Packer Links: Harris is Out, Rodgers is Confident, Jennings is Hurt, and Newhouse is Improved

Draft Wilson instead of Bulaga?
Over pay Dunata Robinson?
Make a trade for Cromartie and hope that he fits?

You’re right that this is a moment of truth, but before we start bringing in new players left and right we have to see what guys like Underwood and Lee can do.

As much as you are right and fans are overly optimistic about the players on their team, there is also a strong sense of the grass is always greener with fans as well. Too many fans think that bringing in new blood is automatically an upgrade or a solution to situation, when that’s not always the case. There really weren’t too many CB’s past the first round that would be an upgrade over Lee and Underwood. There was only one FA that was worth the time to look at and we would of have an uphill shot of getting him. There were a few CB’s for trade, but I don’t know if they would be worth the draft picks and long term contract they wanted. This year was not a rich year from the CB position.

The other reality is that when you have a team with a powerful offense then talent at the corner position isn’t as necessary as talent at the o-line. Do the Colts have very talented corners? What about the Saints? They were picking guys off the street last year and still winning games. The secondary is important, but the real key to winning a SB is keeping Rodgers upright and Bulaga goes a long way to doing that.

I think that arrogant confidence is the sign of a young team. They start reading and thinking they’re pretty good, having a bunch of wins, then wham. The door is closed on their face.

Now you’ve got most of the guys back from last year who can say “remember last year when we thought we were pretty good?” Keep it real guys.

Injuries are a part of training camp! Most are just minor, like Jennings stained back… That happens to every team. They all have at least 10-20 players that are nursing some sort of injury in training camp. Its preseason so they hold them out, but if it were regular season we wouldn’t even hear about most of these! Jennings wouldn’t even be listed on the injury report during the season, IMO.

Now when you get a position like LB and RB that right now each has a few guys missing time it can get to be a problem w/ the reps that are needed to be run and not having enough bodies to share them. Its a physical game and the Packers run camp just like other teams and I don’t think they have more injuries than any other team. It just seems that way cuz we pay alot more attention than most fans!

Feel free to name the FA Thompson should have brought in… Otherwise your being a “nag”…

Typically it’s the other guy who has the initial burden of proof. So if you are going to say there were FA’s out there who could make this a better team, you have to state somebody, anybody, but just name a player. Then the burden shifts to the defenders of the current inaction to state why that player wouldn’t of been worth the cost necessary to get him.

I can’t speak for other defenders on the CB front, but I’ve been pretty consistent with naming some names and giving the anti TT people the benefit of the doubt. Along with that are the reason why I can guess the front office didn’t really make a large effort to go out and get them. The main ones are Duanta Robinson, Antonio Cromartie, Lito Shepard, and Kyle Wilson. The main one that would of been a great trade for would of been Dre Bly, but I’m not sure that would of been a good long term move on the Packers part.

Moral of the story, got to come strong if you are going to attack…it’s the nature of offense.

Unless you offer a remedy all your doing is complaining… Not offering any answers… In short being a “nag”.

He was on IR the entire year!!! Underwood was a very green rookie who hadn’t played CB for about 3 years before the Packers drafted him.

BTW – It wasn’t Brian Wilson, its Kyle Wilson and I disagree.

First off, like Stoh said, Lee was out all last season and Underwood only played in the Steelers game I believe (he got injured towards the end of the season).

As for Robinson, I doubt he really wanted to come here. Green Bay isn’t really a place that is going to catch a guy’s eye like New York, Miami, etc. On top of that, he made it pretty clear that from the get go he wanted to go to Atlanta which is where he grew up or lived at some point (can’t remember exactly). We didn’t have much of a chance from the beginning, and I doubt many other teams did either.

I would have liked to have seen a veteran Cb signed this season but the bottom line is, that’s just not TT’s style. He likes to build from within, and give the guy’s he drafted a chance. Lee is only a 3rd year guy and Underwood will only be a 2nd year guy. It usually takes Cb’s time to develop, and both Lee and Underwood have great physical skills. (tall and fast) It’s worth seeing if either of them can become contributors for our team.

I think a good comparison for Lee and Underwood would be Finley, Collins, or Rodgers. None of them contributed much their first 2-3 years in the league. Collins looked good at times but then also bad at times as he took way too many chances. Finley barely saw the field, and too me that was a bit of a concern because I never saw Lee as anything more then average. Rodgers had Favre sit behind but even in those first two years, he looked pretty average and had injury troubles which was a bit concerning considering he wasn’t riding the bench.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is what if TT had just cut those guys because they hadn’t shown much right off the bat? Guys develop differently, and going from college to the NFL is a difficult thing to do. Most guys don’t just come in, and make an impact right away. There is a developmental process, and our staff does a great job at improving guys throughout that process. Because of Woodson and Harris, we didn’t need either Lee or Underwood to come in right away and make an impact so I’m sure we’ve been developing them, and not giving them much of a chance until our staff actually feels their ready. Obviously both are going to get their chances this season, and let’s wait a little longer then 2 preseason games before we just write them off as being horrible ok?

