With all the discussion on Favre's former WR's.

[RashanGary]

It will take Driver 11 years to do what Sharpe did in 8 so clearly he was not as dominate as Sharpe or even Freeman, but he has been a very productive player and when it's all said and done, longevity and health count for something. Just ask Brett Favre, Reggie White and Bo Jackson.

[chain_gang]

Yeah especially after that brutal hit he took in the season opener, against the Vikes a couple years back. Guy is mentally tough. Although he didn't seem the same for the rest of that year, but the year after he sure stepped it up. Hmmm, maybe there's hope for Fergie yet.

[No Mo Moss]

Favre definately makes the majority of WRs he plays with better, but it doesn't always work out that way. Terry Glenn really didn't have that great of a year here. He has succeeded in Dallas for the most part. I have no idea why we gave him away for virtually nothing. He is exactly the kind of guy we need on this team right now. Nice Shermy.

[Chubbyhubby]

I think the Pack rewarded Donald Driver based on his performance and what a performer like those records indicate! There are alot of new rookies about and with Packers getting the deal done now shows the rooks that hard work and effort even for the lower draft picks like DD was (7th rounder) it shows charcter on the Packers part. Great work TT on getting this done.

I really like this '06 draft all of them are "Packer People" exactly what we need!

[MadtownPacker]

Great info NC. Does how that DD is undervalued. Now he is around for a few more years he will mentor the youngsters. I see DD being more of a tacher type then any other player on O. Maybe even the whole team. Great that he was shown love by the Polar Bear.

[RashanGary]

2005 NFL Recieving Yards

1 Steve Smith CAR 103 1563 15.2 12 80
2 Santana Moss WAS 84 1483 17.7 9 78
3 Chad Johnson CIN 97 1432 14.8 9 70
4 Larry Fitzgerald ARI 103 1409 13.7 10 47
5 Anquan Boldin ARI 102 1402 13.7 7 54
6 Torry Holt STL 102 1331 13.0 9 44
7 Joey Galloway TB 83 1287 15.5 10 80
8 Donald Driver GB 86 1221 14.2 5 59
9 Plaxico Burress NYG 76 1214 16.0 7 78
10 Marvin Harrison IND 82 1146 14.0 12 80
11 Terry Glenn DAL 62 1136 18.3 7 71
12 Chris Chambers MIA 82 1118 13.6 11 77
13 Rod Smith DEN 85 1105 13.0 6 72
14 Eddie Kennison KC 68 1102 16.2 5 55
15 Antonio Gates SD 89 1101 12.4 10 38
16 Derrick Mason BAL 86 1073 12.5 3 39
17 Reggie Wayne IND 83 1055 12.7 5 66
18 Jimmy Smith JAC 70 1023 14.6 6 45
19 Antonio Bryant CLE 69 1009 14.6 4 54
20 Randy Moss OAK 60 1005 16.8 8 79
21 Deion Branch NE 78 998 12.8 5 51
22 Hines Ward PIT 69 975 14.1 11 85
23 T.J. Houshmandzadeh CIN 78 956 12.3 7 43
24 Donte' Stallworth NO 70 945 13.5 7 43
25 Jerry Porter OAK 76 942 12.4 5 49
26 Keenan McCardell SD 70 917 13.1 9 54
27 Tony Gonzalez KC 78 905 11.6 2 39
28 Jeremy Shockey NYG 65 891 13.7 7 59
29 Alge Crumpler ATL 65 877 13.5 5 48
30 Todd Heap BAL 75 855 11.4 7 48

2004 NFL Recieving Yards

1 Muhsin Muhammad CAR 93 1405 15.1 16 51
2 Joe Horn NO 94 1399 14.9 11 57
3 Javon Walker GB 89 1382 15.5 12 79
4 Torry Holt STL 94 1372 14.6 10 75
5 Isaac Bruce STL 89 1292 14.5 6 56
6 Chad Johnson CIN 95 1274 13.4 9 53
7 Tony Gonzalez KC 102 1258 12.3 7 32
8 Drew Bennett TEN 80 1247 15.6 11 48
9 Reggie Wayne IND 77 1210 15.7 12 71
10 Donald Driver GB 84 1208 14.4 9 50
11 Terrell Owens PHI 77 1200 15.6 14 59
12 Darrell Jackson SEA 87 1199 13.8 7 56
13 Michael Clayton TB 80 1193 14.9 7 75
14 Jimmy Smith JAC 74 1172 15.8 6 65
15 Derrick Mason TEN 96 1168 12.2 7 37
16 Rod Smith DEN 79 1144 14.5 7 85
17 Andre Johnson HOU 79 1142 14.5 6 54
18 Marvin Harrison IND 86 1113 12.9 15 59
19 Eddie Kennison KC 62 1086 17.5 8 70
20 Ashley Lelie DEN 54 1084 20.1 7 58
21 Brandon Stokley IND 68 1077 15.8 10 69
22 Eric Moulds BUF 88 1043 11.9 5 49
23 Nate Burleson MIN 68 1006 14.8 9 68
24 Hines Ward PIT 80 1004 12.6 4 58
25 Jerry Porter OAK 64 998 15.6 9 52
26 Keyshawn Johnson DAL 70 981 14.0 6 39
27 Jason Witten DAL 87 980 11.3 6 42
28 T.J. Houshmandzadeh CIN 73 978 13.4 4 62
29 Antonio Gates SD 81 964 11.9 13 72
30 Laveranues Coles WAS 90 950 10.6 1 45

