CheezWizHed

I doubt Burnes is moved at this pace, but it does leave me a bit concerned about our future rotation... Peralta - $8M club options for 2025 and 2026 (boy was that contract a winner!). Ashby - High end, but high risk with his injuries. Not sure what to expect out of him. Misiorowski - Probably our only minor league pitcher with TOR possibilities. Gasser - Mid-low end rotation potential. Risk against RH hitters. Rodriguez - probably about the same as Gasser. Miley - not sure how long he can continue to pitch well AND sign low end contracts AND stay healthy. Rea, Ross - retread filler #5 rotational types. If Ashby and Les Mis' can hit their peaks, that rotation probably matches our past Burnes/Woo/Peralta rotations. But I think that is a big IF - especially Ashby's health. By moving Burnes and Adames now, you get the chance of bringing back 2-3 higher end SP options to fill that gap. A small step down this year, but a big step up in future years. But it certainly doesn't look like that will happen.

Late to the game, but my wife and I burned through two seasons of "Only Murders in the Building" in about 3 weeks. I'm sure we will have season 3 done before season 4 drops. Fun and quirky. My wife said, "It is nice to watch something that isn't a redo of another show". Pretty classic Steve Martin and Martin Short stuff. I've not seen Selena Gomez in anything else, so I can't tell if she a very good at playing a emotionally repressed Millennial or that is just how she acts. It feels forced at times, but the three play off each other well.

Yes, but it still would've been funny. Just reminding nate82 that interviewing someone doesn't mean we hire them. Staley might be Barry 2.0, but at least Staley actually has had a defense in the top half of the league.. The Bears decided to interview the original...

Or for the Bears to pick up Joe himself...

Personally when I read it the first time, I thought you were knocking him for only being a U-ILL video analyst scout (or whever oddball title he holds). It wasn't clear you were thinking he was more available...sounded like you were downgrading him for it.

I was wondering what they were going to do for assistant coaches... Just keep the same? Bring back Stotts? Good to see them balance out skillsets.

Sure, this is true. But it is also because we saw what he did (both NFL playing days and as DC) and that he did it well. I don't see anyone clamoring for Paul Chryst as one of our offensive coaches.

Seems like a poor outcome for the Brewers. Adding 1 year of control on Cease, but losing 4 years of control on Black (i.e. 2 years of Polanco vs 6 years of Black).

Or the refs...

I sign stealing easier in the NFL?

Boy, I misread that at first... I thought you said Nathan had better hair. 😅

I don't know... that is a lot of money for a guy that was dead last in hits, HRs, runs, and RBIs last year...

Yes, he seemed to back the wrong horse when he decided to stay at WI. But I don't think he had a realistic position at WI after Fickell was hired. Yes, Luke extended the olive branch, but I'd be surprised that included the DC position. Many coaches end up out of the league because timing doesn't work out and end up coaching with another team the next year. If Leonhard had coached elsewhere in college and has as successful of a defense wherever he was and put as many OLBs into the NFL as he has... yeah, I'd still be interested. He was always a smart player that outperformed his abilities. Seems like he is able to do the same as a coach too. That is the thing that makes me interested in him as a coach.

My thought in extending Jones would be rather than ask him to reduce his salary (which is an option), you give him another year or two in the $5-6M range. I think Jones wants to stay with the team, so a win-win, IMO. Sure it is a bit risky with a 30+ yo RB, but Jones (when healthy) is highly productive and unique among RBs. I only focused on "simple" contract changes with the point of showing that we can get a pretty good chunk of cap savings with simple moves. More complicated means are of course still there if we need more. Cutting or trading Jaire would be silly. He is still a great CB. I'm more concerned about the health of his back than his attitude. He responded well to the suspension. Said the right things, did the right things, fought hard for the team in the last games. I think a few issues we were seeing on D (more than just Jaire) was the lack of leadership from JB. A new DC - especially one like JL that would be more aggressive would handle Jaire better and get him excited to play D again. Cutting or trading him adds over $3M to our salary cap. That is why I didn't bother looking into that for the cuts.

Dak might've come in more NFL ready than typical 4th round picks, but he clearly had a learning curve. He splashed on the scene as a rookie, but stepped backwards for a couple years. Mahomes sat for a development year. Would he have done as well as a rookie? No idea. But he had a year to develop, read D, see how a good QB ran the offense and did game planning.... You can't use him as "he didn't need development" when he got a whole year of it before busting on the scene. Conversely, we really don't know what Rodgers or Love would've done as rookies. I'm guessing it would've been a rocky road based on what we say in pre-season with them, but frankly it is only a guess.

Not much there... The only things listed under what I could snapshot was his time with the Brewers and U-Texas. Wait... "Raptor Construction"... is he in business with Suter???

Rivera is on his second HC gig and really didn't show anything impressive. I honestly can't see him get a third shot.

What rookie QB doesn't take development? Peyton Manning took time (even if he started right away). Stroud looks good (I've not watched him), but I'll wager he made a lot of rookie mistakes. I do think that SO many QBs would benefit of sitting the first year or two. I've shown it several times before that few QBs on their rookie contracts won the SB, but generally, the reason is... it takes time for them to get good enough to lead a team there. Watch the teams that get reactive and impatient with coaches and QBs... you'll see that they have histories of bad teams and bad QBs. Now clearly... there is skill needed on the QB's behalf - physical, mental, and emotional. But at the highest level, the difference berween these guys can be small. So letting these guys learn and grow before the bullets fly (and before the fans or reporters can tear into them) is critical to give them the best case for success. Also,

Favre (not drafted, but Wolf tried), Brunell, Brooks, Rodgers, Flynn, Hasselbeck, Love... The Packers seem to do a pretty decent job.