Stroh actually stole a bit of my thunder with his pithy little retort, but here goes.

Yes, I did watch those games, but I’m not sure if you did because you didn’t realize that Pat Lee wasn’t there. In fact, because Pat Lee(and Al Harris) weren’t we had Jarrett Bush and Josh Bell on the field. You remember those two guys right? Josh Bell was the one who gave up the winning touchdown in the Steelers game. Jarrett Bush was the one the Cards picked on all day. As for Pat Lee’s performance on the field…well it’s been limited. Right now I want to see if he can stay healthy for a full year and if he can perform at this level. If the answer is no to either of those questions I will whole heartedly agree with you that he is a bust and we should move on, but not until this year is done. We just haven’t seen enough to rush to that judgment.

Brandon Underwood. I get that you are down on him, and he probably deserves it. Before you completely write him off remember it takes about three years to develop a corner. Underwood was also a relatively low round pick, meaning the Packers (and the rest of the league) believed that he probably wouldn’t produce right away. [Note, I understand that being picked low doesn’t automatically mean that, but it is a good rule of thumb that these guys aren’t expected to produce right away like say a first or second round guy.] The last thing that your analysis fails to appreciate is that Underwood had some serious maturity issues last year. I remember reports that his coaches described him as “just happy to be there,” he showed up late for meetings, and just didn’t have a professional attitude. Further evidence of his knuckle headedness would be the whole prostitution case against him right now. Something must of hit him because now the reports that you hear (mind you from the coaching staff which isn’t always the most unbiased of sources) is that he’s working hard and turning around his career. If that is the case then I want to see what he can do when he adjusts his work ethic to that needed for this level. Throwing him in the fire will answer this question too., thus why I want to see what he can do and not just write him off.

On drafting KYLE Wilson (Brian Wilson would be the lead singer of the Beach Boys, I don’t know if he would make a good CB for the Packers) instead of Bulaga. I asked this above, but if you are the NO Saints, which is more important….keeping Brees healthy or getting interceptions. I could ask the same of the Patriots and Colts as well. The reason I start here is because Rodgers was sacked over 50 times last year. That’s just completely unacceptable. The other question I would have is, if we didn’t draft Bulaga, who would be our backup LT? See, I don’t believe Farve torched us last year. I watched those game Robbie, and you know who I saw that torched us? Jared Allen. He got seven sacks in two games. He had what, 14 all year. Half his sacks came against us…and do you know why Robbie? Because Clifton was out those two games. Thus we return to my question, who backs up Clifton? Blindly relying on a guy who has had countless surgeries the last two years to stay healthy all year isn’t a good plan, especially when this guy protects the blind side of the most valuable player on our team.

On Bulaga not being a LT. Simply put the Packers don’t agree with you. There are some in the NFL who would agree with you, there are many others who wouldn’t. I could refer you over to the discussion with the Colts fans that is going on right now where they talk about the Colts wanting to move up to get Bulaga. I could reference his strong camp. I could do lots of things like that, but I’m not going to. Rather, I’m just going to say this for the people who think that Bulaga is not a LT: the best argument I’ve heard against this, and the only come to think about it, is his arm length. If this is the major test to see if a guy can play LT or not then Jake Long and Joe Thomas aren’t really LT either because they have a similar arm length as Bulaga. If there is an argument I’m missing then I would love to hear it because LT is an important position and one that the Packers need to nail down more than any one particular position on the defense. Once there is a long term viable starter there, so many things are going to fall in place.

Duanta Robinson. Do you think he would be worth as much to the Packers as Charles Woodson? Do you think he would be more valuable to the Packers than NIck Collins? See when you over pay FA’s like this the other guys, who have been with the team longer, come out of the woodwork for more money. We have already heard some rumblings of Woodson wanting a pay increase, and Collins was in a contract negotiation at the time Robinson would of been signed. Putting a guy who probably wouldn’t be as valuable as those two guys in the locker room with more money then them might not of worked out quite as well as you think. I might of, but I doubt it…that was my point.

Cromartie. Man, this guy is a chicken or egg problem. Was his good year because he was a good corner guy or because the Chargers were putting pressure on the QB? Cromartie’s dip in status falls pretty close to where Merriman was off steroids and just sucking up a starting spot. He might be awesome out in NY, in fact a part of me expects him to…but is that again due to the system or the player? Let’s face it, even if we got Cromartie, the Packers aren’t going to get the same pressure and shut down the other receiever out there the same way the Jets will. Thus it begs the question, would Cromarite be as good in GB? That’s tough.

The other question about that then is who would you rather have on the team? Morgan Burnett or Cromartie? I ask this because Cromartie was traded for a third round pick and that is where Burnett came on the team. If we didn’t have him right now we would be looking at Derrick Martin (you know the main guy on the defense Farve did torch @MN?), Will Blackmon (first year as a safety), or Jarrett Bush (we talked about him earlier, remember him?) as our starting safety week one. Just some food for thought on that one.