The Packers certainly need better play at Safety, but they don't necessarily need another Nick Collins to be a very good defense. Last year the Packers safeties were often out of position, did not tackle well, and had 0 INT's. The 0 INT's is I think a reflection that the Packers safeties were not around the ball much when it was in the air. That needs to change.

I think Burnett is a pretty good player who needs to bounce back from a bad year. I never felt Jennings was a good player, so letting him go was addition by subtraction. I'm not sure if Richardson has the coverage skills to be anything more than an in-the-box guy in short yardage situations. Maybe Hyde can make the switch. Maybe Ted Thompson will draft someone in the 1st 3 rounds. If they can at least get some consistent play at the Safety position, I think they have the talent level at the other positions to be a top-10 defense.

Originally Posted by: joemailman 

When you have Aaron Rodgers, the greatest QB in the league, you can have a LOT of other weaknesses and still "win a title". We could stink at Safety, like we did last year, and if things fell right, still win the Super Bowl.

What we need a Safety for - what we need to shore up various weaknesses on defense in general for - is to become THE dominant team in the NFL. The Packers really are not far from being that.

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker 

Didn’t take expected step forward after signing long-term contract last summer. Missed first three games with hamstring injury and didn’t make season debut until Oct. 6. Struggled in coverage at times with no interceptions, and missed 11 tackles. A total of 71.4 percent of passes thrown in his area were completed, compared to 63.2 percent the year before. Rating of opposing QBs was 135.8 for passes thrown in his area, compared to 83.2 in 2012.

Morgan Burnett: STATS came up with a category called "Ballhawks," which ranks all defensive players on their total of sacks, interceptions, passes defensed and forced fumbles. Burnett tied for 158th place with five despite playing 82.6% of the snaps. When the Packers signed Burnett on July 15 to an extension averaging $6.19 million they viewed the four-year veteran as the next Nick Collins or Darren Sharper. Based on his play this year, they got someone like Marques Anderson. Burnett's effort and commitment are beyond reproach. He's the best communicator in the back end. He's a more than adequate athlete, has ideal size, runs in the low 4.5s and has roamed wide in the past. Burnett also scored 14 on the Wonderlic, and there remains too much hesitancy in his game. As he pressed to get near the ball, his tackling deteriorated to the point that he led the team with 17 missed tackles. He did lead the safeties in tackles per snap but had just one tackle for loss. He has a $1.5 million roster bonus due March 15. Grade: D-plus.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/defense12-b99180643z1-239782291.html#ixzz2ygD0dtRB 
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This is completely absurd. Wow. How many Super Bowls did we win after losing our Pro Bowl Safety Nick Collins?

Do you realize we had Aaron Rodgers, and a LOT of other weaknesses and still DID NOT win a title?

No. We cannot stink at Safety and still win a Super Bowl. Not going to happen.

"THE dominant team in the NFL?" We were quite far removed from that category for the past two and a half seasons. We've maybe had slim chances to advance, tops. Everything has to go close to perfectly for us to again reach the level of -a- dominant team in the NFL.

I'm not saying that it cannot happen, just that there is an awful lot of work left to do before we can consider ourselves a dominant team again. Adding one -or two- top Safeties from this draft should go a very long way towards bringing Green Bay back to a place of prominence in the NFL. Without that we may be cooked, again.

I firmly believe, had we added Jairus Byrd to our roster this offseason we WOULD be in that dominant category. Now, we have to hope rookies can come in a help us to that level of play. That is a tall order, especially when our top S Morgan Burnett has been stinking up the joint:

Originally Posted by: play2win 

hahahahaha that's what you think, huh?

Your last paragraph, which I agree with most of, seems to contradict the rest of what you wrote. I also wish we had signed Jairus Byrd, but if Ted hits it big with a Safety in the draft or if Hyde or whoever steps up, the result is about the same - which is what I call not far from being dominant and you claimed was absurd.

I did say "if things fell right". We lost to possibly the second best team in the league by 3 points without Matthews and a few other key elements, and with some bad luck. As things stand right now, even before the draft, the Packers should be a much-improved team, and arguably the Niners and Seahawks may not be quite as good. I call that approaching dominance.

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker