I believe the acquisitions are a net gain. Loved the before/after of Bahk in that post! I've never give a rats a** about "rankings" and don't get the anger/love some have with them. I'm hoping that the 4% weight loss of Amari shows he's 'all in' for the coming year and is, as Nagler would say, 'putting in the work'. I can't wait for the season to begin!

I think extending both Preston Smith and Jarie Alexander probably doesn't happen if they keep Adams, I think the same could be said about being able to retain Douglas and Campbell. Had they kept Adams they might have been able to do just one of those things possibly two. They also don't come out of the 2022 draft with Quay Walker, Davante Wyatt, and Christian Watson. They probably get ONE of those players and then who knows at 59, the original 2nd round pick. Also, I think the Jarran Reed signing is one of the most under-the-radar signings in the NFL this offseason.

I loved the Amari Rodgers pick last year and was frankly surprised at his lack of production. The kid played REALLY well at Clemson so I was shocked he did so little and frankly was downright awful at times during the 2021 season. Whatever Amari Rodgers has done to feel "Normal" and hopefully get back to the player the Packers thought they drafted, is great news to me. If he FEELS good, chances are he'll be better.

Bakhtiari... For the time being, I'm remaining calm and hopeful DB will be back on ON THE FIELD week one against the Vikings. HOW they'll bring him along to get ready to start against Hunter, Smith, and the rest of the Vikings defense I'm not going to worry about. Obviously, we need to see him on the field participating but I'm not jumping to any conclusions the first time he's not doing what the media expects him to be doing.

Rodgers Tattoo...Kinda weird but Rodgers is kinda weird too. I'm sure he'll explain it on the Pat McAfee show in his cryptic way where NONE of us will understand because he actually said absolutely nothing.

14 Days until Training Camp!!!

I think the big miss for the Packers was not resigning MVS. I think he becomes a dynamic force for the Chiefs.
I wonder what the Packers were thinking, especially as this is seen as perhaps our best opportunity for a title over the next few seasons.
Let's hope Amari helps to fill the void with his own dynamic performance.
In general, I like that the Packers try to keep their own players, which makes the omission of MVS more mysterious.
***
I'm going to mostly leave out my concerns about retaining Aaron Rodgers after he, in effect, held out for the second offseason.
A paradox with Rodgers is that if he becomes more coachable (e.g. is willing to play in the preseason), he will become a better leader -- and the Packers will be a more potent team.
I'm rooting for him.

What makes the Bahktiari pictures even funnier is that in the picture of him as a freshman, he's trying to look big.

When I look at the list of players retained and those no longer on the team I am confident that this team is well managed. Losing Davante wasn't fun but it did allow us to pay some very good players and cash in on a hot WR market - again, astute moves by the front office. If our O-line comes together, this will be the most balanced and playoff ready team since 2014.

Pre-season. Player rankings are just a way for the media to stir up controversy and something to talk about. Pretty useless I’d concur.

I find it hard to say whether the Packers are better overall, worse, or about the same.

This is mainly due to it being hard to balance the steady aging (and release) of players against the acquisitions of the shiny new guys.

If forced to make some kind of overall decision, I'd guess they are a little better overall, even though all the ACLs last year will affect this year. Defense should look better, while Offense might struggle more.

As always injuries will play a big part. Last year had a lot of long-term injuries to key players, which can derail any season. Injuries to players not as key as Bakhtiari, Alexander, Jenkins, Myers etc, are less important.

It would be nice to have few injuries at WR, which would allow the maximum choices, but most positions suffer a considerable drop from the starters (like the 3rd safety, 3rd ILB, 3rd Edge, Clark at DT). Health is such a key factor in stacking wins. The late bye-week might help in that regard, but that depends somewhat on how the season unfolds.

The departures were very talented. My flip; is the acquisitions/re- signings were a bigger Need.
Amari Rodgers lost his upside. His weight won’t change a thing. "Because he’ll never be what RODGERS needed.”
Position Rankings - Hype and money.
Bahk The pictures are hilarious.
Rodgers Tattoo - It’s a distraction. He should value his arm, not whats on it. Anything goes now days.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hey Al, if you want us to comment on the departures and arrivals won't we have to "rank" the players named so we can "evaluate" one versus the other?

Didn't you just say that "rankings" were unimportant?

LOLOLOL

Congrats to Bakh on his eventful offseason. It sounds to me like he has a head full of distractions to deal with now, let's hope that he can get right physically and MENTALLY and get back to being Bakh.

Amari Rodgers can use whatever leverage he wants to to get himself into the mix this season, weight loss, strength gain, new mojo, new tatoo, ,anything... just become a PLAYER!

I like ARs tatoo. I have a few myself and they are all meaningful to me and my philosophies of life. Good on him for inking up. It is very, very good work too, I am jealous of the craftsmanship the artist put into it.

