Week 7: Packers @ Vikings (3:15 CDT)

[BUCKnation]

I'm less concerned about the high draft pick thing. The reason you want those picks are to get the really high value guys. We've got the most important piece in a franchise QB. We have elite playmakers on the outside and defenders that demand double teams. Going forward it'd be nice if someone secured the LT position, and we definitely need another pass rushing threat. Woodson and Collins may need replacing soon.

But there aren't a lot of holes.

also, look how many stars we have that have been 2nd round or later guys (jennings, collins, finley) and then you look at our rbs and tramon and they were either barely drafted or not drafted at all.
With TT, top picks arent necessary. Out of the 2 top 10 picks we have had in his tenure, we have hawk and raji. CM and Rodgers were late 1sts, along with bulaga and sherrod, who is an unknown

[El Duderino]

Yep, anytime your team has a top tier QB, your team usually is at worst a playoff contender each year. When that QB is as good as Rodgers though, the Packers will likely be at least a Super Bowl contender pretty much every year he's playing at an elite level simply because in any playoff game, a quarterback playing great can have such an enormous impact.

Mix in that the Packers roster isn't an aging one, but instead has various quality players locked up long term and has other young talent multiple years from free agency, i see no reason besides Rodgers health that the Packers won't be one of the leading favorites or the favorite to reach the Super Bowl over the next 3-4 years at least. That doesn't mean they'll win 3-4 of them, but they should have decent odds to win more than just the one title from last year.

Besides it being huge that Collins can resume his career, the one thing i wonder about is the cap going forward. Finley will be a free agent after this year and Jennings after next year. Both can demand big contracts. Then Ted will have the Big Three trifecta looming of Matthews, Raji, and paying Rodgers more like an MVP instead of below top 10 quarterback money as will be the case. That's three monster contracts, not Tramon or Finley type of money. It will be interesting to watch how Ted manages the cap over the next few years as all these young talents he drafted are no longer on fairly cheap rookie deals, and instead get free agency related contracts.

Don't see a problem w/ Clifton, Driver and Grant's big contracts coming off the books whenever Ted needs room - probably next off season. Two seasons from now Pickett and Woodson will be questionable at their salaries. And as much as they like him a good rookie in next couple seasons makes Hawk expendable. I'm not saying staying cap friendly won't take intense mgmt & cold cuts but TT has shown he'll cut the fat very close to the bone. We'll be fine.

I'm not terribly worried about this right now, but contracts to guys like Grant, Driver, and Clifton are small change compared to the massive contracts that Rodgers, Matthews, and Raji will be in line for. Ware got an 80 million dollar deal with 40 plus million guaranteed from Dallas two years ago, Clay/his agent will be using that as a starting point. Rodgers will be in line for a massive contract, think Peyton Manning money at least. Raji should get 10 plus million per. Jennings agent i'm sure smiled greatly when he saw what the Fitzgerald contract did for raising the salaries of top tier receivers. Finley will want to be paid like the highest paid TE.

I'm simply wondering if it will be cap possible to have so many upper tier players making big money around two years from now? It will be very interesting to me to see just how exactly Ted handles this. If i remember correctly, Dallas in the 90's ran into this type of situation after Johnson drafted so many quality players that eventually stopped being on rookie contracts and had to be paid. It can be very tricky and force some real tough decisions. Thankfully though, i trust Ted to handle that as best as possibly can be done.

[Newz]

I'm not terribly worried about this right now, but contracts to guys like Grant, Driver, and Clifton are small change compared to the massive contracts that Rodgers, Matthews, and Raji will be in line for. Ware got an 80 million dollar deal with 40 plus million guaranteed from Dallas two years ago, Clay/his agent will be using that as a starting point. Rodgers will be in line for a massive contract, think Peyton Manning money at least. Raji should get 10 plus million per. Jennings agent i'm sure smiled greatly when he saw what the Fitzgerald contract did for raising the salaries of top tier receivers. Finley will want to be paid like the highest paid TE.

