2021 OL

[RashanGary]

The cap is looking sketchy at best. Gotta save some money some where.

Runyan looking servicable as a rook and Patrick looking solid, pretty much nails down Lindsleys departure.


LT (can we resign Bakh)
LG (where does Jenkins play?
C Patrick
RG Runyan (or LG maybe)
RT Turner (fairly well priced for a servicable tackle in his prime)


If we lose Bakh, and it's possible, I think our best shot at servicable is Jenkins out there.

Jenkins
Runyan
Patrick
?
Turner


Not looking great in 2021, unless we luck into a LT in the draft or the Stepaniak kid somehow really shows up. Or maybe even bobbles LT prospect, yosh, somehow turns out serviceable.

I really hate to lose Bakh, but I really want to keep the defense together. If they think they have a LT solution on the roster, letting him go makes kind of scary sense going forward. We could keep Jones, Williams and King if Bakh goes. I'd almost rather invest in the 25 year olds in their prime than the over or close to 30s.


Or you keep Bakh and make a bunch of business decisions. I guess it comes down to which parts of the roster they feel are developing best.

[RashanGary]

Or you keep Bakh, let Lindsley leave, cut Turner and move Jenkins over. In that case, inside you have Patrick, Runyan and some hope that there's another development/draft hit inside (easiest spots to fill)

No matter how they slice the salary cap pie, I don't see us being as tough up front as the last two years

[Upnorth]

It's a choice between Jones and bak imo. Why draft dillion if they planned to keep jones.
Plus we draft 2 and hope for the best. We have shown decent depth thank goodness but I can't see us still being an elite pass blocking team next year. Just very good.

[Joemailman]

I'm a little concerned about the Bakh negotiations. Here's why. Laremy Tunsil has the biggest LT contract, making about 22M per year. Then there's a big dropoff. The next few LT contracts average about 16M per year. So if Bakh wants to be the highest paid LT (certainly possible), but the Packers only want to pay him top 5 money (also certainly possible), they could be about 6M per year apart. That's a big gulf to overcome.

It's possible that for about the money it would take to sign Bakh, they could sign Linsley and Jones. Which would be better? It might depend on whether they think Jenkins can be a top flight LT.

[call_me_ishmael]

I'm a little concerned about the Bakh negotiations. Here's why. Laremy Tunsil has the biggest LT contract, making about 22M per year. Then there's a big dropoff. The next few LT contracts average about 16M per year. So if Bakh wants to be the highest paid LT (certainly possible), but the Packers only want to pay him top 5 money (also certainly possible), they could be about 6M per year apart. That's a big gulf to overcome.

It's possible that for about the money it would take to sign Bakh, they could sign Linsley and Jones. Which would be better? It might depend on whether they think Jenkins can be a top flight LT.

Good post and you're absolutely right about the Tunsil deal out of alignment with the rest of the league. I think they'll figure out a way to get it done with Bak because they can always franchise him 2x. We'll see what happens. I suspect he'll be back if only for the reason you don't let a guy like that walk without getting top flight compensation for them.

[RashanGary]

Franchising a 29 year old left tackle leads to bad blood. All these guys only get so many years to make money. It's a bad message to the whole locker room that you don't care about them. Letting bakh go would be better than the franchise imo. We don't have the money is more warm hearted than we don't care about your life.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I think I agree with Rashan. Bahk will have 9 NFL seasons under his belt. He has been pretty healthy over his career, but that is a lot of wear and tear. It will take quite a pot of guaranteed money to keep him.

It's a shame they can't get one more season out of him for another SB run with Arod, but you don't get perfection.

[texaspackerbacker]

They damn well better keep Aaron Jones - that's priority #1.

As for Bakhtiari, RG, you better be careful. He's a sacred cow to many in here. I found that out when I knocked him.

