Interesting thread. Here is a stat making the 'window' look a little smaller still. NFCC Championship losers the following year. It is super tough to lose the game and come back which adds a year to Rodgers and even Matthews and Nelson. The window is small indeed.




2004 Falcons (2005 out of playoffs);
2005 Panthers (2006 out of playoffs);
2006 Saints (2007 out of playoffs);
2007 Packers (2008 out of playoffs);
2008 Eagles (2009 lost wildcard round);
2009 Vikings (2010 out of playoffs);
2010 Bears (2011 out of playoffs);
2011 49ers (2012 made Super Bowl);
2012 Falcons (2013 out of playoffs);
2013 49ers (2014 out of playoffs);
2014 Packers (2015??).

Originally Posted by: wideside 

Much like Flacco's deal.. or Brady's.. Rodgers deal will be structured so that it allows the cap hit yearly to be manageable and something that will be reworked in the future.

That is not minimizing the impacts those contracts will have on our future, but it will be more in the terms of exchanging a Woodson and Pickett for a Matthews and Raji in terms of consumed cap hit. Additionally, Ted has married this team to his more or less building through the draft approach.. so for that window to be pushed even more open again.. he has to hit again this draft for fill in pieces and Mike McCarthy and co need to continue to develop from the past two draft classes.

Looking around the league, almost every contender past the Niners at the moment are having their windows adjusted more than ours. Maybe the Pats.

The nature of a flat cap and many teams pushing out cap hits over the past couple years. The Packers haven't done much of that.. and I don't expect much of it moving forward other than Rodgers.

The Packers have known these three players were coming up.. and entrust they have a plan to manage it and remain very much in the discussion for the Lombardi yearly.

Originally Posted by: Pack93z 

Ted continuously puts a team on the field that has enough pieces and depth to be competitive every season,

Originally Posted by: Pack93z 

If we had spent that money this year on an upgrade at ILB or kept James Jones, either is probably enough to have us in the SB. We have the money to be able to go for more than just competitive without risking the long term future of the team.

Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins 

The Packers didn't need James Jones or another ILB to get to the Super Bowl. They had the talent to beat the Seahawks, they just imploded and failed to do so. Of course a few better players would help. It always would, but they absolutely should have executed with the unit on the field.

Originally Posted by: DoddPower 

The Packers didn't need James Jones or another ILB to get to the Super Bowl. They had the talent to beat the Seahawks, they just imploded and failed to do so. Of course a few better players would help. It always would, but they absolutely should have executed with the unit on the field.

Originally Posted by: DoddPower 

Since they didn't get to the SB it is hard to say they didn't need additional talent.

Speculation, but having Jones as #3 rather than Adams would have improved the offense which might have allowed us to score more resulting in a bigger score gap. Having Jones could have resulted in a better record changing the game from being in Seattle to GB. Same on the defensive side. Better ILB play would have stopped Seattle from scoring some, or giving us a better record.

With the amount of talent the team already has, I would rather spending a little more to try and improve our odds before we start losing some of these guys. We only have so long for Peppers. Neal and Perry, Daniels will all be coming up on contracts after this next season. With where this team is at, unless we get lucky we are not going to improve more just drafting and develop. With 22 starting positions, we are drafting to keep restocking. It will take something else to push the team a step further.

Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins