2018 Free Agents to Target

[sschind]

In that case Snead might present a decent option as long as he agrees to a reasonable contract.

At least you didn't say "vet minimum" which is all some fans want to pay for free agents.

 

[Favre>Rodgers259]

Just a couple guys I'd like who haven't been discussed at length.

Josh Sitton - He made some cash with the Bears and now it's time to come home. He's a 10 year pro, and I believe he's got 3-4 good seasons in him. I'd say tender a $5.8M flier.

Chad Henne - MM said the other day Hundley " wasn't ready" to play big time football last year. This is year 4, how many more seasons does he need? Time to cut ties. There's no unwritten rule your backup has to be younger than your starter, just ask Doug Pederson. Chad Henne has won football games with far less talent then we have right now. We can still find a guy in the Draft, but keep him on the PS until he has to be on the active roster and can actually play. If Lamar Jackson, who apparently is being blackballed by the league falls to the 4th or 5th Round, this would be a perfect scenario.

 

[Poppa San]

We can still find a guy in the Draft, but keep him on the PS until he has to be on the active roster and can actually play.

Tried that with the Hill kid last year. He plays for the Saints now. Any decent QB prospect will need to be kept on the 53.

 

[Favre>Rodgers259]

Tried that with the Hill kid last year. He plays for the Saints now. Any decent QB prospect will need to be kept on the 53.

You're right, totally forgot about that situation. So the Saints have three QBs? Chase Daniel was still on the roster last I heard, and he's a very close second to Henne if you ask me.

 

[Packer Fan in SD]

Hill played special teams for the Saints.

 

[Mondio]

Hill was an athlete, and I imagine he'd have a few highlight plays for us last year, but I'm not convinced he's in danger of becoming anybody's starter any time soon unless they find themselves at their 3rd or 4th option

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

At least you didn't say "vet minimum" which is all some fans want to pay for free agents.

or "resign with the Packers at a hometown discount".

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Just a couple guys I'd like who haven't been discussed at length.

Josh Sitton - He made some cash with the Bears and now it's time to come home. He's a 10 year pro, and I believe he's got 3-4 good seasons in him. I'd say tender a $5.8M flier.

Chad Henne - MM said the other day Hundley " wasn't ready" to play big time football last year. This is year 4, how many more seasons does he need? Time to cut ties. There's no unwritten rule your backup has to be younger than your starter, just ask Doug Pederson. Chad Henne has won football games with far less talent then we have right now. We can still find a guy in the Draft, but keep him on the PS until he has to be on the active roster and can actually play. If Lamar Jackson, who apparently is being blackballed by the league falls to the 4th or 5th Round, this would be a perfect scenario.

I highly doubt Sitton is interested in returning to the Packers. There are better options available at backup quarterback than Henne who hasn't completed a pass in the league since 2014.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

A lot of people have mentioned that signing TE Trey Burton should be a goal of the Packers. This article confirmed that this won't be an easy task, with as many as 16 teams already showing some sort of interest. Bad year to have high needs at TE and OLB. I'm leaning more towards a top FA CB and try to improve the OLB and TE positions through the draft and maybe a mid range FA signing.

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com...ted-eagles-philadelphia-market-tight-end-news

 

[gbgary]

tyrann mathieu may come free soon. here's an impact FA for ya. do the Packers have the cojones?

 

[HardRightEdge]

Until the Rodgers extension is resolved, whether a go or no-go, free agent signings of any consequence will be on hold.

 

[gbgary]

Until the Rodgers extension is resolved, whether a go or no-go, free agent signings of any consequence will be on hold.

they can't let that interfere. it would be malpractice. they'll just have to make adjustments or wait until later/next season. allowing that to happen is worse than allowing favre to wobble on retirement.

 

[PackerDNA]

Why do people think the Rodgers contract will hold anything up? It's about structure. Rodgers can get a new contract with a big raise, and if it's structured right, actually have a smaller cap number for the first year or two of the deal than he has now.

 

[elcid]

Why do people think the Rodgers contract will hold anything up? It's about structure. Rodgers can get a new contract with a big raise, and if it's structured right, actually have a smaller cap number for the first year or two of the deal than he has now.

I never really get this train of thought. Sure, we all know this is possible, yet didn't we structure Jordy's contract similarly? And now we are at the point where the man can produce nowhere near the salary he is being paid. This probably won't happen for Arod, but if his contract is structured this way the latter years will become cap heavy and overall burdensome for the team. IMO signing Arod to a 'backwards' structured deal will only imply that we will have to win our second SB this or next season, since chances of attracting and retaining the right talent after will be slim.

