Gutes thought process...

[PackerDNA]

The biggest problem in signing Mack wouldn't have been fitting him under the cap, but fitting both him and Rodgers. You just can't put 1/3 of your cap on two guys.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

The biggest problem in signing Mack wouldn't have been fitting him under the cap, but fitting both him and Rodgers. You just can't put 1/3 of your cap on two guys.

Agreed.....Well you can....but if people were upset with the offense when Rodgers went down, I would hate to think of what happens to the team if Mack goes down post 2018 and you have not been able to effectively build a solid roster around him due to his drain on the cap. Have said it before and last year proved it, you can build a damn good offense around one guy, the QB, but I seriously doubt you can build a solid defense around just one guy.

 

[CaptainCanuck]

Agreed.....Well you can....but if people were upset with the offense when Rodgers went down, I would hate to think of what happens to the team if Mack goes down post 2018 and you have not been able to effectively build a solid roster around him due to his drain on the cap. Have said it before and last year proved it, you can build a damn good offense around one guy, the QB, but I seriously doubt you can build a solid defense around just one guy.

JJ Watt comes to mind.

Edit

As dominate as JJ Watt is he alone will not carry the entire defense

 

[Sunshinepacker]

Agreed.....Well you can....but if people were upset with the offense when Rodgers went down, I would hate to think of what happens to the team if Mack goes down post 2018 and you have not been able to effectively build a solid roster around him due to his drain on the cap. Have said it before and last year proved it, you can build a damn good offense around one guy, the QB, but I seriously doubt you can build a solid defense around just one guy.

If you assume injury then no great player on defense is ever worth signing.

 

[Mondio]

Two weeks ago we signed Mack, and last weekend he got Wlikerson’d. How good are we feeling today?

 

[Mondio]

If you assume injury then no great player on defense is ever worth signing.

Not when they require half your draft capital in additional expense, they aren’t.

 

[El Guapo]

The Bears can better afford Mack because they don't have a massive QB contract weighing down their cap. I don't understand why fans conveniently ignore this point. Trubisky is under a rookie contract.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Hey we could have signed Mack, resigned Rodgers and signed Bell......3 top players at their perspective positions. Then we can cut Matthews, Adams, Bahk, Cobb and Graham to afford them. Resign Janis, Barclay and Richard Rodgers and we are set to make our Super Bowl run!

 

[sschind]

If you assume injury then no great player on defense is ever worth signing.

Injuries are one of those things that go without saying. For years when the Packers were predicted to win the North and the Bears to be cellar dwellers my BIL would say "what do they know, Aaron Rodgers gets hurt and it changes everything" Well duh. Key injuries have a way of doing that. You don't make predictions based on the possibility of catastrophic injury. "If he is healthy" is one of the most unnecessary phrases used in sports writing.

If you are a GM and you shy away from signing a top player for top dollar because he might get hurt then you are playing scared. You have to make such decisions based on the assumption that he won't get hurt or else you will never be ready for that top guy. Don't pay him because he takes up too much cap and you won't be able to sign other players, or don't pay him because you just don't think he is worth it, but don't use potential injury as a reason to keep you from considering top talent.

Two weeks ago we signed Mack, and last weekend he got Wlikerson’d. How good are we feeling today?

I'm having a hard time putting into words what I am really thinking when trying to answer this. It sounds good in my head I'm also trying to predict your objections.

Maybe this will help (probably not) but I think it may be what you are getting at.

Two weeks a go we sign Mack "Signing Mack was a great idea"
Last weekend he gets Wilkerson'd " Signing Mack was a bad idea."

That would not be me.

How am I feeling right now? I'd be upset because we lost him but that would not change my mind about how I felt when we signed him.

Please note that I did not think it was a good idea to sign him. I would have been ecstatic to have him but I thought the cost was too great. The injury possibility was at the back of my mind but the proverbial "all your eggs in one basket" was more based on who we wouldn't be able to get had signed him. If we would have signed him would we have ended up with one really big basket and 10 much smaller ones, or will we end up with 11 bigger baskets none of which will be as big as the Mack basket (we don't know that for sure, we could draft a really big basket next year) but all of which would be bigger than the 10 other baskets we would have had. I'm hoping for the latter.

I know, I'm a basket case.

 

[gbgary]

The biggest problem in signing Mack wouldn't have been fitting him under the cap, but fitting both him and Rodgers. You just can't put 1/3 of your cap on two guys.

there were numerous articles saying/explaining it could be done. it would have been an all-in scenario to win a SB in the next couple of years while Rodgers was still good. too late now so it's back to saving-money/plugging-holes mode and hoping draft picks hit (which Gute may just prove to be better at than Ted).

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Please note that I did not think it was a good idea to sign him. I would have been ecstatic to have him but I thought the cost was too great. The injury possibility was at the back of my mind but the proverbial "all your eggs in one basket" was more based on who we wouldn't be able to get had signed him. If we would have signed him would we have ended up with one really big basket and 10 much smaller ones, or will we end up with 11 bigger baskets none of which will be as big as the Mack basket (we don't know that for sure, we could draft a really big basket next year) but all of which would be bigger than the 10 other baskets we would have had. I'm hoping for the latter.

I know, I'm a basket case.

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[Pokerbrat2000]

JJ Watt comes to mind

Can build an entire defense around Watt? Have you noticed how unhealthy Watt has been?

While I love JJ and he is a force, when healthy, I still don't think you cough up most of your defensive bankroll on one guy, even JJ.

 

[gbgary]

Can build an entire defense around Watt? Have you noticed how unhealthy Watt has been?

yup. his best days are behind him. he'd be nice to have but he's not the cornerstone piece to build around anymore.

 

[XPack]

No matter how elite an edge rusher is, he certainly does not have the same impact on the game as a QB. Guys like Mack, Suh etc will never have that impact that elevates a team to deep post-season level on their own. I don't think we'll regret not signing Mack. Next draft, we will get the edge rushers and beef up on O-Line and perhaps a safety.

 

[CaptainCanuck]

Can build an entire defense around Watt? Have you noticed how unhealthy Watt has been?

While I love JJ and he is a force, when healthy, I still don't think you cough up most of your defensive bankroll on one guy, even JJ.

I was agreeing with you

As dominate as JJ Watt is relying on him alone will not get you anywhere.

 

[PackerDNA]

I was agreeing with you

As dominate as JJ Watt was relying on him alone will not get you anywhere.

Fixed that

 

[rmontro]

Please note that I did not think it was a good idea to sign him. I would have been ecstatic to have him but I thought the cost was too great..

I never called for the team to sign Mack either, figured it would be too expensive.
In hindsight though, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we should have pursued it more aggressively. It would take some creative accounting and limit future moves, but we'd have a star on both offense and defense. I'm sure we'd be getting more respect around the league bare minimum.

If we had Mack, it wouldn't surprise me if we were 3-0 right now, and it's even possible that Rodgers wouldn't have hurt his knee. High risk, high reward.

 

[sschind]

I never called for the team to sign Mack either, figured it would be too expensive.
In hindsight though, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we should have pursued it more aggressively. It would take some creative accounting and limit future moves, but we'd have a star on both offense and defense. I'm sure we'd be getting more respect around the league bare minimum.

If we had Mack, it wouldn't surprise me if we were 3-0 right now, and it's even possible that Rodgers wouldn't have hurt his knee. High risk, high reward.

It is fun to speculate and you may be right, In fact if I had to bet I'd say you probably are right about being 3-0 That still doesn't mean we wouldn't be severely limited in the future. Signing Mack would have been great for this year since we already had our rookies and most of the team set. Next year and beyond when trying to replace expensive starters and key role players because we couldn't afford to keep them and didn't have the draft picks to replace them with is where the problems would begin. That said having a SB trophy would make those problems a lot easier to handle. Not saying Mack would have guaranteed a SB win this year but I think our odds would have been better with him than without. I'd rather not risk lessening our chances for the next 4 years for a slightly better chance this year.

 

[OldSchool101]

Hey we could have signed Mack, resigned Rodgers and signed Bell......3 top players at their perspective positions. Then we can cut Matthews, Adams, Bahk, Cobb and Graham to afford them. Resign Janis, Barclay and Richard Rodgers and we are set to make our Super Bowl run!

Ok. Just two more requests. Can we resign Bostick and Newhouse? At least every time those guys were on the field failing, we were playing in a big time game!

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Ok. Just two more requests. Can we resign Bostick and Newhouse? At least every time those guys were on the field failing, we were playing in a big time game!

LOL.....you are right, they were in big time games...hmmmm...is there a pattern we should be studying?

If you don't sign Mack and Bell, you can sign 30-40 of all the Bosticks and Newhouses you want and have just enough left over for 5 Callahan's!

 

[Deleted member 6794]

But imagine a world with Derwin James and Fuller in the secondary....

The Packers secondary would definitely be improved at the moment, especially as the team would have still be able to draft Jackson in the second round as well.

Ok let’s make a list of available coaching candidates and potential available coaching candidates that could replace MM...and do either the same?? or just as good as Him shall we?

Jim Harbaugh
Mike Smith
Bill O’brien
Jim Caldwell
Jeff Fisher

I’m sure there will be more but I’d take Harbaugh or Jim Caldwell. Then again this team probably needs a defensive minded head coach for once. NOT Pettine tho!!!!!

The list is a joke, right???

yup. his best days are behind him. he'd be nice to have but he's not the cornerstone piece to build around anymore.

Watt had three sacks and five tackles for loss on Sunday. It seems he's still an elite player.