Packers sign McKinney, Jacobs but say goodbye to Bakhtiari, Jones

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You need Indeed. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Bart Winkler and welcome into the Winklerverse, an impromptu Monday recording as the Packers have made a bunch of moves. I have had to move as well if you're on the Dan Cheney YouTube. I'm on the backup laptop and I am now sitting on my basement floor because my quote unquote studio is over there.

And the Internet doesn't pick up as well over there. So I'm sitting directly under the router, but we're going to spruce it up. Four times Super Bowl for now. Let's make that five. Jesus Christ. There's way too many people watching this. Okay.

And here. Put that on top. That'll look good. All right. All right. That's this in the studio.

Okay. Big day for the Packers today, obviously, with the moves that they have made and the moves that they have made that you don't like. There were some signings. There were some releasing. There were some people being formed that they were going to be released. So a very adventurous day.

The Packers do get Josh Jacobs from the Raiders and they do get Xavier McKinney from the Giants. That is a very good day. That is a very good day. They also, though, told David Bakhtiari so long bye. And they told Aaron Jones, see you later. So that is a roller coaster of a day.

I think a lot of people are trying to deal with all of their emotions as things have happened quite quickly and quite ferociously. I'll start with the good. Josh Jacobs is a good running back. Josh Jacobs, I am happy that he is on the team.

I really liked him in Las Vegas. Obviously, he went to Alabama. No Alabama Crimson Tide alumni has ever scored in a Super Bowl. That could change here. That could finally change if the Packers make a Super Bowl. We thought we were getting Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones together. And I think for some people, the fact that Aaron Jones is currently not a Packer is going to be what is tainting the Josh Jacobs deal, although it shouldn't be tainted.

I don't think the Josh Jacobs deal should be tainted. Josh Jacobs is very good. If the Packers just go in with Josh Jacobs and let's say a rookie running back and I don't know, Emmanuel Wilson or something, I think that's still a very good backfield for them. Josh Jacobs is, I mean, he can do a lot of the things that AJ Dillon can't with all due respect. And I think he's a really good back. So Josh Jacobs, Packers running back.

I like the sound of that. Now, it would have been great to see him and Aaron Jones in a backfield together. That may not be the case anymore because of Aaron Jones being informed that he's going to be released. Now, will he explore a little bit? Will he explore a little bit and then possibly come back to Green Bay? Possible. Still possible, according to some of the tweets that I've seen, still possible.

But I would start to brace that Aaron Jones is not going to be back. I still haven't seen the number on Jacobs. Every contract today so far, and we're recording this just after three o'clock central time, every contract so far has been announced with the money. And this one, for whatever reason, not being announced with the money. So either it's a lot or it's not much at all.

And it's embarrassing. But he was going to get like a handful of people or a handful of money from the Raiders. And he took the Packers offer instead. So obviously it was enough money to want to come to Green Bay instead of staying with the Raiders. So I'm very interested to see what the number is. And Aaron Jones was due to make what, 12 million. And so the Packers are releasing him off of that. And very curious to see what the contracts are going to look like. If anybody has seen that or knows, do tell, do tell.

So that I think is something that I wish could be in a vacuum, but is not in a vacuum. Tim, just join. Stop flirting with me on your separate accounts. Just join the show.

God, the link's there. No one cares where you are going. Tim's going to come in here with news and no one's going to care. Tim Shea. Just Tim Shea also at 2.40. When did the Josh Jacobs news come down?

One o'clock. Tim sends me an, he sends me a, like a, the alert emoji, like the hockey lamp. And I go, what? He goes, Josh Jacobs. Come on Shea. All right. So I think that you have to look at these.

Well, I think you do look at them together. Cause the Packers backfield and for a while, for a good hour, we thought we were going to have both and we don't. I still think at the end of the day, having Josh Jacobs as your lead running back is good.

Now this last year with Vegas, it was a little down for him. He wasn't as good as he was possibly the year before. But I do think that in this offense, it's good protection.

He's a good bruiser. He can catch just like Aaron Jones. I mean, there's a lot that he could do that Aaron Jones did. It's just that Aaron Jones was the locker room leader.

All right. And we all like Aaron Jones. We all like Aaron Jones. Now, the way that some people were acting online, quick emotions, Aaron Jones at last check is no longer a Green Bay Packer, but at last check, he is still a living, breathing human. I don't know that we needed to eulogize this man, but I mean, yes, a very, very, very fond of Aaron Jones.

I put a tweet out there earlier, very sad to see Aaron Jones gone and very sad to see David Bakhtiari gone. But also the Super Bowl rings on their fingers must have fallen off. We need to get back to the Super Bowl in the worst way. We need to get back to the Super Bowl in the worst way. And I think some of these moves today and spending in free agency, which we still look at the Packers like it's just something that they never do. We still look at the Packers like it's just something.

Oh, spending money is something they never do. And a lot of people were mentioning today. Oh, don't worry about it. Why even care?

Packers aren't going to do anything. You know, just, you know, it's closure websites down. Good. He's different. Good. He's good. He's done this before.

He did this with the Smith brothers that one day. I think what's so interesting to see is we're giving money to guys at positions that we normally don't do. And if you look at the McKinney contract, what is it?

Four for 68? That's a lot of money for a safety. Twenty-five of that coming in year one.

