More on free agents who may be available.

http://www.packers.com/news-an...0b-a23b-d51e2a415b5d

Looks like we wont have to hold our breath anymore when we punt to the Bears...

http://www.csnchicago.com/bear...5nbcs&ocid=yahoo

Have to keep in mind Graham is lining up outside 65% of the time. Of those snaps how many times did he motion outside starting from the line? Who covered him? Was it a safety? LB?, Slot corner??? A lot of his production lining up outside is Sean Payton creating the mismatch. Moving him around. If Graham is taking 35% of the snaps from the line you have to assume he's got a LB on him in coverage the majority of the time.  

You can't say he's putting up WR numbers so he should be paid as one because defenses don't account for him (put their top DB on him) at TE they same way they would if he simply split out and lined up outside every snap. He's putting up the numbers he is in large part because his coach recognized he had a match-up nightmare on his hands and understand how to use him.

And if I'm Payton after finding all kinds of creative ways to move Graham around trying to keep him heavily involved in the offense he rewards the organization with a grievance claim... If he ends up coming back I hope Payton keeps Graham lined up inside on a permanent basis and makes him trade paint with the slobs for 60 minutes every week.

Chargers announced they have released cornerbacks Derek Cox and Johnny Patrick and fullback Le’Ron McClain.

Chili, 

So, the coach understands the match up problem he creates.  The coach puts him in a position to exploit the match up.  The player produces results due to the match up, athleticism, etc and puts up stats equivalent to the best at the position where the match up problem occurs.  When it's time to get paid, the team would rather pay the player X since they drafted a TE, even though he is used and plays like a WR and "deserves" to be paid Y (which is about 3-4M/year than X).    

Payton didn't find all sort of creative ways to keep him heavily involved in the offense.  Payton found creative ways to use him to win football games.  There are maybe 5 players in the league that can cover him, so of course he would exploit that.  When he gets back to the Saints, Payton won't have him block, cause that's not what his skill set is.  His skill set is, to be a BIG WR.   

This is an interesting article.  I forgot about T-sizzle, and how they created a new classification for him DE-LB.  It's not hard to see that the new TE will be TE-WR, with a tag cost of a few million more than a TE.  

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/20...ranchise-tag-holdout

Packers should sign more free agents...How else can you pay an average corner elite money ?

Russ,

Who's covering Graham when Payton moves him around?

If he wants to be paid like a full time WR then split him outside and let him go up against the other teams best DB full time. Just don't expect the same production. Aquib Talib held him to zero catches last year when he was asked to shadow Graham all over the field. I'm not sure I'd put Talib in my top 5 corners in football either.

Graham is nightmare for overmatched, undersized LB's and safeties. He's not a good enough route runner to beat really good DB's on a consistent basis.

Chili, 

So, you play the position as to who is covering the player?  A LB covering, then your a TE, a CB covering you, then your a WR.  I don't have the data/stats on who covered Graham when he was lined up wide, more than likely it's a nickel/dime.   Why would the Saints not try position him in the best position to succeed.  I think the argument that he is putting up #'s because he is being covered by LB's is valid, but that shouldn't cost him 5M.  It's not his fault that he is putting up Madden stats and Defense's haven't figured out how to contain him.  JMO.    

Graham would make a killing on the open market.  He is hands down the best TE in the league right now and the biggest nightmare for opposing coaches. 

He has a point that the franchise tag underrepresents his value. 

I think you're giving Jimmy a little too much credit Russ. He wins because he is a match-up problem at TE

If a defense sees 4-5 WRs they bring in extra DBs, but that leaves them vulnerable to the run. The whole premise behind any TE causing a match-up problem is that a defense doesn't know for certain if he is going out or staying in to block. That's not the case with WRs- they really only do one thing.

The unknown is what forces defenses to hesitate and that hesitation is what buys him open space. If he merely ran out on every play like a WR, defenses wouldn't cover him the same way.

The only thing being disputed here is how much jimmy should get paid... and who really gives a rats ass what that ugly mofo makes anyways ?

Woodson covered the him pretty damn good too.

