Following a short retirement, Tom Clements is coming back to the NFL. The longtime Packers assistant will return to Green Bay to become the team’s quarterbacks coach, Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com notes. While Clements has not signed a contract just yet, the parties have agreed to terms, ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky adds (on Twitter).
Previously with the Cardinals, Clements has been an NFL QBs coach since 1997. Much of that time came in Green Bay. The 68-year-old staffer spent 11 seasons with the Packers, working as their QBs coach and serving as one of Mike McCarthy‘s offensive coordinators during the 2010s. This move could impact Aaron Rodgers‘ forthcoming decision, with The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman positing (via Twitter) it is unlikely Clements would agree to return to the Packers unless Rodgers would be in the picture.
Clements served as Green Bay’s QBs coach from 2006-11, beginning his tenure when McCarthy arrived and when Brett Favre was still the Packers’ QB1. This involved two years of Rodgers development and his ascent to the MVP tier. Clements was on the Packers’ staff for the first two Rodgers MVP slates, staying on through the 2016 season, and the veteran quarterback has offered Clements extensive praise over the past several years, Schneidman adds (via Twitter).
Clements will replace Luke Getsy, whom the Bears hired as their offensive coordinator. A former Heisman candidate at Notre Dame, Clements served as the Bills’ OC for a time in the 2000s and spent two seasons helping Kliff Kingsbury as the Cardinals’ passing-game coordinator.
It is certainly not a lock Rodgers returns, but Matt LaFleur bringing Clements back to Wisconsin cannot hurt here. And Rodgers’ relationship with the Packers has undoubtedly improved compared to where it was during the 2021 offseason. While the Packers have seen the long-QB-needy Broncos hire Nathaniel Hackett and stay in the mix as the likely top outside Rodgers suitor, the NFC North champions continue to receive positive signs their 14-year starter is interested in coming back.
So the Packers are bending over Packers to appease Rodgers….again and yet they are $40+M over the cap with Adams as a free agent. I’m very curious to see how this plays out. (bending to the wants of their QB, but yet have zero money to afford any of it)
Cutting some players, letting some walk and restructuring others or deferring money to other years are all on the table.
So by your own admission (cutting some players, letting some walk…) the Packers will be weaker for re-signing Rodgers. They will not be able to sign any free agents of note and in order to keep Rodgers (and we aren’t even discussing Adams), this looks like trying to compete, but is actually rebuilding with the amount of players they will have to let go/not resign.
There is some dead weight to trim off the roster, but not enough to get to $40-45M without having to cut contributors from the roster. Go to any salary cap website and determine for yourself who will need to go in order to keep Rodgers.
I know you’re directly replying to Delbert, but I’ll interject if I may…
Z Smith essentially didn’t play this past season (the parts of the 2 he appeared in, they lost anyway..), and if memory serves they can shave about $15 mil by outright cutting ties (not sure if a post june 1 designation would help more).
Crosby, who is either the most hated or loved by fans (second only to Rodgers) I believe saves between $4 and 5 mil.
Turner is another cut candidate (I don’t recall the savings there..probably in the $6-8 mil range. That’s halfway to the over-the-cap amount already.
If there’s any way to rework Bahktiari’s deal I’m sure they will. I heard his cap hit if they cut him is like $39 mil, so thats not an option, but I’m sure something can and likely will get done.
As I said in my other comment, any new deal/extension with Rodgers will have to involve his ’22 cap number to come down (I think it’s currently $45ish mil, so they can easily get that down significantly IF both sides are set on continuing the relationship). Let’s just say that number drops to around $30 mil (not counting signing bonus money which doesn’t affect the cap). There’s another $15 mil saved.
Preston Smith to me is a tricky one. I think this year showed he’s valuable, and if he’s willing to discuss an extension they can save some money there by back loading it and/or a nice signing bonus.
I just read a story this morning that said something about new TV deal in the near future, so the cap will go up and these back loaded deals won’t bite them.
Beyond that, as far as losing some guys..it happens every year to every team so that’s neither here nor there. And as far as the names and numbers I mentioned, they’re not exact and I’m sure Russ Ball, Gute and Co have a better idea of exact figures, and other areas they can save, rework deals, and so on.
Now, my personal feeling is actually that it’s time to move on, trade Rodgers (and Adams..unless…) for the best package they can get and go from there. If they manage to get a quality qb in return then it may be more of a retool than rebuild. Rumors have mentioned the possibility of the Raiders offering Carr + picks which is the only way I see it not being a major rebuild, and possibly figuring something out..if only for 1 year..to hang onto Adams. Otherwise I don’t see the point in having an unhappy, high(est) paid wr and no qb to get him the ball.
The first part of your statement is tricky, what if one domino says “no” to restructuring? Like I said previously, there are some players who are easy decisions to make. There are salary cap websites that are interactive. I’ve gone to the Packers and have played around a bit with how they are going to do this – cuts will be made, not based on ability, but on contracts and not just one or two. No matter how you slice it the Packers roster will be impacted, $40-45M OVER the cap with a number of free agents isn’t something to scoff at.
