JSO doesn't like the Tausch signing.

[Pugger]

Both TT and MM cited Tauscher's lockerroom/veteran presence and that makes us a better team on and off the field.

[bobblehead]

Burying Lang at the bottom of the depth chart is ridiculous. From where I sit, based on Lang's performance last year, he has a good shot at being on top of the depth chart at two different positions (LG and RT). Considering that Lang was their second best OL last year (behind Sitton) and he was a rookie, he should be starting somewhere.

I got scott wells on hold....he wants to talk with you.

[bobblehead]

I actually agreed with the article. I spent a lot of time watching Tauscher late in the season, and he was average at best. He made lots of mistakes, and looked slow. People disagree with me, that's ok, everyone has an opinion...I just tend to base it on specific fact while watching the game.

Like for instance (this was on the Madison ESPN radio station) in the month of december, 92% of all pass protections were called towards Tauscher to help him out...not often you do that with a right handed QB. Again, I don't know where that number came from, so it is what it is. I thought forever that Lang would have given us more than Tauscher did, and thought that signing Tauscher was a mistake in sense unless he is a back-up.

He came back from a serious ACL injury and was tossed right into the action. If you don't think Tauscher helps this team then you just don't know much about football. Yea Lang looked good last season but I'd rather have Lang backing up both tackle positions. If we did not sign Tauscher and had Lang starting at RT who would we have backing up the tackle positions?

Ok, so don't ever say I don't know football...I was one of the first to say Aaron Rodgers will be a good QB when everyone else was claiming him to be a bust. And one thing I know for sure, is Mark Tauscher doesn't start on any other team besides maybe Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, and Oakland.

My bad wasn't trying to take a shot at you but since you brought it up....

ND72 wrote: I put my word on that, and you can save it and show it to me if i'm wrong, but I won't be...Brady Quinn will be a Franchise.

Did you cut that quote off right before the word KILLER?

[vince]

The premise of the article is:

the Packers' re-signing of Tauscher to be a starter ... doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

His "big" reason for this is:

the Packers are no closer to finding their [Tauscher and Clifton] replacements now than they were three years ago.

Thompson hasn’t found Tauscher’s replacement (shame on him), so bringing him back is a mistake. Huh? With that logic, Bedard should shoot himself in the head if he wants to live a long and healthy life.

And is Bedard really arguing that Thompson and the coaches don’t have a clue as to whether Barbre, Giaco and Lang have demonstrated enough ability and experience to render Tauscher's services unneeded? What does he think they’ve been observing and studying on tape every freaking day of practice and games last season and beyond?

The fact that they are bringing Tauscher back speaks directly to how they feel about the wisdom of entering the year with the benefit of his experience and ability, even if his ability is declining. The argument that Tauscher is likely to come back better this year due to a full offseason of work with a healthy knee has merit. One of his competitors may have a great offseason and preseason of work and give the coaches reason to play them, but even if that occurs, that says nothing about whether it would be a good or bad idea to have an experienced backup like Tauscher available in case that doesn’t happen or if there is an injury.

Ulterior agendas make for senseless arguments.

[Fritz]

I was thinking the same thing, Vince...I was looking at the article, trying to get it down to Bedard's central claim. And you got it: it was a luxury to sign Tauscher for starter money...because Thompson has been unable to find a replacement for Tauscher.

Agreed, so far, that Thompson has not found left and right tackle replacements, though he may have found one on the right in Lang.

But to use that for the basis of an article as to why Tauscher's money was a luxury?

Uh...yeah.

[pbmax]

i also saw tausch struggle at times... give him a full offseason to do what he does instead of gimping around with a fucked up ACL and we'll probably see him closer to form.

basing his play entirely on what we saw last season just isn't telling of the whole story. a football guy of any level of experience playing/coaching should know that. no offense to anyone, it's good conversation, but there are two ways to look at it.

(ive been an all conference quarterback for the WI HS football team of the 90s and coach QBs @ Jeff Trickey camps every summer ... doesn't make my word gold over anyone elses... no one cared when i said AR was THE MAN

I cared mission. I really did.

And I do not doubt that some of Tauscher's struggles were part of the recovery from injury. But he had also shown signs of his pass blocking slipping the year before. And he has struggled with blocking for the run for a while. Its hard to know what is on this side of the injury for Tauscher. He might recover fully and still slip due to age alone.

[RashanGary]

That was funny, Vince. It was kind of long winded, so I guess I missed how ridiculous his main point was. That's Dard-head for ya. FF has coined a new term "Dard". It's used similar to tard.

With Colledge, Spitz, Sitton and Lang, it appears Thompson has found 4 starters in 4 years. Now we need the 5th.

I'll agree that Thompson has failed in finding 5 good young replacements in 5 years, but I don't know, how many GM's get stuck with that task when inheriting the team. If we end up finding a replacement for Clifton in this years draft, we'll need to find a starter every two years and that won't be such a nasty task. It's like failing at making a 100,000 in your first year of employment. Sure, you failed at it, but you had a few disadvantages to overcome.

I still think people forget what a mess Thompson inherited. It's like blaming Bill Parcels for not getting a QB in Miami. When you walk in and it's falling apart, sometimes it takes a little time to get everything in order, not to mention every team in the NFL has one position that is borderline. Pittsburgh, Arizona, NO, Indy. They all have one issue or another. And if the OL is Thompsons biggest failure, I don't know, I don't think it's too bad. It might be a compliment to Thompson that even his worst is pretty good.

The writer of this article is a total Dard, literally.

