Practice Squad Players

[HardRightEdge]

The Packers have added Devon Cajuste to the practice squad after all. The team released Beniquez Brown to make room for him.

http://www.packers.com/news-and-eve...35315955_TW_C-Content-GB_sf35315955&qwr=nomob

Beniquez Brown...we hardly knew ye.

At this stage, every move gets scrutiny. Once the season starts, few seem to notice or care that the Practice Squad has a revolving door.

Some guys you can expect to hang around for the duration. Bradford, for instance, could be expected to hang around since there are only 3 ILBs on the 53 man roster; he'd be the next man up in the event of a season ending injury. ILB is not a position where plug and play with a guy from the outside.

All the new guys are under further evaluation; grasping foreign concepts on the scout team would be a factor. Cajuste, Jackson and Muir are starting from square 1 in the evaluation process.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Cajuste, Jackson and Muir are starting from square 1 in the evaluation process.

Don Jackson is at least somehow familiar with the Packers offensive scheme as he spent all offseason with the team.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Don Jackson is at least somehow familiar with the Packers offensive scheme as he spent all offseason with the team.

Right you are. Cut July 25, a couple of weeks before preseason. With so little full contact in camp, call it square 2.

Pressley was an uncharacteristic outside grab for the 53 man roster. He's at square 1. Should we note he was claimed after being cut by Minnesota? Probably not given the possible directions that could take. Whether this is a practice squad extension where he's not on the game day roster or whether there's a KO plan for the guy remains to be seen:

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[Half Empty]

Those were the days. Reserve clause; quibbling over a couple of thousand dollars; employing an agent being a capital offense; getting a starter plus a 1st. round pick for a center.

So, if Lane Taylor plays like Ken Bowman I guess Thompson will have punched his ticket to Valhalla.

Oh, how true.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Oh, how true.

I was being sarcastic, except for the winning part.

While I sided with the owners in the last CBA negotiations once the players pulled the union decertification stunt together with the fact that the bottom half of the franchises are pretty mediocre business propositions, it did seem like it was resolved in a balanced way. The player's share (i.e., aggregate cap) includes a percentage of TV revenue which is where the $5 and $10 million annual cap jumps are mainly coming from. The provision that teams have to spend 89% of the cap in cash, escalating to 95% going forward, makes for competitive pay across all franchises, and better competitive balance at least theoretically. Big bumps in pensions and retiree medical benefits was a nice touch, even if the mounting law suits and negative PR would have forced it. The NFL pension plan is about $1 billion underfunded, but that's a point for some other discussion; public and private pensions in the US are about $3 trillion underfunded, so I guess the NFL is par for the course with their actuaries sweating bullets over these low interest rates just like everybody else's.

However, knowing what guys got paid back in the 60's and prior for getting their heads bashed in, playing in a more violent and dirty game than we see today, while having to take off season jobs selling cars or what have you to make ends meet, I can't help but have sympathy for the player's position in retrospect. The reserve clause amounted to indentured servitude. Conversely, the NFL was a fairly low revenue, sketchy operation back then, with TV popularity just getting rolling and no revenue sharing for the poorer franchises. All in all, everybody was involved more for love of the game than money, and that is something to be missed.

 

[Half Empty]

Fair enough. Rather have it the old way, for a lot of reasons, but that's me (an old guy).

 

[HardRightEdge]

Fair enough. Rather have it the old way, for a lot of reasons, but that's me (an old guy).

I'm an "old" guy too by most lights at age 61, and my back, neck, shoulders, ankles and hamstrings seem to agree.

But we roll with the changes, appreciating what's good from them without ignoring what's bad. And there is a lot of bad in change, "change is good" being all too often a management-speak rationalization for some questionable agenda.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I was excited when we were able to keep Geronimo Allison on the PS, but the guy that has me even more excited is Devon Cajuste. Have to love his size, speed and the grades he got at the combine. He definitely needs a year to hone his NFL skills, but he seems like a good fit for the Packer offense playing as a WR/TE/H-Back. Hopefully San Fran won't try to lure him back to their 53 and we will be seeing a lot of him in 2017.

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[Deleted member 6794]

I was excited when we were able to keep Geronimo Allison on the PS, but the guy that has me even more excited is Devon Cajuste. Have to love his size, speed and the grades he got at the combine. He definitely needs a year to hone his NFL skills, but he seems like a good fit for the Packer offense playing as a WR/TE/H-Back. Hopefully San Fran won't try to lure him back to their 53 and we will be seeing a lot of him in 2017.

Cajuste is an intriguing tight end prospect who while not being extremely fast has fantastic change of direction ability and above average lateral quickness. He has to add significant strength to play the position though.