porky88
14 years ago

You have to take into account improving from within. Just because you don't change players, doesn't mean you don't get better. The 2007 Packers added Frank Walker, but ended up hosting the NFC Title game. Meanwhile, the 2007 Bears made zero changes and they missed the playoffs after going to the Super Bowl the year prior. Nobody will convince me Frank Walker was the reason for the five game swing.

The Packers have a lot of upside at key positions. Whether or not they improve enough from within will determine how far they go. You look up and down the team, there are plenty of players that should get better and not that many that will regress.

"Rockmolder" wrote:



Of course. Especially on a team like ours, we need our guys to make a leap from year 1 to 2. You can't survive without that when you sign the amount of FAs we do.

It's just that you have Brad Jones and Clay Matthews at OLB. Jones looks like someone who has to be 280 lbs of nearly pure muscle before he can take on a RT. And that will get to your speed.

Now, I'd be thrilled if he went from 240 to 250 in the weigth room, got stronger, learned some moves from Greene and gets after the QB this year, but I think that he'll still be a rather onesided guy. And someone who's not that amazing at those speed rushes, either.

And the same goes for Clay. Get a HB or TE to chip him, get him off his route and let the LT engage him. The battle is pretty much done from there. I think that the fact that teams had to double Cullen Jenkins had a lot to do with his outstanding rookie season, as well.

I found these numbers pretty interesting. Our OLBs got 1 sack between them on bullrushes. Matthews; 1, Jones; 0.

We really have a finesse rushing corps out there and that's just not always going to work. We're losing the battle against teams with beefy O-lines like Minnesota, just imagine what an athlete-filled zone team would do against us.

"porky88" wrote:



You bring up a good point with the backers and Jones specifically. That's the No. 1 problem for the Packers. The offensive line will sort itself out in my view. I also believe Rodgers will get rid of the ball quicker this year than last. Not all the times, but he'll be improved. The secondary will get a boost from just not having to rely on Jarrett Bush and Josh Bell. The pass rush is the concern.

The Packers will be a good team regardless of their pass rush though. They were a good team last year and their rush wasn't great. It was average at best. However, if they're going to go on the road and beat New Orleans, Dallas, or Minnesota, they need more rush.

If not, Green Bay better get home field throughout the playoffs.

Now there is more than one way to create pressure, but it is very difficult to get at the QB in this scheme without having the top rushers be the OLBs. Right now, that's not the case. I would argue Cullen Jenkins is the best rusher on the team next to Matthews.

Jenkins and Raji are going to have to step up their game a lot. They'll have to get enough pressure in order to make up for the inconsistent pressure from the OLBs. Chiller will have to blitz from the ILB as well. The scheme is going to have to create the pressure and not just Matthews and Jones. That's pickle the Pack are in.

Now it's easy to sit here and nitpick the Packers, but I could nitpick all the teams. Even the Saints. Green Bay is not alone in being a Super Bowl contending team with some holes. Everyone has em. Green Bay's happens to be the pass rush, which is a very important aspect of football.
bigfog
14 years ago

Boom or bust this year it seems. If no significant injuries (or legal suspensions, given the current state of things) I can see a very big year for the pack..

But, if either two of the above occur, we could be in trouble. For all his draft "stratagery" Ted Thompson has left some key positions precariously thin, and is placing a lot of faith in some pretty untested characters.

"Zero2Cool" wrote:



What positions?

"bigfog" wrote:



Corners, mostly. Seems like a lot of faith is being placed in Underwood as well as Pat Lee. But say Underwood gets in some trouble and gets suspended, that leaves Woodson, Tramon Williams, Bell and Bush if I'm not mistaken (I probably am) for possibly the first few weeks of the season. Woodson and Williams are a good tandem, but the rest of those guys? The Eagles could be in for a big day on opening weekend.

The other position I'd say is outside backers. Yes, yes, this is beat a dead horse time. But, this position isn't in nearly the dire straits that the corner position is. I think Jones will step up, but it's certainly not a given and if he doesn't - who's going to replace him? Poppinga? I dread the thought.
"I wouldn't root for the Minnesota Vikings to win a chess match against Nazi Germany."
Zero2Cool
14 years ago

Boom or bust this year it seems. If no significant injuries (or legal suspensions, given the current state of things) I can see a very big year for the pack..

But, if either two of the above occur, we could be in trouble. For all his draft "stratagery" Ted Thompson has left some key positions precariously thin, and is placing a lot of faith in some pretty untested characters.

"bigfog" wrote:



What positions?

"Zero2Cool" wrote:



Corners, mostly. Seems like a lot of faith is being placed in Underwood as well as Pat Lee. But say Underwood gets in some trouble and gets suspended, that leaves Woodson, Tramon Williams, Bell and Bush if I'm not mistaken (I probably am) for possibly the first few weeks of the season. Woodson and Williams are a good tandem, but the rest of those guys? The Eagles could be in for a big day on opening weekend.

The other position I'd say is outside backers. Yes, yes, this is beat a dead horse time. But, this position isn't in nearly the dire straits that the corner position is. I think Jones will step up, but it's certainly not a given and if he doesn't - who's going to replace him? Poppinga? I dread the thought.

"bigfog" wrote:



Please read THIS 
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Dexter_Sinister
14 years ago
I was never worried about the corners. I was worried about the safeties. When Bigby or Collins were hurt, we lost games in the first half. When 4 of our 6 CBs were hurt we only lost 1. I think that has been addressed with Blackmon, K Jones and Burnette. We have something like 18 DBs on the team to work through. Only 10 will be on the team. I am not worried about Williams, Woodson, Lee, Underwood, Bell and Harris. We also have other guys like Ford, Clark, Shields and a few others.

That first game in MN they were lucky to win. They had nobody on the injury report. The Pack were missing Bigby and Clifton. Tauscher wasn't back yet either. Colledge got the start at Tackle and eventually was hurt in the 3rd quarter. Even with this horrible luck, Lee dropped a 4th down TD in the endzone, Woodson got a phantom PI call on a pick in the endzone, a no name backup safety blew a coverage and let a TD walk in and the third string tackle let Allen by to sack Rodgers in the endzone. And we lost by only 7.

My conclusion, the teams were evenly enough matched the Vikings needed quited a bit of good luck to win. Since the Packers O-line was in shambles and the secondary had a huge hole in it, a healthy Packers team would have beaten the Vikings in spite of that luck.
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beast (21-Mar) : Unsigned FA QB Rodgers is supposedly in the Steelers building
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