#270 Packers Unscripted: Free agency philosophy

we posted the collection. Essentially if if you've been following the series, either here on Packers Unscripted or on Packers dot com, we had peak performances by individual players selected from the different quarters of the season games one through four or five through eight, etcetera. Fans could then vote for their favorite from each of those segments of the season.

So now what we have on the website is an opportunity for fans to log on and vote for their peak performance of the year, which is the top vote getter from each of those four quarters of the season. And the way it came out not a whole lot of surprises. I think all of these were ones that you and I had voted for when we talked about

them initially. But quarter number one Mike Daniels versus Seattle, quarter number two Aaron Rodgers at Dallas, quarter number three Dean Lowry at home against Tampa Bay, and then quarter number four Davante Adams and that performance at Cleveland. UM,

all of those obviously standout performances. Is there one that you would pick as the performance of the year for the Green Bay Pack I'm gonna go with Aaron Rodgers against Dallas, And as you wrote in the brief rite up that goes along with it, Um, this was kind of the the last the last showing for him U this year. And obviously he did come back against Carolina, but this was the game I ought when you look back at two thousand seventeen and maybe the missed opportunity

that was there. UM, this was one of those games that really embodied what this offense could be when Aaron Rodgers was at the steering wheel. Uh. They had to overcome some adversity, UH in Cowboys Stadium. It certainly wasn't a gimme type game. But the way Rogers played UM and and how he how clutch he was down the stretch, had a big reason why the Packers were able to improve before and one I believe at the time, and also come up with that victory late. Yeah, I definitely

like that choice as well. Aaron Rodgers. I thought, you know, it was a a Kuda Gras type of performance by Rogers in Dallas, with you know, very much the opposite of the playoff game from the year before, and that the Packers were way ahead then, you know, sort of hanging on for dear life. The Cowboys tied up and then the Packers winning. At the end this one, Packers were down. I believe it was twenty one to six

at one point. The Packers are the team that needs to rally, and then Rogers gets the ball last and orchestrates the final scoring drive for the victory. Just to cast a vote for another one, I'll vote for Mike

Daniels against Seattle. And the reason I say that not only because it was a performance that, although Daniels did get hurt the next week and the early part of his season you know, didn't necessarily live up to what he did against Seattle, it did set the stage for him to be a first alternate for the Pro Bowl and then ultimately get into the Pro Bowl um as a first alternate as a as an injury replacement there, so, um,

there's that. And also because those types of dominant defensive performances, I think those are the Those are the types of outings that go such a long way for a team in terms of, you know, establishing leadership with a certain guy that everybody looks to, a guy that a guy that you count on. Those types of performances, especially on the defensive side, to me, they can rub off on

other players. And I know injuries and everything took their toll on the Packers defense in but if Mike Daniels, or if it's Clark, or if it's Kevin King next season has one of those early season dominant defensive performances, I see that as something that maybe starts to become contagious and can set the stage for even more. And I look at this is the same situation when you look at the offense with Rogers in that game against Dallas.

You talk to any of those defenders, those starting defenders, and the Packers this past season, they felt like that Seattle game was the embodiment of what they could have been when everybody was healthy and things were clicking. They held Seattle to nine points. I mean, we talked so much about fail Marry in two thousand twelve, and obviously

the NFC Championship Game in two thousand fourteen. Russell Wilson other than that, hasn't had a lot of success against the Green Bay Packers, and a lot of it in a lot of different ways has been because of interior pressure on the Packers defensive line. B J Rajie reached havoc against them, and maybe that was the beginning of two thousand fifteen, and then now this year Mike Daniels

having the success that he did. One of the popular questions I know I've seen an insider in box since Mike Petton was installed as a new defensive coordinator has been what do you expect with this defense? What are the sub packages that the past rush packages? What are they gonna look like? And the point I've tried to make is, you know, you've had a lot of hybrid schemes. You've had a lot of you know, you look at the NASCAR package and using strictly outside linebackers and elephants.

