First, you have a heavy bias against Jermichael Finley over gloves, so your take is quite tainted.
Second, yes, $8.5 is too much for Jermichael Finley, as who said several times, oh, that was me.
Finally, what I am also saying is he's not a pile of garbage like some are insinuating and that he's a complete waste of money and Ted Thompson failed in this regard.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

Finley has a issue with a PR filter from his mouth to the mic... but beyond that he is a fine football player for the Packers.

Overpaid.. probably slightly.. but lets compare some names on the market.

Zach Miller.. 11m cap number this season.
Veron Davis 8.739
Heath Miller 7.958
Antonio Gates 6.862
Marcedes Lewis 8.25 (however he converted some of the bonus to reduce the cap number this season to 5.75)


By standard of some of these names.. he isn't that far out of whack on the top end of the market.. even though his production in near the top.

Originally Posted by: Pack93z 

Fair enough. Keller didn't perform admirably last year, but he has been a more reliable receiver than Finley in the years before that.

I think that, if you sign someone in free agency, there's more than enough time to get familiar with a system. Players change teams in FA all the time and just contnue producing the next year. If a guy can join the Patriots offense as a WR and completely grasp what Josh McDaniels wants to do in one off-season, I reckon a TE could get our offense figured out and produce.

Maybe you can't build up a chemistry between the QB and receiver that fast, but that's not something I've seen progressing that well between Finley and Rodgers, either.

As for the potential part... The man has been with our team since 2008. He can't get over his problems with drops, maturity and consistency. I was a huge fan of his when he joined us and, for a reasonable price, I'd still give him a chance, but at $8 million, I just don't like the investment.

Right now, I'd rather have a reliable option who doesn't have that much potential. A guy like Martellus Bennett would've been a nice, all-round TE, who's averaging $5 million a year. Not a difference maker, but a good, solid player. But maybe that's more of a personel preference than one you can blame Finley for.

That saves you "just" $3 million, but that is money you could've invested in a player like Adrian Wilson, Bernard Pollard, Antwan Barnes, Kenny Phillips, Leon Washington, Chris Canty etc.

Yes, that's easy to say in hindsight, but the combined contribution of a more afforable TE, who can't be that big of a drop-off from Finley, with one of those players would've helped us more than just Finley alone.

Of course, we still have some money free under our cap, so cutting Finley isn't something we have to do, but even if we just saved up that $3 million, I feel like rolling that over to next year or using it to restructure Matthews and front-load his contract some more would've helped us more than holding on to Jermike.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this. Blegh.

Most overvalued tight ends in 2012: 

Originally Posted by: Rockmolder 

Press-Gazette sports editor Mike Vandermause offers his take on the Packers opting to keep tight end Jermichael Finley and his $8.25 million price tag for the 2013 season.

PackersNews  wrote:

Even at what we consider a down year for him compared to 2011. He was still top 10 in the league for TE. Considering that they were never really able to get things going the way they planned. They went basically the entire season, not having all of the weapons on the field, leaving finley dealing with more coverage. One of the things that make TE like Finley dangerous, is getting them behind the LBers. We haven't been able to do that with him because the LBers play deeper because we had no run threat.

If we can add a reasonable run threat, keep Jones, Nelson and Cobb on the field. that alone should open the lanes for Finley.

And if we are really lucky, Quarless makes it back. He is a good blocker, and a much bigger receiving threat than Crabby was.

Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins