BrewerFan

Well, I just listed 4 players from the last two years and I don't see every team going out and signing a McKinney or solving the biggest hole on their offense by giving a LG a big deal so you can move Jenkins over to Center. That seems like a move made with some urgency. Trading a package that reportedly starts with multiple 1sts and then paying a 30 year old 40M a year(nearly all GTD) would be the definition of desperate. I would have been all for doing that for Crosby...mostly fine doing that with Garrett and I don't think it'd be a good idea to do it with Hendrickson.

Ok...well, Jones has been quite a bit worse than the LT we currently have who's similar in age. I'd have probably taken Broderick Jones myself...and that pick doesn't appear to be a good one thus far. If he's not a developmental pick, then he's just a bust He has been substantially worse than Walker or Tom. The later, fine, he's a stud, but Jones has not been very good. Gonzalez has been very good. He was taken after another CB Forbes. I thought we were talking about pass rushers, but...sure, there look like two picks that were clear hits in that draft after LVN. Kancey and Gonzalez. That's easier to identify later, so I'm asking for this year. Who are the developmental guys you want vs the immediate impact players you think or hope to be there at 23? Gary and LVN were not late 1st rd picks. Many of the players I mentioned were picked in the same range. The point is, it takes most pass rushers a couple years to develop. That's why you draft them before they are a major need. AS for Love, I...just don't know how we're still talking about that pick being anything but a nearly perfectly executed transition from one QB to another. I don't care about a QBs rookie contract. It only matters if you have a good QB and it's wildly overblown. We don't need a QB on a rookie contract, we need a good QB. We got one.

To be more accurate, Powell said he didn't know. He said they COULD be transitory or temporary...which I would guess would infer he thinks they're going to work something out, but he plainly said they didn't know if they were transitory or not. Well...the reason I think Powell couched it like he did was because he also said the inflation from Covid would be transitory and he's taken...more than a little heat for just how wrong he got that. But again, I don't think he knows any better than anyone else how long tariffs will be in place. Obviously if they stay in place, they will not be transitory. You're talking about adding 10-15K to the MSRP of a new car...

I don't agree and...it seems like you're mostly just talking about Hendrickson at this point. Urgency doesn't mean desperate. I think signing McKinney, Jacobs, Brooks, Hobbs, I think that's some urgency.

The Dan Gable-Larry Owings loss might be more...culturally significant because obviously VERY few Wrestlers are well known and everyone knew who Dan Gable was. I think it's like Cael Sanderson, but I'm not actually sure it is. Gable was the most manically driven man, the stories of him are famous. Coming back to the Hotel after winning the World Championships, the guys are going to get some beer and play cards and...Gable is going for a 10 mile run because "the guy that's trying to beat me already started training." He literally changed Wrestling in Russia, Japan. They don't have Folkstyle like we do(as I'm sure you know) so they have schools and they drill their techniques for years before ever even wrestling. It's weird, it's more like a job, but there were world champs who'd come off the mat and smoke! Back in the 60s, 70s. Gable just wore them down and gassed them so easily, even if they could wrestle with him, they were too gassed. American Wrestling as a whole did that. And Lee Kemp is one of the most Regimented people I've ever seen in my life. Even now in his 60s(70s?) he looks like he's in shape to Wrestle and he's so intensely focused on things. I've got to meet him and know him a little bit through the Peterson brothers, Ben and John...and he's just an incredible man. Those are the guys who built the sport...

