Busy Day Ahead For Thompson & Company

The first full day of league activity will be near overwhelming for participants and observers. Here's a look at everything Ted Thompson and his staff will need to deal with starting today.

Today is shaping up to be a whale of a day for Packers general manager Ted Thompson and his personnel staff, not to mention coaches and trainers.

First will come the business of finalizing and making official all the undrafted free agent signings that were reported throughout Monday evening. The Packers have reportedly agreed to terms with at least six rookie free agents, and the number is sure to increase as the day goes on.

Along with finalizing these deals, Thompson and contract negotiator Russ Ball will begin the task of getting their drafted rookies under contract. (In fact, negotiation of those deals may have started last night.) While the new rookie salary guidelines will certainly help, each deal will need to be negotiated and finalized starting sometime tomorrow morning. What will be interesting is the fact that, because of the compressed timeline due to the labor situation, many rookies will be heading into team facilities without a contract. You can bet the teams medical people will be anxious to get a look at these guys and it will be interesting to see if anything comes up that affects negotiations. While all this is going on, several veterans may be reporting to Lambeau as well and you can be sure the coaches and trainers will be anxious to get a look at them and see what kind of shape they're in.

During all of this, the personnel people will begin making and fielding calls about potential trades. While we will hear very little about this, you can bet its going on - in fact, its probably been going on for some time. Word has it the Packers are going to actively shop Nick Barnett and they were open to taking calls on Matt Flynn prior to the lockout. Something or nothing could come from either one of those potential deals - but you can be sure Reggie McKenzie and company will be busy working the phone lines tomorrow.

The other area where personnel folks will be busy is the beginning of unrestricted free agency. While the Packers are not expected to be big players, they can begin talking to guys like Brandon Jackson, Daryn Colledge, James Jones, etc. about a possible return. No deals can be finalized until Friday, but talks can and will commence tomorrow morning - again, if they have not already.

To that end - word may start leaking out tomorrow about who the Packers plan on releasing. While the official transactions aren't allowed until Thursday, word has already started leaking out around the league about guys teams like the Cowboys or the Ravens plan on releasing. If and when the Packers inform the agents of anyone they plan on releasing, you can be sure it will be reported shortly thereafter.

After months of no football news to talk about, Packer fans should buckle up and enjoy drinking from the fire-hose because it promises to be fast paced, crazy football news all day and all night for the next week or so.

 

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Comments (10)

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longtimefan's picture

July 26, 2011 at 01:56 am

free urgency is on

Yes I said urgency

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BrianD's picture

July 26, 2011 at 04:23 am

Aaron/Brian, I'd really like to see an article/post about your/other writers picks for "top undrafted free agents" and where they've signed. That is, of course, if you have any time in between all the UDFA posts Brian's been making already. Keep up the good work!

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aussiepacker's picture

July 26, 2011 at 06:49 am

"Packer fans should buckle up and enjoy drinking from the fire-hose because it promises to be fast paced, crazy football news all day and all night for the next week or so."
Wicked line dude.

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IdiotFan's picture

July 26, 2011 at 08:15 am

Was there anything preventing the Packers from talking to other teams about Barnett during the lockout? They couldn't pull the trigger on anything, but it seems like they could have gotten a deal in place if there was one to be had.

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PackerAaron's picture

July 26, 2011 at 08:25 am

"Was there anything preventing the Packers from talking to other teams about Barnett during the lockout?"

Teams were not allowed to discuss trades. That doesn't mean they didn't, but it was against the rules.

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Ken's picture

July 26, 2011 at 08:36 am

Obviously a trade for Barnett would be great, but how many GMs have the time this week to sit around with their medical people to discuss the risk/reward in trading for him?

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MarkinMadison's picture

July 26, 2011 at 08:51 am

I bet they already have, and already know what they would need to look at when they get their hands on him. The trade could be voidable depending on the outcome of the medical exam.

On a different note - all of these free agents will be coming and going so fast we'll barely even have time to second-guess the personnel decisions.

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Ken's picture

July 26, 2011 at 09:18 am

Just saying that an organization might not want to go through those stresses with everything else that's going on.

Whoever does get Barnett will be getting a hungry player who will be licking his chops if he gets a shot at the Packers this fall.

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PackerFan4Life's picture

July 26, 2011 at 09:58 am

ahh I love football being back now is the time for all the craziness to begin, would like to see the pack pick up a key FA but I know it wont happen

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PackerFan4Life's picture

July 26, 2011 at 11:35 am

Check out this kid the packers signed from Utah my god he has got some return skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_SufhOqeF4&feature=player_embedded

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