"Relying on Rookies Far from a Sure Bet"

[Zool]

Counting on rookies?? Laughable.

There is Brandon Jackson and possibly Mason Crosby.

The other rookies are likely depth. It is and improved situation from last year with Jennings, Colledge, Spitz, and Hawk.

Sometimes rookies develop into good players too.

Isn't it possible Jones at WR might be the #3 guy. They get on the field quite a bit. Harrell's listed as a starter right now also. There's probably 3 or 4 guys who may see significant playing time.

Good points Rastak. I guess what this means, is, if we can't count on the rookies, then by default, the only holes on this team were #3 Cornerback (Walker), and any position filled by a draft pick/free agent from LAST season. What happens if the player in those positions doesn't fill the need? I guess we have a hole that lasts until the draft in 2008, but those holes can only be filled by FA or a draft choice from 2007 or earlier...

That analysis does not work for me. At all.

Just to play devils advocate for a second, what if you sign a guy in FA and he doesnt pan out (Nickerson) or blows something out (Arrington)? Then you still have a rookie or young guy playing that position, and you're out more cash.

The problem is, there's 2 schools of thought, but I think the best way is probably somewhere down the middle. Last year TT seemed to pick and choose FA's that panned out. In 05, he swung low and struck out. This year he stood with the bat on his shoulder. A TE would have been nice to bring in and catch some passes and maybe a FB, but you're already paying a ton of safeties and none of the available ones seemed to be a sure thing, at least in my limited knowledge.

I think if you splurge on a FA, you better be about 99.9% sure he's gonna pan out, otherwise you're just spending money for the sake of spending money.

[The Leaper]

Isn't it possible Jones at WR might be the #3 guy. They get on the field quite a bit. Harrell's listed as a starter right now also. There's probably 3 or 4 guys who may see significant playing time.

It depends on what you have at the position. The difference between Harrell and Jones is huge. One plays at perhaps the deepest position on the team, the other plays at one of the weakest.

If Harrell plays, it will probably be due to the fact he earned it and is worthy of it after beating out capable vets.

If Jones plays, it will probably be because we don't have anyone else worth a damn.

[LL2]

No matter what way you look at it GM take a risk. You take a risk by going the draft route (a safe risk in my mind) or going the FA route (which is a bigger risk due to the guaranteed money involved). There some decent, but mainly older, RB’s in FA worth taking a chance on and the WR group really wasn’t anything to get excited about either. So the draft was TT’s best option this year. GB has a really young team and now isn’t the time to go out and waste big moola on some over paid FA’s.

[PackerBlues]

No matter what way you look at it GM take a risk. You take a risk by going the draft route (a safe risk in my mind) or going the FA route (which is a bigger risk due to the guaranteed money involved). There some decent, but mainly older, RB’s in FA worth taking a chance on and the WR group really wasn’t anything to get excited about either. So the draft was TT’s best option this year. GB has a really young team and now isn’t the time to go out and waste big moola on some over paid FA’s.

There were quite a few WR's and RB's in Free Agency that were worth signing. Players that could have made an immediate impact on our team. But your right, now is not the time to be looking at Free Agents.......that time has passed for this year, and at best, now we will be looking at other teams cast-offs. There is still that slight chance that another team might want to make a trade with us, I simply would not expect Thompson to be the one to initiate it.

[woodbuck27]

No matter what way you look at it GM take a risk. You take a risk by going the draft route (a safe risk in my mind) or going the FA route (which is a bigger risk due to the guaranteed money involved). There some decent, but mainly older, RB’s in FA worth taking a chance on and the WR group really wasn’t anything to get excited about either. So the draft was TT’s best option this year. GB has a really young team and now isn’t the time to go out and waste big moola on some over paid FA’s.

There were quite a few WR's and RB's in Free Agency that were worth signing. Players that could have made an immediate impact on our team. But your right, now is not the time to be looking at Free Agents.......that time has passed for this year, and at best, now we will be looking at other teams cast-offs. There is still that slight chance that another team might want to make a trade with us, I simply would not expect Thompson to be the one to initiate it.

Heck. He'll be likely not to show his face after that McGinn interview.

If he does. I picture him in a wheel chair with a cannister of enriched oxygen in a side car.

[Bretsky]

No matter what way you look at it GM take a risk. You take a risk by going the draft route (a safe risk in my mind) or going the FA route (which is a bigger risk due to the guaranteed money involved). There some decent, but mainly older, RB’s in FA worth taking a chance on and the WR group really wasn’t anything to get excited about either. So the draft was TT’s best option this year. GB has a really young team and now isn’t the time to go out and waste big moola on some over paid FA’s.

I pretty much agree with this now that I have conceded Green Bay has not shot in being a contender in 2007. So if the mojo is to build for down the road I think this is spot on. But that's not what TT is preaching.

With our 15,000,000 of cap space, we could have structued a Woodson like deal and ate up some space this year without hurting us much down the road. Ahman Green anyone ?

[woodbuck27]

Counting on rookies?? Laughable.

There is Brandon Jackson and possibly Mason Crosby.

The other rookies are likely depth. It is and improved situation from last year with Jennings, Colledge, Spitz, and Hawk.

Sometimes rookies develop into good players too.

Isn't it possible Jones at WR might be the #3 guy. They get on the field quite a bit. Harrell's listed as a starter right now also. There's probably 3 or 4 guys who may see significant playing time.

Yea right.

but. . . this is on a Ted Thompson managed team.