Top 3 causes for hand wringing

[Harlan Huckleby]

These are the three weaknesses I see going into the season:

1) Offensive line depth. Klemm can fill-in nicely at LT if Clifton goes down. I wonder if they have backups at any other position who are good enough to keep the unit from falling apart.

2) KGB. He is the hole in that D, and the pundits seem to think Montgomery isn't good enough to take a lot of snaps from him.

3) I'm not TOO worried about the WR's, they look OK. But I wonder how they will stand-up to playing a full season, getting scouted every week. Are they a below average unit? Don't know.

[The Leaper]

I worry more about out field goal kicker than I do about our WRs. With Favre around, the WRs will be fine. We have more depth there than we have had recently IMO.

I hope Pickett can play as well as Grady...I'm not convinced just yet.

[pbmax]

I'm worried about Manuel still not with the number ones.

McCarthy continually making statements that prove to be incorrect to the media.

Gado still not being able to read holes in a zone run blocking scheme. This carries over from college.

Rodgers starting slowly each practice and still being the king of checkdowns.

[red]

one thing about kgb that i don't know if you guys over here had heard. it was said on another site that he has been hitting the free weights pretty hard and has put on somewhere around 15 pounds of muscle. he played at around 250 or less last year. it might have been big legend over at packerchatters that said this.

if thats the case, then there might be some hope of him holding his own this year, and not getting pushed all over the place

[Harlan Huckleby]

McCarthy continually making statements that prove to be incorrect to the media.

McCarthy has a learning curve to go through just like new players. This is part of our rebuilding year.

[HarveyWallbangers]

KGB isn't the biggest weakness in this defense. If we don't get ahead in games though, much of his effectiveness will be nullified.

[Partial]

I disagree with that Harvey, but I think he can be extremely effective, even against the run, if he gets some relief time. He and Kampman played more downs on defense than I believe anyone else did. I don't remember the exact snap numbers but they were ridiculous

[mngolf19]

Not that my hands are wringing over this mind you, but a view from the other side.

OL is not going to be better this year than last and that will cause some problems both for running and for giving Favre time.

WR Driver is going to be expected to carry team too many times I think. And the other guys are either too new or never have beens to create much of a difference.

DL can put a little pressure on QB but enough? And can they stop the run, especially with some new guys at LB.

I still think Pack is improved over last year, but issues above combined with new coaches and schemes will create lots of inconsistency.

[Partial]

Not that my hands are wringing over this mind you, but a view from the other side.

OL is not going to be better this year than last and that will cause some problems both for running and for giving Favre time.

WR Driver is going to be expected to carry team too many times I think. And the other guys are either too new or never have beens to create much of a difference.

DL can put a little pressure on QB but enough? And can they stop the run, especially with some new guys at LB.

I still think Pack is improved over last year, but issues above combined with new coaches and schemes will create lots of inconsistency.

I think the OL will be much better. They are running a system that has displayed time and time again that you don't need a big money offensive line to succeed. I suspect by the end of the season the OL will once again be one of the strengths of the team.

Defense will definitely be able to stop the run other than KGB. They're an incredible young defense, probably the youngest in the league. These young guys are going to provide quality depth. This will be the best Packer defense since 1998. The linebackers they added are immediately a huge step up from last year.

They're gonna be a tough team, just a really young, unexperienced one. They're still a few years away I think, but they are going to surprise some people in December of this year.

[Rastak]

Not that my hands are wringing over this mind you, but a view from the other side.

OL is not going to be better this year than last and that will cause some problems both for running and for giving Favre time.

WR Driver is going to be expected to carry team too many times I think. And the other guys are either too new or never have beens to create much of a difference.

DL can put a little pressure on QB but enough? And can they stop the run, especially with some new guys at LB.

I still think Pack is improved over last year, but issues above combined with new coaches and schemes will create lots of inconsistency.

I think the OL will be much better. They are running a system that has displayed time and time again that you don't need a big money offensive line to succeed. I suspect by the end of the season the OL will once again be one of the strengths of the team.

Defense will definitely be able to stop the run other than KGB. They're an incredible young defense, probably the youngest in the league. These young guys are going to provide quality depth. This will be the best Packer defense since 1998. The linebackers they added are immediately a huge step up from last year.

They're gonna be a tough team, just a really young, unexperienced one. They're still a few years away I think, but they are going to surprise some people in December of this year.

You could have very well be right partial. The NFL is a copycat league, I wonder why everyone isn't running that scheme if it's so foolproof.


Not to say it won't be effective....it has gained in popularity it seems.

[Partial]

I believe 5 teams are running it now, with 4 joining the ranks in the past 3 off-seasons. So we will have to see how defenses evolve if it works so well.

For what its worth, I think the Packers did a solid job of shutting down the falcons running game when they played. So who knows?

[Murphy37]

Partial, I love your optimism. But the O-line scares me. Tauscher and Clifton are the only sure things on that line. So who knows what the depth will be. The season balances on the strength of this O-line in my opinion. If they can hold their own, and be at least average, I'll feel pretty good about this team being competetive for the NFC north title. There is no reason to believe, at this time, that this O-line will be avergage or above. I will be waiting untill the week before the regular season opener to give my prediction for this season's record. I hope the preseason will give me a glimse of how well this O-line unit will perform. My guess is though, that we won't know untill awhile after that. I think they will struggle early, and gradually improve throughout the season.

[RashanGary]

Last year Whittaker and Klemm were starting. This year, combined with Spitz, they are our main back-ups.

I can't complain about the depth when the guys who started last year are our backups this year.

[RashanGary]

The problem is that the starters arn't much better than the backups. If I had a complaint it would be with the inexperience of the interior starting OL.

[Noodle]

I worry most about the inexperienced and unproven coaching staff (new HC, new DC, new OC). There's stuff to like about these guys, but there's been stuff to cause you concern. And you just don't know how any of them are going to work with each other or the players once we get hit with some hard times.

I next worry about the kicking game. It was great to hear that Cundiff was kicking off well and that Powder was rocking the casbah, but the bullets aren't flying yet and it ain't cold yet. And who the heck is going to hold?

Finally, I don't know whether to worry more about the OL or the DL. I thought Grady was a big help last year, and now we're betting the house on Pickett, who just may show up to an OTA at some point if it's not too inconvenient. And like a lot of you, I'm not sold yet on the interior pieces or the scheme along the OL.

But, on the plus side, I think Favre will play much better this year, I think the WRs are going to be pretty good, I think the RBs will surprise folks, and I think the D is going to hit some people. We just have to stay healthy.