There's no question that this is a critical offseason for the Green Bay Packers' front office and coaching staff. Following a 2016 season that finished with an eight-game winning streak and an embarrassing loss in the NFC Championship, there are questions galore about the roster and the coaching staff, and no answers appear likely to come in the immediate future.
Speculation is all we have for a few weeks, and there will be plenty of that circling around the Packers' upcoming free agents. However, today we also find some Packers writers expressing concerns about people who are still under contract for 2017 - namely the team's defensive coordinator and a pair of veterans who have not played up to the high price tags that they will carry next season.
Read on through today's Cheese Curds to see just who we're looking at, and stay tuned next week as we begin our position-by-position examination of the roster. In addition, keep an eye out later this morning, as Mike McCarthy will hold his final press conference before the Combine and should address some outstanding items from this season.
Offensive line adapted to change this season | Packers.com
We discussed the line's play a bit in yesterday's Curds, but what made it truly impressive was how they kept on being effective despite changes at just about every other position on offense throughout the season.
Green and Bold: This Way, Dom Capers | Cheesehead TV
In short, it seems that Capers and Ted Thompson do not seem to sync up on how best to operate the defense. Thompson continues to focus on youth and the draft-and-develop strategy, but Capers won't simplify his scheme to accommodate those players. That's how you get a young secondary looking totally lost in an NFC title game.
Tough roster calls loom for Packers | Packersnews.com
Besides the free agents, Pete Dougherty argues that Ted Thompson has some serious decisions to make about veterans Clay Matthews and Randall Cobb. What are the answers? Pete says move Matthews inside and force Cobb to cut his pay in half - which would be a whopper of an request for a player with two years left on his deal.
Green Bay Packers are Super Bowl contenders, but for how much longer? - ESPN
As of the publishing of Curds, the upper Midwest (which of course contains the most Packers fans) is slightly less optimistic than other portions of the country when judging just how close the Packers are to achieving the ultimate goal next season.
Don’t give up on Packers CB Damarious Randall just yet | Touchdown Wire
Ding ding! The comparisons to Davante Adams' 2015 season are numerous, and assuming that Randall is a lost cause is just silly.
Ranking the greatest QB seasons in NFL history | ESPN.com
This metric takes a the ratio of a quarterbacks' touchdown passes in a given season versus all TD passes thrown in the entire NFL that year to adjust that stat to 2016 numbers; doing that for each season results in Brett Favre being just two and a half TDs behind Peyton Manning, while Aaron Rodgers' 2011 MVP season is still one of the best ever.
Roger Goodell says everyone is wrong and ‘Thursday Night Football’ is actually great - SBNation.com
Here's the quote: "Almost by every barometer, the quality of the game is better on Thursday night." Perhaps that's the case from penalties and turnovers, as Goodell cites, but one wonders if he's actually applying the eye test or just looking through the prism of the NFL shield.