CheezWizHed

Interesting comments by the dulcet tones of Brian Anderson on Hader showing signs of problems before being traded. https://www.mlb.com/video/brewers-postseason-chances Go to 4:35 min mark (though the whole interview is good)

Hey, us owners get to have our say! But seriously, I've always enjoyed being the arm-chair GM. I think the "regular Joe" can relate to the work by watching the games and evaluating how guys do. Just as long as you don't go over the top on it... GMs do whiff all the time too. And speaking of Rick Spielman, I will actually miss the guy. Living in Vikingland and seeing Rick's interviews and reports, Rick seemed like a very good person even if he did work for the enemy.

It's fine to mention his name as long as you point out how we drafted and developed him to be a star and then let him fall on his face for the Vikings.

I know we plan to play 3 safeties at one time less frequently due to Walker's athleticism, but we really have no one who can cover as a backup safety. Three ST focused backups. I guess we go with 4 CBs for dime all the time now. Also, there always seem to be far fewer waiver wire pickups than we ever expect. Hope the Jags enjoy their Summer!

Bush kind of blows my mind a little watching him pitch. Seems like every time he is out there, he is nearly unhittable...until he gives up that one home run. Then he returns to barely hittable.

Often frustration with how the team is playing on the field spills over into our posting online and how we deal with each other. This forum exists to be "something different" from all the unmanaged forums available. Unlike those unmanaged forums, we are a community and do not allow personal attacks. We will take appropriate action when we see it occurring. Our goal is to promote discussion and debate on ideas. Acceptable debate example: I really don't agree with your idea that <insert thought> because I feel we should <insert opinion>. We aren't here to agree with each other. Debate of ideas is healthy. I don't like your idea and think we should... You don't have to like everyone's thoughts. Just be respectful in disagreeing. Unacceptable debate examples: You are really an idiot. Specific attacks directed at a person are clearly prohibited. Everyone that doesn't see my view is stupid. General attacks are not any better. Your idea is dumb. Directed at the "idea", but still a bit more about name calling and having no counter argument. Please remember that debate is about the ideas and not the people.

Whether or not your message reached the correct person, this is certainly the appropriate blog to post the story. We all need to hear this great example!

A few random thoughts per recent discussion: Davis - I wonder if there are off-field/locker room issues here? Just my speculation, but his play on the field doesn't match that he was cut by two teams now. Or maybe it was just injury and they might bring him back later? If he passed through waivers, I think they can put him direct on IR. Hill - No idea what Hill will be like post-injury, but last year he looked a completely different level than Goodson or Taylor. I think he is starting RB material. Good speed, size, vision. Ford - I wasn't impressed by his ability to stop the run against 2nd and 3rd string OL. It reminded me of Slaton as a rookie; very inconsistent and was often moved off the line. I don't see him being active this year unless we have an emergency. Backup C - I don't see Jenkins having an issue stepping in and playing C if we need him to...reps or not. Not that it would be ideal, but the lack of reps there isn't an issue. Hansen is passable now, not great but passable. Another year and he might be solid. Idea harvesting - I saw both the Yosh trade and 2 RB ideas the day after posting them. The Yosh trade was a very small possibility, but made sense if Bakh/Jenkins were healthy. Maybe coincidence, but odd that both ideas popped out after I posted them. Not that I care...just kind of funny. I'd take it as a complement if it was true. Carpenter - He probably won't be a free safety, but certainly has the size/speed for a strong safety. If he can cover RBs/TEs, that would be ideal. I loved that he always seemed to be in on the tackle -even if he didn't make it... He always seemed to be there flying to the ball. The Vikings - ???...???....???...

Well, I got my wish of Abernathy and Carpenter both making the team, but I'm surprised by Davis being cut. I guess Abernathy is the 3rd safety on defense, because Leavitt was bad and Carpenter isn't ready. Ford was another surprise. Yes, a big, big, man but a long way from playing. And the blind squirrel finds the nut on predicting 2 RBs. With Hill coming back in a few weeks off the PUP and being able to promote a RB from the PS, it just make too much sense. In 4 weeks, natural causes (poor play, injury) might make a natural roster move for us anyway. Still hoping for another OLB to be picked up. Not crazy about who we have for a 3rd pass rusher.

I'd give Jones a 50/50 shot of being picked up. Certainly a unique individual physically and I thought Walker might've had the better shot making it to the PS because he had less film time to show he belongs (which I think Jones did). But they weren't going to keep both developmental OTs on the 53-man.

