Packers Offseason/Free Agency Thread

[Sparkey]

Getting rid of Campbell only saves $2.5 (i think) on cap so there is not way we find an ILB that is as good as him that cheap.

Post June. 1 and it saves them 10mil.

[RashanGary]

I won't say the cap is irrelevant, but supposedly we have huge problem with it this year, and our roster could be called top 2 or 3 in the league and almost certainly is top 5 or 6 in the league - just sayin' hahahahaha.

250 mil over 5 years is 1.25B

If you spread out a 100M loss over 5 years, it’s like an 8% loss of the cap for that mistake, spread out over that span.


Drafting like Gute has over the last 2 years makes up for any type of 10% loss.



Ideally you’re trying to get to the very very top. To win a championship. You can draft well, but then maybe you don’t have the top tier player under contract to really stabilize the young team. Or you can have ideal vets under contract and no wasted money, but you don’t draft well for a few years and you can’t get over the top.

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, but really, it’s nice to have every advantage because it’s pretty long odds to finish 1 of 32 and that’s the goal.

[RashanGary]

What I’m trying to illustrate Tex, in my above post, is that yeah, the cap is yearly and the total spent over 5 years is a lot. So to your point, these (30M) losses that we talk about as being almost 15% of the cap is a great exaggeration because there are ways to spread the mistake over a span of time by restructuring other deals to spread it out.

I’m kind of with you that it’s relevant, but not as drastic as the common view paints it.

[RashanGary]

I don’t think you want 5 100M dollar mistakes. Even spread out over 5 years, that’s still 40% of the cap and truly, there wouldn’t be too many ways to overcome that.

[ThunderDan]

At OverTheCap.com, we have 1 player under contract for 2027. That is Rashan Gary. We already have 3 players with cap hits who don't have contracts for 2027 costing us $4.68 million. Of course, if those players get cut earlier, the cap hit gets moved forward into earlier years.

I am a huge advocate of not kicking the can down the road. I guess that is why I liked TT as our GM so much until he lost it the last few years.

[bobblehead]

Really, the big chunks of dead space left to eat are:

Bahktiari (20M)
Clark (20M) *but you spread that over his next deal and deal with it later
Jones (10M) *again, spread that over his deal and take it later


The rest of the contracts are in good shape. After this year we really only have 30M of dead space to eat, that we won’t eat for 4 years. 30M now is more like 20M 4 years from now. So honestly, if Gute doesn’t get unlucky with injuries AND doesn’t sign any bad deals, our cap situation is cleaned up after 2024.

Its largely fixed by cutting Bak this year. If we do that we are something like 12 million of cap space available. Then a couple tweaks here and there as needed. We will be in a space where we won't lose anyone we want to keep.

[bobblehead]

https://overthecap.com/player/kenny-clark/4739
They pushed a big chunk of it into a void year, so some of that money won't hit until the year after his contract expires.
He does have a big cap hit, but not 40M. It's what happens when you play well enough to make it to your last year of your contract. Ask Aaron Jones about that.

I could see them doing an extension and play some games with the money, but I'd be leery of it. We've seen 3rd contracts not work out so well in the past (see: Bakhtiari, David). Outside of QB, I'm not sure a 3rd contract is a good idea (unless it's a series of 1 year deals), usually the player is too expensive and too old to make it worthwhile.

IIRC Clark was young when drafted. If you sign him for 3 and make the last year a bigger number for his optics it can work where you eat 10 mil dead space.

[texaspackerbacker]

Yeah, getting rid of the sacred cow will supposedly go a long way to fixing things along with, famously, having Rodgers money come off the books. And we are extremely fortunate to have an outstanding roster now at generally bargain prices, BUT, over the next few years, there is a LOT of money that will need to be spent to retain our young star quality players, not to even mention free agents from elsewhere (I saw an article that the Packers should sign Antoine Wingfield, a very good idea IMO). When the time comes over the next few years, we need to again push the limits of the cap. One of the usual suspects posted above that he liked the Ted Thompson way of doing things. Hell no, that's NOT what we need. We absolutely need to spend as much as it takes to keep Love, the young WRs and TEs when the time comes, extend Aaron Jones and Kenny Clark and maybe Preston Smith, etc. etc. etc.

Use/manipulate/push the limits of the cap, DON'T go all Ted Thompson.

[RashanGary]

In a perfect world, here’s the ultimate cap manipulation Super Bowl

Your team falls apart
You have the most cap space in the league and few long term deals
You front load with yearly guarantees vs signing bonus
You draft your star QB
You have epic drafts with tons of talent
You fill in the missing pieces with FA
You start to backload


Boom, 10 year run of dominance

[Fritz]

Well, if as run said, we go "dumpster diving," then let's pick up guys like Devondre Campbell a few years ago, and Rasul Douglas.

Who said dumpster diving can't be profitable?

You just have to have the scouts and the resources for them to do the work.

The Lions have not done as well in this area because all the scouts were fighting to see who got to do the background interview with Aiden Hutchinson's mom.

[Joemailman]

Packers Strength and conditioning coordinator Chris Gizzi has been fired.

[Joemailman]

Packers have signed a kicker. Not wasting any time sending a message.

https://packerswire.usatoday.com/202...source=twitter

The Green Bay Packers are signing kicker Jack Podlesny to the offseason 90-man roster, according to Bill Huber of Packer Central.

Coach Matt LaFleur said the Packers were open to competition at kicker for Anders Carlson, who missed a 41-yard field goal during the team’s NFC Divisional Round loss to the San Francisco 49ers and ended the season with misses in 10 of the final 12 games, including the postseason.

For now, the competition will be Podlesny, who went undrafted out of Georgia in 2023. He spent part of training camp with the Minnesota Vikings but was released in mid-August.

The Packers worked out Podlesny (along with Parker White) in September.

Over three seasons at Georgia, Podlesny made 60 of 73 field goals (82.2 percent) and 182 of 184 extra points (98.9). During his redshirt senior season in 2022, Podlesny missed only four kicks (26 of 29 on field goals, 73 of 74 on extra points). During the College Football Playoffs in 2022, he made 3-of-5 field goals and 12-of-13 extra points. He missed from 47 yards and 52 yards but his extra point gave Georgia a 42-41 win over Ohio State in the semifinal.

Podlesny, a two-time national champion at Georgia, participated at the Senior Bowl ahead of the 2023 draft.

[Joemailman]

[run pMc]

Packers have signed a kicker. Not wasting any time sending a message.

https://packerswire.usatoday.com/202...source=twitter

From https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2...t-team-all-sec

As a redshirt senior, Podlesny was named both a First-Team All-SEC kicker and the SEC’s Special Teams Player of the Year. His career totals at Georgia were 61 field goals made out of 74 attempts (82 percent) with a 64 percent touchback percentage (86 of 134). For perspective, Carlson was 79 of 110 (72 percent) on field goals with a 58 percent touchback percentage (183 of 313) during his SEC career.

Per wikipedia (I know I know) here's Mason Crosby's college numbers:
66 of 88 FG (75%), 109 of 117 XP (93.2%) and138 TB on 203 KOs over 50 games, with a reputation for kicking in the clutch (10/10 FG in last 8.5 minutes). Also hit FGs of 56, 58 and 60 yards.

[texaspackerbacker]

Packers have signed a kicker. Not wasting any time sending a message.

https://packerswire.usatoday.com/202...source=twitter

This guy's impressive on paper, and in the SEC, same as Carlson - not like he's doing it against crap opponents