I was going to suggest a lower round tender than a second as well, but then I looked into it and it seems like only first, second, and original rounder tenders are the options available. Unless I'm missing something here.

Lazard is another guy that might warrant a second round tender. Or not, it will be interesting to see what happens. I haven't really spent much time looking into it but I can't remember these sort of UDFAs getting high tenders from the packers in the past.

I just looked up what they did with Sam Shields in 2013, this was coming off a 10 game, 8 start season for him when it looked like he might be a good option for one of the starting corner positions, they gave him a 2nd round tender before signing him to a 4 year deal the next season. Lazard and Tonyan could be in similar situations.

I would feel better about offering Tonyan a lower tender than a second if Jace Sternberger had shown more promise/didn't have the issues with concusions. I'm not sure if he'll ever work out. As WPR mentioned I don't think Josiah Deguara, who is more of an Hback, really plays the same position. So if they don't get Tonyan, we're looking at replacing his production with Dominique Dafney, a draft pick, another UDFA, or maybe a veteran FA (who won't cost much less than a second round tender, probably).

All that said I tend to agree, this year with the low cap I don't think it's the end of the world if they don't sign him, but I'm guessing they find a way to work it out.

Originally Posted by: earthquake 

Aaron Jones is proven, but why bring him up? I asked about Tonyan. And Tonyan had one good year. We have at least two draft picks at TE that are on rookie deals yet. The cost of bringing Tonyan back vs the two recently drafted TE's value is where I'm thinking.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

I’m pretty sure you are smart enough to figure out why I brought up Jones. But in case you are serious, here goes: the Packers were one game away from the Super Bowl, two years in a row. Last year, the #1 offense. So does dismantling the offense by getting rid of Jones AND the best TE we have had in many years make sense? Instead of making it better, throw out your best guys and HOPE that someone can make up the losses? Jared Cook was the last decent TE we had. And look how the TE production dropped off the cliff after they let him go. Tonyan made many big plays last year. So can they get by without him? Of course. They could “get by” without Aaron Rodgers too. But if you think that wouldn’t amount to a lot more losses, then you must be smoking something.😁
Now you will probably say, “why did you bring up Aaron Rodgers?”
Just making a point that you can get by without any certain player. But if getting by is all you want, you might as well cheer for the Detroit Lions.
(Now I hear “why did you bring up the Lions???”)
Because they suck year after year, and never even sniffed a Super Bowl. Is that what we want back here? Just getting by?
I don’t.

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 

Yeah, I think given the importance of TEs in this scheme, the 2nd round tender could make some sense for Tonyan. He had a good year and it's not a significant price to pay for a starting TE. For context, the 16 highest paid TE has an average contract value of about $5m, while the 2nd round tender is $3.26m, so we're talking about below-average starter money. The original round tender is $2.13m, so a difference of a little over 1.1m. They get no compensation if they give him the original round tender and another team snatches him up, since he was an UDFA.

They could save a bit by using the original round tender but that has some risk to it of course. Though with the cap situation this year, I'm not sure how they would feel about the extra cost for the 2nd round tender. They may not think it's worth it. The flip side is a lot of other teams have cap issues and may not have the cash to throw at an oft-injured UDFA TE who has only had one good season in a TE-friendly offense. It's hard to say and probably depends somewhat on what they do with restructuring and/or releasing other players. But I would expect the Packers' front office has a good bead on this, so if they give him the original round tender, it's likely low risk.

I could see them signing him to something like a 2 or 3 year deal to spread the cap hit over later years too.

Originally Posted by: earthquake 

Just a thought...

If it were so easy to replace Tonyan with a draft pick, why haven’t we had a decent (or even average) tight end since Finley?

Keep him.

Originally Posted by: go.pack.go. 

You're pretty sure I'm smart enough to figure out why you brought up Aaron Jones? Quite condescending there, and not necessary.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

Yes, it's worth paying Tonyan $4 million to have him another year, so he improve on his stats, have a good year for the Packers and hopefully get us a 4th or 5th round comp pick the following year.

All while giving Dugara, Daffney and maybe Sternberger another year to develop, so that hopefully they have one full year of development (Sternberger still hasn't had one fully healthy year)... but let one of them develop and hopefully start breaking out the second half of the season.


As for Lazard, he's not a TE... and he doesn't have three years experience yet, but I'm sure he'll be a 2nd round tender too if he becomes an RFA next year.

Originally Posted by: beast