Brian Gutekunst can't afford to wait for the draft to fill the biggest needs facing the Packers

In a year where the mandate for Brian Gutekinst is super bowl or bust, the Green Bay Packers

can't go into the draft with needs.

Goody has to do some shopping in free agency now.

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We got some insight on Rich Pasachia leaving the Green Bay Packers.

There is a free agent linebacker I want to talk to you about, but let's start with that

free agency piece.

The Packers have to do some things to get their financial house in order and we don't know

what's going to happen with her Sean Gary, but if it's going to happen, it's going to

happen in the next week, plus because the new league year starts.

And if they're going to do something with Elton Jenkins, whether it's a trade or release,

it's going to happen in the next week because they're going to want, they're going to

need, you got to be cap compliant by the new league year.

We're going to start getting information on what's going on here.

Is it going to be a Friday news dump?

Just seems like that's what the Packers like to do.

They don't really like to be for a team that you would think would want all the attention

because they're a smaller market team and whenever they could grab some some spotlight,

maybe they would do that.

They just they don't operate like that.

But because they don't have a first round pick because they don't have a cheap easy

way to infuse the team with talent and because not having a first round pick just makes

it that much more difficult to predict who of the best players in the draft.

You may have an opportunity to get that amps up the urgency for Brian Guderkins to have

to go out and spend money.

And there were two places.

He set up the combine.

He felt like they needed to add to these rooms to add some competition and that was

corner and that was linebacker.

That's two spots in this draft where there are a lot of players.

And where as we talked about yesterday, the difference between the player you could have

drafted at 20 and the pat the player you could draft in the mid fifties may not be all

that different.

It may just be about preferences at that point.

But corner is one of those spots where even if it turns out you're a good player.

You're two, you're three, you're four, whatever.

Chances are as a rookie, you're bad.

Most rookies are bad.

Almost every rookie corner is bad.

It's one of the reasons I was so high on Eric Stokes because he wasn't just good for

a rookie.

He was a good corner as a rookie.

And to me, that portended a steep improvement curve for him.

I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to say, Hey, Eric, no hard feelings, but we'd

love to have you back in Green Bay.

I don't think that would be crazy at all because what I could see happening here is you

go out and at three, four positions, you get backstop options.

Hey, you don't find the right player in the draft.

You have a veteran who you know can play right now.

You don't have to shop at the top of the market.

You don't have to go out and get Tyler Lindervamp.

But you need to have an option should the right player not present himself.

Now there are positions where I don't think you need to do that because let's say a nose

tackle, for example, if you think that's what you need because you think Devante Wyatt

is going to get an extension.

If you'd like to extend Devante Wyatt, if you'd like for him to play well enough to give

him an extension, now the packer's defensive tackle room gets awfully thin, awfully quick

this time next year, because Carl Brooks doesn't have an extension Devante Wyatt doesn't

have an extension.

And so there are real questions about what this defensive tackle room is going to look

like.

I'll be honest, I know I'm supposed to be excited about this defensive tackle class.

I am not excited about this defensive tackle class.

I've watched the top eight or so guys.

One of them is going to be available when the packers pick probably three or four of them.

And I can't I can't really get that excited about any of them to be honest.

And the guys that I think, you know, when they're picking, you'd get excited about I think

are probably going to be gone.

I've come back to the same player that I started with.

I think he was the very first player in the pre draft process that I put on your radar.

And that was before I had even watched him actually.

So it's interesting that that we've kind of come all the way back around.

So that's Kristen Miller from Georgia 6 4 3 10.

I just think that that makes a lot of sense.

Or if Kaden McDonald were to fall, someone that could be that true nose tackle with some

past rush upside.

But when it comes to nose tackles, unless you're going to get a truly elite player, someone

who can be just in Mattaboukay, someone who could be Kenny Clark, someone who could be

a a past rushing, no, a Dexter Lawrence in his prime.

You're not going to get that guy 52.

You're probably not going to get that guy in the first round.

That guy is not in this draft and all likelihood.

Going the TJ Slate and round three dart throw route is totally fine to me.

And then hoping you get some growth from this your stackhouse stackhouse and Brinson are

really the only guys moving forward that you're like, yeah, those guys could be players

for you moving forward if they develop.