That's a lot of money for a safety. Now, he's still a very young dude. And I think part of this whole roster finaglement today is that the Packers are getting younger. So, he's still a very young guy at 24. And it's kind of interesting that the Giants just let him go and let him walk.

So, I'm not sure what the basis for that was. But this is a guy who's going to come in and make an impact at a position where they sorely need it. Darnell Savage, nobody's saying they're sad about that. But Darnell Savage is going to Jacksonville, I think for a lot less. So, I think for a lot less than maybe three for 30, I thought I saw.

So, he's going for a lot less there. If you want to join, links on Twitter, links in the YouTube. Just reacting to everything that's happening with the Green Bay Packers today. Josh Jacobs is in. Aaron Jones is out. David Bakhtiari is out. And Xavier McKinney is in.

So, busy day for Brian Gudekins. Really, again, the safety is interesting. And then the running back, which is a swirling market that the Packers look like, okay, they're just going to keep Aaron Jones and go ahead with maybe a running back or whoever in the draft. To get Josh Jacobs was a bit of a surprise. I saw the announcement when it was first announced on the NFL Network with Rappaport. Everyone's like, Packers? Running back? How dare they do such a thing? But they must have thought that the number either was too high for Jacobs or for Jones, rather, and that Jacobs is somebody that they would rather have. So, very interesting certainly to see this all play out the way that it did.

Some of you commenting online want to hear from you guys. Todd asks, is there going to be a linebacker next or are we done making moves? Devondra Campbell is another guy who is going to be released. So, they could still add there. Stalice Tom wants to know if we're in paper champs territory. Possibly.

Possibly. We don't do this a lot on this day, which is what everybody was warning you about, but I think it's good. I think you're getting guys at positions that you needed help at. Now, there's a lot of running backs in the draft, I think, but Josh Jacobs is still very young as well. I'm really high on Josh Jacobs. I know that, you know, didn't go as well for him this year with the Raiders, but they stink.

So, I think that coming into green, you know, clearly there's somewhat of a shift. I mean, and Aaron Jones too, although Josh Jacobs, I think since 2019, they played the same amount of games. Maybe they were worried about Aaron Jones durability. He is a little older than Josh Jacobs, so maybe there's some of that to it as well, but I still like, I know it's very hard from a fan perspective to get rid of Aaron Jones and to get Josh Jacobs.

I know that that's hard. I think from a football perspective, I don't think, well, the Packers hopefully don't like, hopefully they look at this as an improvement, but I don't think it's worse. I don't think that they're any worse than they would have been without this. Xavier McKinney, excited about that. Excited to see a real bona fide safety back there. Look, there were a lot of teams that wanted him.

So, the market dictates what the contract is. The Packers paid him a lot of money, but this is something that we've always wanted them to do. So, I'm happy that they got a safety that's legit. I'm happy too that they got a running back that's good. I saw some people putting Zach Moss here. If we ended up with Zach Moss, I need a little more than that.

So, to see Josh Jacobs very happy about that. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast.

Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash Blue Wire. Just go to Indeed.com slash Blue Wire right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Blue Wire, terms and conditions apply. Need to hire?

You need Indeed. Cone Roller is here. Cone, good to see you.

What's up, buddy? Just a tough loss for the Badgers against Purdue yesterday. Hey, I watched the majority of that game.

Frustrating game, came down to it. But overall, I think this is a net positive day for the Packers. They got better. For the Packers? Yeah, they got better overall. Yeah, I think they did too. Are you sad about either Bakhtiari or Jones?

How is, how one or all are dealing with all of this from your, from your bag? What about David Bakhtiari? For sure. You know, Green Bay legend, number 69.

Those jokes never get old. And then Aaron Jones hurts. I mean, he was clearly a leader on that offense. The team just played, you know, 10 times better when he was healthy.

But that was a, that's a big if or big when, when he's healthy. And, you know, I don't, I don't blame the Packers for moving on. There's so many people saying like, like us fans don't know, guys, today, this is a business.

Yeah, no shit. We know, but it still sucks to see him, see him go. So he'll be missed. But Josh Jacobs, I think, you know, you, you'll, one guy leaves, you fill them in with the next guy.

So I think Josh, I don't see a big step down in production there. I'm not sure if it was multiple people trying to tell me this, or if it was just one person trying to really hammer this point, but someone wanted to compare Aaron Jones leaving to Josh Hader being traded for the Brewers. Way different. And I'm like, and I'm thinking we can't just, we can't just look for comparisons for everything.

Also, this is way different. You could argue that Bakhtiari and Aaron Jones cost us a Superbowl ring two separate times. By being hurt? Well, Bakhtiari being hurt against Tampa and then Aaron Jones fucking up against 49ers in that snowy game. He got that wheel on the sideline and cut up.

What was he doing? You know, Bakhtiari has been here a long time. It is kind of like the same way I thought with Randall Cobb. It's like, Oh, wow. They really never won a Superbowl while in Green Bay. Cause I know 2010, sometimes it seems like it was just the other day. And sometimes it seems like it was ages ago. But if you see it in that picture behind me, how young Aaron Rogers and Clay Matthews look like, think of, think of the, think, think, think how few books Aaron Rogers had read that he eventually ended up reading. Think of how little research this 26 year old Aaron Rogers had done. The same as the Bergstrom ads going into Oshkosh.

