Love officially takes over

@Satori posted:

Some fans are happy to pin ALL of the delays on AR, when he only bears some responsibility. Some.
GL - I really enjoy your contributions here - but I'm giving  more credibility when there is something to back it up.

You might be right, its all AR's fault.

But as a reader, you've given me very little to go on and some of the data + HC comments suggest these delays are for multiple reasons, not just the one.

Fair enough ?    

No, he certainly wasn't to blame for all the penalties, but to absolve him of much of that, I need actual evidence.

I admit I have given ZERO evidence. It's a whine fest. My whine fest.

Well, my $.02 on this, and it's probably worth every penny.  I've gotten past the the front office not dealing AR last year, almost.  That still stings.  It is what it is though, right?  I'm excited about every season, and that doesn't change this year.  I look forward to seeing, like many of you, the offense run with JL, and I'm rooting for the kid because I want us to do well.  We haven't had many new QB's in the last 2 decades, so this is an exciting change of pace.  If Love can't show he belongs, no biggie, we stock up in the 2024 draft.  Also rooting for Barry to get the defense to perform like a defense loaded with #1 picks - that will certainly help the offense.  It's going to be a fun season no matter what happens.

@The Heckler posted:

I can see that happening honestly.  A lot of the talking heads act like the Packers roster is so lacking talent that they are a mid 90s Bengals 70's/80's/90's Jets team.  Do I think they are stacked like teams like KC and Philly no way but I do think there is talent to win this year.

FTFY.

10 will be awesome. Just has to not throw those Rz ints

@Timmy! posted:

FTFY.

Oh I like what you did there!

@Harry Manback posted:

Well, my $.02 on this, and it's probably worth every penny.  I've gotten past the the front office not dealing AR last year, almost.  That still stings.  It is what it is though, right?  

I’m always surprised at the critique of the front office for not trading Rodgers last year.  He was back to back MVP of the league.  This forum would have gone more nuts than usual if that would have happened.  It’s revisionist history to now say ‘we wanted him traded a year ago.’ IMO

@PA green & gold posted:

I’m always surprised at the critique of the front office for not trading Rodgers last year.  He was back to back MVP of the league.  This forum would have gone more nuts than usual if that would have happened.  It’s revisionist history to now say ‘we wanted him traded a year ago.’ IMO

Agree.  You can't trade him after the back-to-back MVPs, but I do fault the FO for the massive contract that got us into cap hell. They should have let him play out the previous contract. Chances of him playing that well three years in a row, at his age, without injury, were always going to be at best 50%. And they still had Love in the wings if Rodgers wanted to test the FA waters after the season.

A significant number of people here were advocating for the Packers to maximize compensation and move on after the last playoff loss.

@PA green & gold posted:

It’s revisionist history to now say ‘we wanted him traded a year ago.’ IMO

I, for one, was saying it back then. You can look it up.

His value was never higher and after scoring 10 points vs. the Niners defense, in the playoffs I was done. That's not revisionist history. That's how I felt and I remember it vividly.

But this thread is about Love. Plenty of other threads to discuss RahJahs discount double check 2 decades with the Pack.

@Fandame posted:

Agree.  You can't trade him after the back-to-back MVPs, but I do fault the FO for the massive contract that got us into cap hell. They should have let him play out the previous contract. Chances of him playing that well three years in a row, at his age, without injury, were always going to be at best 50%. And they still had Love in the wings if Rodgers wanted to test the FA waters after the season.

I don't think they had a lot of confidence in Love at that point which is one of the reasons they did give AR the big bucks.  Unless I'm completely imagining this, I thought there were some rumors during the 2021 season that Love was being shopped and there were no interested parties.

In the same way AR threw an MVP monkey wrench in the secession plans after drafting JL, JL threw a monkey wrench in the AR plans by turning the corner in 2022.  And of course by AR apparently nose diving.

@Fandame posted:

Agree.  You can't trade him after the back-to-back MVPs, but I do fault the FO for the massive contract that got us into cap hell. They should have let him play out the previous contract. Chances of him playing that well three years in a row, at his age, without injury, were always going to be at best 50%. And they still had Love in the wings if Rodgers wanted to test the FA waters after the season.

The FO got us in cap hell and they got us out. They did great still getting solid compensation for Rodgers who had to be traded after they realized the Packers have just as good of a chance of winning a SB with Love as Rodgers. The benefits of this trade will show in 2025 and beyond.

@PA green & gold posted:

I’m always surprised at the critique of the front office for not trading Rodgers last year.  He was back to back MVP of the league.  This forum would have gone more nuts than usual if that would have happened.  It’s revisionist history to now say ‘we wanted him traded a year ago.’ IMO

Some of us were begging them to do it based on his age and that his market value was at its peak.

@Fandame posted:

Agree.  You can't trade him after the back-to-back MVPs, but I do fault the FO for the massive contract that got us into cap hell. They should have let him play out the previous contract. Chances of him playing that well three years in a row, at his age, without injury, were always going to be at best 50%. And they still had Love in the wings if Rodgers wanted to test the FA waters after the season.

