Good morning, Mike. With jersey No. 2 suddenly available, is it still possible for Matthew Golden to make a change again?
He could make a change anytime, but I have no idea if he’s interested in the inventory buyout of all the No. 0 jerseys.
John from Dakota Dunes, SD
Among all of the roster moves, is it true that Jordan Love is now the oldest-tenured player on the Packers?
Jim from Prairie du Chien, WI
Good morning all! So happy for Eric Stokes. The best quality human being out there. GPG!
Congrats to Eric. As I said yesterday, it’s wild how things can work out sometimes. He got a chance to restart his career and made it work, cashing in.
Justin from Thousand Oaks, CA
I know he’s a more accomplished player, but seeing Linderbaum’s three-year, $81M deal with the Raiders makes me feel better about re-signing Sean Rhyan for $11M per year. Yowzers.
Linderbaum’s deal exceeded every projection I saw, and his elevated market may have boosted the entire position, yet no other free agent center has come close to his $27M APY. He topped the previous highest-paid center, KC’s Creed Humphrey ($18M APY) by 50%, which is crazy. Whatever the case, it’s a nice payday for Rhyan, whom the Packers clearly believe has a lot of upside at that spot after his half-season as the starter.
Have the Colts just set the market for re-signing Christian Watson with the contract for Pierce?
Probably. Pierce’s contract at $29M per blew me away for a guy who’s never had 50 catches in a season. He’s averaged at least 21 yards per catch each of the last two years, which tells you the premium being paid for explosive plays. Watson’s one-year extension for 2026 looks like a massive bargain now, but his future may have just been altered, considerably.
Can you please explain more on how tenders work? With Dallas putting a second-round tender on Aubrey it sounds like they either get a chance to match another team’s offer or they get a second-round pick if they lose him. What’s the downside? Why wouldn’t a team just put tenders on every player to confirm they get something back immediately?
Those “protective” tenders apply only to restricted free agents, essentially undrafted players (who didn’t get the standard four-year rookie contract that goes to a draft pick) who have three accrued seasons and an expiring contract. Once a player has four accrued seasons and an expiring contract, he’s an unrestricted free agent and there is no protective tender except the franchise and transition tags, which come with major financial implications.
It occurred to me that the Packers’ resurrection in the early ’90s happened not just when free agency was expanded but when the salary cap was created. Were the Packers disadvantaged in the NFL prior to the advent of the salary cap and free agency and did this play a role in decades of poor performance? They had no rich owner, but teams also couldn’t bid against each other for players. My understanding is a player was with whoever drafted him for his whole career almost always.
The short answer is the Packers were disadvantaged because the entire franchise was mismanaged, including having too many non-football people influencing football decisions. Cliff’s history anthology covers all that. When the cap and free agency entered the picture together, the prevailing thought was the cap would certainly help the Packers, but free agency would hurt because Green Bay wasn’t a destination for top talent. Reggie White changed that perception.
Here’s a question for both of you. What stadium (baseball or football) took your breath away the minute you walked inside? Mine is Coors Field. When I walked in (at street level) and saw the Rocky Mountains in the distance over center field, I froze and couldn’t move until the folks behind me got irritated. A close second stadium is Lambeau…first time I walked on the field (during the stadium tour) I got choked up. There must have been dust in the air because my eyes watered.
I can’t pick one nor say my breath was ever taken away, but the neatest feeling I’ve ever had walking into a professional stadium for the first time was probably at Wrigley Field, just for the history and nostalgia of it. Other strong first impressions in baseball stadiums for me go to San Francisco, Denver, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati. I’ve never been to Fenway in Boston, so that one’s still out there. In football, I’d say Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Minneapolis and L.A. (SoFi), plus London (Tottenham) and Sao Paulo (Arena Corinthians).
Spoff, I refer you back to Friday’s Inbox. In the same day you mentioned how blessed you are to be in your current role, while also alluding to how quickly you will flee the building once your two-week break begins later this month. While I understand both ends of this thought process, perhaps you can enlighten your readers that may see this as diametrically opposed concepts?
My two-week break in March is the only time of year I truly disengage. From August through January, this job is six days a week (seven if you count travel days for road games), and while taking a few days off here and there in the winter/spring is helpful, there’s so much going on you still can’t totally disconnect. In mid-March, when I take two straight weeks, I do. All jokes aside about big news happening when I’m away, I don’t read a single Inbox submission, post anything on X/Twitter, answer a single email, edit a single article. I immerse myself in March Madness and the start of the baseball season just as a spectator, without having to write about any of it, and then I come back ready to gear up for the draft. I love my job, but I also love being able to truly forget about it all for two weeks to focus on other things.
I was at the World Series game between the Brewers and Cards when Joaquin Andujar was hit in the shin with a line drive. I was seated a couple of rows up from the third base dugout and I would have sworn the impact sounded like a gunshot. I was very surprised to see him pitch the final game of the series after that.
That liner off Andjuar’s leg occurred on my 10th birthday. I’ll never forget it, for many reasons. Happy Tuesday.
