Thursday Thoughts: Boyle’s Future

I didn’t stop thinking about the Packers since last Thursday. The reason I had no musings on Monday was due to a serious glitch with the site. Seventy-nine dollars and a lot of aggravation later, everything is OK again. Anyway, here are just three of the many Packers-related thoughts that ran through my head the past week:

1) General manager Brian Gutekunst will have some difficult decisions to make when it comes to a few of his restricted free agents, including what to do about Tim Boyle. The low tender would likely keep the promising young quarterback around for at least one more season, but at a cost of over $2 million. That seems too high a salary for a cap-strapped team to pay for a No. 3 QB, and that’s what Boyle would be if Jordan Love shows anything resembling a pulse during training camp. But what happens if last year’s No. 1 pick still isn’t ready to play? Can the Packers afford to possibly lose Boyle before knowing for sure about Love? That’s the dilemma. The guess here is that Gutekunst will allow Boyle to become an unrestricted free agent next month and see if he can re-sign him for closer to $1 million. And if he winds up signing with another team, so be it. No GM trades up in round 1 only to have that player spend the first two seasons of his career as a third-stringer.

2) The wait continues as J.J. Watt contemplates where to continue his Hall of Fame-bound career. At least 10 teams, including the Packers, have shown varying degrees of interest in the 8-time All-Pro. So what are the odds of the Wisconsin native deciding to come home? That depends on how much money he’s willing to leave on the table in order to play for the team he grew up rooting for. Based on deals signed recently by comparable defensive linemen, Watt should be able to command at least $24 million for two years – even in a buyer’s market. And while the Packers, who are currently about $12 million over the salary cap, could restructure, release, and/or extend enough players to make that kind of offer, it just doesn’t seem like something Gutekunst would do. It’s far more plausible that some other team will eventually meet his asking price.

3) It’s hard to remember the last time a team fired its defensive coordinator but didn’t change any of his position coaches. And yet – at least as of now – it appears Joe Barry will be working with all of Mike Pettine’s assistants. This means that either Matt LaFleur blames Pettine for pretty much everything that went wrong on defense the past two seasons or that the Packers are a cheap-ass organization when it comes to hiring coaches. Jerry Montgomery (DL), Mike Smith (OLB), Kirk Olivadotti (ILB), Jerry Gray (DB), and Ryan Downard (DB) are all still under contract, so it saves a few million dollars to keep them around. And while such an arrangement might be palatable to Barry, it’s fair to wonder whether that was a sticking point in talks with Jim Leonhard – the top choice for the defensive coordinator position – who wasn’t nearly as desperate for the job and almost certainly would’ve insisted on bringing along some of his own assistants.