Packers Offseason/Free Agency Thread

[Joemailman]

Henry isn't the player he once was, but that's a great fit in Baltimore. They will punish defenses.

[run pMc]

I think the tread on them tires is pretty worn, Tex.

Also, Derrick Henry is already 30. Aaron Jones will turn 30 later this year. Henry has held up really well given his physicality but he has over 2000 NFL career carries on top of 600 CFB carries. I don't think there's a lot left there.

McKinney is 24, Jacobs is 26. Look at the ages of a lot of the players, they are all pretty close - Gute is building a young core that should stay together for 2-3 years at least and peak somewhere in that time.

[Anti-Polar Bear]

Also, Derrick Henry is already 30. Aaron Jones will turn 30 later this year. Henry has held up really well given his physicality but he has over 2000 NFL career carries on top of 600 CFB carries. I don't think there's a lot left there.

McKinney is 24, Jacobs is 26. Look at the ages of a lot of the players, they are all pretty close - Gute is building a young core that should stay together for 2-3 years at least and peak somewhere in that time.

The notion that mileages (carries) wear down an NFL tailback is myth. Give some 21 year old 1000 carries in a season and he’ll be fine and dandy after a long offseason.

It ain’t mileage. It’s Father Time.

[pittstang5]

I wonder if there are any other safeties or a linebacker worth signing. I’ve read that linebackers are flying off the shelf.

LB - Devin White
Although, something doesn't seem right there. I think he was benched last year or something.
There's a reason he hasn't been signed yet.

S - Kamren Curl and Jordan Fuller
Jordan Fuller has a connection to Hafley via Ohio State.

[Joemailman]

LB - Devin White
Although, something doesn't seem right there. I think he was benched last year or something.
There's a reason he hasn't been signed yet.

S - Kamren Curl and Jordan Fuller
Jordan Fuller has a connection to Hafley via Ohio State.

Curl or Fuller would be nice additions. I've read reports that Devin White has become almost uncoachable. One possibility at LB would be Jerome Baker.

Baker played for Packers linebackers coach Anthony Campanile in Miami and could be a nice fit opposite Quay Walker or in the middle of Jeff Hafley’s new 4-3 defense. Baker can run and cover, and he even has the athleticism to add some pass-rushing juice from an off-ball linebacker spot. The position is a need after releasing De’Vondre Campbell. Baker is still only 27 and coming off two solid seasons with the Dolphins.

[bobblehead]

The notion that mileages (carries) wear down an NFL tailback is myth. Give some 21 year old 1000 carries in a season and he’ll be fine and dandy after a long offseason.

It ain’t mileage. It’s Father Time.

Its not a total myth, but its not a universal truth either. There have been studies on exactly when "most" backs hit that wall. If I recall its something like 1500 carries between college and pros. There are always unicorns like Emmit, AP, Frank Gore, but there are a lot more guys who we barely remember where it applied. Just a really quick glance at Ahman Green and he wore down around 1600-1700 career carries. The NFL landscape is littered with those types of backs. I think it also correlated with him turning 30 as well. Jones is almost 30, at like 1800 carries. He just had his worst ypc in the NFL and missed a lot of time (played 11 games, but several were less than half a game). Maybe AJ has a year in the tank, but he very well may not.

[run pMc]

It's not a myth. Jamal Anderson got 290 carries in 1997 and then 410 in 1998 for ATL and was never the same after that SB run.
Look at the careers of RB from the 80's and 90's who were bellcow backs with over 300 carries and see how short their careers could be. There are plenty of cases where good RBs had a 2-3 year stretch of very good and then flamed out.

[run pMc]

Curl or Fuller would be nice additions. I've read reports that Devin White has become almost uncoachable. One possibility at LB would be Jerome Baker.

I think they are probably done as a player in FA. Maybe they take some nibbles after the draft, but they spent a lot with McKinney and Jacobs, and they still have to extend Love later this summer.

Devin White was benched. He freelances and is too inconsistent. I think he'd be a bad mix with Quay. White is athletic, but he's all draft pedigree and very little production. They can and should do better than him.
Curl or Fuller would have been good choices at S, but McKinney was clearly the best S available. I'd expect them to draft a few guys to backfill the position or maybe bring Rudy Ford back.

[Fritz]

I think they are probably done as a player in FA. Maybe they take some nibbles after the draft, but they spent a lot with McKinney and Jacobs, and they still have to extend Love later this summer.

