CheezWizHed

Yeah, I was expecting the "over" on 14 points... I was surprised by hanging with them for 3 quarters. Like the Packers, I don't expect much from them in a transition year. Unlike the Packers, they seem to be growing from game-to-game and getting better. Still a talent gap (that hopefully consistently improved recruiting will fix), but the team is showing growth. I was not disappointed by that loss.

Rodger's cellphone coverage was notoriously spotty! 😂

Less than Rodgers did (not sure if I should put that in blue or not...). Certainly he has some. Cuts would mostly be his to make I'd imagine. Less so on the bringing guys in aspect. Yes, that could be a distinct possibility. My guess is all three of Love, MLF, and Gute get another year. Maybe a 33% chance MLF goes. 20% chance Gute goes too.

Gute's good moves: FA Signings: Z Smith, P Smith, Amos, Turner, Lewis, Graham, Campbell, Douglas, Also some good band-aid signings like Wagner and Kelly (short term, but helped fill a need). Note how many of these were early when we had cap space. He was very limited the last few years. Draft picks: Alexander, Jenkins, MVS, Lazard (UDFA), Love*, JRJ, Slaton, McDuffie, Tom, Quay, Wyatt, Doubs, Reed, Brooks, Valentine, Carlson - noting a bit lower "expectation" on the lower draft picks. Starters found the 4th round and later are wins to me. * - I include Love for one simple point that will be debated... It woke up Rodgers and he played with a chip on his shoulder after two years of decline. Doesn't matter if Love flops himself... I think the pick was worth it. Overall, I'd say Gute is: FA signings: A Draft: B (I'd really want to dig in and compare to get this a bit better, but gut feel) Team management (hiring coaches, communications, extensions, and player management): D Dealing with Rodgers was poor... but Rodger's himself is part of that blame (i.e. I live in an area with poor cell phone reception???). MLF seemed like a good hire at the time, but he doesn't seem to build his supporting team well. I remember at the time of his hire there was much discussion about his preferred OC/DC coaches and below them... no one he wanted was available, so his other hires seemed rushed and random. Of course Joe Barry has been a headscratcher. Not sure how all that reflects on Gute, but not well overall. He seems decent at extending the right people at the right time... Some key people were let go and most of those decisions seemed sound for the $$ that was asked. A few misses on extending people he should've walked away from. Davante trade and Rodgers extension timing seemed odd. Possibly just poor timing. But a big chunk of what we are dealing with now (very young team) is paying the piper for trying to keep Rodger's SB window open.

Doh. Forgot about that. $22.5M more next year.

He is a FA next year. Packers declined his 5th year option.

Nice to see Locke continue to improve. Poor start today, but started looking better as we went. Sort of knew that we were short on talent on this team, but have a good season to build upon. Add a bit more talent and they play with Ohio St today.

Well...you're not breaking it to me, I'm saying Eli was NOT a HOF caliber QB, he'll get in because he won 2 SBs...but they didn't win 2 SBs because he was a great QB. Big Ben...perhaps, but it still took elite complimentary FB to get him to the SB and give them a chance and then they just kinda limped along the rest of his career. Matt Ryan's career will likely not be a HOF career due to a 28-3 lead lost. Clearly there are ranges of HOF QBs. Often winning a SB or two pushes the difference. I think Kirk Cousins is a better QB than Eli Manning, but Eli will make it (2 SBs, 2 SB MVPs) while Kirk probably won't. That isn't the point. Brady for the last 4 SB wins and second half of his career, sure. But everyone says a QB on a rookie deal is the best way to win a SB!! Took the best QB ever to be the only one in the last 23 years (I didn't look before that) to accomplish it twice. He was a better QB as he ages (which is why I say QBs on rookie deals aren't as successful) but you can't discount his play in his first 2 wins either... Hurts I don't think is a HOF caliber QB. Agreed. He hasn't won a SB either, so that doesn't impact my argument Again, Joe Burrow failed in College save for one year. If Love's Soph year would have been his Jr, there wouldn't have been those "questions." Joe didn't even start until he transferred. Then he had one HUGE breakout year. He is early in his career, but eyeball test kind of looks like he is probably going to be HOF material. I do love how people continue to discount my argument for the importance of a high performing (i.e. HOF level) QB as the biggest key to winning a SB. Of course, they need a strong supporting cast, but that continues to be the key point. Thus, I don't think "Can we win a SB with this guy?" Is the right question... You can win a SB with just about anyone at QB (Dilfer, McMahon), but that window is REALLY small. A better Q would be, "Can he lead (or carry) us to the SB?". If not, I prefer to move on until we can find one that fits that bill.

