No question he is better than Sherrod at this point. Just hoping the Seattle game isn't all he has.
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This was my biggest beef about the Sherrod situation Thursday night. They put a grass green guy out there one on one against some of the best bull rushers in the league and expected him to excel? This is what drives me crazy. Our coaches don't seem to put our players in the best positions to succeed. They try to put square pegs into round holes.
BTW, I wasn't comparing Sherrod to Cliffy - I just wondered how Cliffy would have done in that situation with as few regular season snaps under his belt.
If you ask me, and nobody did, I think Sherrod just doesn't have the feet to play. Ex-Badger Groy is on Chicago's practice squad. I expect he could do better, he's moves very well. Or Jeremy Vujnovich from the Packer practice squad.
I think Sherrod looks worse than Newhouse and it is time to cut losses.
Obviously I know close to nothing compared to the Packer decision makers. But could some pride be involved in a reluctance to cut a former first round pick?
You do remember that Sherrod played almost his entire rookie season, don't you? They even tried to give him the starting job by having him alternate series with Newhouse one game late in the season, and afterward they said Newhouse would continue as the starter.
Sherrod isn't a green as grass rookie. He has more experience than you give him credit for. After practicing half of last season, having a full off season and playing more snaps than any other lineman in preseason, I can't even give him a lot of leeway for rust anymore.
4 pressures, 1 the coaches said was a bad protection call. Not giving up hope, but improvement has to happen faster or he isn't going to get to keep getting more reps and he absolutely needs more reps.
Putting a TE on the side can cause confusion. On one play I watched, the TE chipped the DE way inside and Sherrod moved to cover him. On the way he ran into Lang who was tangling with a guy trying to get outside. Might have been a stunt.
But having the TE make that hit made the player move faster and caused greater O disruption that the stunt alone.
In Sherrod's rookie season (2011) he played in 5 games until he broke his leg. I wouldn't categorize that as playing his entire rookie season. In 2013 he played in 7 games. So in 3 seasons he has played in a total of 12 games with an entire season lost in between. If you want to nit-pick, okay, he isn't a rookie but that doesn't mean he isn't green.
Nit pick? My gosh, he had 20 weeks of practice with the Packers his rookie season. He had 8 or 9 more weeks of practice last year. That was 7 months of practices before this off season even began, and you talk as if he is a rookie. He had a full veterans off season program this year (not the hit-and-miss rookie program) and extensive playing time this preseason, more than anyone else and more than rookies typically get. He has a heck of a lot more experience now than Bakhtiari had last year, and even a lot more than Newhouse had when he was first thrown into the starting lineup.
He needs to become a player. His excuses are worn out.
Sherrod was hurt in week 15. He missed two weeks of the season. How much more did he need before you would count his rookie season as a season played for the Packers?
Rookies who don't play a lot but practice all year are not expected to play like rookies the next year. It is when they are supposed to make the big jump. This should be Sherrod's year to make the jump.
Are you giving Datone Jones the same leniency this year. Do you have no expectations for him simply because he didn't play much last year? Or, do you expect him to step up his game because he has had a year with the team already?
I have gathered from reading some of your posts here that you were a wrestler. I come from the state of Iowa, so I know a little about that sport. When you wrestled, did you ever have a match where you were up against a faster, superior athlete, and you lost your good technique because you panicked?
I am curious to see if Sherrod's issues are technique-based. We know he has not played meaningful snaps in a long time. Just because his leg is now healed well enough to be playing again, doesn't mean there is not a good bit of rust to shake off. Time to see how he responds, and whether he gets better with his technique and how that translates to his performance. The next test will be a challenge as well. The Jets have some monsters on the D-line.
Since the Packers are in a spot (again) with depth being challenged, here's hoping that Sherrod's issues are mental (correctable technique for him to process pre-snap) and not physical (having lost it physically because of the injury).
Sherrod wasn't starting in previous seasons so he probably was in for FGs and extra points. I wouldn't think that would be the same as facing bull rushers in a hostile stadium where you can't hear yourself think. I'm not giving Sherrod a pass but I can see why he performed like he did and I'm not ready to toss him to the curb like so many here are. As you said this is the year when he should make a big jump. One game does not a season make.
