My hat is off to the Packers All-Time sacks leader, 5 time NFL Champion and 6 time All-Pro, Hall of Fame DL Willie Davis, at 93.5! That number is determined by old footage and coaches notes. Many speculate his actual sack totals to be over 100.

While Rodgers may not need the reps, what happened to all the emphasis on chemistry with his WR's? Unless he's planning to force feed Adams (and we saw how well that worked on the Packers last possession with GTG in the NFCCG), the other guys need them.

I like the do nothing, franchise tag scenario for Adams. It makes the most sense within the Rodgers context and avoids another 'highest paid at his position' contract for the Packers.

Dr. Feelgood knew it, even if others didn't. I remember a story about one of his teammates telling him if they'd kept sack stats he'd have been credited with more than 25 during one season.

Rodger's already has things figured out. Trade him. He wants the bright lights after football. Why should he play for a FO that milks everything. And treats you like a cow, just for the cheese. He will Talk his way out of GB before the end of the season. . After watching people bitch about Rodger's salary. Adams has priced himself out of GB. This offense did just fine when he was out. And it's time the packers spread the wealth around. I'm happy for Davis. Wish we had more players like him today.

Excellent opinion piece. Especially since your thoughts parallel mine so closely, it's obvious you have a keen and perceptive grasp of reality. As far as Rodgers, just as Wilson wants to "cook", let Rodgers "stew". He seems to be enjoying being the center of attention and speculation. Fine. I believe he'll be back, and will attempt to stick it to the Packers "brain trust" (Gutekunst, Murphy? LaFleur?) for moving up to draft Love instead of trying to fill a need elsewhere on the team. And just like last year, I think he'll be a man with a mission: win another SB and dare the team to not keep him. But at the same time, his trade value would never be higher; send him to the AFC, take your chances with Love as game manager and a ground/pound running game and shorter passes mixed with some safer throws downfield. A major retooling of the team, ala the Titans. Adams? Let him walk rather than franchise him. Doing so would alienate a lot of players who are going to be looking to get a big payday (think Alexander and Jenkins in particular). Finally, Willie Davis the all time sack leader? Excellent. It's about time some of these older players get the recognition for what they accomplished. Kudos indeed to Pro Football Reference for their diligence and hard work in the days before free agency and just compensation for surviving the brutality of professional football.

Don't Rush Back
I disagree with him not needing the reps. I will say that he probably doesn't need all the reps he gets. They could give more to Love and Bortles and others while he is there.

What Would I do?
That is exactly my answer too.

Davante Adams Extension
I'm also not a capologist. So I say, get him signed at whatever it takes. Regardless of whether we have Rodgers or Love throwing the ball. Adams is the best WR in the league. We need him to stay longer.

Willie or Won't He?
Good for Willie. Good that they are redoing the stats to correct what should have been corrected years ago.

Agreed with all except franchising Adams unless they are fine with letting him walk after next year.

I think Adams is one of, if not the, best receiver in the NFL right now, but unless Rodgers is done after this year the Packers can't build a winning team with multiple players on record setting contracts for their position, and we will need the money over the next couple years to extend Tonyan, Alexander, Savage, and Gary.

Al, I agree with your observation about AR and how would you manage situation.

I'm not sure that tag is the best way for relation Packers vs Adams new contract, but I admit that we have to see what will be situation with cap in the future. If the cap will be very tight that might be the only solution.

I hope old Packers fans will be happy for the corrected injustice to Willie Davis...

Davis is getting what he deserved. In truth it’s less about stats than impact, or should be, but more and more never saw him and for that reason I’m glad it’s now enumerated.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on Rodgers. Run with what you can control and make the best of it. Do not plan for the uncontrollable.

I’m more on the fence about Adams if Rodgers doesn’t show or does and we expect him to leave. I think the franchise tag is potentially great for the team and awful for Adams, given his age. Let’s see if Love is ready to justify a new contract for Adams or if Rodgers is back for one year only, probably Adams is franchised and traded. Not sure it would be worth extending if Love is a first year starter in 2022.

Regarding "Don't Rush Back" I totally agree with you Jersey Al.

After reading Corey Behnke's tweet about the "true facts of Willie", my mind went to Cory of Cory's Corner: Its a nice feature, but I stopped reading it because of so many FACTUAL errors. Cory is a good writer. But if he does not care enough to get his facts right, then better to exclude facts from his column (I'm referring to facts like number of TDs, sacks, etc). Just write his opinions, the readers will like that.