But we're talking about late day three pick in Brinson's case and an undrafted free agent

in sackhouse's case and sackhouse showed nothing last year to lead you to believe that

he can be a long term piece in Green Bay.

He has shown you nothing to lead you to believe.

He's an NFL player at this point in his NFL career.

But I think you could get a nose tackle on day three.

Now what you want is a long term defensive tackle piece.

Then yeah, maybe 52 is where you have to do that or maybe you go out into free agency

and you sign someone like DJ reader for six eight million dollars.

This is the this is the world that I think the Packers are going to play in rather than

try and sign one high level free agent, one Xavier McKinney, for example, you sign three.

I hate to use the examples of Nate Hobbs and airbags because I think they're even they

make too much money.

But more like the Christian Kirksy type player six seven eight million dollars.

Those guys were, you know, like the Devon Funches contracts, the Christian Kirksy contracts,

those were like, you know, three, four million dollars, but the cap has gone up.

Even since then, significantly and so inflation pushes the prices of those mid level players

up as well, those middle class players, I think you could get Matt Milano for five, six

million dollars.

There are players out there that you could do that with.

And you get guys where you just say, okay, if they were going to be the starter while you

see if Tyron Hopper is, is ready, or they're going to be the player while you see what

you can get developmentally from Warren Brinson or Nizier Stackhouse.

By the way, I really like the upside of Warren Brinson.

I think he's shown some flashes playing, you know, Lucas Van Ness, more a little bit inside

as the past rush or something.

He did it.

I we started his career as a three technique.

Could he do that for you a little bit more in this game?

Play a little bit more five technique.

If you're going to play some of those traditional three down base, you know, odd front defenses.

I think you could do that if you wanted to.

Baron Cerelle could do that.

Something he did at Texas as well, but they have to go into this draft because of the uncertainty

with who you could potentially get more than in a normal year.

I think you just and that and you couple that with the Super Bowl window.

It's right now.

The chance to go in is right now.

You can't go in saying, well, we got it, we got it.

We got to come out with a corner.

We got to come out with a with a defensive tackle.

We got to come out of the line back.

You can't go into the draft feeling that way.

I do think at center, you could get away with it.

This is a deep center class and I do think at nose tackle, you could get away with it.

But if you're going to stack the places where you need to get some guys corner and linebacker

are the spots.

So to me, I would want a veteran corner, someone in that Trayvon digs, Rick Wallen, Greg

Newsom sort of price range, Eric Stokes would even be probably less money and be in a similar

situation where yeah, if that guy had to start for you or compete to start for you, you

probably feel pretty good about it.

He probably feels like, hey, I'm better than those guys anyway.

And I'm going to come in and feel comfortable right away in front of those home fans.

I'm going to feel comfortable right away in a Packers Bears of Packers Lions, Packers Vikings

rivalry game right away in a playoff game against the 49ers or the Rams or the Seahawks.

He's been in those moments.

So that has to be where you set your focus in free agency.

And then again, those, those, there are veteran linebackers out there.

You could go get because linebacker, especially if like, okay, you move edge and Cooper to

the mic.

That would be great.

I think they could do that.

They might not want to do that.

They might want to just leave well enough alone with edge and say you be the run and chase

linebacker on that team.

That's fine.

Again, I, I, I would like to him if they're going to play dime for him to be the guy on

that defense because you go out and you get a veteran like Matt Milano who doesn't run

like he used to all of a sudden, you're giving up something meaningful and coverage.

I would like that to be Adrian Cooper.

That makes it easier, I think, to pass that off.

But I would still like to get another veteran player in their just in case that plan doesn't

go exactly the way you want it or the board doesn't follow exactly the way that you want

it.

And then you're stuck going one that way.

Now one of the options out there at linebacker just became available would not count against

the packer's comp pick formula and is still young enough that I think you could make the

case if you're Brian Utikinst.

This is a guy who can play most of this contract for you.

Let's talk about him next.

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The New York Giants are moving on from linebacker Bobby O'Carrickay and he is someone who on the

football field, I have been a fan of his game for a long time.

