UpandIn

Correa made a LOT more sense. He and Semien would have been a better fit. Semien put up 6 WAR this past year but Seager had the worst year of his career. Other than that...I don't think the Rangers are quite as crazy are people are suggesting. deGrom came back throwing 100MPH again...won his playoff start and the 52M in deferred money plus the 20M team option makes it a reasonable risk after spending what they spent last year. They've also got a lot of young pitching in Lieter, White, Winn. The IF should be REALLY solid with Jung/Seager/Siemen/Lowe from 3rd to 1st. That's about as talented an IF as there is. Other prospects who are highly regarded and near MLB is OFer Owen White, Foscue. I think the Rangers are being overlooked. deGrom is the most dominant pitcher since Pedro. Perez is back as the #2, Gray as the #3 and then...a lot of really talented young arms to fill in. Plus, I think Rucker could be a TOR starter, but I think it's more likely he slots into the BP and could do so in the near future. We'll see, but I'm a little surprised to see the...well, surprise by others. There were people projected 3/135 for deGrom before FA. Seems like he just took less per year and more over the long haul and the Rangers bet on the most talented pitcher in the least 20+ years to continue and stay healthy from the end of '22 and that's as safe a bet as you'll get. I'd definitely rather roll the dice on deGrom than Rodon, but we'll see.

Imagine the Mets being mad they didn't have a chance to counter... There's also a little embellishment in this post. 4 years ago he threw 200 IP and won a Cy Young. 2020 he made 12 starts in 60 games, 3rd in Cy Young voting. Threw 92 IP in 2021(Still finished 9th in Cy Young voting). And then got injured which lasted into this year...and then he came back and was dominant again this year. I'm not the least bit surprised by the AAV over 5 years. I thought he'd sign for 3 at a higher AAV(and he almost certainly COULD have got more in AAV from the Mets).

This guy, getting Doubs back...see what he can do the next few weeks. I'd really like to see both with Love but that may not happen. This is the type of stuff that still makes the Packers games fun. Watson may ACTUALLY be better than advertised. Also...PLEASE stop playing Dean Lowry so much. Wyatt made a couple REALLY nice plays and it looked like he played just a handful of snaps.

You haven't seen the strides Fields has made? He looked...pretty good today. I know he had a couple picks, but this is what happens when you've got Teven Jenkins starting and the OL is terrible. But he dropped a couple really nice balls into EQ. I think the thing that'll hold him back is the running. He takes big hits unlike Lamar who manages to avoid them. Though as we saw today, you can't completely protect yourself. They also have 11 picks this year(though I think it was stupid to give up their 2nd for Claypool...speaking of which, so glad in hindsight the Panthers didn't take that 1st for Moore or the Steelers for Claypool from us) and 125M in salary cap space. So good chance they'll have a Jenkins on their OL next year even if they get rid of Teven. Then we'll get a better idea of how good they are.

Yeah...I REALLY would have liked Will Anderson...and it's definitely better long term if we'd have lost. But you can't actively root against the Packers vs the Bears...right? Even for the second coming of LT?

Turang is probably right on the bubble...and it's kinda silly. There are way too many things that this writer, who dug into this couldn't figure out that I'm not even going to bother. Having a premier player for an extra year of service time is more important than the pick...IMO. So I'll assume that Frelick spends a couple weeks in AAA...unless he's the rare guy they sign to an extension almost immediately...which I wouldn't be opposed to. His contact, defense and speed makes him about as safe a bet as you can get.

Oh...silly me. I could have SWORN you were talking about them relying on too many rookies rather than a literal chronological order or when the rookies arrived(in which case, he'd STILL only be behind Mitchell if I understand how...counting works). LOL...why are you so angry? You argued he hadn't spent enough time in the minors. Then you jumped into this thread(if feels like under multiple names) and played the victim without being mentioned...and why? Because people came up with a LOOOONG list of players who spent little time in AAA...including Brewers. But sure, "he should be an upgrade and in the lineup," is ABSOLUTELY the same as "the first player ever elected to the Hall of Fame before he retires." Just...take a breath bud.

