Packerholic

Greg Jennings: While some people might disagree with me, I believe Greg Jennings is currently the best player on the Packers roster. While Jennings had a couple down games at the end of the season, there is no denying that he is one of the best receivers in the league. Also unlike most star receivers, he doesn’t have an attitude. Greg Jennings will continue to be a great receiver, hopefully the Packers are able to resign him. The good news is that even though he will come at a hefty price tag, it appears that Greg Jennings wants to resign with the Packers. Unless the Packers don’t resign him or something happens to him (injuries), I think Greg Jennings has the possibility of eventually becoming the best Packers receiver of all time.

Donald Driver: While Driver is getting older, he is still remaining productive. While I have no idea how long Driver is going to play yet, I am hoping for several more productive seasons. Donald Driver will go down as one of the best Packers receivers of all time. While his skills aren’t as great as they once were, he still provides veteran leadership and is still productive. While there are rumors that are going around that Driver’s days in Green Bay are limited, I think the idea is propesterous. People hate Thompson and would like to believe that he would get rid of Driver, I just don’t see it. We seriously lack leadership at this time so I don’t know why we would get rid of our only leader. Driver is also the type of player Thompson likes and he still remains productive. So I wonder why would he get rid of Driver? I think Driver will play 2-3 more seasons and then call it quits. Hopefully he will be able to get the 1,600 yards he needs in order to have the most receiving yards of any Packer player of all time.

James Jones: After a surprising rookie season, James Jones has had a disappointing season. He has been injured on and off all season long. It’s too bad that he was injured since in the games he was able to play he showed that he could be a great receiver in this league. All we can hope for is that he stays healthy next season and continues to develop. I believe Greg Jennings and James Jones will become a dominant wide receiver tandem.

Jordy Nelson: While most Packer fans weren’t happy with Nelson’s selection, he actually had a pretty good season this year. Most people weren’t upset with the selection of Nelson, they were upset with Thompson picking another receiver. While I admit that receiver really wasn’t a need, you really can’t be disappointed with Nelson’s play this season. I wasn’t expecting him to do much this season. While he wasn’t a game changer this season, I was impressed with his season. I think he will also become a good receiver in the near future.

Ruvell Martin: Ruvell Martin had a pretty disappointing season. Martin battled injuries throughout the season along with Jones. I think there was also just not enough balls to go around. Nelson quickly pass Martin on the depth chart and there was eventually just not enough passes for everyone. I believe Ruvell Martin could do better next season with some improved protection so Rodgers is able to get through more of his progressions.

The wide receiver is easily the Packers strongest position. With that said I hope that no moves are made in the offseason. I don’t see the point wasting money or a draft pick on a player that has next to no chance of making the roster in the first place.

Overall there are a couple updates regarding the Packers that have come out today.

• Charles Woodson has a toe fracture. While that sounds bad in my opinion, it supposedly isn’t that bad since it sounds like Woodson will play this week. Hopefully it doesn’t affect his play this season though.
• Brandon Jackson supposedly had a concussion in the game but it appears that he will likely play on Sunday.
• James Jones appears ready to play Sunday. Meanwhile on the receiver front supposedly Ruvell Martin has had a hand fracture for a while. He has been playing through it but the Packers might sit him for a week or two so it can fully heal.
• It appears that Scott Wells is still questionable for this week’s game. Despite the penalties I thought our offensive line played well enough. I think it is better that we are letting Scott Wells fully heal instead of rushing him back to the field.

The game could have gone a little better but Packer fans should be really happy that last night was not a repeat of last week. The Packers offense rebounded nicely and I hope they can continue to play that well into the season. The Packers defense is another story and I think there were a couple things that lead to their poor performance. Since I am in a good mood after last night’s game I have decided to start with the positives from the game.

Positives

Aaron Rodgers had a great game in my opinion. There is no way you can possibly complain about 18/22 for 193 yards. Tack on a passing and running TD as well. Rodgers rebounded from last week. He might have only had one of two mistakes in the whole game and the rest of the game was flawless. If we see more games like this than against the 49ers I think Rodgers will have a very successful season this year. As long as the line give Rodgers time I think he will quickly develop and overcome these mistakes that he has made so far this preseason.

