Voluntary Practices

[Scott Campbell]

I'd love to see the entire Bear roster demoted to second team status.

[motife]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5657016

more media rumblings about GB's poor attendance at the OTA's, this from Fox's Adam Schein :


If you asked me on May 1 to name the teams I thought would be in the bottom five of the NFL this year, I would've included both the Bills and Packers.

As June starts, I feel even more confident in that opinion.

For two teams that were horrible last season and changed coaches for the 2006 campaign, the veteran attendance at the voluntary workouts is downright deplorable.

Eleven signature Bills veterans missed workouts last week. And to add insult, Willis McGahee spent the time hanging out with Rich Eisen on NFL Network. Now I love Eisen and the folks at the NFL Network, but McGahee should place greater emphasis on his NFL career. And you would think that learning from and being around new offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild, who is putting in an entirely new system, would be a major priority.

Plus, a whopping 14 Packers missed the Green Bay voluntary workouts. You might think it would be a pressing concern for these players to eradicate the horrendous taste left in everyone's mouth from a year ago.

And don't just take my word for it. Here's what Aaron Kampman told us on Thursday. "Our team has changed with new faces. And our defense is based on fundamentals. You want to get that participation. You need to get the cohesiveness."

This is a terrible sign for both Green Bay and Buffalo.

[Scott Campbell]

Maybe it's time to send a message.

[motife]

Comments from the Packer Report and Harry Sydney on poor attendance at the OTA's :

Packer Report :

Fourteen practices total are scheduled in Green Bay over three weeks before the more serious business of training camp begins later this summer.

The OTA’s being held now by the team are technically voluntary, thus the most prominent headlines that have been circulating are related to those players who are not at practice and the reasons why. Outside of who is in better shape than a year ago and who is out of shape, those “missing in action” are the only compelling story this time of year.

A bigger story, though, should be exactly why these practices are voluntary. If they truly are important to the team’s success and unity for the upcoming season, then attendance at mini-camps would be a part of each player’s contract and league rules. As it stands now, many players have an option to attend, which gives coaches, fans, and the media justifiable reasons to question why a team leader like Al Harris is not present.

“The number of veterans that have missed, a lot of them are personal situations,” said head coach Mike McCarthy. “We had a number of things come up. A lot of it, too, is scheduling. Any time you have a new coach who puts in a totally different program, you’re going to have scheduling issues. I’ve talked a number of times to the football team, and every team has different issues, and one of ours is communication. We need to do a better job communicating to one another, and I think they’re doing a better job of that. As we move forward and instill our off-season program, obviously I’m looking for better participation.”

McCarthy may not get that participation under voluntary guidelines. He got an extra mini-camp this year being a new coach, but without his entire team there, he is finding it difficult to get everyone on the same page at the start. He has a right to expect more from his team at this stage of his head coaching career.

Harry Sydney :

This is the time when Mike McCarthy finds out just who he can count on. The camp that the Packers are holding this month is totally voluntary and there is no real punishment for not attending except it just puts a question mark by the name of those that aren't here.

Guys like Aaron Kampman understand that last year wasn't good enough. When you hear him talk you can tell that he can't wait for the season to start so he can try to erase that bad taste from mouth. Then I look at some of the rookies and second-year players that are out at practice doing everything they can to soak up as much knowledge as they possible can because they understand the opportunity that they have. I can see the hunger in their eyes. Then I asked myself, ‘Where are the other big-money guys?’


I am somewhat disappointed in some of the veterans that haven’t showed up yet because they didn't seem to place any importance in this camp. I understand that some guys have other obligations at this time but what about priorities? Some guys are traveling, vacationing, whatever, but the fact is that they are only allowed to do these things and have a great lifestyle because football has been very good to them. And because of having a new system, new head coach, new assistants and last year going 4-12, everyone on the roster should be attending this camp especially new guys and young players. There are no excuses that would have allowed Nick Collins, Ryan Pickett or Charles Woodson to not be in camp. Matter of fact before I would have signed them I would have made it mandatory that they be at every camp. WHO IS REALLY COMMITTED???????

motife :

From "media reporting" it appears that McCarthy doesn't command much respect from the players, or alternatively, there's a degree of apathy among team members committing to excellence ala the Steelers and having a kick ass program.

