Some of my end of season thoughts:
- Have to say it still burns me incredibly how badly we got beat by SF in all three phases. Just unbelievable and inexcusable. Lost my confidence in Pettine. Hate that as much as we’ve invested in defense over the years, most every one of our playoff losses in the Rodgers era our defense got blown out. Mind-boggling how that never, ever changes. And run over by SF much the same way they did to us in 2012. They beat us in 2013 and now again in 2019. Hate them. Hate being outcoached on both sides of the ball. Hate that we played with such low intensity. Hate that we blew a plum chance to get back to the Super Bowl, with the kind of health we did – just like in 2014. And I hate that as great a season as we had, we got so little out of so many players – especially high picks like M. Adams, J. Jackson, O. Burks, R. Gary, even D. Savage, but also so disappointed in J. Graham, D. Lowry, MVS, G. Allison. When you look at that list, it shakes my confidence in Gutekunst.
- All that said, I think if we make the right moves and enjoy decent health, we can be very optimistic about 2020. I think Gutekunst knows what he needs to do, has to take advantage while he’s got Rodgers, be bold, even if he doesn’t have the same draft capital and money to spend in free agency. I think he must absolutely be bold, think he can be, and I think he will be.
- In some ways we (again) seem to have a lot of needs. But like you and most every Packer fan and writer seem to agree, at the top is adding to the receiving group (WR/TE) and ILB corps. I would put DE as next most important. I hope Keke can be the answer at one spot, Lowry can provide depth, but we desperately need a starter we can depend on at the other. OT depends on resigning Bulaga. And we need a quality RB to back up Jones. My best hope and guess is he does similar to what he did last year when he doubled up via free agency and the draft in improving the talent at what he saw then as the top areas needing attention: OLB (2 Smiths + Gary), at S (Amos + Savage) and at G (Turner + Jenkins).
- Based on that, I think he’ll get at least one quality WR/TE and ILB in FA. I think and hope he'll let Martinez walk, actually get 2 starting ILBs in FA (Littleton and Kwiatkowski/Shobert?) plus a WR. Can we expect he’d also get a decent starting DE in FA? I’m just not sure what’s realistic. I do think he has to resign Bulaga so that we aren’t forced this year to spend one of our top 3 picks on an OT. Hope Veldheer comes back as well. Bottom line, I just think if we want to get to the Super Bowl next year, we have to be highly active again in Free Agency. That will be the key.
- If we are active and successful in Free Agency, then the draft will be fun. Double-down at WR since that’s where the quality and quantity will be? That’d be great. Grab a dynamic RB to team with Jones? Shouldn’t be that hard. A developmental OT? Realistic.
- So my tactical focus is all about Free Agency. Resign Bulaga, let Graham, L. Taylor, Martinez go, re-stock with decent veterans if not stars at those key positions mentioned, then focus on the draft. We’ll see. Will be an exciting off-season.