Winfree is 26, fourth year in the league, and not overly athletic so there really isn't much upside with him. Perhaps if a team has an immediate and short-term need at WR and tends to be run heavy (Titans, SF, etc...), I could see someone grabbing him. But it isn't like he is going to be your regular #2 or #3 WR.

Six vs Seven WRs - With Watkins and Cobb both on our roster, the chances of both making it through the season uninjured is going to be low. So I'm thinking that also pushes them to keep 7, assuming attrition will make a "natural" cut later in the season.

Watching STs in the preseason is tough because they mix and match so much. But I still didn't see Leavitt bring much to the table and virtually nothing on defense. But I'm sure his history is going to mean much more to the coaches in the final decision. Frankly, I'm a big Carpenter fan. He might've been the one to blow coverage in the game, but he is a late round pick who is learning the defense and missed time with an injury who made a mental mistake. He actually showed up more on ST than Leavitt did and I'd bank on him being more of an impact on ST. Regarding Winfree, I don't think Gute is going to make the same mistake twice. Rodgers probably doesn't have the authority to simply say, "keep this guy, cut that guy". But I'm sure he will be in the discussion in evaluating the WR performance, potential, and how they build that room. Also, I swear the Packer blogs are harvesting our ideas here... both my idea to trade Nijman and to keep 2 RBs suddenly showed up on articles after I posted them here... ?

Does anyone know what should we expect out of Hill or Burkett? What type of QBs are they (i.e. drop-back traditional like Mertz or more of a run/throw threat like Wolf)? Were they highly rated recruits or more on the filler side?

Turang seems tailor made to slide into our 2B spot next year. I'm hoping we see Mitchell or Frelick as our starting CFer next year also. I've been clamoring for Taylor to get a chance at CF. I'm over it now. He should be the 4th OFer. Wouldn't shock me to see one of Mitchell, Ruiz, or Renfroe be traded in the offseason. In fact, if we don't make the playoffs, I wouldn't be surprised by a mild shake-up that involved getting spots for our best minor leaguers to play. I think this "wave" of players is on the downturn (Cain retired, Yelich not doing 2019 Yelich things, Wong showing some age, 2020 version of Narvaez showing back up). With Wong's and Cain's contracts off the books (and positions filled by rookies), we'd have some cash to spend elsewhere.

My thoughts on the roster battles: 1) QB - No battle. Only keep two. Etling looked good as the 3rd QB, but so did what's-his-name last year. Good enough for an NFL roster spot, not good enough to worry about losing. 2) RB - 3rd RB battle. I'm really thinking they will (at least initially) keep 2 RBs. There is a good chance Taylor and/or Goodson will not be claimed and can be put on the PS. Neither was so good that we would worry about losing them, IMO. 3) WR - Winfree vs Toure vs neither for 7th WR: Tough call. I would prefer they go with Toure for upside, but the Rodgers-Winfree connection is a wild card. Either way, neither makes the active game-day roster, so I'd prefer the upside of Toure. I don't see Winfree being claimed either. Reminds me of the Jake Kumerow situation a couple years back. 4) OL - Jones vs Walker vs neither for 10th OL. They are probably neck-and-neck as players right now, but I'd pick Jones because of the uniqueness of his size. High risk/high reward. I'm guessing Walker will make it to the PS as there isn't much tape of him out there. 5) TE - No real battle on the edges of the roster as they keep 4. Davis makes it as no one else was really in the picture after they cut Dafney. 6) DL - Heflin vs not for 6th DL. I say they should keep 5. Weird to say after having zero DL depth in years past, but we have 5 good ones. Heflin has a decent chance at being grabbed on waivers, but still a 50/50 shot he can return. 7) OLB - I suspect Garvin, Engebare are both locks at #3 and #4 OLB. So the question is Galeia vs. Hamilton vs. Jones vs waiver wire claim for the 5th OLB. I'd probably take Jones of who we have as the 5th OLB, but I'm really hoping for a waiver wire upgrade. Would REALLY be great to find a vet on the tail-side of his career to be the 3rd OLB and let G & E grow or push for playing time. 8 ) ILB - Wilburn vs. no one for 5th ILB. Summers was already cut, so that is one less option. I think Wilburn would easily make the PS, so I'd go with 4 ILB so we can keep more Safeties 9) S - Personally, I'm not a Leavitt fan from what I saw, but now that he is practicing, I'm pretty sure he is a lock. Thus, the battle is between Davis, Carpenter, Cross, and Abernathy for 4th and 5th safeties. Davis has a pretty clear lead, but I'm also loving what Carpenter and Abernathy brought to the table. (Cross showed up a bit the last game too). So I'll pick Davis as the 4th S. Someone is going to grab Abernathy given what he showed on tape... but Carpenter has such tantalizing upside... Touch call, but I'll go with Abernathy. But my heart says to cut Leavitt and keep Davis, Abernathy, and Carpenter. 10) CB - Looking at #6 CB here. Gafford vs. Thomas, vs Ento. Personally, I prefer Thomas, but I'm guessing the Packers pick Gafford. Gafford's game speed did not match (IMO) the 4.2 - 40 dash speed he was touted to have. I think Thomas will make the PS pretty easily. 11) LS - Coco vs ??? I guess it really depends on the cuts that occur, but Coco has been solid so far. A LS on the PS wouldn't be shocking if they go with Coco. 12) K - Really more about injury than not. Ahmed looked solid out there, so I'd guess they give Crosby more time to heal.

