Any Noise about a Potential Hawk Trade?

[Zool]

humerous that he does love to bring up every time he proves someone wrong

i⋅ro⋅ny
1  /ˈaɪrəni, ˈaɪər-/ Pronunciation [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-]

[Brando19]

These guys are locks imo.

OLB Aaron Kampman, ILB Brandon Chillar, ILB A.J. Hawk, ILB Desmond Bishop, ILB Nick Barnett, OLB Clay Matthews.

After last night's preseason game...I think Poops earned himself another season.

[Fritz]

If McGinn is right and the Packers keep 9 linebackers, then it all comes down to which position gets 5 backers.

If the OLBs get 5, then you have: Kampman, Matthews, Thompson, Poppinga and (Obiozor or Jones).

With 4 ILBs you get: Hawk, Barnett, Chillar and (Bishop or Lasagna).

On the other hand
To reverse it, with 5 ILBs you get to keep em all and have a designated backup for Hawk's Buck position (Lasagna).

For OLBs when there are 4: Kampman, Matthews, Thompson and (Poppinga, Jones or Obiozor).

Poppinga is interesting because as far as I can tell he is one of the few to play significant time at two positions (backup for Kampman and starter for ROLB with Matthews and Thompson hurt). If he is good enough to stick, he provides some rare flexibility.

Who else, beside Kampman and Poppinga have played LOLB?

And another question: If Bishop is distrusted in pass coverage, why is he playing Mack? Why isn't Mr. Aggressive taking on blockers at Buck behind Hawk? Unless this is simply a matter of covering for the unknown Barnett situation, the coaches might not agree with our conclusions. Might it be that he is worse taking on blocks than coverage?

Havner.

Havner is the man you are missing, who IMO has the #9 LB spot locked up already.

Obiozor has as well, he is PS eligible.

But the word is that Obiozor won't clear waivers. So...do you keep a raw talent at the expense of the more flexible Poppinga?

Can Brad Jones be stashed on the practice squad, or will some team with no playoff hopes this year snatch him up and keep him on the roster?

Somehow, someway, the Pack is going to lose a decent linebacker.

Unless Thompson or Mathews somehow inexplicably gets put on IR.

[pbmax]

If McGinn is right and the Packers keep 9 linebackers, then it all comes down to which position gets 5 backers.

If the OLBs get 5, then you have: Kampman, Matthews, Thompson, Poppinga and (Obiozor or Jones).

With 4 ILBs you get: Hawk, Barnett, Chillar and (Bishop or Lasagna).

On the other hand
To reverse it, with 5 ILBs you get to keep em all and have a designated backup for Hawk's Buck position (Lasagna).

For OLBs when there are 4: Kampman, Matthews, Thompson and (Poppinga, Jones or Obiozor).

Poppinga is interesting because as far as I can tell he is one of the few to play significant time at two positions (backup for Kampman and starter for ROLB with Matthews and Thompson hurt). If he is good enough to stick, he provides some rare flexibility.

Who else, beside Kampman and Poppinga have played LOLB?

And another question: If Bishop is distrusted in pass coverage, why is he playing Mack? Why isn't Mr. Aggressive taking on blockers at Buck behind Hawk? Unless this is simply a matter of covering for the unknown Barnett situation, the coaches might not agree with our conclusions. Might it be that he is worse taking on blocks than coverage?

Havner.

Havner is the man you are missing, who IMO has the #9 LB spot locked up already.

Obiozor has as well, he is PS eligible.

In terms of counting, Havner would seem to have a spot as the 3rd TE, maybe 4th. I am not sure you need to count him as one of nine at LB if that is the case. But if Havner can backup Hawk, then Lansanah might need to give way.

Also, I found the answer to my own question about the first person in to backup Kampman. It was Brad Jones according to JSO.

[DonHutson]

Hawk, Barnett, Bishop, and Chillar all bring unique skills to the table. Capers seems more than capable of finding ways to maximize each of their talents. It seems like a mistake to get rid of any of them.

Also consider that Barnett just got cleared and still is not up to full speed. I think it's way premature to talk about trading Hawk before we know for sure that Barnett is the same player. If you trade Hawk and Barnett is a shell of his former self, all of a sudden you have no depth.

Too many good linebackers? One thing we need to make the 3-4 work, and to improve the special teams, is a bunch of talented LB's. Let's not get clever and over-solve a "problem" we don't really have.

[Fritz]

Ah, but PB, what if McCarthy wants to "count" Havner as a linebacker so he can say he has two tight ends because he wants to keep an extra fullback or halfback? Then you'd be sacrificing one of the other linebackers (but who?) in order to keep an extra back.

It wouldn't be fun to be the coach. What if you really like Brett Swain but you can hardly bear to part with Ruvell Martin? Do you keep them both and slice a linebacker?

Do you keep only Johnson as the fullback and hope Wynn/Lumpkin/Sutton could block? I dunno.

It'd be tough to make those calls. Every position coach will be clamoring for his guys.

McCarthy can have that job. I like to make sweeping authoratative statements without being responsible for the real results!

[Partial]

OLB: Kampman, Mathews, Thompson, Obiozor

ILB: Hawk, Barnett, Chillar, Bishop

TE: Havner

Poppinga is going to get traded for a late round pick.

