The Downside of Filling F/A Holes Now

[xwalker]

Walker, is Livings $1.7mm salary guaranteed this year?

I thought that was the last of his guaranteed money. Maybe we could trade him to the Jets for a bag of footballs and a Tebow autograph but realistically don't we have one spot for a guard and another for a swing tackle or Parnell competition?

I'm not certain about anything in regards to Livings contract. I'm not even certain that they didn't restructure it. It was originally reported as restructured. Later it was reported that they had him sign a restructure but didn't file it with the league offices.

It was originally reported that he had 6.2M guaranteed which is exactly the sum of his signing bonus plus 2012 and 2013 base salaries; however, there have been some contracts with reported guaranteed money that later turned out to just be guaranteed under specific circumstances.

Sensabaugh's 2013 base salary was originally reported as guaranteed; however, it turned out to just be guaranteed if he was on the roster in March of 2013. Some other contracts that were originally reported to have specific amounts of guarantees turned out to have some amounts only guaranteed against injury.

If they really didn't restructure his contract, then the only logical conclusion is that they plan to make him a June 1st cut. What other reason could they have to not take about 1M in salary cap relief? They restructured Orton just to save about 380K.

 

[Future]

We will have to wait and see but he looks pretty damn good at age 22, and regardless of that one example I think if you look at the teams that draft for value versus those that draft for need you'll see a big difference in the success rates.

Perhaps. But I don't think drafting only BPA gets you anywhere if you have pressing needs, imo.

 

[Nation]

Yup, their defense has been fantastic lately. Lol

That approach also got them Aaron Rodgers, arguably the best player in the league. Lol

 

[Future]

That approach also got them Aaron Rodgers, arguably the best player in the league. Lol

I don't think it's that black and white. Rodgers was a luxury pick, to an extent, but Favre was old and, at the time, people thought he was on his way out, which essentially made QB a need.

 

[Verdict]

While I acknowledge many of the posts in this thread have merit, here is the other side of the coin. We just paid Costa and it looks like he is likely to have a roster spot based on his new contract.

What if we drafted Cooper, and then Armstead and then Schwenke is the highest rated player on our board and we take him. Now are you going to force fit Costa on the roster due to his contract? Suppose you think Cooper, Berny and Schwenke are all better than Costa ..... do you cut Costa and take the cap hit? I am not saying that signing Costa was a bad idea. But the risk of failing to sign a guy and waiting until after the draft leaves you with the risk that you won't be able to fill that hole in the draft. The risk of filling holes is you end up cutting guys and creating dead money on the cap. You can't have it all.

My guess is that by letting Moore walk that they are pretty sure they can fill the guard needs in the draft, and certain enough that they are willing to risk going with the guys they have on the roster again next year.

 

[Verdict]

I don't think it's that black and white. Rodgers was a luxury pick, to an extent, but Favre was old and, at the time, people thought he was on his way out, which essentially made QB a need.

I think you are revising history a little bit. Rodgers was a pick solely based on BPA. Favre was the clear cut starter and there was no way that Rodgers was going to start as a rookie or anytime soon. In fact there was a school of thought that the Packers might end up losing Rodgers because Favre hung around so long.

 

[SMCowboy]

You don't want to draft for need, if possible. But, when you are dealing with signing mid level FA's. If you would prefer to fill the position of the draft, because of the Salary Cap, you can't always sign an Eric Winston before the draft, if your idea preference is to draft a Lane Johnson. While it sounds great in theory, the salary cap doesn't make it very feasible....

 

[blackbull]

How do we know Rodgers was bpa for Packers? Maybe they wanted insurance for diva farve offseason antics. Bpa is a situational approach. You don't just stick to that approach no matter what.

 

[Verdict]

You don't want to draft for need, if possible. But, when you are dealing with signing mid level FA's. If you would prefer to fill the position of the draft, because of the Salary Cap, you can't always sign an Eric Winston before the draft, if your idea preference is to draft a Lane Johnson. While it sounds great in theory, the salary cap doesn't make it very feasible....

That's what I am saying. Maybe they think there is a decent chance that Johnson will fall. Signing Winston would pretty much ensure that he is on the roster this year. I'm not sure that wouldn't actually prevent us from getting more offensive linemen in the draft that we would like the chance at.

 

[jobberone]

I think you are revising history a little bit. Rodgers was a pick solely based on BPA. Favre was the clear cut starter and there was no way that Rodgers was going to start as a rookie or anytime soon. In fact there was a school of thought that the Packers might end up losing Rodgers because Favre hung around so long.