I like the acquisitions and the extensions. For some reason, I feel that Kevin King may be back with the Packers, on a team friendly deal, by, or near, training camp, if no other team has picked him up. Just a nagging feeling I get. The loss of MVS made it feel like we lost our deep threat, but Doubs and Watson should fill that hole, rather well, hopefully. I also lament the loss of ESB. He was "coming into his own" on the offense and now is a Bear. Again, our newly acquired WRs should make up for his play, this season. GO PACK, GO!!!

"making up" for the departure of EQS/ESB is setting the bar pretty low for our new WR acquisitions...

To me the question of whether we had a net gain or loss in terms of roster movements depends on the time frame against which the answer is given. In the next three years I think we will see this off season as a step forward in capability in terms of skill players.

This year? Well a lot of that depends on the coach being able to develop ways to get production from youth consistently and to broaden usage on offense and ensuring that the QB cooperates. The roster is there, but it’s heavier on potential and will that be realized this year and to what extent is the critical question.

I bemoaned the loss of MVS. I felt that he was just getting into a groove with his play. 30 mil was definitely out of reach so there was no choice if the team wanted to keep many of its other players. I could not care less about the tattoos on peoples bodies and feel dirty even discussing it.

I think more is going to happen. The roster is stuck at 89 for some reason, but it always surprises me what they end up doing.

I like rankings only if Packers are ranked too high or too low. One makes them have to prove it, the other gives them a chip on the shoulder. I prefer the chip which ARod has utilized his whole career. Hopefully his playoff chip will kick in soon.

I believe Amari is going to have a great year. Look at all the chips he got, just in these comments alone. HA! Fingers crossed!

Looking at the singing/departure list, I think it's kind of a wash until I look at the offensive line. We lost two reliable guys with no significant signing to replace them. It's not that I don't have confidence in the young guys who are going to have to step up to replace them. They just don't have the experience to make me feel all comfy and warm inside. So yeah, I'm calling it a net negative.

I like Amari in college and thought he was a good pick up in the draft. Like everyone else, I was disappointed last year. He's got to show us something this year.

I care about off-season rankings as much as I care about tattoos. Neither wins games.

Congrats Bak on a great off season. Wow! During his freshman year, who'd a thunk!

what we learned this off season was that there's ways to manipulate the cap, we were all worrying about being in cap hell and especially losing Campbell and Douglas and we retained them and extended others, maybe the whole cap thing is just overblown.

We're all hopeful but the biggest story will be at WR. Watson and Doubs may turn out to only be younger versions of MVS and EQ, which would be disheartening. Hard to expect much from them early on so it will mainly be Lazard, Watkins, and Cobb. Which is also disheartening. Immediate help from rookie WRs is rare. I doubt we've drafted the next Ja'maar Chase or Jefferson. Those guys are rare. Maybe Watson breaks out, certainly has the physical tools.

Rodgers will have to work really hard to help the WRs get to even being respectable. Maybe the tattoo is an ancient mantra that will keep him calm when they drop his perfect passes.

If you contrast the team that ended the season, with the one that we start this season with, and it's pretty stark.

First, we locked up guys like Douglas and Campbell. We drafted two D studs in Wyatt and Walker. We brought in Jarren Reed. When you're only dressing out 21 defensive players, and you add those 5 to Clark, Alexander, Stokes, Amos, Savage, PSmith, and the others, that's objectively stronger.

Offensively, the attention has been on the loss of Adams/MVS/EQ, and the possible return of Bakhtiari and Jenkins. But we also lost Patrick, and Turner, and even Kelly who started four games for us, including the playoffs. We've drafted some guys, but when you lose 3 of your 9 linemen, and two more are injury cases, then I don't see how we can say our offensive line is better at this point, and if the line isn't better, the offense isn't going to be better.

Last year at this time, we were starting Jenkins at LT and expecting Bakhtiari back, and he didn't come back and Jenkins got hurt. This year, we're starting Bakhtiari and expecting Jenkins back at some point. I'd call that not any better. At center, last year we had an exciting rookie backed up by Patrick. This year, we have a guy coming back from an injury backed up by an unknown. Our RT last year was a dependable Turner, and this year is an unknown.

IMO, we should have maybe made more of an effort to keep Patrick. His contract with the Bears is $8 million for two years, but his cap hit this year is only about $2.5 mllion, and if the Bears don't bring him back next year they don't have to pay him $3.8 million in salary. So that's what it would have cost to keep a reliable, veteran starter at a couple of positions, not a huge sum.

I do hope this doesn't come back on us.

I have my system when I look at the various "rankings".

If my favorite players are listed, I'm happy. If they are not listed, then the ranker "has not idea what he is doing".

Works every time! 😁

Speculation abounds on every end of the spectrum, hope they all play well for the Packers and bring home SB. For Rodgers the hair and tattoo are ridiculous looking on s supposedly grown man. Screams look at me!

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How can you write an article about and not know what position a guy plays? Amari Rodgers is not a running back!

"...'complicated?'."

LMAO