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Journal article-
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/ ... 20151.html

TT is entering new era of cap mgmt. with mega high-priced stars.
We have 15 UFA next off season including 9 starters =

1 upper-tier = Raji
2 likely upper tier - Finley Shields
3 possible upper-middle tier = Jones Neal Jolly
3 useful = EDS Wilson Francois
1 old possible bargain = Pickett
5 others = Newhouse Quarless Kuhn Starks Wallace

RFA -2
Jennings
Lattimore

ER -1
Banjo

2015 RFA
Cobb
2015 UFA
Nelson


MY GUESS
NO
Raji & Finley have good years & price themselves out of GB.
Shields wants too much & signs elsewhere
Newhouse Kuhn Starks

YES
We resign Cobb & Jordy early
Neal Jolly Wilson Francois Lattimore Jennings

MAYBE
Pickett – IF Raji leaves & he takes big cut
Depends on quality of play this season - EDS, Quarless, Jones,


MY DESIRE
We resign Cobb & Jordy early
We resign – raji, neal, jolly, Wilson Francois Lattimore
Depends on quality of play this season = EDS, Quarless Pickett Jones, finley, shields
DON’T Resign - Jennings Newhouse Kuhn Starks

I don't think there's going to be any mad love for Jordy Nelson or James Jones in Free Agency. It would seem to me that teams have (smartly or not) figured out that giving big money to a receiver who had a great QB is a bad investment. A guy like Cobb with a clearly elite skillset is a different matter, and there are always a few dumb GMs who might be suckered into thinking our receivers are an elite deep threat by themselves.

Bucksfans1and2 wrote:I don't think there's going to be any mad love for Jordy Nelson or James Jones in Free Agency. It would seem to me that teams have (smartly or not) figured out that giving big money to a receiver who had a great QB is a bad investment. A guy like Cobb with a clearly elite skillset is a different matter, and there are always a few dumb GMs who might be suckered into thinking our receivers are an elite deep threat by themselves.

I think Jordy Nelson smells like a WR that the Vikings will spend a lot of money to take from us.

Raji hasn't benn upper tier since 2010.....I see a non difference maker

xTitan wrote:Raji hasn't benn upper tier since 2010.....I see a non difference maker

Yep, and I'm troubled to think what his game would look like once he gets paid.

Balls2TheWalls wrote:

Bucksfans1and2 wrote:I don't think there's going to be any mad love for Jordy Nelson or James Jones in Free Agency. It would seem to me that teams have (smartly or not) figured out that giving big money to a receiver who had a great QB is a bad investment. A guy like Cobb with a clearly elite skillset is a different matter, and there are always a few dumb GMs who might be suckered into thinking our receivers are an elite deep threat by themselves.

I think Jordy Nelson smells like a WR that the Vikings will spend a lot of money to take from us.

Doubt it, They're not going to want to invest serious resources on three receivers when they're best weapon doesn't utilize them at all and they like to use a FB for AD to run behind.

xTitan wrote:Raji hasn't benn upper tier since 2010.....I see a non difference maker

He's a NT, what are your expectations, 8 sacks?

I'd move jones into upper tier and i'd let finley walk.

Dougherty's take

http://www.packersnews.com/article/2013 ... ck_check=1

Bucksfans1and2 wrote:

xTitan wrote:Raji hasn't benn upper tier since 2010.....I see a non difference maker

He's a NT, what are your expectations, 8 sacks?

I agree with xTitan.

First of all, sacks are irrelevant. You know that.

Beyond that, how many snaps did Raji take at NT last year? We spent the majority of our time in a 2-4 look, and Pickett was the NT the overwhelming majority of the time in our 3-4 look.

Considering he almost certainly wants elite DL money, I'm all for letting him go. He's not worth it. Let someone else gigantically overpay him. I'd rather extend Pick for 2 years/6M total as a 2 down NT in our 3-4 and replace Raji, the 3-4 DE and 2-4 DT (who isn't even getting all that many snaps as a 2-4 DT this year) with all the other options we currently have.

I haven't been tracking it extremely closely, but, from what I can tell, Raji's snaps in the 2-4 look are down quite a bit already this year. Neal, Jones, Jolly, and Daniels have been taking snaps from him compared to previous seasons. He's basically a 3-4 DE at this point.

Shields looked tremendous yesterday. Tough to see us locking him up if his play continues to improve.

Finley partying like it is 2010-11.



Dude looks so much better physically than he has in years, and it isn't just this play. He looks like a completely different man out there so far this year in the PS and in the regular season.

That was an impressive play by Finley... and Starks was also impressive.