They really don't ALL need to align. He's 29 and has a career line of ~.270/.375/.465. Just an average year from Winker and not his worst year would be a needle mover. And in his worst year, he STILL put up a .344 OBP.

I don't know...someone had a proposal that was close on the Trade Value site and IIRC it was Mitchell plus Carlos Rodriguez(RHP) for Diaz. That's too much IMO, but he is pretty much exactly what we're looking for.

Well...of course. That's ideal. And I think Turang and Frelick will both hit lefties well enough eventually. Hopefully Adames, who seems like he should crush LHPers can improve. Jansen would be a good target and could obviously be included. I went with those 5...just because they came to mind, were mostly cheaper in a trade or players we could sign without having to give anyone up. Contreras is an obvious long shot, but feels like the type of move they'd make if Attanasio was more involved. But Jansen and a 3 year might make sense. He's projected to get 3.7 this year so...maybe 9M next year. 3 year 25M with a 15M TO, 4M buyout? Murphy, Kirk would both work. It really feels like we might need a couple right handers, but I suspect they'll kinda feel it out, hope Ruiz/Wiemer come along...if not, there SHOULD be someone who can hit RHed pitching at the deadline. That's usually an easier skill set to find.

I love how you think this has turned into ANYTHING about YOU or...really anything even tangentially about YOU and nobody has said you "hate" Frelick(mostly because people just don't care enough). In fact, it's really difficult to follow the logic in your posts. It went from someone who wasn't as high on Frelick to you jumping in with...this; Unprompted; Brewcrew82 And then you...not addressing the point AT ALL; So the GIANT fact was that you were "blasted" for not "anointing" Frelick as the ROY next year(which was never the argument, the argument was that he could finish top 3 in ROY...which is what you need to get draft pick compensation). Also, there's not some new "BE about how that's not what you meant." It's REAL simple what he he's saying. Frelick's one of the top candidates for ROY. Ergo, there's a strong chance he'll be on the OD roster. The only two reasons he WOULDN'T would be because they want that extra year of service time...which would mean leaving him in the minors for about 6 weeks so he has less than 172 days of service time. This was explained...probably 3, 4 times. Or if he's injured. Otherwise, he obviously should be on the roster. FINE!!! You're under the impression despite almost literally EVERY top prospect who has spent very little time at AAA once they play well there because...it's generally a level for older minor leaguers who are waiting for a callup and a place top prospects spend very little time means Frelick won't be a part of the plans for the everyday lineup and if he is...they might as well trade Burnes, Woodruff and Adames(that's logical and not hyperbolic). He's also CLEARLY not the 3rd rookie, he'd be the #1 rookie given the 70 hit tool and the dominance at the higher levels, the things Flanigan has said about him as a prospect(ya know, the guy in charge of overseeing prospect development). But here's the point...it's not that you DON'T think he'll be in the lineup...it's that you KEEP whining about it and making these claims that people will "blast you" for not saying he'll be ROY, an argument not one single person has made. And I'm sure all you'll get for this is "why do you hate Sal Frelick," so that was probably just a waste of time.

