Packers 2026 Offseason

[JosephC]

5 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I really wish I knew what Gary did on this play: 

 

Must have had Lukas Van Ness lined up on the other side to get ganged-up on like that.

 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

8 hours ago, JosephC said:

I agree with everything you just said.  My point was that it would be a stupid approach to use two first rounders on Parsons, and then avoid signing players the next off-season because you are afraid of losing a 4th round pick, or a couple 4th round picks.  If you are going to sink two first rounders in a player, you need to put a team around that player.  If you are scared of losing a 4th round pick, then what was the idea of sinking two first rounders and 160 million in cap space into one player?

Draft picks are so overvalued, it's comical. The concept makes sense, you want the asset that lets you acquire talent cheaply for 3 years. However the Packers draft guys who don't play for 2 of those years or just never amount to much. When teams gauge the value of draft picks it seems to go completely out the window that most of them do nothing in the league. And exchanging that asset for a known commodity that has shown he can actually play doesn't seem to have any value.

You'd have been 100% better with Logan Wilson at the time Ty'Ron Hopper was drafted. There should be much more willingness to trade those kinds of picks for players, for teams on the cusp of titles, if you're taking reach players like that who amount to nothing. And yes, I understand you can't predict the future, but the picks are treated like a sure thing that they aren't. And again, yes, I understand it's potential-based. But IMO the high probability of failure is just cast aside in an illogical way.

[DR28]

Signed CB Benjamin St-Juste to 2 yr deal.

[CheezWizHed]

8 hours ago, JosephC said:

Must have had Lukas Van Ness lined up on the other side to get ganged-up on like that.

 

I'm pretty sure that is Micah Parsons. I doubt Gary was ever triple teamed in his life. 

12 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Draft picks are so overvalued, it's comical. The concept makes sense, you want the asset that lets you acquire talent cheaply for 3 years. However the Packers draft guys who don't play for 2 of those years or just never amount to much. When teams gauge the value of draft picks it seems to go completely out the window that most of them do nothing in the league. And exchanging that asset for a known commodity that has shown he can actually play doesn't seem to have any value.

You'd have been 100% better with Logan Wilson at the time Ty'Ron Hopper was drafted. There should be much more willingness to trade those kinds of picks for players, for teams on the cusp of titles, if you're taking reach players like that who amount to nothing. And yes, I understand you can't predict the future, but the picks are treated like a sure thing that they aren't. And again, yes, I understand it's potential-based. But IMO the high probability of failure is just cast aside in an illogical way.

Ted Thompson was pretty frustrating that way.  Ron Wolf had a better balance of FA, draft, and gap filling trades. 

[CheezWizHed]

6 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Signed CB Benjamin St-Juste to 2 yr deal.

Sounds a lot like my request to find a cheap CB with some upside (like Eric Stokes signing with the Raiders last year).  At 28, he isn't exactly young, but at 6'3", he adds height to an otherwise short backfield. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

14 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Signed CB Benjamin St-Juste to 2 yr deal.

I won't pretend to know anything about the guy, but I would just like to point out that the PFF 11th ranked CB from last season just got a 2-year deal with a $5 AAV. It's time for PFF rankings to go away.

The signing is fine. They need a veteran at CB. He has been healthy almost his entire career. Those are good things. He doesn't make big plays, but he wouldn't be $5mm if he did. It's fine.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Bo Melton has to have nudes of MLF.

[CheezWizHed]

19 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I won't pretend to know anything about the guy, but I would just like to point out that the PFF 11th ranked CB from last season just got a 2-year deal with a $5 AAV. It's time for PFF rankings to go away.

The signing is fine. They need a veteran at CB. He has been healthy almost his entire career. Those are good things. He doesn't make big plays, but he wouldn't be $5mm if he did. It's fine.

Baseball metrics stunk (VORP)... until they didn't.  Sometimes it takes a bit to figure out how to measure and calculate the metrics. 

Not to mention people handing out the checks realize that last year was a small sample of his career (which had poor PFF ratings prior).  It can be both true that he had a nice year (as a backup) last year and not be highly valued due to his previous performances while starting. 

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I won't pretend to know anything about the guy, but I would just like to point out that the PFF 11th ranked CB from last season just got a 2-year deal with a $5 AAV. It's time for PFF rankings to go away.

I think teams are smart enough to see that he was also 101st among CBs in snaps played despite playing 16 games, likely for a reason, and factor that in accordingly.

[JosephC]

St-Juste played in 66.8% of the Chargers special teams plays last year.  He has started 47 games in his NFL career, mostly for the Commanders.  Sounds like he can play boundary corner and inside.  Apparently better at playing zone, leading one to believe Gannon will bring a lot more quarters coverage with him from Arizona.  Seems like a good depth move to me as a very attractive price.  This is exactly the type of "small" move that Gutekunst should have made at corner last year instead of thinking they would get through the season just fine with Nixon, Hobbs, Valentine and a bunch of undrafted guys.  The special teams aspect makes it an even more attractive move.

