OldSchoolSnapper

I'm having doubts about this team winning a playoff series.

We're gonna have an argument about Braun juicing like 9 years after the fact? Lol.

Yeah sorry but I'm highly skeptical that a spaced out 15,000 crowd that's almost for sure going to have a mask mandate is kept even the tiniest bit safer by having the roof 100+ ft above their head open. You can open the glass panels for air flow too. There's just no way the optics of the closed roof would go over. That's all that is. And I didn't think of the cold people trying to keep warm either. But in any case an April 7pm start with the roof open sounds dreadful. I probably won't be there until June.

So the article on the team's website says it's open unless it rains. That alone will probably keep me out of the place through April. No thanks.

Does the closed roof make any difference when it's 300 feet high? I can't imagine that does anything. There is plenty of ventilation with the roof closed. Did they say something about the roof?

Bummed about Wentz to Colts. Leaves the door open for the Bears to find someone else.

I mean there was next to zero attendance. That matters, no matter what. Not even a preseason. And they still don't know for sure the fall will be like, so I get wanting to scale it back.

I got the sense the last time Gute spoke on it that he knew it wasn't going to be quite as low as everyone was saying.

It's just getting kind of old to go through this with every large contract after we gave Christian Yelich one last year and had essentially back to back 90 win seasons. We've been better than the Padres for 15 years and it isn't close. We tried to pay Justin Turner. I don't get what people are even upset about anymore. You'd swear we live in the Wendy Selig era if you just swapped out the names involved.

It's in essence a 10 year $300 million deal for a 26 y/o Tatis. Except it's like a decade after the one they gave 26 y/o Machado who isn't as good. It's sort of hard to see it not working out well for them given how incredible the guy is.

How is that at all proof that owners can pay whatever? It's the exact opposite. The only way this happens is because they offered 14 years. If Tatis Jr. Is a Hall of Fame player the final 7 years of that contract are going to look like a steal. The AAV isn't even anything crazy, like at all. Tatis just chose to leave potential money on the table in exchange for now having ZERO risk moving forward.

Not too shocking. They have money, he would form a nice tandem with Garrettt and they are certainly up and coming. Lots of talent and ready to take another step up with Pitt probably taking a step back. He'd get to play his brothers twice a year too.

Watt just makes sense for the Packers and vice versa. It makes so much sense that I've already prepared myself for the disappointment when it doesn't happen.

Maybe. But the guy has made a lot of money. I know most don't care, but he really does seem like one that would give up some salary to win. Just hearing the things he's said over the years, including this year when asked about how hard it is to keep trying hard for a loser, I don't get the sense that taking his career earnings from $108mm to $116mm is super important to him.

I would think that the admission that he wants to play for a contender would already rule the Bears out. Not sure if you're kidding but if they land Wentz it changes things. On a personal level I'd love for them to bet the farm on Wentz because I don't think it will really do anything, but the perception will be that they're a win-now team if they get him. If the Bears and Vikings reload at QB the Packers could have their hands full though.

I think Watt's going to Green Bay if they want him there. That means clearing enough space to make him an offer that's not insulting. I think if they do that, there is little chance he says no. But I'm also assuming Pittsburgh can't take him because I just don't see how they do. That's a team that needs a 5-year plan, not a 2-year plan.

Obviously Hiura, Wong and Urias are locks. Arcia and Robertson are probably close to it. If they keep 13 position players, it will probably be 4-5 outfielders, 5-6 infielders and the two catchers. That means Vogelbach and Shaw may be competing for one spot. I suppose they could keep both, but then that means only 4 OFers. Can't see them keeping Vogelbach to be honest, unless there is a last minute deal to keep the NL DH. The Wong signing more or less forces them to be serious about Hiura at 1B, and Hiura is not going to be sitting very often. Even assuming Vogelbach is a better bet to hit well against RHP than Shaw (not entirely clear), being a 1B/DH versus a 3B/1B/2B is a huge difference. I know it's the smallest of samples but Vogelbach crushed it at Miller Park. With how bad the offense might be I would want to at least keep his bat around to see if there's any longevity to his splits there.

