CheezWizHed

Who would you have signed this season?

Quit nibbling Hudson!

Like looking in the mirror. They even out that way.

I've always thought "7" was kind of crooked...

Well, if he'd just answer his phone...

He is missing "the start of the playoffs"... so at least game one. There is little info on what basketball activities mean.. Shooting? Contact? I'd be happy if he can play against Indiana even just a little.

That was a perfect sacrifice bunt...unless you expected the bunt to clear the fence.

Agreed. In principle, Gute's approach is decent - young, highly athletic, raw players, but the result has been some good players that take a few years to produce (if they do). Having that happen occasionally isn't bad, but when we do it nearly every time it has been a killer. But he seems to make a living in the 2-4th round range. Pretty reminiscent of Ron Wolf honestly. The odd thing that I read in that article said that Gute was ranked around 12th in PFF WAR for his first round picks despite averaging pick location somewhere in the 20s. No booms, but no busts either I guess.

Blink twice if you need help!... Nice job as always @LouisEly

Patrick probably has a ceiling of a #4-5 starter long term and he has been in the system for a while, so the things he needs to work on is probably minimal. Seems like the type of guy you bounce back and forth as necessary and not worry about long term service time. For Priester, I'd guess it would be more on how much they want to evaluate and tweak in their pitching lab. I feel like he has a bit higher ceiling and if they want to make more major changes, having him work on them at AAA would be preferred.

Metcalf does seem like the only realistic "needle mover" the Packers could've gotten this off season. In hindsight, Garrett being on the trade market seemed like a negotiation ploy as they were clearly talking about extensions. Godwin turned down an extra $20M from "somebody" to stay with Tampa. I think everyone wanted a bigger splash, but when looking at the options... I just don't see that there were many opportunities. For the whole draft, they used "awards" as their proof for whole drafts - Pro Bowls, All-Pro, SuperBowl Winners... SuperBowl Winners is a bit of an odd metric since most players drafted by KC become "Super Bowl Winners"...regardless if they sat on the bench or actually contributed. But the one thing it does show is that the Packers are not good at drafting big impact players. I think if you used PFF WAR (or other individual contribution metric) for the whole draft, it would probably show a different story. Just from the eyeball check, the Packers are good at drafting good to very good players. We are lacking the great ones but also rarely have any bad misses.

This is however our biggest problem and holdback. Love must be better if we want to win a SB. Getting a big FA WR would help him, but which one did people think would really help? I was all in on Higgens, but we were blocked. The next best WR is so well thought of that he is still available. So instead they fixed a hole in the OL with Myers leaving. Getting a good DE would've helped the pass rush, but after Mack resigned (before FA started) everyone that was left big money being thrown at mediocre players. What FA signing would've actually made people feel like we were "going for it"? Honestly, it looked like a bad year for what we needed in FA. Maybe we should sign Rodgers?

Top five was too generous. I didn't count teams in my head. Personally, I'd put: Philly, KC, Buffalo, Baltimore, and Detroit at the top 5. The Vikings last year were better than the Packers (but not this year) and I can buy the Rams being even with us. But I'd put the Pack ahead of the rest you listed. You'll note that I put very little weight into that for team improvements in my overall review. 90+% of SBs are won with a QB playing at an MVP (or close) level. It is the exception to win with a defense driven team. The league is built around a QB and if you get one that is "merely" very good...it is hard to win. Kansas City last year was almost down to barebones on playmakers (certainly WRs) and Mahomes still got them to the SB.

Must be like when they renew your driver's license and they just use the previous numbers... for 10 years.

baseball reference lists Montero at 6'1" and 145lbs. Unless that is a typo, that is insanely light for that height. A light breeze would blow him over. He split last year between AAA (13 starts) and DET (16 starts/19 games) and was at AAA this year prior to this game.

Both Burnes and Woodruff broke into the MLB via the BP and Freddie took quite a while until he could handle the third time through the lineup. What he is today isn't what he can be in the future. The Brewers do a pretty good job at setting up pitchers to succeed (a la Preister these last two starts). I'd guess that the reason it took them so long to call up Henderson was more about trying to get him some good work starting at AAA even if he could've been helpful at the MLB level earlier.

