Al you were close. I have learned one thing. I can never predict what Gute is up to and will do. I have better chances of figuring out what my wife is thinking. I guess that is better for me. I do not believe the Packers and Gute would give up that much and pay that much for Parsons. There is 6 degrees of separation between Parsons and I and I have heard nothing of the matter. Oh by the way I do not believe in the 6 degrees of separation theory. But we all know anything can happen.

I am surprised that Gute cut both Welch and Simmons. I really thought he was going to make the mistake of keeping Simmons over Welch. One of them or both will probably be back.

I expect Gute's put in at least one waiver claim for a CB.

Or at least I hope he has, because if the Packers go into week 1 with their current guys, it's gonna be a long day.

CB is the only position group on the team that screams liability.

I'm most concerned about Love's thumb and whether he should be playing 2 games in the first week.

Is it possible that Melton could be returning kicks? I'm just trying to guess, but Nixon and Reed don't need to do this.

There's no way Parsons will be ready for opening weekend, so I think this is just clickbait. The Packers don't do this kind of stuff. That said, it probably is a smoke screen for some other blockbuster just to prove how wrong I usually am before you guys do it for me.

We are very, very close to the baloney being over for this season.

The two surprises for me were keeping only four linebackers and then keeping six CBs. Like Al, I will not be surprised if the Packers IR either Anderson or Sorrell and resign Welch to the 53. Four linebackers seems light for the position. The larger puzzle is six CBs when Bullard plays both S and slot CB, effectively giving the Packers seven CBs. That seems more than necessary so I can only conclude they see a lot more in Hadden and Robinson than I do. Either that or another shoe drops soon............

And no to Micah Parsons at that crazy price.

Congratulations again, Al. I agree one or 2 IR designations are coming up, IMO....with at least one of the LBs added to start (Gute stated he wanted to keep 6 right?). I think they will try to get Balllentine, King, and Baldwin on the PS, pending waivers.

Regarding the next few days, I am keeping my eye on OL and TEs they may be interested in adding to the roster/practice squad. Here are some names, many with previous Packer interest, and most just depth/developmental pieces.

OL's - Esa Pole, Jacob Bayer, Layden Robinson (would they let him recover on the PS?), Xavier Truss, Logan Brown, Trey Wedig, Reid Hoskey,

TE's - Josh Whyle, Greg Dulcich, Dalton Keene, Jaheim Bell (h-back), EJ Jenkins

DLinemen/DE - Keeping 11 on the roster, do they add to this on the practice squad? Maybe a DE...Regardless there are a number of intriquing NTs & DTs available.

DB - Beau Brade & MJ Devonshire were waived by the Ravens....there are others, but I feel the Packers believe they have the players they want by keeping the 6, plus Ballentine and Baldwin on the PS - perhaps.

Al, I think they cut Welch and Simmons and told Welch "We're going to bring you back to the 53 in a couple days, if you wait for us." They figured if he signs with another team, they still have Simmons (or Jamon Johnson, or a free agent) as an option.
I fully expect Welch to be back soon.

I kept thinking about Micah Robinson the past couple weeks.
He reeked of Gute's annual "stashing" of a drafted player who he thinks is good enough to develop. Every year, there is one (or a couple) of these guys who seem to get less playing time in the preseason than you'd expect; then, they end up on the 53 or the PS. I won't be shocked if he's moved to the PS after the post-cut feeding frenzy is over.

I think it's still possible that Green Bay nabs someone else's PS DT and puts Stackhouse on our PS.

My biggest surprise was keeping Hadden. He was a favorite of mine before the draft, but his lack of speed made him seem an unlikely 53 candidate. He DOES play the ball well, and is "sticky," so maybe they will move him to slot? I don't know.

Parson rumored gives me Hadl-related PTSD.

I don’t believe it’s going to happen for a second, but I would pull the trigger on that trade in a New York minute. Two first rounders and a second? Big deal. That’s LVN and Eric Stokes and Josh Jackson for an All-Pro. A real bargain in my opinion.

"Overall, my prediction got 49/53 correct and if not for two last minute changes I made, where I talked myself out of the correct choices, it would have been 51 which would have tied me for best result on #Packers Twitter."

So what was the AVERAGE result? I'm guessing the spread in outcomes was not very large.

"Others have chimed in with their own "inside information" that the Packers have offered two 1st round picks, a 2nd round pick and a 5th round pick."

I am head-butting with my kitchen countertops on this one. I am against acquiring Micah for that price...and my countertops are formica.

Peas (and carrots),

Pantz

I am all for trying to acquire Parsons and it appears to be more than rumor a reasonable deal had been floated out there. He is a generational player just entering his prime. He could win the next 3 defensive player of the year awards. He is the type of player that is hard to pass up on.