I know, I know... I should put this comment over there in Cory's Corner; but I don't read that column anymore, so how can I put it there?

How many winning teams has DeAndre Hopkins been on? How many playoff wins has he lead his teams to?

Point being, NO WR is worth that kind of money. How many times do they actually touch the ball throughout the course of the game? As much as I love having DA17 on the team, you can't commit that much money to a WR. Didn't we go 6-0 with him out of the lineup the last two years? He'll enter his 30s during his next contract as well. Let some other team throw crazy money at him, while we retain some semblance of sanity with our salary cap.

I know I'm probably in the minority on this, but you can only have so many players being the highest paid at their position on one team.

I say stand firm on both Rodgers and Adams, they are both under contract and if they don’t want to honor the contract they signed it’s on them. If they decide not to give 100% it will only lessen their value.

The great rebuild is coming after this season anyway so why not save the salary cap space to build around Jordan Love? It is going to be a 2-3 year rebuild once Rodgers is gone.

They may as well trade Adams as well next year, he will be around 30 so why break the bank if you are rebuilding?

If the Packers decide to pay Adams & Rodgers it probably means not being able to pay young stars such as Jenkins, Alexander and Gary, so it’s major decision time for the Packers FO.

Stay tuned, some serious shit gonna go down soon!

Willie Davis - RIP you were a class act and one of the greatest Packers!!

I'd like to see Rodgers back for the week of practice before the 2nd preseason game. It doesn't mean I necessarily want him to play in the preseason, but I do want him back at practice working on his timing and anything new MLF has in the offense, ESPECIALLY Amari Rodgers. I LOVED the Amari Rodgers pick. IMO he's exactly what this offense was missing. As long as Rodgers doesn't wait till week 15 to throw him the ball because of his trust issues, Amari Rodgers will be a big part of this offense, even as a rookie.

I'm totally on the fence with Adams. He'll be 29 in December and it will probably take at least a 4 year contract at say $25 million a year. Because of the cap in 2022 the Packers would have to backload the contract, give a sizable signing bonus meaning they'd be paying him an awful lot of money once he's hitting 30 and beyond. Now I love Adams. He's got the best feet in the NFL and can beat anyone off the line. But that's just a huge red flag for me and all bets are off after 30.

Congratulations to Willie Davis. It's too bad he wasn't still with us.

Adams is a difficult situation. When combining Rodgers and Adams salary cap hit, it seems like too much for two players. I think you are right about 1 year of utilizing the franchise tag to rent for 20M. I think the franchise tag is a dick move by organization and undercuts free agency, but I did not craft the current agreement and agree to it. 30M a year for the best WR seems like too much.

I think Love can be successful in this offense due the run game and RB passing threat. Love just needs to show that he is a threat to throw deep once in a while.

It isn't the fan friendly move but the right move is to let Adams play out his deal and let him walk next year. Adams is approaching the age where his production will start to drop. Let someone else over pay him and take the comp pick. Learn something from the one franchise that is dominated the salary cap era.

Thanks for the article, Al.
Willie Davis is one of my favorite Packer Players who distinguished himself both on and off the field. He played with fierce abandon and gave 100 percent on the field and inspired those around him. His success on the field was recognized and rewarded with his induction into the Pro Football Hall of fame.
Off the field, Willie was a role model for not only kids like me, but for other professional football players as well. So many players fail in life after their football career ends, but Will Davis succeeded there as he had on the football field. He started both a successful beer distributing business and a broadcasting business. He is truly one of the Packer greats. RIP

The Packers have compensated Adams very well.

Negotiate with Adams in good faith but if he and his agent were to insist on an NFL record WR deal, let him play out his K. After the season make your last best offer. If refused, franchise tag him. And they could apply a non exclusive rights franchise tag so Adams and his agent could still seek a deal with another team. The Packers could match another team's offer....or refuse and the other team would have to give up 2 first rounders.

Even if franchise tagged, they can still continue working on a long tern deal.

Davante has been a stand up guy. Team centered leader. I think they get a deal done.

Rodgers will return prior to the second preseason game against the NY Jets but he won't participate in the practices with the Jets. He'll let Love takes those reps and then play a series or two in the second preseason game against the Jets. He'll be ready for Week 1.