The bottom line here is APB's line: The cap can always be cooked. If we do that, there's a good chance to keep everybody worth keeping

[RashanGary]

I actually do think bakh would be smart to take a touch less from GB than seek max dollar. Lafleur does a good job scheming to make OL job easier. Lafleur doesn't practice older players who know the system as much. Mercedes is constantly getting breaks. Bakh would have to practice every day wherever he goes until he really gets their system down. Overworked and older.... Injuries harder to recover from. Just not a smart risk.for him and his agent.

Here, with what looks like long term coaching stability, Bakh has his best chance to actually play out his big contract, lengthen his career, and continually be able to focus on the fine points of his craft vs wearing himself out learning a new system.


20M/year is a lot of money. Stability, less practice grind, etc..... I think bakhs best career choice is GB so long as they're close to the ball park of that 22. Like I said, 20 ain't bad.

[bobblehead]

Re signing bakh is a must. No reason to let him walk. Jenkins/Turner are locked in meaning we have both tackles on the roster when they extend bakh. Might lose Lindsey, but depth at other spots means we probably walk into 2021 desiring 1 new body on the OL, which will depend on where things fall. And if my boy Yosh improves enough to man RT then I would think we have all 5 on the roster. But that is an if. There are a few open questions, but I would think we will still have a very good line next year.

[texaspackerbacker]

When we had the big dispute last week or whenever, I watched a lot of video, specifically looking at Bakhtiari. If he is in fact as good as a lot of people claim, it sure seems like he is misused in a lot of running plays. I seldom if ever saw plays run right over him or with him blocking straight ahead on people in front of him. Rather, his job apparently was a kick out block. Sometimes the plays were successful, and sometimes they were not, but it depended on Jenkins and Linsley opening the hole - Bakhtiari merely cutting off pursuit. He did good on pass blocking, however, either by his mistake or by design, he sometimes failed to adjust to pick up an outside blitzer - as in the only sack play on Rodgers in the Saints game.

I'm beginning to get a lot of respect for Stenavich, the O-Line coach, but it does seem like he could better use Bakhtiari - if in fact the guy is anywhere near a $20m a year man.

I will say again, all things are possible if maximum cooking of the cap is done - maybe Sherman-style or Jerry Jones-style. I wouldn't mind keeping Bakhtiari, just not at the cost of losing Aaron Jones and hopefully not even at the cost of losing Linsley.

[bobblehead]

When we had the big dispute last week or whenever, I watched a lot of video, specifically looking at Bakhtiari. If he is in fact as good as a lot of people claim, it sure seems like he is misused in a lot of running plays. I seldom if ever saw plays run right over him or with him blocking straight ahead on people in front of him. Rather, his job apparently was a kick out block. Sometimes the plays were successful, and sometimes they were not, but it depended on Jenkins and Linsley opening the hole - Bakhtiari merely cutting off pursuit. He did good on pass blocking, however, either by his mistake or by design, he sometimes failed to adjust to pick up an outside blitzer - as in the only sack play on Rodgers in the Saints game.

I'm beginning to get a lot of respect for Stenavich, the O-Line coach, but it does seem like he could better use Bakhtiari - if in fact the guy is anywhere near a $20m a year man.

I will say again, all things are possible if maximum cooking of the cap is done - maybe Sherman-style or Jerry Jones-style. I wouldn't mind keeping Bakhtiari, just not at the cost of losing Aaron Jones and hopefully not even at the cost of losing Linsley.

On inside ZBS that is the Tackles job. On outside ZBS (which Jones doesn't really excel at) his job is different. Jones has a habit of stretching everything right to the sideline which I think is why we run more inside. The playside tackle (which bakh usually is) simply has to cut off anyone "covering" him. Clifton was horrible at it. Bakh is good at it. If its the backside tackle ideally they get upfield a touch and cut the pursuit of a LB. Turner is actually good at this which is why he was signed and is now starting at RT.

[texaspackerbacker]

I agree with you about ZBS/inside zone plays, but my point is, you don't have to be a $20m a year guy to do that. It isn't that hard a block - just take the defender where he is going anyway in most cases, and it isn't the key block on the play - that would be the hole where the runner is supposed to go, Jenkins/Linsley's responsibility in most cases. Yeah, Aaron Jones and the rest of the Packer RBs don't gain near as much on outside zone plays where Bakhtiari or the other OT need to block down or ahead. The question is, is that the fault of the runner or the blocker(s)?