Well...if you want to talk about Wisconsin guys who won, 165, Mitchell Mesenbrink(his Dad was Ben Askren's HS coach and runs their Wrestling School together) and then at 174...from the same high school as Askren and Mitchell(and 2 other Wrestlers in the tournament) was Keegan O'Toole. And at 184, the defending Champ was Parker Keckiesen. Wisconsin has become one of the top...4-5 States for producing College Talent in the last 3-4 years and they've got some kids coming in the next couple years who are going to be absolute studs. Mitchell Mesenbrink, he wrestles for Cael Sanderson, the only 4X undefeated National Champ. Last year, he was in what was by FAR the toughest weight class. He had to Wrestle a kid from Wisconsin in the B1G finals and the winner would be the #2 seed. On the other side of the Bracket was Arrowhead's Keegan O'Toole, the 3X National Champion who at that point was a 2X Champ and David Carr, a 1X Champ who'd taken 2 2nds. Mesenbrink was an undefeated Freshmen, he scored a TD late in the match to make it 8-8 and Mesenbrink has the best gas tank in Wrestling(literally probably the world, not hyperbole). So there's 30 seconds left, scoreboard shows 8-8, David Carr has a stalling, but he also has riding time. Mesenbrink lost track of the score. He'd just taken him down and gotten 2 stalling calls and he wasn't even tired, he just didn't force it. He ended up losing what will...almost certainly be his only Collegiate loss 9-8 to one of the better Wrestlers of our Era, a 6th year Sr as a Freshmen. But yeah, anyway, Wisconsin had a bunch of AA, but 165, 174, 197 were all Wisconsin guys. Edit-I take it back. Another huge upset for the night was Keegan O'Toole LOSING. He lost to Dean Hamiti from Okie State(he had Wrestled the last 3 years at Wisconsin). So Wisconsin won t 165, 197 and took 2nd at 174 and 184, but 184 was the guy who lost this year to the first ever 5X National Champ and then won it last year and lost the two years before that to the 6th ever 4X National Champ.

IF you care, this was another HISTORIC match. Because guys got that free 2021 season, there was a Wrestler for Penn State who had a chance to become a 5X National Champion. 10X National Champion with the team titles included as Penn Sate is so insanely dominant. The guy from Northern Iowa is a Wisconsin kid from Nicolet. Keckiesen took 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st. He lost twice to another Penn State Wrestler Aaron Brooks(also a 4X National Champ...and there are only 7 of them, so...it's pretty wild Parker had such bad luck). But Starocci is going for his FIFTH National Title Not a ton of scoring, but it was exciting(at least to me, but I love good Wrestling).

Oh, one more note you may or may not know. Lee Kemp, should have been the first 4X National Champ. Got cut from Basketball, went out for Wrestling. Was 11-8 as a Freshmen. Ended up winning two State Titles and then went to Wisconsin. Freshmen year, he's in the National Finals vs...Chuck Yagla from Iowa. Again, the old days of Wrestling, you Wrestled 7 minutes and if it was tied, you wrestled a 3 minute mini match. 1 minute neutral, Then you each got to pick, top or bottom. AT the end of 10 minutes, it was tied...I think it was 4-4 and 1-1 Lee Kemp had the only TD. The referees then just...pick the winner. Three of them, write a name down and put it in a hat. He lost on referees decision 2-1. The critera SHOULD have been more TDs, then more TD attempts, basically whoever was trying to score more. But what they actually ended up doing was giving it to the guy who was older figuring the underclassmen would have another chance. So Lee Kemp lost and the first 4X Champ would be Pat Smith almost 20 years later. But, Dan Gable, the guy who dominated the Russians(and there were like 8 Russians just as there are today as they'd have a Russian wrestle for Bulgaria and Poland and whoever else). But he went through the Olympics and I believe he won like 38-1. Just dominated everyone. 1975 or 76 and he was thinking about making a comeback. So he's training and he enters the Northern Open at 150 pounds. Same weight there was this Freshmen from Ohio wrestling for Wisconsin. Lee Kemp would beat him...I believe 7-5 and that was when Gable decided he was good at this coaching thing and to keep doing that!

