The way these franchise tag works as far as i understand, is that one club offers a contract to the tagged player, which he may agree to, if he agrees the club holding the rights to the player needs to decide whether to match the contract, or let the player walk while collecting the drafts picks from the other team. So it would never be a 2 picks for one year deal, however the picks may be lowered from the 2 first rounds pick, if both teams and the player agrees, by letting the original team sign him to the deal the player wants, and then trade the player afterwards for the agreed upon compensation.
The problem with this in this situation is that Saints doesnt have a lot of cap room, but if they want, they can obviously make it work.

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Are we hypothetically an option? From a rudimentary analysis of looking at proven roster spots (or lack thereof), sure, but no way are we an option based on how this franchise has been run the past 8 years. What precedent is there for T.T. to do something like this?

The Packers had one of the best offenses in the league when they were 15-1 and what did that do vs. the Giants, so to your second point, I don't see how there offense is a limiting factor either this year or going forward. Finding options at MLB, DE, and possibly S are holding this franchise back much more than having a more established threat at TE.

Niether of those teams scare me as much as 1: Mike McCarthy Lulls and 2: Injuries.

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I would absolutely trade for Jimmy Graham. In terms of pass catching he's leagues ahead of what we have. But at what cost? That I'm not sure about.

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That's the crux of the issue. Who wouldn't want an All Pro at every position. However, it's not realistic with the salary cap. It's the dilemma the Miami Heat are in now.

You have to pick your battles, and it doesn't seem like pass catching options are high priority for the Packers not only this year, but in the foreseable future (assuming we get the expected production from Bostick, Lyerla, Rodgers, Adams, Janis, etc.).

I don't think I'm buying this statement. I think the offense was mostly OK. I just think the defense wasn't good enough. How many yards does the defense usually give up when we play the 49'ers? I'd rather bring in a superstar defender instead of a superstar receiver. If the Packers defense could be average to "good," the Packers would be incredibly difficult to beat. By any team in the NFL.

I agree. I think our offense can score on anybody and score a lot. The question is can our defense keep them from scoring more on us.

Yeah, of course it would be very nice to have Jimmy Graham on the Packers roster. But there are constraints to work under. Therefore, the team should focus on the highest priority needs, which in my opionion, are largely on the defensive side of the ball. The Packers are going to have a top-10 offense, at worst, and likely a top five. Solidify the defensive weaknesses and the Packers are as good as any team in the league.

What's the precedent? Ted Thompson tried trading for Tony Gonzalez years back...same for Randy Moss. If there is the potential to add a special player, Ted Thompson will do his "due diligence". There is no way I can conceive of that he wouldn't be doing "due diligence" on the Graham situation. That guy changes games. Special player.

I find it odd that people are referring to Quarless and Taylor????? as SOLID? Huh? Wow, that is way overvauling your own. Quarless is JAG and Taylor doesn't and hasn't played on offense very much. Finley was an 8+ million dollar a year player, as valued by the Packers. I think most of us would say he was nowhere near an 8 million dollar player for us...ever. Quarless makes 7 times less than what Finley made as our #1 TE if we're talking cap hit. Jermichael's cap hit was 8.75 million last season, Q's is 1.25 million.

If you were okay with 8.75 million for Jermichael, I don't know why you'd have a problem to have a truly special player for a few million more.

Our roster has been TE heavy for the past few years. Obviously, this franchise greatly values that position and it shows that they were willing to pay and pay big for a guy like Finley who has never produced like Graham. Finley has started 48 games and amassed 20 TD's. Graham has started 36 games and amassed 41 TD's. So, about every 2.5 games you can count on a TD from Finley. Meanwhile, in every game, on average, you can count on one from Graham.

The GREAT teams go out and add things... Seattle kept adding last year Avril, Bennett...did they really need to trade for Harvin? No. Went to the SB without any help from him, and then used his help in it and thrashed Denver. Did SF need Anquan Boldin? Did the great Niners and Cowboys of old need Deion Sanders? This idea that Green Bay is okay/good enough is deadly to winning another SB. The whole we have Aaron Rodgers and our O is going to be great sounds eerily similar to the many years Packers fans said the same exact things when Favre was under center. Net result...1 ring in Favre era. We got our 1 ring in Favre era when we went for it by signing Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson, etc... Our ring in the Rodgers era seems to be a totally anomaly. Haven't been back to an NFC Championship game since, or even sniffed one. We aren't good enough, haven't been good enough and adding Julius Peppers is a potential right kind of move to help get us back. Graham is on that same line of thought. This Ted Thompson "we think we're pretty good and we like the guys we've got" has been bought by the fanbase. Rodgers covers a multitude of sins.

If you can get Jimmy Graham and it isn't going to absolutely derail you, you have to try and do it. The great teams do things like that....it'll be crushing to see a Seattle or New England go get him, or some other on the cusp team.

If we added Graham, somehow, we could cut Quarless (who didn't participate in the off season program at all which is terrible for your "#1 TE") and save a little off the cap. If we could give Finley 8.75 of our cap last year and we can save close to a million with Quarless...that puts us close to 10 million toward Graham. However, the Peppers contract might have been given due to Jermichael being a FA and not having to commit that money to him.

Packers are an esitmated 13.6 million under the cap. We could cut the following players at these cap savings to improve our standing...plus cap is going to go way up over the next few years.
1) Tramon Williams-- 7.5 million (would have to eat 2 mil to gain the 7.5 but might be worth it)
2) Brad Jones-- 1.925 million
3) Jarrett Bush--- 1.7 million
4) Derek Sherrod--1.25 million
5) Jamari Lattimore--1.43 million
6) BJ Raji-- 3.5 million
7) Andrew Quarless-- 900k
8) Bryan Bulaga--2.66 Million
****Hawk's release would net us 1.9 million, but I can't see the Packers eating 3.2 million for him not to play for us****

----I could make a case for any or all of those guys not making the team this year. I can't wait to see pre-season action and read about TC. If we have guys who are playing well at those positions above, we won't need to spend as much on some of these guys. Tramon is the big fish. How much better are we with him vs. who would have to replace him at that cap savings if he's gone? I don't know if the guy next after Tramon is 7.5 millon dollars worse.

Start playing with the figures above and subtract some combo of them off the books and I don't see why we couldn't afford Graham and both Jordy and Randall, but that money would come from the 13.6 million left and what savings we can come up with by releasing some of our veterans. Letting Tramon go puts at over 21 million in cap space with that cap climbing over the next few years.

On an unrelated note...it is sad that our D chews up nearly 68 million of our cap while our offense checks in at only almost 52 million. Our D hasn't been good as we all know, but to know we're spending that much on it to get what we're getting is really sad.

EDIT: The current salary cap is 133 million. The salary cap jumped by 10 million from 2013-2014 and is expected to jump at least another 10 million next year. Projections are that it will likely be over 150 million by 2016. So, in essence, the Rodgers cap hit will be absorbed by the rise in the cap next year. We will have plenty of green to dole out for extensions to Jordy and Randall if cap is going up another 10 million.

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Price is way, way too high.

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