if grant doesnt have a great season, spend some money on a rb !!

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I'm glad you mentioned the franchise tag, because I'd forgotten about it. If Clifton's body holds up this season, maybe they will franchise him for a season. I don't think Thompson is likely to give a multi-year contract to a player of that age with that kind of injury history.

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Wow where is this ridiculous talk of Clifton being tagged coming from. I'd bet my life that he doesn't get tagged. His play doesn't warrant it anymore, not to mention that we have other guys we need to get locked up. Guys that will be playing a lot longer than Clifton.

For one, Colledge played better than Clifton last season when he filled in at LT. He's a good one that needs to be kept.

Nick Collins NEEDS to be kept. He may not be one of the ELITE safeties in the game, but imagine have 2 safeties back there who don't know what they're doing. With the way Capers played against Chicago, you can tell he trusted the secondary to hold their own, which allowed the Packers to be as aggressive as they were. If Collins leaves, we're screwed. The only thing I was worried about last season was whether or not he would be a one year wonder. By his play this season, he's not.

This would be my order:
Daryn Colledge
Nick Collins
Aaron Kampman (depending how he plays)
Johnny Jolly (if he continues his HIGH play)
Ryan Pickett
Brandon Chillar
Jason Spitz
Chad Clifton
John Kuhn
Will Blackmon
Atari Bigby (just can't stay healthy)

Of course ALL of this goes out the window if a new agreement can't be agreed upon and Colledge, Collins, and Spitz become RFA allowing us to retain them at lower costs (possibly). I'm sure Collins will holdout again and this time get rewarded if he continues to make plays in the secondary and show enough reliability in not getting burned.

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2009 Dead Money Pool

Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila leads the contingent at $1.571 mil
Brian Brohm ($1.24 million),
Abdul Hodge ($202,000),
Duke Preston ($200,000),
Anthony Smith ($175,000),
Jamon Meredith ($172,500),
Charlie Peprah ($162,943),
Brett Favre ($158,060),
Jamarko Simmons ($103,176) and
Tracy White ($100,000).


2008 Dead Money Pool

KGB 6.155 mil
Brett Favre 1.4 mil
Bubba Franks 2.0 mil
Marquand Manuel 900,000
Tracy White 860,000
Robert Ferguson 700,000
Abdul Hodge 202,000
David Clowney 127,500
Marviel Underwood 107,500
Ingle Martin 86,000

PLUS 37 other names, whose combined dead pool hit was $221,625.

If our 2009 dead money pool was a "Clean-up on aisle 9"

Our previous year's pool was a cleanup on every other aisle in the store.

The point? Have you heard the statement "Stop blaming Sherman, he is gone, and it's just an excuse", yada yada yada

That formerly massive dead money pool has just now been virtually eliminated. It took that long.

Um, it came from me. I think it's a long shot, but it could happen if Clifton stays healthy and returns to his pre-2008 form. Those are two big ifs. I hope it doesn't come to that, but the fact is that there is no heir apparent at left tackle. Meredith was a fifth-round pick and is a bit of a project--probably not ready for next year, if ever. Colledge has just now gotten comfortable at guard, and we don't know how good he would be at left tackle.

What solution would you propose for the left tackle position next year?

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I would suggest we do have an idea what Colledge would be lik at LT, he played there last year. And when he did he played better than Clifton. We also have depth inside with Lang.

However, I agree its not ideal and both T spots will be an issue.

The franchise tag would be better used on Kampman who is probably at, or just after his peak right now. Tag him, keep him for another year at his peak and then let him go, ideally by trading him (possible using a tag and trade situation the following year).

As for the CBA, I've read an interesting post elsewhere suggesting if we had an uncapped year it would help the Pack considerably due to our large number of free agents. It said if the cap came back in 2011 the 2010 uncapped year would allow us to wrap up deals with more guys than we might otherwise.

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I've wanted to go after a RT in free agency (and still do). I think that our LT situation right now is pretty good though. We have WAY too many younger players to re-sign to commit top 5 LT money to Chad Clifton. If we do re-sign him, it's gonna be at a price cheaper than what we're getting right now. I don't even understand why we would need to tag him. Clearly if the Packers want him, they'd be able to re-sign him. Cliffy is one of those guys that will retire a Packer because he wants to.

As for what happens if he goes down, it's simple. The answer is Daryn Colledge who looked even better than Clifton at LT last season. He was our best lineman all last season. The problem is that it would cause a void at guard, which would make our entire line worse to begin with. Point is that Clifton is on his last legs and has no more than maybe 2 years left in the league so we better hope the young guys look better than Barbre did in the 1st half when they get their opportunities.

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