HarveysWBs

This is nuts. Get your pass catchers when they’re cheap.

Not sure I even want to know what San Fran is asking for Deebo right now.

I got news for you. Hader and Burnes aren’t going to see free agency on Stearns’ watch. In the likely event they aren’t locked up with longer deals, they will be dealt for considerable value.

Two years post-injury, still not driving the ball with any consistency. We gotta get this guy figured out ASAP.

I’m not saying a trade for a bat won’t happen. I think it could make sense. But I’m not sure this offense’s current results represent anything like it’s true character. Progression towards the mean for nearly everyone should do wonders, especially Adames and Renfroe.

I for one would love to have that long-foretold Tyrone Taylor breakout start right about now. That’d be helpful.

Well, I’m glad nobody gets any trophies for April. The Crew would be lucky to come away with a participation certificate.

That would be such a 3D chess move. Gute could motivate his QB1 *and* his QB2 with one fell swoop! /s

I’ve read speculation that he soured on the franchise after playing “good soldier” and not getting market value for so long. But I’m guessing it’s more about maxing out on his last chance for a mega deal. We weren’t going to go five years, but Vegas could and obviously did. Simple as that, I would imagine.

I agree with this. It amuses me, however, to consider that this single sentence summarizes—what, 80, 90 percent?—of the conversations about the Packers for the last decade. It’s all Groundhog Day.

Wake me up when baseball is over. And even then, it is going to be a struggle to get invested. Winning another ring is all that’s left to do, and the NFC North is not going to put up a fight, so nothing matters until December. Of course, my entire strategy assumes there will actually be baseball this year…

I read a commenter on another site point out something I didn’t consider until now: if Rodgers retires this year, he has to share his Hall of Fame enshrinement with Brady. That alone is probably enough to get him to play at least one more year. The only question is going to be where he plays, but not if. I thought after the 49er game he was gone, then everybody on team franchise and team Rodgers hopped on the good vibes train, but I’m still not shocked if he goes elsewhere. It all could be a well-orchestrated effort to keep Rodgers’ trade value as high as humanly possible. If you put a gun to my head, I’d predict he stays, but I still think there’s a 20-30% chance he’s dealt.

Emboldened, yes, but no wiser. By all accounts they wanted Beckham in Green Bay, but he wanted LA. That’s free agency for you; you can’t press-gang people onto your roster.

I still cannot for the life of me figure out why any CB defending a Garoppolo pass ever plays outside leverage. Jimmy G almost never throws outside, certainly not past ten yards. He lives inside, so why people constantly give him exactly what he wants is beyond me.

This game looks awfully familiar. All credit to San Francisco’s pass rush, but it’s pretty awful that LA is losing at the half here. Deebo Samuel getting lit up again, but Kittle is getting enough to keep a few drives moving. Meanwhile, the Rams can’t cash in their opportunities and an untimely turnover looms large. This is really, really testing my effort to not fixate on what if with this packers team anymore. It’s completely pointless and unhealthy, but my gosh, the Lombardi was on a platter.

On special teams: if you recall back to 2019 when LaFleur wanted to build his staff, he was interested in Darren Rizzi for ST coordinator (at the time part of Gase’s staff in Miami as that ship was going down). If you look up the news reports on that at the time, LaFleur had what was characterized as a great meeting with him but the org let him leave town without a deal. Speculation was that Rizzi was asking for the moon. Who was making the final call on coaching decisions then (and perhaps still even now)? Mark Murphy. Good call, there, dude. Murphy isn’t getting enough heat, and this doesn’t excuse anything else being discussed, but Rizzi’s units have looked pretty sterling in New Orleans the last three years. Could have made a difference yesterday on some things that just looked like bad coaching.

+1. I should have just read your post before launching into my stemwinder. You’ve captured my feelings precisely.