I'm like, who is that guy? Oh, did you notice, when was the last time you drove up there? It's probably been at least six months.

Okay. Cause it used to be all far. We're talking about the Bergstrom car ads on highway 41 in the Fox cities.

It used to be far, far, far, far. And then it was Rogers, Rogers, Rogers. Now it's like Le Fleur, Love, another guy. Love doesn't even get the whole, he doesn't even get all the billboards.

Well, maybe once he gets his extension, the Bergstrom ads are part of it. It's bullshit if you ask me. So good day.

So I've been here for 10 minutes. I don't know if anything else has happened. I also think the NFC North has gotten worse, which also helps us. I mean, the Vikings are completely out of contention for the division. I don't think the bears are really serious this year. And then, you know, it's just going to be us and the lions. Yeah.

The lines will be good. The bears bears have no market for Justin Fields now being a stealer and Kirk going to the Las Vegas maybe as the last option. I don't know.

Yeah. But I guess they're offensive coordinators, the old bears offensive coordinator. So either that's a positive or a negative. I don't know how that's going to play. Probably a negative, but the bike, I didn't think the Vikings work and they're signing a bunch of dudes yet. Like signed a linebacker. I'm hearing they could bring in Sam Darnold.

That's the name that's being floated around on X, which is just kind of funny. And then maybe draft JJ McCarthy. I know their GM has a big boner for JJ McCarthy. So yeah, JJ McCarthy or Gardner Minshew, or, you know, fill in the blank on any of these like veteran guys. These Sean O'Connell is making his presence known.

Always good to have you two together. What's up Sean? Yes. Speaking of boners. Oh, YouTube sensors cut us off. Oh, sorry. What did you say? I missed it. I said, speaking of boners, is this thing on? Jesus. There's no punch line.

Cone had just said that the Vikings GM had a boner for JJ McCarthy. It sounds like a Romy standup. Oh my God. Why are people leaving to be the headliner? Yeah. Robbie at a standup show. You got a friggin 20 year olds unironically complaining or having their parents pay their college tuition.

Unironically complaining about rich people and how dumb they are. Yeah. I love Romy's. I went to one of his open mics one night a couple of years ago and you know, I'd like to punch myself right in the balls for doing that. In fact, I will. Yep. There you go. What do you think about the Packers moves? I'm very excited, Bart Winkler. Very excited. I am also with Cone a little bit of a, you know, I don't like seeing AJ go. Hopefully, maybe, maybe there's an outside chance they bring it back for cheap, but that does hurt the old heartstrings, but it, I think it is a net positive, particularly. I also agree with Cone.

Cone is very wise gentleman. NFC North is getting weaker. The only thing I, the Bears did sign a Swift. They made another addition, which on paper looks good, but it is the Bears.

So there, it'll probably not work out in some way, shape or form. The Bakhtiari thing. I would say if there is any kind of comparison at all, it's more Kenny Rutgers ish at the end, maybe. I don't know.

What do you think about that Cone roller? Maybe a Kenny Rutgers. That might be before my time. You know, whenever I still see, he's one of those guys, like I still see a guy wearing 75, even when Bulago is here, I just always think it's Ken Rutgers. There's a lot of guys like that, like 96, I still think Sean Jones, 80, 80, I think of future Packard hall of Famer, Justin Perrillo. There's a number going around. It looks like at least AJ is chiming in with this. Four for 48 for Josh Jacobs.

Oh, wow. Is that confirmed anywhere? Yeah, by AJ in the comments. So do you think that the Packers are valuing what might be an availability potential for Josh Jacobs here higher than what we have seen in recent seasons for Aaron Jones?

Do you think that's the dynamic that's the most important to them right now? That number is being reported by Jordan Schultz, which I cannot confirm. He's been pretty spot on today. Oh yeah, that's right. Was he the guy that was talking about Aaron Rodgers to the Titans? Was that that guy? No, that was that Evan Massey. No, that was Evan Massey. No, that was a different guy. That was sources tell me that he bought, what was that guy's name?

I thought that was Jordan Schultz, but maybe not. I don't know. There's too many aggregators these days. There are too many aggregators for sure. No, I think, well, Joe, I mean, maybe this is just a niche thing. Like if they gave a four year contract to Aaron Jones, that's going to go through the 30, 31, 32, 33.

All right. And then with Josh Jacobs being out there, he's 26. I think that the over the overarching sense that I'm getting from fans today is people are really sad. They spent a lot of money on a safety. They spent money in free agency on day one.

Normally this is like, yeah, you know, you guys, you guys would have killed for this. They got a running back. Who's very good. They got a safety.

Who's very good. They got rid of some dead weight, let's say, but I, and I know people love Aaron Jones. I love Aaron Jones, but people must've loved him a lot more than I bargained for.

I think it's, I think it's heart versus head. You know, the heart is sad because the Aaron Jones, but overall, I mean, you look at it on paper, the Packers got better. There's no denying that. I just, I just like people, people are taking this day and they're worried about him being a locker room leader. They're worried they will overcome whatever. And I like they, the Green Bay Packers by August, we'll be able to overcome, you know, whatever Aaron Jones provided. And I'm not dismissing it.

