UNOFFICIAL Salary Cap Thread

[ThunderDan]

The Bears have been linked to Jenkins, and I'd be surprised if they didn't go after Jones. Not sure who is the match for Barnett.

With a couple of ex-packers, at least the Bears can get a good look at a real Super Bowl champions ring.

I hope the Bears get Jones. Then he can drop the pumpkin for Chicago against us and give us back the 2 games against the Bears he has single-handedly lost for the Pack.

[hoosier]

Of all our defensive linemen excepting Jenkins, Wynn is the most natural pass rusher. Neal and Raji profit greatly from their freakish physical attributes, while Wynn makes up for it with technique. His problem is that he's just not big enough, strong enough, or physical enough to be at least average at the "hold the point" part of his job. If he spent the offseason lifting, and got significantly bigger and stronger he's a shoe-in to make the roster. Hopefully he'll do this, since he should know his job is hinging on this. Though, it does make sense to have him and Wynn alternate the "healthy scratch" DL position since one is much better suited to playing the run and the other is much better suited to playing the pass.) I really don't think Guy makes the roster barring an injury or a miracle. They keep drafting late round DL to be their developmental PS guy, and then playing them so much that they lose their PS eligibility. I think this is the year that we actually let the PS 5-tech start the year on the practice squad. Unless, of course, we bring in a 5-tech as a UDFA (like Brandon Bair out of Oregon).

I think they let Grant play out his contract at that number, and hope to get big production out of him since he's playing in a contract year. With the lockout situation, no way you get Green's head deep enough in the playbook so that you can play him before midseason. We can afford Grant, and you're unlikely find a situation where a guy will work harder to succeed than the one Grant is in: coming off an injury, in a career year, looking at an arbitrary age-threshold at which people assume you can't play your position anymore. Grant, Starks, and Green should be our 1-3. I don't think Jackson comes back unless he's cheap, and I think the same is true of Jones.

Colledge is probably gone, Jenkins is definitely gone.

As for the fourth safety, three positions are spoken for (assuming Burnett is recovered by the start of camp) and as much as I like some of the undrafted safeties (I'd love to get Joe Lefeged) the fourth guy has got to be a veteran. Whether that's Anthony Smith, or Atari Bigby, or Anthony Levine there's no way of knowing.

Agree with all of this except the Jones part. Now that this year's rookies have missed any chance for an offseason introduction to the offense, it seems very unlikely that Cobb will be in a position to contribute meaningfully as a fourth WR. That leaves Jennings, Jordy and Driver as established WRs and a healthy Finley as a split TE threat. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Packers make a push to resign Jones in order to maintain depth and flexibility on offense. Without Jones their ability to spread the field will be somewhat limited.

[Guiness]

Did you forget that, all the way back in March before the lockout, the Packers did cut Hawk and then immediately resigned him to a 5 year deal worth $30m-$35m?

Completely forgot. I just looked at the number in the right hand column, and remembered the 'balloon payment' from his original contract.

As KY said though, it's a sb, so assuming there's a collective bargaining agreement to work under, the impact of the signing bonus will be spread out. If there's no CB, hence no cap, it doesn't matter!

[Patler]

Agree with all of this except the Jones part. Now that this year's rookies have missed any chance for an offseason introduction to the offense, it seems very unlikely that Cobb will be in a position to contribute meaningfully as a fourth WR. That leaves Jennings, Jordy and Driver as established WRs and a healthy Finley as a split TE threat. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Packers make a push to resign Jones in order to maintain depth and flexibility on offense. Without Jones their ability to spread the field will be somewhat limited.

I agree, and think Jones has more of a chance of returning than some may think. If he doesn't get the type of long term offers he wants (and I think he may not), I could see he and the Packers working out a fairly lucrative but very short contract (1 or 2 years) for him to hit the market again real soon, but giving the Packers some protection at WR. Driver is old and coming off a lot of injuries. He has to be a concern. Finley has not been a model of injury reliability. Cobb may have a difficult time contributing as a WR except in a limited role, same fro the rookie TEs. Even Quarless may not make a second year jump without the benefit of off season work.

[vince]

Thanks for the updates guys. I'll get this updated to reflect the new info ASAP. TT has, until the cap uncertainty of this past year, almost always entirely frontloaded signing bonuses.

[Patler]

Actually, I have a difficult time characterizing what TT will do with bonuses and other guaranteed money. He has changed as his cap situation changed and from one player to another.

TT has front loaded a lot of contracts when he had cap space to do it with. Large initial roster bonuses and/or salaries for players certain to be there with proven histories (perhaps underpaid while creating those histories).

He has also been a very significant user of the "game day roster" bonus as well, with some being quite significant. Woodson had one of those to protect against his injury history. Ahman Green, too. A "pay as you play" approach. Similar with Rodgers for salary increases based on playing time in his rookie contract.

Then, he also used backloaded contracts quite significantly with Hawk his rookie year and Franks when he was franchised based pretty much just on longevity. With Grant he tied some pretty good future salaries to reaching performance criteria. Look how many thought Hawk was a goner because of it, and still think Grant will be. Franks underplayed what his payments escalated to, and he was released.

