Packers 2015 FA's... what would you do?

WOW - that's a lotta money for the 3rd or 4th safety

Go back and look at my edit of that post, Satori. Big guarantee, too.

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix        ✔ @haha_cd6 Follow

Sean please don't leave me.

Man that is a lot of jack

See you later

Commitment to Excellence indeed

Seems like quite a bit of money to pay to a guy who's essentially a core special-teamer. Don't see them matching, but I didn't see them matching the offer to Jarrett Bush either.

Packers would receive no comp pick for a lowest tendered RFA if they decline to match, correct?

Correct. Who cares. He isn't worth $2.5 million

 

He'll be starting for the Raiders

If the Packers value him as STs only, he'll be a Raiduh

If the Packers value him on defense too, he'll be a Packer

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnor...ean-richardson-leave

So essentially what they see Richardson as is a No. 4 safety and one of their core special-teams players. That doesn't add up to a $2.55 million player, even though they have still have $17.255 million in available salary-cap space for this season.

Demovsky's view, which I agree with completely.

Decent ST player for a bad ST unit. $2.5 million isn't a terrible number if they think he can play and they've invested the time in him but that's a big ticket for an UDFA. Safety depth is HaHa, Morgan, Hyde, and Banjo so TT might have already been eyeballing a S in the middle rounds anyways. 

Stuck with him through the injury and they obviously like him, I'm just not sure they like him at that steep price. TT found him on the scrap heap and my guess is he goes that way again or takes a lower-round flyer on a replacement.

That would make the 8th former Packer teams have signed. That's a lot of Packer penis envy.

I hope they pay him.  Typically I don't like paying up for potential but in this case I would. 

Seems odd that it is just a one year contract offer.  Easy to match with no long term consequences.

Why?

 

Do you think he'll be playing significant defensive minutes?

If this staff can find Cory Linsley in the the 5th round, they can find an ample replacement for Richardson via draft or UDFA route.

Agreed.  After all, they found Marshall Newhouse in the 5th.

It all depends on the long term plan for him.  If he is nothing more than ST and not the most important ST player on the team (assuming that the tendered Bush comes back), then I don't see how you pay him.  Chris Banjo is also a ST player and a backup safety.  

 

If he is ST player plus has utility as a line of scrimmage safety (I think it's the Okie package) on defense that you plan use more this coming season, then you COULD work out a longer term deal with the same guaranteed money (technically, I think you have to match the offer sheet and then renegotiate a deal--but you would do that before you agree to match, right?).  

 

I recognize that secondary depth has taken a huge hit this year.  I vacillate on my decision on this.  Does anyone know which games the Okie package was used effectively?  Was it used in the Dallas game?  Maybe need to look at some coaches film.

It was used. Richardson took a bad angle and missed the tackle on the long Murray run that set up his third quarter TD.  Said it earlier, was disappointed in what I saw Richardson do from scrimmage this past season.

Yup. They tendered him $1.5M back in March, that's not peanuts

Then Reggie just launched a grenade over the wall

MM is putting his boot up the ST's ass - we'll see if he wants the guy

Today the Green Bay Packers re-signed offensive lineman Don Barclay to a one-year, $1.542 million contract, according to Adam Caplan.

 

 

Glad to hear Barclay signed his RFA tender. He may not be the kind of starter Bulaga and Bacteria are but assuming his knee is fully healed he's head and shoulders above the Newhouses and Sherrods we've had at back up.

 

Assuming GB goes with 7 OL again, wonder if JC Tretter is a Packer in 2015. C position is as set as it's ever been with Linsley. Im guessing MM wants that other back up to be more versatile then Tretter is.

He should see plenty of action in preseason, see what he's got.  If it's at C, they can deal him for something they need more, maybe even an OL.

Say again, p'boi?

I thought the popular consensus is Tretter is an excellent athlete, experienced at C, and can play G. Perhaps even T in a pinch?

He's still young and cheap, as well. Too many pawsitives to let that go, IMHO.

Ahh, to be young and cheap again.

They may be set at center.....but they do need a backup.  As said, I think Tretter can play guard too and possibly a little tackle (although likely not that well).  I think the depth chart will look like this next year:

RT: Bulaga, Barclay

RG: Lang, Barclay

C: Linsley, Tretter

LG: Sitton, Tretter

LT: Bakhtiari, Bulaga

 

Throw in another late rounder/UDFA to develop and that's your OL group.  

 

In TC in 2014, yes that was the consensus. But then he got some playing time (though limited) and IIRC he didn't play as well as some had hoped. Granted, it was a small sample size but let's also remember he's a player with some significant injury history as well

 

Pulling for him of course but IMO he's going to have to prove he can play C and interior OL well in TC to shore up a spot. This is from Demovsky earlier this year:

 

Offensive linemen the Packers should be watching: Both Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay have five tackles going before the Packers pick at No. 30 in their most recent mock drafts. And they're the same five tackles: Iowa's Brandon Scherff, Pittsburgh's T.J. Clemmings, Miami's Ereck Flowers, LSU's La'el Collins and Stanford's Andrus Peat. Texas A&M's Cedric Ogbuehi is probably next on the list followed by Oklahoma teammates Daryl Williams and Tyrus Thompson.

