Friday Cheese Curds: Fixing the Packers’ inside linebackers will require outside help

Continuing to do a postmortem on the Green Bay Packers’ loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship might seem like picking at an old wound at this point.

However with the offseason and free agency fast approaching, there is one area Tampa Bay is strong at and Green Bay is, well, not so much.

That spot is inside linebacker. While Christian Kirksey, Khrys Barnes, and Kamal Martin did a serviceable job, there is clearly room for improvement.

The joke (or maybe it’s actually the truth) is that the Packers don’t really care about the inside linebacker job. That looked to be true judging by how they went about acquiring players under both Dom Capers and Mike Pettine. Will it also be true for Joe Barry?

It looks like that finally may be the case as Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst acknowledged he’d like to see much better play from the inside linebacker group. This means it will probably take more than a bargain free agent signing or a mid-to-late round draft pick.

Who could come in remains to be seen with the draft months away and the Packers still trying to balance their salary cap situation, but it looks like Green Bay will finally start to to take the inside linebacker position seriously and make moves to upgrade the spot.

Now for today’s curds.

Packers want ‘better production’ out of inside linebacker group—Packers Wire

The Packers in theory could bet on second year improvement from Barnes and Martin, but they really could do well to add some outside help via free agency or an earlier round draft pick.

‘We came out like a whirlwind tornado’—PackersNews.com

It’s to believe it’s been a decade since the Packers won their fourth Lombardi. The Green Bay Press Gazette has been running an oral history all week celebrating the anniversary of Super Bowl XLV and it is worthy of your time.

Where does Tom Moore’s 77-yard run rank?—Packers.com

Paul Hornung’s backup once made a play for the ages in 1963 and Packers historian Cliff Christl gives a great breakdown of the play here.

Restricted Free Agency: Packers Face Difficult Decision with Boyle—Packer Central

What the Packers do with Tim Boyle entering restricted free agency will speak volumes about where Jordan Love is at in his development. One would assume Love would challenge Boyle to be QB2 in camp, but if a team signs Boyle to a tender sheet how Green Bay reacts will be telling.

NASA reveals first two photos of Mars taken by the Perseverance rover—CBS News

Science is something else. An unbelievable moment thanks to the hard work of all the teams at NASA.