Za'Darius Smith "Packer For Life"?

[tynimiller]

High risk, but mega cost savings are setting there if we approach Z for an extension....

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[Poppa San]

Sounds like someone is renegotiating.

 

[tynimiller]

Sounds like someone is renegotiating.

This is precisely what I'm thinking as well. He and Adams both need extensions....would bring cap hit down, reward them into the futures and keep two pivotal cogs in our wheels on both sides.

 

[Dantés]

They need to move him or extend him. Sitting on his current number doesn’t make any sense.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

High risk, but mega cost savings are setting there if we approach Z for an extension....

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Z Dog has been nothing but a great signing for Gute and the Packers. This is a guy you need to keep on the team as long as you can. Now the question will be.....how much is he going to cost? It is going to get really expensive to have big contracts on all these guys

1. Bahk
2. Adams
3. Rodgers
4. Clark
5. J. Alexander
6. Z Dog

 

[El Guapo]

This is where I continue my rant about the Bahk deal. I love the guy but it wasn't worth it due to all of the cap problems that were ahead.

 

[tynimiller]

This is where I continue my rant about the Bahk deal. I love the guy but it wasn't worth it due to all of the cap problems that were ahead.

I was for extending him.....until I saw the cost in the coming years. BUT really it is a disposable (within reason) after 2022. Dead hit would be $17M but would save nearly $10M

 

[Dantés]

We're mad about extending our all-pro left tackle?

If Bakhtiari was on the open market right now, he'd be the #1 free agent in football and he'd land a deal worth 27+ APY.

 

[tynimiller]

I should rephrase, I was for it and arguably know it needed done, but hate the cost after 2022, which I personally don't think he makes it to the end of this contract worthy of his pay. Alas though value is there if healthy I know it and so does any other skeptic even.

 

[Dantés]

I should rephrase, I was for it and arguably know it needed done, but hate the cost after 2022, which I personally don't think he makes it to the end of this contract worthy of his pay. Alas though value is there if healthy I know it and so does any other skeptic even.

A cap hit of 26M in 2023 seems reasonable given that, by then, 26M+ will be the going rate for top tackles.

But I agree-- I doubt he sees the end of it.

 

[GreenNGold_81]

Twitter reporting Z is getting extended soon. Cap savinnnnngs....

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Twitter reporting Z is getting extended soon. Cap savinnnnngs....

It's amazing how much money Twitter has to be making all these deals!

 

[El Guapo]

We're mad about extending our all-pro left tackle?

If Bakhtiari was on the open market right now, he'd be the #1 free agent in football and he'd land a deal worth 27+ APY.

Agreed about being one of the top FAs. I love Bahktiari and want him on this team just like everyone else. HOWEVER, he is replaceable** and the money combined with Rodgers/Adams/Smiths/Clark makes it hard to sustain a winning team. I felt that we could have adequately replaced him on the left side with the guys we had but then add 2-3 other players that could impact the team. Thinking even more into the future, Rodgers only has a few years left with us tops. I would rather have AR dealing with a less-than-top-tier left tackle than Jordan Love or whomever succeeds Rodgers. It would be ideal if that quarterback had an up-and-coming LT protecting him. At the moment, it will probably be a new LT about the time we have a new QB.

I know that my opinion is different than the majority, but that's how I viewed the extension. I loved it in a world without salary caps. With our cap, I was not as big of a fan.

** Obviously you can't replace one of the top players at their position with a 1-for-1 swap. However, we have had plenty of guys on our roster step into the LT spot and do the job without giving up sacks. So replaceable means that we could still have someone good in there, but it would just not be at an All-Pro level.

 

[ARPackFan]

The bad and completely random/unpredictable part is that Bahktiari could miss the majority of the 2021 season due to his knee injury. The NFL is on the analytics bandwagon for in game decisions but I wonder how many teams use analytics for roster development and slotting contracts to positions? Is a team better off avoiding these single player mega-contracts in favor of multiple players?

 

[OldSchool101]

The bad and completely random/unpredictable part is that Bahktiari could miss the majority of the 2021 season due to his knee injury. The NFL is on the analytics bandwagon for in game decisions but I wonder how many teams use analytics for roster development and slotting contracts to positions? Is a team better off avoiding these single player mega-contracts in favor of multiple players?

That injury thing is a constant reminder of how quickly a contract can go South (particularly at a position such as RB) It's a tough business, because you want to resign these great players, but the truth is that it has little to do with how we "feel" about a player and everything to do with the reality of the cost involved and how it impacts the team as a whole. There is only 1 player I can think of that is an arguable exception above his current contract, even considering the possibility of injury.
#12 has an impact that makes him MVP not only from a performance standpoint, but also from a financial standpoint. His impact in 2020 was easily worth 50mil

To answer your question, I like a hybrid philosophy of paying the top few players the money the market demands, but after that somewhere we have to draw a line. This year that line is with Corey Linsley and Aaron Jones. We could also argue that BAk's contract is indirectly tied to Aaron Rodgers value and the combination is almost irresistible when considering the value of the two players paired together.

