It's not just the NFL, Al. You can't hear any questions they ask the Presidents in their conferences either. I would expect the NFL to get it right faster though.

"We need to affect the quarterback with four and how we do that remains to be seen."

It would be nice if he had a clue, at least. I guess I won't even try to figure it out. I don't even mind if the 5th was sent as long as he or one of the other 4 affected the QB in some way. No more 4-5 seconds allowed to pick apart the weakened secondary.

I am glad Gutekunst is not saying much. Remember just because he says it does not mean it will happen.

“How we do that remains to be seen “. To coin a phrase, only so many big (effective, dominating DL)guys were made. You can either pay bigs bucks, trade valuable draft capital, or suck so badly one season to select one early in the draft. Another, rarely seen in GB, is coaching and developing. Maybe Covington is that guy who unlocks LVN’s potential.

". The bobble is limited to 100 units retailed at $110 standing 8 inches tall."

Hmm. units standing 8 inches tall, you say? Must have been difficult for the designers to resist outfitting the feet with Crocs.

After what the Eagles did in the Super Bowl, the four-man pass rush has become the Holy Grail of how to win a championship. It's something to strive for, but maybe it was an outlier and not something that we are likely to see again.

What the Eagles did on offense was even more impressive than what they did on defense. The Chiefs offense sputtered all year long. They finished 15th in points scored. The pass protection was so-so. They were 18th in sacks allowed--slightly below average. The Chiefs defense, on the other hand, finished 4th in points allowed, and the Eagles absolutely lit them up.

Every team has always had the goal of being able to get to the QB with their front and without blitzing. There is nothing new there at all. If I read anything into Gute’s statements it does seem like we are over wedded to the notion that all DL in particular must be bigger to be durable.

In practice that tends to limit the range of physical talents available and this variety of threat. There is nothing wrong in having specialists to rotate in tactically and much to be gained. We rotate heavily anyway. Having said that, we drafted Wyatt who was and is mostly a penetration threat when healthy. We also had a significant role for Slaton who was primarily the opposite. So the preference could well not be more than a generalization.

It’s interesting that the big lesson all are taking is that the key is getting to the QB with the DL. In reality that could easily be recast as the key is having an OL that does not have obvious weaknesses and doesn’t get pushed back regularly. All the talk here is of rush, but our problem was ultimately our offense and much of that stemmed from being rushed effectively by the Eagles without blitzing. I hope Gute has not lost sight of that.

Last year I was one of the few that wasn’t against the tush push when most were here. I’m actually drifting away from that, simply because it’s made too effective by the rules. Essentially there’s no obvious viable defensive response that I can see because of the limits on what defenders cans do in practice even if they know it’s coming.

It’s not the play in principle, but the balance of the rules that enable it. Some changes need to be made to enable it to be countered if it remains. I would only ban it if identifying means to implement those proves impractical.

It seemed pretty clear that Gute coveted Jefferson (as I did and he should have). Watson was also a player we could have taken in the first round it seems clear but rightly arbitraged just out of the round. I’m not yet seeing many “must have” first round candidates at WR in this draft that fit our needs, so I think the chances are low that we take a first round WR. That could change after the combine of course, but the value fit this year appears to be later.

"He claims it's never been a philosophical thing to not draft a WR in the first round, but rather just the way it shook out. I'd say 22 years is an awful lot of shaking..."

Lets look into this a big more. The last 1st round WR they took was Javon Walker in 2002. While i love the pick, were they wrong to take him? Ed Reed went 4 picks later.
Either way lets look year by year and see why they didn't draft a WR.

