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If its good enough for the Packers, than it is good enough for me


JOJOTOWNSELL

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Oh, of course not, and that's not my point.  The point was simply that their draft day situations were not all that dissimilar and so it seems odd to say it was an obvious and easy pick for a team that didn't have a need at the position.  Nobody thought Aaron Rodgers was certain to become the player he is now back when he was drafted, that's why he fell.  It's not like the entire NFL knew he was destined to become one of the NFL's best, but came together and said "nah, we'll let the Packers have him".

 

Rodgers could have turned out to be a bust, but of course he didn't, so that the Packers not only opted to take him but had the foresight to do it despite having a HOF already at the position doesn't get thrown away simply because he didn't go #1 overall.  Saying that's an easy decision is pure hindsight and they certainly got plenty of questions for it at the time (keep in mind, Favre didn't retire for another 6 years).  Besides, I think most would agree Rodgers is far from a lock to have been the same player he is now if he was starting as a rookie for the 2005 49ers.

 

Rodgers also fell so far because it was a weird year where after the first few pics in the draft, many teams did not need a QB. I remember one of the announcers actually predicting he could fall that far for that reason.

 

I also think Rodgers has benefited tremendously from sitting for as long as he did given his college offense and his perceived mechanical issues.

 

I thought Smith should have sat all of last year personally. I like Smith, but knowing what Rodgers is now, there is virtually zero chance IMO that Smith is ever anywhere near Rodgers as a player. Mostly because Rodgers is just that good.

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Statistically, Rodgers is almost certainly the best QB of all time.  I know how weird that sounds, but look at the data. 

 

If you look at the rest of the Packers team, its really not very good. Take him off the team and they are probably a bottom half of the league team. I believe he is that good.

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Oh and they have a Hall of Fame QB too. What a lucky coincidence!

Ben, Bradshaw, bart star, aaron Rodgers, tom brady, & all the best cowboys QB's were drafted!

That's the whole point to the article to draft. And Favre was a trade but they wanted Favre in the 1st place. And he never did a complete season with the falcons.

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This article is great, the Steelers who win more years then they lose follow the same model. You can't overspend in free agency, even if the money is there. Draft right and coach your athletes up.

 

Yet ironically, the Steelers have been in cap hell for years now. 

And they've been missing on a number of draft picks lately when in the past hit home runs and now are a mediocre team for 3 years running with a top 10 QB keeping them afloat.  They have many holes and no identity with a patchwork OLine, failing DLine and disintegrating secondary.  Their draft picks typically replace guys they can't sign.  They're falling apart.  And the Packers are a cold-weather team built for domes.  I don't think they represent the NFL blueprint.  In fact, they're yesterday's version of contenders being quickly replaced by more physical, more balanced teams. 

 

Conversely, the Pats, Broncos, Giants, Ravens, Saints, Seahawks, 49'ers, Falcons have all been very active this free agency.

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wasn't  Favre drafted by Atlanta then traded a year later?

 

Yeah.  Ron Wolf was in love with him. The Jets were going to take him, but Atlanta took him the pick before in the 2nd.  I thought the Jets had traded up, but I'm not sure.  Wolf was hired to GM Green Bay, hired Holmgren and traded a 1st for Favre. 

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Yeah.  Ron Wolf was in love with him. The Jets were going to take him, but Atlanta took him the pick before in the 2nd.  I thought the Jets had traded up, but I'm not sure.  Wolf was hired to GM Green Bay, hired Holmgren and traded a 1st for Favre. 

I believe Atlanta traded up?

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If you look at the rest of the Packers team, its really not very good. Take him off the team and they are probably a bottom half of the league team. I believe he is that good.

 

  This is the fact people ignore.  The Packers build through the draft, which is great, except take Rodgers off that team and they suck.   Look at last year. Rodgers went down with an injury and the Packers were in a free fall.  They sucked.    Their defense is still horrible.     Rodgers pretty much carries that team on his back.   Without him the Packers are a 4-12 kind of team.       

 

 Yeah it's a team sport, but some players just carry their teams.  Rodgers is that kind of guy.  When he plays the team believes.   When he doesn't play, they are a terrible team.    So yeah great to think the Packers build through the draft, but the reality is,  the Packers stink.  So I wouldn't say they have been that great at building a winning team around Rodgers.    

 

 And lets be real about these conversations.   When you have Favre & Rodgers as your QB over the past 20+ years,  it kind of makes everything else easier.  True they had to trade/draft these guys, but nobody thought Rodgers was going to be a HOF QB.   Maybe they had faith and hope, but he sat for the first few years.  And Favre wasn't some sure thing either.  