However, on the plus side, Nick Barnett, Brett Favre, Donald Driver, Aaron Kampman, Mark Tauscher, Ahmann Green, Bubba Franks and other team leaders have made a statement to McCarthy and the younger players by attending.

The media should "name names" on the 14 veterans not attending, basically Charles Woodson, Ryan Pickett, Al Harris, Nick Collins and Rod Gardner seem to be the only prominent names missing re: "Will the Packers Implode in 2006"? Mark Roman's non attendance is hardly relavent to any "implosion".

Chad Clifton has shown up despite his surgery is my understanding. Aaron Rodgers, Colin Cole, Scottie Wells, Cullen Jenkins, Corey Williams and even Ahmad Carroll have also attended and shown suport.

[BF4MVP]

I really don't think there's such thing as a totally voluntary workout..The coaches expect full participation..

It's only called voluntary because players can't be fined for missing it..

[motife]

We've previously opined that the Pack are capable of winning the NFC North in 2006, and that their effort in 2005 wasn't as pathetic as their 4-12 record would indicate.

2005 was one weird frigging season wasn't it?
first losing season ever under Brett Favre
#1 pass defense in the NFL under Jim Bates after #32 the previous year
lost 8 games by less than 3 points,
lost Ahman Green, Najeh Davenport, Javon Walker, Bubba Franks, Mike Flanagan to injury,
Ted Thompson decimating the offense with his blase attitude toward losing Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera,
Robert Ferguson playing like a wuss on going for the ball, not stepping up to be a starter after losing Javon,
29 interceptions by Favre,
the emergence of Samkon Gado with 586 yards rushing in 5 games,
the emotional firing of Sherman,
the heartbreak of losing Jim Bates as DC,
an apparent non-descript hiring of a head coach from a losing program, not to badmouth Mike McCarthy, but it wasn't a do some handsprings obvious choice,
the bitter taste left by Javon Walker fiasco,
losing Terrence Murphy a 2nd round pick to a career ending injury,
the soap opera of the Favre holdout,
followed by a very promising NFL draft.

[Harlan Huckleby]

If I owned an NFL team, here's how I would deal with spring practices:

Rent a resort in Hawaii, or some such far away, beautiful place, that is near a large practice field. No other facilities are really needed, although you might need to lease blocking sleds and such from Univeristy of Hawaii.

Allow players to bring over their families for a three week training camp/ vacation in May.

You could hold practice sessions every day, and still leave plenty of time for recreation. It would be a great bonding time, you'd get strong participation, and have more time together than with the current fragmented spring practices.

[woodbuck27]

If I owned an NFL team, here's how I would deal with spring practices:

Rent a resort in Hawaii, or some such far away, beautiful place, that is near a large practice field. No other facilities are really needed, although you might need to lease blocking sleds and such from Univeristy of Hawaii.

Allow players to bring over their families for a three week training camp/ vacation in May.

You could hold practice sessions every day, and still leave plenty of time for recreation. It would be a great bonding time, you'd get strong participation, and have more time together than with the current fragmented spring practices.

Now there you have it ! Someone with the sense to step up to the plate with a home run attitude.

Let me see. That would be abouit 110 Familys dropping off the face of their normal earth for a three week vacation on the Isle's of sun and surf. Children out of school a little early may be a problem but the cause is awesome. It's all for the Packers.

Work out the cost of that HH and see how it shakes out with the HEADS UP here and submit that idea to the Packers suggestion box.

Sincerely, I now am of the opinion that all the usual suspects mentioned, Woodson,Harris,Pickett,Gardner etc. all needed to be at this special voluntary OTA to throw maximum support towards a REAL recovery from all that was, last season. Unless the excuse was unusual.

I'm not impressed at all with the absence of Woodson,Pickett or Gardner. This is BS and questions and strategy to amend this sort of behaviour should certainly be pursued.