The wide receivers redeemed themselves tonight. There was only one noticeable drop in my opinion (James Jones) and other than that the receivers did their job. This week they were finally able to get open so Rodgers had somewhere to throw the ball. I think McCarthy really needs to think about using a lot of the short passes this season since Aaron Rodgers and the receivers played much better with the short passes than the intermediate to long passes of last week. Finally it was nice to see Greg Jennings back since he really opened up the passing game in my opinion.

Kregg Lumpkin might have earned himself a spot on the roster with his play in yesterday’s game. While his stats might not show a great game I think he showed the potential to be a good RB in the league. While I personally don’t think he is currently worthy of a roster spot on the team I think the Packers are going to have to keep him on the roster since there is no way he makes it to the practice squad. This is one of those times that I wish the NFL had a developmental league like the MLB. While I wouldn’t guarentee that he makes the roster, I will say that he improved his chance last night.

The offensive line did a very good job pass blocking in today’s game. While it has been said that the Broncos defensive line is pretty weak, that doesn’t really matter to me. It doesn’t matter since the offensive line did their job in the game. They could have been challenged more but they weren’t. If there defensive line was better we don’t know what would have happened. We could have given up many more sacks or we could have continued to block well. There is really no reason to debate what would have happened since we will never get to see what would have happened.

Jason Hunter had a great game at defensive end. I have been a critic of Jason Hunter for a while now and for good reason. He never seemed to get any pressure on the QB. He didn’t have a problem with that last night. He had several good pressures on the QB (would have had more if the Broncos offensive lineman didn’t hold several plays in a row) and even caused the Tracy White interception that won the game. Hopefully next week the Packers can give him some time against the Titan starting offensive line since I want to see what he can do against better competition. If Hunter continues to play like he did last night he could be a future pass rusher in this league. I think last night’s performance at least guarenteed him a spot on the roster especially since he has always been a great special teamer.

Desmond Bishop had a very good game in my opinion. This battle between Bishop and Hodge for the final linebacking spot is getting really heated. Both are playing great and there is a very slim chance that we can keep both of them. One of them will probably have to go. Someone is likely to either be able to sign a very good LB or make a final roster trade to acquire one of these linebackers with a lot of talent that we just don’t have room for.

Will Blackmon made the roster last night in my opinion. Not from his defensive play (even though that wasn’t terrible) but from his returning. Blackmon probably won the punt returning job after last night’s performance and has finally given the Packers a returning threat which we haven’t had for a very long time.

Negatives

These injuries are starting to get ridiculous. How our luck is going as far as injuries are concerned I wouldn’t be shocked if our whole roster is hurt by the end of the season. If the injuries weren’t bad enough we had five injuries in yesterday’s game. It appears that James Jones’, Nick Collins’, and Charles Woodson’s appear to be nothing and they won’t miss the opener against the Vikings. Atari Bigby’s injury is a little more serious since there is a chance that he might not be able to play the opener. Finally Sitton’s was probably the worst he hurt his knee and had to have his leg wrapped. He will have more tests today but the one positive is that he didn’t need to use crutches to walk. At this point I think we need to wait to see what the test reveal.

We really need help on the defensive line. Injuries are decimating the defensive line. In particular we can’t keep a good defensive tackle from getting hurt. I think most of the problems from last night can actually be attributed to the defensive tackle position. First the defensive tackles did nothing to help in the run game. They couldn’t hold their spot and they couldn’t get any push. The defesnvie tackles also hurt the passing game since our defensive ends got some pressure from the sides but it went to waste since we could get absolutley no pressure up the middle. The Packers really need to either add a defensive tackle or hope that Pickett and/or Harrell get back soon. I think Packer fans saw last night why Pickett is so valuable to this team.

Our offensive line is really letting the running backs down. All night the offensive line struggled at opening holes for the running game. The offensive line needs to start opening holes for the running game or we will be in some trouble this season since we will have to focus on the pass and defenses will do the same. This week the offensive line improved their pass blocking. Hopefully this week they will improve their run blocking.

