Packers Also offered a 3rd Rounder

[Bill Lundberg]

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=806267

Bid to land Gonzalez falls short
Chiefs were willing to deal star tight end for second-round pick
By BOB McGINN
bmcginn@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 15, 2008
Green Bay - The Green Bay Packers could have acquired tight end Tony Gonzalez from the Kansas City Chiefs on Tuesday but they refused to part with a second-round draft choice.

A source familiar with negotiations told the Journal Sentinel that Chiefs President Carl Peterson ultimately decided to retain Gonzalez after turning down the best offer from Green Bay, which was a third-round selection. The source said Peterson wanted a second-rounder to make the deal.

The decision by general manager Ted Thompson not to send the second-round pick to Kansas City was made just minutes before the National Football League trading deadline of 3 p.m.

During a day of talks between Green Bay and Kansas City, the Packers increased their compensation offer several times. A source said Gonzalez had told the Chiefs that he would accept a trade to the Packers, and planned to play three more seasons.

This was another example of Thompson’s unwillingness to pull the trigger on a blockbuster trade to obtain another weapon on offense.
In 2006, Thompson had the chance to send a high draft choice to San Diego Chargers for running back Michael Turner.

A year later, Thompson didn’t push hard enough to get wide receiver Randy Moss under contract and watched the New England Patriots acquire him from the Oakland Raiders for a fourth-round selection.

Adam Schefter of the NFL Network reported that Philadelphia, the New York Giants and Buffalo also were negotiating with the Chiefs. He reported that one team offered a third-round pick, another team offered a fourth-round pick and another team offered an unidentified choice plus a player.

An NFL source told the Journal Sentinel that the Bills weren’t a factor because Gonzalez didn’t want to play for them.

According to the source, Gonzalez was livid that the rebuilding Chiefs (1-4), for whom he has caught tight-end record totals of 841 passes for 10,075 yards and 68 touchdowns, refused to let him go for a third-round pick.

Gonzalez, who made the Pro Bowl for a record ninth straight time last season, was highly regarded by coach Mike McCarthy and several members of his staff in Green Bay.

McCarthy coached quarterbacks in Kansas City in 1997 and ’98, Gonzalez’s first two seasons there. Several of his coaches, including Tom Clements, Mike Stock, Carl Hairston and Kurt Schottenheimer, also spent time in Kansas City during Gonzalez’s career, as did vice president Russ Ball and personnel director John Schneider.

As it stands now, the Packers will have their seven choices in the 2009 draft plus a sixth-round pick from New Orleans and no worse than a fourth-round pick from the New York Jets in the trade for Brett Favre.

The compensation for Favre reportedly will increase to a third if Favre plays at least 50% of the snaps, and to a second if he plays at least 70% and the Jets reach the playoffs.

If the trade with Green Bay had been consummated, the Packers would have picked up the final 3½ years of Gonzalez’s contract, or a total amount of $19.397 million.

This year, Green Bay would have had to pay 11/17ths of his guaranteed $1 million base salary, or $647,059. His contract included base salaries of $4 million in 2009 (all guaranteed), $4.5 million in 2010 ($1.75 million guaranteed) and $5.75 million in 2011, and roster bonuses of $500,000 in ’09, $2 million in ’10 and $2 million in ’11.

The Packers currently stand $20.05 million beneath the salary cap, a total exceeded by only Tampa Bay and Kansas City among the 32 teams.

By adding Gonzalez, the Packers’ weapons on offense would have compared favorably with any team in the NFL. His ability to make clutch possession catches and stretch the field was evident last season in Week 8, when he caught 10 passes for 109 yards and one touchdown against Green Bay.

Gonzalez recently requested a trade from the Chiefs because he wanted the chance to play for a playoff contender.

“I’m winding down in my career and I’m thinking this is not what I signed on for last year when I redid my deal,” Gonzalez said in August. “I haven’t even won a playoff game. You can look back and say you had a pretty good career, but I want to be able to say I went to the playoffs, I won some playoff games and I went to the Super Bowl.”

The Packers signed tight end Donald Lee to a four-year, $11.88 million deal last November when he was an integral part of their passing game. But Lee has been less involved with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.

Tory Humphrey is the No. 2 tight end and rookie Jermichael Finley, a third-round draft choice, is No. 3. Finley has been slow to develop and doesn’t have a reception.

Under Thompson, the Packers have drafted eight players in the second round. The list include Nick Collins, Terrence Murphy, Daryn Colledge, Greg Jennings, Brandon Jackson, Jordy Nelson, Brian Brohm and Pat Lee.

Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

[Zouk]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Drafting the best player available has nothing to do with this scenario.

No - to me the real point is that Ben Watson is probably a better all-around player than Tony at this point. He can block a rush end (Tony can't), help seal the end of line on outside runs (Tony is below average at this), and still has much better speed than Tony to get down the middle of the field. He's a very unsung hero of that team.

Belichick, Ozzie Newsome, Parcells - all these smart evaluators have taken tight ends in Round 1.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by Zouk

No - to me the real point is that Ben Watson is probably a better all-around player than Tony at this point. He can block a rush end (Tony can't), help seal the end of line on outside runs (Tony is below average at this), and still has much better speed than Tony to get down the middle of the field. He's a very unsung hero of that team.

Belichick, Ozzie Newsome, Parcells - all these smart evaluators have taken tight ends in Round 1.

This ought to be good...

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

Your right MM, but Tony produces on the level of a top flight WR.

Tony at 26 probably would have a higher market value than Roy W. Unless some team makes abone-head move like Dallas did.

Dallas was dumb to give up that much for him.

Actually, he doesn't.

Top flight WRs get 1300 yards and 10 TD a year.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

ass fart cheese

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

If Carl wanted a 2nd so bad he could've thrown in a late rounder to get it

I also believe that they could have put performance compensation in there to get a 2nd rounder & maybe even a 1st rounder if the team he was traded to made the Super Bowl.

[jjchieffan]

I have heard it said that a young QB's best friend is a good tight end. If that is the case, then Carl did right by standing firm. If we plan to develop a young QB, then the best thing we could do for his development is to keep Tony. In fact, it was argued that GB should have ponied up the second, just for that reason.