JosephC

I don't think it's as much about the 1 million dollars as it was about dumping McManus when they did. Once he's paid the 1 million dollars, why not keep him through training camp and make Smack earn his spot? Gutekunst has drafted 1 kicker previously. That player was a bust. Of the last five kickers the Packers have drafted, they've had 2 hits and 3 misses, a 40% success rate. Smack was the 216th player drafted. In the last 5 years, there have been 10 kickers that were drafted higher than #216. Of those 10 kickers, only 5 are still with the team that drafted them. The last draft that didn't have at least 1 kicker drafted higher than #216 was in 2015 (no kickers drafted at all that season). Smack is no lock to be a good NFL kicker. Why be so confident in a completely unproven player? Is 2024 so long ago that Gutekunst has completely forgotten what happened? What sense does it make to pay McManus an extra 1 million dollars, and then dump him months away from training camp before allowing him to compete for the job?

The savings might only be 2.6 million for this year. Over the cap had him with a $5,278,431 cap number for 2026. A pre-June 1 release would have been a $4,333,334 cap charge in 2026, and a $0 cap charge in 2027. A roughly 945k cap savings in 2026. Over the cap has the post-June 1 release as carrying a $2,666,666 cap charge in 2026 (a roughly 2.611 million dollar cap savings) and a $1,666,668 cap charge in 2027. It all depend on, by rule, if that 1 million roster bonus goes on this year's cap or next year's cap, and I don't know exactly how that works. The only other dead money on the 2027 cap is Nate Hobbs 8 million.

The bigger favor was giving him 1 million dollars for nothing.

Looks like I was wrong on my kicker prediction already. McManus cut. LOL, pay him a roster bonus and then release him months before the season.

Best guess at 53-man roster with current players under contract/drafted- QB (2) - Jordan Love, Tyrod Taylor I don't see them keeping three. RB (3) - Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks Pretty thin at RB considering Lloyd's injury history. WR (6) - Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Savion Williams, Bo Melton, Skyy Moore Another thin group. Melton is a clubhouse guy/coaches favorite, so it's hard to think he'll get kicked off the roster. I'd feel better if I had faith in Williams, but I do not. Another injury to Watson really sinks this group unless Golden really emerges and turns out to be a 1200+ yard, 8+ touchdown player. TE (3) - Tucker Kraft, Luke Musgrave, Josh Whyle NFL standard is now four tight ends on the roster, but I can't find any more than three. Absolute prove-it year for Musgrave, and I'm not sure if Whyle is really anything more than practice squad material. I'm definitely anticipating at least one more player will be added to this group. OL (9) - Jordan Morgan, Aaron Banks, Sean Rhyan, Anthony Belton, Zach Tom, Darian Kinnard, Jacob Monk, Jager Burton, Travis Glover I would think Monk would be one of the first guys off, but Gutekunst mentioned him during a recent press conference, so that is an indicator they still believe in him and he could stick. Glover/Jennings/Williams, it could be any of them, but since Glover has the most NFL game experience, I'll guess he sticks. Like TE, I think this is a group where they will probably add another player. EDGE (6) - Micah Parsons, Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Brenton Cox Jr,, Collin Oliver Hopefully they can pull a second really legitimate starter out of this group. But in terms of numbers, this may be the deepest group on the team. DL (5) - Devonte Wyatt, Javon Hargrave, Chris McClellan, Karl Brooks, Warren Brinson Another deep group. LB (5) - Edgerrin Cooper, Zaire Franklin, Isaiah McDuffie, Ty'Ron Hopper, Nick Neimann Swap Franklin in for Walker, overall I would anticipate about the same performance out of this group as they got last year. CB (6) - Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine, Benjamin St-Juste, Brandon Cisse, Domani Jackson, Kamal Hadden S (4) - Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard, Kitan Oladapo Maybe safety Johnathan Baldwin beats out Kamal Haden for the 10th DB spot, but for now I'd guess Hadden sticks. K (2) - Brandon McManus, Trey Smack Best guess is both look about equal at the end of the pre-season, and the Packers chicken out and don't just go with Smack, but instead keep both. P (1) - Daniel Whelan LS (1) - Matt Orzech Defensive side of the ball looking alright. I really dislike the depth on the offensive side of the ball though. NFL standard seems to have evolved to 25 offense, 25 defense, 3 special teams, and I only included 23 offensive players and many of those I do not have much confidence in.

McClellan was the definite, no doubt about it tendency-breaker pick for Gutekunst in the draft. McClellan's athletic testing just wasn't very good. His agility testing was poor, resulting in a RAS of 6.00. Going into this draft, the leaguewide average RAS for a drafted DL is 7.73, Gutekunst's average drafted DL was 8.49. The only below average RAS DLman drafted by Gutekunst prior to this draft was Karl Brooks (5.87). I am not a fan of RAS (see Shemar Stewart ridiculousness from last year), but it is worth noting that NextGen put a bottom 6 athleticism rating (includes combine invited DLmen) on McClellan. So from the athletic testing perspective, which history shows Gutekunst HEAVILY relies on, McClellan just isn't that good. I basically thought what Fabianich said above. Gutekunst just isn't going to invest a higher pick in a guy with no pass-rush upside. I would have been very surprised if he would have picked someone like Hunter or Orange with a high pick. A Tim Keenan or Dontay Corleone in round six or seven would not have surprised me, but spending a late round pick on a guy that a team would likely have on the field for about 30% of the downs is much different than spending a high pick. The question becomes, will McClellan be a good/at-least-above-average pass rusher in the NFL? I honestly think Gutekunst looked at that senior season, saw that McClellan had 6 sacks (which is a high total for an college interior defensive lineman) and is betting on that translating to the NFL. In the 3 seasons prior to that, McClellan had totaled 4.5 sacks. So there is a production number that indicates he can do it, even though the athleticism numbers say it is probably unlikely. They sent Milt Hendrickson out to talk about the pick, so Hendrickson must believe that McClellan definitely will not end up being a run-down only player.