What I'm saying is some of you guys might be overdoing it. Well, we, we did hear from some that Matt LaFleur lost the locker room last year. Does, did Aaron Jones help keep the locker room?

Now from a football standpoint, Jordan Love was a lot better when Aaron Jones was on the field. Exactly. Yeah, that's, that's true. So that, that helped. Cone Rollers here, the Sean O'Connell were brought to you by Happy Place Hemp, Happy Place Hemp. Promo code is BART for 25% off every order.

If you're having a hard time with all these emotions, you might just need to chill a little bit. Take one of those gummies. You can get them with THC without THC, depending on what you're looking for. They also have seltzer now, thanks to our good buddies at 1840 Brewing.

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Every time they ship it to you, every time. Promo code BART for 25% off. Paul Emig is joining the show. Mr. Emig. Cone, Sean, Paul. Sean is, Sean is starstruck.

As he should be. What a celebrity sighting. My goodness. I remember the day.

That's a good, that's a good callback. Hi Cone. It's good to see you. You too, Paul.

You too. Kinda. Sorta see you kinda. So I think my, my main takeaway right now, Paul, is that the Packers got better, but everyone is sad because Aaron Jones apparently. Well, okay. So I should say real quick, did you see the Josh Jacobs contract numbers?

Yeah. Four for 48. I mean, obviously that's fake money.

Like it'll end up being, I don't know. I would guess 18 million guaranteed of that 48. That's typically about the percent of that. And also, you know, running backs, we thought the market was dead, but Saquon got more than he would have on a tag. Josh Jacobs, this is getting more than he would have on a tag.

So for some guys, yeah. I mean, it's always going to be a short term investment. Like I said to you and Grant earlier in the text message, Colby Parkinson, tight end is getting as much as some of the running backs, like in terms of real dollars, not these fake four for 48 type of things, which are great.

Like the agent wants you to, to hear it's four for 48. And so Pelissero and others are correct in reporting that that is the number. But it's not the real money. So, you know, it's probably going to be like one of those two years, 18 guaranteed.

And after that, it's all fun money. That's not really there. The other thing you talked about getting better for those who like pro football focus. I think it's not a great tool for evaluating quarterbacks.

I do like it for the trenches and also some like defensive back stuff. And your boy is Steve Palazzolo. You've had him on right part. Have you ever had Steve on? Oh yeah. He's friend of show.

Okay. New Packers safety. Xavier McKinney has the number one PFF coverage grade when lined up at free safety since he entered the league. I am not the one to have on here to be sentimental about Aaron Jones because I'm a bit of a robot when it comes to like the sentimental aspects of players coming and going.

Like I'm like, okay, what's next? So Aaron Jones was a great Packer. I don't know if you've yet had the discussion about where he ranks in Packers all time running back lists. Has that happened yet? No.

Would you like to go down that rabbit hole? Cause I know you're really excited about that. If I learned anything earlier today, we can say that for our conversation later in the week.

That sounds good. I know you and Grant will strongly disagree. So there's a tease for later in the week. But I mean, Xavier, like Josh Jacobs is the guy we all know because we play fantasy football because running backs are more of quote unquote stars. Xavier McKinney to trade Darnell Savage for Xavier McKinney is ridiculous.

And it's a huge upgrade. So even if you're sentimental about trading Aaron Jones for Josh Jacobs, the defensive backfield got like so much better. I really can't believe that they paid. Was it for, I know again, this is fake money, but like, was it four and 64? Was it four and 76 for McKinney? Oh, right in the middle.

All right, cool. I mean, it's a lot like it's, it's a lot of money for a safety, but from all accounts of what halfly's defense needs, it's literally what Xavier McKinney is as a football player to a T like this is what halfly's defense needs. So yes. Uh, Aaron Jones was a great ambassador for the team when he was healthy. He was very good, but the Packers in their trade today of Aaron Jones for Josh Jacobs and Darnell Savage for Xavier McKinney, the Packers got quite a bit better in my estimation. And there's still a, you know, the draft coming up and we'll see, you know, maybe they bring in another veteran running back. I don't think that AJ Dylan is coming back. Somebody said, does this mean Dylan's back? If Jones has gone, I think the Packers are good on what they've got from Dylan. And if, if, if Dylan was coming back, I don't think they would have got Josh Jacobs, you know, Josh Jacobs in those like third and two situations, he will get you at least one yard. Like he won't lose two yards that Dylan did sometimes. So we'll at least get a little closer to make it fourth and one, but he'll probably get you the first down. I know that if you look at his numbers last year and like from a fantasy standpoint, oh, he's not scoring as much, but he's a younger running back.

He's 26. I think that, I think this is a good move for him. I think if you're going to lose Aaron Jones, like the next best guy you can get is Jacobs. I would have been cool with Saquon.

That would have been cool. Tony Pollard. I wasn't interested in, he went to the Titans. Now you're seeing like Devin Singletary just signed with the giants. Yeah. He's that's not going to be good. Oh, that's my hot take.

The giants, Brian Dabel will be the first coach fired this year. That's how I heard that. Yeah.

That's my take. I brought that to a national perspective. If you guys, if you're just joining, I have a CBS sports show. You can hear me tonight talk about many things, including how the Falcons did not want to pay $200 million or Lamar Jackson, but are paying $180 million to Kirk Cousins. Yeah.

