2019 Green Bay Packers Season Thread

[wildcat83]

Just saw Nijman was released, hopefully can get him to PS

[wildcat83]

Lazard released, also a PS candidate

[patrickgpe]

Lazard released, also a PS candidate

Hopefully he is candidate to be added to the 53 once ESB goes on the IR.

[wildcat83]

McCray was actually traded to the Browns not released. We swap 7th rounders with the Browns. He reunites with Campen.

[pacopete4]

I think we just get a 7th rounder for him, not swap 7th rounders.

[nodakfan17]

I definitely read swap too. I assume that means we trade McCray and a 7th for a 6th ... or something similar.

[LouisEly]

McCray traded and Pankey cut, so I think that's a good sign that Madison made the roster.

[young guns]

Any thoughts on Bolton? Hope to put him on the PS when healthy?

[CheezWizHed]

I'm surprised Bolton was cut, but perhaps they couldn't manage both him and Burks being injured at once? Hopefully, they can put him on the PS. Personally, I would've cut Crawford, put Bolton on IR and resigned Crawford (or preferably someone else).

[CheezWizHed]

Wow, going from rumors that the Packers would take him with their first 1st round draft pick to falling into the third round to being cut. Jachai Polite isn't having a great offseason.

[patrickgpe]

I think they will do some additional tinkering. They had 15.2 million of cap space as of Tuesday

 

 

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2019/08/colts-texans-browns-lead-nfl-in-cap-space?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

[MrTPlush]

I definitely read swap too. I assume that means we trade McCray and a 7th for a 6th ... or something similar.

 

Can’t imagine it would be a straight swap when it could potentially (heck I will go likely) a worse 7th for us.

[wildcat83]

ESB to the IR today is puzzling. Seems like it would have been keeping more options open to IR him tomorrow. We’re pretty deep at receiver, but that would have been a little insurance against injuries.

 

Can he return to practice at some point at least? If he’s not allowed to even practice the entire season that’s a tough pill to swallow. He should come back bigger/stronger for sure, but that’s a ton of practice reps to miss this year.

[wildcat83]

I definitely read swap too. I assume that means we trade McCray and a 7th for a 6th ... or something similar.

 

Can’t imagine it would be a straight swap when it could potentially (heck I will go likely) a worse 7th for us.

 

A few different sites say an undisclosed swap of draft picks.

 

Edit: The more I read it’s just the option to swap 7th rounders if theirs is higher... so good chance we get nothing back...?

[Jaylyn]

Wow, going from rumors that the Packers would take him with their first 1st round draft pick to falling into the third round to being cut. Jachai Polite isn't having a great offseason.

Thanks for info. That is a stunner! Hope Jachai takes this as wake up call and gets serious or the next time we see him it might be a Youtube "Whatever happened to...".

[HiAndTight]

Any thoughts on Bolton? Hope to put him on the PS when healthy?

 

 

Who knows. Cutting him the "injured/reserve" designation makes the prospect of him playing for us this season pretty unlikely. First, he has to clear waivers. Another team could claim him and stash him on IR..and I don't think that'd be crazy. He's quicker than he is fast, but he also ran in the 4.5's, had a great vertical and he looked pretty instinctual.

 

But aside from all that, it appears like the Packers really liked him. They had him playing over Summers.

 

So he'd have to clear waivers, the Packers would then retain his rights, they'd be able to put him on IR...but he'd be out for the year like St. Brown(I believe, maybe not). The Packers would then have to negotiate a settlement with him. I believe you get paid for however many weeks you're expected to be out. The team always thinks it's less, the agent longer, they meet in the middle. If you want him back though, you certainly try to make it as easy as possible.

 

The problem is, if they reach an agreement saying he would have missed 10 games, the Packers couldn't sign him to the PS before then while other teams could. So...I'm not as familar with this as I once was, but it seems to me like they could have just put him on IR. The road to getting him on the field for them this year became far more difficult.

[HiAndTight]

I definitely read swap too. I assume that means we trade McCray and a 7th for a 6th ... or something similar.

 

Can’t imagine it would be a straight swap when it could potentially (heck I will go likely) a worse 7th for us.

 

 

I'm shocked. What a change from your usually optimistic disposition.

