On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs became only the ninth team to win a Super Bowl with a scoring defense ranked outside the top 10 (they finished 16th). This proves that defense still wins championships – unless a coach like Andy Reid is calling plays for a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes. Anyway, here are a few Packers-related thoughts that ran through my mind recently:
1) If MVC (Most Consistent Player) were an actual award, it would’ve gone to Eric Wilson this season. From the day he joined the Packers last October, the veteran inside linebacker was a force on special teams. Whether covering kicks or throwing a block to spring Keisean Nixon for another explosive return, Wilson did his job better than I’ve seen it done in Green Bay in quite some time. The former Viking, Texan, Eagle, and Saint also deflected a punt versus the Jets – the franchise’s first since 2018 – for good measure. Wilson, unlike the vast majority of special teams stars, is also a decent position player. He’s started 27 games, including a career-high 15 for Minnesota in 2020. The 28-year-old will be a free agent next month, and it would behoove general manager Brian Gutekunst to get a deal done. The Packers finally seem to be turning things around on special teams under coordinator Rich Bisaccia, and Wilson is one of the biggest reasons why.
2) There are three ways for a GM to add talent – the draft, free agency, and trades. Under Gutekunst, the Packers have continued a frustrating 20-year trend of using just two of the available avenues. Since his hiring in January 2018, the only veteran players acquired via trade have been a backup quarterback (DeShone Kizer), a pair of journeymen inside linebackers (Antonio Morrison and B.J. Goodson), and a bottom-of-the-roster cornerback (Isaac Yiacom). Gutekunst’s predecessor, Ted Thompson, was even less interested in striking deals. What’s so surprising is that both men learned at the knee of legendary Ron Wolf, who acquired, among others, quarterback Brett Favre, tight end Keith Jackson, and free safety Eugene Robinson. By the way, each team in Sunday’s Super Bowl has been aggressive on the trade front in recent years. Kansas City added tackle Orlando Brown, edge rusher Frank Clark, and receiver Kadarius Toney while Philly procured receiver A.J. Brown, corner Darius Slay, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson and defensive lineman Robert Quinn.
3) It’s kinda funny how the media made such a huge deal over Mahomes playing two-plus games on a sprained ankle while very few of those same people seemed to care that Aaron Rodgers played about 70% of the season with a broken thumb on his throwing hand. I’m not a doctor, but that seems like a pretty significant injury for a person whose job is to toss tight spirals into very small windows. Fortunately, (most) GMs are a lot smarter than the men and women who cover them. That’s why the four-time MVP would still be a very hot commodity on the open market should the Packers look to move him in the coming weeks. Rodgers, with four good fingers, was still better than two-thirds of the QBs in the league, and he’ll likely be back among the top five or six next season. So why trade him? Because even when he was literally the best player in the NFL, the Packers still couldn’t get to the Super Bowl, and that’s highly unlikely to change in 2023.
[yop_poll id=” 86″]
The thumb injury happened in October and is usually a six to eight week healing process with no surgery or pin placement required. Which means Rodgers should have been close to 100% somewhere around the first of December. Yet when he needed a win in January, a month later, he played one of his poorest games of the season. And he had several bad games to choose from. Perhaps had Rodgers not supplied the media with so much controversy throwing teammates and coaches under the bus maybe there’s more of a focus on the thumb injury. Although it was still brought up every week until it healed. You replace Aaron Rodgers with Patrick Mahomes on this Brian Gutekunst team and it wins the SB. There’s nothing special about the KC defense, the OL isn’t any better, the WR’s are average, and the running game isn’t as good as the Packers. The one edge KC gets is TE. But historically Rodgers has never utilized his tight end even though it’s a major part of what MLF would like to do. As far as Rodgers market, has anyone other than the Jets really said they’re interested? I’ve heard lots of speculation about Las Vegas but Josh McDaniels couldn’t get along with Jay Cutler. I don’t see him putting up with Rodgers unique personality. The Colts and Titans would be a good fit, but again, they’re not acting like players. Jimmy G is getting more buzz right now.
Would the Packers have won the Super Bowl with Mahomes instead of Rodgers? Maybe, but only if Andy Reid and his staff came with him. The Chiefs are so much better coached than the Packers. The adjustments made on offense and defense in the second half are what won the game.
Yes, GB wins a Super Bowl with Mahomes if the play-calling was at Reid level, but they would have needed to have an offensive line that played at the level that KC’s did.
Sure would be nice to have an All-Pro at center instead of the inconsistent Josh Myers as a starting point.
Myers over Humphrey will always bother me. The obvious pick was Humphrey, but Gutey wanted to be the smartest guy in the room.
Two consecutive years that the Super Bowl champs got a big boost from a player acquired in a trade at the deadline. Toney for the Chiefs on Sunday and Von Miller for the Rams last year. IIRC, the last player acquired at the trade deadline by the Packers was a backup safety named Anthony Smith in 2010.
I’m probably one of the few who didn’t have a problem with Thompson not throwing around picks for aging veterans and overpriced talent, also keep in mind he often held picks at the tail end of the rounds competing against teams with a better draft position for the said available player, in essence he had to pay up a round. He was a great evaluator of talent until his last few years where I think his illness was starting to hurt his judgement and his drafts. I remember him saying that outside of the truly elite players in the league there wasn’t that much difference talent wise separating the rest of the pack. He never over paid vets , traded back often on draft day knowing more swings led to better draft success, had excellent judgement when to go after players like taking Rodgers when he wasn’t needed at the time, trading up for Mathew’s, and going after Peppers who most thought was finished, oh and I forgot Woodson. Lol. He chose wisely. Now on the other hand Gutekunst is directionless, has overpaid many players putting us in cap hell, outside of a few early round picks has not done well evaluating prospects and made matters worse by using extra picks to move up in rounds only to be unsuccessful, the loss of 2 picks. My only fear now is if Rodgers comes back Gutey panics and sets us back further….. I’ve been through GMs trading multiple picks for aging players. Hello John Hadl
It’s a shame it took losing a playoff game to finally get LaFleur and Gutekunst to take special teams seriously.
We have 5 seventh round picks this year. Why would we ever consider trading any of them?!
All joking aside you are typically getting better or getting worse. It applies to players individually, coaches and overall roster. If there’s an opportunity to improve the roster you have to consider it.