When it became known the Patriots were moving on from Stephon Gilmore, reports linked the All-Pro cornerback to the Packers. However, the Panthers instead made the move to land him.
The Packers did try to acquire Gilmore, according to ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky, who notes the team explored ways to add his contract. Gilmore’s expiring deal has $5.8MM remaining this season; the Packers have just more than $7MM in cap space.
While the team could have afforded Gilmore, it would have been up against the cap. The Packers made contact with the Patriots once their desire to move on became known, per Demovsky, who adds the 10th-year corner wanted a monster extension to go with any trade. Considering how little the Patriots received for Gilmore without the extension requirement, this demand was quickly dropped. Gilmore, per SI.com’s Albert Breer, wanted to play for the Packers (video link via 98.5 The Sports Hub). But he ended up in Carolina, which has now acquired Gilmore and 2020 first-round corner C.J. Henderson.
Green Bay did make a move at corner Wednesday, signing Rasul Douglas off Arizona’s practice squad. The Packers have Jaire Alexander expected to miss at least Week 5, and it sounds like a longer absence is in play. Matt LaFleur said the team will try to avoid its top corner undergoing surgery “at all costs,” via Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (on Twitter), but it remains to be seen when Alexander will be ready to return. Alexander suffered a shoulder injury late in the Packers’ Week 4 win over the Steelers. Shoulder surgery likely would end Alexander’s season and deal a huge blow to Green Bay’s Super Bowl aspirations.
With Alexander down and Gilmore now on the Panthers’ PUP list, Green Bay does have some depth on which to lean. The Pack drafted Eric Stokes in Round 1 and re-signed Kevin King. The team traded Josh Jackson straight up for Isaac Yiadom this summer and drafted Shemar Jean-Charles in the fifth round. Fourth-year defender Chandon Sullivan, however, saw his workload boosted after Alexander’s injury.
I’d like to hear what they thought would be a better return for a 2023 sixth round pick. Another tight end?
Read the article, it explains why the trigger wasn’t pulled in the second paragraph.
Sure, but there are always ways around that. At least, on most teams. They restructure contracts for players, add void years, things like that. The Packers already botched that with Rodgers when they could have restructured his deal and didn’t, and then ticked off Z’darius Smith by doing his without his input. I just think teams have too many ways to do that. I get it, though. But I think they could have gotten it done if they wanted to. You have to admit that we read a lot of stories about the Packers “thinking” about a trade and not doing one. I mean, I do like the Smith signing, I have to say that.
They reworked, restructured, and readjusted a bunch of deals in the off-season. Who could they reasonably do that with now?
Keep in mind they probably would like to extend Alexander and Adams before season’s end. Those would eat up any remaining cap space, I suspect.
True, they did a lot-Lowry, the Smiths, Turner, Amos-but they also signed Jones to a big deal. He may do it in his first year-sounds crazy, but it’s been done, and for a name like Gilmore, there is value. What about Kenny Clark? I still think that they could have fit him for a year. They had room to sign a lesser corner in Douglas-and though this would have put them against the cap, they wouldn’t have gone over. It’s not like Green Bay has to move a mountain to make it work. They just needed a little bit to be comfortable. Did they consider a sign and trade?
But this is kind of the fallout from losing trust of their players. And it’s the fallout from bad signings, like Preston Smith. Adams would have been a restructure candidate under normal circumstances. But the Packers have lost his trust. They probably could have done something with Rodgers and freed up space had they not handled his business the way they have. So yeah, I consider part of this to be related to some off-season decisions they made too. It’s hard to believe that there is NOTHING they could do to free up a couple million in space.
I think a lot of what they did was to fit Jones under the cap (at the time). I also wondered at the time how (or why) they re-upped King. I’m sure I don’t follow, or understand, cap stuff as well as you.
Seems they had every chance to rework (reword) Rodgers contract that would have freed even more space, but chose not to for whatever reason. That, I think, could have solved some issues then or now.
Thing is, they have a track record of keeping $5-10 mil free during the season for extensions or an emergency type get (I can’t think of a significant signing off the top of my head), but they’ve done it a number of times with extensions.
And we don’t know all the details about any negotiations between Gute and the Pat’s. I’m certainly not defending Gute, it’s just more complicated than “Carolina got him for a sixth, we had a sixth, he’s an idiot for not pulling the trigger.”
As far as I know, they never did anything but discuss a trade internally. I could be wrong there, but the article makes it seem like it like a quick discussion internally.
I get that they need emergency money, but this is also the last year with Rodgers. If there were a time for a risk, I personally would think that it’d be now. It’s probably just me (and I don’t think I know the cap better than you or anyone, so I of course could be wrong), but I don’t see the point of holding cap space and not using it when an opportunity comes calling to add an edge. Gilmore could finish this year in Green Bay, and not re-sign if they don’t want his salary (although Rodgers would be gone if they wanted to extend Gilmore for whatever reason).
King was re-upped to give them cushion as a starter, but a move for Gilmore would render that irrelevant (I would argue that the planned selection of Stokes should have done that already). I’m not sure what they’d save by cutting him, but maybe that’s an option.
It just seems like we always read about Green Bay “considering” doing something, and they rarely actually do it. There’s always some reason, good or bad, but there is rarely action. It seems that most other contenders do not have that same inaction.
I’m rarely sure about anything, but the Rodgers contract thing is 1 of them. IIRC, just changing some wording would have switched a chunk of money to non-cap dollars.
As for King, I felt not resigning him would have been addition by subtraction, and could have signed 2 street FA’s and hope 1 turned out as good or better than King, and saved money too.
Anyway, I wasn’t saying anything about anyone’s knowledge of salary cap stuff but mine. I don’t follow it much, and I understand less!
I agree with you there. Sorry if I came off as hostile, I apologize if I did so in any way. And I went to the ESPN story and found that I was wrong about the Packers contacting New England. So I apologize for that. It seems that it was more offseason incompetence (re-signing King and not restructuring Rodgers) than lack of desire that precipitated this. I still can’t help but think that there was some way that this could have happened as is.
They would have been left with just less than $1 million I think if they just pulled the trigger, but I feel as if there were a cut or restructure (even a small one-I don’t know if Clark would have provided any relief) giving them enough room to make it practical. In any case, it still seems like incompetence from the front office again to me personally, whether it’s traced to this past offseason or this event here.
Didn’t take it as hostile, just clarifying my ignorance!
1 other thing about the possibility of a trade for Gilmore..we all know how much Gute values his draft picks. And after giving 1 up for Cobb, might be another 10 years before he’ll give up another late rounder for an actual help-now player.
True, true.
31yr old corner that no one has seen play in over a year that wants a huge contract extension. No thanks. Father Time always wins. Even if he plays great now with another year or two age will catch up with him.
I think they wanted him but the salary cap is real. They have already reworked a bunch of contracts so it’s not that easy. Oh well.