CB

[vince]

Should TT:
1. Re-sign Williams for $5 mil/yr.?
2. Re-sign House for $7 mil./yr.?
3. UFA?
4. Draft?

I'd re-up Williams for as cheap and short-term as possible, let House walk and draft a prospect. I'm guessing someone's gonna give House starter's money and he's going into his prime so in this market he's more valued than Williams I'd say.

Cobb, Bulaga, Williams, McClain plus draft class and Raji/Guion. That's all of $31 mil. Backload Cobb and Bulaga some. Cut Hawk. Rework Peppers. Piece of cake right?

[red]

in no way should we re sign house for more then we could get tramon for

i honestly don't know if i would be comfortable giving house 3.5 a year

to me, house was our 5th best cb last year, behind shields, tramon, hayward and hyde, he might think he should be a starter, but i do not

[Patler]

If House really is a starting caliber corner, I'm not sure you can let him walk away unless a bidding war gets out of hand. Drafting a prospect is certainly no certain thing. GB has had enough Pat Lees and Brandon Underwoods over the years to make it clear that a year or two from now, if Williams ages out, they could be stuck without a suitable replacement. The six year age difference is significant.

What isn't clear to me, is what the Packers really think of House. How satisfied are they with the thought of him starting?

How much new cash in his pocket this year will Peppers need to come back? How strong is the motivation of a Super Bowl for him? How much money is he willing to give up for that? Hard to tell, but I'm not sure the Packers even need him to. If they are concerned about cap space for this year, it will be easy enough for them to minimize the 2015 cap impacts of contracts with Cobb, Bulaga and/or House.

[vince]

Yeah House isn't worth $7 mil/yr. Not sure what I was thinking there. I personally don't want House starting every game for my team but he's probably good enough to be one of the top 64 guys in the league. I don't have access to the stats at PFF but I'm pretty sure he forced lower completion rate, TD rate, and Opponent QB rating than Williams last year.

It's a thin year for corners in both FA and the draft. Both of these guys might be in higher demand than they're really worth.

[vince]

How much new cash in his pocket this year will Peppers need to come back? How strong is the motivation of a Super Bowl for him? How much money is he willing to give up for that? Hard to tell, but I'm not sure the Packers even need him to. If they are concerned about cap space for this year, it will be easy enough for them to minimize the 2015 cap impacts of contracts with Cobb, Bulaga and/or House.You're probably right about that Patler. We know Ted likes to have a little cap cushion going into the season though. Odds are they'll draft ILB and go with Barrington, Hawk, Draft Pick and Palmer or Bradford. I'm all for eliminating Hawk from that mix but replacing him with a proven commodity as I'd like would be less risky - and more expensive.

[hoosier]

Does GB really know what it has in House? His main problem to date has been availability, no? I'm not sure they know, but all of the signs (or rather, the lack of signs of interest in re-signing him) seem to point clearly to letting him test the market. Same thing will likely happen with TWill, and they are probably counting on being able to re-sign one of the two to a reasonable mid-range deal. I suspect they see risks in committing long-term to either and so will roll with whatever the market dictates.

What about Casey Hayward as potential replacement? Is he just too small to play outside on a regular basis?

[Guiness]

I don't know if House is the Packer's 5th best corner - he seemed to be the #3 guy, after Shields and TWill, outside, getting the starts when Shields went down.

In the Cobb FA thread, many felt the correct choice was to keep Cobb because he's an ascending player. If the choice is between House and TWill (and I think it will be) House gets the nod in that situation, at 32 Williams is going in the opposite direction as the 25 year old House.

[King Friday]

How much new cash in his pocket this year will Peppers need to come back? How strong is the motivation of a Super Bowl for him? How much money is he willing to give up for that? Hard to tell, but I'm not sure the Packers even need him to. If they are concerned about cap space for this year, it will be easy enough for them to minimize the 2015 cap impacts of contracts with Cobb, Bulaga and/or House.

I agree Patler. I don't see why the Packers need to do anything with Peppers' deal. Yeah, he'll cost $12M against the cap this year...but we have plenty of cap space in 2015 to absorb that hit. He's basically just holding the money for the kids we need to sign in 2016 and 2017.

I'm not even offering Tramon a deal at this point. He's going to be 32 years old. He's going to command a hefty price for a guy that old. I'm not paying House anything more than I believe he's worth. He's a capable #3 CB IMO...but I'm not convinced he's going to be a guy who should be an entrenched starter. He's certainly not worth $7M a year. I'd rather invest the money in the front seven. Ha Ha is only going to get better and better in the next 2 years, which will help Burnett become even more effective. That will take some of the need off the CB position that we've been stuck with since Collins has to call it quits.

[Patler]

House was the only corner the Packers had who could physically challenge the big WRs. Julio Jones had his way with everyone in the secondary until they brought in House, who broke ups several passes and nearly intercepted one. Same with some of the other big WRs the Packers faced. I hate to lose that, and would like to see what House can do with extended playing time.

Having long been a proponent of the philosophy that it is better to let an older player go a year too early than a year too late, absent huge contract issues, I would opt for House.

[Patler]

I always have a hard time readjusting my thinking when the salary cap goes up. As I think it through now, I'm not sure $7M is all that outrageous for a starter at corner on his second contract. So, if they see House as a starter, go ahead and give it to him.

I'm feeling generous today! :-)

[pbmax]

in no way should we re sign house for more then we could get tramon for

i honestly don't know if i would be comfortable giving house 3.5 a year

to me, house was our 5th best cb last year, behind shields, tramon, hayward and hyde, he might think he should be a starter, but i do not

By the metrics, Tramon had a bad year.