Gable's was first and...shocking, but bigger? I don't know He was great and his legend only grew, but, he wasn't as good as THIS Gable(especially since it's two HWTs). Stevenson had won an Olympic Gold already was...so much more dominant. And then the thing I HATE about how NBC covers Wrestling, you had a bigger upset in that very tournament than Karelin vs Rulon. That's the match EVERYONE remembers. They made a huge deal out of it...and it was a HUGE deal...but I don't think it was the biggest one in that 2000 Olympics. Buvaisar Saitiev is widly recognized as the greatest Wrestler of all-time. He lost to Brandon Slay. Now...first of all, Freestyle is more difficult than Greco. It just is. You get a guy like Lopez(Cuba, just won his 5th) or Karelin and they're so big, it's just pushing...which also makes it boring. But what made this even worse was they used to have these really lame rules where if you just didn't score 3 points, you went to the "clinch." So Rulon beat Karelin...just because of a rule change where you couldn't adjust your hands. No scoring, he didn't get in and take the Russian Bear down, he just had that size 52 chest and Karelin re-adjusted his grip. Soo anti-climatic. Brandon Slay was never even a National Champion in College and here he is, beating the...greatest Wrestler ever in the very same Olympics and they didn't even show it. To be fair, it was also in the Semi-finals, not the finals, so...I guess that takes something away from it. But Stevenson losing to Greg Kerkvliet, the defending Champ who had only lost to Stevenson and Adam Coon(current Olympian) in the last 3 years, that would have been an all-time upset. Stevenson losing to Hendrickson who he'd tech-falled(beaten by 15 points or more) the only other time they Wrestled? That's bigger than Dan Gable or Rulon. **Also, there are myths about Karelin. They're fun, but it's stuff like, "he hadn't been scored upon in 13 years, he hadn't lost in 16. It was just Rulon's coach trying to hype the match up for NBC to help Rulon. In reality, he'd lost in the World Championships in '97 to a Bulgarian and then in '98 he'd been scored on. Not that I don't still think he's amazing, but...the myths made it seem better. Those are some crazy upsets though. Watch Darion Caldwell vs Brent Metcalf if you want to watch a great one also! Still, Barstool and some others were saying this was the BIGGEST of ALL-TIME.

With Pearce, it's not even so much his weight, he's just a finesse player. I think you can play Von Miller at DE or...to stay more current, Princely Umanmielen given how violent he is with his hands, but...they'll have to develop. You can get by with some of them...if you have a well enough rounded roster. The Eagles go with smaller DEs...but you can do that with Jordan Davis, Cater, Hargrove and Flexter Cox when you draft Nolan Smith and bring in Sweat. If it's Pearce or a DT like Grant or Nolen(I haven't watched Harmon enough to have an opinion there). I just saw it when I was looking at Pearce(and more one dimensional speed rushers), but they brought him in for a visit to talk about...a DUI or something(whatever it was) just like they did with Wyatt, but Gutey was talking about how badly he WANTS to add to the pass rush, but if you're going with a guy speed guy, they're specialists and then there's some "Roster Math," that has to go into that. And then, he started talking about what happens if you need them to step in and play 40 snaps a game. That doesn't seem like as big of a deal to me as...using a 1st rd pick. I don't know that I'd take Will McDonald. Maybe in a year it'll be obvious, but 10 QB hits, 10 sacks. That's batting 1.000. That's not likely to hold up and again, just brutal vs the run. If there was a guy I'd look at, it'd be the kid from Michigan. 6'1 250, he's a little more stout and he's just relentless and I think you could get him in the 4th. Josiah Stewart. Just go back and watching some of the Packers DL play from last year...I don't really know what Hafley is doing. He may be outsmarting himself. It seemed, particularly earlier in the year, he put a leesh on these guys. 1 gap is 1 gap. Let them beat their guy, get into the backfield. You have great safety play. The DEs shouldn't be responsible for setting the edge in the base. They're responsible for that C gap and then the Safeties come up and they or the LBs have outside contain. But they looked more like 3-4. Almost a 2 gap scheme, at least on the outside and then on passing downs they'd let them loose up front. Later when you saw Gary or even Mosby making some plays, they were just shooting the gap. So if you're going to play a hyrid type scheme, then it really takes Pearce out of it(though I don't even think he'd be very good in the 3-4 or 4-3 vs the run). So I'd even get on board for someone with that body style, but they have to be just more physical. Jaylon Walker is a guy who has REALLY grown on me. He's that type of guy who can play off-ball, but is definitely better as an edge, I could get behind that selection as he definitely plays more physically. Jihaad Campbell is the guy I love that I didn't want to. I don't like using a lot of capital on Off-Ball, but it's really fun to think about what COULD be with him in the middle, Cooper as the WLB and Quay as the SLB. I really don't envision a scenario we take him, but...that'd be a fun fit and I think he can rush the passes. After that, Williams from UGA would be the player I think a lot of people would hate. I think he could give you 5-6 sacks this year, but he's just raw and I think he'd be 4th on the depth chart as a rookie(but a whole lot of upside). I think he'll be gone. After that, there aren't many I like. Day2 Landon Jackson. His length and athleticism, he cn get into the body of the OTs pretty well. I'd like him in Rd2. Bunch from Oregon, I think he's really interesting. Rd 3 if he's there or maybe we move around. Kennard you're talking about a guy who will need a couple years IMO to surpass Enagbare, but...could be something there with an NFL training program. I don't like either Ohio State Edge. Ivey is not as athletic as LVN. He's stout and reliable, but not going to add too much pass rush. Day3-early David Walker. I just love watching his tape. He seems like he's got a non-stop motor and he could surprise people. Not exactly James Harrison, but I do try and remember, being 6' or 6'1 doesn't mean you can contribute. Ultimately, I think our pass rush will be better. I think Covington will help, but Wyatt is so explosive, I don't believe Clark is that bad or it'll take 3/4ths the year for Gary to start playing well. Brooks, Wooden, I think we should be better across the board. BUT...there's no magic fix or immediate impact player who's going to change this defense unless we cave to the pretty insane asking price of both the Bengals and Hendrickson.

