Official Training Camp Thread

[Fritz]

Agree you want to keep Bakhtiari to protect the new QB as he learns. This is a development year for a young team, and a solid OL will help. No point in having a bunch of good young receiving talent if you don't have time to throw to them.
I think trading him before the end of the season would be shortsighted for that reason UNLESS they are clearly out of the playoff hunt AND they know what they have with Jordan Love AND they have someone who can step right in at LT. Moving him in the offseason seems more likely given the cap relief they'd get... they reworked his contract this year already so they probably keep him for this season at least. I could see a world where they keep him and let the contract play out and let him explore FA after that.

What happens behind him is far more interesting to me at the moment. I think Njiman is likely the backup swing tackle and will play if/when Bakh's knee flares up or he needs a break from a turf field. His contract is up and I think they let him walk. He's on a relatively cheap deal ($4.3M) but will get money somewhere and I think they like the guys developing behind him (Caleb Jones, Luke Tenuta, Rasheed Walker). Another offseason of development and they could slide one of them in and they'd have a cheaper player and more control over the contract. The constant here is Tom - I think he could play C just fine but I think he's more valuable at OT. Next year's draft class will probably include 2-3 OL. GB is unusual because it looks like they have better depth at T than at G.

I'm pretty confident Gute and Co. have worked out a few scenarios on how to let this play out. How it actually does remains to be seen.

I generally agree with this post, except that I think at this point they know who they have at tackle, so they really ought to be able to trade Bakh at the trade deadline this year. Nijman has motivation to play welll in his place, though it seems clear by the way the team is playing Nijman that they don't really think he's a number one tackle and will likely let him walk at the end of the year. And that's fine. You either draft on
OT early in the next draft, or if you thin Walker or one of the others is capable as a starter, you draft an OT developmentally. But I think it's clear neither Balk nor Nijman will be in GB next year. And that's okay.

[bobblehead]

I generally agree with this post, except that I think at this point they know who they have at tackle, so they really ought to be able to trade Bakh at the trade deadline this year. Nijman has motivation to play welll in his place, though it seems clear by the way the team is playing Nijman that they don't really think he's a number one tackle and will likely let him walk at the end of the year. And that's fine. You either draft on
OT early in the next draft, or if you thin Walker or one of the others is capable as a starter, you draft an OT developmentally. But I think it's clear neither Balk nor Nijman will be in GB next year. And that's okay.

MiLF does seem to have disdain for Yosh. 2x he benched him on the eve of the playoffs and 2x his replacement struggled and contributed to us losing. Yosh isn't a tough run blocker, but he is so far from whatever this teams perception of him is that I don't understand it. He will get paid next year. He is a legit starting tackle at this point, but still they seem willing to move heaven and earth to try and replace him. By now Tom should be starting at C, but the team REALLY wants Yosh on the bench. My eyes don't understand it. I watched too many games with Marshall Newhouse. Yosh is solid. He does have a bad snap once in a while and I guess its perception. Some people look at a guy and only remember the bad snaps (Tex with Bak). Others watch the same guy and pretend the bad snaps are only 1 in a million (most people with Clay Mathews). Fat mike loved AJ Hawk. AJ loved to make tackles 7 yards downfield. Sometimes a coaching staff just gets a bad perception and its hard to change. Yosh needs to go to a team that never saw him as he was developing. They will only see the player he is today. Not Bak, but legit.