Packerholic

It’s midweek and there is some news coming out of Green Bay.

First is the news that Tracy White was cut and Danny Lansanah was promoted from the practice squad. I personally don’t really have any feelings either way about this move. Tracy White essentially made the roster purely due to his special teams play. While I don’t know this for sure but I have a feeling that his special teams play has dropped off this year since I haven’t heard his name yet this year on special teams. This is also supported by the fact that the special teams have been pretty poor this season.

As far as Danny Lansanah I think he could be a good player. This preseason he really came out of nowhere and really showed that he has potential for a career in the NFL. At least he will give us something out of the linebacker position other than special teams. With all our injuries this season he could see some playing time this season. There is also sepculation that this move was made because Hawk’s injury might be worse than expected. This could be a possibility but I am not going to put too much thought into it until we receive an injury update on Hawk. The more likely scenario in my opinion is either we wanted more depth at linebacker (Tracy White was never really a linebacker), or we wanted to keep him and we thought some other team was trying to pick him up.

The second news coming out of Green Bay is that Derrick Frost’s time in Green Bay could be pretty short. On Monday the team brought in four punters for a tryout. While none of them have been signed and probably won’t be signed this week, it does indicate that if Frost doesn’t step up this week his chances of remaining on the roster are pretty slim. While Frost has been bad (and deserves to be cut), I honestly didn’t think Ryan was the long term solution to the problem either. At this point I think the Packers need to find a decent punter for this season and then look to the draft for a punter. Mentioning a punter and the draft probably gives people terrible visions of the whole BJ Sander fiasco. I think the Packers need to use the draft though since the punters you find in free agency are nothing more than average to below average punters. If the Packers want a good punter they are going to need to get one in the draft. For our kicker we only had to spend a 6th rounder and in my opinion we already have one of the best kickers in the league. Hopefully a similar situation presents itself in next year’s draft in order to pick up a punter because we won’t get anything more than an average punter otherwise.

What are your thoughts on what is happening with the Packers? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

The Packers didn’t come out of the Tampa Bay game very healthy. We actually lost several key players. Packers Nation started  worrying about the season (myself included) but it turns out that we overreacted a little. Good news is coming out of Green Bay on every injury sustained in last week’s game.

The most significant injury in the game was Aaron Rodgers. This morning McCarthy reported that Rodgers has a shoulder sprain. As long as McCarthy isn’t sugar coating things Rodgers should be able to play this weekend. At this point Rodgers thinks he will be able to play but McCarthy won’t say for sure if he is going to play or not until today and tomorrows rehab. I think we dodged a bullet here but it better have shown Thompson that he needs to pick up a veteran quarterback. The best thing for the Packers would be for Brohm to magically come up with an injury so we can stash him on IR. We can then sign a veteran to be Rodgers backup for at least this season. The Packers need to add another quarterback since I think the Packers have no shot of ever winning a game with Flynn or Brohm behind center.

The second most serious injury was to AJ Hawk. Jay Glazer reported yesterday that AJ Hawk tore his groin which would have put him out for the season. Jay Glazer’s sources were obviously wrong on this one since McCarthy said it is only a strain. Hawk might miss this week’s game but at least it isn’t the season ending injury that Glazer predicted. Hopefully we can get Hawk back as soon as possible since based on current play he is easily our best linebacker.

Another serious injury was sustained by Cullen Jenkins. Cullen Jenkins is suffering from a pectoral strain. At this point McCarthy really didn’t say anything about his availability but at least he shouldn’t be out more than a couple weeks. Cullen Jenkins has had a good season this year and is playing the second best of any defensive lineman on the roster.

Nick Collins appears to be suffering from the same injury as last week. I am guessing he will be able to play this week as well as long as he doesn’t have a set back. I hope Bigby is able to come back though since it appears that Aaron Rouse could miss some time. Aaron ROuse ahs also struggled this season so it will be nice to get Bigby back as soon as possible.

The final injury update I have for you is that supposedly Justin Harrell is actually progressing well. According to Pro Football Weekly Justin Harrell is in the best shape he has ever been in while with the Packers. While I am not going to put a lot of confidence into this report it will be great if it is actually true. The Packers have shown that they need help at the defensive tackle position. Our defensive tackles are being run over and another body in the picture could never be a bad thing. While I don’t think Harrell will have a great season, I think just having another defensive tackle will be huge.

The final news I have today actually doesn’t deal with injuries at all. Derrick Frost has played far from good. There were rumors that he might be cut but it appears that he will be getting another week. If he suffers again though I think he will lose his job. A familiar face could become his replacement. While Jon Ryan is currently on the Seahawks, the Seahawks are currently looking at replacements. Since there probably isn’t much as far as free agent punters I wouldn’t be surprised if the Packers resigned him. If you are thinking that Jon Ryan wouldn’t want to come back he has even said that he would gladly come back to Green Bay if the Packers wanted him back. Wouldn’t that be weird if Jon Ryan was cut and resigned in the same year?