My observations: Love: Interesting contrast from last game. Much better on short passes, but consistently overthrew deep passes. At least a couple was difficult to know if the WR didn't cut/drive as expected or not. Not worried about the INT as I'm guessing it was a WR issue - but even if not, it was a shot at the end of the half that wasn't a horrible chance. Etling: Showed enough to clearly be an NFL QB backup. Reminds me of Case Keenum. Carpenter: Had some gaffs in coverage, but looked good on ST. I wouldn't be shocked to see him on the roster...dude is fast. Amari Rodgers - aka Ty Montgomery? Interesting usage of him as a RB. WRs: Certainly have some interesting depth. Hopefully Lazard, Cobb, or Watkins (maybe Doubs?) can provide starting level WR quality...but we certainly have several upside #3/#4 types in Winfree, Toure, and Rodgers. Winfree is the most ready, but the lowest upside (i.e. athleticism). Hyman made some really nice grabs. Backup OLBs - ugh... Engabare will make the team as a draft pick (and flashed some upside in pass rush). But most of the rest have been here multiple years without any real growth. Hopefully we pickup someone during cuts or via a trade. Newman still has issues with being aware to things around him when engaged in 2x blocking. He had issues with stunts before...still had issues with blitz pickup after engaging with a combo block with the RT. Might be better for him to be a T where he can focus on one guy. Summers - I really hope we have enough ST guys to let him go. Hate to be so negative, but he has been horrible at MLB for years. Wyatt had a couple flashes of breaking through the line, but the play seemed to be run away from him each time... Dude has some speed! Roster thoughts: If we are confident that Rodgers is going to be here multiple years AND if someone comes calling for Love with a good trade... I'd be ok with Etling as our backup QB. Low odds of that happening though. Amari as the third RB? Goodson/Taylor is ok, but still looks like a PS player. Amari as the 3rd RB and keeping an RB on the PS seems like a viable plan until Hill returns. That gives us more options at WR and OL short term. I'm actually thinking this might be quite possible. Yosh Nijman - I've loved the guy for years, but he probably tops out as a good, but not great LT. One more year of control here... what about trading him? Obviously, Bahk or Jenkins would need to be ready week 1 at LT. But we have decent depth with Tom, Newman, and Jones otherwise. I'd be surprised, but it is a possibility. OLB - really need something more here. Engabare has some upside, but I don't see much else on our backups. S - We have a lot of ST focused guys, but not someone I'm confident in for coverage...though Abernathy has been a pleasant surprise. I could see an addition here.

Doing a bit of a catch-up (just back from vacation and watched last weeks game last night), I don't get what the Love polarization is about. Obviously, he was a very controversial pick (which IMO paid dividends simply by lighting a fire under Rodgers) and is heavily under the microscope. But why can't people judge his play (both good and bad) without everyone else blowing up? Here is what I saw: Love looked great out of the gates, but cooled off He threw some excellent intermediate and deep balls with beautiful touch His short passing game is improved from last week, but he seems to struggle here. Like the pitcher that throws 100MPH heaters, but can't throw a fielded ball to 1st base. On Doubs' drop on the short crossing pattern (yes, it was Doubs' drop), his hands were up by his head, but Love zings the ball down by his thighs so Doubs has to move his hands down quickly to catch it, but doesn't. Love puts that ball up a foot or two and I bet Doubs catches it easily. Several balls thrown at the receivers' feet. Hard to tell which might have been intentional as we can't exactly see who might be ready to pick that ball, but still too many thrown there for it to be 100% purposeful. He was better on the out patterns to the RBs. I think every ball was thrown on the correct side of the RB, unlike the first week. Overall, he looks much improved over the first week. I wish teams were playing more #1 players in preseason these days. It is concerning that he isn't putting up more points against other teams #2 and #3s, but then again, he is playing with our #2 and #3s... I'm glad we have more time to figure out if he should be our starter. He reminds me a lot of Daunte Culpepper - some physical resemblance (minus 50 lbs), the way he throws the ball, and even strengths/weaknesses. Not sure that is a complement or not... As he is a Packer, of course I don't want him to fail. But that doesn't mean I can't do a balance assessment of his performance.