Devin White was benched. He freelances and is too inconsistent. I think he'd be a bad mix with Quay. White is athletic, but he's all draft pedigree and very little production. They can and should do better than him.
Curl or Fuller would have been good choices at S, but McKinney was clearly the best S available. I'd expect them to draft a few guys to backfill the position or maybe bring Rudy Ford back.

If you're right then Guter better keep all eleven draft picks, because he's going to have to draft three or four linebackers and a couple more safeties, at least, and a couple more running backs. That's like seven picks minimum, right there. Minimum.

All that dead cap money is really - wait, what am I saying? The salary cap is a myth!

Come on, Tex and APB! Pull out those credit cards, and let's stoke up on some cocaine and a bunch of high-end hookers! And rent us all a gigantic Air BNB house somewhere so the Packerrats can celebrate when Guter signs another big-name safety AND another linebacker and running back!

No limits! Woo-hooo!

[George Cumby]

Rumor has it Dillon will be re-signed for a bit over 2 million.

If so, I'm happy.

He's solid if a bit pedestrian. Blitz pick up is great, good hands, contributes enough in the run game.

Just stop running him from the shotgun.

[pittstang5]

Rumor has it Dillon will be re-signed for a bit over 2 million.

If so, I'm happy.

He's solid if a bit pedestrian. Blitz pick up is great, good hands, contributes enough in the run game.

Just stop running him from the shotgun.

Good deal, I like Dillon.

and YES! Stop running him from the shotgun, especially on 3rd and 1!

[RashanGary]

If Dillon really puts his focus on speed and explosiveness and eases up on the weight lifting for size, he could drop a few pounds and get a little more burst and have 3 more years in the league.

[Frozen Tundra]

The notion that mileages (carries) wear down an NFL tailback is myth. Give some 21 year old 1000 carries in a season and he’ll be fine and dandy after a long offseason.

It ain’t mileage. It’s Father Time.

It's a combination of both, but you can't stop time. Technicaly, you're suffering an injury - multiple injuries - every time you get tackled. They're usually very minor injuries (bruises, sprains, muscle strains, etc) but it's still an injury that your body has to heal. That's why it hurts so much the next day; your body is healing those injuries. For most of an RB's career, 6 days is plenty of time to heal up before you go back out there and aggravate the same injury, but even then, you probably still feel a lot of those hits a week later, and the net effect is by the end of the season you've got a hundred places that are (at best) sore, and in some cases, really bothering you a lot.

You talk to just about any college of NFL player, at any contact position, and they'll tell you that from at least Week 2 or 3 until the end of the season, they're in some kind of pain every single day from injuries that just never had sufficient time to heal. In 2013, there was a survey done of 500 former NFL players, and 91% report significant, life-changing pain on a daily basis to the point where some can't even walk more than a few yards. Even Don Majkowsk, a quarterback, has had dozens of surgeries, and would be in poverty if he hadn't invested wisely, because he is incapable of holding down any kind of job.

You just don't heal as fast when you'e older, or as completely. It's not possible; the cumulative effect of all those tissue tears and joint strains combined with an aging body are an insurmountable barrier. As you age, the body's regenerative response (the healing process) not only slows down, it just doesn't work as completely, period. Bioligically, there's simply no need for it. We're genetically designed for maximum survivability during the reproductive stage of our life, so that we can spread our DNA and prepetuate the species, but once we're past the child-bearing and child-rearing phase of of our life, we've served nature's purpose. And it's time to shut things down, move on, and stop consuming the tribe's valuable resources.

You take OJ Simpson at age 22, vacuum-freeze him in plastic, and thaw him out 10 years later, there's just no way you're going to get 11,000 career yards out of the man, and you're sure never going to see him tear off 2000 yards over 14 games when he's 37.

[Teamcheez1]

Spending $2M on Dillon is a waste of money. I suppose he at least knows the playbook and can spell Jacobs or others for a few plays.

[Fritz]

Spending $2M on Dillon is a waste of money. I suppose he at least knows the playbook and can spell Jacobs or others for a few plays.

It’s not thrilling but it’s okay. I suppose this means they can draft a couple of very developmental running backs in later rounds if they so choose, since they’re going to need to draft about four linebackers and three safeties early on just to have enough players at those positions.

Not the revamping of the running back room I had hoped for.