 

 

But here, try to imagine it. The Packers were going to cut McCray. In comes the Browns with their really poor OL and the Packers trade him for a conditional draft pick. You realize many of these trades result in no draft pick actually being exchanged?

 

Anyway, this one is real simple. Cut a player or get something for it, especially when dealing with a front office where almost all the top executives were formerly of the Packers. We ended up getting something.

[HiAndTight]

ESB to the IR today is puzzling. Seems like it would have been keeping more options open to IR him tomorrow. We’re pretty deep at receiver, but that would have been a little insurance against injuries.

Can he return to practice at some point at least? If he’s not allowed to even practice the entire season that’s a tough pill to swallow. He should come back bigger/stronger for sure, but that’s a ton of practice reps to miss this year.

 

That's a good question. He can workout with the team, team meetings, all that stuff. But I don't know if there's a window for him to actually practice with the team after being put on IR before the final cuts.

 

I don't think it's a huge deal just because they're not on the field that much during the season. It's film, game planning, rehab, etc...etc..

 

Like I said, the big knock on St. Brown coming out of ND and maybe the reason he wasn't a 2nd or 3rd rounder as some projected him to go was because there were questions about how committed to the game he actually was, how his effort waned at times.

 

So he can prevent it from becoming a wasted year if he really wants to be an impact player for the Packers down the road.

 

Wow, going from rumors that the Packers would take him with their first 1st round draft pick to falling into the third round to being cut. Jachai Polite isn't having a great offseason.

 

I remember a certain poster on here bashing the Packers pretty big when they drafted Gary for not "just trading back and picking Polite."

 

NFL.com had him as a 3rd/4th rounder just based on pure ability, but he could not have done more wrong during the pre-draft process. He was seen as an elite athlete who could use that athletic ability to make up for his lack of size and toughness. He showed up to the combine overweight(relative to what he'd played at) and ran a 4.84, then didn't do the rest of the tests.

 

He gave some notoriously bad interviews, one of which was with the Packers and he talked about it.

 

The guy seems like he could be a Fowler-like 3rd down specialist off the edge, but he's gotta stop acting like a clown. He cost himself millions by just not working hard enough during the pre-draft process...the one time EVERYONE works hard because they know how big the combine is.

[OnTheBlack]

Alright, final thoughts on the Packers cuts(sorry, I'm wired, been back and forth from Wisconsin and Texas 3 times in the past 5 days)

 

I knew the Packers final cuts would differ from what I said I wanted them to do, but some of the moves seem confusing to me.

1-Curtis Bolton was on pace to be a starter. A really athletic, tough player at a position where you have no depth and the one established player you have at MLB'er is going to be a FA next year and expensive to sign. They could have put him on IR...gone with what they have, maybe signed Stephone Anthony, an athletic former 1st round pick who's got speed to provide depth and play ST's. But instead they waived him injured? He could still end up seeing the field for the Packers in the future, but it's a pretty convoluted process and not likely to happen.

 

2-WR'erI think Shepard had the best chance to clear waivers. It's a nice story, he was signed only after 100+ other receivers in his class signed, so that's cool. Wasn't drafted, wasn't signed as an UDFA until after a tryout. But St. Brown is done for the year, something that could hurt them if they suffer injuries. They also lost Lazard, a guy who's camp was at least as impressive as Shepard's when you factor in his special teams play as well. Lazard looked good covering kicks. Still, we're deep here.

 

3-OLThe more I watched and thought about it, the more I liked Nijman. Athletically, he was on par or better than Johnah Williams. The one area Williams was downgraded was his length, no such concern there as he's 6'7 with 34+ inch arms. And he looked good in run blocking as well, really finishing guys off and playing physical. If he clears waivers(which I'm uncertain of because of how hungry teams are for any offensive linemen).

 

 

It'll be interesting to see who the Packers will look at on the waiver wire at MLB'er, RB.

There are a couple FA's like Brian Hoyer, a smart, efficient QB, Jay Ajayi is a nice, one cut power runner. OLB'er depth...Nick Perry, I can't see that happen....I don't think I've ever seen a high priced player cut and then signed by that same team just a few months later, but for the minimum, that would be ideal.

 

 

But this will likely be the team we see play the Bears. After that, we have a few extra days than the rest of the league to make some adjustments and or get any new guys ready.

