Fear The Chorizo

Joey Wiemer belongs...guy looks like a 10 year corner OF starter and can also go get it in center. He's never going to win batting titles, but he'll have a few seasons hitting 30-40 bombs with plus defense and baserunning.

I think far too many people (Burnes included) assume that the ~1.75 season stretch from 2020 through early 2022 are how we can expect Burnes to consistently perform for the next 5+ seasons. That level of performance is basically one of the top 2 or 3 starters in the game. It's much more likely that Burnes is of the type of pitcher we've seen since mid-2022 moving forward - particularly with the pitch clock change...that profiles him to be a solid starter, but not one destined for the HOF. I think the NL Central is bad enough where the Brewers should be happy rolling with Burnes the next 1.75 seasons they still control him for, and then wish him well in free agency. He won't be setting any free agent contract precedents for a starting pitcher, but he'll still be too pricey for the Brewers to retain. Be happy with getting his best years of production and move on.

Cobb will be a 3rd and short security blanket for Rodgers for about half the season, and he'll miss the other half the season due to injury - while on the field, he'll excel at taking looks away from other more dynamic receivers because of familiarity with Rodgers and becoming a net negative to their offense. His biggest role will be Rodgers' dinner companion to help find all the best restaurants to hit up in the big Apple...and to stay in close contact as they sort out retirement planning decisions together. Can't blame Rodgers for wanting a few friends/familiar faces in the locker room with him - but he has a knack for wanting guys who can't play anymore.

this is consistent throughout threads I'm looking at, too

It really is starting to look like the NL Central is going to be a dog of a division this season, with the winner likely winding up with between 85-90 wins and most of the division under the .500 mark - for as frustrating as watching the Brewers revert to a substandard offense with inconsistent pitching circa 2022, at least we're not off to the start the Cards are. Seems like the NL Central as a whole hasn't won a game in close to a week - bit of an exaggeration but not that much of one.

Not to mention the Packers drafting 13 players in the draft this year and likely wanting to keep most all of them on the roster/practice squad.

Looks like Gute found a way bring in a veteran backup QB and draft a backup QB to pair with Love with the same player - the fact that Clifford is actually older than Love, who was drafted 4 years ago, is crazy.

Might be a tweener, but Ringo's 6-2 and incredibly athletic...I think he could develop into a fantastic safety and is an intriguing option at the top of round 4 if GB wants to go get him.

Does GB have enough draft ammo to slide up at the end of round 3 and draft a safety? Battle...or go for the home run and pick Ringo with the intent of his best NFL position being safety where he can let his freakish athleticism shine in the deep middle??

Hate that the Lions got Hooker in rd 3....I think he's going to be really good

I'm looking forward to seeing what Jordan Love can do this season - that being said, it wouldn't shock/upset me one bit if one of these 2nd round picks gets used on a quarterback if either Levis or Hooker falls in their laps. I doubt either get anywhere close to pick #42 even without any other teams trading up targeting those QBs, but it's at least worth thinking about a scenario where one of them is still on the board when it's GB's turn. Not having the 5th year option tied to a 2nd round pick and having a young starting quarterback in place makes either Levis or Hooker quite attractive to the Packers, IMO - if Love stinks then they've got a developmental backup who could take over next season or in 2025 with 2-3 cheap prove-it years left on their rookie deal, and if Love proves to be really good the Packers have a quality trade chip to gain future draft capital in 2024/2025. I'd prefer GB stand pat and pick two players at 42 and 45 given the volume of solid prospects at positions GB needs to fill (TE/WR/S/DT/OL), definitely don't want them to package both to move up and get just one bite at the apple. If they just pick best player available on their board at 42 and 45 they're likely going to wind up with two starters at key positions.

wondering just how far Levis may drop into the 2nd round....also Hendon Hooker. Wouldn't surprise me to see the Lions and Rams snatch them up early tomorrow and push enough talent at other positions close enough to GB's picks where they just snatch up two starters with them

He's in Chicago's room meddling with his GM there, I believe

Thinking Gute is going to start burning up some phone lines dangling 1 of those 2nd rounders + for another bite at the 1st round apple once we get into the low 20s

there are going to be a million trades tonight, aren't there...

I would hate to have traded up to get the 1st overall pick in this year's draft, need a quarterback, and then realize the consensus top overall pick is a 5'10" quarterback. There are exceptions to every rule, and Bryce Young was a great college football player....but man he's small and the list of undersized QB's who draftniks say "play bigger than their stature in the pocket" that wind up busting is alot longer than the list who actually do at the NFL level.

He reminds me alot of Matt Jones

Frelick isn't or hasn't ever been on the 40 man roster, correct? I don't see why or how this injury impacts his service time at all, as he should be allowed to recover/rehab and then resume playing in the minors awhile before seeing if his production warrants a MLB promotion in late summer/September. his injury recovery basically sets Frelick back to the AS break timeframe before we'd see him playing minor league games - I think a September callup is actually aggressive at this point and it may not even be worth getting him on the 40 man to do so this season.