 

[HardRightEdge]

they can't let that interfere. it would be malpractice. they'll just have to make adjustments or wait until later/next season. allowing that to happen is worse than allowing favre to wobble on retirement.

It would be malpractice to do otherwise. As I said, once there is a go or no-go, they can move forward. So, yes, if it is decided to wait until next year they can move on to other considerations. Going that route. however, takes the matter into his contract year. The franchise tag makes nobody happy.

Why do people think the Rodgers contract will hold anything up? It's about structure. Rodgers can get a new contract with a big raise, and if it's structured right, actually have a smaller cap number for the first year or two of the deal than he has now.

If it was that easy it would be done by now. Spreading $150+ million over 5+ years should be a piece of cake, right? No, it is not. Smaller cap number over the first year or two? Balloon "payments" a matter for some other day? That requires a nice set of blinders.

I'd be inclined to wait for OTAs to see how he's throwing. His mechanics did not look quite right on cross-body throws in his last game though Murphy does not seem to have that concern.

By the way, the Packers did not "allow" Favre to wobble on retirement. He did that all on his own.

 

[gbgary]

It would be malpractice to do otherwise. As I said, once there is a go or no-go, they can move forward. So, yes, if it is decided to wait until next year they can move on to other considerations. Going that route. however, takes the matter into his contract year. The franchise tag makes nobody happy.
By the way, the Packers did not "allow" Favre to wobble on retirement. He did that all on his own.

letting desirable players go to other teams because the Rodgers deal is slow to resolve itself IS malpractice...especially with him under contract another year. they need to put their foot down and do it now. to heck with others not being done yet and him temporarily being able to be called the highest paid player in the nfl. he'd be too old, and expensive, to ever tag. if that point arrives win-now is a pipe dream and thinking long term is the more prudent thing to do.
yes, favre did the wobbling but the Packers rolled with it (enabled) year after year.

 

[PackerDNA]

It hasn't been done yet because Rodgers said he ain't signin' nothin' till he sees what Cousins gets. Also, I'm assuming your Favre comment wasn't part of your response to me, as I never mentioned him.

 

[HardRightEdge]

letting desirable players go to other teams because the Rodgers deal is slow to resolve itself IS malpractice...especially with him under contract another year. they need to put their foot down and do it now. to heck with others not being done yet and him temporarily being able to be called the highest paid player in the nfl. he'd be too old, and expensive, to ever tag. if that point arrives win-now is a pipe dream and thinking long term is the more prudent thing to do.
yes, favre did the wobbling but the Packers rolled with it (enabled) year after year.

Your perspective evidently doesn't go out past one year. As for rolling with Favre year after year, they drafted Rodgers and then stopped putting up with Favre's nonsense when Rodgers was deemed ready. I don't know how you could manage that situation much better.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

A lot of people have mentioned that signing TE Trey Burton should be a goal of the Packers. This article confirmed that this won't be an easy task, with as many as 16 teams already showing some sort of interest. Bad year to have high needs at TE and OLB. I'm leaning more towards a top FA CB and try to improve the OLB and TE positions through the draft and maybe a mid range FA signing.

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com...ted-eagles-philadelphia-market-tight-end-news

The Packers should definitely not get into a bidding war with other teams to sign Burton. While he has a lot of potential Gutekunst shouldn't overpay for a tight end that has a total of 63 career receptions. In that case I would prefer to sign a decent veteran at the position to a reasonable deal as well as address the position in the draft.

tyrann mathieu may come free soon. here's an impact FA for ya. do the Packers have the cojones?

In my opinion the team should pass on Mathieu as he has suffered some devastating injuries resulting in his performance regressing a bit. He would definitely ask for a ton of money Gutekunst should spend differently.

Until the Rodgers extension is resolved, whether a go or no-go, free agent signings of any consequence will be on hold.

I don't expect the Packers to sign Rodgers to an extension until close to the start of the season. With the front office hopefully having a plan set up for how to structure his contract it would be a terrible decision to put free agent signings on hold because of it.

I never really get this train of thought. Sure, we all know this is possible, yet didn't we structure Jordy's contract similarly? And now we are at the point where the man can produce nowhere near the salary he is being paid. This probably won't happen for Arod, but if his contract is structured this way the latter years will become cap heavy and overall burdensome for the team. IMO signing Arod to a 'backwards' structured deal will only imply that we will have to win our second SB this or next season, since chances of attracting and retaining the right talent after will be slim.

