Scouts Inc.'s Matt Williamson breaks down the tight ends of each NFC North team. Today: Green Bay Packers.

Jermichael Finley is not the best tight end in all of football yet, but he very soon will be. In fact, I am flat-out smitten with the guy. Finley is very special. I think he is a combination of Antonio Gates and Calvin Johnson and truly cannot be covered with one NFL defensive player. He is a receiving specimen without weakness. Finley began the season as Aaron Rodgers’ top option in an excellent passing game, but Finley was lost for the season in Week 4 with a knee injury. Just imagine what Green Bay's fantastic offense will look like next year when Finley is back in the mix.

After Finley went down last season, the Packers turned to a rookie, Andrew Quarless. Quarless has ability, but overall, he was a little disappointing. He looks like a backup who needs to become much more consistent and work on the finer points of playing his position. But rookie tight ends rarely flourish, so he could improve in 2011. Still, Finley caught as many passes as Quarless did last season, and Finley played only four games.

The Packers used a fifth-round pick on tight end D.J. Williams. Williams could seriously cut into Quarless’ playing time. Williams is an undersized tight end but was an exceptional college receiver. The Packers will probably get very creative with how they use and align the rookie.

Linebacker-turned-tight end Spencer Havner found the end zone quite a bit in 2009 considering his limited role in this offense. He contributes on special teams but was a complete non-factor on offense last season.

Tom Crabtree and Donald Lee were factors for the Super Bowl champs last season. But neither player is a mismatch in the passing game and both are now liabilities as blockers. Lee was cut in March, and it wouldn’t be surprising if neither player were on Green Bay’s opening day roster.

ESPN NFL North wrote:

Not much of an analysis. He doesn't even mention that the Packers drafted a second tight end, and he lumps Crabtree in with Donald Lee, even though they are very different players. (Lee: old, useless, and already cut; Crabtree: young, decent special teams player, quite possibly could stick with the team and improve.) I hope this guy didn't get paid too much to write this.

Originally Posted by: Greg C. 

It took Finley a year and a half to get in sync with the offense. I think Quarless should be afforded the time to understand it as well as Finley.



I think Quarless will catch on a little faster because of being forced into the role sooner than he would have if allowed to develop naturally.



Finley was working pretty hard on his blocking during the off season last year. Quarless was know for his blocking at Penn State. Crabbtree isn't out only TE that can block.

Originally Posted by: Dexter_Sinister 

To me it looked like Quarless was getting down field and moving faster than Finley was.

That being said Quarless seemed to drop a ton of passes he's way and at points it seemed pointless to throw it his way because of it. (Also I wonder if he needs to get his eyes check because sometimes it looked like he'd lose track of the ball more than other guys).

Also Finley was playing in the system when they had it based around him. When he went down MM tried to plug in the other TEs but they couldn't do well enough so MM switched the system to focus back around the WRs and Quarless was then running a lot of clearing routes trying to go deep and get the attention of a Safety and get the Safety to follow him to open up underneath for the WR. That could of had a factor in why Quarless looked faster... because Finley wasn't running clearing routes (or who knows Quarless could be faster... he did run a faster 40 combine time then Finley as well as faster pro day 40)

Originally Posted by: beast 

He had 2 drops in 33 attempts.

Originally Posted by: Dexter_Sinister