2003 - Drafted Nick Barnett with pick 29. Bryant Johnson was drafted 12 spots earlier. The next WR taken was taken with pick 44. Taylor Jacobs.
2004 - Drafted Ahmed Carroll with pick 25. Michael Clayton was taken 10 picks earlier. Michael Jenkins was taken 4 spots after.
2005 - Drafted Aaron Rodgers with pick 24. Mark Clayton was taken 2 picks earlier. Roddy White was taken 4 spots after.
2006 - Drafted AJ Hawk with pick 5. The first WR taken was Santonio Holmes with pick 25.
2007 - Drafted Justin Harrell with pick 16. Ted Ginn was drafted 7 picks earlier. Dwayne Bowe was taken 7 picks later.
2008 - Didn't have a 1st round pick. Drafted Jordy Nelson with the 5th pick of round 2.
2009 - Drafted BJ Raji with pick 9. Darrius Heyward-Bey was taken 2 spots earlier. Michael Crabtree 1 spot after. Also drafted Clay Mathews at pick 26. Hakeem Nicks was the next WR at pick 29.
2010 - Drafted Bryan Bulaga at Pick 23. Demaryius Thomas was taken 1 pick earlier. Dez Bryant 1 pick after.
2011 - Drafted Derek Sherrod with pick 32. Jonathan Baldwin was taken 6 picks earlier. Titus Young was the next WR taken 12 spots later.
2012 - Drafted Nick Perry at pick 28. Kendall Wright was taken 8 picks before. AJ Jenkins was taken 2 spots after.
2013 - Drafted Datone Jones with pick 26. Tavon Austin was drafted 18 picks earlier. DeAndre Hopkins was taken 1 pick after.
2014 - Drafted Ha Ha Clinton-Dix at pick 21. Brandin Cooks was taken 1 pick earlier. Kelvin Benjamin was drafted 7 picks later.
2015 - Drafted Damarious Randall at pick 30. Phillip Dorsett was taken 1 pick earlier. Devin Smith was taken 7 spots later. (preston smith was taken 8 spots later btw).
2016 - Drafted Kenny Clark at pick 27. Will Fuller, Josh Doctson, Laquan Treadwell were taken with hpicks 21,22,23. The next WR was Sterling Shepard 13 picks later.
2017 - Drafted Kevin King with the first pick in round 2. John Ross was drafted with pick 9. The next WR was Zay Jones 4 picks after.
2018 - Drafted Jaire Alexander. DJ Moore was the first WR, and was taken 6 spots after Alexander. Calvin Ridley 2 spots later.
2019 - Drafted Rashan Gary at 12, Darnell Savage at 21 (Andre Dillard was taken at 22 by the Eagles, Josh Jacobs at 24). The first WR taken was Marquise Brown at 25.
2020 - Drafted Jordan Love at Pick 26. Justin Jeffers was taken at 22. Brandon Aiyuk at 25. Tee Higgins was taken at 33, Michael Pittman at 34.
2021 - Drafted Eric Stokes at 29. Rashod Bateman was taken at 27. Elijah Moore was taken at 34.
2022 - Drafted Quay Walker at 22, Devonte Wyatt at 28. Treylon Burks was taken at 18. Packers took Christan Watson at pick 34.
2023 - Drafted LVN at 13. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Quentin Johnston, Zay Flowers, Jordan Addison were taken with picks 20-23.
2024 - Drafted Jordan Morgan at pick 25. Brian Thomas was taken at 23. Xavier Worthy was taken at 28.

How many WR's were a realistic option for the Packers.
Basically until 2011 I don't think they were going to take any WR's based on who they had at WR already.

2013 not taking DeAndre Hopkins was a clear miss.
2014 they maybe targeted Brandin Cooks but he was taken 1 pick earlier.
2015 maybe they targeted Phillip Dorsett but he was taken 1 pick earlier.
2020 would have been interesting. If Justin Jefferson or Aiyuk were on the board. Would they have taken Love or went for those guys. Rumors were they wanted the WR's.
2021 maybe they targeted Rashod Bateman but he was taken 2 spots earlier.
2022 they targeted Watson and tried traded into the first round for him. He was 2 picks outside of the 1st round.
2024 they maybe targeted Brian Thomas but he was taken 2 spots earlier.

Here's what you need to know about nearly every press conference: very little of what is real comes from these events. Gutey, like anyone else whose arse is on the line for saying something out of school, will play it close to the vest. Did you really learn anything new from what he said? I didn't.

The average fan can figure out what is really going on by analyzing where the team came up short: While everyone praised the new defense, the defense let the team down in critical moments. The reason for that is Kenny Clark got paid then sort of retired, the rest of the line played mediocre with an occasional win by R. Gary.
Help is needed there without question.
At linebacker, Cooper looks like the real deal and Walker flashes good play to be replaced by being out of position or hurt.
At corner, relying on Alexander is a mistake. Time for him to go. Stokes isn't the answer. Nixon can take one corner but they clearly need another starting corner. Safety is no longer an issue, but a slot corner/safety has to be determined.
That's the defense. I'm not sure Hafley's defense is as good as all the numbers gurus crow about.

