Week of June 1st OTA News

[mission]

Yes thank you Vince!

Between your post and a blog report somewhere else, I'm excited to hear that Burnett has been around a lot of footballs and communicating better than you'd expect from a rookie.

[Joemailman]

If I were Bigby, I'd sign that tender and catch the first plane to Green Bay. Burnett is definitely getting his foot in the door. There is going to be a full blown battle for that Safety position.

[vince]

Burnett gave himself shots at about three other balls, one of which he probably should have had. On another, he dove after a ball that I thought he caught, but it must have hit the ground on his roll because he went back and did some push-ups after the play. It would have been a great play, but he must have thought he should have caught it. He, the ball and the ground all met at the same time.

A little more on Lee and Underwood a bit. First off, Lee is bigger than Underwood physically, so that may have a lot to do with my opinion. I'm not sure about either's 40 yd. dash or explosion drill times, but my guess just observing the two is that Lee's a tad faster too. So along with being bigger, that makes him look better and I think he'll be more stout in run support too. Both seem to be able to play the ball at least reasonably well.

[bobblehead]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.

They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

In fairness to bedard, the hole was that we had no safeties for awhile there. Remember lining chillar up at safety? It is dishonest to say that it has been plaguing "capers defense" though....capers never designed the D to play a LB at safety.

[Fritz]

I learned more in Vince's one post than I have in all the crap that's been floated in the JSO. Thanks Vince.

Glad to hear about Brad Jones. Though as I read your comment on him it struck me that if Brad Jones had a date and she'd made the same comment, it would mean something entirely different...

And the cockles of my heart (I have big cockles. Really. No, seriously.) were warmed by your comment about Crosby's kicks being right down the center - and not just tucked inside the right upright.

[vince]

Here's some video that'll only be up for a day from Bedard showing the OLB's in a drill from yesterday's practice.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/95548569.html

Unfortunately, Bedard can't help himself and has to offer his "analysis." He suggests that Matthews needs to improve his coverage skills. Matthews is an elite coverage OLB, one of the best in the league. I'll have to find the list, but I think he was rated top 5 as a cover guy by Football Outsiders. Brad Jones is also a very good coverage OLB in my opinion. It's run stopping and pass rushing where he needs to improve.

For my money, Knicky had quicker feet than the other new guys in this video, including Zombo, who Bedard seems to like.

EDIT: Matthews is the number 3 cover OLB in the league according to ProFootballFocus.com. Jones is 22, so he has some improving to do to be top 10 where he should be...

EDIT 2: Zombo and Knicky had almost identical combine numbers across the board, so in reality they're both pretty similar when it comes to agility, quickness, speed, and explosion.