He wouldn't have played under the old contract. Reason #2 why he should have been traded last year.

@DH13 posted:

I don't think they had a lot of confidence in Love at that point which is one of the reasons they did give AR the big bucks.  Unless I'm completely imagining this, I thought there were some rumors during the 2021 season that Love was being shopped and there were no interested parties.

In the same way AR threw an MVP monkey wrench in the secession plans after drafting JL, JL threw a monkey wrench in the AR plans by turning the corner in 2022.  And of course by AR apparently nose diving.

To the brave go the spoils. This front office was much too passive.

@Boris posted:

But this thread is about Love.

Thank you

You're welcome.

Road hard, put away wet.

@DH13 posted:

I don't think they had a lot of confidence in Love at that point which is one of the reasons they did give AR the big bucks.  Unless I'm completely imagining this, I thought there were some rumors during the 2021 season that Love was being shopped and there were no interested parties.

I thought they had a deal in principle to trade Love to Denver but that Murphy nixed it. 

@PA green & gold posted:

I’m always surprised at the critique of the front office for not trading Rodgers last year.  He was back to back MVP of the league.  This forum would have gone more nuts than usual if that would have happened.  It’s revisionist history to now say ‘we wanted him traded a year ago.’ IMO

What Michiganjoe said:

"A significant number of people here were advocating for the Packers to maximize compensation and move on after the last playoff loss."

@Goalline posted:

Some of us were begging them to do it based on his age and that his market value was at its peak.

And that fact that even after home field advantage for two years, we still didn't get over the hump with him at the helm.  Not all his fault, of course, but that just proved he wasn't worth passing up what we could have received for him in a  trade.

@Fedya posted:

I thought they had a deal in principle to trade Love to Denver but that Murphy nixed it. 

According to local Denver media, there was a deal on the table from Denver.  Who nixed it - Gute or Murphy is just speculation.

But yes, as others have said, on with Jordan Love.  I do like the fact that he showed some leadership in getting together with some receivers in the offseason.  That's refreshing.

@GratefulPack posted:

Rodgers didn't like a lot of unnecessary motion pre-snap.  He instead preferred taking it down to the last second to see if he could figure it out.  I am interested to see if we have more pre-snap motion to see what the defenses are up to, but the defenses are really, really good nowadays in disguising what they are in.

You're assuming that was all on Rodgers. Let's face it, they were needing a large number of snaps from rookie receivers just trying to figure out which routes to run, the most talented of which also has trouble with basic hand placement when making the catch and came from a lower division offense.

We saw a good deal of motion previously and cutting out a lot of the pre-snap motion was the best way to simplify the offense for three rookie receivers and Tyler Davis.

@H5 posted:

Road hard, put away wet.

But it was a helluva ride.

@H5 posted:

You're welcome.

What’s love got to do with it?

@H5 posted:

Road hard, put away wet.

The road made of asphalt or cement is very hard

😁

It may be a hard road ahead for J-Lo. Going to be fun watching the ride

Set for life, congrats to Jordan Love

He already has $10M in career earnings before the extension

A breakdown of Jordan Love’s extension, per source:

Signing bonus: $8,788,765
2023 base salary: $1.01M
2023 escalators: Up to $9M (would be added to his 2024 base salary)
2024 salary: $5.5M (fully guaranteed)
2024 workout bonus: $500K

I'll be curious if that's still his contract in six months.

@Herschel posted:

I'll be curious if that's still his contract in six months.

Would probably not be a good sign if it was.

Don't they run into the same problem ( or opportunity in Love's case) as they had with trading Rodgers contract? It can't be renegotiated more than once in a calendar year*?  If so, it's brilliant strategic planning by the Packers front office. Love is squared away until after the 2024 draft with no possibility of renegotiation by rule. If they declined the 5th year option they would have to make a big commitment and declare the franchise tag before next year's free agency (and next year's draft).

They get a good long look at him this season. If they decide he ain't the guy and they're in a spot in the draft or can trade to a spot in the draft where they can take someone with franchise potential, they've left the door open to move on. It's going to be hard for the rest of the league to pin down their position unless Love balls out or he completely blows his opportunity. The front office spent a couple million and bought themselves a lot of wiggle room if I'm reading this correctly.

*freely admit I don't know all the particulars here and could be blowing smoke about the timing.

No, I think your statements are accurate titm.

I really like it and J-Lo gets some guaranteed money too. Definitely a win-win contract.

Watch for other teams to follow the blueprint.

Always feel like if we're rooting for a franchise we're first and foremost rooting for good football ops; a good GM and scouting department (thank you, Mr. Harlan and Mr. Wolf for setting the standard all those years ago) . It's weird that Murphy didn't let Gute have hand on the coach. Gute has made some big balls calls on personnel decisions. I'm not sophisticated enough to know if he made the right ones but it seems like he rightly felt his  team didn't have the cajones to get all the way to Superbowl Sunday.

