in the NFL. The uncertainty complicates game planning and practice reps. It carries a much greater risk of paying a player a lot of money for missing a lot of games. It’s just hard to see Gutekunst taking that on when he has Nijman as a credible replacement at left tackle, and other tackle candidates such as a high ’23 draft pick and young players on the roster such as Zach Tom, seventh-round pick Rasheed Walker and undrafted rookie Caleb Jones.

Sure, there’s always the chance Bakhtiari finishes out the season without incident, and the Packers for some reason think his prospects going forward will be better than they were this year. But considering this is where he’s at two years removed from his injury, that sounds like wishful thinking.

The Packers theoretically could work out a pay cut with Bakhtiari, but that wouldn’t change the uncertainty about his knee. And it seems like a stretch that Bakhtiari would agree to a pay cut anyway. He’d likely tell the Packers to cut him, and he’d either take his chances on the open market or retire after having topped the $90 million mark in career earnings. Maybe retirement is in his plans anyway.

So the guess here is this will be Bakhtiari’s final season with the Packers.

 

[UpandIn]

10 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Yeah, I don't think those performance enhancing drugs did anything for his performance. 

He apparently can't pick up stunts or twists or things like that. Strength wasn't his issue.

Hopefully he'll be better next year...because he did nothing this year. 

3 hours ago, Sixtolezcano said:

From JS

David Bakhtiari

Other than Rodgers, this is the big one. The guess here is because of Bakhtiari’s unpredictable knee health going forward, the Packers will cut him in the offseason at a cap savings of $5.9 million.

I doubt they cut Bakh to save ~6M and eat 23M in dead cap hits...and I'd really be shocked if they did it if Rodgers comes back. 

Unless they think his knee is going to get worse next year, he's easily been worth 6M this year. 

[yourout]

If ARods sub par play is due to a broken thumb how many games do you think it cost us in the Loss column and is that being a tough guy or is it being stupid?

[CheezWizHed]

If his thumb is seriously injured and caused his up-and-down play this year, then he needs to sit the rest of the year (or at least a couple games) to let it heal.  No benefit to him playing; save it for next year. 

If he keeps playing every game, it makes the announcement this week and the early exit from yesterday's game feel more like media spin to make excuses for the year. 

[MrTPlush]

I think a lot of the sub-par play is the thumb. They even showed video of him before the game struggling to throw spirals and cringing at his thumb. He shouldn't be playing right now, for no other reason than the fact he isn't healthy and one bad hit could make things miserable for him. 

As far as him being a 'tough guy' for playing and hurting them. Who says the Packers would start Love and Rodgers is the one in the way of that? I really doubt that is the case. I am guessing Rodgers is out there because he wants to be out there and so do the Packers. I don't think Love would have fared any better with garbage receivers and a crap OL.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Rodgers got pulled because of an oblique injury last night, not because of the thumb - that with the broken thumb and the fact the team is essentially eliminated from playoff contention at this point should be enough to IR him and give Love the reins for the rest of the season.  They absolutely have to give him snaps so they can sort out if he's their longterm answer at QB - or potentially showcase him for an offseason trade if they plan to stick with Rodgers another season or two and find their next QB in an upcoming draft.  Love looked the part in his limited time last night - his one bad throw being that one on the run that kind of landed between two receivers who were open.  The incompletion to Cobb on the next play should've been a defensive PI that wasn't called.

No doubt the thumb factored into game planning issues, particularly for the first few after Rodgers broke it against the Giants - in hindsight those losses against the Jets/Commanders/Lions were probably aided in a big way by having a quarterback that was limited with his throws no matter how much Rodgers stated publicly that he could play through it.  Despite all their problems, if those 3 games were in the win column this team would be sitting at 7-5 and very much headed towards the postseason.

[homer]

 

[adambr2]

I really like how Love looked last night, but it's pretty early/small sample sizing to get too excited about. 

I mean, Mike White looked like the best QB in the NFL yesterday, and he played a full game. 

[DR28]

Barry is gone today right???????????? I mean how can this dude still have a job after Eagles gashed us for 360 some rushing yards!!!!!!!

I couldnt believe the gaping holes every runner had, my god.

[Fear The Chorizo]

20 minutes ago, homer said:

 

If he can stay healthy and keeps learning how to play receiver, Watson is going to be really good.  The size and athleticism is obvious, and he's getting open consistently.  Easy to forget he is really raw.    

It's a shame him and Doubs haven't really been on the field much at all together due to injuries.  Hoping that changes with December games.

[DR28]

Agreed, I'm very optimistic about our WR core going forward... Watson and Doubs are gonna be studs.

[yourout]

Kind of lost in the noise of last night was Kenny Clark getting abused by the Philly Oline.

Yes he had a lot of company but he's suppose to be the ring leader of the DLine.

[HarryDoyle]

I just can't with MLF anymore. If he can't see the problem like everyone outside of 1265 Lombardi Ave. can, then he needs to go too.

