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UCLA RB Johnathan Franklin

Entering the final day of the 2013 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers were slated to make ten selections. But when it was all said and done, the Packers added only nine players to the team.

Their first two selections of the day were offensive linemen David Bakhtiari and J.C. Tretter.

Bakhtiari was a three-year starter at Colorado, and I had a late-second to early-third round grade on him entering the draft. He was a tackle at the college level but will probably play guard at the NFL level. The Packers drafted Bakhtiari with pick No. 109 in the fourth round.

Tretter started at left tackle the past two seasons at Cornell. He was a unanimous All-Ivy League First Team selection as a senior after beginning his college career as a tight end. He was a high school quarterback. With the Packers, Tretter will likely play on the interior of the offensive line.

Later in round four, Ted Thompson continued his trading ways by moving up for UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin.

Many scouts thought Franklin would be a second-round pick, and some even had Franklin and Eddie Lacy as the top two players at the position. My final rankings had Franklin as the No. 2 back in the draft, just ahead of Lacy and behind Giovani Bernard who was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals at the top of the second round.  Read more... (1824 words + 1 image, estimated 7:18 mins reading time)

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Alabama RB Eddie Lacy

On the deepest second day of the NFL Draft in recent memory, the Packers only made one selection, but it landed a player that many expected to be the team’s first-round pick.

Alabama’s Eddie Lacy was the Packers’ lone second-round pick at No. 61 overall. He was regarded as the No. 1 running back in the draft by ESPN’s Mel Kiper and Todd McShay, Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller and NFL Network’s Mike Mayock.

But three running backs were taken ahead of Lacy. The Cincinnati Bengals took North Carolina all-purpose back Giovani Bernard with the No. 37 pick at the top of round two. Bernard was the No. 1-rated running back on my board; Jayme Joers, who previewed the running backs for the CheeseheadTV Draft Guide, also had Bernard at the top.

But after Michigan State’s Le’Veon Bell was picked to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Wisconsin’s Montee Ball was taken by the Denver Broncos, the Packers moved down from No. 55 to No. 61 and stole Lacy with the penultimate pick in the second round.

It’s hard to say definitively how the Packers ranked the running backs, but Packers Director of College Scouting Brian Gutekunst said the team had a high opinion of both Ball and Lacy.

“We liked Montee Ball a lot,” Gutekunst said. “We had (Lacy and Ball) in the same range. They’re different kinds of backs. The history of running backs from the SEC is very, very good. They tend to make it.”  Read more... (1227 words + 1 image, estimated 4:54 mins reading time)

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Packers QB Aaron Rodgers

According to the team’s official website, the Packers have signed quarterback Aaron Rodgers to a multi-year contract extension.

The move was announced Friday by Packers general manager Ted Thompson. Rodgers is now the highest paid player in league history after signing a five-year extension worth $110 million. Reports are that the contract calls for Rodgers to be paid 40 million in the first year and 62.5 million in the first three years (500K more than Joe Flacco). His salary cap number will never exceed 21M.

“Aaron is a true professional and a special player,” Thompson said, per Packers.com. “He works hard, is humble, and is focused on his actions, on and off the field. He is an excellent teammate and pushes himself and others to be the very best. We are happy to reach an agreement to extend his career with the Packers.”

Rodgers had two years remaining on his previous deal, but the new contract will keep him in Green Bay for the foreseeable future.

Thompson spent his first draft pick as Packers general manager on Rodgers, the No. 24 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. After sitting behind Brett Favre for three years, Rodgers took over as the team’s starting quarterback in 2008.

In his first season as the starter, Rodgers threw for 4,038 yards, 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. His 93.8 passer rating was the lowest of his career, as he’s posted a rating of at least 101.2 in each of the past four seasons.  Read more... (387 words + 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

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Last week Clay Matthews III signed a new 5-year extension with the Packers that made him the highest paid linebacker in the history of the NFL.  The press release announced that Matthews was awarded a $66 million extension that averages $13.2 million yearly, which just barely eclipses Dallas Cowboy outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware’s 2009 extension that averaged $13 million yearly. However, as the title has mentioned I personally don’t feel that the contract signed by Matthews is worth it.  Furthermore, I’m a little surprised that so many Packers fans are okay with the deal.