When I'm Mike Petton, if I step back and I look at where the Packers are at now defensively, I look at Mike Daniels, I look at Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry. That defensive line as a real big strength of this defense, right and I think whether it is third downs, whether it's first sounds, I think that is a building block for them going forward. That's someplace where they need to

really uh you know, they have the tools there. That's a position they don't need a whole lot of work with this offseason, and I think that can be a big strength for him. This performance may Mike Daniels against the Seahawks one and a half sax, seven tackles, all the plays that he made in that game, I think really set him up and set that defense up for what was actually a pretty strong first month of the season. People forget they were top ten defense through the first

four games. Unfortunately, through attrition, they just really never never able to get back to that level. Yeah. I think you're right though, and that that defensive line a specific position group that really can be the foundation for whatever the new defense that Mike Petton is going to put together with. These Packers will definitely be watching that closely. They're young and they don't have questions and basically everybody

outside of Quentin Dials signed through next season. So I think that shows you exactly what you have there and what you when you're figuring out a game plan right from day one today, you know what you're dealing with. Yeah, no question about it. With that, we'll go to a break back with more and Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford here, Wes Hodkowitz over there, and West we'd bring up our Insider Inbox

column daily column on Packers dot Com. We talked about it on the show here all the time because it dominates our life. Yeah, but in the over the last few days, you have engaged in some interesting discussion, lively debate. I guess we would call it with with many of our Packers dot Com readers with regards to a topic revolving around free agency, and that being what does resigning your own free agents mean? And I've seen what you've written.

You contend very much that you know, people forget to include resigning your own free agents in the calculation of what a team does in free agency. There are others who say resigning your own free agents is just the status quo. You're not you're not making the team better by just hanging onto the guys that you always had. I think it's a I think it's an interesting debate. It certainly has gotten rather lively on our website. I know it's something that that you feel pretty strongly about

in terms of your opinion. Yeah, and here's the thing. Uh, I love debate. I'm always one for debate. I can do it. Uh. It's been a real big topic because people talk about the term status quo, and I think there's been this um merger if you will, that where they're they're they're trying to find the dots connect the lines between draft and development, resigning your own players and

remaining status quo. In My main argument against this has been, especially when you're in a draft in development organization, when you routinely resign your own guys to second contracts. I maintained that's not staying status quo because one guy isn't the same player one year to the next. The Packers resigned Jordy Nelson in two thousand eleven, right midway through two thousand eleven. He ends up having a monster year and has improved over then got a third contract with

the Packers. And has over exceeded that as well over his time. Davante Adams in the point I made an inbox on Wednesday was that there's a lot of fans. I wasn't here yet, I was still at the Green at Prescazette, but there were so many fans that would pop into our chats our emails about you gotta cut this guy. He's not he's not good enough. Yeah, he had he had a rough second season with the injuries and everything. Played on a spring ankle the entire year.

And if you watch him the past two years, how much of that in terms of his mobility, how much of that plays into who Davante Adams is as a player. He ends up having a phenomenal breakthrough season in two thousand sixteen. In two thousand seventeen, becomes a Pro bowler. The Packers resigned him. If they don't resign Davante Adams, he's one of, if not the biggest receiver on the market,

definitely a top five, top ten overall free agent. If the Packers don't bring him back, it's making another team a lot better. And Eric from Oshkosh was the one that I was talking about this with on on Wednesday, I wasn't able to post his entire comment because we're trying to be someone you know, there's some value of brevity in this thing. But he also mentioned, you know, resigning your own and then adding another player as well. Well,

you really want to bring down Mike. The Packers would have been better if they would have resigned Jared Cook instead of signing Martellis Bennett. But at the time Martellis Bennett that's a big attractive signing. So I think there is ways to get better resign your own players. In this argument of well you just got to constantly bring in new guys in order to not be status quo,

I just think it's it's irrelevant in my estimation. Yeah, I mean, I agree with your take on in that, and I think I'm going to say something very much along the lines of what you're saying, is that when you're a draft and developed organization and those second contracts come up, when you're making the decision to resign one of your own and you know, provide that big payday and and everything else that goes along with it, you're signed,

You're you're making that decision and setting up that signing because you're expecting that player to continue to improve. His arrow is pointing out four year old. People were talking about, yeah, you're you're not You're not resigning a twenty four year old guy who's three to four years out of college and saying, well, he's hit his peak and we just expect that the rest of Wait, no, you're making that investment because you're expecting that player to continue to improve.