[ND72]

I actually agreed with the article. I spent a lot of time watching Tauscher late in the season, and he was average at best. He made lots of mistakes, and looked slow. People disagree with me, that's ok, everyone has an opinion...I just tend to base it on specific fact while watching the game.

Like for instance (this was on the Madison ESPN radio station) in the month of december, 92% of all pass protections were called towards Tauscher to help him out...not often you do that with a right handed QB. Again, I don't know where that number came from, so it is what it is. I thought forever that Lang would have given us more than Tauscher did, and thought that signing Tauscher was a mistake in sense unless he is a back-up.

He came back from a serious ACL injury and was tossed right into the action. If you don't think Tauscher helps this team then you just don't know much about football. Yea Lang looked good last season but I'd rather have Lang backing up both tackle positions. If we did not sign Tauscher and had Lang starting at RT who would we have backing up the tackle positions?

Ok, so don't ever say I don't know football...I was one of the first to say Aaron Rodgers will be a good QB when everyone else was claiming him to be a bust. And one thing I know for sure, is Mark Tauscher doesn't start on any other team besides maybe Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, and Oakland.

My bad wasn't trying to take a shot at you but since you brought it up....

ND72 wrote: I put my word on that, and you can save it and show it to me if i'm wrong, but I won't be...Brady Quinn will be a Franchise.

Did you cut that quote off right before the word KILLER?

hahahaha....well I didn't say what franchise!

[ND72]

and by the way, I never said we SHOULDN'T resign Tauscher, I just didn't believe it was as important as most think. Even in 08-09 before Tauscher got injured, he was very average.

[mission]

i also saw tausch struggle at times... give him a full offseason to do what he does instead of gimping around with a fucked up ACL and we'll probably see him closer to form.

basing his play entirely on what we saw last season just isn't telling of the whole story. a football guy of any level of experience playing/coaching should know that. no offense to anyone, it's good conversation, but there are two ways to look at it.

(ive been an all conference quarterback for the WI HS football team of the 90s and coach QBs @ Jeff Trickey camps every summer ... doesn't make my word gold over anyone elses... no one cared when i said AR was THE MAN

I cared mission. I really did.

And I do not doubt that some of Tauscher's struggles were part of the recovery from injury. But he had also shown signs of his pass blocking slipping the year before. And he has struggled with blocking for the run for a while. Its hard to know what is on this side of the injury for Tauscher. He might recover fully and still slip due to age alone.

You could be right and personally I didn't (have to) pay much attention to Tauscher before he was injured so maybe the form I claim he'll regain won't even be enough to justify the spending. Someone made a good point about this being a luxury signing and that's kind of the way I'm looking at it. We have the money to do it and the guy is a long time Packer who's been nothing but class. Plus his little brother did some sales for my company right out of college so I'm a bit biased.

[packerbacker1234]

Reasons to bring Taucher back

1. Reliability
2. Continuity on the line. Not having to worry about your "starting" tackles is a luxory many teams wish they had.
3. Great locker room presence and leader
4. Homegrown, fan favorite... makes everyone happy

Negative?

T.J. Lang most likely isn't starting, though he provides a solid backup at almost every position... and you need that as OL do randomly go down for a game or two. Just the nature of the game.


I mean, I get the "at some point you need to see what the other guys can do" mentality, but were also not a team rebuilding: We are a legit playoff contendor that if we fix a few spots on defense could be a legit Super Bowl competitor next season. Bringing back your tackle duo of what, 10 years, helps solidify the line. T. J. Lang may be as good as Tauch is right now, but Lang can also play multiple positions.

Lets say spitz gets hurt again... or isn't the same as he use to be (which wasn't even that good... his career has been almost as bad as colleges) I would not be opposed to Lang at LG. I am also not opposed to Lang being our top backup, able to play 4 positions. You can't underestimate that value.

In short, I am ok if this means Tauch is starting. It closes questions at the starter spot. Does this solve the future need of a LT and maybe a RT if we put Lang somewhere else? Of course not, but for 2010 and 2011 it's not about "the future", it's about winning now. There is still time to groom a new LT behind clifton and I think the Lang situation will play out better when we figure out what we are doing at LG, because putting college back there again would be a mistake... and I have never been sold on spitz.

[ThunderDan]

The real issue is:

Are there other RTs out there that are an improvement over Tauscher? If we can't bring that player in, we need Tauscher on this team.

[sharpe1027]

The real issue is:

Are there other RTs out there that are an improvement over Tauscher? If we can't bring that player in, we need Tauscher on this team.

I agree. Basically, the Packers just signed the best two FA tackles available. Might as well take advantage of the uncapped year and get known quantities.

Who cares if either one of them ends up as a well-paid backup? Worst case is Tauscher starts because he is still better than the other guys (which means the signing was necessary). Best case, one of the young guys is better than Tausch, which is a good thing all-around.

[CaliforniaCheez]

I'm starting to dislike Bedard. Not as much as the whining McGinn but Bedard is working on it.

Tauscher was with the Packers before Bedard left Miami to write about the Packers.

Tauscher went many years without ever receiving a penalty.

He is a good Wisconsin guy who has never complained and a very capbable player.

Last season was his worst as he stepped in cold right off rehab.

He is far more reliable physically now than Clifton.

He was coming off injury when he signed his last contract and has missed out on the big money his whole career. If he gets more in the uncapped year it can make up a little for many years when he was underpaid.

He is better than Clifton and certainly less penalized than Clifton. I hope he is finally paid more than Clifton.

[get louder at lambeau]

Bedard should shoot himself in the head

^Moral of the story right there.^

Do it, Greg. Do it.