 

[Dantés]

The bad and completely random/unpredictable part is that Bahktiari could miss the majority of the 2021 season due to his knee injury. The NFL is on the analytics bandwagon for in game decisions but I wonder how many teams use analytics for roster development and slotting contracts to positions? Is a team better off avoiding these single player mega-contracts in favor of multiple players?

Bakh is going to be like 8 mos post op when the season starts. He’s not missing anything close to the majority of 2021.

 

[tynimiller]

Bakh is going to be like 8 mos post op when the season starts. He’s not missing anything close to the majority of 2021.

I'd say 1/4 of it worst case.

 

[mradtke66]

I'd say 1/4 of it worst case.

Generally agree, though if he isn't quite ready at the start of camp, starting the season on the PUP, and thus missing the first 6 games, is still reasonable.

 

[tynimiller]

Generally agree, though if he isn't quite ready at the start of camp, starting the season on the PUP, and thus missing the first 6 games, is still reasonable.

Depends when is our bye...that could also play a factor for my prediction...

 

[mradtke66]

Depends when is our bye...that could also play a factor for my prediction...

Also true, but if you start on the PUP, that's 6 weeks, period. If he's not ready, we'll all but certainly need to carry an extra lineman to cover for him.

 

[Dantés]

Agreed about being one of the top FAs. I love Bahktiari and want him on this team just like everyone else. HOWEVER, he is replaceable** and the money combined with Rodgers/Adams/Smiths/Clark makes it hard to sustain a winning team. I felt that we could have adequately replaced him on the left side with the guys we had but then add 2-3 other players that could impact the team. Thinking even more into the future, Rodgers only has a few years left with us tops. I would rather have AR dealing with a less-than-top-tier left tackle than Jordan Love or whomever succeeds Rodgers. It would be ideal if that quarterback had an up-and-coming LT protecting him. At the moment, it will probably be a new LT about the time we have a new QB.

I know that my opinion is different than the majority, but that's how I viewed the extension. I loved it in a world without salary caps. With our cap, I was not as big of a fan.

** Obviously you can't replace one of the top players at their position with a 1-for-1 swap. However, we have had plenty of guys on our roster step into the LT spot and do the job without giving up sacks. So replaceable means that we could still have someone good in there, but it would just not be at an All-Pro level.

See I would argue that what makes it even harder to sustain a winning team is letting your elite players at premium positions walk away so that you can sign lesser players on the open market.

Because Rodgers, Bakhtiari, Adams, Smith, Clark add a ton more value than what you could get for their savings on the market. The majority of great players don't even end up being available to sign. Their original teams keep them, as the Packers have done with their great players. And when great players do come available, you end up paying an even greater premium for them because you're competing.

I also think that people saw the Packers successfully patch up the OL for a couple games and were led to believe that replacing Bakhtiari would be dramatically easier and less impactful than it would be in reality.

 

[Dantés]

Generally agree, though if he isn't quite ready at the start of camp, starting the season on the PUP, and thus missing the first 6 games, is still reasonable.

I'd say that's the worst case scenario.

 

[tynimiller]

See I would argue that what makes it even harder to sustain a winning team is letting your elite players at premium positions walk away so that you can sign lesser players on the open market.

Because Rodgers, Bakhtiari, Adams, Smith, Clark add a ton more value than what you could get for their savings on the market. The majority of great players don't even end up being available to sign. Their original teams keep them, as the Packers have done with their great players. And when great players do come available, you end up paying an even greater premium for them because you're competing.

I also think that people saw the Packers successfully patch up the OL for a couple games and were led to believe that replacing Bakhtiari would be dramatically easier and less impactful than it would be in reality.

It doesn't help that honestly we've excelled at finding draft replacements...shoot even Bahk was one himself...throw in the recent easy plug type guys in Linsley, Jenkins and even Runyon to a degree to boot. It spoils your thinking some for sure.

 

[GreenNGold_81]

I wonder if this team is just sitting on a bunch of (salary related) announcements right now. Feels like it to me.

 

[Dantés]

It doesn't help that honestly we've excelled at finding draft replacements...shoot even Bahk was one himself...throw in the recent easy plug type guys in Linsley, Jenkins and even Runyon to a degree to boot. It spoils your thinking some for sure.

They have been good at finding OL, however most of the recent finds have been interior players. Tackle is a different story.

Even just set aside how good a given tackle is, just look at where the starting left tackles last year came from:

Round 1: 22
Round 2: 4
Round 3: 2
Round 4: 1
Round 5: 0
Round 6: 0
Round 7: 1
Undrafted: 2