[Rastak]

We've previously opined that the Pack are capable of winning the NFC North in 2006, and that their effort in 2005 wasn't as pathetic as their 4-12 record would indicate.

2005 was one weird frigging season wasn't it?
first losing season ever under Brett Favre
#1 pass defense in the NFL under Jim Bates after #32 the previous year
lost 8 games by less than 3 points,
lost Ahman Green, Najeh Davenport, Javon Walker, Bubba Franks, Mike Flanagan to injury,
Ted Thompson decimating the offense with his blase attitude toward losing Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera,
Robert Ferguson playing like a wuss on going for the ball, not stepping up to be a starter after losing Javon,
29 interceptions by Favre,
the emergence of Samkon Gado with 586 yards rushing in 5 games,
the emotional firing of Sherman,
the heartbreak of losing Jim Bates as DC,
an apparent non-descript hiring of a head coach from a losing program, not to badmouth Mike McCarthy, but it wasn't a do some handsprings obvious choice,
the bitter taste left by Javon Walker fiasco,
losing Terrence Murphy a 2nd round pick to a career ending injury,
the soap opera of the Favre holdout,
followed by a very promising NFL draft.

Damn, that was summed up well.....

[pbmax]

motife, can I steal that and use it for my email signature? : )

As for the absences, Lori Nickel has a piece out tonight that puts the Packers roster at 100. With 14 missing, that's 86 players in Green Bay the first of four weeks.

motife had a snippet earlier that the Ravens were thrilled to get 80 players to show up.

And Mike Sherman had 8 practices in his tenure for the 2nd minicamp/OTA. McCarthy has 14 scheduled over 4 weeks. And that is after an extra minicamp, which he gets by virtue of being a new coach.

So while I am with Woodbuck that esp. the defensive newbies need to get in the extra work, they have already had a normal offseason of minicamp/OTAs. So my level of concern isn't what it was at the beginning of this OTA week.

If Woodson, Pickett (Woodson Pickett, sounds like a bluesman), Gardner et.al. make it in for another week of OTA, I think you would have to call it successful.

[pbmax]

....When asked about Woodson, Harris and Pickett, McCarthy should have cupped his hand to his ear and said: "Do you hear that, that swoosh? That's Mike Hawkins flying up the depth chart!"

Impressive reaction. Of course, you've had time - as much as I have! But I didn't think of it!

What do you do for a living?

Thank you Tarlam. By day I work in IT. Between actual work and evenings, I am, like everyone else, the Assistant Coach and GM of the Green Bay Packers.

[woodbuck27]

" Thank you Tarlam. By day I work in IT. Between actual work and evenings, I am, like everyone else, the Assistant Coach and GM of the Green Bay Packers." pbmax

And a really fine poster . . . as well. Really glad to see you over here pbmax.

Your perspectives on topics, are cut from a different sort of cloth that provoke thought and deeper understanding in me and you do so with real class and style.

[Guiness]

Nick, the current system sets up an annoying, confrontational situation. That is the problem.

[snip...]

OTN (On The Nose!) HH. That's the best desc. I've seen of the effect of 'voluntary' practices.

I'm sure you're right that the coaches would like players there all the time to perfectly hone skills. I'm just as sure the players look at the calender and say "another camp? Can't I have 5 minutes of peace for crying out loud?" Players take a beating, and need time to recover, both mentally and physically.

[Guiness]

Harry Sydney made a fool of himself, again, in the article Motife quote by saying he would have made in mandatory for them to be at every camp before they signed.

YOU CAN'T YOU BONE HEAD!!! IT'S NOT ALLOWED!

If I wasn't convinced he is in idiot before, I am now.

[Patler]

Harry Sydney made a fool of himself, again, in the article Motife quote by saying he would have made in mandatory for them to be at every camp before they signed.

YOU CAN'T YOU BONE HEAD!!! IT'S NOT ALLOWED!

If I wasn't convinced he is in idiot before, I am now.

Well, not completely. Apparently it is allowed to tie certain "workout" payments to attendance at the "voluntary" camps. If you can do it with a large enough bonus, it might make it very mandatory!