Don't be surprised if TT takes an OT at #30, especially one that can play LT. I think we're dangerously thin there

 

Just another lap faller

 

It was a couple plays coming off the bench against Mario Williams.  Tretter will be fine.  He's pretty much a lock for depth considering the past slugs that subbed for depth on this oline.

I think 30 is a bit high, but GB really needs to add some LT talent to the roster as you noted. Developmental guys Datko and Adams flamed out, so I'd guess about the 4th round or so GB will grab an LT candidate

 

Right now, the back up LT is listed as Tretter, but there will be several more bodies there this summer

Something happens to Bak they'll move Bulaga to LT. Barclay provides excellent depth and that's a good signing. Hope he's able to bounce back well from the knee injury.

If Andrus Peat or Ereck Flowers drops to #30, I can't imagine TT passing on either

I'm another one that thinks Ted will draft an offensive tackle higher than most would suspect.  It's hard to ignore Bulaga's injury history and Barclay missed all of last year with injury.  Bakhtiari, Sitton, Lang and Tretter all hit free agency after the 2016 season, so it would be nice to get at least one more quality offensive lineman in the pipeline this off-season.

 

I don't know about a first rounder though.  I think someone like D.J. Humphries would have to make it to #30 for Ted to take one that high, and D.J. Humphries won't make it to #30.  Lots of round two through round four picks out there that I think Ted would really like.  Ty Sambrailo/Colorado State, Jamil Douglas/Arizona State, Jamon Brown/Louisville are just a few players that I think would appeal to Ted.

I think r4/r5 has been his sweet spot for finding quality OL and I don't anticipate he deviates from that pattern. It seems either r1 or mid-rounds is where he sees value in OL. Yeah he dabbled in taking some day 2 OL, Spitz and Colledge, but that's been a long time. Unless someone really valuable falls, I think we see another r4/r5 OL come out of the B1G, MAC, or MWC (I feel like that's where he's drafted the most OL from).

I don't understand why the Packers should consider letting Richardson go and not pay him an extra million?  Thompson and the coaching staff obviously like him, otherwise he wouldn't have been tendered (Boykin).  He fills two holes on the roster, a backup safety and solid to plus special teams player.  The Packers are 17.7 million under with Richardson's tender included, so the extra million still leaves the Packers 16.7 million under the cap.  The rookie class will take about 5 million off the total, so even after the draft the Packers will be somewhere between 11.5 and 12 million under the cap.  That is still a really large amount of space to work extensions (Cobb and Bulaga's first year cap numbers combined are less than 9 million) or maybe pick up a free agent if a decent one becomes available after June 1st.

 

The Packers don't manage their cap space and consistently stay well under the limit to throw huge money at older, broken down players who will shut down once they've received their last big payday.  They manage it like they do so they'll have an extra million or two for this player here or that player there.  What better use are the Packer's going to have for that 1 million at this point in time?  The combo of Burnett/Clinton-Dix/Richardson/Banjo is a pretty solid group when you consider what the four players add to the defensive and special teams units.  The Packers should be good with that unit next year.  Subtracting a body forces Thompson to go out and acquire another safety (probably with a draft pick) and use up resources that the team didn't need to if they had kept Richardson on the roster.  Needless to say Thompson could still draft a safety and have Richardson, Banjo and a rookie duke it out for the 3rd and 4th safety spots...but retaining Richardson gives Thompson more flexibility where he can choose to add more players to the position or just stand pat with what he already has.

 

I'm sure there will be some sportswriters out there that say Richardson would have the 14th highest cap number on the team for 2015, so the team really can't do it.  That's hogwash.  Just a month ago they said that Cobb can't get a bigger contract then Nelson because Cobb is just a slot receiver.  Cobb now has a bigger contract than Nelson.  Scott Tolzien's 2015 cap number will be larger than that of Eddie Lacy and David Bakhtiari.  That's the way the salary cap game works.  Thompson knows it and the players know it.

I could be wrong, but I think it's TT's modus opernadi to keep @10M in available cap space. I just don't recall the Packers being close to the cap ceiling recently.

My point is, I don't see him changing course. Theoretically, he may be done after signing this year's draft class, keeping roughly the same reserve as has been his norm.

This statement is no longer accurate based on the new CBA.  In previous years, you lost unused cap space in a given year.  However, in the new CBA, you roll unused cap space into next year.  So while that $1m is "unused" in 2015, TT can "use" it all the way through the start of the 2017 league year (about 22 more months).  

 

Not saying that should keep or not keep Richardson (I'd actually use the $1m and keep him), but looking at cap impact for 2015 only isn't 100% accurate under the current CBA.  

They paid Jarrett Bush more than they probably should have (considering his defensive contributions)  as a core ST player a few years ago. Richardson is a good player, not starting caliber, but he has a role. I'd like to see him stay, but I don't think he's a rare commodity that can't be replaced.

I'd like to see Capers carve out a bigger role for Richardson on defense.  He's a big, strong safety that I think could be developed into a dime/coverage LB.  Hard to believe Richardson couldn't match up with TE's on obvious passing downs better than our current ILB's.  

From what I've seen I'd let him walk at that price.

 

I'm obviously not making the decision, though.

 

And there was much rejoicing.