The Packers have re signed Corey Lindsley Davante Adams this past at this past December as the regular season wrapped up because they don't think those guys have hit their peak yet. They think there is more to come, which which is the argument against just staying the status quot. Now I understand it from the the the argument on the other side, I understand where it comes from. I

don't agree with it. I understand where it comes from, say, for example, with a player like Nick Perry, because the Packers side Nick Perry coming off of the eleven sacks season because they were expecting his arrow to continue to point up as well. Unfortunately, he had another round of injuries, which has been the problem throughout a good portion of Perry's career. So you didn't get the arrow continuing to point up at least statistically, Perry missed more games than

anybody would have wanted. The sack numbers weren't there. Now that being said, that's just the first year of this multi year deal with Nick Perry, so we still have to see how it plays out. But I think it's situations like that that lead to those who look at

sometimes resigning your own is just staying status quo. Because in the case of Nick Perry, and I don't mean to pick on Nick, I know the injuries have have been a problem, and it's been unfortunate, and he's worked through it, you know, um and and it's trying to his ability, his his you know, push to get through

those things is as tough as anybody. But I think that's where it comes from in a sense that when you resign a guy and then he doesn't have this big monster year later on coming off of the new contract, everybody thinks like, oh, well, that was just that, that was just a status quo signing. But that's the risk every team in the NFL is taking, because we're not talking about taking production from one year and just guaranteeing

that's going to happen. Again, right, And and that's that isn't just the NFL, that's Major League Baseball, that's that's every sport. It's all a crystal ball business in a sense. So and and the other thing. And I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get into all this before we got to go to the next break. But here's the other thing to consider too, When when you're trying to map out signings and projections and all that

fun business. If you are a drafted development team and you're investing in your own guys, that's years of experience, years of background, years of history offense defense in your system. In this environment now in the CBA, the new CBA, we've seen how difficult it is, even for going back to Jared Cook, Jared Cook coming into the Packers offense, getting hurt during the off season program, really being quiet throughout those first couple of months of the regular season,

then hurting getting hurt again. Believe that was the foot I'm trying to remember um and he comes back and he catches fire late in the season. Jered Cook only had like receiving yards during the year. It's not easy to sign a new guy or bringing a new free agent or bringing a draft pick and just have them make a Day one contribution. So when you have Davantie Adams with four years in the system, with those projections, you're also factoring in that experience as well. Yeah, no

question about it. But we do have to get to a break. So back with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford in

this chair, West Hodkowits and that one in West. Continuing our discussion here of free agency as it relates to the current Packers we talked about as the regular season wrapped up, the Packers resigned center Corey Lindsley and wide receiver Davante Adams, who far and away were the two biggest names at the top of the expiring contract list that the Packers were dealing with. So where do things

stand right now? I think the name that most fans are asking about more than any other is veteran safety Morgan Burnett, who is in a little bit different situation because this would be a third contract with the Packers. He are He was a two thousand ten draft pick. He has now played out his second contract, and I know we don't know how these things are gonna go. We certainly don't want to put words in anybody's mouth as far as this goes. But but where do you

see this Packers free agent situation sitting right now? Well, first off, if you look up, you know, accountability and a dictionary, Morgan Burnett's gonna be right next to it. I mean, he's been I think, not only one of the most accountable players on this team, but I think you can make an argument for the entire NFL with the way he approaches his job on a day to day basis in what he's asked to do. And versatility might be the other words. Uh. But but here's the

thing for the Packers. You know, you talked to Aaron Rodgers at the NFL Honors on the red carpet and he mentioned you guys talked about the two thousand thirteen season going into two thousand fourteen and how he feels coming off this collar bone injury, much like the last time his eyes are on on an MVP award. I

take that even one step further. I look, I do look at the Packers current situation a lot like two thousand thirteen going into fourteen and that obviously was the year the Packers got on one of their best runs under Mike McCarthy. Because really, there are obvious areas where

the Packers need to improve. I'm not debating that, but because they resigned Vante Adams and because they resigned Corey Linsley, it's pretty clear cut what the Packers are looking at in terms of the structure of their roster, the major guys to resign, which I think you know, Burnett is the top of that list, and then how they want

to proceed with free agency going forward. So they have a decision there to make with Burnett, but outside of that, it's really just figuring out a little bit of not to diminish any these other guys that are coming up for contracts, but there are no other guys that I think are are rising to the level of, you know, a top fifty, top forty type guy. So uh, I think for for Brian Goodakoints, this is an opportunity to

