Packers vs. Buccaneers Discussion Thread

[Joemailman]

Vita Vea likely out for them is a pretty big deal.

[Fritz]

I'm going to guess that Jones will play in a limited role and be a non-factor; Alexander won't play again, and Savage will also play in a limited fashion and then leave the game.

They seem to have injuries that linger and linger and linger and linger.

[bobblehead]

Your lack of cap understanding is showing again.

Drake is willing to sign a practice squad contract, so he would be stupid not to accept the minimum salary for someone with his experience to be a part of a 53. Under the Veteran Salary Benefit (VSB) of the current CBA, any battle-scarred vet can sign a 1 year deal for the minimum and only count against the cap at the cap-level of a player with only 2 years of experience.

Signing Drake to the 53 would cost the Packers less than $1M (VSB - Proration). But since the Packers are in a dreaded cap hell, they can’t afford Drake (/s).

Drake is a 7 year guy so his salary base is 1.65M. If he had been rostered on day 1 it would have been guaranteed. Personally I believe he would have been worth it, but GMs would rather go with Patrick Taylor on and off the squad. A rookie by comparison has a 750k minimum not guaranteed.

[run pMc]

If he had been rostered on day 1 it would have been guaranteed.

I think this is the important part. Given how tight they were against the cap this year, guaranteeing any more money to the RB room would have been an extravagance, especially for a RB3. I think back in August most people would have been ok giving that money to Marcedes Lewis instead.
Kenyan Drake has been a decent player and seems like he could be a sneaky good pickup if he has anything left in the tank. It's a better get than James Robinson IMO, poor dude's career is shot like his Achilles.

TBs injuries are about as bad as GB's. Agree no Vita Vea and Carlton Davis changes things a bit.

Unless the injury is really really minor, I'm not sure how you play Dillon. If he's in the game, it's a run play. How do you catch a pass with a broken thumb? He'd be a pretty worthless decoy on a pass play. If they can get 20-25 snaps from Jones that would be big. Patrick Taylor and Kenyan Drake might be able to get it done, but that's a tough ask. Looks like Reed will be ok, and if Wicks can play a few snaps that helps. I thought he was out for several weeks given his injury, maybe not. After having a bad gameplan vs. the Giants (LET'S SEE IF JET SWEEP #8 WILL FOOL THEM) MLF will need to do better, and Jordan Love will have to play much much better.

[QBME]

⚡️ T.C.B. ⚡️

[Joemailman]

Vita Vea likely out for them is a pretty big deal.

According to Aaron Nagler, Vea has been upgraded to questionable.

[Anti-Polar Bear]

Drake is a 7 year guy so his salary base is 1.65M. If he had been rostered on day 1 it would have been guaranteed. Personally I believe he would have been worth it, but GMs would rather go with Patrick Taylor on and off the squad. A rookie by comparison has a 750k minimum not guaranteed.

Veteran Salary Benefit would’ve lowered Drake’s cap hit to something at or between 940k - 1.092M, depending on the signing bonus. For a team - drowning in a cap hell and all that shit - that just handed Gary Lightbody a 34.6M bonus, 1.65M is chump change.

Yeah, the Packers are in a cap hell, so they just couldn’t afford to take a max hit of 1.092M to sign Drake in the offseason.

[texaspackerbacker]

APB, I thought you were similar to me - figuring that the cap can always be dealt with/managed/manipulated/whatever.

[Fritz]

APB, I thought you were similar to me - figuring that the cap can always be dealt with/managed/manipulated/whatever.

“APB, I thought you were like me - small dick size can always be dealt with/manipulated/whatever.”

[Anti-Polar Bear]

APB, I thought you were similar to me - figuring that the cap can always be dealt with/managed/manipulated/whatever.

Your sense of sarcasm ain’t too good, Tex.

Too many uncool Pack fans are barking about cap hell when they ain’t got a clue about the dynamics of that pig-enrichment thing called the NFL salary cap. Maybe they oughta heed the burger flipper who has passed the Wisconsin CPAs.

[run pMc]

Maybe they oughta heed the burger flipper who has passed the Wisconsin CPAs.

Or maybe the fact that you're flipping burgers instead of ledger pages is cause for skepticism.
Kidding aside, the cap can be cooked - to a limit - but it is real. The Packers are dealing with, if not a cap hell, a very very warm cap situation this year. It improves next year but they will still have Bahktiari, Aaron Jones, Preston Smith, and Devondre Campbell contracts to decide about keeping or cutting, and the ramifications.

Also - void years matter. They are still paying for that cap cooking, and not just Aaron Rodgers. Adiran Amos counts $8M against the cap this year, Dean Lowry $3M. If you think that's inconsequential, think about what that cap space could have done for them this year. Dead cap space is space you can't use to improve your team this year and in the future. It matters, and is why they have a $40M starting offense, and why they are operating overall on about 70% of their cap. SIXTYSIX million of their 226M cap is dead money; if you're trying to sign players that's a significant disadvantage compared to other teams who might be after the same players.

[RashanGary]

One more year of kinda large dead space
Probably 2 more years of paying inflated prices on the back end of contracts (or cutting and more dead)

Year 3 we should be completely back to a healthy cap.