When talking Enagbare and Van Ness, take a look at 2024. 2024 is year #2 for Van Ness, he was picked in the top half of round one. He played in 17 games in 2024, so was at least relatively healthy the entire year. In 2024, Enagbare played in 46.92% of the team's defensive snaps, Van Ness played in 39.30% of the team's snaps. Fast forward to 2025... In the playoff game against the Bears, Enagbare played in 68% of the defensive stats, Van Ness in 60%. Previous game was the meaningless game against the Vikings. Previous game was the Ravens game: Enagbare = 79%, Van Ness = 62%. Game before that was against the Bears: Enagbare = 67%, Van Ness = 41%.

I have no idea if this magnet exists or not, but would like to point out the 1994 season started with no CBA in place. The strike occurred in August and the rest of the season wiped out. Considering how ridiculously cheap the ownership was at the time (and it would get significantly worse a couple years later), it wouldn't surprise me if a "no magnet" cost cutting measure occurred prior to the season in anticipation of a strike.

I said it before and I'll say it again- At the combine, Gutekunst was asked about Van Ness' 5th year option, and Gutekunst immediately replied with, "you don't make decisions based on what a player has been, you make decisions on what you think a player could be." That is typical GM-speak for, "he has not earned that 5th year option, but I spent a #1 pick on him so we will be picking up the option."

I completely disagree that this was a weak seventh round. S-Robert Spears-Jennings/Oklahoma S-VJ Payne/Kansas State RB-Seth McGowan/Kentucky OG-Ar'maj Reed-Adams/Texas A&M QB-Garrett Nussmeier/LSU TE-Dallen Bentley/Utah I would have really liked any of those guys. There weren't many late round projected QBs that I'd strongly prefer over Kyle McCord, but wouldn't have passed on Nussmeier that late in the draft. I also really liked the following players, but wouldn't have addressed these positions (took 2 CB earlier, and I think the roster already had enough LBs). CB-Toriano Pride Jr/Missouri CB-Andre Fuller/Toledo LB-Aiden Fisher/Indiana LB-Red Murdock/Buffalo And regarding Uar Bernard and the Eagles, the Eagles hit BIG on Jordan Mallata, maybe the least surprising thing in this draft was that they are the team that made the modest investment in Bernard.

At the combine, Gutekunst was asked about Van Ness' 5th year option, and Gutekunst immediately replied with, "you don't make decisions based on what a player has been, you make decisions on what you think a player could be." That is typical GM-speak for, "he has not earned that 5th year option, but I spent a #1 pick on him so we will be picking up the option." Common-sense man would look and say, "is the previous 3 years an unreliable indicator of what Van Ness will be in year #5?" Ultimately, there will be two things that play key roles in the Van Ness decision. First, will Van Ness be a fit for Gannon's defense? Second, it will be more of a cap decision based on extensions and releases. I would think they would prioritize extensions to Watson, Kraft, Nixon and others over committing money to Van Ness. Then they have to come up with a plan for likely releases, that would probably start with Jacobs, Banks, Hargrave and McManus. Do the math. Add in the money for the extensions that they anticipate getting done, subtract out the money that they would free up with anticipated cuts, and then they have to see if they have roughly 15 million left over.

Packers will be about 30 million under the cap after June 1, but I'm guessing they would want to go into the season about 15 million under the cap and would prefer to be about 20 million under the cap. Thibodeaux is not cheap in that context. He'd be a 14.7 million dollar cap hit, and hasn't been an impact player after flashing in 2023 (only 8 sacks total over the last two years). Getting him probably wipes out all the available money they have. Would much rather bargain shop free agents in the 2-3 million range and look at OL, RB, TE and maybe a WR to fill the Wicks opening. One-year only bandage type contracts. OT-DJ Humphries would be worth a look. RB-Nick Chubb got into 15 games last year (9 starts), he would only be looked at as a backup option which may keep him healthier as the year goes along. I'm guessing TE-David Njoku would rather sit on the couch than play for <3 million, but at this point it wouldn't hurt to ask. WR-JuJu Smith-Schuster is another player well past his prime and would be cheap. He can compete with Savion Williams for that #4 receiver spot, he posted similar reception/receiving yards/receiving touchdown numbers to Wicks in 2025 and gives a 4th WR option if Williams turns out to be a bust (and even as a broken down old man, is still very likely to be a better pass catching option than Moore or Melton.

Mason Rieger to Dolphins Vinny Anthony to Falcons Austin Brown to Colts Riley Mahlman to Falcons Lance Mason to Seahawks Darryl Peterson to Rams

Watch them keep both kickers on the active roster until about week 12 of the season, when injuries and lack of depth force them to make a move. Would this really surprise anyone?

Two of Chryst's recruits were drafted.