Brewers projected lineup next year at this point. I cut and pasted this from another thread, but he had Christian Vazquez as the catcher. Makes sense, nice upgrade. Looks like a versatile, athletic lineup that has speed up and down the lineup, exceptional contact skills. Some power. Guys like Adames and Winker were both elite hitters in 2021 in the NLC and should bounce back(Adames just in terms of BA and OBP). Kinda given up on Yelich coming back with the power, but...I do think he should benefit more than most from the limits on the shift. Our Rotation is obviously as good as anyone if healthy. Defense, up the middle, outstanding. Turang and Adames. OF, Frelick and Mitchell are both CFers. Depending on who you listen to or what you read, Frelick is an outstanding CFer who gets good jumps but just doesn't have a good arm to he's a capable CFer. Mitchell is like a create a player in terms of athletic attributes. I didn't think he was great going back on balls last year, but I think that was just Miller Park and needing to get used to the OF wall. HOWEVER...the problem with this lineup. All the LHHs. The Brewers were among the worst teams in Baseball vs left handers. Their best hitters vs lefties last season; Hunter Renfroe at ~.840 Jace Peterson-.718 Andrew McCutchen .738 Luis Urias .752 1B - Tellez (L) .644 OPS vs LHP 2B - Turang (L) .782 vs LHP(reverse splits) in AAA. SS - Adamas (R) .699 OPS vs LHP 3B - Urias (R) .752 OPS LF - Yelich (L) .694 OPS CF - Mitchell (L) 1.000 OPS in 5 PAs, .892 OPS in AAA RF - Frelick (L)-.BA: .324 vs lefties, .333 vs righties OPS .875 vs L, .885 vs R DH - Winker (L) - .794 OPS in the worst year of his career, career OPS vs LHPers .661 OF - Taylor(.721), Ruiz (.465, 1.365 in 45 PAs in AAA) INF - Toro(.532 OPS, .559 career), Brousseau(.764 OPS/.832 OPS for his career). C -? The three rookies are all lefties. All three seem to have good approaches vs lefties, but they're still lefties and they're still most importantly rookies. But that's 6 lefties among our 8 current projected starters with some bench players who are our platoon options. I brought this up when we traded Renfroe, and I understand the logic...he was expensive and Frelick was a good bet to replace his WAR for ~10M less. I'm also thrilled they picked up Wong's option. As soon as he had that 3HR game and his OPS jumped up 20 points, I thought there was a good chance we'd be able to get a good return(or at least be able to get out of the 2M we owed in a buyout looking at the 2B market), but a career .270/.374/.463 slash line AFTER a terrible down year...that's an outstanding return. But are we confident this is a lineup that's going to be able to help us fix our issues vs left handed pitchers next year? And I understand...we can't have a perfect lineup, there should be some RHed hitters who are available as the year goes on, we'll get a better idea of where Wiemer, Ruiz, the three rookies, even Yelich and Tellez are with the shift(though that's going to help a lot of lefties). Or do you think we need to go out and make a move for an impact C/1B who can hit righties? I have 5 possible targets... 1-CJ Cron He had an OPS vs lefties last year of .695 vs lefties, but .977 and over 1.000 the previous two full years. He's in his last season with the Rockies, he's affordable. Can obviously play 1B or DH. Seems like an obvious target. 2-Christian Vazquez-.823 OPS last year vs lefties, .732 for his career...which is solid for a good defensive catcher. 3-Wilson Contreras-A big longshot, but an exceptional athlete, still a capable catcher and given his athleticism seems like he's got 3-4 more years in him. Saw his projected salary on The Athletic.com that suggested he'd get 3/36...which I don't remember the author, but it HAS to have been Bowden. He's probably looking at 4/80. If we're in an all-in season building around the big 3...he seems like the guy to take a shot on. Can bridge the gap two Quero and in two years, short of a complete fall off, I don't see that happening, but...I didn't see LoCain or the Brewers interest in Darvish coming and this feels like the best way to finish off the lineup with a proven #5 hitter. 4-Mitch Haniger Wouldn't make much sense to go out and sign a RF when you just traded one, BUT...if he's out there long enough coming off a down season...maybe you get him for what you paid McCutchen last year? 5-Yandy Diaz He just crushes lefties and he's a guy who walks at a rate of ~17, 13 and 14 the last 3 years. K rate and BB rate is roughly the same. I'd LOVE to not have to watch more extra inning game next year where we start with a guy on 2nd base and we still can't score. I feel like a rich kid in HS. It's all set up for me and I still can't just get the run in.

I don't have a problem with that, but just to play devils advocate; Turner is likely going to get 10-15M a year...even if it's just a year or two...I also still don't see him leaving LA. So not sure he's a real option. Also, looking a little more at Donaldson's defensive metrics, he was +6 OAA last year at 3rd, Turner was -2 and Turner has reverse splits(still hit lefties more than well enough to be a good fit). Now...IF the Yankees are looking to move off Donaldson and eat most of the deal, I think that might be a better or at least more realistic option. You would be hoping for a offensive bounce back from him, but he's just a year removed from a .943 OPS vs LHPing.