The easy path is to keep the HOF QB happy, glad hand the CEO/President and executive committee, and collect a check. Whether he turns out to be right or wrong, have to respect Gutey for the courage of his convictions. Wilde has been slagging him every single step of the way and as I've been following the process Gutey seems a step ahead on every decision he's been derided for, but always treats Wilde with professionalism at each press conference. Gute's been passing out those cold, I know a *lot* more than you think you know, pats on the head to Wilde decison after decison. It's a lot different thinking up a franchise's future than 1,500 words or three hours of radio.

Haha. Maybe Wilde is trying to be like the "hard-hitting" NY media to manufacture drama.

By December of 2025 we'll have a real good idea how he did at the end of April 2023.

Can't ever fault a guy for using the current information he has to make the best decisions at that time. Not always the correct decisions but do the best you can and make corrections along the way where necessary.

So far so good ...

I don't think Wilde is a bad guy, but his ego swolled up after Tuesdays with Aaron became a weekly news breaking segment on Sportscenter and other nation wide outlets. When Gutekunst ascended to GM Wilde had an incident where he felt Gutey lied to him and he's been on a personal crusade of grievance ever since, imo.

He was peacocking his multiple insider league contacts that we're telling him Gutey was stubborn and unreasonable to ask for anything more than a conditional, escalating 2024 3rd for a 39 year QB with a $60 million contract. Wilde was aghast that Gute was making it personal and dreaming up scenarios where 12 would be in cahoots with Joe Douglas to wait out the Packers and screw them over for peanuts with all the Jets' leverage as the regular season approached.

A week after the deal was done there was no follow up with all those contacts to assess Gutekunst's prowess in completing the deal.

When the Love extension was completed Wilde didn't bother to get on record comments from Love or his representation about their perspective of the deal, they were walked over and taken advantage of by a cunning Packers front office squeezing the hapless player for every nickel they could shake out of his pocket. Couldn't be the player said thanks for the money and we're renegotiating a fat deal next year to go with it when I show out.

For me, I look at the player banking a chunk of money no one can ever take from him in an account and likely having reassurances that a good faith deal will be negotiated if he plays well. Everyone kills the Packers for Rodgers last deal when the whole time the signal it sent to their (hopefully) next 15 year starter is if you play well you'll be taken care of for the duration of your career so long as you want to dedicate your efforts to helping the Green Bay Packers win their next championship.

😁

Wilde is a good guy/person.

He does have a personal grudge against Gutekunst for what he believes was a lie from Gutekunst.

Jason is a very good writer, but does not have superior knowledge of the game of football, and could really benefit from an Andrew Brandt Business of Sports Masters class. JW clearly doesn't get why the JLo deal was good for both parties...

@Herschel posted:

I'll be curious if that's still his contract in six months.

That would be mid-season?  I don't think they make any decision by then unless JL either sets the world on fire or completely tanks.  They likely let the season play out, at a minimum.

@titmfatied posted:

The easy path is to keep the HOF QB happy, glad hand the CEO/President and executive committee, and collect a check.

In 2022, many Packer fans wanted the franchise to trade Rodgers in order to maximize the return on a QB many concluded would never get the team back to a Super Bowl.

Instead, the Pack traded away their best WR while also losing the only deep threat on the roster and replaced them with a couple of raw rookies and a washed up veteran. The Packers also re-signed a hobbled Tonyan to start at TE.

Facing a decision as to whether to pick up Darnell Savage's 5th year option, the team played it "safe" by doing so.

As always, the team traded for no veteran players.

Yet, the Pack also gave Rodgers a ridiculous new deal, a deal the CEO/President crowed about along with his loyal GM.

Keep HOF QB happy with new $? ✔

Glad hand/keep the boss man CEO/President and executive committee happy?  ✔

Collect a check by doing nothing more than making draft picks and adding a couple vets off the scrap heap on the way to a losing season? ✔

Hell of a 2022 for the Packer GM.

The Gutey fanboy club is on quite a high after the Rodgers trade and the excitement over all 13 of his draft picks, just like last year at this time when so many were able to convince themselves that signing Sammy Watkins was the answer at WR.

With the bad man now in NY, gonna be fun watching who is held responsible for the product on the field in 2023 ... and who is not.

Escalators in Love's contract. Source

@SteveLuke posted:

Instead, the Pack traded away their best WR while also losing the only deep threat on the roster and replaced them with a couple of raw rookies and a washed up veteran. The Packers also re-signed a hobbled Tonyan to start at TE.

The Packers had no choice with Adams. He wouldn't sign with the Packers even though they made a better offer than the Raiders gave him. Had Adams been forced to play under the franchise tag the Packers couldn't take the cap hit and that was before Rodgers was re-signed.

I'm still pissed the Braves left Milwaukee.

Let us close our eyes

Outside their lives go on much faster

Oh, we won't give in

We'll keep living in the past