Brian Brohm

[StPaulPackFan]

Call me crazy, but I'm sober enough to argue that Williams and a 1st round pick from last year at a position of need, is better than Harrell... wouldn't it have been nice to have 1st round calibur corner playing nickel last year???

Right or wrong I don't think TT, or the coaching staff for that matter, saw Williams as the high caliber player that some around here do. IMO, TT wanted a difference maker at DT. Other than Pickett, who is solid, no other DT fit that mold. TT obviously thinks Harrell does.

Sure Williams had 7 sacks last year. Unfortunately, when he was pushed into the starting rotation in week 12 he recorded only 1 sack over the next 8 games. IMO, this is what ultimately sealed his fate in GB.

TT didn't see Williams as a high calibur player??? He tagged him at what??? a 1st and 3rd (or 4th, didn't they change the compensation of the tags???); anyway... he wasn't worth that of course, but it set the stage for someone to make a more substantial offer - I was glad when TT tagged him, but as I've said, my preference would have been to just sign him last offseason.

Williams had what??? 14 1/2 sacks from the DT position in 2 years??? That's a very good sack total for an interior linemen... but, more than the sack numbers, he provided consistant pressure up the middle.

Jolly going down hurt not only the DL, it hurt the entire defense... Harrell simply wasn't even good enough to put on the field, so everybody else had to pull extra snaps - how many games was Harrell inactive, despite the need for a DT, and the fact that he was healthy???

And when they finally did throw him to the wolves he got his ass handed to him - Harrell not being able to pull his weight pulled the entire DL down.

Harrell played, but it was only b/c of his draft status and injuries... I'm not going to label him a bust b/c, of course, 1 year does not a bust make, but he's certainly off to a bad start.

If TT thought CW was such a high caliber player don't you think he would have secured him with a long-term contract? They have the cap space. It appears the tag was put on him so that they didn't lose him without any compensation. They sure jumped on that trade fast enough, even though Cleveland wasn't offering a 1st and a 3rd... I'm not saying he's not a decent player. IMO, he's just not as good as you think he is.

As far as the 14 sacks, I still go back to the last 8 games of last year. His snap count went up but his sack total went down. I know sack counts aren't everything but I don't remember him standing out too much either during that stretch. In fact, the whole defense seemed to taper off after Jolly was injured. Either teams figured CW out or he's just less effective when he plays more. Either way its not a good thing.

[HarveyWallbangers]

McGinn posted the stats for each DL, and Williams sacks were highly disproportional to amount of pressures he had. I think he's a solid pass rusher, but he's not nearly as good as his sack total would make you think. The Packers got a GREAT deal by getting a 2nd round pick for him while saving the cap space also. The way Thompson's moves have been working, don't be surprised when Harrell becomes a good player and this whole scenario makes him look like a genius again.

[run pMc]

My 2 cents:

I think Harrell will be as good as Williams, for less money. It's way too early to call it a good or bad pick.

I think dealing Williams (who got a big time contract for being a platoon player) for a R2 was a good deal for GB. There will be a bunch of players due for resigning in the next 2 years, and having the salary space will be nice so I don't have to read about how TT could have avoided another Sharper-Wahle-Rivera situation for the next 3 years.

Corey Williams was a good player for GB, but I'd rather show Ryan Grant the money.

Drafting Thompson puts pressure on Hunter and Montgomery. Maybe he can give Kampman a few snaps off. Jenkins should be healthy, and KGB will hopefully use the whispers of age and salary to motivate him. Cole was resigned. Pickett and Kampmann were the difference makers on the DL. Trading Williams wasn't a death blow to the DL -- GB still has some capable players on the DL.

I think getting Brohm in R2 is a very good pick for depth at QB. I'm not totally enamored with Brohm, but I like his accuracy and that he's supposedly got good football IQ. Supposedly Brohm would have been a top 5 pick if he had declared last year for the draft...so apparently he's got talent.

With that in mind, I believe M3 can coach Brohm up -- hopefully into a starting quality QB. M3 got Pro Bowl quality play out of Aaron Brooks.

I'd rather TT drafted Brohm than dealt the R2 pick for some schmuck like Dan Orlovsky.

I'm looking forward to the camps and hearing some news. With all the young players and rookies, I'm optimistic this team will improve.

[texaspackerbacker]

Those claiming the Packers likely would have been better off last season re-signing Williams and drafting somebody other than Harrell are correct. However, Thompson obviously was looking at the big picture--beyond merely last season--not only using the #1 pick for somebody who would replace Williams, but taking a guy whose injury definitely downgraded his first year performance.

Overpaying Williams--which is what it would have taken to outbid or match what Cleveland paid--would have done harm in several ways. While we had the cap room at the time, it would have hurt in future years. Also, it would have set a bad precedent, making future signings more difficult.

I hate it when people talked last year about rebuilding, as I see Thompson doing exactly what I always advocated, NOT tearing down, but rebuilding on the fly.

The real heart of the argument is being pleased with 13-3/14-4 and making it to the NFC Championship versus being displeased with losing to a probably inferior team that went on to win the Super Bowl. I can see both points of view on that, but I'm generally pleased, given where the Packers came from 1 and 2 years earlier.