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NFL

Heartbreaker? Blowout? For Jordy Nelson, all playoff disappointments hurt
9:13 AM ET

  • Jason WildeESPN.com

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    • Covered the Packers since 1996
    • On-air host at ESPN Milwaukee and ESPN Madison
    • Two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association

GREEN BAY, Wis. — While the Green Bay Packers’ blowout loss to the Atlanta Falcons in this year’s NFC Championship Game might’ve been easier for their fans to take than the team’s gut-wrenching meltdown against the Seattle Seahawks two years earlier, Jordy Nelson doesn’t see the difference.

“They both sucked,” the Packers veteran wide receiver said Tuesday morning during an appearance on ESPN Wisconsin’s Wilde & Tausch. “To me, they’re the same.”

That’s because, in the end, the results were the same: The Packers fell short of a Super Bowl berth, and with two losses in the NFC Championship Game in the past three years, they’re now six seasons removed from their Super Bowl XLV title following the 2010 season.

“You don’t want to lose in overtime on the last play and you don’t want to lose by 40, either. None of them are fun. They all hurt,” Nelson said. “Because when you get that close, you’ve got to win them. Especially when you start counting the years. It’s crazy to think it’s been six years since we were in the Super Bowl and how easy that seemed. And now we haven’t been back since.”

Whether it’s a blowout (vs. Atlanta) or a gut-wrenching meltdown (vs. Seattle), a loss in the NFC Championship Game is all the same to Jordy Nelson. Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports

So while the Falcons’ 44-21 victory might’ve accelerated the team’s passionate fan base’s journey through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief by starting the process at halftime, Nelson believes a failure is a failure and saying the Packers’ season was anything but a failure is merely semantics.

“I think it’s all how you want to phrase it and how you want to break it down. At the end of the day, we’re here to win championships,” Nelson said. “If we win the division, we don’t hang a banner up. You don’t see that anywhere in our building, anywhere in our stadium. You wouldn’t know how many division titles the Packers have won. But you know how many Super Bowls or championships they’ve won. I think that’s where it starts.

“Now, can you have a good season and have some success and still have something to improve on but be proud of what we did? Absolutely. But to me, walking out of Seattle, walking out of Atlanta, you end up with the same feeling. I really don’t care how it got there.”

At his season-ending news conference a few days after the loss to the Falcons, coach Mike McCarthy said his team had a “successful season” but fell short of its “ultimate goal” of winning Super Bowl LI. The implication was that the Packers, who stood at 4-6 after a four-game midseason losing streak but won eight straight games to reach the NFC title game, aren’t light years away from their second NFL championship on McCarthy’s watch. At no point did McCarthy suggest that the outcome was acceptable to him or the rest of the organization.

“You don’t want to lose in overtime on the last play and you don’t want to lose by 40, either. None of them are fun. They all hurt.”

Wide receiver Jordy Nelson on the Packers’ NFC Championship Game defeats

“To me, I think it’s all words and how you phrase it. Did we have a good season? Yes. I don’t think you can complain about getting to the NFC Championship Game,” Nelson said. “But if you sit there and say your goal is to win a championship, and then you don’t, and then you still go on and say what a great of a year and a team you were, then you’re kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth.

“Our goal is to win a Super Bowl. Can you have good seasons? Can you have a successful season? To me, it’s not a full success unless we win a championship. And that’s the position we put ourselves in. … God forbid, the losing streak we went on last season, which was not the most enjoyable. That’s why everyone jumps on us, because we’ve set the standard so high. It’s a great standard to have; it’s a hard one to live up to. But to me, it’s better than sitting there and saying you’re not going to go 8-8 this year.”

Meanwhile, Nelson said the Packers came out of the locker room at halftime against the Falcons believing they could rally from the 24-0 deficit they faced to start the third quarter, and watching the New England Patriots’ comeback from down 28-3 in the Super Bowl only served as a reminder to him that the Packers could’ve done the same thing had they executed better.