I think a lot of the show is going to be about that tonight on your local affiliates in the Odyssey. Any Mike Tyson topics? I think we Mike Tyson as much as we could Mike Tyson.

You might've some, some might say you over Mike Tyson, you know, Mike Tyson, no Mike Tyson. All right. Gardner Minshew is a rater. Well, really two years, 25 million. Good for him. Yeah. That's pretty good deal.

Cause they paid a Wilkins, a bunch of money on the D line. Yep. Yep. They did.

Yeah. Well then Justin Fields has nowhere to go. You would think you wouldn't sign Minshew have Aidan McConnell and then still trade for Justin Fields, unless you really want like a three way competition for the started like you don't like, um, yeah, I don't know where he goes.

Maybe does he, he can't stay in Chicago. They have to trade them cause it will split that locker room temporarily. Your take your very strong take of like the one thing that won't happen is that Fields and Caleb Williams will be in the same locker room.

I yell at people for suggesting it. I still think you're going to be right, but you might have to have like a defensive reactive thing ready for tonight in case people like, Oh, I don't know if there's an able for Justin Fields to go Bart. Now what, where does he go? Minnesota, Minnesota. I mean the best thing I've seen, the best thing I've seen suggested for the Vikings other than that is Trey Lance.

So yeah, slim pickings perhaps. All right, Bart, I'm the bears. If you're the bears and you're out on Justin Fields, people are like, don't trade him in the division. He sucks. Then trade him in the division.

Yeah. It's not like, Oh, well we think Farb still has something in the tank, but we don't want him anymore. Or we think Aaron Rogers can have a successful year, but we don't want him anymore. Like if there's ever a time to trade someone in the division, it's now the Vikings are going to start Jaron hall otherwise they will. They won't.

I mean, they will do something. Darnold will be there. Darnold and JJ McCarthy. I saw someone earlier today said, JJ McCarthy, you are a Minnesota Viking. Like that feels accurate.

It's going to be Zach Wilson competing with Bo Nix. Everyone check out into the Winkler verse on Reddit. Great page. Happy St. Patrick's day, Cone. Bye Cone.

I hope you heard that. Everybody got big St. Patrick's day plans? No.

I treat every day like it's St. Patrick's day. Actually Bart, since the first of the year, I've been on kind of a strict diet and I'm down about 27 pounds. But it depends. One reward meal a week. So here's the thing. You get 27 or 21 meals a week, Bart Winkler. Stay on the straight and narrow for 20 of them.

Bam, give yourself whatever you want. So I think, yeah, I'll have some good corned beef and cabbage on Sunday. But you guys have a great St. Patrick's day. May you both be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead, as they say. And as my grandfather, Joe, well, he's probably looking up at us.

He's in the hot place, I'm sure. But he always used to say, for those who love us, let them love us. But for those who do not love us, may the good Lord turn their hearts. And if he can't turn the hearts, may he turn their minds. And if he can't turn their minds, let the good Lord turn their ankles, so we may know the bastards by their limps. Happy St. Patrick's day, boys.

Love you. It's like the longest anecdote ever. Can't quite fit that one neatly on like a single line.

You can't quilt that one onto a crochet, that one onto a quilt. You can, like, because like that was like the unrefined version of Greg in Michigan. We're like, all right, follow your dreams. Yeah, who was watching before I don't know if he's still here, Greg in Michigan. I think so what will happen is there's an initial shock here about Aaron Jones being gone. And people are very sad. There's a Josh Jacobs, there's gonna be a lot of, well, is he even better? You know, there's gonna be a lot of that.

And then there's going to be a lot of, because safeties aren't as like, we know our safeties. Yeah. You know? Yeah. But we don't know, we don't really, when you watch football, there's a lot of guys that are like, there's a lot of people finding out who Xavier McKinney is right now.

Yeah, for sure. And then seeing like, Oh my God, this much money for this guy. And it's only that because like you don't know him, but yeah, I'm very satisfied with the day. And again, it's a, it's a kind of day that you just don't get a lot from the Packers. There's been days where they've made splashes, like I said, the Smith brothers, but they paid a safety, which feels rare.

And then when's the last time that in free agency, they got a skill guy like this, I mean, maybe tight end Terry Glenn. Wow. Well, you consider going, so we're considering safety as a skill position. I mean, on the other side running back.

Oh, running back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like when, when's the last time they signed? I mean, even like Allen Lazard was a practice squad guy that we didn't give him the 40 or $40 million. Yeah. Contract.

It's a really good question. When is the last time they signed a skill position player? Mercedes Lewis. Wow. I mean, when we signed Reggie Cobb in 1994.

Cedric Benson. I was R.I.P. Yes.

R.I.P. I was pumped for Ced then. Yeah. I was pumped for that. Yeah.

So very good day. You know, I will be talking to the Packers a lot from a national perspective because you should. I think they definitely today. The biggest story though, has to be what Kirk slash.

They're not being a landing spot for fields, an obvious landing spot for fields. Yeah. The amount of money that Kirk has parlayed, like on believe, I mean, that playoff win into and is his agent Mike McCartney, the guy that always gets the Mike McCarthy threats. Yeah, I think it is, right?