I love the defensive upgrades. I this is an ELITE lineup vs right handed pitchers. But we are absolutely brutal at this point vs lefties. We need to bring in at least 1 or 2 guys who can be the weak side of the platoon. I'm great with banking on Turang, Frelick...little less so with Mitchell, but his defense and his speed lower his floor. But are we going to be counting on Ruiz, Wiemer, Perkins, somebody at catcher who can hit lefties? Because we were bad last year and as I pointed out, we're losing 3 of our top 4 hitters vs lefties, including the only guy who had an OPS over ~.750 vs lefties in Renfroe. Winkler is a great bet on a bounce back. I did see one comment that made me scratch my head. That Winkler takes Renfroe's place as the clubhouse douche now? Never heard anyone say anything negative about Renfroe, but...whatever. If the Brewers can get lucky and Ruiz and Wiemer are ready and can hit lefties or just we as a team somehow find out a way to get better vs lefties, with the young players, speed, the contact, maybe Toro helps vs lefties and fulfills his potential as well. If those things happen, I could see us getting back to the 95-100 win team we were in '21. But those are some pretty big risks. The Yankees are looking to dump Josh Donaldson...who definitely IS a clown. And also very near the end. But they're reportedly willing to eat most of the contract in order to move him. I wonder if that's something we may consider? He wasn't good last year, but if the Yankees are eating 12M, he could get time at 1B/3B, Urias could kick over to 2B vs lefties or he's just a DH/1B? Still got plenty of glove for 1B. Just a thought if it's a very low risk deal in which the Yanks are looking to move a guy for a lotto ticket type return to open up 3B.

Prepare to hear how important AAA games are for elite prospects who continually get better on a year to year basis and how they need more AAA games despite an enormous list of prospect(including virtually every good prospect we've brought up in the last ~20 years and the top hitters in baseball) having played very little or now AAA ball...and many having played fewer games at AA as well. Also, the premise isn't even a good one. Frelick's Defense; How did Kwan put up 5.5 WAR last year? He hits for less power and is a worse fielder?

I REALLY hope not. We really will need to be able to hit left handed pitching at some point. Winkler would be perfect...if he was a right handed hitter.

I'm just glad it's not his knee. Of course dude is taking a LOT of **** for this...as though it's his fault. Still really curious why they restructured Lowry now. Has to be for some type of extension as they had plenty of cap space available for this year given where they are and it's not like they need money to sign Beckham.

I'm not talking about switching to a 46 old Bears Defense, I'm talking about some simple schematic difference that are already built in, but not used. A penetrating 3-4 with more man coverage, moving players around. Put Quay on the edge with Campbell back, let him rush the passer a bit more(anything but just a delayed blitz the doesn't stress the OL AT ALL as it' the only blitz the Packers have shown all year from their MLBers). I also don't care if it makes a difference this season in their Wins or losses. They're 4-8. They're out of it. It's more about individual players. Also...I really don't care if Savage got outplayed by Rudy Ford. Who cares if one was a 1st round pick and the other wasn't? I'm not less excited that Aaron Jones became a great back because he was a 5th round pick. I'll take good players where we can find them. Nixon hasn't really outplayed any of our 1st round picks or highly paid CBs. He's been healthy. He was great as a returner last game. But on defense he hasn't been as good as Jaire or Douglas(really not that close) and he's been similar to Stokes...but when just with much less pressure on him as a slot CB. Also, take the guy who was #1 per PFF in press man and ask him to start playing a bunch of Cover3 when you get Jaire Alexander back...that's just wasting his talent. Obviously you can't play man on every play, but giving WRers free releases and 10 yard cushions and then wonder why our defense isn't getting home. Shocking. Nixon is a smaller but physical slot back. Lets see him coming off the slot, on run blitzes, whatever. Until Gary gets back and if you don't get more from the DL, you need to generate some pass rush or even good corners will look bad. Ford has looked great. Put him in a more aggressive style off offense where he's not playing inside shade on the TE in quarters, but make him cover the deep middle and lets see how he does. Maybe not the best fit for him, but it's a lot better than asking Savage to come down from quarters and play the C gaps like Barry has done and we already know Ford can do that. So it has absolutely nothing to do with this season. It has to do with figuring out what you think these young guys can be moving forward. And no DL should be getting more snaps in sub packages than Wyatt. He's made guys look bad this year as a pass rusher...but on 8 snaps a game, he's not going to have much impact. I see no reason to keep Barry around at this point. You know he won't be back next year and the only goal from this point on should be seeing what players you can expect to contribute next year. Grey has been advocating for a more aggressive playstyle, the players are frustrated. Why prolong the inevitable? Unless it's to move up high enough to get the 2nd pick in the draft...which is sadly, still realistic and I guess at that point, trade back for a bunch more picks so you have multiple 1st rounders...or just stay where you are and add Johnston; That'd at least make more sense than what we're doing right now. .

