1) Introduction: Coming into the season, Shields was a restricted free agent and signed a one-year tender worth just north of $2 million. Shields opened the season as an every-down player and ended the season the same way — until he suffered a knee injury two snaps into the Packers’ playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. Now, Shields is set to become and unrestricted free agent. He’s in line for a big pay day.
2) Profile: Sam Shields
- Age: 26
- Born: 12/8/1987 in Sarasota, FL
- Height: 5’11″
- Weight: 184
- College: Miami FL
- Rookie Year: 2010
- NFL Experience: 4 years
3) Expectations coming into the season: Shields was viewed as the team’s top cover man entering the 2013-14 season, and he did not disappoint. Questions surrounded Tramon Williams as he entered his age-30 season, so the Packers were banking on Shields to be their top corner with young guys Casey Hayward, Micah Hyde and Davon House providing depth at the position. With Hayward battling a hamstring issue throughout the preseason, Williams saw some time in slot, which allowed Shields to remain on the perimeter, often handling the opponent’s No. 1 receiver.
4) Player’s highlights/low-lights: Shields seemed to be at his best against the best in 2013. His top three grades according to Pro Football Focus, came against the Cincinnati Bengals (A.J. Green), Cleveland Browns (Josh Gordon) and Dallas Cowboys (Dez Bryant). He had a momentum-shifting interception against the Bengals and game-clinching picks against the Cowboys and Chicago Bears to help the Packers win the NFC North. Prior to Gordon’s record-breaking four-game stretch in which he racked up 36 catches, 774 yards and five touchdowns, Shields helped limit the breakout star to what-would-be season lows in catches (two) and yards (21) in a 31-13 blowout win for the Packers in late October. To start the season, Shields got off to a rocky start, as PFF held him responsible for 264 receiving yards in the Packers’ first two games. On the bright side, those 264 yards accounted for 39.8 percent of his season total (664).
5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: With all due respect to Mike Daniels, Shields was the team’s Defensive MVP this season despite missing two games. He was the Packers’ most consistent every-down player, and their average-at-best defense would have been far worse (and were for two games) without Shields on the field. There’s no questioning Shields’ impact on the Packers’ defense.
6) Player’s contributions in the playoffs: Shields was injured and forced out of the game on the Packers’ second defensive snap. He didn’t have an impact in the game, but him not being on the field certainly played a role in the three-point playoff loss.
Season Report Card:
(A-) Level of expectations met during the season
(B+) Contributions to team’s overall success.
(N/A) Contributions to team during the playoffs
Overall Grade: B+
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Marques is a Journalism student, serving as the Sports Editor of UW-Green Bay\'s campus newspaper The Fourth Estate and a Packers writer at Jersey Al\'s AllGBP.com. Follow Marques on Twitter @MJEversoll.
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Let us hope that he can be resigned.
It’s too bad the ass clown we call our GM lacked the foresight to get this guy signed at a much lower number prior to the season. Shields would have signed a long term contract for approx $4MM/yr. Now we have to pay him $8-10MM/yr. or more than twice as much. Yet another reason why TT is an ass clown – he doesn’t recognize defensive talent even when it is sitting on his own team. Instead the ass clown was trying to get Raji to take $8MM/yr. I couldn’t make this stuff up. In Ted We Trust ….
Archie, you’re amazingly clairvoyant to know that Shields would have signed a deal for $4million per year. That is incredible. You and Sam must be good buddies for you to know what he and his agent are going to accept. Your assumptions are frequently unbelievable and totally ridiculous. We get it, you don’t like TT. GoPack!
Archie,If Shields would have signed for $4 m last year we would not be talking about his contract this year. Shields agent is trying to make him the highest paid corner in the NFL. Would you be happy with Ted paying Shields $12mil/yr? What do you expect Ted to do with an ass clown of an agent that Shields currently has? The only way Shields resigns with GB now is if he fires his asshole of an agent.
“Shields would have signed a long term contract for approx $4MM/yr. Now we have to pay him $8-10MM/yr. or more than twice as much.”
The reason why a player takes a one-year deal is to gain the leverage it takes to get the big contract. He’s motivated to play at his best. If anything, it makes one a little leery of his maybe becoming a fat-cat once he gets paid. And then what? TT pays what it takes to keep him because there are too many other holes to fill via the draft, and Shields is a shadow of his former self? That’s the flip side to this “gotta try to keep Shields” thing.
Maybe they let him AND Raji go, renegotiate Williams, sign a S and DT with the savings on the two and draft an ILB and CB early…
That’s actually the best Idea I’ve heard yet.
It’s the correct way to think about free agency. There is only so much cap room. Doing one thing means you can not do something else. Not don’t *want* to do something else, *can not* do something else.
The past few years were about preserving the cap room to keep Rodgers and Matthews. Had that not gotten done, nothing else mattered. Now the task is to secure other good players around them. Nelson and Cobb are more important than Shields. Yes, those contracts are two seasons away — but if they spend too much this year there will be no chance to keep Nelson or Cobb next year. Will losing those two be worth keeping a decent CB?
If you aren’t asking that question *before* you form your opinion of TTs moves, you are indulging in fantasy, not thinking straight.