Yeah. Oh, my buddy shows Jimmy Graham. Jimmy Graham. He Graham, which I remember there being a billboard in Milwaukee on 43. Please sign Jimmy Graham. And then like, look, do you remember that?

It was as you headed north? Yes, there was a someone's going to hear this and say like, Oh yeah, I remember the Jimmy Graham billboard. There was a solo Jimmy Graham signed, please send Jimmy Graham billboard. And also Bennett Martell has been it right. Ken is really anti Josh Jacobs in the, in the comments. Well, Bart, I would say claims he dogged it in a contract here. Well, I don't, I don't know about that. Bart, the packers upgraded safety from McKinney over Darnell Savage or duh.

My real question and we can do this more later in the week. But the Packers are neutral at running back like I don't like I actually was looking up. Like how many games do you think? Josh Jacobs has missed in his career. No, I saw a tweet today that they've 2019 Jones and Jacobs have played.

Ken says he's not anti Well, then I'm totally reading you wrong. They play the same amount of games. They play like 73 games. Oh, interesting. I did not see that. I was just looking up how many games he missed.

Because, you know, it's always like selective viewing, you kind of see what you might confirm your own biases. Like, I think of Aaron Jones as being hurt at the wrong times and or fumbling at really the wrong times. Like maybe this is a mean thing to remember a ambassador for the Packers with but like, Aaron Jones had his worst games at the wrong times. Like as much as I trusted Aaron Jones in the regular season, those there's two good I mean, there's two examples obviously of him not performing at his best in the playoffs. I mean, Bart, I think it's okay to say the Packers slightly downgraded at running back.

Even if that's true, the safety upgrade is enormous and they're not done. It's not going to be Josh Jacobs and Emmanuel Wilson at running back. Like so Jacobs was really good or Jacobs Jones is really good down the stretch.

Very good. Yeah, I mean, he was he was incredible down the stretch. Cut up the Niners cut up the Cowboys, you know, we were all totally um, but what just like I talked about with the draft. You look at Caleb Williams tape and you say, Oh, no, I didn't like how he but you're not drafting that.

Right? You're drafting what he's going to give you. I mean, you watch it to see what he does, but you want to see are there things there that he can give like, you're not drafting what has already happened. And so for the Packers, maybe they think that they got the most out of Aaron Jones that they could.

It's just Jacobs is more to give. I mean, for whether it's right or wrong. It's not like fans are going to have an emotional they will have mostly many of them an emotional reaction. Like, you know, I saw people saying like, how am I going to tell my kid that their favorite player is not on the team anymore? You know, like there's there are those moments for for some people and even for their own emotional attachment to a player.

This is this is Russ ball. Like he's just moving numbers around on a cap sheet, balancing that with the players that Goudekins likes. How much does Goudekins value that player? The running back like what I think you'd be talking about from a national perspective is like, was this a good off season for running backs or a bad off season for running backs?

I would say like, I would say it was bad. Some guys have gotten some good money. But like all in all, they're what five or six of the best 12 running backs in the league were free agents, right?

Like give or take I didn't crack that I didn't do a top 12 list. But like, well, Henry's not signed yet either. Is he? No, no, but I'm like several of the most prominent names and running backs are free agents. And meanwhile, like guards are getting $100 million contracts. Safeties are getting $68 million contracts.

Yeah. Who are the same age as several of the running backs who are available. So like if you're drafting a running back, it's like, I think it's more quantity than it is quality. Like seven Singletary is getting three for 17.

So that's about 5.5 for a mid. And then Jacobs if we put him towards the top is getting 12. Right. And again, like the comparison that I always use, I'm sure you've heard me say it is last year, the Ravens signed two 30 year old free agents. One was Melvin Gordon, who got a one year deal for 3 million. Yeah. The other was Odell Beckham Jr. Yeah. And neither of these guys really gave him that much.

But he got 15. Yeah. So and there were a lot of running backs and a lot of people needed them. And you know, maybe you're bidding against each other. That's a good question.

That's a I will take that. Yeah. I mean, and I say what I say, like, I think it's a bad off season for running backs, like parents don't let your kids grow up to be running backs. Like if they're a really talented athlete, like it's the wrong position to play if you know, again, speaking monetarily and how you're going to maximize your future earnings, but like it's true, like, no other position is going to have five of the top 12. Let's call it available at the same time, because none of their teams want to give them $12 million for a year.

It's just a really, really I think this is a devalue. I mean, again, some guys got paid. Josh Jacobs got what was his guarantee like 13 million or something and Saquon got more than that. And Christian McCaffrey is not well, I know Christian McCaffrey couldn't afford a Super Bowl suite.

But other than that, he's doing just fine financially. They make good money, but it's still normal like other wide receivers is you're not going to see the wide receiver position have five of the top 12 guys all for ages at the same time, because their teams like now I'd rather save a million dollars on our cap sheet, which is what the Packers did. I mean, I haven't the final numbers and how it's all going to be dead caps or whatever else aren't in yet.