“Seattle we were close; we blew it. But to be honest with you, I feel like we blew the Atlanta one, too,” Nelson said. “Obviously they played extremely well. I don’t want to take anything away from Atlanta. But we had opportunities early in the game to score, we had opportunities on defense to make a couple plays on defense and weren’t able to and they just never stopped scoring.

“When we came out at halftime, what we were envisioning coming out of halftime was what New England did to them in the Super Bowl. We were down a lot, New England was down a lot and we just needed a couple stops and for us to score and all of a sudden momentum changes.”

Editor’s note: Jason Wilde covers the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Wisconsin.

NFL

Mock-draft consensus grows as Mel Kiper projects Myles Garrett No. 1

Mock-draft season is gaining steam, and there is one consistent element in those done by ESPN’s Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr.: The Browns will select Myles Garrett with the first overall pick.

McShay released his Mock 2.0 last week; Kiper released his today.

Both say that Garrett’s combination of pass-rush skills and overall ability warrant going No. 1.

NFL DraftRound 1: April 27, 8 p.m. ET
Rds. 2-3: April 28, 7 p.m. ET
Rds. 4-7: April 29, noon ET
Where: Philadelphia

NFL draft home page »

• 2017 NFL draft order »
• Mel Kiper Jr.: Mock 2.0 »
• Todd McShay’s Top 32
• McShay: Top prospects by position
• Todd McShay: Mock 2.0 »
• Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board »
• Mel Kiper Jr.: Top 10 by position »
• Pro day schedule for prospects »
• Underclassmen who have declared »
• NFL draft player rankings »

Kiper called Garrett the best player in the draft and said having a rookie with his talent and at his position is “like stealing.” McShay said he’s simply too good to pass up. Both Kiper and McShay have given Garrett to the Browns with the first pick in their postseason mock drafts (McShay’s 1.0 was released in December). This is called a growing consensus.

That video where Garrett asked for Jerry Jones to trade for him? Ignore it. It meant nothing. It was a joke.

Things get interesting when it comes to the 12th pick. McShay projects that North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky will still be there, and the Browns will take him. That’s a fair projection if the Browns haven’t added Jimmy Garoppolo via trade (something that the NFL Network’s Charley Casserly projects will happen in his NFL.com mock draft LINK).

McShay projects Deshaun Watson going second to San Francisco, with both Trubisky and Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer available at 12. Trubisky is the better choice for the Browns.

Kiper projects that Watson and Trubisky will both be gone before the Browns make their second of two first-round picks — Trubisky to San Francisco, Watson to Buffalo.

He gives the Browns LSU cornerback Tre’Davious White, but adds that he made the pick because he doesn’t project trades (which Casserly did). Kiper said this pick is based on the assumption that the Browns have added a quarterback through trade or free agency.

In his first mock draft, Kiper gave the Browns running back Dalvin Cook of Florida State. McShay’s first mock was done before the season ended; he gave the Browns defensive end Derek Barnett of Tennessee 12th, and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen of Alabama first. Casserly has the Patriots acquiring the 12th pick for Garoppolo, and projects Barnett going to New England.

Garrett seems to have risen in the eyes of all draft analysts. The majority give him to the Browns with the first pick.

NFL

Can Bears keep Alshon Jeffery without franchise tag?

The Chicago Bears have taken a passive stance on the issue of Alshon Jeffery’s contract since the end of the regular season.

Without a multiyear agreement in place before the new league year begins on March 9, the Bears risk the strong possibility of losing Jeffery to another club in free agency.

That is, of course, unless the Bears apply the franchise tag for a second consecutive year at a cost of approximately $17.5 million. Teams have from now until 4 p.m. ET on March 1 to designate franchise players. The Bears waited until late in that window to tag Jeffery in 2016.

Jeffery’s demands aren’t exactly a mystery. Because it’s rare for an upper-echelon receiver to hit the open market, Jeffery — who just turned 27 years old — can expect to be paid in excess of $12.5 million per year.

The Bears need big-name players like Alshon Jeffery to talk openly about winning. Daniel Bartel/Icon Sportswire

The deal T.Y. Hilton signed in Indianapolis averages $13 million per season. The Denver Broncos’ Demaryius Thomas and the Dallas Cowboys’ Dez Bryant make an average of $14 million throughout the duration of their respective contracts. The Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones and the Cincinnati Bengals’ A.J. Green average more than that.

