The 2017 season for the Green Bay Packers was dreadful one. Hopefully it’s one everyone will be able to forget about. The Packers went 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. Aaron Rodgers was injured for most of the season so that’s why they missed the playoffs, but even if he was healthy, the Packers wouldn’t have gotten very far with that defense. The team was embarrassing and change was needed. Thankfully the 2018 offseason started and the Packers started making changes.
To start, the Packers reassigned their general manager Ted Thompson. If you aren’t a Packers fan, this might be unimportant news to you. But from a Packers fan perspective, this move was very important. Many Packer fans believe that Ted Thompson was responsible for the lack of moves in free agency. Under Thompson, the Packers rarely made moves in free agency and had the belief that raising their own players would result in Super Bowl wins. Obviously this philosophy failed because the team has only won one Super Bowl in twenty years. Thompson was moved to another position within the organization and Brian Gutekunst took over as general manager. The Packers also got Joe Philbin to be offensive coordinator and Mike Pettine to be defensive coordinator which were good decisions.
The next major thing that happened was the trading of Damarious Randall to the Cleveland Browns. The Packers received quarterback DeShone Kizer for one of our best cornerbacks. The reaction by almost all Packer fans? What the fuck. We were already struggling immensely at the cornerback position. Damarious Randall was getting better and had a good season. But one of the first free agent moves for the Packers was to get rid of him for a fucking quarterback that was horrible. I’m not sure if this move was to prepare for the retiring of Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has a few years left for the team, so maybe the Packers decided to get Kizer as a future replacement. I believe this was a horrible call because the team needs to win now. Randall will give us a better chance than Kizer will and it was an uneven trade.
If that garbage decision wasn’t enough, the Packers also decided to release fan-favorite Jordy Nelson. Nelson was the heart and soul of the wide receiver group and was with the team when they won the Super Bowl in 2010. I promise you that every Packer fan felt their heart drop when they saw that the Packers released him from the team. Of course the Packers needed to lower their salary, and the best move was to release Jordy or give him a pay cut. But the news came out that the Packers offered him such an embarrassingly low contract that I understand why Nelson left. After almost a decade of service, the Packers allowed Nelson to walk. Nelson eventually signed with the Raiders and I guarantee you he busts up the league.
One of the biggest moves in free agency for the Packers was the signing of Jimmy Graham. He is a tight end who has had success in the NFL in the past. He has struggled recently which is a cause for concern though. I believe that the Packers grossly overpaid for a declining tight end instead of making the moves that the team needed. The team was in desperate need for a cornerback and the team decided to make moves for a tight end? The Packers should have paid Jordy Nelson more instead of getting a washed up tight end.
There was also an influx of talented cornerbacks in the free agent market. Do you know how many the Packers signed? None. The Packers had countless opportunities to sign a stud at the cornerback position, but laid off. I can’t really understand why because this is the position we needed the most. The Packers did sign former Packers player Tramon Williams, but it isn’t enough. He is old and not the permanent solution.
Hopefully in the 2018 NFL draft, the Packers get a stud at cornerback. If the Packers fail to do that, they have basically given up on helping Aaron Rodgers win the Super Bowl. Rodgers is the best player in team history and the team has constantly failed him. Although the offseason isn’t fully over, it looks like the Packers have made more poor moves than good ones. The fan base is angry, and the team needs to do better to support Rodgers. Hopefully the 2018 season ends in a Packers Super Bowl win, but for now, we can just watch what the Packers do for the rest of the offseason.