I would think the Cowboys would want a player in return. I was thinking Gary with a 1st and possibly a 2nd. Two firsts might get it done as well and I would still consider this as the Packers haven't had the best of luck with the 1st round. They might be able to turn Gary as well to get back some draft compensation.

Probably won't happen but I think we would be a huge upgrade on the roster. The cap hit would be hard but I think Ball is up to the task.

A friend of my cousin's neighbor lives in the DFW area and she saw Stephen Jones shopping at Kroger. I think it was in the Produce aisle, but anyway he was on his phone, presumably with Jerruh, and from what she could hear Stephen had the Parsons to GB deal all worked out, but Jerruh was so far up his own azz watching his Netflix series that it wasn't gaining traction. Just what I heard.

IMHO, Gute would never part with that many draft picks.

I do not get the interest in which lower-tier, non-impact players make the roster. Will any of these players (20+) make an appreciable difference? Is it the possibility of one of them becoming a difference-maker?

2 more weeks. Yippee!

This roster also looks unfinished to me. Partly that’s the 4 ILB and 4 TE mix. Though the latter may in part be due to the injuries at WR, it’s hard for me to see Sims as an upgrade on Welch on STs (or even Simmons) and Sims is not a good blocker. He could have been stashed on the PS. He may yet be or just be released.

I’m less surprised by the CBs. I favored King, but I did not think they would keep 2 slower players in Hadden and King. I thought they might keep Robinson. It’s hard to judge when a CB is deterring targets in games that aren’t schemed for or simply getting lucky, but he was pretty sticky in perimeter coverage through the summer. I see this as wanting a longer look. Keeping him on the 53 was a mild surprise.

Hadden is bigger than King and has a better 10 yards split and has been used outside as well as in. He fits the Hafley profile better for zone. I am left feeling that has to be the reason? I don’t think he will ever be good, but just ok and highly dependent on zone covering his speed and significant stiffness.

I think you are acute about Stackhouse and Brinson making Brinson better. With time, that should help Wyatt, Brooks and even Wooden too when Clark is off the field as well as just heavy sets for heavy run D. Wooden gives them a pass heavy option. To me, Brooks has very clearly shown himself to be the 3rd best DT at this point.

I’m surprised they used a return on Monk if others do need IR. Perhaps that says they think more of him than many outsiders? I am, like you, surprised at Smith being cut. I assume that means they are confident Jenkins will be fully healthy? I hope we get Smith to the PS unless we find another veteran who can get up to speed fast. The summer has emphasized that a at least competent 3rd C in snapping and protection is valuable, especially when there are questions about more than one OL’s health/durability and depth overlaps.

With Orzech signing a new deal yesterday, if there is a straw man cut yesterday it was not going to be him. That leaves Welch, Simmons, Hardman or Ballentine. Welch seems the most plausible based on team connections and position numbers, but it could be 2 are brought back (Ballentine?).

One of the brutal aspects of cuts is that sometimes players make the initial solely for numbers and are then dropped completely. Teams often prefer to try and lose the ones they want back in the cut down avalanche (knowing a claim means filling a roster spot for 3 Games deters too many) and hold on to one they don’t want on their PS temporarily. Sims, Jennings, Robinson all come to mind as possibilities.

I’d think Jennings and Robinson would have at least earned PS interest from us and thus unlikely candidates, but perhaps it’s the opposite. Sims though seems a more likely possibility. He was phased out last year for Fitzpatrick and not close to him in the summer. He’s not as good a blocker or receiver (and Fitzpatrick is not great at blocking either) and has minimal upside. It could easily be they move on via the PS for a player free of waivers or a waiver claim for whom he is cut.

Given Reed’s health questions, I have to think we either sign a PR or add one to the PS. Nixon is both busy at CB 1 (Hobbs likely absent), probably returning kicks and had been an adventure on punts at times (though mostly without disaster yet). I just don’t see that or going in without a back up. Absent Reed, Shepherd was the only one on the 90 I can recall being tried who could back up. I think we will look for an option if there’s any question over Reed’s availability, possibly via a PS elevation.

Bissacia has some work to do. The pundits who predicted a strong ST skew on the roster have mostly been confounded, particularly if Welch is not a straw cut.

This roster has a more unfinished feel at the back end than usual, and Gute usually churns after waivers as well as through claims, more so typically (our priority is not great). More intrigue to come in the next week I think.

"On offense, I was perfect except for one roll of the dice I took, and that was putting Lecitius Smith on the roster. I really felt he played well at center against the Seahawks, looking much better than Jacob Monk. "
I saw the same thing that you did about Smith. I thought there was a chance he'd make it.

"A smart thing I did was keeping Ben Sims. I saw a lot of people going with three tight ends in their predictions and just going by the Packers' past history, I knew that just wasn't going to happen."
I honestly thought they would keep 4 TE's I just wasn't sure Sims would be the 4th. Which by that I mean I think they could add someone in place of him.

