Mike McCarthy Speaks

The third preseason game is coming up Friday night in Denver, and Mike McCarthy spoke with the media today. The media's questions are in bold below, followed by McCarthy's answers.

(How long do you expect the starters to go?)
We'll go through the first half, probably start the third quarter. Some guys won't come out at halftime.

They've started two different players at left guard, Allen Barbre and Jason Spitz, in the first two preseason games, and it looks like Daryn Colledge will go at LG in Denver. Rookie Josh Sitton has started both games at RG and doesn't appear likely to let go of that job.

(How important is this game to sorting out the offensive line?)
It's important for every position. Offensive line is obviously one of them. You'd like to get set, but we have some injuries there, we have some rotations we're looking at. But I'm hopeful we'll have a decision after this game.

I had hoped 2nd year S Aaron Rouse would shine in training camp and swipe the starting job away from S Nick Collins, who's a good player but it seems unlikely he'll ever be more than an average player. Rouse has made a couple big hits and has at least one turnover, but he's missed some tackles. McCarthy's analysis is spot on:

(Where is Rouse in the battle to push for a starting job?)
Aaron, his consistency level early in camp wasn't where it needed to be.

Neither DE Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila or RB Ryan Grant need to play much in the preseason games, but they do have to play at least one half in either of the next two games to get ready.

Kabeer hasn't played one snap in the preseason, so hasn't Ryan. It's important for them to play in a live game before we get into the Minnesota week