JosephC

Looking great on paper is one thing. Performing is another. But looking at that Steelers defense on paper, that group looks like it could be really, really good.

I would imagine LaFleur loves Rodgers. 4 years of Rodgers/LaFleur = 11.75 wins per season. 3 years LaFleur - Rodgers = 9.67 wins per season. The first three years with Rodgers still makes LaFleur's overall record look really, really good.

Hard for the Packers. Now they will have to add at least 3 more high paying jobs. #1 - Sideline Instant Replay Specialist. #2 - Instant Replay Coordinator. #3 - Instant Replay QC. As the smallest market team in football, without a billion dollar owner that can just sell off part of the team for a quick cashflow that would be north of 100 million, I see this as potentially putting the Packers at a huge competitive disadvantage. Policy will really have to do his job and find more streams of revenue in order to keep the franchise afloat.

The post wasn't meant to cast doom-and-gloom over the Packers cap situation. They are not in bad shape. The post was meant to explain that adding a player like Vita Vea at this time is pretty unlikely and the cap plays a big factor in that.

This one looks promising-

Packers just signed some no-name kicker. He's a German guy that played in the European League of Football. Very interesting.

The Packers are already in a situation where they will likely have to cut Jacobs, Banks (post June 1 designation), Hargrave and Franklin in order to make the 2027 cap work...and that is prior to a potential Kraft extension. I think they are done looking for any high priced players from outside of the organization this off-season. Just for kicks, I went to OvertheCap and plugged in guess numbers for the Wyatt contract (they don't have the details yet), and then put in a new 3 year, 72 million dollar deal for Vea (25 million dollar signing bonus). Note that Vea has a 17 million dollar base salary for 2026 which would not work for Green Bay, so this would be a new contract that would run from 2026-2028. After doing that, the Packers would be 8.8 million under the cap for 2026, and approximately 18.8 million over the cap for 2027. Cutting Jacobs (post June 1), Banks, Hargrave and Franklin after this year would take them from 18.8 million over to 29.2 under...and generally I would like to think they would prefer to roll into an off-season with at least 40 million to work with. Kraft is probably the last "larger" deal we are looking at over the next few months. What will really complicate matters more is if they decide they need to do a Love extension this next off-season. His 2027 cap number does not demand it, but they might feel the need to do it anyway. And unlike most extensions, where the first year of the deal has a lower base salary and give the team some short term cap relief, I would not expect that with a Love extension, just because I think the numbers of the deal will be staggering.

The Packers had a stock sale in 2022 that reportedly raised 65.8 million. The "rainy day fund" stood at 474 million in the 2023 financials. https://thebusinessnews.com/northeast/packers-report-another-solid-financial-year/ Three years later, the rainy day fund is over 700 million. Did they really need to do that stock sale in 2022? Where did all that money come from in the last 3 years? This team does not need more money from stock sales or free government handouts. The NFL and the Packers are swimming in money.

Policy is an ass. Packers get 432 million in national shared revenue. So they pay all the player salaries and misc expenses, and still have roughly 100 million left over. That does not even include "local revenue," which was reported to be just a shade under 300 million. So as you already said, when all is said and done for the year, they wound up +132.5 million. The rainy day fund is now 700+ million. And despite all of this, Policy is whining about how difficult it will be to stay competitive in the current environment. Get ready for the big swindle. Get ready for the state to kick them a free 30+ million per season for no reason at all. Hey, if the University of Wisconsin can get 14 million per year to pay football players, why shouldn't the Packers get a 30 million dollar "need this to be competitive" donation every year. Big-time sport owners/CEO/athletic directors, nothing more than pigs to the trough when it comes time to grab some taxpayer money. Can I say "ass" on this board? Whoops, I guess I already did. Policy is an ass.

Back in the late 80's/early 90's, there were a couple bars that I frequently visited where the air quality meter was probably over 10,000.

One thing is for certain, Gutekunst loves injured players.

Nice quote. Just more evidence how completely clueless the former AD was. It seems like there is a growing crowd of Luke Fickell fans in Madison, with more and more people thinking the football program's woes are less about him and more about his former boss. I personally don't agree with that, as I think there were some real obvious missteps right from the beginning (3-3-5 stack with smaller front line was never going to work in the Big 10), but have to say that I am willing to forget and forgive (for lack of a better term) with Fickell. It's just too bad that he's likely a dead duck, even a decent-to-good season probably won't save him as the new AD will probably want to hire "his guy" and the administration probably will approve the Fickell buyout because they won't want to handcuff they guy they just hired. And after the reports out of spring practice, a "really good" (not great) season looks to be a long shot as there appears to still be many deficiencies on the roster. Hopefully some of the positional groups can show some real improvement in the fall.

Of the people who were formerly in the athletic department, it seemed like most people were rooting for current Northern Illinois AD Sean Frazier. The first name that came to my mind was Jamie Pollard. However, it seems that Pollard is entrenched at Iowa State and would be unlikely to leave that job for any job. For people that had no Badger connections, Boise State AD Jeramiah Dickey seemed to be a guy that was getting a lot of mentions and would have likely been a popular hire. I'm not a fan of the Eichorst hire, but in the end it will all come down to what football coach he hires (yeah, I'm just assuming Fickell will be fired), and he could always hit on one. It's not like he's going to come in and ruin a good thing unless he sticks his fingers in the basketball pie and mucks that up. It's not like he can destroy the football program when the football program is already at a 35 year low.

This won't really surprise anyone, but word in Madison is that Alvarez "highly recommended/told the administration" to hire Eichorst and that is why he got the job. The link below is just one article, but I think it pretty much sums up the reaction in Madison. Lots being made of the Pelini firing and Eichorst's canned comments about learning and striving to be better. This is not a popular hire in Dane County. https://www.channel3000.com/news/im-looking-in-the-mirror-wisconsins-new-ad-shawn-eichorst-grew-from-shortcomings-at-nebraska/article_66dba940-5be5-4a49-ac0d-efbb8e04a11c.html

Not sure where all you guys are at, but as a Dane County resident who works with/knows many Badger grads and supporters of the football program (not major donors, but donors nonetheless), I can tell you that this hire has gone over like a lead balloon. One hire is obviously not a big enough sample to draw any definitive conclusion. It's just so interesting how, at the one AD job he had at a big school where he hired a football coach. he got rid of a guy that was good for 9 to 10 wins pretty much every year, and after making the change the program dropped to a 4 win team. He literally took the program to a low that they had not seen for 50 years. Hmmm, this sounds familiar. 7 straight losing season, and only now are they at the point where they have kind of clawed back to average. Hopefully, if Eichorst is really a dud, maybe we'll be incredibly lucky and he'll hit on his "blind squirrel" coaching find right off the bat. One thing is for sure, Fickell is a dead duck. I'm not even sure 8 wins will save him. I'm just looking at the Texas coaching staff, and if Eichorst hires someone like Will Muschamp, I think I will puke. And that's saying something, since I've stopped watching the games.