Nobody is saying Jeffery is a better player than Green, Jones or Bryant, but teams generally re-sign their No. 1 receivers. Star players are almost always slightly overpaid in free agency, and Jeffery will be no different — unless the Bears prevent him from testing free agency.

Jeffery also wants to play for a winner. That is an important variable in the event Chicago declines to tag him but truly wants to keep him — which is uncertain. One of the only things Jeffery ever discusses with the media is his desire to win. That comes across as authentic. He doesn’t strike me as a “smash-and-grab guy” who’ll sign with a bad team just because they offer slightly more money.

Many scoffed when Jeffery boldly predicted the Bears, 3-13 in 2016, would win the Super Bowl next season. The Bears were not laughing. Not only did general manager Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox publicly support Jeffery’s comments, they backed him up privately before players left for the offseason. The Bears need big-name players such as Jeffery or Kyle Long to talk openly about winning. The franchise has been in the dumps for far too long. As Fox said, “you have to believe it before you do it.”

But are the Bears there yet? That’s tough to answer. Conventional wisdom suggests the Bears are at least another year or two away from being legitimate contenders (if it happens). Jeffery probably prefers to join a winner this offseason, but all of that is moot if the Bears use the tag.

The $17.5-million figure is a big number for one season, but the Bears are flush with salary-cap space. And the NFL’s cap is going up this year. Plus, Chicago paid Jeffery $14.599 million in 2016, so it’s not as if they’re opposed to carrying a large cap number for one player.

The Bears cannot bank on Kevin White as the heir apparent. Eddie Royal has been unable to stay healthy the last two seasons and is out of guaranteed money. The rookie contract of Marquess Wilson, who’s never been healthy, is set to expire. Joshua Bellamy and Deonte Thompson (unrestricted free agent) are best suited for special teams. And Daniel Braverman is a 2016 seventh-round pick.

After Cameron Meredith — a nice No. 2 or No. 3 option — what else do the Bears have? Can they find a receiver better than Jeffery in free agency or the draft? To me, that’s what it boils down to.

If the answer is no, then how does letting Jeffery go make the Bears a better team? If the goal is winning games, then finding a way to keep Jeffery — even for just one more season — ought to be a priority. A second franchise tag is expensive, but it beats letting a 27-year old, top-10 wide receiver walk away for nothing.

NFL

Revis facing multiple charges after altercation

Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis is being investigated by Pittsburgh police for his involvement in a street altercation with two other men over the weekend.

Police say charges are pending against the four-time All-Pro and include robbery, terroristic threats, conspiracy and aggravated assault.

The incident occurred early Sunday morning in Pittsburgh’s popular South Side.

One of the men recognized Revis and asked him if he was the Jets cornerback. The man then started recording the interaction on his cellphone and continued to follow Revis on the street.

Revis, police say, tried to take away the cellphone and delete the video, which led to a verbal argument. Another male came to assist Revis. The two men were punched, and witnesses say they were unconscious for about 10 minutes.

Police obtained the cellphone video and ID’d Revis.

A Jets spokesman said the team is aware of the incident and has spoken to Revis, who was born in Pennsylvania and played at the University of Pittsburgh. There was no further comment.

Revis’ attorney, Blaine Jones, said in an email to WTAE that the cornerback was the victim and sought medical treatment. He didn’t reveal the nature of his injuries.

“Mr. Revis came home to Pittsburgh this past weekend to visit family and friends. During that time, Mr. Revis went by a location in the South Side that he is in the process of developing,” Jones said in the email. “Mr. Revis was physically assaulted while at that location by a group of at least five people. Mr. Revis feared for his safety and retreated from the aggressors.”

Revis, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and one of the NFL’s most accomplished players, is facing an uncertain status with the team. He endured a disappointing season and could be a salary-cap casualty in the coming weeks; Revis is due a $2 million roster bonus on March 11, plus another $13 million in salary.

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