I think what TT has demonstrated is flexibility and creativity to get and/or keep the players he really wants. He has used a vast combination of pay now, pay as you go and pay later schemes to get the job done. What he has avoided is guaranteed pay later schemes that can come back to haunt you.

[RashanGary]

Horrible year to be a UFA. We might even be able to afford Jenkins and Jones. The cap cutting back, that means everyone has less money. If everyone is under priced because many teams are OVER the cap, I could see us either scooping up others, or keeping our own.

We're in that window right now. Like Patler said, Ted is flexible with his actions. He likes to keep and get players who are worth their salary. This year there might be more than usual. Makes the present and immediate future seem even more bright, maybe. Jenkins would be huge. You never know.

[RashanGary]

Do you take advantage of the down market now and risk having to make tough cuts to keep Raji, Rodgers and Matthews in a couple years. Or maybe that wouldn't even be a problem with Woodson, Clifton, Tauscher and Driver all coming off the books before they're up. You just replace those big contracts with big ones for the new guys. It's not like Rodgers, isn't making good money now. It's not going to be all new burden, only the increase in pay would change, so it might be an even swap. Keep Raji, Matthews and Rodgers at increased pay for the loss of Wood, Driver, Tausch and Cliffy. With that in mind, keeping players at discounted rates now makes even more sense.

This is our window. Flynn could win us some games if AR went down. We'd have depth everywhere, maybe other than OL.

It could really pay off. Ted is about opportunity.

Cap problems for several teams = opportunity to scoop up cheap.
The lockout hurting teams in flux and the ST's changes = luck

We could dominate.

[RashanGary]

2 man line - Jenkins/Raji
3 man line base - Jenkins/Raji/Pickett
3 man line nickle - Jenkins/Raji/Neal

Uh, yeah, that's a good group. We'd see more 3-3-5 nickle for sure. Something tells me Neal is going to be a better pass rusher than our 4th LB (Zombo or Jones) and definitely better against the run, so borderline nickle/base downs would be great with Neal in there.

I could see the 3-3-5 as our base defense, really, with Woodson in his rover role and Shields on the field.

[Lurker64]

Horrible year to be a UFA. We might even be able to afford Jenkins and Jones. The cap cutting back, that means everyone has less money. If everyone is under priced because many teams are OVER the cap, I could see us either scooping up others, or keeping our own.

While we might be able to afford all kinds of free agents this offseason, the reason we won't dip into that pool is that we have a number of guys who will be needing extensions, raises, and new contracts in the next couple of years. Rodgers, Matthews, Finley, Nelson, and Sitton are all in line for extensions in the next couple years. Most of those are more important than downside of Jenkins career or James Jones.

[KYPack]

2 man line - Jenkins/Raji
3 man line base - Jenkins/Raji/Pickett
3 man line nickle - Jenkins/Raji/Neal

Uh, yeah, that's a good group. We'd see more 3-3-5 nickle for sure. Something tells me Neal is going to be a better pass rusher than our 4th LB (Zombo or Jones) and definitely better against the run, so borderline nickle/base downs would be great with Neal in there.

I could see the 3-3-5 as our base defense, really, with Woodson in his rover role and Shields on the field.

That's all fine, but dept...

Jenkins is gone. They won't resign him and he might be the highest paid FA this off-season. Remove his name from your line-up, pal.

[Joemailman]

I agree, and think Jones has more of a chance of returning than some may think. If he doesn't get the type of long term offers he wants (and I think he may not), I could see he and the Packers working out a fairly lucrative but very short contract (1 or 2 years) for him to hit the market again real soon, but giving the Packers some protection at WR. Driver is old and coming off a lot of injuries. He has to be a concern. Finley has not been a model of injury reliability. Cobb may have a difficult time contributing as a WR except in a limited role, same fro the rookie TEs. Even Quarless may not make a second year jump without the benefit of off season work.

It's certainly possible. It will be a buyer's market, and the list of potential FA WR's is fairly impressive.

http://www.footballsfuture.com/2011/fa/wr.html

[RashanGary]

While we might be able to afford all kinds of free agents this offseason, the reason we won't dip into that pool is that we have a number of guys who will be needing extensions, raises, and new contracts in the next couple of years. Rodgers, Matthews, Finley, Nelson, and Sitton are all in line for extensions in the next couple years. Most of those are more important than downside of Jenkins career or James Jones.

Forgot about those two. Yeah, not keeping Jenkins makes sense. I was thinking Rodgers, Matthews and Raji. . . Finley and Sitton put it over the top.

[Patler]

I'm beginning to wonder if TT plans on spending any money on Finley or not. He keeps drafting TEs!

Seriously, I think his plan with Finley will be to make a reasonable offer, but not break the bank. Among the top 10 paid TEs, but not the top 1-3. If Finley doesn't like it, he will move on.

[MadScientist]

I'm beginning to wonder if TT plans on spending any money on Finley or not. He keeps drafting TEs!

Seriously, I think his plan with Finley will be to make a reasonable offer, but not break the bank. Among the top 10 paid TEs, but not the top 1-3. If Finley doesn't like it, he will move on.

Given how bad the TE's were last year, if Finley comes back and plays like we were expecting him to do last year, TT will pay enough to keep him. I really can't see TT letting a star player in his prime going to the competition. If Finley doesn't come back and play at a high level, all bets are off.