Or...he is it and having coaches who've never called plays actually matters? It was like BB just wanted to put him in position to fail this year, so he never got a big head like Brady and ever thought to leave him. QB play in the NFL is just...off the charts compared to any other time. The rules so they don't get hurt, the development, longer careers. I love Rodgers, and there are DOZENS of plays that would make my point, but Rodger would NOT stay in this game...or play for 5 years following it; Pre-season GAME-about 30 seconds in;

It'll take a lot, but nothing too crazy to get this offense back among the best...IMO. -Healthy Rodgers(or less likely, Jordan Love really is "that dude," and he has a big breakout year. Not ready to buy into that after 9 throws, but man, he made some INCREDIBLE throws. Even if you go that route, you'd probably take a year to let the cap reset. Preston, Aaron Jones, Amos, among others would be gone). -Bakh to continue to trending in the right direction. If he's not, then you need to look at Parris Johnson, Skoronski, Broderick Jones(all 1st round picks assume we're not in position to draft a Will Anderson or maybe a Jalen Carter and instead in that ~10 range). If Bakh is healthy and you think Caleb Jones/Walker/Tom can develop, you may not need to use your 1st on an OT or you could trade back to add a 2nd+a 3rdr(which you'd of course combine with your own 3rd to move back into the 2nd as our record with 3rd round picks makes Steven Avery look good. -Either re-signing Jenkins(which will have to be done before FA starts or he's going to be a Chicago Bear with former Ole Miss coach Luke Getsy the OC down there and the Bears having 125M in cap space). Zach Tom could replace him. HOPEFULLY Sean Rhyan is up to the job as well. -The WRers have to develop, AND they have to add to it. Quentin Johnston is almost a ridiculous option. He's so similar to Watson physically. More of a hands catcher. He LOOKS like he's got the same quickness, but he can't. I don't think a team can have two 6'4/6'5 Wrers with RB type quickness. He may be gone by the time we'd pick even if we get the 10th pick. Addison, the Justin Jefferson like smooth route runner with elite hands might be the best pure WRer in the class. Could also be a top ~10 pick. If they're gone and we're not going to target an OL, I'd trade back...again, unless there's an edge who's dropping. Boutte(Donald Driver but bigger IMO) should be in the 15-20 range IMO. Doubs in the intermediate game. Toure as a slippery #3/4 WRer should give us a MUCH better WRing core just with a year under their bets and chemistry with Rodgers. TE would still be a problem, but someone like Arik Gilbert in the 5th...could be a fun option. Lazard coming back would basically be like a hybrid TE/WRer even moreso if you have Watson, Johnston, Doubs and Toure Cobb...I guess if Rodgers is back. For the vet minimum, but you have to be able to do better. -Yosh has to continue to improve, but he has every year. I'd like to see him locked up now. Incredible athlete, seems like a hard worker, the best on the team and one of the better tackles at getting out and screens or pulling(not Lane Johnson, but very good). -Tom needs to get stronger, but...he's got EVREYTHING else you need. I MIGHT consider moving him to center and then letting Myers, Newman, Rhyan, Walker, Runyan and whoever else we draft...and we will draft someone else. RB-For as "replacable" as RBs have become, Aaron Jones may not be...but he's got a 20M+ cap hit, We need to either bring Aaron Jones back on a restructured deal, OR we have to use that 2nd round pick to target a guy like Gibbs, Archane...Tucker from 'Cuse, OR the kid from Michigan is amazing to me. He runs SO low to the ground, he has incredible balance, he actually reminds me of Jones. A wild card in the later rounds would be the Darren Sproles clone from KSU, Deuce Vaughn. He's a little back, but he has the quickness, can be a return man, he's a great reciever. But he's more like a 5th/6th round pick and a chance of pace back. And AJ Dillon HAS to run like he has the past couple weeks. I don't know if he was hurt earlier this year, but he wasn't running with any authority. He is now. So basically; Figure out who the QB will be. That will re-set expectations. Rodgers=SB Love=Re-set the cap and hopefully have a good season while seeing what Love's long term prognosis is, but more like a 6-9 win team. OL-Healthy and re-sign Jenks. WRer-Continue to develop Doubs, Watson, Toure and if that Johnston or Addison is BPA with Love, get 'em. If they're there with Rodgers and not BPA...probably get them. -Figure out what to do with Lazard(probably re-sign), Tonyan(likely re-sign), Jones(Restructure if #12 is back). RB-Restructure Jones or look at Gibbs, Tucker, my favorite Corum or maybe someone like Evans or LaBorn from the 2nd(Gibbs) to the 3rd(Corum) to the 5th Evans, LaBorn or Deuce Vaughn. Sounds like a lot, but it's really not that much. It's just getting healthy, getting the young guys some experience and then HOPING with a premium draft pick, we can find a player who can have a big impact next year. Lots of obstacles with the cap...nothing we can't over come. Biggest questions are the QB position, but I'm feeling better about Love at this point.

