Casey Hayward is gone to SD

[Patler]

Is Goodson any...well...good? I know they like him on ST, but IIRC he's a late bloomer (he's 26) and still rough around the edges. Shields usually misses a couple of games per season, and in a passing league you can't have too many CB's. That said, keeping Hayward didn't make sense for the money when they have all the young guys.

I think Goodson has improved, but he might not even be the #4 corner. The guys I an interested in seeing are Gunther and Daniel. From about midseason on, Whitt said many times that Gunther deserved to play, and that they needed to find opportunities for him to play. Daniel reportedly picked things up very quickly, and was rewarded with a promotion from the PS to the regular roster at the end of the season. If they can find one reliable backup CB out of the three, Goodson, Gunther and Daniel, they should be in decent shape. Then there is always Hyde, too, at least for 2016.

[Zool]

(Shrug) Casey had one promising season. Seemed like a good dude though?

[Patler]

(Shrug) Casey had one promising season. Seemed like a good dude though?

Ya, I was excited about him after his rookie year. Six interceptions in a part time role was impressive. Struggled just to play for two years, then seemed to be a somewhat different player when finally healthy. One of the beat writer said in last years camp that Hayward was never the fastest, but as a rookie would explode toward the ball when an interception was possible. He said that seemed to be gone even if he wasn't any slower running than before.

Seems to be a good player and good guy who won't hurt you in coverage.

[Pugger]

He's better in the slot but if SD puts him outside he might have issues there. Drafting Randall and Rollins made Casey dispensable.

[ThunderDan]

He's better in the slot but if SD puts him outside he might have issues there. Drafting Randall and Rollins made Casey dispensable.

Plus there is this:
$19.25M QB
$13.75M OLB
$12M CB
$10.5M Peppers
$9.15M WR #2
$8.3M WR #1


That is $72.95M against the cap for 6 players. If you average $5M per year for every other starter and your roll players you are looking at $168M for 27 players. You still have half of your roster to fill plus practice squad.

We are lucky that we aren't having to pay our LT $14M+ to protect ARod's blindside.

[ThunderDan]

You have to have young talent on their first contract if you want to be a contender every year. There is no other way to do it.

[Fritz]

Well, you have to -re-sign the guys you've identified as long-term keepers, which Thompson has done. He has not, however, often signed free agents to plug holes in a more immediate manner.

And for me, Barrington/Ryan as ILB's with god knows who in reserve is a situation that needed some attention. I don't know if drafting an ILB, even in the first round, can fill the bill.

[ThunderDan]

Bump, to see what people posted when Casey first left.

[Bretsky]

IN the end, he was good year one when healthy and then banged up, unhealthy, and not nearly as good after.

We had to trust our personell dept on this one so I can't criticize any posters for apathy toward him leaving.

We had plenty of time to evaluate how good this guy was as well as his attitude.

Appears we shit the bed on this decision

[Patler]

I wonder if Hayward maybe needed an additional year to completely recover from his injury problems. He had a very significant hamstring tear in 2013, then stress fractures in 2014 requiring foot surgery in the off season before 2015. Beat reporters were pretty much in agreement that he wasn't the same player in 2015 that he had been as a rookie. Maybe it just took time and another off season after 2015 to get completely healthy.

Even McGinn thought that letting Hayward go was the right decision, and he said that in Dec. 2016 as Hayward was finishing he first season with the Chargers. McGinn said that while knowing that the Packers would have been much better off if they had kept Hayward:

"At the same time, it’s incumbent upon reporters to examine the variables that were in play when the decision was made.

My conclusion is the same now as it was nine months ago. Thompson made the right call not to re-sign Hayward."

http://www.packersnews.com/story/spo...move/94811276/

Basically, the reasons most of us had for not being concerned have all turned negative:
1. Shields' career ended unexpectedly.
2. Rollins has been injured constantly for the past two seasons, and when he did play looked nothing like the rookie we saw in 2015.
3. Randall was injured all of 2016 and showed immaturity early in 2017. He remains inconsistent but at least shows signs of having a role on the team.

Had we foreseen any of the Shields, Rollins or Randall issues together with Hayward getting past his own injury history we would have wanted him back in a heartbeat.