The Packers really need to add a veteran QB. Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn are just not ready to start. If we don’t add a veteran and Rodgers gets hurt we might as well throw the season away since at this point Brohm and Flynn would never be able to win a game. I think Thompson was pretty stupid not adding a veteran earlier. I don’t know how he expected two rookies to be able to fill in if Rodgers got hurt. I am not giving up on either QB since I think either or both could have a pretty good future as long as they are given some time to develop.

Other Thoughts

Jon Ryan had a really good game punting but I wouldn’t put too much stock into it since the game was in Denver after all. Denver’s high altitude has always helped kickers and punters in the past with the distance on their kicks. At least Ryan didn’t shank a punt in this game.

Mason Crosby finally missed a field goal. I guess it was about time that he would miss one since he has been pretty much perfect this whole training camp. The snap and hold were also not great which could have lead to the missed field goal.

The running back battle is as muddled as it has ever been. At this point I can’t really tell you who win will either the one or two open spots on the roster. Each running back brings their own strengths and weaknesses and the decision will come down to what the coaching staff wants most out of the third running back.

Danny Lansanah might have earned himself a spot on the practice squad with his play last night. He is definently a raw player at this point in his career but he showed potential (exactly what you want out of a practice squad player). Lansanah needs to learn from his stupid roughing the passer penalty though since every player should know better than that.

I hope Joey Haynos makes the roster over Tory Humphrey. While Tory Humphrey makes some good plays we balances those with some terrible plays. Add in the fact that he can’t stay healthy and you should know why I want to finally cut him loose. The reason I like Joey Haynos is because of his measureables. You don’t find many 6′8″ TEs in the league. Just think how that height advantage could be used in the end zone with jump balls. Joey Haynos also has good hands and showed last night that he can block as well.

Jarrett Bush really needs to develop some consistency. Last week he played terrible and this week he played pretty good. If Bush wants to have any chance of making the roster (he is the CB looking in at this point in time) he needs to have another solid game against the Titans and show that he has some consistency between games.

I am excited about Pat Lee’s future. While I don’t think he will have much impact this season (fourth CB at best) I think he could be a very good player in the future. Pat Lee has shown a knack for the football. He also seems to be getting better every single week that he plays. He is a little raw but I think with some development he could be a very good CB.

Sometime this week there will be a roster cutdown to 75 players. When I find the exact date I will write a post about who I think is on the bubble. When the cuts are released I will also write a post about whether I thought they were the right choices or not.

So what did you think about last night’s game? What went well and what went wrong in your opinion? Are you more optimistic about the season after last night’s game?

There was one practice today. The Green Bay Press Gazette has a post explaining what happened during the practice. Here are my thoughts on what they are reported:

• James Jones’ fumbling problems returned today during practice. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it though since I don’t think it is anything to worry about. He struggled with fumbles early last season but he worked through them in the second half of the season. I don’t think the problems have returned (or at least I hope they haven’t).
• Aaron Rouse impressed everyone once again. Wherever a play is made he seems to be in the vicinity. He actually recovered the James Jones fumble (it was caused by Blackmon).
• It’s not surprising that Will Blackmon is one of the kick returners but what does surprise me is that Jordy Nelson is the other returner. I guess he must have shown something returning since I personally wouldn’t have picked him as one of the returners.
• Once again there was a fight on the field. While I don’t think people have to worry yet since I think the fight was caused by the heat, if the fights continue everyday I think the Packers could be in trouble.
• Josh Sitton was supposedly impressive again today. I doubt Sitton will do enough to win a starting job but he is showing why he deserves to make the team. It’s always great to see when later round picks take advantage of their opportunities to impress the coaches.

Just to remind everyone I will be heading to Green Bay tommorrow to attend the Family Night Scrimmage. Since I am not a season ticketholder (I really wish I were though) I have always like the Family Night Scrimmage. I am even happier this season since I actually got first row seats this year so if you watch the scrimmage from home be sure to look for me. Tommorrow I will have an article about what you should look for in the scrimmage. I also might be able to provide a link on where to actually see the scrimmage on the internet for those of you who don’t live in the Green Bay area (I am not positive about this since it was breifly talked about on the TCR (a Green Bay show that highlights what happened on training camp every day). Check back tommorrow for both things and everyone can rejoice that Packer football has finally returned after such a long break that seemed to last forever.