2024 3rd Round Pick #91 Overall Ty'Ron Hopper

[sharpe1027]

Packers used the Rasul cap savings to sign Xavier. I'm fine with that.

[SudsMcBucky]

Andy Herman had Rasul as the top graded player on the entire D at the time he was traded last year. I think he was easily earning his money - unlike Devondre Campbell. And to a lesser extent, unlike Jaire. I don't believe you cut a guy like that. He clearly had trade value with his 2024 cap hit at $11.6M, or Bufallo wouldn't have traded for him. The Bills have already restructed his contract and knocked $2.5M off that cap number for this year. Theoretically, we could have done the same thing.

I haven't heard anything other than positives about his locker room presense since the Packers rescued his career. Though I guess that doesn't mean he wasn't griping behind the scenes. We don't know.

My ultimate point is this. I think Brian threw in the towel on the season, and was simply converting older player assets into picks. And that's because the Packers were playing poorly, and it looked like our window to contend wasn't going to be open until the 2025 season at the earliest. 2024 is still loaded with a dead money boat anchor dragging the roster down. Rasul and some others may not have been around for the opening back up of the window for contention, and converting those guys to picks potentially helped load up the roster for when that window opened back up. Rasul happened to be the guy Brian was able to move, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were other older guys he shopped.

And then that glorious turnaround happened. Because our window is somewhat unexpectedly open right now, I think Brian made a mistake with Rasul. But I would not trade Brian for any other GM in the league. Mistakes happen.

The difference, though, at the time of the trade was the Bills thought they were a legit contender for the Owl. GB was sitting in a bad place and looking not so good.

[Scott Campbell]

Packers used the Rasul cap savings to sign Xavier. I'm fine with that.

I pretty damned happy about the McKinney too.

But we still have nearly $23M in cap space now for this year - and that already includes of the $8M cap hit for McKinney. We had the cap space for Rasul. I don't think the Love contract needs to have much impact on this years number. They might choose to bring some of that hit forward because they have so much space now.

I just looked up Jaire's number for this year - $24M against the cap according to Spotrac. That guy has to start earning his money again. I don't think he's even in the slightest danger of getting cut because it would trigger $35.5M in dead money against the cap this year.

Again, I think Brian made the trade solely to convert a current asset into a future asset, because he thought our window wouldn't be open for a while.

[Scott Campbell]

The difference, though, at the time of the trade was the Bills thought they were a legit contender for the Owl. GB was sitting in a bad place and looking not so good.

Exactly. They traded a future asset for a current asset, and we did the opposite.

[run pMc]

But we still have nearly $23M in cap space now for this year - and that already includes of the $8M cap hit for McKinney.

They will need the cap space for extending Love. They also might want to extend Kenny Clark.

[texaspackerbacker]

I don't think we have a significant need for additional free agents at this point, but the upcoming re-signing of Love and probably Clark too should not require massive cap space, at least not unless they decide to do less backloading than usual. If we needed a low cap number for Love and Clark, we certainly could do it that way.

[sharpe1027]

I am pretty sure the draft picks and undrafted free agents are going to eat up a lot of that cap space. Maybe as much as $15M.

[Scott Campbell]

I am pretty sure the draft picks and undrafted free agents are going to eat up a lot of that cap space. Maybe as much as $15M.

Per lombardiave.com.

Over The Cap projects the Packers will need $3.92 million in cap space to sign their rookie class.

They estimate the class will cost $12.67 million, but the cap hits are significantly lower, as each new player is replacing someone already on the roster.

[run pMc]

Yeah, I don't think that's correct. They have ~20M in cap space now, players have already left. Bakhtiari's gone, Jones, Runyan, etc. They'll get some cap space from Campbell when June 1 hits, but they have to sign rookies and FA and that $20M number is what they have for space.
It will take about $13M to sign the rookies, leaving them with about $7M for in-season emergencies, PS callups, etc. Any extensions will have to have some other kind of manuever... so I suspect Jordan Love extension happens closer to the start of training camp.

Last year they were really cap strapped, this year they are cap limited, next year they'll be free of most of their big contracts and have cap space to manuever.

[sharpe1027]

Per lombardiave.com.

Over The Cap projects the Packers will need $3.92 million in cap space to sign their rookie class.

They estimate the class will cost $12.67 million, but the cap hits are significantly lower, as each new player is replacing someone already on the roster.

That assumption works if none of the players cut have any dead cap.

[bobblehead]

WHO they actually picked doesn't even enter into my opinion about the trade. The trade was solely about an opportunity. They got someone they really wanted, apparently.

Clearly, they valued this guy much higher than most of the published "experts" did, who seemed to think he would have still been available to the Packers a round or two later. GB surely didn't feel that way, selecting him when they did and choosing him over other players I thought they might want. I hope they are right.

I was mostly joking Patler. I actually like this pick more than most here. Mostly based off tape I like Hopper as much as I like Cooper....which is why I didn't like taking an off ball LB as early as we took cooper. And even if we had taken who I wanted (Wilson) I still wouldn't be thrilled with the Douglas trade. Now that we didn't draft a single CB in a deep draft I REALLY hate the trade.

Also, I hadn't actually seen Scott C post about this. I saw the "final" effect of trading Rodgers and then looked to see who we got with the Douglas pick.

[run pMc]

Now that we didn't draft a single CB in a deep draft I REALLY hate the trade.

Kalen King?

[smuggler]

Next year's draft at CB is supposedly much better than this year, which was kinda meh at CB.

[bobblehead]

Kalen King?

My bad. And I love the pick for value. As we say in baseball, if he put it on tape he can do it again. King put tape together that had him in the top 15 conversation. No reason to believe he isn't capable of starting in the NFL.

[Joemailman]

I agree Bretsky. He has a 7.38. I read an article that the average NFL player scores a 7.19 coming out. So if you’re a dead average athlete for the league you want something to hang your hat on.

What are we looking at here? He was a team captain… great, that’s nice.

But small, not real fast, looks lost in coverage, doesn’t take great angles, really bad tackler. I mean, team captains are nice, but ultimately we’re trying to win football games here. If you’re taking an anverage athlete, he better be hard nosed, smart ball player who does everything right. And this guy doesn’t.

Looks like a 3rd round bust. I agree.

Oren Burks might be best case here.

When you read scouting reports questioning his instincts at processing plays, he does sound like Burks. But Burks was a safety who converted to LB. I think Hopper is a real LB who plays more physical than Burks. I didn't like the value in the 3rd round, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up better than Burks.