I would prefer the Packers to keep Rodgers' cap hit as low as possible early during his contract as that allows Gutekunst to surround him with the best talent possible. It would most likely result in having to restructure the deal at some point to backload it even further but I would be absolutely fine with the team taking massive dead money counting against the cap once #12 decides to retire as it would all but guaranteed take at least a season to rebuild after that.

 

[HardRightEdge]

I don't expect the Packers to sign Rodgers to an extension until close to the start of the season. With the front office hopefully having a plan set up for how to structure his contract it would be a terrible decision to put free agent signings on hold because of it.

It would be prudent to wait until at least OTAs to evaluate the condition of the golden arm before making the jump.

If the contract runs something along the lines of 5 years / $150 million, your contention that Rodgers' cap could be held constant over the first two years is not in dispute. But should it? That leaves about $35 million per year in cap "balloon payments" in the final 3 years.

So, the question is do you have the horses and the cap to go into free agency to seriously contend in the next two years? Live for the now and pay later? I would say not this year, and next year would be dependent on a couple of very good drafts back to back, something not seen in these parts in quite some time.

Sticking with aging/declining/underperforming players via extensions is just a doubling down on the "win now" approach and you're not gaining much cap in looking for impact in the free agent market without parting ways with the very players you seek to extend.

The reason this is difficult is because (1) this is not a championship roster lacking only a piece her or there, (2) there's not much cap to work with and (3) the QB has to be paid.

 

[Ace]

It's been a while since I've posted on here and I haven't gone through all 17 pages of this thread so forgive me if this is redundant. This is a scenario I've been tossing around, wondering what everyone's thoughts are...

At the moment we have roughly $16M in cap space. A report came out this morning that our rookie pool is going to take roughly $8.7M off of that taking us down to under $8M in cap space. In house moves for potential cap savings according to over the cap:
Rodgers extention - $15M
Bulaga Post June 1st Cut - $6.3M
Clay extension - $7.9M
Jordy cut - $10.2M
Cobb cut - $9.4M

Gives the Packers roughly $56M in cap space when you include the $8M left over after rookies.

Potential FA/Draft moves:
Sign Wilkerson
Sign one of the potential FA CB's (Talib, Butler, Colvin etc)
Sign Allen Robinson
Draft BPA on defense at 14 (Landry, Ward, James whatever the case may be)
Sign a guy like Dante Pettis in the 2nd or 3rd

Are the Packers better off? Just spit balling here, not saying this is what I want done.

 

[jetfixer]

I don't know if this helps or hurts us, but I don't think 12 losing his QB coach plus Cobb and Nelson will make him very happy. Might would cut one and hope to restructure other. We really do need to find some money.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

It's been a while since I've posted on here

WB Ace. Been awhile for sure!

 

[Ace]

I don't know if this helps or hurts us, but I don't think 12 losing his QB coach plus Cobb and Nelson will make him very happy. Might would cut one and hope to restructure other. We really do need to find some money.

Very fair point on keeping 12 happy, and I agree that probably wouldn't go over well with him.

The thought behind it is, you create cap space and rebuild the WR's in one off-season. Davante is 25, Robinson is 24, could slide Ty back into more of a slot role and he's 25, Allison is 24 and then a rookie (Really like Pettis) to go along with Clark/Davis etc. I suppose you wouldn't have to move on from both Jordy and Cobb to pull this off.

Wouldn't mind making a play for Paul Richardson or Watkins. Their market values are significantly less than Robinson's would be. WR isn't an immediate need at the moment but it's a position on the team where we're paying alot of money to guys that are either getting old or don't live up to the contract. So, it's a position where we can create a lot of cap space by making the moves. I'd also be fine extending Jordy to lower his cap hit over the next 2-3 years or so too.

 

[hallzi43]

Just a couple guys I'd like who haven't been discussed at length.

Josh Sitton - He made some cash with the Bears and now it's time to come home. He's a 10 year pro, and I believe he's got 3-4 good seasons in him. I'd say tender a $5.8M flier.

Chad Henne - MM said the other day Hundley " wasn't ready" to play big time football last year. This is year 4, how many more seasons does he need? Time to cut ties. There's no unwritten rule your backup has to be younger than your starter, just ask Doug Pederson. Chad Henne has won football games with far less talent then we have right now. We can still find a guy in the Draft, but keep him on the PS until he has to be on the active roster and can actually play. If Lamar Jackson, who apparently is being blackballed by the league falls to the 4th or 5th Round, this would be a perfect scenario.

Wasn't Sitton pretty burned by the Packers not even discussing an offer? I would be surprised to even hear there is interest from either side.