I hope Morgan pushes for that LT job. I'd be disappointed if he's not competing there. Walker is not good and it really shows up against good pass rushers. The idea that the OL held this team back and that Love wasn't getting pressured...he was. He had almost the identical bad throw % as Josh Allen, he had less time in the pocket on average and he was pressured 8% more often. On nearly 1 of 4 pass attempts, despite Love getting the ball out quickly in this offense, he was pressured. Walker is a guy who is almost certainly not going to have a long career given the knee issues he's had that caused him to miss his rookie year and fall to the 7th. Myers was one of the worst centers in the NFL(Gutey's biggest mistake is taking Myers over Humphrey). And if they think Morgan can be a really good guard and Simmons from OSU is available, I'd be perfectly fine with the Packers taking him. He was viewed as a top 10 pick before he tore his ACL at Ohio State. I think the OL has improved with Banks and Jenkins, but OL and DL are two areas you should aim for better than 'good enough.' You should try and find two elite tackles and a good OC. That's been the recipe for so many teams on offense and on defense it's getting home with 4 guys. And when you can do that, you can make the opposing QBs life hell by sending a 5th guy on occasion or just give them happy feet. The 49ers did that to us, the Seahawks did that when they had 6-7 good pass rushers rotating and Wagner, KJ Wright, Malcolm Smith or Tampa Bay with Vita Vea, Shaq Barrett, JPP and Devin White or Winfield. I want that elite pass rusher...but outside of Hendrickson which...I understand the appeal, I just don't agree with, they're mostly gone. Going back to the point I made to Adambr, don't you think finding a stud pass rusher is ALWAYS the goal? That's been the main thing he's talked about. It's REAL hard to find a stud rookie pass rusher at #23. Would you be happy with James Pierce Jr who is a situational pass rusher but can come in and use his speed to rush the passer, but is way too easily blocked by TEs much less OTs vs the run? As for the "if a player can't figure it out after two years, he's not going to figure it out at all," you should look at the top pass rushers in the league right now. Trey Hendrickson, 2.5, 0 sacks first 2 years. Rashan Gary 7 sacks his first two years. Dexter Lawrence took 3 years before he got 3 sacks and he wasn't a great run defender up until then either(and now he's the best DL in the NFL). Quinnen Williams didn't break out until year. Hasaan Reddick has 2.5,4, 1 sack his first 3 years...and 50.5 the next 4 Fletcher Cox, Greenard for the Vikings has 25 the last two years. He has 1 his first year and 1.5 in Yr3. Van Ginkel had 5.5 his first two years and was 2nd team AP last year Strahan had 5.5 his first two years... I think I could go on, but...it's not quite QB tough, but you have to be patient with DL. They can take a while.