He was someone I believe when the Giants signed him that I advocated for Green Bay to

sign.

And so now that he's available, he's 29 will turn 30 this year.

He's not an old player and linebacker is a spot where it's really more about your instincts,

your know-how and all those things.

Now there are connections with him and all the people in Tennessee.

He played for Mike Borgonzi.

He played for Brian Debal in New York.

He played for Gus Bradley in Indianapolis.

There are a lot of connections there.

But at this point in his career, especially after spending all that time in New York,

doesn't he want to win?

Doesn't he want a chance to chase a Super Bowl?

Like this is probably going to be his last contract.

Once you rather go to a place like Green Bay and help put that team over the top and

by the way, he's played with Xavier McKinney.

I think the compensatory pick part is also real.

If the Packers can find players who are cut and they sign those players, they don't count

toward the comp pick formula and I had someone in our everyday club ask me to explain that

a little bit more of the comp pick formula.

Every free agent in is assigned a value based on their contract, based on how much money

they get relative to their peers.

And so Malik Willis getting 20, 25, 30 million dollars, that would net the Packers a probably

a third round pick.

For sheet walker getting 20 plus million dollars would probably net the Packers a third

round pick.

Now those, you know, those, those picks convey after the fact, but they're very valuable

for a team like the Packers who for the foreseeable future, paying all the money that they're paying

to Jordan Love and all the money that they're paying to Micah Parsons and I'm going to talk

about Micah Parsons contract tomorrow.

But they're going to have to pay Tucker craft, they just extended Zach Tom, that Edron

Cooper contract is going to come up before you know it.

They're probably going to extend Christian Watson again on the extension.

So they're going to have these decisions to make.

You got to figure out what you want to do is Avery McKinney.

I think he could be the rare third contract player in Green Bay.

So having a player not that he's cost control because you're still going to have to pay the

free agent premium for him, but he does not count against your compic formula and getting

those picks for a team that's going to need cost control players.

This is a big offseason for them.

And all the more reason back to the point that we made in the open for them to go out and

sign some of these mid-level free agents because the way the compic formula works is it's

players in and money spent going out.

So if you have a couple guys on big, big free agent deals and then you spend on free agents,

especially big money free agent deals, those offset.

And so if you have to spend a bunch of money, now the Packers don't have a bunch of money

to spend.

But if they did, and Malik Willis got you a hype, you know, a nice compensatory pick.

If we're sheet walker got you a nice compensatory pick, but then you go out and you spend 20 million

dollars on Rashid Walker's replacement.

You wouldn't spend 30 on Malik Willis's replacement, but if you went out and spent 30 million

dollars on, you know, if Max Crosby were a free agent or Tray Hendrix and someone like

that, he's not going to get 30 either.

If you give him 20 or you give him 18, that works as part of the offset of the compensatory

formula.

So if you're the Packers, finding these little edges, finding players to sign that are

of similar value.

And by the way, once a player gets cut like Tyler Beatish, someone we talked about on

this show, the bear is unfortunately have for them, unfortunately, their center have

a surprising retirement.

Well, now they have to go find a center.

Well, Tyler Beatish is already on the market.

They could do the same thing with Lloyd Kushnerberry and say, okay, well, you can start having

those conversations now.

No waiting for the legal tampering period, no waiting for the the actual free agency period

to open.

There's no waiting for post June 1.

Those guys you could have in the building tomorrow.

You could sign them to contracts tomorrow.

The Packers could sign Bobby O'Kareke before the free agent signing period even opened.

Now usually those players will wait because of the feeding frenzy that results in a rising

tide lifts all boats.

I hate to throw that many cliches in the same sentence, but the free agency markup is

what it is.

Also create a feeding frenzy.

You can create the the competition for your services now because everyone wants to sign

the guys now.

Everyone wants to try and get ahead of this so they don't have to participate in the

market that is going to get crazy in free agency.

And so if you're an agent, you do have to weigh those things.

And then it's I think there's there's, you know, two sides to that coin to be sure.

If you're a Tyler Beatis, you may just want to pick your spot.

Hey, I can go and start for Chicago Bears team that, you know, they they want to run

the football.