But by the way, the other thing I think that's worth mentioning. Not that long ago, two years ago, the Packers would have been defined as like, hey, name five Packers, Rogers, Devante, Bakhtiari, Aaron Jones, maybe you'd say like Zadarius Smith or Adrian Amos or like it. The the face of the room is Mason Crosby is like, I mean, the the look of this team like the main guys you would talk about has very quickly turned over, which it needed to because, you know, Ryan Horvat would not like this being said, but the cap is not a myth. It is, as we've talked about, a credit card that you can you can keep you can keep spending if you want.

But someday the bill will come due and you can keep pushing it if you want and keep paying into people lost their jobs the last couple of weeks here because the cap is not a myth. Right. And so this is yeah. So it's. Yeah. So but I mean, like just the when the Rogers era ended, I mean, and even prior to that ending, like it's it's a drastically, drastically different and now even younger team. It's even younger. YouTube is doing this thing or the StreamYard link on the Dan Cheney YouTube stream where it's the StreamYard is normally have a number up here that tells me how many people are watching YouTube live. But now it's just doing a running total of how many people have viewed it.

So for a while, I thought we were talking to like thousands of people, but it's different people at different. How close are you to passing Shannon Sharpen Cat Williams? We need to we need to get like. We need to get John Cena naked on here. Yeah.

But then you would get you might get flagged then. So did you see him at the Oscars? I mean, I've seen the clips, but man, that guy's guy's defined. Well, real quick. Go ahead.

Yeah, you go. No, Dave. Dave mentions because we're trying to figure out where Aaron Jones is going to go. What if what if he goes to Dallas? Mm hmm. You know who else is a free agent? Jamal Williams.

Oh, that'd be fun. Here's a here's a comment from Micah. Why do I get Geordie for Jimmy Graham vibes with Jones for Jacobs? I hope you are wrong. Yeah, is it is it a Wisconsin thing or is it a fan thing? Like today is a good day. But if you ask Packer fans, what's your lead emotion after getting a day that they've wanted for a long time? It's sadness about Aaron Jones.

What's the thing that they wanted for a long time? A safety, a free agent day where we're involved? Yeah. I mean, I don't think this is just like the trade deadline. Like, I don't think we really care. I think we just like that moment.

Well, I mean, again, I think the Packers. Yeah, like that. No, I think I think people become attached to players. Aaron Jones is as likable of a human that plays a sport as exists. I think that's fair to say. Bach tiari is a huge personality. Now not he's not been playing in recent years, but for a lot of people like, hey, name some Green Bay Packers. They'd say, okay, let me think.

Aaron Jones, David Bach tiari, you know, like their early names that would come up in, in that type of game, the, you know, the associative thing, like, oh, like, who would it be? So I get that. That's not my personality. But it's okay to like a player. And also, yeah, like, realize that this is this is all a spreadsheet, like, like it or not, like a lot of this is numbers on a page and production. This is the same thing that happened with the Brewers where they got Reese Hoskins. Yeah.

And then traded Corbin burns. Right. So there was that moment in time where you're like Hoskins and burns. Okay. And then like, oh, it's just Hoskins.

Right. So like for those three hours today, when we thought, oh, Jones and I did too, like, and I still think about the way, speaking of the Brewers, Aaron Jones could Brandon Woodruff himself. Hey, go explore the market. Oh, you didn't get the deal you thought you would come on back.

Like it's not. And I thought I saw Tom Silverstein reported that earlier. I would say it's unlikely that Aaron Jones comes back. But it was unlikely that Brandon Woodruff came back.

Like if you want to go test the market and see what you're worth. Cool. But that doesn't mean he's absolutely gone. But I would say that just Josh Jacobs is not enough for the running back room.

And I could all but guarantee that Brian Gudekins would agree with that. It's not like cool, like Josh Jacobs and then like whoever like, no, like, there's going to be your Zamir White to your Josh Jacobs. Like that is what is going to happen. It hasn't happened yet. Because the off season like literally just actually jump started today. By the way, if this wasn't the kicker position, this would be a huge story.

But did you see the will Lutz thing? Yeah, I want to bring that up to two tweets on bring up to you. So remember, all of these are agreeing to terms. Nobody signed anything today.

You can't do that till I think Wednesday. Yeah, Lutz was going to go to Jacksonville, he agreed to terms. And now he's going back to Denver.

So maybe they threw more money at him like that can still happen. Yep. I don't think we need to worry about that in either case. But here's a tweet from Spo track. March of 2021.

And this goes back to your conversation. March of 2021. The Green Bay Packers signed Aaron Jones, a four year deal with for $48 million. Yep. 13 million guaranteed. Yeah, this March, Josh Jacobs signed a four year deal worth $48 million.

12.5 guaranteed. Yeah. Yeah, it's the same. Yeah. And actually, it's less because the cap is bigger now. So yeah, the same dollars, but percentage wise, it's it's less. Yeah.

Yep. I think, you know, at this point, I would like it. Not that long ago earlier today, I would have said it's going to be Aaron Jones and Josh Jacobs together. So I admit that that is definitely what I thought would happen.

Like I said, it could still happen. I think the most likely thing is now is that they draft a running back in the third and sixth rounds. Add that to the room with Jacobs.

And that's your that's your group. And Jeffrey's right. Both were 26 when they signed. So the Packers are clearly looking at the age as a number here. Corey says glad I don't have to pay attention to box Twitter ever again.

