So far, so Goot.
I am freaking so glad Gute is running the show now. He has shown he will do whatever it takes to get this team what it needs to be great.
The whole shakeup of the front office and new coaching staff is exactly what this team needed. Thank you Gute!
Funny how we don't hear as much from or about What Me Murphy since the changes. The structure works with the right people, which is true in any organization.
Major Pos
Smith Bros
Amos
Savage
Jenkins
Mildly Pos
Opie
Veldheer
Billy Turner
Neg
Graham
JMon Moore
MVS
Oren Burks
Paying Lowry a lot of money
Major Pos
Smith Bros
Amos
Savage
Jenkins
Alexander
Veldheer - I don't think we beat SEA with Light at LT. It was an obvious weakness that was exposed mid season and he addressed it. This trend continues with the addition of Ervin for punt return duty.
Neg
Graham
Turner
Paying Lowry a lot of money.
The Smiths have been the biggest factor but a close 2nd is that we are finally hitting high round draft picks and getting immediate contributions from them. Alexander, Savage, Jenkins are all full time players in 1st and 2nd years as round 1 and 2 picks. Gary is still a question, im not optimistic, and Jackson looks like a loss at this point. So going 3 for 5 in those rounds in terms of providing immediate full time contributors. That's huge.
Tyler Ervin
Chandon Sullivan
Allen Lazard
Gutey has been exceptional at rummaging the scrap heap and finding talent.
What I like about the guy is he has a healthy ego that he's not afraid to try different things if the first options don't work (punt returner, backup LT)....
People wanna shit all over Turner...dude may not be an All Pro, but he's far and away better than some of the toys from Misfit Island...Spriggs, McCray, Taylor ad nauseum. And he can play multiple spots.
People want to shit on Linsley, but he's been better than Turner.
I think it's pretty equal. Both guys are solid if unspectacular Olinemen. Obviously the two weakest. Pretty good problem to have.
Guy on Wilde and Tausch brought a reality check on Gute, bringing up his 2018 draft class. It has turned out very poorly.
11 draft picks. 3 are contributors: Alexander, Hunter Bradley (long snapper) and JK Scott. The other 8 are cut (Moore), on the practice squad (Donnerson, Looney), or can't get on the field (MVS, Madison, Burks, Jackson). St Brown was injured, but he's 4th or 5th string.
I'd hold comment on grading 2018 draft class until after 2020 results.
Hungry5 posted:I'd hold comment on grading 2018 draft class until after 2020 results.
Perhaps. But in 2019 Jackson and Burks seldom got on the field on defense, MVS was rarely targeted for a pass, Madison was 3rd string/inactive before getting hurt, two other guys are on the practice squad and one is being switched from DE to TE. From the results of their second year as pros in 2019, no reason to expect something different in 2020.
People were ready to run Davante out of Green Bay on his 2nd season. I hope next year MVS, Burks, and EQ step it up in a big way. Lease confident in Burks to turn it around.
It's hard to select every player perfectly & have them all be All-Pro or even serviceable. Please LMK the first time any GM does it so we can analyze their formula.
I don't know how many times Davante's second season can be brought up and just not processed by some people. Context. His ankle was bad all damn season but he tried to gut out being the new #1 because Jordy was down and they didn't have much else. Completely different than the others listed.
When you pick 11 players, and in their second year only 1 has turned out to be a starter or even serviceable player on either the offense or defense, that is not good...by any formula.
DH13 posted:I don't know how many times Davante's second season can be brought up and just not processed by some people. Context. His ankle was bad all damn season but he tried to gut out being the new #1 because Jordy was down and they didn't have much else. Completely different than the others listed.
Yup, along with T j Watt and chip on shoulder I would file this under meaningless.
