Jermichael Finley never falls short as a source for material. A week after saying he’d walk if the Green Bay Packers asked him to take a pay cut, Finley’s agent is quietly tiptoeing away from that statement.
Blake Baratz — yes, the same guy who said Aaron Rodgers isn’t a leader on Twitter — says if the Packers approached him about restructuring Finley’s contract, he’d listen.
“I would never just turn my nose up at anything,” Baratz said. “I will listen and hear anybody about anything and withhold judgment until I do. I can’t say today whether I would, whether I wouldn’t, whether it’s in Jermichael’s best interest, his worst interest.
“There’d have to be a reason why he would have to take a pay cut. Maybe he would. Maybe he wouldn’t. It’s all hypothetical until the numbers are there. Is it a one-year deal like it is now? Are we adding years? Are we adding dollars? Are we moving dollars?”
We’ve documented this problem numerous times and frankly, it’s getting exhausting. Finley will make $8.25 million in this, the final year of his deal. He’s not worth that, but the Packers have pretty much zero other options at tight end right now, which makes it real hard to cut Finley.
So obviously, it would make a lot of sense for the Packers to give Finley more years at a lower salary.
Any sort of salary cap savings would be welcomed. The Packers are currently around $21 million under the cap and they have a lot of business to do, including signing their draft picks, re-signing their restricted free agents, extending the contracts of key veterans and maybe even signing a free agent or two (but no one of note, as you well know).
Really, it would be refreshing if the Packers just made some decisions already, so we could stop talking about all of this crap.