What Packers fans should be doing is jumping up and down with joy.

For all intents and purposes, the Packers just got away with “grand theft Matthews”.  While initially it looks like Matthews was rewarded handsomely for his services and now can claim to be the highest paid linebacker in NFL history, if you dive deeper into the structure of the deal, it’s pretty obvious that general manager Ted Thompson and lead contract negotiator Russ Ball really got the better end of the bargain.  Read more... (1520 words + 2 images, estimated 6:05 mins reading time)

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Desmond Bishop is one player the Packers have drafted and developed.

An interesting discussion about the Packers draft and develop philosophy broke out in the comments section of this post the other day.

The basic question that came out of the discussion was this: What does draft and develop mean to you?

Draft and develop might mean different things to different people. The various meanings appear to include:

• Having players on the roster who can immediately and adequately fill in when a starter is injured.
• When an upper-echelon player leaves the team (for whatever reason), there’s another player on the roster than can immediately play at a similar level of the departed star.
• Accumulating as much young talent as possible.

There is no right answer to the question, but if I had to select one of the above, I’d select the third option. However, that answer is a little broad. There isn’t a team in the league that doesn’t want to accumulate as much young talent as possible. That franchise goal isn’t unique to the Packers.

Perhaps I need to add a fourth option: Accumulating as much young talent as possible and having the patience to stick with that philosophy and actually make it work.

Draft and develop has paid off for the Packers because they didn’t ditch it at the first sign of trouble. It’s also worked because the front office appears to be on the same page as the coaching staff, which is a lot more rare than we think. (It’s also worked because the Packers have Aaron Rodgers.)  Read more... (481 words + 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

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GM Ted Thompson

Welcome to NFL Draft Week.

It’s the week many Green Bay Packers fans have been waiting for.  General Manager Ted Thompson will finally wake up from his offseason hibernation and will get to work setting the Packers up for another Super Bowl run in 2013.  As usual, he largely ignored free agency and will rely on the draft to restock Green Bay’s shelves with fresh talent.

This offseason has been one of some discontent for some Packers fans.  Donald Driver retired, Charles Woodson was released and Greg Jennings signed with the Minnesota Vikings.  That’s three veteran leaders that Green Bay won’t have this year, not to mention three fan favorites as well. The Packers also hung onto Jermichael Finley, which drew considerable scorn from fans also.

Fear not, Packer faithful. It’s not all bad.  Clay Matthews signed a five-year contract extensions and all signs point to Aaron Rodgers having his extension done before training camp.  As long as Matthews and Rodgers are in Green Bay, the Packers should remain in the upper echelon of teams in the NFC.

That said, Thompson realizes both those players need talent around them to get Green Bay from being one of the best teams to THE best team and he will do that through the NFL draft.   One could almost say, in recent years anyway, the draft has become Thompson’s personal playground.  Read more... (812 words + 1 image, estimated 3:15 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Remember the moment from Super Bowl XLV when Packers assistant coach Kevin Greene looked Clay Matthews in the eyes and told him that “it is time!”

It’s one of the more memorable moments from that Super Bowl victory and something Packers fans won’t forget any time soon.

NFL history is filled with instances when coaches say something memorable or inspiring to players during a key portion of a big game. The emotion and intensity of the moment makes for compelling drama that even the best Hollywood actors could never replicate.

You don’t hear about similar moments involving general managers. In fact, thinking about someone going up to a general manager in his office, looking into his eyes, and telling him “it is time!” sounds downright silly.

Even so, I think it would be perfectly reasonable for someone to do that to Ted Thompson this week.

Not literally, of course. That would just be weird and could lead to an arrest. Without getting right in his face, this week is the perfect week to get the message to Thompson that “it is time!”

Now is the time for Thompson to put himself in the history books as one of the best general managers of all time. He’s already got a Super Bowl. He’s already highly respected. He’s already guided the Packers franchise through the Brett Favre-to-Aaron Rodgers transition. He’s already had a great career and has plenty to be proud of.  Read more... (1039 words + 1 image, estimated 4:09 mins reading time)

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