Just to update everyone, Rodgers runs the team now. I'm a bit disgusted with how far management has bent over backwards to make sure his every whim is satisfied.

Did Rodgers report this directly to you?

Still wishing we had traded Rodgers to Denver. I'm also wary of Tonyan. 1 good year out of 4, coming off ACL. But, we are desperate for tight ends.

He's expected to have a market value in the $8-10M range. He's been good for 2.5 catches, 28 yards, and less than half a TD per game over his three years with the Pack.

Enjoy playing for the Bears.

They can be severe: fines of up to $5 million for each violation (I’m not sure if being over is one violation or could be several contributory ones or add up over time), the inability to sign players and cancellation of contracts, voiding tags and loss of draft picks are all cited.

The NFL's cap is a hard cap that the teams have to stay under at all times, and the salary floor is also a hard floor. Penalties for violating or circumventing the cap regulations include fines of up to $5 million for each violation, cancellation of contracts and/or loss of draft picks.

If you are over the cap during the regular season, the team owner is waterboarded and head is shaven. For the Packers, that's a lot of owners.

Just to be clear, the Packers are not over the cap at present. That is, it is still the 2021 league year, and the Packers had a surplus of $2.9M for the 2021 year.

Projecting current contracts into the 2022 league year, the Packers would be over the new salary cap. That is because the players' contracts tend to increase year to year, and this year those increases would put the team over the cap if left untouched.

No team is ever over the cap except in rare circumstances. Teams can exceed the cap to pay most incentives that were unlikely to be earned, and in some other rare instances a team will be given 7 days to comply with the cap: that is rare and occurs sometimes for example when a player un-retires.

This is where I lean. Tonyan put up big TD numbers one year. Big TD numbers can be highly variable and fluky. He's never had impressive catch or yardage numbers. Before he got hurt last season, that was not really changed.

Catching passes from a HoF QB tends to inflate the numbers a guy puts up, as well. Since the Favre era began and then flowed into Rodgers, I've seen very few Packer pass-catchers who did not benefit greatly from that effect, IMO. Prime examples would be Antonio Freeman and Greg Jennings, both of whom left via FA in their prime. And greatly underperformed their lucrative contracts.

TE is a huge roster hole but I don't think Tonyan is the guy that can fill it.

Who are you worried about tampering occurring with? It only applies to FAs, so, unfortunately wouldn’t mean Rodgers or Adams could be lured. I suppose Campbell and Douglas?

I'm definitely not sold on Tonyan. I wouldn't give him a big contract, not yet at least. And the unknown of his injury makes me even more cautious.

I don't really agree with the article that he's some sort of deep, downfield threat with great run after the catch ability. In his single good year, Tonyan averaged 11.3 per catch. Last year, looking only at TE's who had 20 or more targets, there were 16 tight ends who averaged higher yards per catch than Tonyan. So according to that metric, Tonyan is pretty pedestrian when compared to top tight ends. In that one good year, Tonyan gained 586 yards. People act like it's awesome, but last year 15 tight ends gained more yards than that, so again, nothing much to get excited about. But mostly I just don't think that Tonyan creates a lot of separation. A lot of times when he had big plays it was scheme or blown coverages. In short, I think a lot of people overrate him.

Yes, his efficiency was other-worldly in 2020 - so much so that it is virtually impossible to expect that it can ever be repeated. The 11 TDs, too, are probably an outlier. In no other season has he caught more than 2 TDs. I think of those 11 TDs in the same way that I think of Rasul Douglas' 5 picks in 12 games. Someone is going to throw a lot of money at Rasul, but do we really expect him to get 7 picks per season? Probably not gonna happen....

And why was Tonyan almost invisible at the start of 2021? The author's argument that Tonyan was called upon to chip block more doesn't seem to carry much weight. Through 8 games last year Tonyan was targeted 29 times, which is the same rate at which he was targeted in 2020 (59 targets in 16 games).

He’s worth a one year team friendly contract coming off an injury I don’t think he will garner much attention on the open market .

I guess the real question is.....will he be a Viking or Bear?

Yeah, I'm not worried about Big Bob at all. I know AR trusts him, and if he's willing to come back on a prove it deal, until we get our cap sorted out, then fine, but if not, we have bigger fish to fry. Thinking we can use one of our 3 - 7th round picks to ensure we have replacement readily available, on a cheap 4 year contract who can develop, maybe get lucky and get a gem.

I think we should draft a TE no matter what, but that's just me.

We could also wait until August and maybe pick up a TE who is cut, or maybe steal one off a practice squad once the dust settles. I know ideally we want a guy now, so we can get them up to speed, and AR can build that trust, but sometimes we don't get what we want.

This is for all of us older Packers fans that remember Gilligan’s Island. After the Packers go the route of Washington who became the Commander’s and become Arod’s Puppet’s. At least he let Murph keep the “P” on the helmets!! Oh well, here comes my letter revoking my season tickets…..

As

A lot of good tight ends coming out of this draft. This position needs a serious upgrade.