Going to MSOE (i.e. the other-other downtown Milwaukee college), I picked UW as my school to cheer for. Kind of an anti-Marquette vibe at MSOE too being a mile away from each other. But I can't say I've seen much of a rivalry between them and UW either. Just mainly that one game a year, which you do have to pick one team. But I don't have an issue cheering for them in the tourney. It was fun when Marquette, UW, and UWGB (or occasionally UW-Mil) were all in the tourney.

So, very fun game last night. Obviously, defense has work to do. New system, losing Holliday... there is time for that to improve. Dame was impressive. I was worried watching preseason as he looked very passive. Not so much last night. His second gear while driving is a sight to behold. Giannis needs to learn now when to peel back. Looking for Dame when he drives and people sink on him. Looking to play more with the ball out of his hands and off the pick-n-roll. Defense on bigs w/o reaching. Free throws. Good challenges for him this year. Nice to see Beauchamp out there a lot. I really think he is going to grow into that Middleton replacement role in the future. Beasley's D wasn't quite up to snuff, so MB was a nice replacement. Really moves well around the court.

Certainly both. A very large part of it is muscle memory and the ability to repeat a shot. But there is also the part where you were just running and now standing still; your heart is pounding, adrenaline running, everyone watching... You have to be able to block everything out.

I included Love's college stats as a comment because it was a weakness identified as he was drafted.... not just a recent issue. Josh Allen is a pretty decent example of what Love has to overcome. Of course, there are many other QBs with the same issue that never overcome it. I wouldn't call him a lock for the HOF though. Same for Hurts too. They are headed that way, but still a bit early to call them locks. Yes, winning a SB often makes a QB... but that is normally because he is the centerpiece of the team that wins it all. Most often because of him. And I hate to break it to you... Eli will most likely be in the HOF. Maybe not the first year, but he is going to get in. I'm not happy about it either... Point is... the easiest way to win the SB is have a top tier QB. You obviously need more (Dan Marino says "hi"), but it is much more likely when you have one than not (Trent Dilfer...). SB Winning QB Rookie Deal HOF Losing QB Rookie Deal HOF LVII (57) Maholms NO YES Jalen Hurts YES NO LVI (56) Stafford NO NO Burrows YES YES LV (55) Maholms NO YES Brady NO YES LIV (54) Maholms YES YES Garoppolo NO NO LIII (53) Brady NO YES Goff YES NO LII (52) Foles NO NO Brady NO YES LI (51) Brady NO YES Ryan NO NO 50 P Manning NO YES Newton NO NO XLIX (49) Brady NO YES Wilson YES YES XLVIII (48) Wilson YES YES P Manning NO YES XLVII (47) Flacco YES NO Kapernick YES NO XLVI (46) Eli Manning NO YES Brady NO YES XLV (45) Rodgers NO YES Roethlisberger NO YES XLIV (44) Brees NO YES P Manning NO YES XLIII (43) Warner NO YES Roethlisberger NO YES XLII (42) E Manning YES YES Brady NO YES XLI (41) P Manning NO YES Grossman YES NO XL (40) Roethlisberger YES YES Hasselbeck NO NO XXXIX (39) Brady NO YES McNabb NO NO XXXVIII (38) Brady YES YES Delhomme NO NO XXXVII (37) Gannon NO NO Brad Johnson NO NO XXXVI (36) Brady YES YES Warner NO YES XXXV (35) Dilfer NO NO Kerry Collins NO NO XXXIV (34) Warner NO YES McNair YES NO 29.2% 79.2% 29.2% 45.8% 7 19 7 11

Looking at SB winners for the last 23 years, a very large percentages of them have been won by HOF-type QBs and QB centric. We are a passing league. So when I evaluate Love, it isn't "Is this guy an NFL QB?" but "Can he become a HOF level?". If the answer is clearly "no", then I think we need to move on to the next guy. Love has great arm talent, but lacks in accuracy and anticipation of the defense. So the question to me is ... are those fixable? 55% completion is a non-starter. 62% seems like a minimum. Love only hit that mark once in 3 years in college. I was thinking wait and see more in terms of this year with Walker at Tackle. If LT is the BPA for us in the 1st round, he isn't a player you bypass an opportunity to improve.

