Barnett

[BooHoo]

I'm in the wait and see camp. I disagree with the complete writing off of Barnett as that's foolish IMO. He's a good player and really did a good job when dealing with 4 DCs in his first 4 yrs in the league. He seems to bounce back from adversity well. Perhaps this new defense will raise the level of his game.

I'm with cheesehead. Barnett plays well enough to merit a starting position on the team. There are more pressing needs to fill than replacing Barnett.

[dahammer001]

I 'm so sick and tired of packer fans dissing Nick Barnett. He's to small,doesnt take on blocks, cannot diagnose plays,makes weak arm tackles and can't blitz. So I decided to do some research. I compared Nick barnett to the Raven and Steelers linebackers because everybody seem to think these are the premier 3 4 defenses in the league. Here is what I

found out
TOT SOLO AST SACK STF STFY FF BK INT YDS AVG LNG TD PD
Ray Lewis 6-1 250 13 Career 1625 1245 380 33.5 45 65 12 0 28 464 16.6 64 2 100
Bart Scott 6-2 240 7 Career 433 311 122 16.0 35 141 4 0 3 31 10.3 24 0 22
James Farrior 6-2 243 12 Career 1126 781 345 24.5 63 124 17 1 10 207 20.7 47 1 59
Larry Foote 6-1 239 7 Career 432 286 146 14.5 37 97 7 0 3 26 8.7 14 0 18
James Harrison 6-0 242 5 Career 309 229 80 28.5 36 102 14 1 3 78 26.0 33 0 12
Lamarr Woodley 6-2 265 2 Career 74 55 19 15.5 9 44 3 0 1 6 6.0 6 0 2
Lawrence Timmons 6-1 234 1 Career 78 54 24 5.0 3 10 1 0 1 89 89.0 89 0 3
Nick Barnett 6-2 236 6 Career 658 474 184 11.5 40 66 2 0 9 175 19.4 95 1 29
Barnett is equal to most of the linebackers in size and definitely superior in speed. Barnett came into the league running a 4.4 forty,as did Ray Lewis thirteen years ago. Barnett is third on the list in tackles but remember Lewis and Farrior have been playing for 13 and 12 years respectively,which is twice as long as Barnett. Barnett is third in ints with 9 for his career, keep in mind Lewis and Farrior has played twice as long, Barnett has the longest int return for 95 yards against the bears. Barnett ranks low in career sacks because the packers rarely blitz their linebackers.
Barnett cannot be compared to Ray lewis because he is a future hall of famer,but everybody else is debatable. I think Barnett is better than some of you think.

Here's what funny, AJ hawk seem to get pass from most of packer fanbase. In my humble opinion Hawk is bum.That's who the packer nation need to be calling out. Remember Schegel,Hawk,and Carpenter. Schegel is out of football,Carpenter is bum in Dallas playing on special teams,and hawk has
underacieved in Green Bay.Everybody talked about how great buckeye linebackers were 3 years ago I forgot to mention Vernon Gholston with the Jets,and Laurenitis scares the hell out of me. You can keep your buckeye linebackers Because most of them are garbage. Back to Barnett, did you ever wonder if coaching was a contibuting factor in his production?

[Bossman641]

I agree with you for the most part. I like Hawk and am a fan of his, but it is ridiculous to see how Packer fans keep putting Barnett while Hawk has been getting somewhat of a pass.

When Barnett went down, there was much rejoicing that finally we would see what a real LB could do at MLB. Hawk had one good game there and then disappeared for the rest of the year. I personally think Hawk was injured all year, but the fact remains that once Barnett went down the defense's performance went down considerably.

Hopefully Barnett and Hawk will both be studs in the 3-4.

[Gunakor]

I 'm so sick and tired of packer fans dissing Nick Barnett. He's to small,doesnt take on blocks, cannot diagnose plays,makes weak arm tackles and can't blitz. So I decided to do some research. I compared Nick barnett to the Raven and Steelers linebackers because everybody seem to think these are the premier 3 4 defenses in the league. Here is what I

found out
TOT SOLO AST SACK STF STFY FF BK INT YDS AVG LNG TD PD
Ray Lewis 6-1 250 13 Career 1625 1245 380 33.5 45 65 12 0 28 464 16.6 64 2 100
Bart Scott 6-2 240 7 Career 433 311 122 16.0 35 141 4 0 3 31 10.3 24 0 22
James Farrior 6-2 243 12 Career 1126 781 345 24.5 63 124 17 1 10 207 20.7 47 1 59
Larry Foote 6-1 239 7 Career 432 286 146 14.5 37 97 7 0 3 26 8.7 14 0 18
James Harrison 6-0 242 5 Career 309 229 80 28.5 36 102 14 1 3 78 26.0 33 0 12
Lamarr Woodley 6-2 265 2 Career 74 55 19 15.5 9 44 3 0 1 6 6.0 6 0 2
Lawrence Timmons 6-1 234 1 Career 78 54 24 5.0 3 10 1 0 1 89 89.0 89 0 3
Nick Barnett 6-2 236 6 Career 658 474 184 11.5 40 66 2 0 9 175 19.4 95 1 29
Barnett is equal to most of the linebackers in size and definitely superior in speed. Barnett came into the league running a 4.4 forty,as did Ray Lewis thirteen years ago. Barnett is third on the list in tackles but remember Lewis and Farrior have been playing for 13 and 12 years respectively,which is twice as long as Barnett. Barnett is third in ints with 9 for his career, keep in mind Lewis and Farrior has played twice as long, Barnett has the longest int return for 95 yards against the bears. Barnett ranks low in career sacks because the packers rarely blitz their linebackers.
Barnett cannot be compared to Ray lewis because he is a future hall of famer,but everybody else is debatable. I think Barnett is better than some of you think.