Exactly how many immediate impact players do you think are available at the bottom 3rd of the 1st rd? If you're drafting a DL, they're ALMOST always going to take time to develop. Dallas Turner, the #1 rated edge last year, he didn't exactly light the world on fire. Oh, and Minnesota traded #23 to move up to...I think 16th and gave up a 3rd, 5 and then a 3rd and a 4th this year IIRC. Chop Robinson had the most sacks among 1st rd picks with 7. He also had 7 QB hits. That's similar to when Kyler Fackrell had 10.5 sacks and 12 QB hits. You usually get a sack for every 2-2.5 QB hits, so that was a lot of luck, but fine. And he was terrible vs the run. Both gone before the Packers pick but...even if they weren't. James Pierce is probably the most realistic options to bring in someone in the 1st who can get 6+ sacks, but he's going to get washed out in the run game(and I'm not sure the Packers want a situational pass rusher in Rd1). And he also will likely be gone. The idea that the Packers are looking at the draft board and thinking, "well, he could give us 10 sacks this year, but we'd rather take this player who is bigger and more athletic and HOPE he can develop into a 10 sack a year player in a few years? It’s not “an approach,” it’s kinda silly. Take the BEST defensive linemen in the NFL or edge rushers in the NFL. Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Neither played a ton as rookies(Carter was at 50%, but he was also considered a top 3-4 talent with the character issues. Neither were great right out of the gate Quinnen Williams, Dexter Lawrence, Jeffery Simmons, the BEST players in the NFL, top 10 picks, they weren't immediate impact players. JJ Watt? Wasn’t getting 20 sacks as a rookie. It’s the rare top 5-ish picks normally like Bosa, Mack, Donald, players of that ilk who come in and have huge impacts right away. Do you think Gutey isn't trying to find year one impact players? Or do you think he's prioritizing finding franchise cornerstones like those players who can who also have as much of an impact immediately as possible? He took LVN. Who had a bigger impact that year? He had the 3rd highest pass rush grade and he was good vs the run. LAST year when he broke his thumb, like the rest of the DL, he struggled. But he was better than McDonald as a rookie. So…I’m not quite sure what you’re looking for. Even the guys we’re talking about. Garrett was the 1st overall pick and the Browns weren’t going to trade him. Crosby was a fluke like Zach Tom in Rd 4. And then Trey Hendrickson, not even sure when he was drafted, but HIS first 3 years, he had like 2.5, 0 and 3.5 sacks before he broke out. I don’t know which players you think we should go after that we’re not, but it feels like it’s usually the result of mock drafts and then people don’t like them. Rashan Gary, he was the guy we’re talking about. Limited playing time, about the same production as LVN his first two years, then broke out in the 3rd year. But expecting an every down DL at ALL I the draft is asking a lot, asking for one later #23 in the first, you’re talking about getting lucky. I don’t see this as some “approach” of “philosophy” that Gutekunst has. If there were EVER a scenario in which drafting a guy to develop him has proven to be WILDLY successful…it’d be Aaron Rodgers and then after that, Jordan Love. And your claim of what the entire NFL knew runs totally contrary to pretty much EVERYTHING we heard, but you’re stating it like it didn’t work out great for us. We went from Rodgers, 8-9, salary cap hell, Love came in and we got BETTER, we have eaten like…what, 130 in dead cap space the last couple years(with maybe 20M more left this year). I can't think of a worse example of trying to use "this approach" as an example of why it's bad…and I’d rather have paid him last year when we did…than to have to offer him a new contract now this year when you don’t have a cheap year on his deal to roll into Jordan Love was top 10 in several advanced metrics last year despite a lot of things not going great. The WRing core was last in dropped passes EPA(or whatever it is that measures the number of 3rd down, 4th down, TD passes dropped) and he had the 2nd most dropped balls in the NFL by %. Love had injuries that limited him the first 1/3rd of the season. Love had a BETTER QBR, better QB rating, we went 11-6 and his losses were 2X to a 14-3 Philly team that won the SB, 2X to a 15-2 Det team, 2X to a 14-3 Minnesota team and then ONE loss to the Bears. But perhaps give me a list of players you DON'T want taken taken this year vs players you do. So if...again, James Pierce Jr is available and ends up giving you 7 sacks while playing 20 snaps a game vs a guy like Stewart who isn't as refined, but has far more upside, we can see which one was the better option in a few years. Or a Landon Jackson...who is also probably not going to put up the sack numbers this year as someone like Pearce may.

Hobbs has also said that Jaire was the first player to call him and he was excited to play with him. I didn't hear the comment, but I would suspect it was asking if he could play outside or something about how well he knows Nixon from his Raiders days. Almost all the reporting about Jaire absolutely being gone has come from Demovsky and his job is to sensationalize.

