Jordy Nelson on split from Packers: 'Can we just move on?'

-- "Can we just move on?"

After spending 10 years and playing nine seasons in one city, it may be a challenging task to flip a switch and kick aside any and all feelings tied to the team that drafted you, but that's exactly what Jordy Nelson had to do last year.

The Green Bay Packers had a decision to make between their top two receivers, Nelson and Randall Cobb, in order to preserve some salary cap space. Both were playing on prodigious contracts at the time and it was highly unlikely both would remain with the team.

Nelson ended up being the odd man out, and while he did receive an extremely frugal opportunity to return, he turned it down with a good idea of his worth. It was a time that left Nelson feeling relatively dejected, or "low-balled" as it has been widely defined.

"I wasn't happy," Nelson said on ESPN Milwaukee this week. "I was disappointed.

"There's a small chance you could play your whole career in one place with one coach and one quarterback and one offense. ... When there's that opportunity, no one wants to move their family halfway across the country."

While Nelson landed with the Oakland Raiders on a two-year deal, the Packers moved forward as well, investing three mid-round draft selections into the receiver position. They added J'Mon Moore in the fourth, Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the fifth and Equanimeous St. Brown in the sixth, the latter two playing significant snaps throughout the season.

His final season with the Packers in 2017 saw Nelson fail to eclipse 500 receiving yards for the first time since 2009 when he only played in 13 games. He registered a career-low of 9.1 yards per catch and six touchdowns -- all six of which came prior to Aaron Rodgers suffering a broken collarbone against the Minnesota Vikings.

"In a perfect world, I would have played a couple more years in Green Bay."

Nelson is set for a reunion at Lambeau Field during the 2019 regular season, as the four-year schedule rotation will have the Raiders traveling to Green Bay.

__________________________

Zachary Jacobson is a staff writer/reporter for Cheesehead TV. He's the voice of The Leap on iTunes and can be heard on The Scoop KLGR 1490 AM every Saturday morning. He's also a contributor on the Pack-A-Day Podcast. He can be found on Twitter via @ZachAJacobson or contacted through email at [email protected].

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Comments (29)

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4thand1's picture

February 20, 2019 at 02:12 pm

Sadly we did move on, gave a bum like Perry money and low balled Jordy.

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dblbogey's picture

February 20, 2019 at 02:25 pm

I bet we could have won 6 games if we'd just had an over the hill Jordy last year.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

February 20, 2019 at 08:40 pm

Well done. I think we could have had two ties.

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x24's picture

February 21, 2019 at 08:50 am

A nine foot tall Jordy Nelson could have snagged all of Rodger's overthrown deep balls

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Big Moe's picture

February 20, 2019 at 03:28 pm

Agreed, In my opinion, we would be a lot farther along if we kept Jordy when Cobb and his truck load of injuries were getting paid to sit, I believe all of our rookie recievers would be better with Jordy on the bench over Cobb. He truly got how to play with ARod.

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Coldworld's picture

February 20, 2019 at 04:11 pm

Cobb by all accounts is a great team guy as well. I see no reason to disparage him because in your view the team made the wrong choice. This from someone who believes Cobb should not be brought back this year.

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GBPDAN1's picture

February 21, 2019 at 08:09 pm

Jordy's skills were declining, but than again, so was his replacement (financially) , Graham. A case could be made that keeping Jordy's would have been more beneficial to the Packers last year than obtaining Graham.

Graham was not the answer, especially in the redzone/endzone. At least with Jordy there was chemistry with Rodgers and Nelson would have cost half the money as he was willing to take a major pay cut.

Oh well, let's move on from both. Can't wait for FA to start and the draft. I feel we are going to be a much improved team going into our opener this year. Go Pack!

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TKWorldWide's picture

February 21, 2019 at 04:05 pm

then

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Jonathan Spader's picture

February 20, 2019 at 02:30 pm

Hindsight is 20/20 Packers should have cut Cobb as well. Based off of Jordy's 2018 in Oakland I as a fan have lived on. Jordy was a dynamic playmaker and a hell of a guy/packer. Loved him in his time in GB but life goes on. Not For Long is an acronym for a reason. Thanks for the memories Jordy.

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carlos's picture

February 20, 2019 at 07:22 pm

Liked Jordy Nelson so much we named our tiniest dog after him. We love our dogs in our house. We have big Ridgebacks who also like the our little Jordy. But, at wild times “ little Jordy” puts the big dogs in their place.

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TheVOR's picture

February 20, 2019 at 03:34 pm

Hindsight being what it is, I think moving Nelson was far more of an impact than the organization, or Rodgers would let on. In fact I'd say Nelson would have had far more positive impact on last season than Cobb did!

In fact, get this, Randall Cobb made an astounding $322,368.42 per catch last season. There are many people in this country who won't earn that in TEN YEARS, more less in a "Single Catch" of a football career How would you like to be a rookie making Jackson, and you run the math on that one!

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Coldworld's picture

February 20, 2019 at 04:43 pm

Nelson had a little over 700 yards and 3 touchdowns last year. Had he played he would not have made a noticeable difference in our record based upon that.