Going back to the pre-season, I highlighted both Myers and JRJ as our weak-links. PFF grades from last year bear that out also. He has been "ok" this year, but not our worst spots (I've not seen the PFF grades recently). Jenkins has actually been uncharacteristically poor too. Perhaps his knee is hindering him still, but even before the injury he was penalty prone. I still think Tom at C and Myers at G fixes two spots. I'm willing to see how Walker progresses on the year. He was a 7th round project last year... a huge surprise to jump over Tom and Nijman to play LT. Give him some time to acclimate to the speed and adjust. Many people (including me) thought Bahk should move inside after his rookie year at LT too. But regardless, having a 1st round tackle and a 4th round G/T draft wouldn't be a bad way to go unless we are close enough to draft a top QB.

True. I'm not a big fan even attending the other college in downtown Milwaukee (no, not that one either... the other one 😉). But when it comes to tournament time, I cheer for B10 and WI teams. The tournament always makes you fans of multiple teams.

I'm actually "ok" with MLF and our current offense given the expected inconsistency due to our youth. MLF has strengths on half-time adjustments (well it seems that way, maybe that anonymous player disagrees). What concerns me is that MLF has some big blind spots... hiring Joe Berry was bad. Keeping him has been worse. Talking about doing the same thing and expecting different results (mainly referring to his team and not seeing himself doing it) is just embarrassing. Beyond just picking Berry... it concerns me that he just picks his buddies instead of building a coaching staff that will advance and challenge the team. Having a bye week and mini-bye week to fix issues, but really rolling out the same offense with the same problems is a head scratcher. (Caveat: Love did start the game against the Broncos by many shorter passes, but reverted back pretty quickly when that didn't work either). I'm still waiting to see what happens through the rest of the year (for both MLF and Love), but I'm considering if wholesale changes are necessary. If we continue trudging through the season making the same mistakes with the same problems... why would we trust him to build the team going into the future? If Love ends up going, might as well reboot the coaching staff too. Start fresh.

Well, you insinuated that he would take the money over things like WS odds. It is pretty common for players to move to wherever the best $$ comes from. Maybe that is what is motivating CC now? But there might be other things he has in mind too. Maybe he wants to be a GM or have some front office responsibilities? Who knows?

That is true. And also why I was happy to go for it this year. But typically those are less likely to happen. Just with the big 3 being in the last year of arby (and now Woody out for a year), just makes sense to me to reboot. Unless you can get another 2-3 trades like Contreras last year... 😂

Did last year's team look like we were ready to compete for the WS? I don't see a path where this year's team improves the SP and offense to be better than last year's. No one is advocating dumping Burnes for peanuts... he should bring back the equivalent of a couple high draft picks (with a track record and closer to the majors) plus a few lottery cards. Better than getting a single comp pick, IMO. Our new "core" just came up last year and/or is in AAA/AA. That is the team we should be building on. Yes, we step back this year, but improve our chances for future years.

You almost have to trade him or extend him. Anything in between seems like a humongous waste of resources.

There is a practice that I've noticed on LinkedIn and Indeed where companies post a job opening at various locations with a hybrid or remote attribute. Then when you got to apply, the job is listed at some location where they undoubtedly are having problems finding people... Like that helps??? It just annoys people to start an application and find out the job doesn't actually meet the description. They aren't getting more applications that way....

I do believe Marquette will still be in Wisconsin in 2 years (as will UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay).

I'm curious what you guys are watching to know those insights? Have there been open practices? Or just the red v white game?

As much as it was a waste to have Sammy Watkins on the team last year, I still did want them to find someone for experience. I suppose Love hasn't been able to coach them as much as Rodgers did.