Graham is one of the best TE's but he isn't Megatron. He should be paid like a TE. This is nothing but posturing by Grahams agent to get more money for his client, which in turn means more money for him.

I think Graham deserves to be paid appreciably better than whoever is the highest paid TE right now...but I don't think he deserves to be paid like Calvin Johnson either. That's my problem with franchising him as a TE. Well, it's not my problem...it's his.

Maybe they should franchise him as a defensive tackle...should put him right in that sweet spot pay wise. 

I think they should franchise him as a Kicker. Yeah that'll work!

Not that it helps Graham any, but I think this is the answer to make it fair for both sides. I'd guess it would be tied to a percentage of times he lines up at a WR position.

I'm surprised, though, this wasn't 'fast-tracked' after the talk of these designations began with Finley/Packers a couple of years or so back. I don't recall it ever coming to a head like in Graham's case, but it should have set the precedent nonetheless.

@zachkruse2

Question re: NFL compensatory draft pick formula.

From: About.com

A team is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks if it is determined that they lost more or better players than they were able to acquire during the previous year's free agency period. The number of picks a team receives equals the net loss of compensatory free agents (maximum of four).

Compensatory free agents are determined by a formula that was developed by the NFL Management Council. Not every free agent lost or signed by a team is covered by this formula.

I've been searching to find which free agents are not included in the formula.

Does the formula only include UFA's (ie. players who have accrued four or more seasons) whose contract expires on the end the league season (March 11), or does it also include those players who have had their contracts terminated by their teams prior to the end of the league season?

If the latter group is not included in the compensatory calculation, given that TT loves his compensatory picks, I would expect that to be where he looks first to sign any FA's.

If they are included, nevermind.

Ok, sign him, Shields, and Byrd (who btw did make it to unrestricted free agency).  Then we can go to the draft with some confidence of plugging our other holes. 

quote:

I've been searching to find which free agents are not included in the formula.

I still don't think Ted breaks the bank for a Day 1 signing like Byrd, but Tyson Jackson is the type of player I could actually see him pursuing this year. 

Packer Update has been doing a series profiling these types of realistic FAs that could be fits, and Jackson was one of them. He also included Frank Zombo that made me chuckle at first, but actually makes a lot of sense for depth purposes at a league minimum deal.

Thought this was interesting, James Jones wants to be in Green Bay.....

Soon to be free-agent wide receiver James Jones doesn't want to leave the Packers but he might not have a choice in the matter.

"Honestly, I feel that there is a chance that I can be back, and then I honestly feel that there's a chance that I can't," Jones told Dan Hanzus of NFL.com. "This is the time where you just kind of wish that something would happen so you can know where you're going."

Jones admits he's taken a glance around at teams in need of help at wide receiver, with two teams in mind: the Colts and the Chargers.

"I've thought about places that I would like to go play, whether it's in Indy or there's coming back home, San Diego or somewhere. Teams have popped up in my head. I can't say I haven't thought about it, but in a perfect world I'd love to go back (to Green Bay)."    

James Jones feels there's a chance he returns to Packers

Packers official says making a run at Jimmy Graham would be "dumb beyond dumb"

Keeping the band together:

And from the gift that keeps giving department:

Good read on free agency and the increased cap.

The receiver class has some notable names, from Eric Decker to Hakeem Nicks to James Jones. But that group will be compared directly to a talented group of potential draft picks that includes five members of Mel Kiper's top-25 Big Board. What would you do? Would you pay Decker, say, $8 million per season or draft Oregon State's Brandin Cooks for a fraction of that cost?

A deep cornerback class has had some fans intrigued, but the Miami Dolphins took Brent Grimes off the market Monday, and it's not certain how many of the other top names -- Aqib Talib,Sam Shields, Vontae Davis andAlterraun Verner, among others -- will make it to free agency.

@steelers

We have released linebacker Larry Foote, cornerback Curtis Brown and offensive tackle Levi Brown.

C.Brown was a 2011 3rd round pick. Another CB on the market.