I gave D. Jones a pass last year because most D linemen take a couple of seasons before they really shine. He had a bad wheel last year too. He had a couple of good moments Thursday night and I hope it is the sign of things to come but he had some poor moments too. He too is a work in progress and should continue to get better as his second season unfolds.
We've been through the rookie year before. Its does not mean as much now that he has had a full offseason program but his rookie year was marked by two very odd factors.
1. No offseason program. If Datone Jones had no offseason program his rookie year and just camp and a few games, I would expect him to be behind other typical second year players.
2. Camp was shortened by the lockout. Then he started out splitting reps with Lang at Guard. So of that truncated camp, he only spent the last week or two full time at tackle. By then McCarthy has switched to his regular season practice schedule and dialed back the number of practices. During the regular season he is on the scout team running other teams plays and a minimum of padded, live work.
So even without the injury, he wasn't going to be a typical second year player, that much is simply obvious. The problem is that now, still in his second year, if we count by number of practices (and with one full offseason), he has not progressed. The more distressing thing is that in some ways, he may have regressed.
Sherrod played more than just extra points and filed goals in 2011. According to McGinn's year end grade report. Sherrod played 112 snaps on offense in 2011, just under the equivalent of two games worth, including a series in the first half and the entire second half against Oakland when MM put the LT position on a platter and tried to give it to Sherrod. The week after Oakland, MM said the LT job belonged to Newhouse.
Sherrod had a few earlier stints at RT in 2011, and against KC the week after Oakland he came in at RT when Bulaga was hurt (sound familiar :(). That was when he broke is leg.
Even though Newhouse had not played a single snap in 2010, at no time during 2011 was Sherrod able to get the starting job away from him; not even late in the season when they gave him an entire half+ to show that he might be a better option than Newhouse..
Much too much is made about his missed off season as a rookie. Quite a few rookies miss most of the off season stuff because the schools are still in session and they are not allowed to participate but for a couple days under league rules. Others miss because of injuries. No one argues that it wastes their entire rookie season just because they were nonparticipants in May and June (everyone is gone in July anyway). The fact is, the rookies don't get a lot of work before TC, some yes, but not a lot. Didn't the league allow a rookie orientation of sorts in 2011? I know they talked about it, but I don't remember for sure or not if it happened.
Training camp was not shortened significantly in 2011. They opened camp on 7/30, had a week of practices before family night, 4 weeks of practices and 4 preseason games, then a week before the regular season. How much TC did they miss, a day or two? They probably made it up with fewer off days (although I don't know that they did).
Yes, Sherrod missed what ever rookie off-season he would have had, but he basically had a full training camp, 4 preseason games and 15 weeks of practices as a rookie; and he wasn't very good at the end of those 20 weeks. He still isn't now after a half season last year and everything this year so far.
Sherrod has the yips! It's a WI epidemic.
What you suggest is possible, but keep in mind that Sherry got yippy against St. Louis's 2nd string and practice squad.
I have two more Al Bundy-like wrestling stories that I've already worn out. I beat Tim Krumrie in wrestling in high school. When I was a heavyweight in college, the athletic director was Otto Graham, and he tried to get me to play football.
Since then, I've been pretty occupied at the shoe store.
McGinn seems to think that Sherrod is slower post-injury than he was before. If that's the case, it's doubtful he can be a reliable tackle. He's stronger than he used to be. His best shot might be at Guard.
#1 picks tend to get a lot of reps.
But the point is not just his truncated rookie season. He also then missed his sophomore offseason, camp and most of the year. Then in Year 3 he had ANOTHER surgery and missed the offseason work again. So in Year 3 of his Pro calendar, even by your reckoning on his first year, he had a rookie years worth of work and another limited offseason.
Year 4 opens with his first full offseason. And he entered it with less than 2 seasons worth of work (my point).
But we are past that now. He doesn't look better. He might be worse. If its physical and he can no longer move like he did (if that surgeon botched his leg that bad) he is probably done. All this time I have been rooting for this first round talent to move into the starting lineup to increase the available talent on the line and let Barclay or Bach be a backup. Right now, he doesn't look qualified to be the backup.
thats my take on him as well. he doesn't have the feet or speed to handle the speed/edge rushers. he looks just fine against mauler types, but it seems like he can be beat every time by the speed guys.
unfortunately, theres a lot of speed rushers in the NFL right now
and i don't know lineman, but i'm not thinking that is something that can just be "fixed"
maybe he should be a guard?