A WR at $25 million+ is a huge commitment. Especially since Adams has had a few concussions and another could end his career. However, the Packers have no one behind him at this point so they will probably need to tag him for at least one season.

Having watched Willie Davis play during most of his Packer career I've always had a feeling that he would hold the Packers sack record if they kept those stats during that era. I would go so far as to say that he had more sacks of Johnny Unitas than any other Qb that he played against. In any case I'm happy to see that he is finally getting the recognition that he deserves and that is long overdue. Just a great, great player.

Thanks, Since '61

DA extension: The solution you suggested sounds pretty reasonable; other than that, I'm inclined to move on. A little more leanness and flexibility in the salary department would be welcome. This season could be the last dance with the Packers for a few of the more notable players anyway. Turn the page and continue to rebuild.

Here's where it might have made sense to draft a WR like Tee Higgins last year; but then again, we probably couldn't have drafted Love, so that's a whole other debate. And here's where not having a clear-cut #2 WR comes into play, making the decision much more difficult. Without DA, we're going to have a pretty significant void to fill, but....

The money being discussed here is a little out of my league, but I am trying to put it into perspective.

12's estimated net worth is $120 mln. If we guess that half of this in a simple S&P fund, he's made about $21.3 mln in the past year on this alone. None of us believe the $800k is much of a factor in his decision making.

Devante Adams' net worth is estimated at $25 mln. He's looking at GB tagging him at ~20 in contrast to a market value of ~27. The difference is significant to him, and while I might say nothing more than "thank you very much" to an offer of $20 mln, Devante might have a different feeling about it.

You want a "polluted mindset"? Will 2022 bring GB another unhappy star?

I have a question:

If Rodgers returns, and then has some kind of back injury, like Mike McKenzie did in 2004, what happens? Why would the GM want to expose the organization to that risk?

All this other Packer drama right now, who knows how, where or when anything will happen!? One thing I know at my age of 76 I saw Willie Davis play when being in the stands watching, Nothing more be said but "Oh Man"!

It was an honor watching the Lombardi Packers but back in the day they didn’t show every Packer game on TV in my area. There was no Thursday, Sunday night, or Monday games. I wish they would have a station that would show all the games from that era, such a brutal game that big hits were common place and I miss it.

I don't think one can evaluate extending Adams like it is Madden. There are other factors involved. The franchise tag can make sense (at least to an accountant): it is projected for 2022 to be $19.1M and $16.9M for the transition tag. Under the latter, GB can match any offer Adams might sign. Using tags sometimes leads to trades where compensation is exchanged as well but not always.

1. Franchise tagging Adams might lead to having another player unhappy with GB's front office. Players will notice that over time. OTOH, Clark and Bakh got done fairly, even generously in some opinions, as did Preston.

2. The franchise tag has to be made in late February and the tag amount counts against the top 51 salaries beginning on March 17, 2022 (first day of the new league year). GB is going to have to move if not mountains still some pretty good-sized hills to meet the new salary cap. Tag and trades are frowned on even if they are done occasionally. GB probably could have tagged Linsley and extracted a day three draft pick, but they didn't for pretty good reasons.

3. Sheer money. Unless Hopkins is considered an outlier, Adams is going to get huge money (per OTC, Hopkins reset the WR market by a whopping 24%). Players get tremendous contracts when teams trade for them and then work out the contract details later. He was traded on March 16 and the trade was finalized by April 23. Hopkins signed his new extension September 8, just days before the first game.

It is fair to say that Hopkins got $27.5M per year in new money. Yet it is also true that he will earn $60.1M in the first three years, with $15M dead and cap savings of almost $12M. At the time of his trade, Hopkins had 3 years at almost $40M with no guaranteed money left on his deal and ended up with $60M with $42M guaranteed over those same three years. He also got a no trade and no tag provision.

4. A downside for Adams is that he is probably worth a first-round pick even if he is a one-year rental at the franchise rate. See Brandin Cooks.

5. 2020 was easily Adams' best year. Highest yds/game and highest yards/target to go with 18 TDs. He definitely should want to strike now rather than wait for mid-season or 2022, or if franchised, until 2023 to cash in. And who the QB is and/or will be might well matter to him.

What should GB do? What should Adams prefer? It depends.