GB has drafted QBs in the past who were not needs. But most saw Rodgers as the guy to succeed Favre. He fell and just kept falling. I felt for the guy.

 

[hra8700]

I'm not certain about anything in regards to Livings contract. I'm not even certain that they didn't restructure it. It was originally reported as restructured. Later it was reported that they had him sign a restructure but didn't file it with the league offices.

It was originally reported that he had 6.2M guaranteed which is exactly the sum of his signing bonus plus 2012 and 2013 base salaries; however, there have been some contracts with reported guaranteed money that later turned out to just be guaranteed under specific circumstances.

Sensabaugh's 2013 base salary was originally reported as guaranteed; however, it turned out to just be guaranteed if he was on the roster in March of 2013. Some other contracts that were originally reported to have specific amounts of guarantees turned out to have some amounts only guaranteed against injury.

If they really didn't restructure his contract, then the only logical conclusion is that they plan to make him a June 1st cut. What other reason could they have to not take about 1M in salary cap relief? They restructured Orton just to save about 380K.

They restructured everyone who they were 100% sure they were going to keep. If they were just going to cute Livings on June 1st they should have just done it now.

My guess on Livings is that they will bring him into training camp and if he is beat for the starting job they will cut him.

For Free, they will keep him in training camp and see if Parnell or a rookie can beat him. If not they'll hopefully either ask him to take a paycut or sign a veteran. Or they'll be stupid like with newman and actually pay him way too much money so there won't be a hole...

 

[Verdict]

GB has drafted QBs in the past who were not needs. But most saw Rodgers as the guy to succeed Favre. He fell and just kept falling. I felt for the guy.

I agree with that, but it would have been quite a stretch to say that Green Bay needed to draft Rodgers. They had much more pressing needs than at QB.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

Many of you are stating that we should sign Moore or Justice now for insurance. That sounds great, but realistically, I think it is a bad move unless you plan on starting them this year.

.

INSURANCE???? what the,,,? this team needs at least 3 starters on the OL. Signing one decent OL in free agency still leaves them plenty of space to roam in the draft. Not signing at least one quality OL leaves them in desperate shape during the draft and afterwards sifting through the free agent bargain bin.

 

[Verdict]

INSURANCE???? what the,,,? this team needs at least 3 starters on the OL. Signing one decent OL in free agency still leaves them plenty of space to roam in the draft. Not signing at least one quality OL leaves them in desperate shape during the draft and afterwards sifting through the free agent bargain bin.

"Insurance" that we will not acquire players in the draft to fill the holes on the line.

 

[Verdict]

INSURANCE???? what the,,,? this team needs at least 3 starters on the OL. Signing one decent OL in free agency still leaves them plenty of space to roam in the draft. Not signing at least one quality OL leaves them in desperate shape during the draft and afterwards sifting through the free agent bargain bin.

We have plenty of players on the offensive line right now. LOL. Just not necessarily good ones. I don't think we should sign anyone just for depth. If they are not being signed to be a starter then it is a risk of cap space and a misallocation of cap resources.

 

[Picksix]

One thing I think a lot of people are overlooking, is the possibility that these players don't want to sign until after the draft. A good number of teams need OL help, and probably won't be able to fill all those needs in the draft. That gives the players still available in FA a lot more leverage. It's a risk, but I think it's relatively safe.

 

[muck4doo]

The title of this thread sounds so wrong.

 

[xwalker]

They restructured everyone who they were 100% sure they were going to keep. If they were just going to cute Livings on June 1st they should have just done it now.

My guess on Livings is that they will bring him into training camp and if he is beat for the starting job they will cut him.

For Free, they will keep him in training camp and see if Parnell or a rookie can beat him. If not they'll hopefully either ask him to take a paycut or sign a veteran. Or they'll be stupid like with newman and actually pay him way too much money so there won't be a hole...

Yes, they could wait until the week before game 1 to make a final decision on players like Livings and possibly Free if they have enough cap space to carry him (Free) and sign the rookies.

 

[burmafrd]

Moore would be signed to start. Then we HOPEFULLY get a top Guard in the draft to start at the other slot. That takes care of the guard position.

If we can get that done this year we are way ahead of last year.

Now if Parnell would just be average at RT then our Line would probably be about 50% better than last year.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

We have plenty of players on the offensive line right now. LOL. Just not necessarily good ones. I don't think we should sign anyone just for depth. If they are not being signed to be a starter then it is a risk of cap space and a misallocation of cap resources.

Well yeah, signing for depth is about all Jerry has ever done, the line is loaded with those players. Sign a quality starter or don't sign anyone at all