I'm simply wondering if it will be cap possible to have so many upper tier players making big money around two years from now? It will be very interesting to me to see just how exactly Ted handles this. If i remember correctly, Dallas in the 90's ran into this type of situation after Johnson drafted so many quality players that eventually stopped being on rookie contracts and had to be paid. It can be very tricky and force some real tough decisions. Thankfully though, i trust Ted to handle that as best as possibly can be done.

Out of the guys mentioned about, Rodgers and Clay are the two we cannot afford to lose. One is pretty much our entire offense and the other is our only legit pass rusher.

Raji I want to keep around, but I wouldn't make him the highest paid NT in the NFL or anything like that.

Jennings I'd love to keep around, but unless all the guaranteed money is front loaded, I wouldn't really want to give him more than five years. He's already creeping up on 30 and I'd say that I'd want to have his pay reduced when he's 33-34. I also wouldn't give him even close to Fitz money.

Finley I would pay right around $8 million. I wouldn't go up to $12 or anything like that like some people were talking about around here.

[El Duderino]

I'm not terribly worried about this right now, but contracts to guys like Grant, Driver, and Clifton are small change compared to the massive contracts that Rodgers, Matthews, and Raji will be in line for. Ware got an 80 million dollar deal with 40 plus million guaranteed from Dallas two years ago, Clay/his agent will be using that as a starting point. Rodgers will be in line for a massive contract, think Peyton Manning money at least. Raji should get 10 plus million per. Jennings agent i'm sure smiled greatly when he saw what the Fitzgerald contract did for raising the salaries of top tier receivers. Finley will want to be paid like the highest paid TE.

I'm simply wondering if it will be cap possible to have so many upper tier players making big money around two years from now? It will be very interesting to me to see just how exactly Ted handles this. If i remember correctly, Dallas in the 90's ran into this type of situation after Johnson drafted so many quality players that eventually stopped being on rookie contracts and had to be paid. It can be very tricky and force some real tough decisions. Thankfully though, i trust Ted to handle that as best as possibly can be done.

Out of the guys mentioned about, Rodgers and Clay are the two we cannot afford to lose. One is pretty much our entire offense and the other is our only legit pass rusher.

Raji I want to keep around, but I wouldn't make him the highest paid NT in the NFL or anything like that.

Jennings I'd love to keep around, but unless all the guaranteed money is front loaded, I wouldn't really want to give him more than five years. He's already creeping up on 30 and I'd say that I'd want to have his pay reduced when he's 33-34. I also wouldn't give him even close to Fitz money.

Finley I would pay right around $8 million. I wouldn't go up to $12 or anything like that like some people were talking about around here.

I wasn't implying that Jennings should get close to Fitzgerald money, just that the contract Fitz got raises the pay scale for all upper tier receivers. Thus, if Ted did want to extend Jennings after next year, it likely would be more costly.

Raji is tricky, but i agree that he isn't an absolutely must keep like Matthews is. One thing that will affect negotiations quite a bit is if Raji can have seasons like he had last year where he was much more of a disruptive force in the backfield than he has been up to this point this year. Last season BJ was a very unique NT in that he held up vs the run, got quite a few pressures/sacks, and played an incredible number of snaps for a man that size. We'll find out going forward if last season was somewhat of an aberration for Raji in the amount of pressure he could create as a NT. Plus, once his rookie contract nears it's end, another factor will be if Ted has a young replacement on the roster.

[Newz]

I wasn't saying you did (in reference to Jennings). Just expressing how I felt about the individual star players coming up for extensions.

Overall if someone wants to give Jennings the type of money Fitz does and some insane team wants to give Finley $12+ million, then let them.

I think our offense can still be good enough with Jordy, Jones, Cobb and the young group of TEs that we have. Those guys with another couple picks spent at the skill positions and I think Rodgers can still put up massive numbers.

Would it be as good? No. But it is a hell of a lot better solution than paying Jennings and Finley something insane like a combined $32+ million.