The Not Ready for Prime Time Players

[Harlan Huckleby]

I think the most striking thing about Ted's 53 is how many projects he kept.

D.J. Williams - needs blocking work, not physical enough for special teams
Jamari Lattimore - needs year in weight room
M.D. Jennings - ??

Davon House & Derrick Sherrod had to be kept, of course, but they are too green to be activated.

They have three other rookies who look ready to contribute: Ryan Taylor, Vic So'oto, D.J. Smith That makes a lot of rookies total, but that in itself might not be bad.

I don't know. Its odd that a superbowl champ has 5 guys that are best kept inactive, doesn't leave much room for injuries.

Here's my question for you: is this topic worth starting a new thread for?

[Joemailman]

With 10 rookies, TT may have regained the coveted Youngest Team In The NFL Award. Which means that someone will say TT should have kept more veterans.

[Bretsky]

Answer: No

But there are some thoughts.

DJ Williams could fill in now as a backup just fine. Dude has very good receiving skills. You are just bagging on him cuz you are still bitter.
Jamari Lattimore needs some time to develop but we've had worse playing for us on defense.
MD Jennings....needs to develop as well. But as a last DB I don't think he's any worse than Bush in coverage. Rember guys like Josh Bell ? Matt Giordoni ? This guy is just as good as guys who have played regular season games in the past.
House- Have not focused on him enough to be sure
Sherrod- Maybe there is a reason this guy fell, maybe he will develop. But he looks nowhere near ready.

Every team has a few guys not ready to be active. You keep them now because you think they can be players later.

[Harlan Huckleby]

With 10 rookies .

are you using octal or base ten? I only count 8, unless Newhouse gets to pretend he is a rookie.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Every team has a few guys not ready to be active

ya, but not five. Just to clarify, I have no bitterness towards DJ Williams, just some hard feelings directed at you and JH.

They don't need DJ Williams on the field now just for smooth recieving skills, guy has to be physical too.

[Joemailman]

Cobb and Green are rookies.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Cobb and Green are rookies.

I'm losing my mind. Those guys look like veterans to me, so I checked them off as big boys in my mind.

man, I would not be a good airport security screener.

[wootah]

When I read this morning that 10 of the 53 players will be rookies, it made me think of an old interview with a successful soccer coach (don't remember if it was Ferguson or Lippi) about sustained success at the highest level. Anyway, according to him, there were 2 options if you want to keep a successful team from getting complacent, if you want to keep them hungry season after season; either you replace the coach from time to time, or you make sure there's a steady inflow of new, hungry talent.

[mission]

MD Jennings is a lot more solid than people think. He's a good open field tackler, seems to have a good nose for the ball and has closing speed equal to Burnett and better than Peprah. I think he's fine coming in for an injury... better than Bush at safety IMO.

[smuggler]

lol HH

[MJZiggy]

When I read this morning that 10 of the 53 players will be rookies, it made me think of an old interview with a successful soccer coach (don't remember if it was Ferguson or Lippi) about sustained success at the highest level. Anyway, according to him, there were 2 options if you want to keep a successful team from getting complacent, if you want to keep them hungry season after season; either you replace the coach from time to time, or you make sure there's a steady inflow of new, hungry talent.

This season, we have the particular situation of having a lot of veteran, hungry talent who watched their team win it all without them having the chance to participate. Hunger remains.

[rbaloha1]

Young and athletic team with a sprinkling of veterans. Versatile -- allowing to play multiple schemes on both sides of the ball.

TT is genius.

[red]

MD Jennings is a lot more solid than people think. He's a good open field tackler, seems to have a good nose for the ball and has closing speed equal to Burnett and better than Peprah. I think he's fine coming in for an injury... better than Bush at safety IMO.

+1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

[gbgary]

I'm losing my mind. Those guys look like veterans to me, so I checked them off as big boys in my mind.

man, I would not be a good airport security screener.

[vince]

This shouldn't be surprising IMO. The Packers are a draft and develop team. It's key to their success over the long-term and why many (including me) see such great potential for this team to contend for a long time to come.

Jermichael Finley was a project. Aaron Rodgers was a project. Tramon Williams, Scott Wells, T.J. Lang, Starks is/was a project, Wilson, Quarless, ...you can go on and on.

Some of the young guys produced right away, but with the level of talent at the top of this roster now, that will contintinue to become more the exception than the rule. None of that says anything about the developmental talent these guys have.

Cobb, Green, Williams, So'oto, Lattimore... All these guys are brimming with talent. They're a big part of the future of this team.

That's one of the best GM's in the business doing his job IMO. It's starting to get crowded in some areas, but there's still plenty of room for more future talent on the roster.