On offense, much of the issue was Love's assortment of injuries. I praise him for playing hurt but I'm not sure he was a help at times and more of a hindrance. His contract forced him on the field but at times he lost his mechanics. Regardless of contract I would open the competition at QB, including drafting one.
The receiving corps took a step back. Watson flashed but again proved injuries were a liability. Reed took a step back as did Doubs. Doubs could be in trouble with concussions. It is clear they need a wide receiver, possibly two. Wicks has dropsy and the rest of the receivers can be good but often are invisible. Most of them are good blockers.
Josh Jacobs is everything you want in a football player, ditto for Tucker Kraft. Musgrave must prove he can stay on the field. Walker at left tackle is highly underrated, starting for two seasons and holding up well. Jenkins is always solid. I wouldn't resign Myers, though it wouldn't surprise me if they did. Rhyan is adequate at right guard and Zach Tom could be an All-Pro at right tackle.
While people scorn the offense, to me it was the defense that left the team in a lurch this past season.
They need to resign McManus as a top priority, even for ridiculous money. Just keep in mind Anxious Carlson and Nervous Narveson.
Special teams really sucked at times. The touchdown by the Bears on the punt fake should have ended Rich Bi. time in Green Bay. For some reason they keep him around.

2025 will be the make or break year. If they can't beat the Lions, Vikings and Bears to begin with then its time to clean house and start over.

Just remember, the Lions, Bears, and to some extent, the Vikings have been drafting early in the rounds for many years. The law of averages caught up and they finally hit on some good players. It is hard to be consistently playoff caliber when you are almost always drafting late in the rounds. Kudos to the Lions in particular. They started adding Bama Boys and they got very good.

Al, regarding Gutey's comment about Van Ness's potential is still high, you wrote: "That's great to hear, and you know he has the physical traits they look for, so what's holding him back?"

Gutey gave the answer...nothing is holding him back...but a short leash:

"I expect him to take a big jump this year".

Hercules better Capture the Cretan Bull in 2025.

You get what you emphasise. That holds true whether you are talking about what you emphasise in training camp or what positions you emphasise in the draft. If you keep on spending high draft capital on the D line and edges, you should improve your 4 man rush, but equally, you will weaken other positions that you have de-emphasised in favour of pass rushers.

Catching lightning in a bottle, like assembling a fearsome pass rush without expending loads draft capital, is exceptionally difficult. Even more so, if you are routinely drafting in the 20's. Being always too late to draft the Buckner's or Bosa's of the world, Gute has gambled on raw players with top-tier athleticism, hoping that those natural gifts will allow the player to be great with more coaching.

That policy hasn't exactly failed, but it hasn't worked out that well yet, either. Maybe it is time to pay the big bucks for an elite vet there, to make a stronger SB push for two or three years.

Just for comparison, the 49ers have emphasised first round defensive front 7 players for ages. It got them boom players like Buckner and Bosa, and solid guys like Armstead........but also busts like Javon Kinlaw, Solomon Thomas and Reuben Foster, not to mention disappointing but not awful guys, like Aldon Smith. See what I mean about it being hard to get it right.

Not to long ago - while rummaging through some old electronical devices at a garage sale - I came across what looked like a vintage typewriter. Fast forward some weeks later - I discovered that I had actually purchased the Enigma machine - that still worked - for $5 !!! Of course I inputed Gutey's Combine comments into the Enigma - which it de-ciphered into this single line - " At 23 - Josh Conerly Jr.""

They haven't drafted a receiver in the first round because Gute was fixated on drafting Love in 2020, as early as the fall of 2019.

The 2020 draft was rich in NFL wide receiver talent. We had just came up 1 game short of going to the SB.
So instead of Gute drafting a receiver in the 1st round, he drafted a QB for the future to sit on the bench for 3 years.

Not sure why naming who is against the 'Tush-Push' is off limits.....Really Al?
Is it that much of a secret?....lol
Is it a matter of National Security?

If it wasn't Murphy (as reported), i'm guessing it has to be MLF.
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My feeling is, whoever is against the Tush Push are teams that simply can't stop it.

In that line of thinking..... should the NFL have banned the Bears from playing the Packers with Rodgers, because they just couldn't beat them?