Its Time to Move Nick Barnett to the Outside.

[FritzDontBlitz]

yes, i said it.

i'm from the school of thought that says you field your best 11 players.

hodge has proven himself to be much stouter against the run than barnett in preseason, and mlb is hodge's natural position. poppinga has been an embarrassment so far, and the consensus seems to be that ben taylor is worse. barnett claims he can play the spot, but is quoted as saying he's afraid his dip in defensive statistics from the move to the outside will hurt him financially in future contract negotiations - not that i really give a damn about his contract negotiations.

so why not?

i think its very doable. hodge can be in for running downs but comes off the field while barnett and hawk remain to play in the nickel packages. it seems like the most logical cure for the way other teams are exploiting poppinga, and after the way barnett played last sunday vs. the saints - he was almost invisible statwise - can they do much worse with hodge in the middle and barnett on the outside?

i know some of us knocked this idea around after the first preseason game. its time to take up the subject again...

[Green Bud Packer]

it's too early to be waving the white flag.i don't see a big change coming too soon.

[FritzDontBlitz]

it's too early to be waving the white flag.i don't see a big change coming too soon.

i agree that its too early to wave a white flag of surrender. that's not what i'm suggesting. i'm not talking about tanking the season either. i'm just offering a suggestion of something that could work better than what the packers have right now: putting poppinga out there and hoping he won't get you killed in pass coverage....

[vince]

it's too early to be waving the white flag.i don't see a big change coming too soon.
I don't see this as waving any flag whatsoever... Rather, let's put the best players on the field.

I agree with Fritz in that, Hodge is a better MLB than Poppinga is OLB... Barnett is also a better OLB than MLB, IMO, so this move makes sense, from my perspective...

[rforce]

Barnett is to much of an ego maniac and non team player to accept the move without a lot of drama. I do agree this would be something to at least try though.

[Green Bud Packer]

it's too early to be waving the white flag.i don't see a big change coming too soon.
Barnett is also a better OLB than MLB,..i've never seen barnett play olb so i can't argue but i see what your saying.i would think the coaching staff knows who their best 11 are and if hodge deserves a shot i'm sure he'll get one. just not yet.

[vince]

it's too early to be waving the white flag.i don't see a big change coming too soon.
Barnett is also a better OLB than MLB,..i've never seen barnett play olb so i can't argue but i see what your saying.i would think the coaching staff knows who their best 11 are and if hodge deserves a shot i'm sure he'll get one. just not yet.
Good point about Barnett never playing olb, but I'd be confident he could easily make the switch, and his agility would serve him well in pass coverage, where the SLB is matched up with slot guys and TE's regularly...

[gbpackfan]

Vince,

Why are you confident that he could easily make the switch? How many practices have you observed? Are you a pro scout or coach?

Fritz,

And your first post that started out by saying "yes, I said it," makes no sense. People have been saying that Barnett should be moved outside since Hodge was drafted. It is not like you have come up with some HUGE original idea. In fact, this horse has been beaten to death, let's move on.

[Harlan Huckleby]

The problem is that teams frequently pass on first and second down, and Hodge looked really bad trying to cover last summer.

I don't buy that Hodge is better than Poppinga right now. ( It's possible that in two years from now, Hodge is all-pro and Poppinga is out of the league. But we're talking NOW. )

Barnett has said he only wants to be on weakside or in the middle. Hodge would have to be significantly better than Poppinga to justify moving Barnett to a position he doesn't want to play. Forget it.

[vince]

Vince,

Why are you confident that he could easily make the switch? How many practices have you observed? Are you a pro scout or coach?

Fritz,

And your first post that started out by saying "yes, I said it," makes no sense. People have been saying that Barnett should be moved outside since Hodge was drafted. It is not like you have come up with some HUGE original idea. In fact, this horse has been beaten to death, let's move on.
GB, I've observed Barnett in every game since he was drafted, as most other fans have, and I see what most everyone else who has seen him play over the last three years... a guy who moves very well and tackles decently on the outside, but isn't a huge hitter and not a big run stuffer. Based on what I've seen, I believe he could do the job at SLB very well. I could be wrong. Do you doubt that he could?

I've also seen most of the games that Poppinga played as a pro and most of the games that Hodge has played as a collegian. I believe that Poppinga, while a solid run defender and blitzer, still needs work defending the passing game. I believe that once Hodge sees the field with the D, he will be very hard to get off it. Do you disagree with this? What's your point here?

[Lurker64]

If we gave Barnett a big contract, do you think maybe he'd play in the weak side? How about if we put him at Will, Hawk at Sam, and Hodge at Mike for some damned fool reason? I know Hawk wouldn't complain. Probably wouldn't make the defense better though.

[gbpackfan]

I think that the coaching staff and GM of the Packers want the Packers to win. I believe that they look at EVERY position on the roster over and over again. If they REALLY believed that moving Barnett outside and putting Hodge in the middle was in the best interest of the team, they would have done it. If that move gave the Packers D the best chance to succeed, then the move would have been made already.

