In other words, Mike wants him and knows Ted is going to low-ball the hell out of Jared Cook having any interest.

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What qualifies as "low-balling" a player who has made tens of millions based on nothing more than potential? The guy is looking for his third team after being cut by the coach who drafted him. The fact that he is still available shows that he is most likely asking for more money than he's worth.

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Good perspective, and I struggle to agree even though I know you're right.

What keeps gnawing at me, though, is there are now glaring needs either for starters or depth at TE, DL, ILB, WR, OL, G, and CB. If you could at least address one or two of those prior to the draft, it offers a little more peace of mind that the team isn't trying to draft an entire roster of needs.

Er. They also need improvement at OLB and P, in my opinion.

Not to mention the fact that if they did somehow manage to draft at all these positions of need, the likelihood is really small of all those 2016 draftees filling the extent of those needs in 2016 (even after accounting for "continuing improvement by those already on the roster").

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Jared Cook has his house up for sale.

Cook was a community oriented guy in Tenn and then with Rams. His wife [Lana] and the community will have something to say about where Cook ends up. His oldest kid is a daughter who is 4, so she’s a little young to protest a move.

That said, if he was thinking about taking a 1 year prove it deal, with for example GB, one might think he’d hold off selling and uprooting his family until the following year. But, is seems the plan is to take his family wherever he goes.

This may mean he is waiting for a real multi-year deal.

Also, Cook is a southern boy. Born in Bama, raised in Suwanee GA, went to school at S. Carolina, then as a pro was in Tennessee and St. Louis; so not sure how far north of the Mason-Dixon line he’ll go. Cook’s community activism extends to his hometown, which is also where his mama still lives [She may have some input into where Cook goes as well].

Even more frightening [for those who want Cook to come to GB] is Lana is an assertive women, she is not a passive wall flower. She grew up in Jackson Tenn, went to Middle Tenn. State and met Jared in Nashville. And on November 15, 2014 tweeted “I’m not ready for winter.” If she is psychologically not ready for winter in November in St. Louis; she probably needed a cocktail of Xanax, Klonopin, Valium just thinking about Jared having spoken to Mike McCarthy more than once. Of course, she has no idea what winter is and undoubtedly the thoughts of moving to GB send shivers up and down her spine.

If Cook does not come to GB; it may have nothing to do with Ted [being “a tightwad”].

I think you just completely nailed that on the head... I think he hasn't signed with anyone because of of a number of reasons...

- For the first time in his life, he doesn't have a huge market (or at least we don't think he does, then again people didn't think Woodson did either and signed a pretty big deal late)

- GB has the best offer currently on the table and he doesn't want to come to GB for what ever reason (like say, maybe as talked above, he and his wife are southerns and don't like the cold... or again in the case of Woodson, kept hearing "The talk is always this is no place for a black man ")

- Waiting to see what happens in the draft (he might not want to sign with the Packers if they're going to draft the #1 TE in the draft... of course that works both ways... the Packers might not be as interested in the #1 TE (if available) if they have another vet TE signed)

- Thinking about retirement

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If everyone is healthy, do the Packers really have needs at WR and CB, after all they basically have a stud vet (if fully healthy) and a whole lot of talented young guns who have shined at times.

The Packers might/will have needs at G and OLB next year, but while all the vets are signed as of right now, I think they're in decent position there.

So those list (to me) are down to TE, DL, ILB, OT and maybe P, RB and S

- At TE they have Rodgers, Backman and Henry who a number of people thought looked better than Backman in training camp (but didn't have as much upside potential if Backman devolops), but all are less than 3 years in and have shown nice potential to possibly grow some more.

- DL, Pennel, Boyd and Ringo... I'm not sure how much growth Boyd and Ringo have, and I don't fully trust Pennel right now, as I think he has two strikes in two years in the NFL, and one more and he's suspended for a year. Might take two more guys to help.

- ILB, Ryan, Barrington, Thomas and Palmer... surely not the best list, but I don't think it's as horrible as fans make it out to be... then again, maybe I'm thinking about them with Matthews in their aiding them... but Ryan and Barrington are good thumpers and Thomas seemed to take a step up in coverage and grew some. If you find the right guy (which the Packers have struggled at doing at ILB) it might just take one more good ILB to solidify the unit.

- OT... yeah... help is needed, there is just Tretter and Bulaga can't be trusted to play 16 games.

- RB... yeah Lacy is losing weight, but he's also going to be a FA and at times RBs get injured or banged up and need healthy depth to let them rest up.

- S... when everyone is healthy Safety position is (mostly) great... but as shown a bit by Burnett going down some last year early, if one of the starters is out the Packers are in some trouble as the depth isn't there... and all due respect to Hyde, he doesn't yet seem natural back at true Safety yet and might not ever be. Also I felt like Hyde had a down year at the nickel/dime role, and he's a FA and how the Packers haven't been resigning their back-up DB, he could be gone and they're yet with just Banjo.

So my list of needs (in order)
DL, OT/C*, ILB, DL, TE, S, OLB, RB, P, CB, G, WR, QB

* = I have C up with the OT because I think Tretter is currently the top back-up for both, and selecting one of the two positions would then (in theory) let Tretter focus in on the other.

Really Punter is the X-factor here... because they're (hopefully) only keep one... (I still find it hard to believe than Sherman kept two, then again, I guess that's what you get when your 3rd round rookie draft pick punter doesn't win the starting job)...

But if they get to the later rounds and some guy can clearly improve on Masthay, then maybe that goes up on the need board, if no one, then maybe drops off the board completely.

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We don't have to draft a punter. Ted has a rolodex for that shit.

We'll need a NT, ILB and OT. Signing Cook solidifies some shit. Some depth at various positions would be cool. I like Crockett at RB, though. Montgomery is our "third down" guy.

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