LOVE seeing this.
I agree but if they don't, I wonder how this plays into 2016 being the second year in McCarthy's three-year plan for the defense. They better find Peppers' replacement for 2017 in a quick hurry if 2017 is supposed to be the culmination of a three-year plan.
I agree NFL teams should treat players with compassion, but in Woodson's case it looked to me at the time like the Packers weren't interested in keeping Woodson even at a much lower salary. I'm not sure how that was communicated to him or whether Woodson asked his agent to approach the Packers about restructuring. If the Packers weren't interested in keeping him at any reasonable cost, IMO they should have done him the courtesy of telling him (and his agent) in person: He certainly earned that respect. I get the idea of releasing a player one year too early rather than a year too late, but in this case they missed by a mile.
TT has a pretty good success rate in the first four rounds. After that there is a pretty sharp drop (although he's done pretty good with 6th round picks too). Therefore I tend to think of needs for the top part of the draft (Rounds 1-4) and the bottom part. ILB, OLB, TE, and OL are the top positional needs in my mind. Where he drafts those players in Rounds 1-4 doesn't really concern me. Second tier positional needs are DL, WR, and S and can be addressed in the later rounds. Of course, BPA comes into play so any position is fair game at any time.
The thing about Peppers is that he is an athletic wonder. He will last a little longer than most do, but you are right that at some point his performance will drop. It's always just a guessing game about when.
According to Woodson, the Packers did not make him an offer. A decision was made to move on that did not have to do with money. Woodson was critical of the fact that no half time adjustments were made during the Kaepernick romp-a-thon. There is a conclusion to be drawn.
That and he was turning 37 in the 2013 season and missed 9 games in 2012 after breaking his collar bone about 20 months after breaking it in Super Bowl XLV.
He finished the year on the field. He then signed a 1 year, $1.8 mil deal with Oakland, less than Thompson pays some special teamers. Injury risk should not have been a major concern given the scant dollars at issue.
I don't think that was the only factor. If he were 32 at the time and playing as he did when he was younger my guess is he would have remained in Green Bay in spite of what he said. His play had diminished and while he did get back on the field in 2012 he did break his right collarbone twice in the space of less than two years. I think all that played a part in their decision to let him go. And, although it's impossible to know, IMO if they would have known what their safety situation looked like in 2013 and the way he went on to play in Oakland (and stayed healthy), they would have renegotiated his deal.
Of course it's not the only factor. If he was still playing at a DPOY level such a breach of protocol would have been tolerated.
Agreed on the first part. However, if elite players is the expectation then I would say one must look at the entire draft regardless of round. I know that some people place high expectations on the first one, but the goal is to get 6-8 players out of each draft with the stipulated rookie cash pool. It really shouldn't matter where you get them as long as you get them. If the Packers busted every time in the first round and then drafted HOFers in the 7th round each year, I really don't think it should matter. The goal was still met.