I don't recall Clifton being bad at kick out blocks or not. We didn't run much ZBS in his time, did we?

[Upnorth]

Bak isnt the best run blocker imo but many analysts say he his the best at pass blocking. That is more important to our team than anyone but the qb.

[call_me_ishmael]

I actually do think bakh would be smart to take a touch less from GB than seek max dollar. Lafleur does a good job scheming to make OL job easier. Lafleur doesn't practice older players who know the system as much. Mercedes is constantly getting breaks. Bakh would have to practice every day wherever he goes until he really gets their system down. Overworked and older.... Injuries harder to recover from. Just not a smart risk.for him and his agent.

Here, with what looks like long term coaching stability, Bakh has his best chance to actually play out his big contract, lengthen his career, and continually be able to focus on the fine points of his craft vs wearing himself out learning a new system.

20M/year is a lot of money. Stability, less practice grind, etc..... I think bakhs best career choice is GB so long as they're close to the ball park of that 22. Like I said, 20 ain't bad.

On the free market Bak will eclipse the 22M. No question about it. The question that I would have is choosing 90M now and being a Packer HOFer who will be on the Packers payroll for the next 20 years better than 100M now, uprooting your life and not being a Packer HOFer and not being on any teams payroll for the next 20 years? I would probably choose the former personally since either way he is really stinking rich.

[texaspackerbacker]

Bak isnt the best run blocker imo but many analysts say he his the best at pass blocking. That is more important to our team than anyone but the qb.

Yes and No. First of all, Aaron Rodgers has eluded the pass rush so many times over the years that he is probably better at it than anybody else. Yeah, not having somebody coming off his blind side is better, but not that urgent. Secondly, as I said, as good as Bakhtiari looked - even to me - most of the time pass blocking, he seemed so focused on the guy he's blocking that several times including last Sunday, he let a blitzer go right past him. Maybe that's the design of the blocking scheme, I don't know, but nobody else was there to pick up the blitzer.

[RashanGary]

On the free market Bak will eclipse the 22M. No question about it. The question that I would have is choosing 90M now and being a Packer HOFer who will be on the Packers payroll for the next 20 years better than 100M now, uprooting your life and not being a Packer HOFer and not being on any teams payroll for the next 20 years? I would probably choose the former personally since either way he is really stinking rich.

Very true. He’s getting I think 12M this year from his last contract. Anything the Packers do would have to be sweeter than that. He’s such an effective player. 29 now and still another prime year next year. Even into 31, 32 and 33 he projects to be an upper tier LT.

4 New Years and 84 million new (21 per) wouldn’t be the worst thing. Including this year that’s a 5 year 96 million dollar deal. 35M up front to make it significantly sweeter than 12m. Base of 8M for the first three years brings it to 59 And then 18.5+7 cap hit for the last two years in base.

Cap hits of
15M
15M
15M
25.5 14M dead hit
25.5

That’s almost guaranteed 3 year 60 with 44 in the first year or 20 per

Possible cut after year 3 with 15 dead

Total possible contract of 5 year 96 with 4 years 84 of new money or 21 per.

It keeps the Cap hits smaller during Rodgers 40m cap hit years.
It satisfies bakhs desire to be paid near the top for 3 or 5 years
It gives packers flexibility during the Love/Rodgers delema years or if they somehow.find a good LT


Could do a similar style deal with Aaron Jones and Kevin King if they chose.to

[RashanGary]

Obviously mines a little simplistic. I think they have a way of adjusting each year based on projected cap so it would be a little less pretty with the even numbers. But the 3 5 concept with the general up front and general cap hits make a lot of sense for both parties. The concept allows.for a 3 year window here with Rodgers, a smooth rebuild after and bakh is a rich man so he's good too