I want to I want to not have to pass that 50 times a game.

Go pay for the play for the Bengals.

Like that could be appealing.

And so maybe you get a chance to pick your destination without having to chase all that

money.

Tyler Beatis also an older player has made a lot of money in his career, same with someone

like okay, okay.

Maybe it's more about fit for you.

If the Packers wanted to sign Tyler Beatis, presumably they could have done that.

He's been out there long enough that, you know, if they wanted to have that conversation,

they could have had that conversation already.

Beatis reportedly meeting already with Chicago.

Clearly they had they had an idea that this was going to happen before we got word that

it was going to happen.

You know, maybe he says it early in the week or last week or something and they're already

going, okay, what's plan B, what's plan C?

To me, okay, okay, fits that idealized version of the kind of player we were talking about

in the Avala and fits the saving your powder, keeping your compensatory formula clean.

This is something the Ravens do.

This is something smart teams are thinking about and worried about and maybe worry is the

wrong word.

Like you're not, you're not anxious about it, but you're, you're cognizant of it.

You're accounting for it in your accounting, right, two different uses of that.

And so if you're the Packers, you have an opportunity here to bring in a player who you would

want to bring in anyway.

If you were a free agent, he would be someone you would be looking at.

Well, now he's going to be a free agent.

And so we'll see how aggressive Brian Utikens wants to be.

I think this will be a good tensile test and a good preview for what's to come next week.

Now we got more information from Tom Silverstein around Rich Bessachia's departure from Green

Bay.

We'll put a bow on that and then hopefully never talk about it ever again.

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Rich Bessacea wanted to stick it to the Packers.

Well, no.

But I appreciate Tom Silverstein taking on that concept head on because that is something

that there is a perception that he wasn't getting what he wanted from Mat LaFlaur

that there were disagreements about the kinds of player and look, I have had some discussions

over the last couple of weeks about this since the story broke and since before Rich Bessacea

decided to leave about who's pulling the strings, who's making the decisions that's

handcuffing the special teams.

And my understanding of it now is that Mat LaFlaur was saying, I don't want Kishonix

and returning kicks.

I don't want Elton Jenkins on field goal.

Now they did move on, you know, Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams and Javon Bullard and

some of these starters out there covering kicks and those kinds of things.

They don't do things like draft return or all these.

They don't change their model to draft slot corners.

If Javon Bullard is a little undersized, they would, if you were a corner, they would

not have drafted him to be a corner, but he's a nickel.

He's a safety and also, you know, they draft them to be a safety.

And their, their models are a little different at safety than they are a corner.

But that's also because it's a different position, safety, number one, but also nickel.

You play in the slot.

It's a, it's a different set of skills that you need to have.

But Silverstein also mentions is multiple sources told him this was not about the resources

he was given.

This was not about Matt LaFlor saying you can't have this, you can't have this because

eventually by the end of the year, you know, your best offensive lineman were on field

goal block, your best defenders, at least the guys that you'd want covering kicks were

out there covering kicks.

This was not really, you know, an issue by the end of the year.

But multiple sources according to Silverstein said this was really for rich about being

closer to his family who apparently must be in the South somewhere.

He's going to Clemson reportedly.

And the workload, the ask is just not the same in college.

You don't have to work 70 hour weeks in the NFL.

You do know he's going to make less money, but he's also made a lot of money over his

career.

And he's been coaching for 40 years.

Now I got some pushback on socials when I suggested that part of this might be the

fact that the fan base freaking hates this guy.

And oh, coaches don't care about that stuff.

They don't listen to the fan base sentiment.

Well, I don't, I don't think Matt LaFlor is changing his play calls based on fan sentiment.

But I do know that after he answered questions, multiple questions about Rashon Gary and

how much he's playing and how often he's asking out of games, all of a sudden Rashon

Gary's playing 70, 75% of snaps playing his highest snap count games of the season right

after those questions are being asked.

It's why it's important to continue to have those questions.

It's why it's important to have people in the room who know the game well enough to have

to ask those questions and no to ask those questions.

I, he's a human being.

These are, I understand that it can be easy to view the game and the coaches involved

and the front office people, the front office people are heartless being counters and, and

cold evaluators.