No way do they keep 3 fullbacks. They will keep 3 RBs instead of 4, which is unfortuante because they would keep Sutton as a COP back if Brohm wans't a #2 pick. . I liked Brohm but Sutton seems to have more potential as an NFL player.

They're not going to carry Harrell. I foresee them putting him on IR. They can't afford to risk having two of their 6 being injury prone guys.

QB:
1. Rodgers
2. Flynn
3. Brohm

RB:
4. Grant
5. Jackson
6. Wynn

FB:
7. Hall
8. Quinn

TE:
9. Lee
10. Finley
11. Havner

OL:
12. Clifton
13. Colledge
14. Spitz
15. Sitton
16. Barbre
17. Giacomini
18. Lang
19. Dietrich-Smith
20. Wells
21. Meredith

WR:
22. Driver
23. Jennings
24. Jones
25. Nelson
26. Martin

DL:
27. Jenkins
28. Jolly
29. Pickett
30. Raji
31. Montgomery
32. Wynn

LB:
33. Kampman
34. Mathews
35. Thompson
36. Obiozor
37. Hawk
38. Barnett
39. Chillar
40. Bishop

S:
41. Collins
42. Bigby
43. Rouse
44. Smith

CB:
45. Woodson
46. Harris
47. Williams
48. Blacmon
49. Lee
50. Bush

Specialists:
51. Crosby
52. Punter
53. Brett Goode

[Lurker64]

I think that there's no way they carry Wells and Dietrich-Smith. You don't need two Center-Only guys.

I also think that 8 LBs and 6 DL leaves us too shallow, 9-10 LBs and/or 7 DL isn't unheard of. I could see Wells/Dietrich-Smith's roster spot going to Brad Jones, Anthony Toribio, or Alfred Malone. I could see Brohm's roster spot going to one of those guys too.

[Partial]

I think that there's no way they carry Wells and Dietrich-Smith. You don't need two Center-Only guys.

I also think that 8 LBs and 6 DL leaves us too shallow, 9-10 LBs and/or 7 DL isn't unheard of. I could see Wells/Dietrich-Smith's roster spot going to Brad Jones, Anthony Toribio, or Alfred Malone. I could see Brohm's roster spot going to one of those guys too.

Wells and DS have both played guard in the past.

Brohm is not going to get cut. He was a #2. Do you think they're going to cut Pat Lee who has shown equally little and been unavailable via injury? No. No way.

If they did opt to keep another fat boy, I think they would substitute fatty with a thinny in Montgomery. He's undersized and basically worthless.

[pbmax]

Ah, but PB, what if McCarthy wants to "count" Havner as a linebacker so he can say he has two tight ends because he wants to keep an extra fullback or halfback? Then you'd be sacrificing one of the other linebackers (but who?) in order to keep an extra back.

I think they should list Havner as a position coach and then sneak him onto the field using someone else's jersey number for Special Teams. If someone gets hurt, boom, sign his butt to a contract and give him a different number. It'll be like real life "Where's Waldo".

McCarthy can have that job. I like to make sweeping authoratative statements without being responsible for the real results!

Hear, Hear. Fritz for Vice-President.

[pbmax]

Lurk, the McGinn scout saw him as Center only, but the Packers have been giving him reps at Guard as well. That is slightly different than the Center only work Wells got his first three McCarthy years.

This year, I think DS and Wells are having essentially the same test. The only difference is that if Wells passes, he might start at Center. DS would be a backup straight away.

[Lurker64]

Lurk, the McGinn scout saw him as Center only, but the Packers have been giving him reps at Guard as well. That is slightly different than the Center only work Wells got his first three McCarthy years.

This year, I think DS and Wells are having essentially the same test. The only difference is that if Wells passes, he might start at Center. DS would be a backup straight away.

Assuming Spitz wins the center job (which is far from a given), I think that they will try to trade one of Wells and Dietrich-Smith and keeping whichever player draws the least interest and giving him the backup C job.

If Wells wins the center job, I don't think that Dietrich-Smith will make the roster, but we might be able to shop him for a conditional late round pick. We'd be pretty solid 2 deep at C (Wells, Spitz), and pretty solid 2 deep at G (Colledge, Sitton, Spitz, Lang). The excess OL roster spots will probably go to the tackle spots, as we're not very well set there (we need to groom a successor for Clifton, and the RT situation is hazy).

[Partial]

Risky move. Remember Chris White looked good in PS too.

[Partial]

If Chillar, Bishop and Barnett are all playing the Mack, who is backing up Hawk at Buck? Is it Lasagna only?

Could Lasagna make the team over a better LB due to position?

Havner has played it too.

But yeah, I think that chances are high that one of Chillar or Bishop either gets the axe or is traded.

So are we on for the 100 bucks? M3 has all but confirmed in that past they both will be on the team by saying "Chillar is the best linebacker in camp" and "Bishop will be used heavily in blitz/sub packages"

[Lurker64]

Risky move. Remember Chris White looked good in PS too.

Wait, how is it a "risky move" to carry 2 instead of 3 centers? How many NFL teams carry three centers?