Packers re-sign Shields, 4 year $39 million

[Bretsky]

great news. numbers are pretty friendly I understand. best of all we don't get weaker at this position and don't HAVE to draft a cb. can concentrate on major needs.

AGREE; I like going into the draft not feeling desperate for a position...but that is what I said out safety Last Year......feeling the same thing this yr if TT neglects that position during FA

[Joemailman]

Didn't an All Pro CB just sign a 4Yr for 32mIL deal ? Can't remember who it was but when I saw it I thought...he's better than Shields now...but Shields is younger

Considerably younger. It was Brent Grimes who signed with Miami for 4 years, 32 million, 16 million guaranteed. Grimes will turn 31 in July and missed all of 2012 with an achilles injury.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Didn't an All Pro CB just sign a 4Yr for 32mIL deal ? Can't remember who it was but when I saw it I thought...he's better than Shields now...but Shields is younger

Shields is both better and younger than Grimes, IMHO. Still, it's big numbers. I'll be interested to see what Verners gets. I like Sam though and felt he was the one guy we needed to resign. If you are a draft and develop team, these are the type of guys you need to keep.

[PlantPage55]

I don't even think it's a lot of money, even as is. It's the cost of doing business and it goes up every year. He goes somewhere else, he gets comparable money, I'm sure. Free Agents, especially young, first payday guys, are nearly ALWAYS "overpaid"

What I would say to fans is that this is the sort of thing that it takes to sign outside FAs. I know we get frustrated with TT over it, but it's easy to see why he'd rather give money to the players we know, more than the ones we don't.

That said, I expect him to do some considerable shopping on the FA market this year.

[Patler]

We have the option to back out after two years and pay just more than $20 mil. If he's continued to improve, we can keep him for about that much more over the last two years, or even extend him. It's a premium, no doubt, but he's honestly our best cover corner and we could have done much worse, IMO.

That is the key to the deal. Cap hits could be

2014 - $5.625M.
2015 - $8.125 or $9.125 (some reports say $20M in two years, others say $21M.)
Dead money hit of $6.25M., possibly spread over two years.

I also assume there will be some sort of relatively significant game day roster bonuses. The Packers use those a lot, especially with a guy like Shields who has shown some tendencies toward injuries and missed games. What will be interesting is if they have any sort of split contract, which cuts his salary significantly if he goes on IR. Until just a few years ago, those were nearly unheard of for younger veterans in their second contracts, except for guys who had already spent a lot of time on IR, but more and more teams are using them somewhat routinely now.

[pbmax]

Didn't an All Pro CB just sign a 4Yr for 32mIL deal ? Can't remember who it was but when I saw it I thought...he's better than Shields now...but Shields is younger

Considerably younger. It was Brent Grimes who signed with Miami for 4 years, 32 million, 16 million guaranteed. Grimes will turn 31 in July and missed all of 2012 with an achilles injury.

Shields is both better and younger than Grimes, IMHO. Still, it's big numbers. I'll be interested to see what Verners gets. I like Sam though and felt he was the one guy we needed to resign. If you are a draft and develop team, these are the type of guys you need to keep.

Packers traded bigger money in out years (3 and 4) to keep the guaranteed money below Grimes and near Jennings. Rosenhaus in turn got the 2 year average up past $20 million.

[Fritz]

Oh come on. For the past few weeks all I've heard is hand wringing about getting shields signed and now because it's what, 2 mil a year more than you expected it's suddenly a concern? What happened to him being the guy we couldn't let go? At least woodbuck can call a spade a spade and give credit where it's due. Dude rails on TT on a regular basis but when he pulls a good move, he gives him cred.

And c'mon Red! I expect way better of you with the whole "should of tried to sign him during the year" talk. We have no idea how hard TT pushed to get him signed during the year. Rosenhouse is a really good agent, there's a good possibility he wouldn't let a signing happen, especially when he saw how good shields was doing because he knew it would drive up the price.