I see nobody mentioned this. Just got back from the NCAA tournament and witnessed what MIGHT have been the biggest upset in the history of sports. Not hyperbole. It's arguably up there with the Miracle on Ice and almost certainly the biggest in NCAA History. Gable Stevenson, coming back after 2 years off due to the Covid rule and some finessing of the system, he took a RS and then being a reigning Olympic Champ was eligible for and Olympic RS. He has been the greatest HWT Wrestler in College History. He'd spent those two years in WWE, got a tryout with the Buffalo Bills hoping he could be an Aaron Donald(Though at 5'11 265, despite Donald's quickness, he was already 24 and had never actually played Football, even in HS, but impressed during camp). Youngest American to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the 2020 Olympic games in 2021. Dominated the field in both '21 and '22. Had two close losses as a Freshmen and then came back and the expected match-up, returning National Champ from Penn State, the 6'4 260LB Greg Kerkvvliet. But then in the Semi-Finals, former Air Force Wrestler Wyatt Hendrickson upset Kerkvliet 7-2(the later was injured, but still, big upset). And that set the stage for Gable to win his 3rd National Title having missed the 2020 Tournament. Wyatt Hendrickson who will be a commissioned officer and serve his 5 years in the Air Force was expected to go out and compete, but at best, keep it close. NOBODY expected Hendrickson to win. He did a bit more; Gable telling "Captain America," who was allowed to transfer to Oklahoma State to Wrestle the 5th year from 2021(obviously Military Academies you can only get 4 years, no injury red-shirt or anything else)...he and Gable had an interesting exchange pre-match as Gable used his Pro-Wrestling persona to let Hendrickson know "this is my mat." But, by the end of the night, it was Wyatt Hendrickson's!

Totally forgot about Maye. He could easily be a...I don't know, Eason of that group. Good solid starter. Sanders, I didn't watch closely enough to see what type of schemes gave him trouble, but I think he is good enough that if he plays in the right system, one that doesn't ask him to carry a team, he could be very good. The touch and anticipation are obvious. The positives I've seen have been he understands the game and seems to be pretty NFL ready, but he doesn't have the arm to fit a ball in between two defenders. He and Ward seem...fairly similar to me. Ewers and Dart have a ton of upside, but those guys rarely hit. On the Packers front, I wonder, if they were to trade back and pick up an extra pick and one of those QBs is available in the late 4th/early 5th, they add one...probably unlikely given how weak this class is. Tenn would be wise to move back if a team is willing to trade up for a Cam Ward and hope they can be in position to draft one of those two as projects(Which...is tougher with Clements gone again). If ever there were a year for a team to try and take a flier on Willis, it'd be this class. McCarthy, IMO, is better than anyone in this group. More athletic and again, Minnesota has all the pieces in place for a QB(they could use IOL help).

Ward and Sanders have to go to good teams or I think they're both going to be in trouble. They're accurate, good anticipation but just not elite. Certainly not like last years class. That one could end up being a historic class. Bo Nix was the most surprising out of it...but McCarthy's biggest issue is he wasn't asked to do much at Michigan. He's tough, he seems like a good leader, he's got a big arm, he can make some great throws from different angles and he can run. Caleb, Daniels, Pennix, McCarthy and Nix. 3 of them were good year 1, great for rookies and Pennix showed some promise and McCarthy, he'll be stepping into a talented offense.

Maybe people thought they'd want to keep Darnold and they could send a 1st for McCarthy. I think McCarthy is a really good fit for the Vikings in that system. A more athletic version of Brock Purdy.

We added McKinney and Jacobs last year and had probably the best safety duo in the NFL when Williams was healthy...which is a fairly big caveat, but McKinney was certainly doing something. This year we added Banks which is more significant in that it allows Jenkins to move to Center and shore up a more important position on the OL while still having a pretty good LG. Zach Tom. That's going to be a pretty big contract extension. I hope Wicks becomes one, but I don't think we're earmarking him for one. Tucker Kraft would be another who I'd certainly hope we're discussing. I think the Packers have done a pretty good job of balancing expecting improvement from within with adding players. The expectations are...pretty high. We went from Rodgers, Adams, competing for Super Bowls, everyone in here thought we were going back to the 70s and 80s...there were a lot of posts suggesting as much. Now two years after a complete rebuild while we've had a ton of dead cap, we came out of it and we were a game away from the NFCCG and lost to the NFC Champions in '23...a year we probably should have been picking in the top 5-10 and then we came back in probably the best division in the league and we won 11 games. I don't think Hobbs was all that obscure of a name. He did have a similar grade to Stokes and I wish they'd have brought Stokes back for 4M....but maybe he wasn't willing to. In just man coverage, I think Stokes is more of a sure thing and has more upside given he lost a chunk of his rookie deal to the lisfranc and then surgery on his knee. I think it's obvious the Packers are looking for more physical corners though as the big difference in their grades was Hobbs grade vs the run. Stokes was never a physical corner. That said, the fact that he "blew his projections out of the water," isn't all that telling. Most players tend to do that. Especially with the Cap rising at about 10% per year. They guaranteed Hobbs 16M. They're not exactly tied to him very long with that and it's not going to stop them from trying to address the position(I'd guess it has very little impact other than they don't feel the NEED to double down at CB like they did last year with Safety and LB, generally positions that aren't as valuable.