Also, in a strange move today, the Packers restructured Dean Lowry's contract. They converted his base salary to a signing bonus. That clears another 1.5M in cap space this year. There's no reason I can think they'd do this as they've got...what, 7-8M dollars(more than enough for a 4-8 team to get through the season). The money also rolls over. The ONLY reason to do this is to create cap space THIS year to extend a player. Elgton Jenkins would make the most sense. You could give him a 5 year deal with the usual inflated base in years 3.4.5 but you'd be able to use this year as one of the years for his signing bonus making it more cap friendly. Yosh Nijman would make sense. He's going to make probably 4.2M next year though, so less likely it'd be him. They'd BEEN talking with Rashan Gary...and while I have little doubt he'll return like Nick or Joey Bosa or most Edge rushers and I KNOW Packers fans would be skeptical of this one given Bakh, It's possible they want to take advantage of the 2 years he has left on his deal. 5 years 100M would make sense for both sides. In a year, an elite edge is going to get 30M easily with the cap likely creeping up to the 265-270 range(And some pass rushers already near 30M AAV). You could make the GTD money smaller(I don't see them GTD'ing 80M while he has a torn ACL) so you could give him 30 SB, 45M GTD total spread out over 5 years(which would actually make sense why they'd need the little cap space they added). Then kinda like with Rodgers, put in a big '24 roster bonus. That way Gary gets paid NOW and the Packers take a little risk, but they could also get out of it in 2 years if...their bad run of luck with ACLs continues(Bakh obviously and Jenkins has struggled to recover). Could also be Lazard or Tonyan.