This is a good thing, and honestly, if Shields keeps on his path, he's a huge signing. The dude can cover opposing #1's with regular consistency and that's great! He's not getting paid shut down money, he's getting paid #1 corner money which is more than fair.

Thanks, Smeefs. As I read all the comments about "this in nice but TT paid too much" I kept thinking the same things. In the last week or so, with characteristic bitterness, some of our more dour Rats referred to Shields in posts as if he were already gone. These comments came particularly strongly after it came out Raji got a one year deal.

People bitch that Ted is cheap. Then he signs a guy who is young and talented and evolving, and some people bitch that Ted overpaid.

Had Shields signed elsewhere for the same money, there would have been a contingent of Rats that would've howled that TT should've paid that money. The same contingent that's grumbling now that TT paid too much...

It's good news. Or it appears to be, anyway. Let's celebrate and hope that the continuity in the defensive backfield will pay off, that Shields will continue to improve, that Tramontana will play like he did in the second half of last year, and that Hayward gets and stays healthy.

Springtime! Hope!

[red]

i'm sorry you and smeefers feel that things can only be black or white. either the shields resigning was good, or it was bad

[Fritz]

Did you read the post? I said and still say, it may turn out to be bad. We don't know. Shields could get lazy, could get arrested, could get hurt. We don't know. But you're so bent on your negativity that the very outcome you bitterly complained in a post would not happen - that the team would re-sign Shields - did happen, yet you're unhappy that the team paid too much. Like I said, if another team had signed Shields for that same sum, you'd bitch that Ted was cheap.

[red]

maybe

[red]

i will say, that overpaying for sam (one of our better younger players), sits a whole hell of a lot better with me then overpaying to keep our shit like burnett, b jones, and trying to overpay to keep raji

[pbmax]

Its impossible to say Shields is overpaid now. After FA, when the market numbers are in for the rest of his CB FA class, then we'll know.

[mraynrand]

Shields is both better and younger than Grimes, IMHO.

no need to be humble; you are correct. Packers (and others I've seen) have abused Grimy at corner. Much prefer Shields, especially if Detroit drafts Evans as many are predicting. Lot of large fast WRs are going to be in the NFC north. Shield's signing is an acknowledgement of that reality.

[HarveyWallbangers]

i will say, that overpaying for sam (one of our better younger players), sits a whole hell of a lot better with me then overpaying to keep our shit like burnett, b jones, and trying to overpay to keep raji

Jones? Probably. Burnett? Hardly. When Burnett signed, most thought he was an ascending, young player that TT should sign long-term. Most felt he was close to a level that Shields is at now or on his way to becoming that. He had a bad year. It may or may not turn out to be a bad move in the end, but the signing in itself was not bad at the time. Raji has performed well in the past. He had a terrible contract year. Getting him back at $4M for one year with incentives wouldn't be a bad signing. It may or may not turn out well, but I wouldn't fault Packers brass for that. In fact, it's possible it could turn out to be a very good move. Bad moves are things like keeping Donald Drive around an extra year too long, IMHO. Many could see that his time had passed. Resigning Jones could be classified as bad move because many felt it wasn't a great move at the time. Most moves are like Favre vs. Rodgers. It's not black and white. It could turn out good or bad. In the case of Favre vs. Rodgers it turned out good, but had Rodgers not been the QB they thought he was it could have turned out the other way. All you can hope for is that your GM is making more good then bad and consistently producing a winner. Hopefully, some of those years things bounce your way and you win a title or two along the way.

[pbmax]

3 years/$11 million and a $3 million dollar bonus. If we are complaining that this is the worst overpaid offense on the Packers, then we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. If something came along better, a) he would be starting, b) Jones could be cut with minimum ramifications.

I still think he is the best coverage option at ILB though Francois is a ball magnet, but he did not improve versus the run.

Of all the concerns on the D, replacing him, not the money, is the concern.