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View Full Version : Tuesday Camp Report - The Juice Is Loose



Partial
08-28-2007, 11:05 PM
THUMBS UP

For two seasons, the Packers used a roster spot for offensive lineman Junius Coston, knowing full well that he wasn't ready to play in the NFL. His only two plays last season came when center Scott Wells lost his shoe against Detroit on Dec. 17 and had to leave the game. Their patience, however, has paid off. Coston was 21 years old when the Packers drafted him in the fifth round of the 2005 draft and by his own admission wasn't close to being ready for the NFL. But he was versatile, athletic and a hard worker and the Packers figured he'd be a player someday. Coston, who is still the second-youngest lineman on the team behind rookie Allen Barbre, has taken tremendous strides and stands to be the first lineman off the bench this season. He can play all five positions and showed this week with Jason Spitz out with a calf injury that he would be a competent starter at right guard. The one thing that has really held him back is that he hasn't been able to settle into one position. If the Packers ever left him in one spot, he might take off. At 6 feet 3 inches and 313 pounds, Coston is the prototype for a lineman in the zone run system. "I think he has a chance to be a starter someday on this team," coach Mike McCarthy said. "He has starter ability."

THUMBS DOWN

You have to wonder how much damage third-string quarterback Paul Thompson is doing to himself when he throws interception after interception in practice. Though some of those come while he's on the scout team, there is never a good time to throw interceptions. Pretty soon they become habits. Thompson threw three interceptions during practice Tuesday, three during practice Monday and two during practice Sunday. That was on the heels of throwing two interceptions in the Seattle game. It's true, Thompson isn't running the Packers' offense when he's on the scout team, but not all of his interceptions have been on the scout team. "I don't look at it as a positive," McCarthy said. "I've never encouraged the quarterback to throw an interception whether it's on the opponent or game plan stuff. That's something that he needs to improve on." Thompson will get a chance to clean the slate against the Titans when he takes over for Aaron Rodgers in the second half.

INJURY REPORT

Tight end Donald Lee (knee) returned to practice.

ODDS AND ENDS

Running back DeShawn Wynn has gotten stronger as the week has progressed and will get every opportunity to show what he can do Thursday night. Wynn won't start but he'll receive the majority of the carries in his first exhibition performance.

Noah Herron actually looked like the best back on the field. He looked to have his timing down with the offensive line and ran through some big holes. Wynn looks a lot faster in the open field, however.

Rookie running back Brandon Jackson was in attendance but did not practice because of the concussion he suffered in practice Sunday. He stood around in his jersey and shorts. After practice he was able to do interviews at his locker. There's no way the Packers are going to let him play Thursday, so his goal will be to get ready for the opener.

With Charles Woodson and Al Harris playing on the scout team, the Packers lined up with Will Blackmon at left cornerback and Jarrett Bush at right cornerback. Patrick Dendy was the nickel back. Jason Hunter and Larry Birdine, two guys who are probably competing for one spot, manned the starting end positions.

Nose tackle Ryan Pickett intercepted a middle screen pass from Rodgers. Pickett insisted he didn't know what play was coming and just reacted to the ball.

There was only a light turnout for the Packers' final open training camp practice. Starting today, the fence around the Oneida St. field will be covered with a tarp so the team can practice in privacy. The Packers will begin their preparation for the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Receiver Donald Driver hasn't been at practice all week after suffering a foot injury.

Harlan Huckleby
08-29-2007, 12:02 AM
Running back DeShawn Wynn has gotten stronger as the week has progressed and will get every opportunity to show what he can do Thursday night. Wynn won't start but he'll receive the majority of the carries in his first exhibition performance.

I didn't think he had a snowball's chance in hades of being in shape to perform thursday. Maybe we'll see a miracle.



Receiver Donald Driver hasn't been at practice all week after suffering a foot injury.
shirker

Joemailman
08-29-2007, 12:39 AM
With the improvement of some of the 3rd year players, TT's first draft is starting to look better.

Rodgers
Collins
Poppinga
Coston
Montgomery

Some say you can't judge a draft until the 3rd year...

Guiness
08-29-2007, 01:24 AM
With the improvement of some of the 3rd year players, TT's first draft is starting to look better.

Rodgers
Collins
Poppinga
Coston
Montgomery

Some say you can't judge a draft until the 3rd year...