I think the question about that is if Richardson actually profiles as a QB at the NFL level or if a team tells him to get back into the WR room, which was his initial position coming into Florida - because his physical numbers are elite for a wideout, too. Big questions on his short and intermediate passing accuracy, which is something an NFL quarterback needs to be great at in order to be consistently successful.

Since most of this thread dating back to early this year has been a back and forth between 3-4 other posters and not me, I'll take your word for it. Your summary is not how I've seen the NBA playoffs shaping up, because I put next to zero stock in what happens during the regular season anymore. There have also been plenty of takes revolving around how much deeper and more difficult the eastern conference playoff field appeared to be shaping up, primarily because there really wasn't an alpha-dog team that was clearly more talented and deep than the rest - much was made about the race to the top seed, but all that really does is guarantee 1 extra home game in any 7 game playoff series. Not really that significant with more evenly matched teams. Collectively, the conference (and the NBA as a whole) is much more balanced than its been in quite awhile because its prime talent is much more spread out - IMO that's largely because the group of veterans who started the super team roster building approach in the current NBA financial system are all getting old yet still are crazy expensive, so the younger talent in its prime seeking initial max initial extensions aren't teaming up at the rate like the Lebron/Wade/Bosh Heat of the Curry/KD/Klay Warriors rosters, because they're aren't as many teams with enormous amounts of cap space to recruit instant all start teams. With how the NBA game has changed (style of play, load management, etc) and with the play-in format, regular season and postseason basketball are dramatically different. Hoping for a game 5 win in any way/shape/form to see what happens with another trip to Miami.

If Love sucks, this Packers roster gets fun bad for the next two seasons and GB can then draft their next franchise quarterback in the next 1-2 seasons and restock an aging roster quickly - likely under new management/coaching. However, if he's good, this roster is still good enough to build a contending team around and will likely have a pretty team-friendly longterm deal in place with Love to avoid significant salary cap problems to fill holes over the next 4-5 seasons. At this point it's really a no-lose situation, as there were many other ways the Rodgers/Packers saga could have ended that put Green Bay in worse shape (both short and longterm outlooks).

The best player in the league basically didn't play in the 1st 3 games because of injury, and the Bucks' roster is no longer deep enough to cope with that loss against any playoff-caliber team in a playoff series - I don't really have to come up with any other rationalization or combination of variables as to why the Bucks are up against the wall against any team in the playoffs with that being the case. Even with key pieces injured, the Heat are a better 8 seed than typical NBA playoff teams because of what you detailed, but that doesn't also make the Bucks a weak #1 seed in a pretty darn deep conference - in case you haven't noticed, Boston has their hands full against ATL in a round 1 series that could also go 7 games. The 76ers swept a diminished Nets squad post Durant and Kyrie trades, but two of those games could've easily gone the other way, too and made that a dicey series for Philly. Game 3 was a whooping and Game 1's final score looked worse than where that game was in crunch time despite Giannis going down. The Bucks spit the bit when it mattered most in game 4 and let Butler win that game on his own - I think in order for the Heat to win another game this series Butler will have to go crazy again. If Bud can't come up with a defensive game plan to hold Jimmy Buckets below 40 then they don't deserve to even make it to game 6. One of the Bucks' supposed strengths this season was their defense - and it hasn't shown up at all against the Heat. This isn't the NBA from a generation ago, when it was a shock for an 8 seed to even win one game against 1 seeds in a best of 5 series format - there is much more balance across the league, and the wide open style of play also levels the playing field.

I think adding JSN would open up the game for the other receivers. That theory would've been alot easier to know for sure had JSN actually played meaningful snaps last season without Olave and Wilson in the same receiving corps as him and Harrison, Jr., too. I think the counter argument to this is it's tough to tell how much of JSN's 2021 production was a direct result of being the possession receiver in an absolutely loaded receiver room at OSU with top 10 first round talents like Olave/Wilson/Harrison Jr. occupying all sorts of coverage on the outside, and a quarterback with the potential to be a #1 overall pick throwing them the ball.

I've got a ton of hesitancy using a mid-1st rounder on a guy with average measurables who had a monster Rose Bowl game (not a CFP game, so in essence meaningless) in early 2022 because the #1 and #2 receivers on that team opted out of that game to prepare for last season's draft and Stroud just fed him the ball all game long against soft zone coverages by inferior defenders. Then, he plays in just 3 games last season while dealing with a lingering hamstring injury. To me Smith-Njigba profiles as a 2nd round pick that will get overdrafted in a thin year. I'd rather go different position at #13 and then see if a WR like Johnston is available late round 1 or early round 2 and try to use available draft capital to pick him to fill out the WR room.

Couldn't agree more - tactically, Bud's approach works well in the regular season but it's not a good approach to consistently winning playoff series against a specific opponent. yes, the Bucks won a title with him as coach - but they've also found ways to underperform in the playoffs much more frequently, same as what his results were with some very good regular season Hawks teams. I still think the Bucks win this series - it took an all time playoff performance from Jimmy Buckets to eek out a win at home in Game 4, and it's not like the Heat have got key players coming back to take the load off. Wouldn't surprise me in the least for the Bucks to win game 5 at home, blow the doors of Miami in game 6, and cruise to a game 7 series win. I think if the Heat do win this series that Bud is going to get canned, and rightfully so.