You can bet Thompson are looking ahead at the other contracts that will be coming off the books in the next couple years. They are forcasting what will or might happen and what they do today, will also be keeping in mind how it affects tomorrow. Russ Ball is in charge of the cap mgmt. along w/ Thompson.
Disagree about one thing tho… I would say Shields is as important, maybe slightly more than Nelson/Cobb. WR have the QB to help make them look good. Shields is mostly on an island as a CB.
The axiom in the NFL it to draft or get premier positions covered. QB, OT (more specifically LT), Pass rusher (DE or OLB) and CB are the premier positions to teams. If you have good or better players those positions you fill in the other less important positions. Shields by virtue of being a very good CB makes him as important possibly more important than any WR. That’s exempting truly special talents like Calvin Johnson.
Shields, Nelson and Cobb are all very good players, I wouldn’t call any of them special/Elite but very good. Shields has as much or more value due to being a very good CB, which is valued more in the NFL, than a very good WR.
Archie,
I love reading your posts, even though I never agree with you, and find your name for Thompson and McCarthy truly offensive.
You represent the type of fan I am glad I am not, and I take satisfaction in that.
I also feel very bad for you. I think you could fall in a bucket of roses and come up up with a mouth full of sh@t. Packers are a great organization, you are just a lousy fan.
TT should re-sign Shields. His version of signing FAs is keeping his own guys. Based on what know as of today, there is no one competent behind Shields. If we lose him, we will need to draft a CB along with a safety, ILBs and DLs this year. Thanks, Since ’61
Who is the agent for Shields? Drew Rosenhaus.
There was no way we were going to sign him to that type of money long term with agent douche. 0 percent chance. We were lucky that he didn’t hold out IMO. On the other hand, now that Raji is likely gone, I would love to spend part or most of the $8 mil to keep Shields. We know his talent and he continues to improve each year….draft and develop (and then reward). Ted probably would have made a decent offer prior to the season had agent douche not been speaking for Shields.
Go Pack!
Ted probably did make a ‘decent’ offer. Rosenhaus knew that a good year from Shields would earn his client an even bigger payday — that is Rosenhaus’ **job**. Who is the bigger douchebag? — someone who does the job his client (Shields) hires him to do, or someone who signs a ‘decent’ deal that favors the team? It’s a business, it always has been a business.
In the last collective bargaining agreement the NFL owners asked for longer more defined wages for rookie contracts. Why do you think that was so important for them? The average NFL player last 3 to 4 years. A good part of the players will not play beyond their rookie deals. Some will become top tier players like Rodgers, that put people in the stands and generate other revenue for the team. The rest will play for vet min contract or what ever they can get. The cap is not going to rise beyond what the NFL thinks the teams can afford so we are likely to see contracts go down for these players as contracts for top tier players go up. Most teams should be able to afford 2 or 3 of these top tier players the packers already have 2 and with 2 receivers contracts to rework during this season they may not cap space for another top tier player.
“Drew Rosenhaus” Enough said – Sam Shields is gone. We will be hoping for a full recovery by Casey Hayward and investing in another CB and Safety this draft. With Hyde and House in-training, Ted is not going to throw money at Sam Shields. Ted has played this poorly. He invested in Morgan Burnett instead of locking up Shields. Now we let a good corner go in favor of an average safety. This of course in hindsight.
I disagree, to a point. See above. A playable corner can be found early in the draft, and the savings on Shields could translate to a couple mid-level FAs that would allow TT to address other needs via the draft.
Also, the idea that the investment was made in Burnett instead of Shields assumes Shields was willing to sign before seeing what his maximum value in the open market is. That is a poor assumption. It takes two, (or in mega agent free agent football, three) to strike a deal.
It’s unfortunate that Hayward was injured for basically the whole season. He lost a another year of development and we lost last year to analyze his talent level after his 2nd year of play. If Hayward would have taken the next step last year and we knew we had Shields replacement, this wouldn’t be as big of a issue.
At this point signing Shields seems like a priority. I fear that this will not happen. His price tag will be to much because there will be a desperate GM out there that will throw big money at him. Instead of giving him the 2M tenor before last season, how much would it have cost to sign him long term? 6-7M at the time?
Shields and Hayward, tho both are listed as CB play much different positions. Hayward is ideal in the slot CB, Shields easily the best outside CB the Packers have. The 2 really aren’t interchangeable. Shields would fair poorly at slot CB and Hayward would fair about as poorly as an outside CB IMO.
Need to look at what they do well and how they are used. Both need to stay in their current roles to be successful.
Well said.
If you do the $7 million/year deal with shields, what happens to the cap room used to sign Matthews?
The Packers were about 9M under the cap this year. Next year both Matthews and Rodgers cap numbers go up and they will eat most of what was saved this year. But they have over 20M coming off the books when the ’13 season officially ends due to their FA expiring contracts. They have some ability to sign the FA they deem priorities, and may have to let a couple mid to lower level FA leave. Tough decisions will be made in the next few months. But the Packers do have the ability to keep a couple of the priority players then need to re-sign.
Good point Stroh. Hayward will probably never be an elite outside cover corner. Really hoping we can land Shields, but I fear we won’t