Appreciate that Gutekunst is much more open than Thompson, but I don’t think anywhere near quite as candid as Wolf. No surprise that he acknowledges need to address WR and ILB. But a few of his comments at his press conference the other day hit me as being more "politically correct" than what (I hope) he really thinks:
- Gutekunst is still confident in the 2018 draft class. Injuries and lack of opportunities have hurt some of the players. Mentioned injuries for Oren Burks and a lack of opportunities for Josh Jackson, who “really came on” at the end of this year. My comments: News to me Oren Burks’ lack of impact was primarily due to injury. Thought we were told he was healthy, certainly the second half of the season. And Josh Jackson really came on? Where, in practice? Because like Burks, he basically never saw the field. Zero impact from two guys in their second year who were 2nd and 3rd round picks – the latter one who Gutekunst traded up for – and he’s still confident. Hope he’s not totally bullshitting himself, let alone us.
- Gutekunst on Rashan Gary: “I thought he contributed quite a bit.” Sees his skill set and future role as similar to Za’Darius Smith. Liked his explosiveness off the edge and ability to affect the passer. “He’s growing into it.” My comments: I still love Gary’s potential, but to say he contributed quite a bit seems like, above, opposite from reality we witnessed. Hope he grows into it so that in 2020 we see why he was 12th pick in the entire draft. Color me concerned.
- On defensive line: “I really do like our defensive line group.” Likes Dean Lowry and Tyler Lancaster. Excited for Montravius Adams and Kinglsey Keke in 2020. Said he wouldn’t pass on adding a talented player along the line. My comments: How could he possibly and honestly really like the DL group? Lowry was overpaid and unproductive and Lancaster is a good guy but who should be a backup on any decent DL. Worse, he’s excited for Adams – the guy who Pettine said was the most improved player last off-season, the guy who supposedly showed Gutekunst enough to let Mike Daniels go, and then went the entire season as a former 3rd round pick in his third year as mostly a backup? How could he say that with a straight face?
- Happy with the progression of rookie safety Darnell Savage. “He did a really nice job.” Battled through an injury and turned into a true pro. Said he’s excited for his future. “He has a bright future.” My comments: Like Gary, I still love Savage’s potential. But for the first DB taken in the whole draft, a guy who started from day 1, and for all his speed, he was fairly invisible for most of the season. Based on that, I don’t know how you state he did “a really nice job.”
Remember the BS Mike put out week after week, year after year. Watch the games, trust your eyes. Coach speak is ass covering in the end.
This reminds me of the end-of-season ceremonies for individual sports in school. One for football, basketball, wrestling, and so on.
The coaches would have to go through the entire roster, saying something positive about each player, even if they barely played or played poorly. I used to wonder how in the world can they say that kind of stuff, but later learned it was just a way to put the best spin on their contributions.
Sometimes being invisible as a DB can be a good thing.
Timmy! posted:This reminds me of the end-of-season ceremonies for individual sports in school. One for football, basketball, wrestling, and so on.
The coaches would have to go through the entire roster, saying something positive about each player, even if they barely played or played poorly. I used to wonder how in the world can they say that kind of stuff, but later learned it was just a way to put the best spin on their contributions.
I coached high school sports for 35 +years. Gave a lot of those speeches...not hard to do since almost high school athletes are great kids and deserve praise.
My favorite story along those lines came from one of my coaching friends. His team was not very good one season and when we went to play him that year he showed me the most recent article from their local newspaper. Honest to god the headline read “********* Tennis team has good meal at McDonalds after recent match”
just to be clear the article used the actual school’s name and not ******** but I’d hate to offend any alumni of that school that might read X4
Great story, JAPF!
I can relate...we went 0-8-1 my Sophomore year. It wasn't any fun at all. 
And good on you for doing for kids. People don't come much better, IMO.
Gute is a personnel guy. No more, no less. He doesn’t hire coaches. He doesn’t make organizational decisions. He drafts guys, and signs free agents.
What me Murphy is the grand poo-bah of the silos. Just ask him.
As a personnel guy, I hope he generally drafts better then 2018. Wow, it looks like an absolute train wreck.
The post season banquet story reminds me of how times have changed.
My “Bantam” ( now called U-12) Milwaukee Kicker soccer team finished 9-1 one year, losing only to the champion Milwaukee Bavarians.