CBs in particular seem like they've been running fewer and fewer agility drills. Maybe that's because it can usually only hurt your draft prospects. Mitchell, Arnold, DeJean, McKinstry, I don't think any of the top CBs participated. Of those that do, most seem to just do the shuttle and not the 3-cone...which is more valuable in evaluations(at least the Packers use it more). Jabbar Muhammad...I don't know if he gets drafted, but I love the way he plays. May not translate and doesn't seem to check any of the boxes the Packers look for in terms of frame of testing, but he's tough and competitive. If he's a UDFA, he'd be one of the priority UDFA's I'd look at. He reminds me a lot of Gary(or LVN for that matter)...not that I expect him to be the same player, but he played a lot of 5 technique in College, he's a bigger DE who is pretty agile for his size, carries his weight well.

You weren't expecting a Luke Musgrave rebuttal? Dude, you're comparing him to Tyler Davis and talking about how the Packers have held on to the 42nd pick of the draft longer than normal... And yes, it was a joke because he tripped and fell. That's happened to anyone who's played football at ANY level and you see the hole or you get behind the defense and you get a little over excited. That doesn't mean he's not a fluid athlete. That was by far, objectively, his strongest trait coming out. His athleticism. He grew up skiing, nearly EVERY scouting report made reference to how he "glides" out there, how "loose" he is. And he showed that. I don't think breaking arm tackles as a TE has really anything to do with that. I'd say that you could probably go back and find thousands of Running Backs who were more fluid than Derek Henry or Mike Alstott who didn't break as many tackles. That has to do with power. The 33rd team https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10048402-luke-musgrave-nfl-draft-2023-scouting-report-for-oregon-state-te https://packerswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2023/04/28/what-draft-experts-said-about-new-packers-tight-end-luke-musgrave/79655200007/ Dane Brugler Lance Zierlien The Draft Network Pro Football Network Front office scouting; I could go on, but the "tight hips," or him being stiff just don't show up when he plays or in any aspect of his game. He's long legged and he's not as physical a runner as Kraft...and he hasn't been able to stay healthy, so it may all be moot, but I don't know how you watch Luke Musgrave and come away with stiff athlete. I've checked out Terrance Ferguson. He's a poor man's Musgrave. You watch him and see a more fluid athlete who breaks arm tackles? I'd be fine seeing the Packers take another TE as Musgrave HAS been hurt and they love running that 12 personnel, though I suspect if they do, they're going to look for a TE who can play more of an H-Back. Warren would be great, but he'll be gone too early.

This is a bad QB class, but Sanders should be a rd1 pick. He's mobile, but more importantly, he throws the ball with such good anticipation and has good accuracy. If this was a class with 2-3 elite QBs like last year, he'd be more of a Jalen Hurts type to me, but I don't see the Willis comp. Willis didn't face high end competition. The one thing that could impact this is Deion could meddle and try and steer him to a team that develops QBs better. The Giants shouldn't be in that conversation...nor should most top 10-15 teams, but one team that makes a lot of sense are the Dolphins. I feel like we're watching a guy who is going to just have a miserable life by the time he's 35 in Tua if he keeps playing, nonetheless, it looks like they're going to stick with him at least one more year. AT that point...they could save a ton of money if they could find a trade partner. A team that's set up and just needs a QB...or hopefully he just retires. That's the case with most QBs though. Willis was so bad, the Titans gave up on him, he comes to GB and he looks like a really good QB(in a limited and constrained game plan). I think Sanders future will be no different, it's going to depend on where he goes, he's obviously not like Caleb or Daniels, but I think he's a lot better than Willis. As for the WRs, none of the top guys do much for me outside of McMillan and he's not go. TCU has a couple guys who are interesting to be an option in Rd3 or 4 perhaps. Egbuka is a good looking WR who seems like a savvy WR. Similar-ish to a JSN. A good slot without elite speed or athletic ability. I think we need more of a Xavier Worthy type and I don't see one that's worth a 1st rd pick. Jayden Higgins would be a good fit. Bond from UT maybe in Rd3. Higgins has the size we like. Bond has that deep speed that opens up the middle of the field. Blech the kid from TCU seems really well rounded and a potential steal. I think the biggest improvements will come from within though. The young WRs were good as far as drops two years ago and they were awful last year. If they can get back to where they were, great. The one move that'd terrify me is Pickens from the Steelers. He seems like a diva but he's also extremely talented. That one would be a tough call if he was made available for trade as rumored.