If Bakh and Jenkins were a little further along, it wouldn't surprise me to see Nijman traded and have Tom, Newman, and Jones be the backup Ts. But that would take a lot of guts right now

Correct. Noting that I said "a little 'scary'". Sure he caught it cleanly, but it still doesn't look overly natural for him. He did looks like he had more burst out there...a nice end-around, nice KR return. But I prefer my returners to not have to hesitate or second guess themselves in catching the ball (at least in good weather conditions).

Maybe it was how the route was expected to be run. It is hard to see on the video as we lose Davis making the cut. But when I saw the replays live, it looked like Davis was running a go route (and didn't have seperation). He looked back, saw the ball coming, planted, cut in, and caught it. I would expect a high back shoulder throw at the sidelines behind the CB (who had deep position). Not a short throw 5 yards inside the sideline. If this was the called play, then great. It was a good play. But seeing if it was called as I described it, then it was a terrible throw.

Trust me... I'm not "happy". I was really hoping (and still am) that we will see Love take off. I was pretty pumped to watching him tonight. He has a great arm (such easy power), good speed/athleticism, seems to be making good reads, but poor accuracy is still killing his overall play. Frankly, I'd love to say it was first game nerves and he looks better next week.

On a more positive note: - Doubs looked great. Back-to-back times getting wide open deep. For a while, Love to Doubs was looking like Rogers to Adams in the 49er playoff game (any other WRs out there???). But Doubs was mainly open all night. Granted... he was beating Kadar Hollman out there, but clearly a step above everyone out there. - Danny Davis actually looked good out there. That adjustment for the TD was beautiful. Probably not going to make the team, but still nice to see. -Goodman had some nice runs...and some really bad running right into guys. But got some zip out there. -Etling is interesting (still playing). His touch pass right after getting in was sweet. - OL needs work. They weren't bad, but it was far too "competive" for our starting OL against teh 49ers backups. Hopefully Bahk is back soon. - Why are our kickoffs pooch kicks? The youngster kicked it shorter than Crosby at 0 degrees. - Amari Rogers didn't seem much better at catching punts. Still a little "scary" out there. - DL Chris Slayton was everywhere. Pressuring QB, making tackles, TFL... Nice game for the guy.

How about being a little less condescending? Seems like you are the only one Loving the performance. Love's INTs: Love stared down Davis, double clutched and thus threw late. Bad luck on the INT, but not a good throw. Not sure how this was a great throw. Ball was behind Doubs and he almost made a great catch. Again, bad luck INT, but not a good throw. Bad throw that was simply late. Good play by the CB with good burst, but at best, it was easily broken up because he didn't lead the receiver. In addition to the picks: - TD pass to Davis was short and Davis made an incredible adjustment to catch it. Honestly, I have no idea where Love was trying to put this, but it was woefully low and short. - I counted at least two times where Love threw to the wrong side of a RB, turning him around and missing the ball. Several other WR throws were up on their back shoulder (not the good kind) or simply high. He does not throw an easily catchable ball. - Obviously missed a wide open Doubs by 5 yards and thankfully got a second shot to actually complete it. He did seem to settle down and play a bit better later, but this was not the performance I was hoping for from Love. Is he better? Yes. Does he look like a starting QB (per today)? No.

I find it a bit funny to hear this argument when I think both of you are right. ? I don't think our WRs were very dynamic and haven't been for a long time. They are ok, but it has been a long time since we've has a WR that demanded double coverage (or even draft worthy). And Mertz had obvious and huge issues - both accuracy and handling pressure. Early in the season, the only WR he could hit was inside the numbers (10 yard range) or outside the numbers less than 5 yards downfield. Anyone in his face caused him to panic and throws were erratic. So it wasn't like WRs had much of a chance to run deep routes or such. I do think there is hope on both sides however, Dike seems like a WR with some decent upside. Likewise, Mertz's second half of the season seemed to improve. Things looked like they were slowing down for him, less panicking, and even started hitting fade routes 10-20 yards downfield (i.e. showing some touch to throw over someone and drop the ball into the WR's hands). Mertz's and the WRs growth and development is probably the biggest indicator on whether we will win the West again or play some mediocre condiment bowl again.