Ron Robinsons Beard

Hopefully Ervin will be back in a couple weeks, so it's a moot point.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I truly think one of the team's biggest reasons for drafting Love was that Rodgers didn't buy into the offensive philosophy last season, so in response, the Packers mitigated that threat by acquiring a potential replacement. But something happened between the draft, over quarantine, or over the summer that made Rodgers decide to buy into Lafleur's offense completely and wholeheartedly. I don't know if the Packers' drafting Love made Rodgers' see his own career mortality approaching, but he looks so much different this season, both on the field and off. He's more introspective, and more laid back. His body language on the field, especially when a teammate makes a mistake, is much more positive. He looks like he's never, ever under any sort of pressure on the field. Last year he appeared nervous on the field, rushing throws and getting happy feet on the pocket. That isn't happening this season. He has the look of a player who is simply playing for the moment, and is through worrying about the future.

Yeah you can't win in the NFL if you can't complete more than 1 pass for 10 yards or more. That trade for Mack really screwed them. They put all their eggs in the Mitch basket and the basket broke. Mack is a good player. But he isn't a transcendent player. Other than one sack where Rodgers arguably held the ball too long and tried to scramble, Mack was completely neutralized yesterday by a swing tackle in Turner, a mediocre starting RT in Wagner, and a 36-year-old blocking TE in Lewis.

While it was pretty obvious that Nagy's gameplan was to mitigate the chances for Trubisky to make backbreaking mistakes through handoffs, checkdowns and basically a conservative, clock-controlling offense, I remember remarking during the second half how much he actually looked like a competent NFL QB that could theoretically win in the NFL. Of course, less than a minute later, he threw that back-breaking interception to Amos. I too hope that the Trubisky Bears era lasts for the next decade.

It doesn't hurt that the team that was supposedly slighted by the move resides in the biggest media market in the country. Had that move cemented the Panthers, for instance, being eliminated from the playoffs, nobody outside of Carolina would really care.

Agreed. There is little point to playing a Week 17 championship. How in the world would playing in a league that ends in Week 16 be significantly easier?

Imagine being an Alabama apologist. That's like rooting for the house at a casino.

As a middle reliever (and paid as such)? Sure. You could do a heck of a lot worse. I wouldn't go over $1.5 million on him, though. I don't think he's at the point in his career where he can any longer be considered for a rotation spot, either.

I expect these types of things to happen also. My real concern is who these acquisitions will be. Just not a lot out there that scream “we are contenders”. The rostered guys we do have outside a few, are just meh. Heck, even the top end talent guys have question marks surrounding them. Hopefully, it all goes well for the Brewers moving forward but it just doesn’t have a good feel around the organization to me. That is correct. It is very unlikely that the Brewers are going to be able to acquire major difference-making talent from outside the organization. It's going to take the top-end talent guys like Yelich, Hiura, Cain, and to a lesser extent Narvaez and Garcia, to step up and perform like that have proven they are capable of in the past. It's going to take Woodruff to continue to operate like a #1, and Burnes to continue the trajectory he showed in 2020. It's going to take a couple of Houser, Lauer, Lindblom or perhaps one of the young guys like Bettinger or File stepping up to effectively fill out the rotation. Yeah, lots of "ifs" there, but what MLB team outside of the Dodgers and perhaps the Padres now doesn't have the same type of "ifs"?

If the roster is still sitting where it's currently at on Feb. 1, I'll be concerned. I expect January to be a busy month player personnel-wise, though. Not sure if they will come via trade or free agency, but I expect a LHH 3B, a RHH 1B/3B, another utility infielder type, a starting pitcher, and at least one bullpen addition.

Or sometimes coaches are just at their best coaching players of a certain age group and experience level.

The later years of the deal likely will, but that's the price of doing business in today's MLB. Small market teams typically trade off guys like Yelich entering their prime earning years, basically serving as farm systems for the Dodgers and Yankees of the world. Personally I'm sick of that philosophy, so I'm glad that the Brewers took another path on Yelich. It will be a challenge, but having Yelich on this team likely means that we will be witnessing relevant baseball for the next decade, just like we have for most of the length of Braun's deal. The Rays have done that for years. They seem to be more than just a AAAA team used to stock the Yankees shelves. The Yelich signing is good from the fan perspective because we love him. it isn't good from the fans perspective because that contact may be why we don't have winning baseball four years from now. To maintain a winning organization we have to maintain one philosophy not jump from one to the other based on a player's popularity with the fanbase. Yelich gave us a bit of a hometown discount which may be why they did it and why it may work out. I hope it does. Having our cake and eating it too would be nice. I'm not so sure it can be done. If it can't then the choice is pay the fan favorite or have a winning team for the next decade plus. I prefer we go with the latter. Yeah, the Rays are the gold standard, but they have also been able to develop a ton of All Stars, and identify future All Stars and acquire them via trade. The Brewers, on the other hand, have not been able to do that. So saying that there is a choice between paying a fan favorite or having a winning team for the next decade isn't exactly accurate. I'll take my chances, given this team's development history, building around Yelich, rather than building around the Turangs and Garrett Mitchells of the world. Because reallocating Yelich's money doesn't necessarily mean they are going to be able to replicate his production.

The thought of having Wagner lined up across from Mack scares the living daylights out of me, to be honest. He's been pretty solid for the most part this year, but has been susceptible to speed rushers, and that is Mack's whole game. Turner handles those type of rushers more effectively. Also, Jenkins is the team's most talented lineman, so it would make sense to put him in the best spot to use that talent, at either LT or RT to go against Mack.