Trying to be somewhere between Rogers and JJ Watts. Bach is like the box Twitter. What's back like Bo X. Oh, Bach Bach tiara. Yeah, I mean, are we like a lot of the sadnesses for Aaron Jones, but with David Bach tiara, and he did get hurt and it probably cost them a Super Bowl. I I'm fine with arguing that it did.

But I'm not sad. I don't I think I played one game. I think there was a lot of drama attached with Bach tiara. The that game he played against the Bears in week one.

And then all of the of this past season, the 2023 season, the game that Bach tiara had, and then the social media stuff he did afterward. Remember those moments, shall we write like that was elite left tackle play. And this was a I mean, I was covering the team when they drafted box yari. And so I know the story quite well, but it's not not that you had to be in that situation to know this but like, they drafted box yari in the fourth round from a one and 11 Colorado buffaloes team. Like that Colorado team was so so bad box yari became I don't even know if it's arguable like the best tackle in Packers history offensive tackle. And that injury destroyed.

And by the way, that's another reason why. And I know like Scott Boris and baseball and others in foot like agents would disagree with this. But box yari if he would have waited, like how many days passed between him signing that mega mega extension three years ago, and then his practice injury, it wasn't long, it was like a month and a half. So like, if you if you have an offer on the table, future football players, current football players, and you're like, it's a little bit light, I'd like 2% more than that before I sign, you might hurt your knee in practice and never play the same again. So like, sign it, like I just can't believe that some people would take that risk of like, oh, man, if I could only get this small percentage more and that I want to be the highest paid in the history of the position which by the way box yari was for like two weeks and then where me tonsil I think out earned him or whatever, but Leonard Floyd to the Niners. Yeah, that's, that's whatever. I mean, so a lot of people are tweeting that the Niners defense is the Avengers.

collecting them all. I mean, whatever. Um, alright, so Xavier McKinney. Great, great. That looked like it was gonna be okay. Packers are in the mix, you know, goodie in the mix. And then he goes somewhere else. But he chose Green Bay.

Love that. And then Josh Jacobs. I think I don't even know that it's necessarily like we're looking at so two years ago, he scored 12 touchdowns at 1600 yards. Yeah, and by the way, he ran for 805 yards in a row. I mean, you guys watch the Raiders. Yeah, they fired their coach. Yeah. By the way, the numbers just came in officially.

palacero had it. 12 and a half. This is for Josh Jacobs 12 and a half million dollar signing bonus 14.8 total in year one. So essentially it's 14.8 million. Green Bay palacero as Green Bay doesn't guarantee future salaries. So a very strong deal for the 2022 NFL Russian champ.

This is a one year 14.8 million dollar deal with team options. Yeah, there's I mean, he's probably not. Which is why this kind of further clarifies, they're gonna draft at least one I would argue they're gonna draft two, they're gonna do the Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams thing in this draft. And that'll be your new running back room.

Alright, Ken, I don't know what is going on. I just see a lot of people in the comments yelling at Ken, who has now tweeted AJ was the driving force of our offense last season. I mean, things did change when Aaron Jones came back. Okay, I thought he meant Aaron. AJ Dylan. Oh, I think he means Aaron Jones. Yeah, nobody's don't call Aaron Jones AJ.

You can't that's the you can't do that. I think if you didn't have an AJ we call AJ Dylan ad. Stop calling him AJ Ken that doesn't.

That doesn't work. You're confusing the masses. We have an AJ. No, it is called Aaron Jones AJ.

The entire eight years he was here. And don't start it when we have an AJ or there's another one to talk about. Do you like my background, by the way? Mm hmm. It starts coming along.

Or just this is the same spot. I'm sitting down on the floor. Oh, is that?

Man. Well, on the internet still dick. It's been better. But yeah, you've cut out a couple times.

This computer they gave me is bad. Well, I shouldn't have punched my other one. That's, that's where this that's where this starts. I Yeah, maybe maybe we should take some personal accountability here wouldn't be the worst idea, right? Alright, so we will reconvene later this week. I'm looking forward to it because yes, spoiler alert. Barton Grant don't agree on much of what's happened today.

So should be fun. We just have different opinions on how good Josh Jacobs is strongly different opinions. I believe Grant called him mid. He did a rotational attack.

And I think he used that he used the word decent at one point. I don't know. Yeah. So I do not foresee me doing a show on Tuesday now. This was the time to do it.

Yeah. I don't know what to talk about now tomorrow. Well, if it's two o'clock tomorrow and you're jonesing for some Winkler. Go listen to the podcast of the CBS show my way. Do that. Do that.

Good day. I see the reason I waited so long. You may have thought if Bart's gonna go live, why didn't he go live after Josh Jacobs? Because as an owner, I had I had a I had an in that we were going to sign McKinney. You know, people ask what's your dividend how much you get paid? We do and I shouldn't even be announcing this because it's part of the bylaws. But just the clue.

I know it's just us here. When you're an owner and these kind of moves happen, you get you do get like, we get the we get an email. And then owners, let me check her name was Kathy and appear. Oh, she was pissed when she found out Aaron Jones was leaving. She is all Kathy.

Although he might have just had a really good bit there, but you've cut out so this might be the good sign to to call it. I can't I can't the pot. Who knew that punching a laptop would cause this much strife in my life. Thanks, Paul. Bye.

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