I don't agree with this at all. You know Barry isn't challenging the players and I don't agree they're not playing hard. They're just playing a soft, vanilla defense that basically makes the offense put 10-12 play drives together to score by keeping everything in front of them. A new DC could show you a lot about some of your young players. I don't think firing a DC in season has any impact on who'll consider taking the job the next off-season. In fact, there's already been rumors from people close to Leonhard that he'd like to be the Packers DC. Nothing official OBVIOUSLY as that'd be tacky on his part and...he's got a job and the job isn't currently open, but teams fire coaches, OCs, DCs all types of coaches in-season and have no trouble attracting top talent. I think this is a huge part of it. Quay Walker has been a little up and down, but when the defense was playing well...but just on the field ALL game(figuratively) and getting worn down, you could see him going sideline to sideline making tackles. One game...Jets maybe, but he ran down an outside zone sifting through the wash, then made play on the other sideline on a little flat route for a loss of a couple yards, then came up and made a really nice, hard tackle on a checkdown. Now you see him and he's out of control, he's going for the strip. It's not just him, but as I think he's got as much upside as anyone on the team, it stands out, but he's going for the strip...resulting in the most reliable tackler coming out missing tackles. Ford is a guy who's looked really good, all thee you mentioned. Wyatt has shown good effort, but we're just banging our head into the wall with this front. Wyatt is a penetrating 3 tech and he's being asked to anchor and he's done that alright, but then Lowry is getting moved off the ball. I absolutely think Johnny Grey could give these guys some new life and give you a better idea of what they can do in a different scheme.

The best teams teams in the NFL are the teams that play press man the most on 3rd down. The Bills(over 50), KC(over 50), Eagles, Bengals, 49ers, Cowboys, Seattle. You need pass rushers who can get home(we lost that with Gary, but I expect a Nick Bosa like comeback). You need the DBs who can play sticky. We've certainly got that. And then you need a DL who can get pressure up the middle. The kid from Baylor might finally be the answer. Wyatt is going to be a really good player in a 3-4 penetration type scheme(which Leonhard runs). Ika from Baylor, the 6'4 358 LB DT who can actually move, ala Vita Vea can collapse the pocket and get pressure in their face. Quay can get pressure on the QB if you're not so predictable, or he and Campbell can play those hook zones. Jaire/Stokes/Douglas can just flat out cover. The problem isn't playing Man, it's being afraid to and now...you lost that marquee pass rusher and Barry can't generate any other pass rush. Those rubs take time and are risky for the offense...and are passed off by good defensive teams who prepare well and see it coming.

Eric Stokes was the #1 rated CB in press man coverage last year. Douglas was top 10(I'm guessing his pick 6's skewed that, but...all the same). Jaire didn't qualify, but obvious it's where he excels. Early last year in the same scenario, MLF had to explicitly tell Barry he wanted to be more aggressive. This year he inferred the same thing, they played well for a couple weeks and it seems like Barry went back to who he is. And AGAIN we saw the "Packers blitz." What is it? Just Quay Walker blitzing the B gap. But he starts 7 yards off the ball, so it's really not even blitzing the gap, it's just running into the guard. When you watched the Badger with their LBers, particularly when they had athletes like Chenel and Sandborn...so on, they would all have 6 sacks, they'd play the run, they'd crowd the LOS and then overload one play while a coule There's also been some regression; There's no question that Kenny Clark's play has kinda regressed this year(wouldn't be shocked if he had some issue, but he's been out there). Or maybe he's just not a good fit at DE. He's dominated at NT. Wyatt has looked great at times in his limited snaps. He should get more. Dean Lowry has not been good. Last year he was a REALLY good starter from week 4 until the end of the year. This year he's regressed to where he was in '20. Slaton didn't make the jump you thought he would. Stokes injured, played worse. Maybe that was scheme. Leonhard just does different things with both his DL and his LBers that create confusion and give his MLBer a lot of freedom to read and react...which is where Quay and Campbell thrive. That defensive front HAS to be better though.

Or Juan Soto, or Ryan Braun, or Albert Pujols, Or JJ Hardy or...MOST great players. Hiura is a particularly strange counter-point. So he came up, half a season, hit 19 HRs, hit over .300 with an OPS of ~.940. So it took a year for his being rushed to catch up to him? There is no point in keeping prospects in the minor for some arbitrary # of games that you believe to be significant. I think Soto had ~20 games above rookie ball. Kwan had even fewer games and is about as similar a player as you can get to Frelick(since I'm sure you'll get hung up on the Soto thing and suggest someone is claiming Frelick=Soto). He had 77 games in AA and AAA. There are a LOT of top prospects who skip levels or go straight from AA to MLB. Why? Because...again, no point in keeping a guy with an 1.100 OPS or a .365 BA in AAA when he can help your team just for the sake of more ABs.