The later years of the deal likely will, but that's the price of doing business in today's MLB. Small market teams typically trade off guys like Yelich entering their prime earning years, basically serving as farm systems for the Dodgers and Yankees of the world. Personally I'm sick of that philosophy, so I'm glad that the Brewers took another path on Yelich. It will be a challenge, but having Yelich on this team likely means that we will be witnessing relevant baseball for the next decade, just like we have for most of the length of Braun's deal.

Christian Yelich turned 29 three weeks ago. I understand what you are trying to say, but if you are going to rip into the team's front office, probably best to at least be accurate.

It takes the Packers from having likely the best offensive line in football to probably middle of the pack. It is very fortunate that the offensive line depth is in a much better place this year than it's been in previous seasons. While we're going to see a fall-off going to a line of Turner-Patrick-Linsley-Jenkins-Wagner or Jenkins-Patrick-Linsley-Turner-Wagner, it isn't as bad as previous years when suffering an offensive line injury. Also, Lafleur's offense is generally much more apologetic to offensive linemen than McCarthy's was. Yes, we have been pretty fortunate with injuries this season so can survive a major hit like this, hopefully not a bad tear with other ligaments damaged and he can get back early next season. I wonder what this means for plans to release Wagner/Turner to free up cap room though. Didn't they go with Turner at LT when Bak was out earlier this year? It also just occurred to me that the last 2(Jordy) non QB/K that we gave a large 3rd contract to almost immediately tore their ACL. oof Yeah, Wagner just went from a certain cap casualty to likely a good bet to be back next year. That is going to make re-signing guys such as Jones and King all that much harder. It is also likely that tackle will be addressed early in the 2021 draft. Regarding this season, I wonder if Veldheer could be poached from the Colts practice squad?

Steamer has always been, well, a steaming pile of dog poo when it comes to Brewers projections. Also, IMO, WAR is a rough way to judge reliever value. That stat unfairly hurts relievers because it doesn't take high leverage innings and situations into account. It downgrades relievers simply because they don't pitch many innings to accumulate counting stats.

It takes the Packers from having likely the best offensive line in football to probably middle of the pack. It is very fortunate that the offensive line depth is in a much better place this year than it's been in previous seasons. While we're going to see a fall-off going to a line of Turner-Jenkins -Linsley-Patrick-Wagner or Jenkins-Patrick-Linsley-Turner-Wagner, it isn't as bad as previous years when suffering an offensive line injury. Also, Lafleur's offense is generally much more apologetic to offensive linemen than McCarthy's was.

He practiced yesterday, and Lafleur indicated his injury wasn't serious.

Bahktiari tears his ACL in a non-padded, non-contact practice, and is done for the year, and possibly the beginning of next year. Just brutal. Now the question is whether they go with possibly the highest upside group of Jenkins at LT, Patrick/Runyan at LG, Linsley at C, Turner at RG and Wagner at RT, or move Wagner to LT, and put Turner at RT. This just sucks. Sure makes me glad that they decided to hang on to Wagner, though. He hasn't been spectacular, but he is a versatile veteran. Turner has also been much improved, too, and might actually be better at tacke than he is at guard.

It's hard to know what to think yet. This guy spurned us multiple times. What was the reasoning? Just that Seattle was a better fit at the time, or he has no interest in being here? If its the former and he's excited to be a part of trying to win a championship, welcome to Green Bay. If it's the latter, I don't want him. He seems to be indicating via Twitter that he wanted to go to Green Bay, so he's cool with the waiver claim.

Are you sure you don't have that backward? Jones was a more established receiver and thought of as a 3rd down back...and used much more in the passing game than Williams. He had 30 receptions, 9 in 2 games as a redshirt Jr and then 28 as Sr. Williams was more of a check-down guy and had 15 catches his final two years at BYU(though he was used more in that role early on). I remember the main question about Jones was if he could be an every-down back or if he was more of a 3rd down back. I don't recall any questions about his receiving ability. Williams got more run as a rookie, especially as a 3rd down back, due to his receiving prowess, along with his blitz pickup ability. He was definitely considered the better receiver of the two after their rookie season. Jones has improved greatly in that department, while Williams has always been a fine receiver.

Because he has a small catch radius and he's never shown the ability to catch balls that are out in front of him and most big guys...as you noted with Henry, aren't good at catching the ball out of the backfield. Guys like Jones or Kamara can come out of the backfield and catch a ball over their shoulder. I've seen nothing that suggests Dillon can do that and the fact that he's got ~20 catches through College and the NFL is telling. Aaron Jones was considered a very good receiver coming out of college, and I don't consider Williams to be a very good pass catcher either. Probably closer to average. With both Williams and Dillon, you have to put the ball right on them. You can line Jones up in the slot or on the outside and have him run a slant and that's something I really doubt Dillion will ever add to his game. And if he does...great. Then he'll lose the "for a big guy" designation. I don't think this is true. Williams was largely considered the more polished pass catcher coming out of college. Jones didn't do much receiving, and that part of his game was considered a work in progress. Williams was quite polished as a receiver coming out.

The Packers are a substantially better, more talented team than the Bears. If this game is close, it will be because the Packers either have self-inflicted mistakes, or take their foot off the gas. Likewise, I could see this as a blowout or a game that comes down to a last second field goal. If the same Packers team shows up that just beat the Titans, the Packers will win by 30+. But there are no guarantees in the NFL.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what they do. Cots has their estimated payroll for 2021 at $127,802,500, and Bryant (proj $19M), Baez (proj $11.25M), Rizzo ($16.5M), and Davies (proj $9M) will all be free agents after this season. The Darvish trade certainly looks like a rebuilding move, and all I can say is that if they go into a rebuild, it's going to be a big one. It probably makes the best sense to pick one of Baez or Rizzo to keep and rebuild around, then trade off the rest to rebuild the farm system before losing them all as free agents.