to really look at where you're at. Obviously get your input from Mike Patton and where he looks for this defense to go. But you know, I think this is a good time to be stepping in because the Packers do have a lot of guys returning. They did exercise that option on Haha, Clinton Dix, he signed up for next season. So um, trying to figure out the path forward. They already have a lot of those pieces in place. It just now it comes down to zero in on

where you need to improve. Yeah, and the other factor obviously with regards to the salary cap and and the money and what the Packers will have to spend. We're basing things on past history. Aaron Rodgers has two years left on his current contract when he was in this situation before. Because quarterbacks are treated differently. You don't if you want your if you've got your franchise guy, you don't let him get into the so called lame duck year of a contract. You don't let him get too

close to free agency. You take care of him with a couple of years left. So this would be the off season where Aaron Rodgers would potentially get a new deal. And when it happened prior the last time, it was right around the draft, the first day. This was the first day of the draft when that was when that was taken care of. So depending on what the Packers plans are there, that will also have an impact on

on what you have under the cap to spend. You mentioned Morgan Burnett, you know, Richard Rodgers is another another free agent, you know, a two thousand uh, two thousand fourteen draft pick, who's who's rookie contract? Janis expiring. Jeff janis another one. So there are some names out there not saying that they are the front line guys like Corey Lindsley and Davante Adams, which is why the Packers

took care of them as quickly as they did. But there are some decisions to be made here and uh, and we really don't know what the whole picture looks like because we're not sure what they're talking about behind closed doors with Aaron Rodgers contract and who maybe they're looking at from other teams who may or may not become available depending on when franchise tags go out, which will be happening here within the next week or two. So there's there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle.

And just to quickly point this out too, everyone's talking about the Jimmy Garoppolo money. You know what Kirk Cousins is gonna make. They're gonna get paid, no question, But you know, Aaron Rodgers, you have two years under control here that allows you to be a little bit more flexible on how you do contracts. One thing to consider when looking at the mega numbers at those other quarterbacks and russ Ball always is very efficient and creative both

with with how he puts that together. But before before we go to a break, West, today's a perfect day to fill up with some new Campbell's Chunky Max Soup. Chunky Max is loaded with more meat than you can handle, a lot more. We're talking more than a comparable Chunky soup. So go on fill up a new Campbell's Chunky Max Soup. Campbell's Chunky Soup, the official sup partner of the Green Bay Packers back with more on Packers Unscripted. Right after

this welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford next to Wes Hodkowitz and West. Quickly before we go, we need to give a shout out here to the two thousand eighteen entry into the Packers Fan Hall of Fame. And her name is Mugs bock Huber, and I just love the name. I love the photos we have on the website of this one her full lady, Um you covered the press conference in which she was selected amongst ten highly qualified Packer fan fanatics UM for this UH for

this honor, tell us about mugs well. First off, I gotta give credit to UH Victoria McBride from her Packers social team. She got a phenomenal photo of her with her mouth a gap, a gape, just completely surprised that she was in this to begin with. Her daughter jan was the one who had nominated her. Didn't tell her about it until it came in the mail that she was one of ten finalists for at eighty seven years young,

a mother of eight of span over ten years. So as she said that they when you have that many kids and that short of a time frame, you had to be very careful with when you made your summit to lambeau Field. But every single year they go for the Bishop Charity preseason game. The rest of the year, their house in may Mayville was kind of the hub for the family to come together. Her late husband Ray, a giant Packer fan, the one that kind of rubbed off on on mugs and and since his passing in

two thousand eleven, she sort of carried the torch. She's at a local retirement home community as you were joking about earlier. She ran the Packers pool there. That's that's my that's my favorite. That's my favorite part of the story is she's the one running, you know, taking everybody's money and and running running the little gambling pool at the at the uh the senior home there. I just

I love that part of it, she says. She said she did it for ten years and uh and yeah, I probably needed to give it up to somebody else. But but that's that's pretty cool. And she has a she created a Packer song. She's the life of the party there. You know, her family, her her great niece Jillian Anderson from x files got the social media drum beat going for as well. A really special on her

for her for sure. Yeah, definitely, Well congratulations to her as the newest member of the Packers Fan Hall of Fame. But we've got to call out a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spa for at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time. H M. Hm