 

When you have Ray Lucas, Chad Pennington, Kellen Clemens, Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith, etc as your QBs, the rest of the team needs to be great.    Same goes for teams with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.    It's far easier to build a team around QBs who put their team on their backs year in and year out.

 

  The sad reality about the Jets is that besides Namath, they haven't had a QB who would carry the team on their backs.  And so they wind up 8-8 all the time.      If the Packers had Mark Sanchez as QB instead of Rodgers,  they go 3-13. It might be a team game, but it's not always about drafting well when you have a HOF QB.  

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Yeah  I thought so, but didn't see anything on it trying to look back.  Glanville didn't like him.  He went nuts in the "big" city and was drinking up a storm and getting fat.  Green Bay may have been a God send for him.

yup.  Steinberg was salivating over him and they leapfrogged us when the pick came up.  So we drafted Nagle.

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I'm sorry, but the Rodgers thing is such a cop-out.  The Packers didn't even need a QB at the time; Favre was still there, still played for another 3 years there, and then still was in the league for another 3 after that had they wanted to keep him.  There were 23 teams who didn't want Rodgers and yet, because a team who didn't even have a need for the position used its first round pick on him it doesn't really count?  How many much higher picked QBs have turned out to be monstrous busts?  That's not even getting into the fact that on this very same board we kept hearing about how awful the Geno pick was because of the fact that he dropped and what that must have implied (and let me just preemptively say that whoever tries to chime in by comparing Geno's rookie year to Rodgers' 4th is immeasurably stupid).

 

 

 

Actually the fact that Geno sucked last year is the major reason anyone complained.  He was worth the 2nd rd flyer in that we had very little at the QB position. We should not be afraid to cut bait and go in another direction if he repeats last seasons performance.

 

Hopefully he pans out.

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The last paragraph is key

 

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/04/03/packers-prefer-compensatory-picks-over-unrestricted-free-agents/

 

Packers General Manager Ted Thompson has a formula for building his team, and he’s sticking with it.

Thompson believes in building through the draft, not free agency, and that includes acquiring more draft picks by declining to sign unrestricted free agents. In the NFL, teams that lose more in free agency than they acquire get compensatory picks, and the Packers’ moves in free agency this year indicate that they’re already thinking about acquiring compensatory picks for next year. The NFL doesn’t public the precise formula used to determine compensatory picks, but the simple version is that if the unrestricted free agents you lose are better, higher-paid players than the unrestricted free agents you sign, then the NFL will compensate you the following year with compensatory picks.

As the Green Bay Press-Gazette points out, even the one big name the Packers have signed this offseason, Julius Peppers, was a free agent because he was released by the Bears, not because his previous contract expired. That means he won’t count as an unrestricted free agent addition for the Packers for the purpose of determining their compensatory picks next year.

Last year the Packers lost two key players, receiver Greg Jennings and linebackerErik Walden, as unrestricted free agents. And the Packers didn’t sign any unrestricted free agents last year. As a result, this year they’re getting an extra third-round pick and an extra fifth-round pick as compensatory selections.

This year the Packers have again not signed away any players whose previous contract expired, but they have lost four players, center Evan Dietrich-Smith, receiver James Jones, defensive lineman C.J. Wilson and offensive linemanMarshall Newhouse. That means the Packers will almost certainly do well when the compensatory picks are passed out a year from now.

Building through the draft and declining to overspend in free agency would be a smart strategy even if the NFL didn’t have a compensatory pick system to reward frugal teams. But when compensatory picks are added to the equation, it’s easy to see why Thompson declines to go after free agents. The Packers have been successful this way. It’s surprising more teams haven’t copied them.

 

Add the Steelers to that list as well.

 

The Eagles were the same way until they went FA crazy in 2011 and everything fell apart.

 

I think the Jets could have been more active and taken a shot at MJD who probably would have fit in nicely. I am glad though they did not take the shot at DeSean Jackson because there were already Red Flags on his character and work ethic before the Eagles released him.

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Actually the fact that Geno sucked last year is the major reason anyone complained.  He was worth the 2nd rd flyer in that we had very little at the QB position. We should not be afraid to cut bait and go in another direction if he repeats last seasons performance.

 

Hopefully he pans out.

 

I get what you are saying here and don't disagree with that, but that wasn't my point, as there were people here whining about the pick from the moment that it happened, and using the logic that because he fell that must mean that everyone else knew he was awful and destined for failure.  Regardless of whether he turns out to be good or terrible, it's still an awful argument that was made by multiple folks around here.  My point is it's made even more absurd when in another breath people are touting Rodgers as such an easy pick that the team gets no credit for it, because him dropping just meant it was obvious a team with absolutely no need at the position should grab him and he was destined to be an elite QB.

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