"I was 95% convinced the Packers would want to keep BOTH Brinson and Stackhouse."
I was not as sure about Stackhouse. Brinson I knew they were keeping for sure. I just wasn't completely sold on Stackhouse. I thought he had a good chance of making it, but I thought there might be something they didn't see in him.

"Defensive end was rather obvious, with five keepers and Arron Mosby being the odd man out."
I thought Mosby might make it with Sorrell being hurt.

"The Linebacker position was seemingly a Sophie's Choice of Kristian Welch or Isaiah SImmons. Precious few would have predicted that Gutey would choose to abandon both of his children. I certainly didn't. "
I was surprised that they only kept 4 initially. I do believe there will be moves made here though. I could see Welch being back.

"Finally we have the cornerback position."
The only surprise on the roster to me was them not keeping King. I thought he played well enough to earn a roster spot. And Hadden did not look good in the one preseason game. So I wasn't sure he'd make it. Now that being said, he did look good in this last preseason game. And they didn't have as much of a need for a nickel CB as much as outside CB. And who knows how they felt about each player on Teams.

"Summary: As stated in my first sentence, the Packers' roster could change over the next day or two and I expect it to. I could see either Anderson or Sorrell being put on IR and Welch being brought back to add a fifth linebacker and assume his special teams ace role. I could also anticipate the Packers scouring interior offensive linemen let go by other teams in an effort to upgrade from Donovan Jennings. A G/C type might make sense to give the Packers another option at backup center besides having to move Sean Rhyan there."
I could also see them IR'ing more people. Savion Williams is another candidate. The roster isn't completed. its just the first step.

"Finally, for your general entertainment, I bring you this. Some guy on twitter is claiming to be a friend of someone who lives next door to one of the Cowboys' team physical therapists. He did some work with Parson today and the word is that the Packers have a deal in place for a Parsons trade and a contract that will pay him $45M/yr if Parson agrees to it. Others have chimed in with their own "inside information" that the Packers have offered two 1st round picks, a 2nd round pick and a 5th round pick. Soooooooooooooo, do you believe it?"

Seeing Kay Adam giving the "You Guys" tweet. Followed with John Kuhn saying Micah Freaking Parsons... And some other things I have seen online. I don't think its nothing. Not saying it will happen. But its not nothing.

Regarding cutdown day and the final 53 - a relatively nondescript and predictable couple of days - which is a microcosm of the training camp as a whole. This isn't necessarily bad as the roster required more finishing touches than a complete renovation. However, thank goodness for other summer actvities.

As far as Parsons to the Packers - the opportunity cost (as stated) is much too high. A hard pass for me.

Andy Herman said there is at least one experienced punt returner out there who might be worth picking up.

Remember When the Vikings traded their entire team and picks to Dallas for H. Walker? Yeah, me too. Don't do it. Why set Dallas's future up while sending ours into the abyss for one guy? We are finally cap healthy but have some big numbers to pay out in the coming years starting next year. We will be losing some big vets sooner than later (Clark, Jenks come to mind) and will need to be replaced via the draft. Giving up picks will set that effort back. If we could get him for a single first round pick and a player, sure. But the asking price quoted here is so not worth it.

Don't feel bad, nobody had the back of the CB room right.

No, I don't believe it for a second, especially the part about all the draft picks.

NO JOE JOHNSON DEALS FOR PARSONS. HES NOT THAT GOOD HES NOT A GRREN BAY GUY

compliment vs. complement. learn it, al.

Trading for Parsons is a bad idea.

Yes, he's had four great years, but has not won a playoff game. The last time we played him, we put a 40 Burger on him and his teammates by the 3rd quarter.

We have a guy on rookie contract, LVN, who is currently playing snaps that would go to Parsons.

Parsons is a better player. But the cost of this upgrade is substantial, both on the salary cap and in draft capital. And unnecessary. LVN, Gary, Enagbare...we have guys who can line up and play. He wasn't a difference maker in Dallas, and I don't think he's a difference maker for us this year, either.

Im bummed really wanted K Welch to make it..

Stackhouse and Brinson "complimented each other well."

So that's why they always shook hands and bowed to each other after every on field snap together.

I did really well on my 53 estimations...as did most Packer fans. The youngest NFL roster was well established with the guys who have played and will play the most snaps. And the youngest NFL roster they remain.

Alexander the Occasional was gone...Watson is healing...Lloyd is rehabbing again...all 8 rookies remain under team control...Welch was cut again (surprise as the Packers signed a LB who only plays STs...??). No real surprises to anticipate.

Packers were one of the easiest 53's to predict in the NFL.

I choose to believe Parsons will be a Packer because of the optimism it facilitates. We’ll never give up that many high picks, but I could easily see dishing out the money.
Go Packers!!!