Here's what funny, AJ hawk seem to get pass from most of packer fanbase. In my humble opinion Hawk is bum.That's who the packer nation need to be calling out. Remember Schegel,Hawk,and Carpenter. Schegel is out of football,Carpenter is bum in Dallas playing on special teams,and hawk has
underacieved in Green Bay.Everybody talked about how great buckeye linebackers were 3 years ago I forgot to mention Vernon Gholston with the Jets,and Laurenitis scares the hell out of me. You can keep your buckeye linebackers Because most of them are garbage. Back to Barnett, did you ever wonder if coaching was a contibuting factor in his production?

Sanders' scheme was for the OLB's to generally eat up blocks so that Barnett could make plays, which inflates his number of tackles. In a new scheme, I doubt he's going to rack up 150 tackles on the season. Yeah, I think coaching was a contributing factor in his production, but I think for him it was a positive contribution.

[mraynrand]

I'm mostly concerned that Barnett will be pressured to come back by the start of the season. He won't get back to full strength until really 2010; if everything goes well, he could be close to normal by mid 2009. For a guy who relies so much on his speed, he could look bad at the start of next season. I hope they are being realistic and cautious with his rehabilitation. I think he's a very good LB, and his loss last season showed how valuable he is. Plus, he's learned - what - at least 3 or 4 different defensive schemes, so what challenge will it be l for Barnett to learn yet another system. Best of luck to him - I hope to see him middle of next season.

[packerbacker1234]

I'm mostly concerned that Barnett will be pressured to come back by the start of the season. He won't get back to full strength until really 2010; if everything goes well, he could be close to normal by mid 2009. For a guy who relies so much on his speed, he could look bad at the start of next season. I hope they are being realistic and cautious with his rehabilitation. I think he's a very good LB, and his loss last season showed how valuable he is. Plus, he's learned - what - at least 3 or 4 different defensive schemes, so what challenge will it be l for Barnett to learn yet another system. Best of luck to him - I hope to see him middle of next season.

Uh, you must know nothing about his injury then. He'll be medically cleared to start practicing in 2 months time. His rehab has gone fine.

Of course, we're all doctors right? I bet any money he is back in camp 100%.

The bigger question we should be talking about isn't how to use barnett (for all the knocks on why he wont fit as a ILB, it seems many other 3-4 ILB are very similar to him), but what to do with Kampman. Do you keep in in a three point stance at DE, and hope when needed he can fill a gap? Or, do you try and move him to OLB, where on some situations he may not even be on the field?

It'll be interesting there, because Kampman is the one player on the entire defense I can safely say is truely a 4-3 player. I personally hope Dom keeps him at DE, but we'll see.

[mraynrand]

I'm mostly concerned that Barnett will be pressured to come back by the start of the season. He won't get back to full strength until really 2010; if everything goes well, he could be close to normal by mid 2009. For a guy who relies so much on his speed, he could look bad at the start of next season. I hope they are being realistic and cautious with his rehabilitation. I think he's a very good LB, and his loss last season showed how valuable he is. Plus, he's learned - what - at least 3 or 4 different defensive schemes, so what challenge will it be l for Barnett to learn yet another system. Best of luck to him - I hope to see him middle of next season.

Uh, you must know nothing about his injury then. He'll be medically cleared to start practicing in 2 months time. His rehab has gone fine.

Of course, we're all doctors right? I bet any money he is back in camp 100%.

The bigger question we should be talking about isn't how to use barnett (for all the knocks on why he wont fit as a ILB, it seems many other 3-4 ILB are very similar to him), but what to do with Kampman. Do you keep in in a three point stance at DE, and hope when needed he can fill a gap? Or, do you try and move him to OLB, where on some situations he may not even be on the field?

It'll be interesting there, because Kampman is the one player on the entire defense I can safely say is truely a 4-3 player. I personally hope Dom keeps him at DE, but we'll see.

I was of the impression it was a complete tear and they did an osteochondral autograft transplantation. If it was a partial tear, the outcome would be a lot different. ACL tears take time for full recovery, even if the guy can run around looking pretty normal in 9 months.

[Lurker64]

I was of the impression it was a complete tear and they did an osteochondral autograft transplantation. If it was a partial tear, the outcome would be a lot different. ACL tears take time for full recovery, even if the guy can run around looking pretty normal in 9 months.

I think that Barnett will definitely be cleared to run, hit, and play football on his knee by the start of the season (camp probably). But it will take some time for Barnett to be up to full speed (he'll probably favor the healthy knee, and won't have the same burst.)

Still, it's safe to predict that Barnett will be one of the starting ILBs come week 1.

[digitaldean]

I think Barnett AND Hawk can flourish in 3-4 if the right additions are brought onto the squad next year.

Poppinga is one I'd wish they'd cut loose. His instinct level is zilch compared to similarly priced LBs in the league.