There have been some updates on the injury front for the Packers. For full details you can check out the Green Bay Press Gazette and JS Online. There is good and bad news. I will begin with the bad news. Supposedly Scott Wells has had a setback. This is not a good thing. It appears that Wells won’t play against the Vikings. Hopefully the Packers are still able to contain the Vikings defensive tackles even with all the shifting on the line. It appears like Jason Spitz will move to center and Daryn Colledge and Tony Moll will start at guard. I don’t know if it is just me but why isn’t Barbre getting a chance to start. The only reason I can see is that Colledge and Barbre don’t know the position that Moll is playing. If that is the case I have no idea what is going on since Barbre has done much more this preseason than Moll has.

Well that is enough bad news lets get to the good news. According to McCarthy, Ryan Pickett will start on Monday. This is big news since the Packers really needed Pickett to have any chance of stopping Adrian Peterson. Other good news includes Bigby, Grant, and KGB being likely to play Monday. AJ Hawk also appears to making big strides so he might be able to play as well. It also seems like we will know more about James Jones’ injury by the end of the week.

Enough with the injuries. Let’s head to today’s practice in general. Very little information came out today except about the two newest Packers. It appears that Brett Goode snapped well most of the practice and only had one bad snap. Meanwhile Derrick Frost had a decent practice. According to the Green Bay Press Gazette he is a more consistent kicker than Ryan and is also a much better directional kicker. He apperently doesn’t have the leg that Ryan had though. If these reports translate to the season I won’t be mad with the change. I think the Packers really needed consistency at the punter position and having a good directional punter is good when you are in a division with a player named Devin Hester.

So what are your thoughts on the injury updates and our new punter and snapper? Feel free to leave a comment since I always like receiving feedback from my readers.

As I mentioned earlier today the Packers added two players. The players that were cut to make room were finally released and I don’t know if it is just me but I don’t agree with either move. The Packers added long snapper Brett Goode (former Jaguar) and punter Derrick Frost (former Redskin). To make room for them the Packers cut Jon Ryan and Abdul Hodge. I don’t know if it is just me but I don’t know if I agree with either of these moves.

First is adding Derrick Frost and cutting Jon Ryan. At first I didn’t like the move when I heard the Packers were going to sign Derrick Frost. When comparing his stats to Ryan’s they just don’t compare. Ryan was better in every statistical category and was also a better directional kicker. In Ted Thompson’s news conference he explained that Derrick Frost was a better directional kicker, more consistent, and better in cold weather. If all those are true I don’t mind the pickup since Ryan’s biggest problems were his consistency and his cold weather kicking. Hopefully with a last name like Frost he is able to kick in the cold weather since we could be in a lot of trouble if he can’t. Let’s hope Thompson knows what he is doing with this pickup since it could really come back to bite him in the butt.

Now the other move surprises me and doesn’t surprise me. Obviously the Packers were going to pick up a long snapper and I am trusting that Thompson picked up the best snapper in Brett Goode. What I don’t agree with is cutting Abdul Hodge. I think this was a downright stupid move. I don’t know why in the world Thompson kept Jarrett Bush or Breno Giacomini amongst several other players and decided to cut Hodge. Seven linebackers were a lot to keep but if a linebacker had to be cut I would have cut White since his only real contribution comes on special teams. Hodge really showed potential at the linebacking position and I am disappointed that we cut him. I sure hope Thompson knows what he is doing since I think another team is going to get a steal picking Hodge off of waivers.

Thompson made two moves today but he didn’t make the move that was most important. He still hasn’t added another defensive tackle. It is ridiculous that we only have three defensive tackles. Who knows if Pickett will even be ready for the first week of the season? What if he isn’t able to go and we have a whopping two defensive tackles. Thompson had better add another defensive tackle soon or permanently move to the 3-4 or 2-4 since we are in a lot of trouble otherwise.

I seriously don’t know what has been up with Thompson lately. I have actually been a pretty big supporter of Thompson but I honestly can’t support either of these moves at this time. Along with the fact that he hasn’t even added another defensive tackle I am left wondering what in the world is Thompson doing. Hopefully Thompson proves everyone wrong once again but I am starting to worry about some of his latest decisions. I guess we will just have to believe that he is making the right decisions for the team.

Even though I might question the moves I do welcome the two new Packers Brett Goode and Derrick Frost and hope the best of luck this season.

A good piece of news to come out of today is that Matt Flynn has officially been named the top backup. Matt Flynn has obviously looked better so far this preseason. Brohm could now use his time learning the NFL game instead of worrying about backing up Aaron Rodgers this season. I think if he is given time to develop he could be a very good QB as long as he adjust to the NFL and the game slows down for him.

So what do you think of the moves? Do you like the moves or agree with me that the moves are questionable? Feel free to leave your comments since I always love receiving feedback.