Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that the Green Bay Packers are “torn” as to whether or not they should keep TE Jermichael Finley.
McGinn mentions that GM Ted Thompson is in favor of retaining Finely, but other “members of the personnel department” would prefer to see them release him.
Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune mentions that the Chicago Bears could have interest if he becomes available. McGinn also mentioned the Bears as a team to watch.
Finley, 25, counts $8.75 million against the Packers’ salary cap this season and still hasn’t lived up to his potential. Green Bay figures to address the contracts of QB Aaron Rodgers and OLB Clay Matthews in the next few months, so parting with Finely could give them some extra leeway financially, but they don’t have an obvious replacement on their roster at this point in time.
Parting with Finely could also allow them to franchise impending free agent WR Greg Jennings, which is something they’re reportedly considering.
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Too high of price tag, I think they look elsewhere.
Who am I to go against TT? The worst thing I see in Finley was the fact that his talk to reporters about not getting enough attention from his Qb, and getting along was followed by games the team lacked that togetherness they call “chemistry”, with each time it hit the newsstands the team followed with two consecutive “L’s” in the win/loss column.
Those two losses, as far as I can see have something to do with what Finley had to say. Wouldn’t a guy with that much riding on what he says and does be better off offering his quarterback a trip to a steakhouse? Popping a few fifty dollar bills would be affordable for the TE, and in doing so, his teammates wouldn’t be affected by the columns in the newspapers.
I can’t help but believe their record would show at least 2 – 2 for those four games, if Finley handled things that bothered him in a more personal manner, than broadcasting in major media about his feelings.
This type of Negativity tears teams apart, and that selfishness will more than likely be back in the news next year… right down the line. With that said, even if they played a talented rookie or brought in a less talented replacement, chances are the record would be better without him ‘whining’ about his perceived injustices. TT is mostly right, in losing him it will be near impossible to come up with an equal replacement, on 3rd & 16, down by 4, with 58 seconds on the clock. But with positive things going through the media every week, winning will be more likely, and the positivism effect can be contagious, with thought out comments to the press. The other factor is injuries. Maybe AR wasn’t looking for him as much as possible because he was on IR so often, he couldn’t learn to depend on him. So I can’t help but think taking a guy who can pull off a play to save a game is worth keeping, but add on the rest of his package (bad press followed by loses) negates his talents to less than average in the Big Picture of things.
CUT HIM LOOSE–Finley has hands of stone–he can’t even catch the easy passes, never catches those with defenders fighting him for the ball. Best option would be a trade, NOBODY except Rodgers or Matthews CAN’T BE READILY REPLACED. Finley’s the Renaldo Nehemiah of TE’s–great “potential” that never developed into the player expected.
Packers need to fire TedThompson, any time they get someone good, he never wants to keep them after awhile. He needs to go
i could have sworn we already had a huge TE that dropped TONS of passes.hmm