There were a lot of rumblings about JJ in the preseason last year before he was injured too. He didn't look good, was very slow on reads, wasn't picking up basic concepts of their offense. He isn't a guarantee to step in and succeed for them either.

I'm not sure how we weren't even close? Certainly, we weren't one of the favorites, but easily top 10, probably top 5. Defense - Hafley's D took a big step up in 2024 from the previous year's defense - especially the second half of the year. Yes, pass rush was and IS still a problem, but this D was SB worthy even without the pass rush. This D was better than any Rodgers had for the last 5-8 years in GB. I think there is a huge potential improvement for year two of Walker/Cooper as a LB tandem. That could be special. I think there will be some "general" improvement from the DL - Gary had an off year, LVN can improve (but not expecting anything more than average from him), plus a new DL coach. For all I railed on Clark last year, he improved the second half after his toe healed. Certainly, I'd expect a high draft pick or two here. DBs - Returning the same cast of characters (Jaire barely played and had no impact when he did so I'm not counting him when comparing the two years) with Hobbes being added for competition to Valentine, so I don't see why they wouldn't repeat at least what they did. Nixon is the oldest member at 27. Williams and Bullard have opportunity to grow after a rookie year. Williams taking a "second year step" and McKinney as starting safeties could be special. Offense - I think this is where we ended up falling short last year given expectations of 2023: Jacobs was a beast for us last year. He, Wilson, and a healthy Lloyd should be as good - perhaps more flexible - than 2024. Hard to saw we can improve on Jacob and Wilson's excellent years, but Lloyd add smore flexibility. Love really took a step backwards from 2023, IMO. Not sure what to expect from him this year, but generally he is the key. We don't become SB favorites until he can play up to it. He needs to play smart football and know when to go big or when to keep the chains moving. Kraft made a big step up last year and will be counted on for this year. Not sure what to expect from Musgrave. But we are pretty solid at TE with Kraft alone. Reed looked like he was going to take the next step and then fell off a cliff the second half of the year. Watson was having a really nice year until he got injured. Doubs injuries concern me for this year. This is probably a position of weakness just from depth. OL was solid. I think the combo of Banks/Jenkins will be better than Jenkins/Myers. Walker, Tom, and Rhyan shouldn't have any reason to regress. Morgan provides an opportunity to improve. Again, depth is needed. If we are able to shore up the DE, DT, and WR positions in the draft (double DL and double WR wouldn't surprise me) and have Love play smarter that pretty much closes the gap IMO with Detroit or Philadelphia in the league, IMO.

Would be a good idea to get him a low leverage BP inning before making a SP debut on a Sunday also...

Yes, this. I don't think you can believe much of what a GM says this time of year. Or really ever... they aren't going to come out and say, "Boy, our DEs sucked last year." Just team building 101. Praise publicly, chastise privately. So we all agree that we need more pass rush. So which 2025 FA Edge player would've told you... "We are all in!"?

Combine that with Autocorrect, and that will happen sooner than you think! 😂😬😢

I was wondering when that would happen....

ChatGPT is WAY better at peotry than I would ever care to be... Brewed for Victory by a fan with hops in their heart In Motown’s lair, the Tigers roared, But Alex took the mound, adored. With every pitch, he carved the plate— A barley breeze, a foamy fate. Skubal stirred with fiery might, But Brewers bats brewed up delight. They tapped his keg, uncorked the game, Each swing a toast in Milwaukee’s name. A slider sudsy, fastball crisp, He poured them tall, no need to tip. The Tigers sipped on bitter hops— Three up, three down, no way to stop. The scoreboard fizzed, the fans did cheer, A win on tap, so cold, so clear. Raise up your steins, let spirits flow— A Brew Crew bash, Skubal laid low.

Poop in a box was a blessing by comparison!

JJ Watt was also one of my past pipe dreams, but given his late career injuries, it was a happy miss (unfortunately for him). Now if we had drafted him... Reading about Kenneth Grant today and am intrigued. Really low bench press scores might limit his impact initially, but that will be improved. Otherwise, he sounds like Gilbert Brown that moves like early career Kenny Clark.