Packers News, Transactions - 2025 off-season - McManus Signed - 3 Years/$15 million

[CWoodfan]

This is the year to use day one and two picks to trade for stars on other teams looking to get out and get paid. It's not like you can trust Gute to make a good first round pick anyway.

LOL

Gutey trading a premium (round 1-5) pick for a player?

That has not happened in GB since when? 2002?

And trading picks for players in a draft that is to be held in Green Bay?

Not gonna happen.

[ReasonablySober]

This is the year to use day one and two picks to trade for stars on other teams looking to get out and get paid. It's not like you can trust Gute to make a good first round pick anyway.

LOL

Gutey trading a premium (round 1-5) pick for a player?

That has not happened in GB since when? 2002?

And trading picks for players in a draft that is to be held in Green Bay?

Not gonna happen.

This is the first year they've had enough money to pay for anyone they want. There's going to be guys on loser teams looking to get out and get extended.

The draft being in GB has absolutely nothing to do with Gute's plans.

[humanrefutation]

Maxx. Crosby.

[MickeyDavis]

Not sure if the new Raiders GM would have the stones to trade their best defensive player even if it made sense.

[MoMM]

I don't think the Packers have any massive gaping needs heading into the offseason.

Top priorities
-A deep threat WR to replace Watson
-A starting quality ILB to put next to Cooper
-An Edge rusher
-A boundary CB

Secondary priorities
-A vet interior OL either to compete for a starting job or depth
-DL depth
-A 2nd ILB

Extension candidates
-Zach Tom
-Rasheed Walker

I think you ride out Watson, Doubs, Enagbare, & Rhyan

Stokes, Myers, & Slaton are your top free agents, I'm fine with bringing any of them back on a cheap deal but am also fine letting each one walk.

I'd trade Malik Willis if I can get a day 2 pick, otherwise find letting him be the backup again next year before he hits FA

What do you think happens in the Jaire saga?

I think you bring him back. Freeing up just under $7 million isn't worth cutting him imo. He was still really good when he was out there so I'd take that risk

*I'd almost assuredly cut him after next season though

Can we bring a better CB with 7M? No, so just keep him for one more year. Also, it's not like we only need to replace him, we need another CB on top of that.

[Matches Malone]

What do you think happens in the Jaire saga?

I think you bring him back. Freeing up just under $7 million isn't worth cutting him imo. He was still really good when he was out there so I'd take that risk

*I'd almost assuredly cut him after next season though

Can we bring a better CB with 7M? No, so just keep him for one more year. Also, it's not like we only need to replace him, we need another CB on top of that.

Yeah, the savings just isn't worth it to completely get rid of him. Plus, you just know a division rival would jump all over acquiring him and the Aaron Jones experience was enough to last me awhile lol.

[Matches Malone]

Maxx. Crosby.

Read on Twitter

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[Profound23]

Maxx. Crosby.

Maxx Crosby
Myles Garrett
TJ Watt
Josh Allen (Jags)
Jaelan Phillips


in that order, trade multiple first for any of the top three especially. If any of those teams decides to rebuild, we need to get their edge rusher immediately.

Extend Tom, yes he had a bad game yesterday, but Tom has been our second best Olineman this year.

Restructure Jaire, Clark, and/or Gary if possible.

Draft a NT, or look for one in the draft.

[MickeyDavis]

Need to bring back McManus

[jimmybones]

Man, I love Josh Jacobs.

X and Jacobs were absolute home runs, Gute, get us two more please, we have the cash

The emotion of a playoff exit is wearing off way faster this year because I expected it. I'm already in offseason mode. There is a path to a leap forward. This offseason needs to be about identifying which types of players are absolute core or potential core pieces.

Gute has done a great job getting us to this point, I hope he's creative enough to get us to the next level.

First actual roster thing that stands out to be is the surprise of WR being a massive need. I was so high on that unit coming in to the year and at this point I'm convinced we need a legit FA and an early draft pick to add to Reed. I feel fantastic about Kraft/Musgrave and Jacobs/Brooks/Lloyd but we need a WR or two that move the needle.

[Treebeard]

I thought the WR group was going to be a strength this season, but between injuries and drops, they were a bit disappointing. Probably too high of expectations for performance jumps on my part.

Watson can't stay healthy, and will there be concussion concerns going forward for Doubs? Wicks, who early on seemed to have the yips, came around to being pretty reliable by the end.

Kraft is clearly the #1 TE, and I guess we'll have to see how Musgrave has come through his injury battles. Sims seems like a usable #2/#3 TE

[Ron Swanson]

I'm not even sure how to analyze the postmortem for this season. No matter what the downers wanna say, this team looked very much like contenders for the vast majority of the year. Top-10 scoring offense and Top-10 scoring defense, 3rd best team going by total DVOA, and all while being the youngest team in football by a pretty significant margin. They just faded hard down the stretch, then the injuries piled up.