He's definitely had injury concerns, but looking at Musgraves and saying he's not "fluid," is like looking at Jackson Chourio and saying, 'I just don't see the bat speed.' He's about as fluid as you could find in a TE.

I don't agree this will lead to a better "playing field," for the US. -We're starting trade wars with allies. -Tariffs, across the board tariffs and trade wars do not work. We're going back to 1870 for our outline. WE also had REAL cheap labor just a decade before that. We now live in a global economy now. The EU, Canada and Mexico. Those are our targets(as of now, April 2nd could get a whole helluva lot worse). Trump signed the damn deal with Canada and Mexico after tweaking NAFTA and declared it the greatest trade deal ever....and now because we import lot of energy from Canada...oh, and all those Canadian Cartels up there, we're starting a trade war with them? As for the markets bouncing back...yeah, they always do eventually. A Bear market lasts on average 8 months. We're USUALLY in a bull market. Maybe it'll be a year(market gets MUCH more important with the mid-terms coming up) or maybe it's 3 years, 5. I don't know, tariff wars make this a LOT more complicated...which is why I was talking about Smoot-Hawley previously(at LEAST when congress passed that Months BEFORE the '29 crash, it was congress, not just Hoover). This is causing real pain for people right now. Personally, I think I'll come out of this better. I sold a lot during the "Trump bump," and I'm about 80% back in as of this week and my income doesn't rely on an employer. I do think the people who've called 90 of the last 2 recessions are going to be right this time...

So they waited too long to raise rates. Ok...lets grant that's the case. You're going back years not months. As of last quarter, we were growing the GDP at over 3%, the CPI was down to 2.7% and unemployment has been VERY low for a while now. The bubble you're talking about...I don't agree. That's what happens when you have great growth. The economy was in a great place...and particularly in a great place relative to the rest of the world. This is not a correction or a dip(it's getting close to the definition of a crash according to some indexes...Russell -19% is nearly there). And it didn't happen organically. It happened deliberately. With a...foolish plan for blanket tariffs and a cowardly congress that ceded it's authority. That's just another thing we've ignored. Tariffs are meant to be for emergencies or passed through congress. They ceded that power and they also included language to state this session of congress is ONE calendar day so they couldn't actually have a vote or a debate on it. This wasn't a bubble, the multiples of these companies weren't getting ridiculous(as a whole). Obviously you had some, but you always do. But these companies are growing double digits each quarter, the ones driving the market and the fundamentals of the US Economy aside from the Market were strong. I heard so many times 'This is the worst inflation we've ever seen, nobody has seen inflation this bad.' We had 10% unemployment and 10% inflation, actual stagflation from Nixon when he froze prices(and wages) and it stayed that way under Ford, Carter and into Reagans years when we started cranking up the deficit spending. The "Recession is coming," people are yelling that constantly and perhaps it would have come. I don't know why we're actively steering into one though. THAT is my issue....

This is all great, but if we were having a poor spring I'd feel the same. I'm happy to see guys healthy and throwing the ball well. Woody throwing in the mid 90s(touching mid 90s) Hoskins swinging the bat and moving well...I thought he looked a bit lighter, but hard to tell. Yelich looks like he's loose and swinging free. Haven't seen Uribe, but I think he is a VERY important player to this team in 2025. Chourio is going to break out(even more) and if Dunn does as well? That'd certainly fill out the lineup. I also really expect Turang to take another step. A FULL season of hitting the ball, getting on base a little better plus his defense. I think he can be a .270/.360/400 type hitter who steals 40 bases and plays Gold...or Platinum level defense at 2nd.