I blogged on Monday afternoon about why I disagree with the re-signing of Mark Tauscher IF he's handed the starting right tackle job. (We're not going to know for sure until August -- despite what anybody says in the interim -- and I wasn't going to wait for then to discuss it)
If he's here as a veteran backup? Awesome. Smart move. Packers have protected themselves. But it's time for somebody else to start at right tackle.
Breno Giacomini is entering his third season. If he can't play, why is he here? T.J. Lang proved worthy of getting a shot. If those guys aren't given the opportunity to compete, the Packers will go another year of not knowing what they have on the roster. The Packers have to move on at some point.
Former Packers vice-president of player finance Andrew Brandt has his take on the Packers shelling out big money to Ryan Pickett, Nick Collins and Tauscher.
Brandt makes a lot of good points, chiefly that other players are going to wonder "where's mine?"
There are still a few players whose contracts have not been addressed and who are now asking, What about me? as they form a line at the door. The low rumble of discontent may pick up a notch soon in Green Bay.
I made this point on Twitter after CB Tramon Williams was tendered at the first- and third-round pick level, which basically paid him the same as Collins before he was extended: for every contract action, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the locker room. Of course, that got me a bunch of angry Tweets about how I was putting discontent in the heads of players and I didn't know what I'm talking about.
You guys have NO IDEA how much players compare their deals to other players on the team, down to workout bonuses. I once had a Dolphins player, after congratulating his teammate on a new contract, two seconds later turn his back and whisper to me, "That guy is getting double what I get for a workout bonus. That's B.S. I'm calling my agent. I'm right, right? I'm much better than him, right?" I don't have enough fingers to count how many times I've had similar discussions with players.
And when players aren't thinking about where they rank contract-wise in the locker room, they pay their agents a lot of money to think about it.
Don't think players aren't going to wonder about how Pickett is getting $7 million a year to play less than 50% of the defensive snaps. And don't try using the, 'That's the market for a 3-4 nose tackle' rationale. Players don't care about that stuff.
Disagree, however, with Brandt's assessment that having Clifton and Tauscher back in the fold "allows the Packers to look elsewhere at the top of the upcoming draft since they did not want to use a high pick to draft a tackle."
Maybe the Packers think that way -- and I've heard that as well -- but their tackle situation is still a mess and it would not be prudent for them to eliminate OT from their early draft board. Not looking for tackles early in the draft is why the Packers were forced to overpay this year for tackles in the first place.
Having Clifton around, as I said when he was re-signed, allows the Packers to target a specific second-tier tackle that they really feel can play the left side with development. But they must find a future left tackle. The Packers still have no one capable behind Clifton. Even remotely.