Surviving Sunday: Packers News, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived (Bonus Edition)
Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football
So yesterday I accidentally scheduled my Surviving Sunday post to run on Saturday. It was a brain freeze similar to what happens when Mike McCarthy calls for the fullback dive on 3rd-and-short.
Hopefully you enjoyed your Saturday edition of Surviving Sunday. Now that it actually is Sunday, here is a bonus Sunday edition of Surviving Sunday.
Packers news, notes and links
- Reports surfaced on Saturday that Packers free agent cornerback Sam Shields is seeking a deal similar to the 4 years, $22.4 million contract signed by the Bears’ Tim Jennings. If that’s truly the case, then the Packers need to get this deal done ASAP. I’m guessing the overall guarantee on Shields’ deal would be bigger than Jennings’, but even if that’s true, that’s a perfectly fair deal for both sides and still leaves the Packers salary cap room to make other moves this offseason.
- Might new Giants offensive coordinator and former Packers QB coach Ben McAdoo try to sign James Starks and Evan Dietrich-Smith away from the Packers? It’d be nice to keep Starks around, but with Eddie Lacy on the roster and DuJuan Harris and Jonthan Franklin returning from injury, Starks is more of a luxury than a necessity. Then again, Starks ran at turbo speed last season. Given his injury history, a part-time role is probably best for him and he sure excelled filling in for Lacy. I don’t like playing musical chairs at center, but is Dietrich-Smith worthy overpaying if another team dumps a big offer on him? I don’t think so. I’m willing to see what J.C. Tretter can do at the position.
- According to a study from Rick Gosselin at the Dallas Morning News, the Packers have lost a league-high 153 games by injuries to preferred starters over the last two seasons. So what are Mike McCarthy and the Packers going to do about it? Who knows. In this interview with Jason Wilde, McCarthy vowed to figure out what’s going on and make changes. He said the same things last offseason. The most logical change at this point might be to just hire the training and medical staff from Stanford University.
- If you’re still holding out hope that the Packers will sign Jarius Byrd to fix their issues at safety, this Tweet might squash that hope.
Non-Packers links and other nonsense
- This is an interesting read about losing the passion you have for your favorite team once you grow up. I wonder how many young Packers fans see their passion dwindle once they get older?
- I’m really looking forward to Jeff Pearlman’s new book on the Showtime-era Lakers.
- Does this offer even apply to writers who publish Surviving Sunday posts on Saturday?
5 Comments On “Surviving Sunday: Packers News, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived (Bonus Edition)”
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Reports are flying all around, James Jones, Raji, and Pickett are being allowed to walk. The Giants want EDS, Quarless, and Starks. Sam Shields just wants to be paid like Tim Jennings which seems reasonable to me.
Thompson has a lot of decisions to make but Shields should be a no brainer, especially after throwing $24 million at Burnett. Burnett who was supposed to be this ball hawking S coming out has managed 2 INT in 2 years, and those were against Ponder in the same game!
The Packers have over $32 million in cap space and understand they’d like to lock up Nelson and Cobb. I mean what’s the point in having the best and highest paid QB in the NFL without a WR to throw to. The Packers HAVE to be active this year in FA. The Packers need help at DL, ILB, OLB, CB, (if Shields walks) and Safety, and that’s just defense.
It’s time for TT to show us he’s breathing during free Agency. It doesn’t have to be a signing that creates the huge wave. Just a few smaller ones.
Reports are flying all around, James Jones, Raji, and Pickett are being allowed to walk. The Giants want EDS, Quarless, and Starks. Sam Shields just wants to be paid like Tim Jennings which seems reasonable to me.
Thompson has a lot of decisions to make but Shields should be a no brainer, especially after throwing $24 million at Burnett. Burnett who was supposed to be this ball hawking S coming out has managed 2 INT in 2 years, and those were against Ponder in the same game!
The Packers have over $32 million in cap space and understand they’d like to lock up Nelson and Cobb. I mean what’s the point in having the best and highest paid QB in the NFL without a WR to throw to. The Packers HAVE to be active this year in FA. The Packers need help at DL, ILB, OLB, CB, (if Shields walks) and Safety, and that’s just defense.
It’s time for TT to show us he’s breathing during free Agency. It doesn’t have to be a signing that creates the huge wave. Just a few smaller ones.
Every thing is rumor and speculation at this point. If there is any truth about Shields contract, TT should jump on it. Otherwise, nothing is real until franchise players are named and FA begins for real in March. Thanks, Since’61
The interesting thing for me is how TT “sequences” what he does this off-season. Sure, he’ll sign a few of the Packers FAs prior to the draft, but I’m not sure how active he’ll be (outside of keeping Packer FAs) until after the draft.
The draft is a tremendous crap-shoot, and you never know when an outstanding prospect will slide to you…and what do you do if you’ve just signed an FA to man that position? My hope is that he’ll target those positions that really need a veteran presence to make a difference (ahem: Safety!) and find help in FA, but then look for impact players at those positions where a rookie can step in and give you an upgrade (LB) through the draft.
In the long run, I don’t see the Packers doing much of anything in FA, and many of us will lament that fact, here.
that number for Shields is kind of surprising, but if true, I totally agree TT should jump on that. I was expecting Shields would at least ask for something on the order of TWill’s contract, especially since the salary cap is probably about 8% higher than it was when TWill signed. Would think player salaries would follow suit.
w/o knowing yearly details, that figures to be $5.6 mil/yr cap hit. EDS probably could be had for $4 mil/yr max. figure $7.5 mil for draft picks and set aside $5 mil for emergency use. Leaves about $12.1 mil to play with unless TT wants to reserve more for Nelson & Cobb. Wouldn’t really be any major holes on offense since WR’s can pick up TE slack. Not even sure Kuhn needs to be brought back. I’d hope we would spend that on defense, particularly DL since it seems less likely for DL draft picks to contribute in yr 1 than Safeties.