 

 

Really hope we see a practice squad that has Nijman, Lazard, Jamerson, Pankey, Kizer, Marcus Jones(or Ramsey) and then maybe Looney, Ento if we can't persuade a couple players to come over here rather than stay with the tam they went to camp with.

[LouisEly]

Prior to the first cutdown date in training camp, injured players with fewer than four years of service time cannot be placed on injured reserve until they pass through waivers. Teams will cut this sort of player with a waived-injured designation, allowing other teams to place a claim if they so choose. If the player goes unclaimed, his team can place him on IR or agree to an injury settlement, then fully release him from the roster.

 

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2019/06/nfl-waivers-difference-release

 

In order for Bolton to be eligible to return from injured reserve this year, he has to be waived/injured before he can be placed on revocable IR. If they placed him on IR before the cuts, like ESB, he would be ineligible to return from IR this year. Also, if he clears waivers and is released, I believe they can resign him to the active roster without having to spend a minimum of 8 weeks on IR. So this may be a play to try to get him back before the end of the year.

[OnTheBlack]

Prior to the first cutdown date in training camp, injured players with fewer than four years of service time cannot be placed on injured reserve until they pass through waivers. Teams will cut this sort of player with a waived-injured designation, allowing other teams to place a claim if they so choose. If the player goes unclaimed, his team can place him on IR or agree to an injury settlement, then fully release him from the roster.

 

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2019/06/nfl-waivers-difference-release

 

In order for Bolton to be eligible to return from injured reserve this year, he has to be waived/injured before he can be placed on revocable IR. If they placed him on IR before the cuts, like ESB, he would be ineligible to return from IR this year. Also, if he clears waivers and is released, I believe they can resign him to the active roster without having to spend a minimum of 8 weeks on IR. So this may be a play to try to get him back before the end of the year.

 

 

Ok, but if they're doing this so they can get him back in fewer than 8 weeks, then presumably they think highly of him, right? It would stand to reason than that other teams may value an athletic LB'er who performed pretty well in the pre-season, and now you're taking a significant risk that he ends up signing with another team just so you can get him back a few weeks earlier.

 

 

Also, I could be mistaken, but I thought that there was something else that tried to make it more difficult for teams to release a player injured and then re-sign them. Maybe it's just whatever agreement they make, ie, they reach a settlement stating that the player will miss 6 weeks...that player is eligible to play with any other team if he's healthy after 2 weeks, but he can't return to the team that waived him for 6. I thought there was another restriction, but I could be wrong.

 

I guess it's a bit telling how much they value him vs how much we might and that makes sense. He's a UDFA and while he had a good camp, he didn't have a great one and he suffered a knee injury. I certainly hope to have him back though. Summers and Bolton...it's not Urlacher and Briggs, but they could be very nice depth guys and excellent special teams players for a few years.

 

 

Should be another interesting day. Probably the last day for the Packers to sign someone who would have any chance to contribute on Thursday.

[nodakfan17]

Weird bit of NFL news: The Saints picked up Kiko Alonso in the Dolphins fire sale for ... Vince Biegel ???

 

You can count me as someone who thought Kevin King + Vince Biegel > TJ Watt. Watt’s injury history concerned me. Now King is the one who is never healthy and Biegel is contributing elsewhere.

 

I wonder what other Dolphins might be available for a late round draft pick?

[nodakfan17]

Kizer claimed by the Raiders.

[LouisEly]

Ok, but if they're doing this so they can get him back in fewer than 8 weeks, then presumably they think highly of him, right? It would stand to reason than that other teams may value an athletic LB'er who performed pretty well in the pre-season, and now you're taking a significant risk that he ends up signing with another team just so you can get him back a few weeks earlier.

How likely is it that a team is going to put in a claim on an injured UDFA? I'd say not very likely. Other than the pre-season games, there probably isn't a lot of scouting that other teams are going to have on him besides his college tape, and his college tape wasn't enough to get drafted.

 

I don't recall any formal announcement about the severity of his injury. Last I heard, they were seeking another opinion as the first MRI(s) were not conclusive. It's possible he might need to miss the entire season anyway, in which case another team is not going to want to pay him if there's no chance he can play this year. By releasing him, another team is going to have to pay for his medical evaluation, and he probably won't pass their physical anyway.

[patrickgpe]

I’m happy they got Lazard onto the practice squad.