[RashanGary]

At some point you have to ask yourself "How many #1 WR's are in the game?".

There are 32 teams in the league. With that FACT in mind, a #1 WR is someone who is among the NFL's top 32 players.

Not only is Donald a real #1. He is a real good #1.

[MadtownPacker]

Man, TT got a GREAT deal in a top 10 WRs and cleaned out the trash talking crybaby.

[RashanGary]

He took the security but Driver did not get some big fat gift like Javon was asking for. The more I consider this situation, the more I think Ted did right by the Packers organization.

If you consider the money that Thompson would have had to pay Javon, you would have to add Charles Woodson to the list of players GB got in return for Walker. Had T.T. paid him, we would not have the dough to have gotten Woodson.

We ended up with:

Woodson
Colledge
Blackmon
Martin
Jolly
Culver

For:

Walker and # 139 = Quinn Ojinnaka, OG

The Packers got rid of a head case and added some players with a lot of potential and Charles Woodson with the money they saved.

[RashanGary]

Think about it. Had the Packers given Javon 8 mil + per year like he got in Denver, we would not have the ching to afford Woodson. With that in mind, you can add Woodson to the list of players Thompson got for Walker...

[Bretsky]

Think about it. Had the Packers given Javon 8 mil + per year like he got in Denver, we would not have the ching to afford Woodson. With that in mind, you can add Woodson to the list of players Thompson got for Walker...

Had Ted Thompson kept Walker, he could easily have structured the Woodson deal different to land him. Rather than a huge first year salary he could have made that into a signing bonus. We could have had both if that was what TT orchestrated.

PLUS, look at that Denver deal. Tell me TT would not have jumped at that. IF JW doesn't recover from the injury they can bail after the first year. IF JW excels he gets his payday. TT does that deal in a second if him and JW could have worked out their differences.

[Bretsky]

On this poll, there is no doubt Driver can continue to be successful. He doesn't have to have Favre; the real question is will AROD come through enough post Favre to allow Driver to continue to put up the numbers.

[chain_gang]

On this poll, there is no doubt Driver can continue to be successful. He doesn't have to have Favre; the real question is will AROD come through enough post Favre to allow Driver to continue to put up the numbers.

Good point Bretsky, only time will tell for sure on that one. I would say the best thing that happend for Arod this year was Favre coming back, Rodgers can continue to get the reps in minicamp, training camp, and preseason games. This also gives him an added year at least to continue to learn the system. A lot of times the West coast offense can takes years to learn. The best thing for him right now is to keep working on that and get his confidence during practices and the preseason. Then the following year who knows what can happen, but I think Arod's chances to succeed increased a lot by Favre coming back this year. I think in the end Arod with prove his doubters wrong and become a solid QB, not HOF, but solid.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Didn't somebody report that Walker's deal is full of fluff though? Denver can cut him next year (if they had to) without hurting its future cap.

[RashanGary]

Yeah...

Walker didn't even get a new deal really. Denver is basically picking him up for the remainder of his rookie contract. They have him 1 mil up front but GB covered his pro-rated signing bonus so essentially he is giving Denver the same small cap hit he was giving GB.

I really don't think Walker had any intention of taking a deal like that from GB. After GB said no way to his big demands he refused to play. He went to Denver humbled and was forced into the wait and play it out category. The contract was somethign that was really nothing, but it allowed Walker to save a littel face becuase most don't realize it.

Having said that, people are saying we only got the 3 4 picks for Walker when really we got those 4 picks and all the extra cash that we didn't dole out for Walker to afford Woodson. Even if Thompson could have pushed salaryies into the future and still afforded Woodson, there would have come a day where we had to pay those guys. The way it is, next season is going to be another where we are double digit millions below the cap. If you don't include Woodson as one of the players the Packers recieve you can count some future players becasue the

FACT OF THE MATTER is that not resigning Walker saved the Packers 40 million dollars over 5 or 6 years and that buys you quite a bit in the NFL. Add that extra 40 mil to the draft picks we got and you have a pretty impressive gain in this whole ordeal.