@adbrandt

PFT's top 100 FA's as of today.

http://profootballtalk.nbcspor...ree-agent-hot-100-3/

Poor EDS, he came in at 92, below my guy Breno Guacamole

Packers are represented at 15,24,34,42,66,76,92 from the PFT list.

WTF is Josh Freeman doing on anyone's "Hot 100" list? Hot mess maybe. Regardless.... we'll always have Minny giving him $2 million for 60 minutes of the worst QB play anyone's seen in years. You suck Minnesota.

The Vikings were complete idiots (shocking, I know) for trotting Freeman out on the field in that game. I struggle to hold that performance against Freeman, because I think just about any quarterback would look bad with absolutely no knowledge of the offense he was playing.

Freeman's proven to be an adequate QB in the past. Given time to learn a system, I think he's pretty decent.

I see Michael Huff is available... Maybe this is the year?

Did Baltimore cut him 6 weeks after giving him a nice FA contract? Yes. Did Denver pick him up and hide him on the sidelines as a worst case scenario option? Yes.

Did Michael Huff play in a Super Bowl last year??? Yes he did.

I know safeties!

I really thought Huff was gonna be the stuff...on that score oh  how badly did I muff 

Finley hoping to get clearance very soon

Getty Images

In the days preceding the Super Bowl, Packers tight end Jermichael Finley told PFT Live that he hopes to get clearance in the coming weeks following neck surgery.

The clearance has not yet come.  Per a league source, it could be coming very soon.

Finley’s primary doctor and his neurosurgeon currently are out of the country, but they will return on Friday.  The goal is to get Finley cleared by Tuesday, so that he can participate in free agency when it opens.

If Finley is healthy, there should be a decent demand for his services.  Before he can learn the extent of the demand, he needs to be cleared.

That's got to be (agent) Blake Baratz feeding this to Florio. 

As annoying as Finley could be to me as a Packer fan at times with his antics, I can't help but feel bad for the kid. It seems fairly obvious to me that he's not going to get cleared by anybody, other than maybe Dr. Nick Riviera at this point. I hope I'm wrong about that...but his primary doctor and his neurosurgeon are both out of the country? That's what's holding up his clearance?

Get that weak sauce out of here, Baratz.

Have to agree. Why would that hold anything up? As if this prominent neurosurgeon has to be what by the phone at his home office so when teams call he can give them a summary of his health?

Makes no sense. Finley's medical records/reports were written a long time ago and if glowing would have been made available to any/all teams interested. And the first team given such a report would have been GB.

My guess is GB has already read it and know what's in it. I hope for him he's cleared but hardly holding my breath. Remember he's also someone with a 10mil tax free insurance policy.

That last part is why his attempt to return makes a little less sense. I get he's a competitor and wants to play, but if he is cleared he could end his career on a knee or something other than the neck and not collect on the $10mm. If he is cleared and does not get more than near $18mm guaranteed he is losing out IMO.

Intriguing name on the FA list. Darren McFadden. Checkered injury past. But he's going to be cheap. Behind Lacy he's a potential lethal option. Really good catching the ball. 1 year deal and see what happens. 

About Finley, the Packers know what they are going to do. If they are going to resign him they can not do it until the 8th or something around that date.. The Packers are a very tight lip organization, I doubt they would leak their intentions to the press.

A lot of the stuff we are hearing about the teams plans I suspect is coming from player agents who are making stuff up to improve their clients chances of signing a big contract. I think the Packers only comment on these reports when it suits there purposes. An example of this is last year when there were all those reports that the Packers were going to sign Green. Green never was going to sign with the Packers. His agent was leaking the information to pressure Atlanta into given Green more money. The Packer never said anything since what Green's agent was doing did not interfere with their plans. They did shot down the report  this year that  they wanted to change their defensive line personnel into leaner longer body types. I bet Raji agent was behind that report since it suggest that the Packers were willing to let Raji walk not because of his play sucked but because of a change in the kind of player they want on their defensive line. The Packer probably did not want that rumor to stand since to could interfere with their plans, heck maybe they want to sign Raji cheap. 

Finley's agent said the neurosurgeon said Finley has a 99.9% chance of full recovery.

I know these guys want to get paid but....

S-T-F-U!!