After spending nearly $200 million on Adrian Amos, Preston Smith, Za’Darius Smith, and Billy Turner in March 2019, the Packers spent only $18.9M on outside free agents in the next three years. The second-most frugal organization during that time were the Buccaneers at $62.9M. Anyway, here are some more thoughts that ran through my mind in the past few days:
1) Corey Ballentine re-signed with the Packers for one year and $1.08M last week, and while the journeyman cornerback is nothing special on the field, his off-the-field story is one of the best in the NFL. Hours after being selected by the Giants in the sixth round of the 2018 draft, the former Washburn star was seriously injured in a shooting while attending an off-campus party in Topeka, Kansas. Ballentine’s close friend and college teammate, Dwane Simmons, was killed. Since then, the 26-year-old has been with six organizations, including the Packers, who signed him to the practice squad last September. He was elevated to the active roster in November and played 47 very effective snaps on kick coverage. With Jaire Alexander, Eric Stokes, Rasul Douglas, and Keisean Nixon returning and a rookie or two almost certain to be added in next month’s draft, Ballentine will be hard-pressed to stick on the 53-man roster for another season, but it would be foolish to bet against him. The young man’s already overcome much longer odds.
2) The Packers announced their coaching staff for the 2023 season earlier this month, and one thing stood out. Greg Williams will be the passing game coordinator on defense. What makes this so unusual is that the former Cardinals assistant won’t be coaching a position like every other running or passing game coordinator in the league. Williams’ only job will be to make sure the pass defense is prepared each week. This tells me two things. The first is that Matt LaFleur was upset by all the miscommunication in the secondary last season. The second is that he doesn’t trust Joe Barry, even though he chose to retain the beleaguered defensive coordinator. So why didn’t LaFleur make a change? Probably because he didn’t want to fire his fourth coordinator in four offseasons, which would reflect poorly on him. LaFleur’s hoping Williams will help keep him from looking bad by limiting the number of big pass plays allowed in 2023.
3) To say the Packers are in transition at wide receiver and tight end would be an understatement. With Allen Lazard (Jets) and Robert Tonyan (Bears) gone and Randall Cobb and Marcedes Lewis unsigned and unlikely to return, the nine players under contract at these two positions have combined for 135 receptions, 1,550 yards, and 13 TDs. To put that into perspective, Davante Adams caught 123 passes for 1,553 yards, and 11 TDs in his final season with Green Bay. GM Brian Gutekunst has plenty of work to do to provide new starting quarterback Jordan Love with the caliber of weapons he’ll need to succeed in 2023. When Aaron Rodgers took over for Brett Favre a decade and a half ago, his wide receivers and tight ends had already combined for 796 catches, 9,964 yards, and 70TDs in the NFL. And even if you removed five-time Pro Bowler Donald Driver’s prodigious statistics, the numbers remaining were still pretty impressive (293 for 4,067 and 32).
The poll can now be found in the sidebar. I’m curious to see how Packers fans answer this week’s question, so please take a minute and vote.
There’s a good chance Rodgers performance would tie to a future pick, whether future picks are tied to the Jets success, or the fact that a bad year by Rodgers would mean he’d retire and reduce future picks.
So in those cases, yes.
Generally, I don’t have much ill will towards 12 despite his weirdness, but aside from Rodgers mailing in the off-season the last few years.
“ Williams’ only job will be to make sure the pass defense is prepared each week. This tells me two things. The first is that Matt LaFleur was upset by all the miscommunication in the secondary last season. The second is that he doesn’t trust Joe Barry, ”
How do you know that? What do you base this on?
As I wrote in the post, the Packers are the only team with a passing game coordinator on defense. Every other team’s passing game coordinator also coaches a position. This suggests to me that LaFleur wasn’t close to OK with the pass defense last season and is willing to try something different to make it better. The degree of trust LaFleur has in Barry is something only he could answer, but it can’t be too high if he felt the need to hire a full-time passing game coordinator to assist the defensive coordinator.
I like the idea of developing Love and a bunch of talented young wide receivers and tight ends at the same time, but Gutekunst will have to add at least one veteran to the group. That could be a problem because of the lack of cap space, and will any veteran wide receiver want to sign a cheap, prove-it deal with the Packers?
I don’t have the ill will towards Rodgers that I had towards Favre so for the most part I’ll be rooting for Rodgers. I really wish the Jets played the bears this year just to see Rodgers continue his ownership of them.
Thanks for the backstory on Ballentine, I wasn’t aware of it.
As long as things with Rodgers don’t get messy in the next few months, I’ll root for him with the Jets. I couldn’t stand Favre by the time he was traded, and the interception he threw in the 2009 NFCC is still one of my happiest moments as a Packers fan.