 

[Outlander]

On 11/26/2022 at 10:04 PM, UpandIn said:

I doubt they cut Bakh to save ~6M and eat 23M in dead cap hits...and I'd really be shocked if they did it if Rodgers comes back. 

Unless they think his knee is going to get worse next year, he's easily been worth 6M this year. 

He may be worth more than $6 million cap difference but not worth the extra $17 million they would pay him next year. Don't see why he wouldn't be open to a pay cut unless he is really done and doesn't want to play anymore.

[DR28]

3 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

I just can't with MLF anymore. If he can't see the problem like everyone outside of 1265 Lombardi Ave. can, then he needs to go too.

 

Yea I'm so done with pretty boy and the entire front office... We need to completely clean house.

[LouisEly]

Bakh - no reason for the Packers to make a decision on him until next August.  Agree that the upside of a healthy Bakh far outweighs $5.9M in cap savings by cutting him, but if they do, it would be better to do it in August so that the cap hit can be spread over two seasons.  If they do release him after 6/1, the cap hit is only $11.6M in 2023.

[LouisEly]

35 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Yea I'm so done with pretty boy and the entire front office... We need to completely clean house.

If you want to clean house after three years of 13 regular season wins... you're going to be cleaning house every other season.

[DR28]

53 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

If you want to clean house after three years of 13 regular season wins... you're going to be cleaning house every other season.

If we didnt have Rodgers at MVP level, we definitely dont win 13 games each of those years.

He needs to grow some balls and fire his mistake hire of a D coordinator.

[HarveysWBs]

2 hours ago, DR28 said:

If we didnt have Rodgers at MVP level, we definitely dont win 13 games each of those years.

He needs to grow some balls and fire his mistake hire of a D coordinator.

I'm as skeptical of MLF's ability to select good assistants as anyone else, but let's keep a fair mind here.  There is no strategic value to making this move right this moment; I doubt Leonhard is making a decision in November, and the best NFL targets won't start doing interviews until later in the year.  We don't even have much of an idea who is available yet, so it isn't like moving on now gives us a head start on the search.

Besides, even if they are planning on a change there is absolutely no value of any kind to airing dirty laundry in the media.  The fact that MLF largely refuses to do so is a mark in his favor, not the opposite, as a few people here seem to be suggesting.

Maybe eviscerating someone in front of the mics and canning them amidst a season that is already lost can provide the fans with a measure of catharsis, but emotional decisions start to acquire the smell of a poverty franchise really quickly.  And that is a stench that can quickly affect perceptions and culture both inside and outside an organization.  By all accounts, for whatever else MLF provides, he has built a strong team culture, and I think high-character moves like avoiding dragging people in the media is a key part of that.  I wouldn't want him to change course now so the fans can have some schadenfreude.

We can revisit this in the offseason if Barry is retained and they're legitimately trying to contend in 2023.  Then there's a problem, but until then, embrace the suck.  It can only help the draft slot.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

15 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

I just can't with MLF anymore. If he can't see the problem like everyone outside of 1265 Lombardi Ave. can, then he needs to go too.

 

In Barry's defense, he didn't miss 20 tackles in that game.

[UpandIn]

15 hours ago, Outlander said:

He may be worth more than $6 million cap difference but not worth the extra $17 million they would pay him next year. Don't see why he wouldn't be open to a pay cut unless he is really done and doesn't want to play anymore.

The Packers make so much money, I don't really care about the cash that he makes. 

I'd also argue, if he plays the same pct of snaps he has since he came back vs Tampa Bay and plays at the same level(The #4 LT in the NFL behind Williams, Darrisaw and Andrew Thomas). 

And he's played every snap in 4 of the last 5 games, 57 snaps vs Detroit...on that **** turf and then 95% of the snaps 7 games ago.

So if you're starting from Tampa Bay on....he's definitely been worth the 10M roster bonus and the ~6M base salary he has coming.

Now why would he take a paycut? I don't know...because he missed two years, he's said he wants to finish his career in GB. Because he knows he hasn't lived up to the first half of that deal. 

And he'd STILL be doing just fine financially.

 

This is next to impossible to really speculate on though. I don't know how his knee is responding. I see he's playing every week and he's playing at a high level. If we're going back to Brian Gutekunst who said he has "zero long term concerns over the structure of Bakhtiari's knee," then I'd assume he's not bone on bone and he's probably arthritic, but without knowing anything other than what we're seeing, OR what the Packers plans are for next year(will they try and run it back with Rodgers, do they use a top 10-15 pick on  LT, trade Rodgers and go with Love...it's kinda tough. 

But again, just based on his performance this year, he's worth 17M next year and the 6M dollars you'd save by cutting him now. 

[Hacksaw Jim Duggan]

Sorry to change the subject but did anyone see Jaire Alexander celebrate a play then two plays later give up a touchdown.  Why do players feel the need to celebrate every good play?  A lot of the celebrations are borderline unsportsmanlike.

 

I feel these celebrations put more importance on the individual than the team.  Maybe this is why the defense is regressing all anyone cares about anymore is how an individual does, not the team.

[GAME05]

Like your username.