They picked the younger of the two and the lower cap hit if I recall correctly. Hindsight suggests that they may have been wrong in terms of yardage but also not meaningfully so.

Perhaps the best choice would have been to let Cobb go too, as suggested earlier. To put this in perspective, UDFA Alison had 300 yards in 4 games prior to injury. Valdez Scantling had 550 or so. Both had 2 touchdowns.

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Ferrari Driver's picture

February 20, 2019 at 06:23 pm

Coldworld, Jordy would have had Aaron Rodgers throwing him the ball and they had great chemistry and knowledge of each other as opposed to what exists in Oakland with a new, less talented quarterback if a different system.

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Jonathan Spader's picture

February 21, 2019 at 12:19 am

Not just a different system a Gruden system. Their OL was a sieve. They traded away their top WR to Dallas. Carr had a broken thumb. After the bye though Carr did a lot better. Expect Jordy and Carr to be better year 2 in a Gruden system. Depending on which WR Oakland drafts this year.

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Slim11's picture

February 22, 2019 at 09:35 am

Had the Packers kept him, Nelson might...MIGHT...have made a difference in the 2018 record. Here's why...

His 2017 production was pretty good before Rodgers was injured. When Hundley became the starter, he rarely looked for Nelson because his mindset was "look for Davante...look for Davante...RUN!" This speaks to two things...there was no chemistry between Nelson and Hundley. Why? Who knows? Second, McCarthy was trying (?) to call plays suited to what Hundley's alleged strengths were. As we know, that was a huge failure.

If Nelson was on the roster in 2018, I suspect his numbers might have been slightly better than in Oakland because Rodgers would know he could look to Adams or Nelson. There's a downside to this... one, or more, of the three rookie WRs might be elsewhere and may well have received less playing time. Without Nelson, all three received valuable playing time and experience.

Nelson would have been the better choice over Cobb. I like Cobb but also recognize he's taken a lot of wear and tear. That wear and tear means his body is older than the calendar says Cobb is.

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ILPackerBacker's picture

February 20, 2019 at 04:39 pm

There was little question going into last year that the best 2 receivers on GB did not include Cobb and Jordy, leaving aside one did not play receiver and when that one was not hurt he was a low average slot.

Instead of making a pro active decision, dumping Cobb before last year and before he was walking as a FA anyway the bad decision to low ball Jordy was made.

Who made the decision? Who knows?
Was someone trying to send a message to Rodgers?
There is no telling what kind of odd crap goes on in the inbred towers of 1265

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Jonathan Spader's picture

February 20, 2019 at 04:56 pm

Glad to see someone is trying to compete with Dash for most dislikes but you have a ways to go. You still have 1p0 more thumbs up than down. You'll get there ILPB!

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fastmoving's picture

February 20, 2019 at 05:01 pm

Stop the mentor shit. If Jordy was still here non of the young receivers would have got any targets. AR would have tried to force the ball to JN and Adams even more.

Jordy lost more than one step and it was the right thing to let him go.

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4zone's picture

February 20, 2019 at 05:16 pm

When Jody's ready to retire, I hope we can re-sign him so he retires a Packer.

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stockholder's picture

February 20, 2019 at 11:18 pm

Jordy was their union rep. He knew what could happen. It did. Mileage, business, injuries, loyalty, it's all a mixed bag. He was no longer dominant. He was lucky to be connected to Rodgers. Times changed in GreenBay. We all suffered. Those were the Days.

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TKWorldWide's picture

February 20, 2019 at 07:57 pm

Dominant.

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TKWorldWide's picture

February 20, 2019 at 06:46 pm

Amen, Jordy. He’s a smart man and he knows it’s a business.

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LeotisHarris's picture

February 20, 2019 at 09:43 pm

Do we have any data on visual acuity for foresight? We belabor the point of normal vision at a distance of 20 feet being the gold standard for hindsight, but what about foresight? TGR, any numbers out there?

Also, what about players who gain a step or two? What kinds of metrics are we using? I'm looking for Gute to shift the paradigm in the aforementioned scenario. Let's see him step to the podium and announce "we're moving forward with 20/20 foresight to commit to a player who has gained a step or two in the last few years. We intend to high-ball him, but only if he won't get hurt, and he has to keep his yard nice and everything because this is the Fox Valley. Now, I have some beers in my garage fridge I need to get to. Thanks."

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TKWorldWide's picture

February 21, 2019 at 05:49 am

Now THAT is a world I long to live in!

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EddieLeeIvory's picture

February 21, 2019 at 05:41 am

Now, about that first WR we picked last year, J'Mon Moore......

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TKWorldWide's picture

February 21, 2019 at 05:50 am

Late bloomer.

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cheesehead1's picture

February 21, 2019 at 11:07 am

IMO, having Nelson last year wasn’t going to be a game changer. Time to move on from the oft injured Perry. We desperately need some young and talented players. Obviously, Gute needs to hit big in this draft.

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Irish_Cheesehead's picture

February 21, 2019 at 12:28 pm

Why are we still talking about the Packers releasing Jordy Nelson????

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BoHunter's picture

February 21, 2019 at 12:29 pm

Should have cut Jordy and Cobb, kept Janis and given him all the targets.
Cheers Bo

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