[JosephC]

Nate Hobbs has been informed that he will be released.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

20 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Nate Hobbs has been informed that he will be released.

And that's why neither his deal nor Banks's were really that bad. A lot was made of the numbers, but both were essentially one-year deals where the Packers gained a lot by keeping them on. They were low risk moves that brought in guys who might have helped last year. They both stunk, but it is a swing and miss with no real harm down the road. I just laughed every time someone called it an overpay. I would say they can cut Banks too, but I'm not sure they can even afford to lose him, unfortunately.

[LouisEly]

11 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Nate Hobbs has been informed that he will be released.

Reported that it's a post-June 1st release, so cap hit spread over this year and next.  Possibly an indication that they are looking to add more FAs this year.  

Riq Woolen still available, and there's been some rumors of the Packers talking with him.

[JosephC]

Was there news about Aaron Banks getting a full restructuring on his deal?  Overthecap now has completely different figures on his deal, including two void years stuck on the end of the contract.  Looks like the roster and workout bonuses are still there, but his base salary has been reduced to the league minimum and the remainder of what would have been his base salary has been pushed into future years.  2026 cap number now down to just a shade over 12 million.  I definitely don't like sticking void years onto the end of this deal, considering how bad it looked in year #1.

Now looking, I do see this was reported by Jeremy Fowler two days ago.

[LouisEly]

Yes, Banks' contract was reworked about a week ago.  Salary was converted to signing bonus.

[CheezWizHed]

35 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

And that's why neither his deal nor Banks's were really that bad. A lot was made of the numbers, but both were essentially one-year deals where the Packers gained a lot by keeping them on. They were low risk moves that brought in guys who might have helped last year. They both stunk, but it is a swing and miss with no real harm down the road. I just laughed every time someone called it an overpay. I would say they can cut Banks too, but I'm not sure they can even afford to lose him, unfortunately.

Not sure I buy that.  One year for $18M is a pretty big price for Hobbs. There was a bit more of a natural "out" at 2 years... which is why they needed to do the post June designation to save any cap space (~$800k vs $8+M savings ). 

[JosephC]

4 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

Not sure I buy that.  One year for $18M is a pretty big price for Hobbs. There was a bit more of a natural "out" at 2 years... which is why they needed to do the post June designation to save any cap space (~$800k vs $8+M savings ). 

Couldn't agree more.  1 year, 18 million for 11 games of sub-standard play and only 5 starts.  That is a terrible investment.

And it's very, very hard at this time to see the Banks deal becoming worth the investment.

[CheezWizHed]

2 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Couldn't agree more.  1 year, 18 million for 11 games of sub-standard play and only 5 starts.  That is a terrible investment.

And it's very, very hard at this time to see the Banks deal becoming worth the investment.

I do think Banks ended the year better than he started.  If (big IF) he stays healthy, he probably won't be a complete bust as a FA, but still a hefty overpay. 

[DR28]

Do we think there's legs to these Jalen Carter trade talks?

[homer]

2 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Do we think there's legs to these Jalen Carter trade talks?

I'm guessing no but people thought there was a snowball's chance of getting Parsons so who knows.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

Not sure I buy that.  One year for $18M is a pretty big price for Hobbs. There was a bit more of a natural "out" at 2 years... which is why they needed to do the post June designation to save any cap space (~$800k vs $8+M savings ). 

Of course it was terrible but it was for a single year. If you are going to blow it, do it that way. The original contract was 4 years for $48 million.

The truly mystifying thing is why they didn't just bring Stokes back for $3.5 million. 

[LouisEly]

Someone on another board reminded me of one of the reasons that Hobbs was signed and why he got what he got - he is/was very good in run support and is not afraid to hit people.  He got kicked out of practice at least once last summer for being overly aggressive with tackling/hitting people.  

Kind of wish that was also the case with their other corners.

[SeaBass]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

Not sure I buy that.  One year for $18M is a pretty big price for Hobbs. There was a bit more of a natural "out" at 2 years... which is why they needed to do the post June designation to save any cap space (~$800k vs $8+M savings ). 

Plus there's still going to be $12M total dead cap spread out between the '26 & '27 seasons. That's just a lot of money and consequence for a failed FA signing even if it's not supremely hampering to cut bait after one season. It's not the worst way out but a really bad decision by Gute & the FO.

[LouisEly]

Doubs to the Patriots, 4/$70M.  $17.5M AAV

[OldSchoolSnapper]

22 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Doubs to the Patriots, 4/$70M.  $17.5M AAV

This is the one I knew was coming but am not sure what to make of it. I waffle between just being a homer and thinking Doubs was a pretty good player, and accepting that he was just a serviceable WR. 

He made some incredible catches but the volume just was never there to call him a real difference maker. He did seem to be the guy Love would go to in a big moment. 

I think Golden made it obvious this was coming and that he and Watson are the clear 1-2, but there are obviously health questions there and with Reed as well.

Those 3 + Wicks and Williams there was no way he was coming back.