The later half of your statement I completely agree with. If I’m the Packers front office, I trade Rodgers right now, in my eyes, his value will never be higher (remember he’s 38). At some point, the Packers need to know what they have in Love, otherwise they will be playing the salary cap game for years to come. Rodgers will not play forever, how many more “decent” years will he have, 1? 3? 5? No one knows – it’s not like he’s 25 or 26.
Salary cap is expected to jump in 2023, which will save some teams – my own two cents, a number of GM / Salary Cap geniuses, likely anticipated that the cap would jump every year, then COVID hit – teams like Vikings, Packers, Eagles (last year), Saints, etc – likely never anticipated the cap DROPPING last year and now face a salary cap problem the last two years.
Anyone can refuse to a restructured, reworked or reworded deal I suppose. I’ll add though, that GB had the ability to change a few deals last year without player input. Rodgers, as I understand it, was 1 of them..but for some reason they opted not to. I believe that was also why Z Smith took issue with the F.O.
I don’t know if they have that ability again this year with anyone. My guess is no, or if they do they might want to discuss it anyway.
I have not checked any of the salary cap sites, just relaying (to the best of my memory..which I admit is not always the sharpest!) what I read here and there. I’ll also confess most of that comes from Packers or Wisconsin writers, whose opinions on what can or should be done may be skewed, but I don’t think they can skew the numbers to make it work.
I also just remembered that Cobb is another likely candidate to either be released or his contract redone. I want to say the savings is over $9 mil, though his salary is not that high. Based on age, injury history, etc I don’t see any way he’s on the team with that cap hit, even if they work something out with Rodgers, and this would upset him.
Would you share a link or 2 for the cap sites? I’m curious what I’ve been missing all this time.
link to overthecap.com
link to spotrac.com
Dairyland express (all 1 word) just wrote an article a couple days ago about 12 possible moves (they seem pretty confident most if not all can and will be done) for GB to make to not just get under the cap, but create a good chunk of room for possible free agent signings.
I suspect they have a better idea of player feelings regarding restructures, extensions and so on. Seems to me the 2 toughest to predict are the Rodgers extension and Bahktiari restructure.
At any rate, I think they can get there and “run it back” but I also still think it’s time to change course/retool. As they say, it’s better to move on a year too early than a year too late.
Man – that’s a lot of moves to make. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but once you get beyond 7 or 8, it becomes a crap shoot and just kicking the can down the road. At some point, the cap is going to bite the Packers, whether it’s in 2022 or in some future year, it’s going to happen. As I said previously, there is easily $30M that can be shed at the drop of a hat. It’s going to be difficult to get Rogers AND Adams on the roster. I have read where Adams will be $20-25M/year contract.
My personal belief (take it for what it’s worth), the Packers front office is saying all the right things, so if Rodgers leaves it will be on him.
If he wants to stay and they extend him and all of the players get cut/let go, they can say “well, we need to pay Rodgers”.
Either way, the front office will shrug and say, we did all we could, to look good in the eyes of the fans. The front office does not want to be the bad guy.
It is a lot of moves for sure. There are some easier ones..at least on paper, then it gets tricky. Timing is a big factor as well..if I recall, only 2 cuts can be designated post june 1st. Not sure if trades, extensions or restructured deals fall under that same rule or not. At any rate, they’ll have a lot of dead money for ’22 regardless of what they can, and do, decide.
They also have to try and make these moves in the order they’ll save the most money, and players being willing to negotiate in that order. I’m curious what the strategy is (or are) and how the dominoes will fall. But im also glad I’m not the one who has to try and get it done!
As for the Rodgers issue specifically..so much depends on his decision or preference. And that’s 1 of the first dominoes that has to fall.
This site just posted a story on Adams that I found interesting.
I tried to post links to to salary cap sites, but apparently I can’t – it’s restricted. google “overthecap” (one word) and “sportrac”
Thank you. And I hope you didn’t get in trouble for attempting to share those links.
Perhaps these moves are to give the impression they intend to keep him, in order to up the asking price in a trade. Remember, he hasn’t made his decision yet (that I’m aware of, though supposedly he told the team “I’m outta here” just today, despite not being able to find ANY verification of it, which is odd since there are usually 5 stories a day of schefter-level factual information..but I digress), so keep making the Broncos think about raising their bid.
As for the cap, I did see a couple articles listing who to cut, restructure and so forth to fix it..and if they do something with Rodgers, both sides will need to understand he has to make some concessions in order to field a competitive team, including keeping his favorite wr’s around.
Even if Rodgers was not a part of the equation this is a sensible hire as Clements has a soild resume. He’s a member of the CFL HOF and could probably get a job in that league in a heartbeat if he wanted to.