At the annual banquet (Hubbard Lodge, Shorewood) as they announced awards, they mentioned our team and said, “Maybe next year they”ll win ALL of their games and earn a trophy.”
Good times. Good times.
I’m waiting?
Did you beat the Bavarians the next year?
Oh we did!
Went undefeated (and un- scored upon) We were kings, the best ever, nobody could touch us!
That summer, our English- born coach, Don Shemeld took us on a two-week trip to Sheffield England to play against some local teams, including the Sheffield Boys which was a feeder team to the local pro teams (United and Wednesday)
We lost every one of 7 games and scored a single goal.
Life lesson.
I'm not going to rip Gute on Turner. That's the quality of guard you get on the open market for that money. And I'm not going to rip him for Moore, MVS and St Brown. I think he figured at least one of those late round guys would hit and it looked like MVS but starting to wonder if anyone of them will ever be more than a #4/5 WR. But they were late rounders and the hit rate on those guys is so low as it is. Only criticism would be that he counted on them to produce and they didn't.
Only moves I'll rip him for are Jackson and Graham. He just missed on both, which happens. Jackson looks like the typical "production guy" in college that just didn't have the athleticism to make it in the pros. And Graham was done the year before he signed with us. I thought he had something left but clearly he didn't. But two bad moves pale in comparison to the god he's done so far.
Indeed!
Not many teams beat the Bavarians. I was the Croatians Majors goalie for about 6 years and I’m pretty sure we were O-fer against them.
Loved snow games...although we used plastic coated balls which skipped like greased pigs across the snow.
Blair Kiel posted:Indeed!
Not many teams beat the Bavarians. I was the Croatians Majors goalie for about 6 years and I’m pretty sure we were O-fer against them.
Loved snow games...although we used plastic coated balls which skipped like greased pigs across the snow.
The snow was so sticky that day, that the ball would roll about 10 feet -- even on a hard pass -- and start to make a snowman. Pretty funny to see a kid hit the ball and watch the snow fly off it. I was standing next to my kid on the bench before the game and he says, "I can't wait to get out there!" He loves snow and rain games... Loved the park where we played with the restaurant right there. Couple parents never came out until the end of the game... 
CUPackFan posted:I'm not going to rip Gute on Turner. That's the quality of guard you get on the open market for that money. And I'm not going to rip him for Moore, MVS and St Brown. I think he figured at least one of those late round guys would hit and it looked like MVS but starting to wonder if anyone of them will ever be more than a #4/5 WR. But they were late rounders and the hit rate on those guys is so low as it is. Only criticism would be that he counted on them to produce and they didn't.
Only moves I'll rip him for are Jackson and Graham. He just missed on both, which happens. Jackson looks like the typical "production guy" in college that just didn't have the athleticism to make it in the pros. And Graham was done the year before he signed with us. I thought he had something left but clearly he didn't. But two bad moves pale in comparison to the god he's done so far.
I think Jackson is going to end up Hyde 2.0. He will leave GB and someone will play him at S and he will be successful.
Savage did start out hot, had the injury and never seemed to step back into the spotlight. But we need to remember this is a rookie starting at the S position from day 1. His steepest learning curve was on the job, with the 1's every week. Should see a pretty good jump from him in year 2.
Sometimes safeties take 3-4 years.
Boris posted:Sometimes safeties take 3-4 years.
Nick Collins had similar problems to Savage his first year or so. They get used to playing in college where most RBs run in the 4.5 or 4.6 range and then get to the pros where a guy like Mostert runs a 4.32 and it takes a while to learn to adjust your angles.
Film study will help Savage a lot. Woodson needs to give him a call and drop some knowledge on him. Two of the most prolific safeties in the NFL, Tim McDonald and C-Wood, were both voracious consumers of film.
Gutey is officially on the clock.
“They (Green Bay Packers) are a flawed team who’s going to win a bunch of games, their offense is missing pieces, the defense can’t stop anybody.
“This is the bed that they made. They decided not to invest in this team. They invested in the 2022 Packers….I think they’ve Jerry Krause’d this thing,” Brandt said on the show.