Yup, 2 starters in there, and a third (Rodgers) who arguably could start for other teams - generally, after drafting a QB in the first round, the incumbent is turfed as soon as the draftee shows anything. Of course, we have a slightly different situation :lol:

So if Coston is the 6th lineman, it does look like a good draft. Mont has seen the field, but is looking like he won't be any more than a borderline backup.

HarveyWallbangers
08-29-2007, 01:30 AM
I'd say below average draft if Rodgers doesn't pan out. If he does, it's a good draft.

rpiotr01
08-29-2007, 07:26 AM
I'd say below average draft if Rodgers doesn't pan out. If he does, it's a good draft.

Yup, he was the boom or bust pick. And unless you really clean up in the other rounds, your first rounder tends to make or break the draft because that's when the most talent is available.

Partial
08-29-2007, 07:26 AM
I for one am downright shocked about Juice turning into a player this off-season.

I have heard it all before about him being young and athletic, but I never actually thought he'd put it together. That is quite the holy crap moment for me.

TT has done fairly well with his million draft picks. I don't know how he compares percentage wise to hits and misses, but it definitely seems that his policy of bringing in as many picks as he can is better than Sherman trading them away. I guess we'll see in two years whether all those moves paid off.

Looking forward, I think our team will be ok this year and have a chance to be pretty good next year. They have good depth on the offensive line but could afford to draft a back-up tackle on the first day of next year's draft. That, or sign somebody. That is a spot that it never hurts to have additional depth.

They will need to address their cornerback situation and possibly the safety position depending on how Bigby works out. Next year I would look at adding a cornerback in the first round if a good one if available, or maybe even trading up to get a dynamite prospect like the kid from Arizona.

They should also look into improving their backfield and their tight ends.

That said, this team doesn't have that many holes anymore.

SkinBasket
08-29-2007, 08:33 AM
Noah Herron actually looked like the best back on the field.

This is nauseating.

Carolina_Packer
08-29-2007, 08:41 AM
Now if he would just pick his spots a little better to sprinkle in veteran talent (especially on offense), I think that would be great. Then you have the short-term solutions and the long-term development guys. One place this could have worked well is RB. You could bring in a stop-gap RB and give them some veteran leadership before throwing Jackson in there.

TT does sign free agents, but the majority seem to be street free agents where he's clearly mining for gold, but not paying much to do the mining. I realize that many teams overpay for FA talent, but sometimes you have to overpay for talent to give it your best effort, instead of always laying up and playing it safe. I don't know if I would have been willing to give up a 1st and 3rd for Michael Turner, but you may have been able to bring in a Chris Brown for a season or two.

Sure, you can get burned signing bad FA contracts, but sometimes you have to pay to play, and show your team, your fans something. That doesn't mean throwing away the master plan of building with youth.

Merlin
08-29-2007, 09:12 AM
3T thinks it's better to go into the season with cap room (and a lot of it) for whatever reason. Many people bashed Sherman for Joe Johnson, I wasn't one of them. Sure they guy didn't work out but he was worth a shot. Now we are just playing the contract game with younger players. At least with a big name, you are probably getting him close to his last contract. To keep him in the future now-a-days is a game dependent on how well he performs. Young players have their whole career ahead of them by the time their rookie contract is up so they have nothing to lose going into free agency.

Joemailman
08-29-2007, 10:32 AM
I'd say below average draft if Rodgers doesn't pan out. If he does, it's a good draft.

You are right. This will always be the Rodgers Draft. I just think it looks better than it did a year ago. Any chance it was going to be an outstanding draft probably went out the window when Terrence Murphy had to retire.

TennesseePackerBacker
08-29-2007, 03:55 PM
After the running games collapse this year who expects to see McFadden, Rice, or Slaton in a Packer Jersey? There's also Mike Hart, C.J. Spiller(I think? the guy from clemson), going to be a lot of RB talent coming in next year's draft.

KYPack
08-29-2007, 04:30 PM
I'm with several of the posters. There was no way in hell that I thought that Juice Coston would play in the NFL. Just goes to show scouts can figure out which guy projects into an NFL talent. I would've never figured Orange Julius to make it.

Thompson loves to have 17 7th round picks, & he can hit some of 'em.

I'd still like to have our share of capable UFA's from the talent pool, but I guess we can't have it all.

packers04
08-29-2007, 05:26 PM
in a recent article about junius coston it said the coaches liked him because he was a hard worker. this is in contrast to what i had previously heard about him, which is that he might've not had a natural love of the game.
so maybe he will turn out to be a good player...