I know everybody has their postmortem opinions and one more largely uninformed bloviation is probably unnecessary and decadent at this point, but “decadent” probably sums up the last 20 years of Packers football, and I’ve got nowhere else to go with this so here’s mine. I don’t have anything new or profound to add about l’affaire de Rodgers. I’m just…tired. He’s exhausting to have in your life, and being a fan of the team he is on is about as obliquely as he can even be said to be in my life. I live in Bear country; most my friends and in-laws are either Bear or Vikings fans, and as much fun as it’s been to beat those guys in the regular season, it’s been equally taxing to have to defend playoff choke jobs and his general chicanery. I’m done making predictions, because I’ve been wrong an awful lot, but it’s hard to imagine Rodgers and the franchise just trying to run it back a third time. It feels like the end. But whether it happens now or in a few years, some wilderness time is coming at 1265 Lombardi. As a fan, I find it refreshing, as right now I feel overheated. Having sky high expectations for my team nearly every year since I can even remember watching football (I was just starting elementary school when the Favre years began) has been awesome, and I have no illusions about how much I’ve been spoiled or what awaits with anyone less than a hall of gamer under center. But all summer and no winter leads to ossification and decay. The organization is undeniably competent, especially compared to the dumpster fires that govern seemingly half of the franchises in the NFL. But they have the feel of a group that needs a revitalization. And that brings me to the two most important men in that effort. Gutekunst came into this year taking the most heat of anyone in this organization, but I think has actually acquitted himself the best. His acquisitions have been rightfully lauded, as without them there is no way this team finishes with the #1 seed (and as hollow as that victory feels this morning, it is still a victory). As far as I can tell, coaching decisions are entirely out of his hands under this structure, so he bears no real responsibility for the horrific inability to find competent leadership on special teams, but finding a way to keep special teams stalwarts at the bottom of the roster without sacrificing the performance in the other two phases has to be a major priority. It isn’t THE priority for him, though. His tenure here is going to be defined by rebuilding the QB room and ushering in the new era of team history. It’s still a hair too early to judge the Love selection, but only by a hair. Without immediate improvement from him, that’s going to be a major strike against Gute. But busts happen and it need not sink the team long-term. It will require some humility, however, in recognizing a mistake and creativity and vision to identify talent that complements the type of offense we’re trying to have. Speaking of a vision on offense, that brings me to LaFleur. The kind of regular season success he has had, and the numbers his squads have put up are legit, but three straight years have ended with some questionable offensive game planning and execution. Needless to say, ignominious exits like that are not what you should get from an offensive-minded head coach, much less one lauded as a brilliant one. So I think the next two or three years are more important for LaFleur than anyone else in the building. In theory, his offense should be able to make things work with less than outstanding QB talent (see the competitiveness of the Rams and 49ers for all the evidence one needs on that front), but the offense hasn’t looked anywhere close to NFL ready with anyone other than 12 under center. I take comfort that Andy Reid needed a crazy long time to find postseason success, but my more pessimistic side thinks he may just turn into a Marty Schottenheimer type. Only time will tell. In sum, the length of this transition (whenever it comes—though I expect it now, an unlikely return of Rodgers only delays the inevitable with less hope for a title than the last two years held) all comes down to Gute and MLF. They need to have a plan, be on the same page, and execute it this off-season. Otherwise, an obligatory single year of pain could spiral into many. Failure is an invitation to reinvent, and it could be just what the franchise needs. But there’s no guarantee this thing gets righted again this decade if the two-member brain trust gets this thing wrong over the next several months. However it goes, it’ll be different. And I don’t mind the sound of different—different could be good.

All I got out of that is, “His team failed him, but I am still going to pin this loss on him, because I was going to regardless of how they lost. I’ll be clearer then: the most talented quarterback to ever lace them up led two scoring drives and netted ten points. He did not even get a pass into the end zone in this game. There is no way to sugar coat that. He failed. He wasn’t the only one, but when you wear Superman’s cape, you gotta be better than ten points at home against a suspect team. End of story.

Yeah I’m in absolutely no mood to hear a defense of Rodgers after this one. I watched the game, too. I saw his oline fail on the right side repeatedly, and his wideouts struggle to get open. And the special teams cost us ten points. And, and, and…he’s an mvp. We needed 14 points against the worst secondary left in the playoff field, and it didn’t happen. He wears this one. Plain and simple.

Goodbye Aaron Rodgers. Thanks for 2010, and beating the Bears, and all those regular season wins. All things come to an end.

Rodgers looks like Favre when he lost to the giants at the end. It’s just miserable.

An era is ending before our eyes

Aaaaaaand there it is. Seen this movie before

For all the hype around these two playcallers, this has been a reaaaally vanilla day for both squads. The conditions are not ideal, but not unplayable.