And it's all just down the line black and white business only.

You know, what happens at the combine, the recency bias of that, the, the experiential

bias of that, seeing it in person, seeing might Washington, Jr. be the most athletic

running back ever, seeing sunny styles be the most athletic linebacker ever at the combine.

These are human beings.

Of course, that is going to impact your perception of those players as prospects.

And so if you're a coach who is brought in to change a culture and you feel like you

did that, by the way, he got a B plus in the NFL PA survey, the players like him.

I don't think that means he's a good coach, but it certainly means that he thinks that

he has good relations with the players, but if he's hearing from family members and his

family members are hearing from fans, they're seeing on Twitter, they're listening to

the locked on packers.

And by the way, a lot of the family members, a lot of the friends, they're listening.

They're listening.

They know, they know what's being said.

They know that on Twitter, fire rich, fire trends after every game that had trends in

the off season when they're not even playing games.

They know that.

So if you're, you know, in your 60s and you've been coaching for 40 years and you were

already close to retirement a year or two ago, and the packers had to talk you out of it,

then maybe at a certain point, you just go, what am I doing this for?

Why am I banging my head against the wall?

I'm not going to get all the resources I want.

They're not going to draft a returner for me.

I already messed up the kicker thing a couple times.

Why not just go somewhere else?

The stress is less, the pressure is less, and guess what?

Thompson seems like a beautiful place.

It is still like major college football, a once proud program, not as proud anymore, but

we're still talking about if not a blue blood, like a purple blood.

That's a really good program.

You're still getting paid, assistant coach money in college.

There are assistant coach and like defensive coordinators in college making more than defensive

coordinators in the NFL.

Now, the assumption here is he's going to take a pay cut to go to Clemson, but like it's

like when you retire, but you go sit on, you know, boards or you have a part time job

or you do consulting and you get to play golf.

Now, he's, this is a real job.

He's going to have to be in the office.

He's going to have to be doing work, but special teams in college is just like the

pressure is not the same, the commitment to it's not the same.

And if Clemson loses a game and a kicker misses a kick, everyone's just going to go,

well, man, college kickers.

I mean, that's, that's just, if you're a college football fan, that's just a thing you know

is that college kickers are inconsistent.

Like when a college kicker misses a kick, go on Twitter, go on blue sky.

People will, college kickers is a full sentence in reaction to what happens on a college

football Saturday or a Friday or Thursday or whatever.

We know what the deal is.

These are 19, 20, 21 year old kids.

The expectations are different and this is value judgment neutral.

I'm not, I'm not being critical of him.

I'm not judging him for making that decision.

And I'm certainly as someone who hears his fair share of victory all online from fan bases.

I'm not going to sit here and say that I ignore all of it and that it never affects my mental

health. And I never think about it more than I should and it never distracts me from spending

time with my family or being present somewhere where I would rather be present than thinking

about what you know Joe six five seven three four said to me on Twitter.

Now Rich is not a deep in these social media streets.

But that stuff like at a certain point you're just sick of it.

You don't want to deal with it.

Why do I want to deal with that anymore?

So you go and you take a lower stakes job, a lower stress job that's still a prestigious job.

It's like working on Wall Street for for 30 years and then going you know to Florida to be a

you know, a wealth management guy at a bank.

You still have a job.

There's still stakes.

You still got to show up.

There's still some pressure on you but it's different.

It's different and frankly that's okay.

I think the Packers can be better on special teams this year.

I think Cam can be an improvement over Rich Besaccia.

But I do think it's important that in this reporting, it is made clear multiple sources

that this was not an F you to the Packers that he did not drag this out because he wanted to

stick it to Green Bay or because Matt LaFloor were not giving him what he wanted.

He just wanted something else.

And that's okay.

And if you wanted him fired anyway,

who cares.

All right, let's put a bow on the Rich Besaccia business and maybe we never speak of it again.

Back tomorrow as we as we get closer to a new league year, get closer to free agency.

We're going to have we're going to have a lot of stuff.

It's going to be flying fast and furious over the next couple of weeks with with you know,

the Packers making moves, other teams making moves that affect the balance of power in the NFC.

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