My point here is this. There are MANY, MANY things that go into the coaches / GM's decision as to who is on the team and who plays where. Just because you WATCH every Packer game, like a million other people do, doesn't make you qualified to determine who the starting MLB should be.

There is nothing wrong with Hodge learning from the bench for one season. If he is the best MLB in TC next year, then put him on the field. But is was CLEAR that he was not the best MLB during preseason. He looked slow and out of position on pass plays.

Give MM a chance. You may not agree with him about every move he makes and that's fine. But he has a LOT more information to process when making the decisions on Sunday.

[wist43]

I'm not sure moving anybody anywhere will help. I think most of the problems are coaching and scheme related.

Moving Barnett outside would put Hodge on the field, and Hodge isn't any better against the pass than Poppinga. That said, I'm more of a supporter of both Hodge and Poppinga than I am the coaching staff.

I have serious doubts about Bob Sanders, Winston Moss, and Kurt Schottenheimer. The DB's looking like crap is no surprise with Schottenheimer back in town - what does that say about Bob Sanders judgement that he brings that clown back after being fired for being a key cog in Slowik's 2004 disaster???

Far too many players look tenative out there... they're blowing assignments, using poor technique, taking bad angles, etc, etc, etc... Much of that can be traced back to poor coaching. The job of the coaches is to prepare the players and to put them in positions to make plays. This defensive coaching staff is failing miserably at that.

I suspect we're going to see some lineup changes, i.e. Poppinga will be benched; but, this is going to be a season long - or longer - disaster.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I have serious doubts about Bob Sanders, Winston Moss, and Kurt Schottenheimer.

Why Winston Moss?

[gbpackfan]

Winston Moss is the only one of the three that I do like. You have no reason to dislike him at this point. Unless he slept with your wife? :oops:

[RashanGary]

I was wondering about the Moss thing too. Hawk has looked damn good and Barnett has looked better than I ever remember him too. Poppinga sucks in coverage, you can hardly blame that on Moss when Hawk has looked excellent and so has Barnett.

[Bretsky]

I was wondering about the Moss thing too. Hawk has looked damn good and Barnett has looked better than I ever remember him too. Poppinga sucks in coverage, you can hardly blame that on Moss when Hawk has looked excellent and so has Barnett.

Agree; Moss, who was also considered for the DC, may be the best coach on that side of the ball.

[Tarlam!]

I am all for moving Hodge into the lineup. Barnett has been better than expected and Poppy less than expected.

Maybe Poppy will improve. When he hits somebody, they feel it, which is not something Barnett can claim with any regularity.

Suggesting Barnett move to Will and Hawk somewhere else is criminally negligent IMHO.

[vince]

I think that the coaching staff and GM of the Packers want the Packers to win. I believe that they look at EVERY position on the roster over and over again. If they REALLY believed that moving Barnett outside and putting Hodge in the middle was in the best interest of the team, they would have done it. If that move gave the Packers D the best chance to succeed, then the move would have been made already.

My point here is this. There are MANY, MANY things that go into the coaches / GM's decision as to who is on the team and who plays where. Just because you WATCH every Packer game, like a million other people do, doesn't make you qualified to determine who the starting MLB should be.

There is nothing wrong with Hodge learning from the bench for one season. If he is the best MLB in TC next year, then put him on the field. But is was CLEAR that he was not the best MLB during preseason. He looked slow and out of position on pass plays.

Give MM a chance. You may not agree with him about every move he makes and that's fine. But he has a LOT more information to process when making the decisions on Sunday.
gb, I can definitely respect that perspective. I agree that the coaching staff knows a lot more about the situation than I, or any of us, and MM has my support...

From my standpoint, Hodge's smashmouth run stuffing abilities and suspect pass defense from the middle, combined with Barnett's speed at the strong side is a better combination than Barnett's average run stuffing ability and strong pass defense from the middle, combined with Poppinga's run stuffing ability and highly suspect pass defense.

Given that Hodge undoubtedly has a ton to learn, he may not be ready yet, as you point out...but I love the idea of having a guy that'll put people on their back in the middle... It seems to me that you improve both the middle and the strong side with such a move - eventually. That also assumes that Barnett would accept such a move, which would require resigning him...

This whole situation will be interesting to follow as it continues to develop. I won't be surprised to see Barnett gone after this season, if Poppinga can develop his coverage abilities on the outside.

[wist43]

I have serious doubts about Bob Sanders, Winston Moss, and Kurt Schottenheimer.

Why Winston Moss?

Guilt by association, I guess... The only guy I'd squarely point a finger at is Schottenheimer. And since Sanders hired Schottenheimer...

Going back and looking at the NO game was completely demoralizing. IMO, the mistakes had more to do with poor coaching and preperation... they weren't getting beat physically.

I'll take Moss out my crosshairs for now... but, this whole coaching staff, both offense and defense, is very, very suspect.