You obviously don't know many Bears fans. I worked in Illinois long enough to know. Granted, I worked with a lot of people in Detroit... but most of them (as Lions fans) were pretty apathetic. Kind of pitiful actually. No bite whatsoever.

He looked very explosive in pre-season, but much "slower" in the regular season. Not physically slower, but reading holes and blocking... He looked better as the season went on, so I'm hoping he is thinking less and reacting more. He is making a big jump in levels and hopefully makes a big hop in his second year. The Packers still needs another RB. I think JL would be the perfect DC for the Pack. He is younger, very creative in his blitzes and coverages, and aggressive. HIs OLBs continually improve and he seems to get the most out of his talent. Kind of the anti-Barry. I'd think that players like Jaire, Clark, and Gary would really blossom under him.

Those 90s playoff losses were rough. Especially since we could never get them up to Green Bay (until 1998 when their "era" was on the way out). But it is funny how that has turned around in recent years... us beating them in Dallas so consistently. I was at the Kaepernick game in Jan 2014. That should've been a win for us. We were much better than them... except we had zero healthy LBs. Watching Mulumba limping along while chasing Kaepernick is a lasting memory I can't forget. Sadly, he was the healthiest LB we had at the time... Favorite Team: Packers Second Favorite: Whomever is playing the Vikings Third Favorite: Whomever is playing the Bears. I'm more neutral on the Lions. I tend to hate the Cowboys and probably 49ers more than Detroit. I've always kind of like KC though...granted I'm not a Swift fan so getting an episode of Entertainment Tonight with every football game isn't interesting to me... I don't want the SuperBowl to turn into that now.

Maybe of interest would be Josh Allen's 2021 extension - 6 years, $258M total, $43M average (similar to what is being proposed for Love). His 1st year cap hit (his 5th year on rookie deal) was $10M. That at least makes me think we can stay within Love's current cap hit of $13M for next year.

To keep this from being redundant with the Offseason thread, I'm trying to focus solely on what we do to improve our cap situation After a couple years of salary cap hell, I think the Packers might be able to pursue some players in FA as well as take care of a few of their own. Gute did well in his last major FA spending spree (Amos, Z Smith, P Smith, and Turner) so I'm interested what he can do this year. But in order to get there, there is some cap management that needs to be handled. Current Cap situation: With an estimated CAP of $251M, we have a total of $8M free for 2024. Our highest CAP hits are as follows: Last column is % of cap. Second to last is the 2024 cap hit. The Release Options: Bakhtiari: Probably the most unsurprising action the Packers can take is to release Bakh for a cap savings of nearly $21M Campbell: De'Vondre is a player that really hasn't been living up to his contract. He is still helpful on the team, but I'd say there are 75% odds he is cut for the $2.6M cap savings. Newman: Cutting Seinfeld's mortal enemy doesn't save much on the cap ($124k), but just needs to be done. 100%. Jones: Aaron showed his team worth this last year so this would be a very hard cut to swallow. But he will be 30 next year and that age doesn't agree with RBs typically. Cap savings of over $5M if cut. He is in the last year of his contract. Chances of being cut: 10% Clark: Kenny is another player that might not be holding up his contract. Slated to be paid $22M this year on the last year of his contract (note payment, not cap hit), it is hard to say he is providing that level of value. He played very well down the stretch, but that is a hefty price. However... we only save just over $3M by cutting him (thanks to previous void year adds). Chances of being cut: 5% Extensions: Jordan Love: The clear option for an extension. The real question here is if his extension will save money on the cap or not? His current cap hit is $13M, but I'm seeing average contract value of $44M. So it is hard to guess the cap impact there. I'll assume $0 cap savings for the purposes of my thoughts here. Clark: Kenny doesn't make a compelling cut option and is still playing at a high level. He is 28 now, so a good possibility to reduce his cap with an extension. The next three years of the cap are already filled with about $22M via void years on Clark's deal. I believe an extension might be able to clean that up (some). Or at least reduce next years $14M cap hit. I'm going to guess we can save $10M on this year's cap with an extension. Jones: Aaron is in his last year of the contract, but is about to turn 30. He is playing at a high level, but injuries are popping up more often. I'd still entertain an extension of 1 or 2 years. Jones is another that has around $12.5M in void year cap hits over the next 3 years. If we extend Jones, I'd guess a savings of around $5M for 2024. Contract adjustments: - Gute used void years and converting salary to bonuses many times in years past. I hope he doesn't use that trick much in the future as we have numerous people hitting our next three years of caps due to that trick. Alexander: Jaire's extension is pretty new, so I wouldn't touch that... but perhaps converting his salary to a bonus would reduce this year's hit (pushing more to the future two years - no void years). I'm not crazy about these moves, but just to see the "edges" of our options. This would save nearly $4M. Similar could be done with Jenkins for similar savings. So, if you cut Bakh, Campbell, and Newman, we get to a cap space of $32.5M. If you extend Clark and Jones, you gain another $15M (my guess), so that puts us at $47.5M in cap space with a 43 man roster. And that is without the void year gymnastics we've done in year's past or other minor things that could be done (i.e. Jaire/Jenkins conversion of salary to bonus) to gain a few more millions here or there. That should give us ample room to extend Love, sign our draft picks, rebuild our safety room, and prop up other areas of weakness. Note: all cap savings comments are based on a pre-June 1st cut. I'm not advocating pushing our "issues" to next year and the cap space doesn't help us that much after June 1st anyway. Note 2: Data coming from spotrac.com. They have a nice feature to "manage" the team and make your own cuts or simple restructures.