But was it just me or did it look like the Redskins D gave up pretty early on? They just looked disinterested after half to me. That isn't to downplay what our guys did, because we were great. But they just looked really, really bad.

Newz wrote:That was an impressive play by Finley... and Starks was also impressive.

But was it just me or did it look like the Redskins D gave up pretty early on? They just looked disinterested after half to me. That isn't to downplay what our guys did, because we were great. But they just looked really, really bad.

We had already completely **** destroyed their souls at that point.

How many total yards did we have at the half? Godgers already had 335 yards and 3 TDs. Think about that. That has to be a team record, or at least close to it. We were "only" up 24-0 (unfortunate James Jones fumble), but we absolutely dominated them in a way that quite possibly should be illegal (or at least worthy of a fine in the deep south).

With 8:16 left in the 3rd, we went up 31-0.

You actually have it backwards. We brutalized them when it counted. We overwhelmed them. We are the team that let up late in the game. They didn't do anything until we had already humiliated them and we just played out the game like it was an exhibition.

I think Shields will be signed by week 6. Just a feeling.

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Ill-yasova wrote:I think Shields will be signed by week 6. Just a feeling.

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I certainly hope so. We can't let a young talent like that get away.

Maybe we could get him for between 6-7M by giving him a relatively large amount of guaranteed money on a 4 year deal. IDK. I just think he'll get huge offers if he hits the FA market.

One advantage I see -and I hope I'm not just imagining it- is, and this is nothing more than my feeling, but I really feel like the top three Packer FA going into this offseason (Raji and Shields especially, and to a certain lesser extent Finley) all see themselves as packers and really take pride in being packers (as opposed to guy like say Jennings). I'm not predicting it will happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if we end up getting somewhat of a hometown discount with whoever out of those guys we decide to try to retain.

Once again however, I base that on nothing more than my gut feeling about how all three kind of show the pride they have in being members of the Packers in press interviews and such...

Ayt wrote:

Bucksfans1and2 wrote:

xTitan wrote:Raji hasn't benn upper tier since 2010.....I see a non difference maker

He's a NT, what are your expectations, 8 sacks?

I agree with xTitan.

First of all, sacks are irrelevant. You know that.

Beyond that, how many snaps did Raji take at NT last year? We spent the majority of our time in a 2-4 look, and Pickett was the NT the overwhelming majority of the time in our 3-4 look.

Considering he almost certainly wants elite DL money, I'm all for letting him go. He's not worth it. Let someone else gigantically overpay him. I'd rather extend Pick for 2 years/6M total as a 2 down NT in our 3-4 and replace Raji, the 3-4 DE and 2-4 DT (who isn't even getting all that many snaps as a 2-4 DT this year) with all the other options we currently have.

I haven't been tracking it extremely closely, but, from what I can tell, Raji's snaps in the 2-4 look are down quite a bit already this year. Neal, Jones, Jolly, and Daniels have been taking snaps from him compared to previous seasons. He's basically a 3-4 DE at this point.

I think you guys underrate the value of Raji. His ability to handle an absurd snap count without wearing down too much is really rare for a guy that size. There aren't very many guys you want playing in our 34 look that you can also move over and get production out of the 24. Even a guy like Watt doesn't have the body type you want out of that look.

And for right now, you're right, Raji hasn't seen many Nickel snaps, but that's been about the opponent more than anything else. Most teams in the league use a 1 back, 1 TE (11 personnel) set for their base personnel which we counter with our Nickel Defense. The teams that we've played against haven't. The 49ers are a 21 team and the Redskins are a 12 team, and we attack those teams typically with our Base. When we've switched into the Nickel so far this season, it's mostly been on 3rd and long. In that situation, you might as well bring it with 2 of Neal/Daniels/Jones.

The Clay-Raji-Pickett-Jolly-Perry front we've been running a ton recently will probably only play a significant piece of the game plan three more times this regular season (Vikings 2x, and the Ravens). In a way, we've been damn lucky with who we've played and how well that's matched up with Hayward's injury, he wasn't going to see significant time against the Redskins or 49ers anyway.

As we face teams with more 3 WR sets, you're going to see more of Raji. So far, there's been no combination of Neal/Daniels/Jones that's shown it can hold up against the run, even out of the 11 looks. You need a guy with more beef in there to hold up on an every down basis. I love Pickett, and he holds the point more consistently than Raji, but he isn't going to get after the QB at all. Having him in there is a complete waste when the QB drops back.

I'd like to see Shields get re-signed and have him along with Hayward be the corners of the future.

Seems we could cut Tramon and give his salary to Shields. don't know how much/long Williams would have in dead money. Then I'd like to see House earn the other outside CB and Hayward as nickel slot. Hyde is dime & backup (need depth) OR moved to S