Team is still in a very healthy position going forward (boatload of cap room, no major departing FA's) with all their core guys locked up. Defense needs a complimenting edge rusher and starting CB in the worst way though. Even with Watson's constant injuries, I never thought WR would be an issue going into 2025, but it's clear that some of these dudes (Melton, Wicks) are probably JAG's and Reed/Kraft are really the only two players who I think profile as upper tier skill position weapons at this point. I get the idea of wanting to trade a Day 1 or 2 pick for an upgrade, but what's the free agent class look like for corner, edge, and wideout?

Oh, and I don't care if Nixon is locked up for cheap next season. Never wanna see that dude in green and gold ever again. Bottom tier IQ football player.

[LUKE23]

#1 WR with speed (moving Reed to 2, Doubs to 3, Wicks to 4)
Edge rusher
Starting caliber corner

I think that's the to do list.

[MVP2110]

What do you guys think they do at center?

Options are
-Bring Myers back on a cheap deal
-use a day 1 or 2 pick on a center
-sign a stopgap vet
-Move Jenkins or Rhyan to Center and plug Morgan in at guard

[Ron Swanson]

I'm assuming they drafted Monk with the idea that he'll take over at Center. Rhyan as the failsafe if that doesn't work out.

[humanrefutation]

I think Myers is gone. This team doesn't extend centers.

[Matches Malone]

I think Monk will have the inside track at center but wouldn't mind a draft pick or free agent at that spot. Myers was playing at replacement level anyways and the injury doesn't help. See if you can find an upgrade.

[zmanishere11]

I think you start the off-season firing Rich Bisaccia - there needs to be a message sent somewhere within the coaching staff for one of the most undisciplined teams in the league.

From a player standpoint:

Cut Jaire
Extend Zach Tom
Re-sign McManus
Let Meyers walk

Rashan Gary is an interesting one. We have no pass rush, and he's our core pass rusher. He plays next year for $25 mil or we cut him and it costs us $25 mil. The core advantage to cutting him now is we free up $28 mil in 2026 - IE, would you swap Rashan Gary for Tee Higgins straight up?? I do that in about .05 seconds.

I think our biggest hole on the entire team right now is WR, specifically having a game changing guy that Love can go to in clutch situations - that was non-existent this year. Drafting Van Ness over Smith-Njiba literally haunts me - HUGE mistake by Gutey. Watson out for next year, Doubs career may be over, Reed disappeared for half the year. We led the league in drops. This position is a massive need.

In FA, you have Tee Higgins, and a bunch of vets and cut / trade candidates. I think we desperately need a vet here and there will be a bunch available so let's see what happens. My wet dream is Tee Higgins and a vet like Cooper Kupp or Diggs off the scrap pile to play the slot.

[ReasonablySober]

Barnwell is pretty critical of the Packers going all-in on the Josh Jacobs experience.

Some advanced metrics don't exactly have them in the same tier. By cumulative rushing expected points added (EPA) from NFL Next Gen Stats, Henry ranked first. Barkley was third, behind Jahmyr Gibbs. Jacobs? He was ... 135th. Yes, that's not a typo. Henry and Barkley accrued lots of volume while producing efficiently. Jacobs accrued lots of volume, but EPA saw his work as a net negative on a play-by-play basis. By EPA per carry, looking at backs who carried the ball at least 150 times, Jacobs ranked 25th out of 31 rushers in 2024.

What didn't EPA like? Jacobs fumbled four times, and more than 60% of his carries produced negative EPA. That figure was at 57% for Barkley and 49% for Henry. And while Barkley had seven runs of 40 yards or more, Jacobs didn't have any. He had four runs of 30-39 yards, but Barkley had 10 of 30-plus yards. Henry had nine. It's OK to be a boom-or-bust back, but the ratio was weighted far more toward the booms for Barkley and Henry than they were for Jacobs.

And unlike those backs, Jacobs was less impressive than his backups. Emanuel Wilson, Chris Brooks and MarShawn Lloyd combined to generate plus-8.3 EPA on their 145 carries this season, most of which came from Wilson. Were there situational differences? Not really. Wilson & Co. generated 8.3 EPA on early downs to Jacobs' minus-24.8 EPA mark. They faced loaded boxes on 31.7% of their carries, while Jacobs faced them only 26.9% of the time. Green Bay gained more EPA per play with Jacobs off the field than it did with him on it. That's a relatively unheralded set of backs against a runner making $13 million per season.

Leaning into Love earlier in the game might also help make Jacobs more efficient. One advanced metric that favored Jacobs is rush yards over expectation (RYOE), where his 217 RYOE ranked fifth among all backs. In part, that's because his carries were only expected to gain 3.7 yards per rush, which is right about where Chuba Hubbard's touches were this season. More throws on early downs would both keep Jacobs' legs fresher and likely increase his expected yards per carry. It wouldn't have saved the Packers against the Eagles, but it might improve their efficiency on offense in 2025.