About Franklin I would love to be wrong but he wasn't a factor when he was healthy except for that Bengals game. Let's hope I'm wrong about him! The coaches didn't seem to trust him when they had other options available. why?

About Burnett and AJ you cheated! McMillan is not fair!

About Hayward I sense some problem, we were playing very good defense exactly until he returned from the injury, then the defense collapsed and as soon as he was out of the team again the secondary improved again. This can't be only because of his performance so I think there might be some kind of chemistry problem between Hayward and the rest of the secondary.

Is not just about missing tackles is about not wanting to tackle at all.

Originally Posted by: luigis 

About Franklin I would love to be wrong but he wasn't a factor when he was healthy except for that Bengals game. Let's hope I'm wrong about him! The coaches didn't seem to trust him when they had other options available. why?

Originally Posted by: luigis 

They were leery of Franklin, because of ball security issues.

There did seem to be some other issue making them reluctant to give him a look. Might be that "rookie learning how to work hard in practice like a pro" type deal. But this dude is flat out talented.

Originally Posted by: nerdmann 

Regarding Hayward, the coaching staff mishandled his hamstring injury. They rushed him back for the third preseason game and he re-injured it. I believe he re-injured it again against Philadelphia. Mike McCarthy was talking about him not being on the field during training camp. I recall, in 2010, Clay Matthews having a similar injury and missing all of training camp. He healed and was ready to go for week one, where he dominated Philadelphia. Hayward deserved the same treatment.

In addition, you can't just focus on interceptions. His coverage skills were amazing in 2012. Ask yourself this: did you hear his name called a lot? Nope. According to pro football focus , he wasn’t penalized during the season, he defended 12 passes, and he didn’t allow a touchdown.

I agree his skill set is suited for the slot, but that's hardly a bad thing. The slot receiver is beginning to take hold in the NFL, so it is good Green Bay has somebody that defends it well.

Originally Posted by: porky88 

I would invite you to take a look at the few games Hayward played this year and see not his plays but the look on the other players whenever he decided not to tackle.
I hope to be wrong but I sense bad chemistry between him and the rest of the team.

Originally Posted by: luigis 

I would invite you to take a look at the few games Hayward played this year and see not his plays but the look on the other players whenever he decided not to tackle.
I hope to be wrong but I sense bad chemistry between him and the rest of the team.

Originally Posted by: luigis 

I see absolutely nothing to back this up. You are basically just making things up.

Originally Posted by: steveishere 

As long as Dom sticks around there's not much reason to hope for much out of any rookies or inexperienced players on D. The guy hates playing young guys and pretty much the only way for those guys to get many snaps are if they are SIGNIFICANTLY better than a vet at their position or if vets ahead of them get injured. I mean it took 4 weeks for Matthews and Hayward to break the line up and they were legitamate ROY candidates. If you aren't that good off the bat you aren't really getting on the field much at all. So I'm not gonna worry too much about guys not playing right away. The important thing is Datone showed those flashes of talent (Boyd too) and hopefully can make the step up in year 2. After year 1 I'm pretty optomistic that we overall had a great rookie class this year. If the 2012 group can stay pretty healthy it definitely looks like we are on the way up as far as talented youth.

Originally Posted by: steveishere 

This aggravated the hell out of me over the final month of the season. If you're desperate to make a stand like this team was and get some Ws, you start playing guys regardless of where they're drafted and how they're paid. And if you don't get those wins, then at the least you know what to work on next year.

We didn't draft Jones to be on the kickoff unit, we drafted him to be a three down 3-4 lineman who could stop the run and rush the passer. He may not have set the world on fire and been bad at times, but I find it hard to believe he couldn't have contributed as much as the fat lump known as BJ Raji.

Or hell, look at Josh Boyd. Dude has a great game in Dallas, gets snaps against Pitt and then bam, back down to less than 10 snaps on D vs the Bears even though Forte went over 100 yards with an average of 5 yards a carry.

Originally Posted by: Mucky Tundra