I think sometimes it's obvious but with Love there is just no way to know yet. You have to get him into a game situation. Alex Smith made a Pro Bowl and the Chiefs shipped him out, that's confidence in your guy. The Packers, too, knew in practice what Rodgers was capable of. The fans never really heard it, but after the fact, there are lots of stories of the receivers and coaches sometimes wondering if the best QB was starting.

I remember causing an uproar on this forum last season (pre Covid) by suggesting that Bud would be in trouble if the Bucks won 60 games last year and didn't win the East. At some point someone said they could do that for 4 years and his job was safe. Anyone care to reevaluate things? Without a deep playoff run, Bud is toast.

The team store prices were definitely lower in 2019. It was substantial too. I got the '18 on-field hoodie for under $40 with the 25% SSH discount. It was priced at $50 and was $100 the year before. It was easy to find shirts for $25 and $30.

So he should have been the starter? And when did that era start? Patrick Mahomes went 10th and sat on the bench. He literally had no preseason. No coach in the league would have gone to gameday with that over a guy who's been in the offense for years as the backup. I've been highly critical of drafting Love in the first place, but this is just a spicy take you're making to be spicy. Him "not cracking 2nd string" means absolutely nothing. It's an "earn your stripes" coachism that would have been out the window the moment they needed someone to fill in for Rodgers.

"Not cracking 2nd string" is a bunch of nonsense. He had no preseason. There was no chance he was going to be the gameday backup. He'd have been starting if Rodgers got hurt in about 2 weeks. Aaron Rodgers was 3rd string once to Craig Nall. That trope needs to be put to death. He was also 32-6 TD/INT the season before. The team was awful his junior year.

I don't have the data for this but I think their daytime programming is mostly for 13-23 year old men. That's when I watched those shows and damn near everyone I know who watches them is that demo. I haven't watched a hot take show in probably a decade. It's all just producers telling guys what to say. There's a reason the hosts always blasts teams with huge amounts of fans. You'll never hear Cowherd going off on the Falcons 2x a week. This tells you everything. These guys don't know 80% of what they're saying. This whole segment is from an intern's notes.

It's just not the same thing. Mike McCarthy QB wiz kids Brett Hundley and Scott Tolzien vs. a first-round pick talent with multiple years in a system. I'd expect them to lose a lot of games in Love's first year, and maybe he's not any good, but there's much more reason to have faith in that than Hundley. Turning to Love next season? Yeah, they probably get crushed.

I think this is true, though I think it's important to push back on both extreme viewpoints on this as I've done in this thread/discussions on their cap. It's irresponsible for journalists to say that the Packers are in some sort of devastatingly insurmountable cap mess, as Herman did over the weekend. That's blatantly false. Things looked much bleaker when they were looking at $176, but now that the expectations are for mid-$180s or up to $196m, the Packers have a workable situation. I get that writers can only write so many 'should the Packers sign JJ Watt?' articles right now, so I'm not surprised that some are choosing to make this a story to fill space... Still, the 'There are no problems, they can just kick the can down the road a few years' folks are equally wrong. The Packers' cap situation is probably the worst it's been in over 15 years (which is a testament to the skill of the Russ Balls of the world in and of itself). It's not Thompson having to move on from 3 All-Pro caliber players as he had to in 2005 level bad, but the Packers are almost certainly going to have to A)cut a couple of guys like Smith/Wagner that are productive players that are scheduled to start on week 1, and B)involuntarily let the bulk of their UFAs walk without much chance to retain them. That's something they really haven't had to do. But, as it has been clearly noted, they've got plenty of ability to both get under the cap and free up the ability to do a few things with the roster, and that's something that teams like New Orleans don't have the ability/flexibility to do. Add in the teams that have room but need to add a QB, and you end up with a lot of teams with issues. That's what I'm saying. But I'm not overly concerned about it because there are at least decent replacements on the roster. Dillon doesn't really replace Jones because they're different players, but it's hard not to be excited about what he can do. And Linsley, I get that he was good, but there was talk years ago of the Packers opting to stick with JC Tretter after Linsley came back. He's 30. I'd like to have him, but I'm not really worried about the Packers finding a replacement at center. Will they be unable to fix some of the holes on the team? Absolutely true. But every team has holes.