ROSTER ANALYSIS

[Smeefers]

I see bright spots too - I like a lot of the players on defense; but there are a few fundamental, philosophical flaws that will sink us against power teams, i.e. the 2-4 can't hold up as a base front, they don't value 2-gap players at all, and they think pedestrian ILB's are just fine - actually, terrible ILB's are just fine.

They can get away with those flaws against Jacksonville - you saw what SF will do to us. They did nothing to address any of those problems.

And worst of all - Mr. Spraypaintedhair is still our DC. We might not give up 600 yds to SF again, and Kapnerfucker might not run for an all-time QB rushing record again, but I fully expect a repeat of game 1 from a year ago.

The final score of that game was 30-22 - but the game was never that close, and it was never in doubt. SF had their hand on our head the entire time, and bitch slapped us on national TV, on our home turf.

We only gave up 186 yds rushing in that game; whereas we had 45 yds rushing ourselves (27 from Rodgers) - that sounds about right this time around as well.

And you guys continually give me grief b/c I point out these obvious facts - we cannot run the ball, and we cannot stop the run. It is what it is.

You're assuming that the team can't grow, can't learn from past mistakes when in reality I've seen evidence to the contrary. I remember we used to have a laundry list of crap we hated that MM was doing. What happened to that? It's not being brought up any more because he's grown as a coach and has eliminated many of his chronic mistakes. To assume DC is just going to keep shrugging his shoulders and go with schemes that don't work, well, that just doesn't make sense to me.

As for the San Fran Game last year - It doesn't freaking matter. New team, different year. Hell, if the Pack gets whooped in the season opener and we end up facing the 49ers in the playoffs again, I'd still say that the first game we played in the beginning of the season has no bearing on how a playoff game is going to turn out. Teams change, grow, get better or worse.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I think Jolly is still an extremely long shot to make this team.

repent, sinner

[Joemailman]

repent, sinner

Clearly, Jolly was reading Packerrats and was motivated by Smeefers' post. Perhaps we should allow him to adjust his forecast before judging him too harshly.

[pbmax]

DEFENSIVE LINE - 8
Pickett, Raji, Jones, Daniels, Wilson, Jolly, Neal, Miller

LINEBACKERS - 9
CM3, Jones, Hawk, Perry, Moses, Lattimore, Barrington, Francois, Mulumba. I want to see Manning but he seems to be having a quiet camp

If you put Neal at Linebacker and stick one of Mulumba or Barrington on the practice squad (or give up on Francois or Lattimore if a new guy can replace them on STs) then the numbers work.

7 D line and 9 LBs isn't too far fetched, though I bet its one more than typical.

[Joemailman]

Guys ho helped their chances Friday Night:

Jolly - Involved in 2 T.O.'s and at least 1 TFL.
Mulumba - Showing more than Moses
Crosby - Just needs to match Tavecchio because his kickoffs are better
Harrell - Played well. Victiized by some drops.
Coleman - Produced only TD.
Bostick - Played better than D.J. Williams
Stoneburner - Great TD catch

Guys who hurt their chances:

Starks - Fumble hurt.
Green - Continues to look as ordinary as last year.
D.J. Williams - Mix of catches and drops. Bostick was better.
Brandon Smith - Gave up a TD pas, but worse, a major ST error.
Moses - Bad missed tackle. Mulumba was better.

[denverYooper]

One of TT's more meaningful comments last week was that Jolly was a guy just born with natural football instincts.

[Patler]

If you put Neal at Linebacker and stick one of Mulumba or Barrington on the practice squad (or give up on Francois or Lattimore if a new guy can replace them on STs) then the numbers work.

7 D line and 9 LBs isn't too far fetched, though I bet its one more than typical.

That leaves them with 9 Dbs, which they have done before, but when you start filling names into slots this year, you would like to have 10 DB's too,

Four safeties, although I'm not sure who the fourth would be (Banjo??), so they might only keep three, and plan on picking up a fourth if injuries hit. They will only have three active for games anyway.

Five CBs - Williams, Shields, Hayward, House, Hyde

Unless they go with only 3 safeties, it leaves no place for Bush (many won't mind that) or any of the youngsters like Means or Nixon. Smith is probably destined for PS anyway, maybe with at least one of Means and Nixon.

[Patler]

Guys ho helped their chances Friday Night:

Jolly - Involved in 2 T.O.'s and at least 1 TFL.
Mulumba - Showing more than Moses
Crosby - Just needs to match Tavecchio because his kickoffs are better
Harrell - Played well. Victiized by some drops.
Coleman - Produced only TD.
Bostick - Played better than D.J. Williams
Stoneburner - Great TD catch

Guys who hurt their chances:

Starks - Fumble hurt.
Green - Continues to look as ordinary as last year.
D.J. Williams - Mix of catches and drops. Bostick was better.
Brandon Smith - Gave up a TD pas, but worse, a major ST error.
Moses - Bad missed tackle. Mulumba was better.

Mostly agree. Past years DJ Williams has had good preseasons, then disappeared during the regular season. So far he has not had a good preseason. I think he has an uphill battle to make the roster.

Smith doesn't have a chance of making the 53 man roster, probably never did. He is a recent conversion to DB from WR, and the coaches seem intrigued by his size, speed and quickness to learn. I look for him to land on the PS.

The linebacker cuts will be interesting. I can see it going several ways, especially if you factor in a PS spot or two for linebackers.

Quarless better get on the field, or he could be in jeopardy of being cut, too.

Starks vs Green might go down to the wire. Things being equal, I expect they will go with Green.

[Patler]

Forgot to mention Jolly. Kind of nice seeing him be what he was when last he played; a guy who disrupts things and causes stuff to happen. Unless something goes horribly wrong in the next two weeks, I think he sewed up a spot last night.

I hope they can get Boyd to the PS.

[mraynrand]

I think all you homers are deluding yourselves. It's obvious from last night that the Packers can't stop the run because the organization isn't interested in bringing in linemen who can 2-gap, and Capers will never do anything to effectively stop the run. He'll play 2-4 defenses and give up hundreds of yards, and no matter how efficient Rodgers can play, they will never find a Tackle that can protect him properly. Even though that idiot Thomson thinks bringing a couple of backs will 'solve' the running game problem, McCarthy will just revert back to his stubborn unwillingness to commit to the run game - and who can blame him when Thomson won't draft decent OL players. Meanwhile, back on the defense, we'll hear all this stuff about exotic Caper's alignments, but the team isn't big enough or tough enough to stop anyone, and we all know that any recent success was just a fluke resulting from down years from other teams. This team will get run roughshod by the Niners, and we'll be calling for Caper's head and be right back to where we started at the end of last year, which is to say with a weak, slow, undersized defense that can't stop the run, cant get to the QB, and can't cover the middle of the field. Keep pretending it's not true, Packer homers, you will be singing a different tune in a few weeks.

[packer4life]

repent, sinner

Joemailman just owned you.

Jolly makes this team AND improves it. After 3 years, it is as if he was just dropped onto our front doorstep.

[Rutnstrut]

We snuck in a window in '10... it happens. The level of competition was watered down that year - we got on a roll, and we got lucky.

The same can be said of Indy - lower level of competition that year. Great QB, watered down competition... they got lucky - one and done. Same as us.

And since when have any of the homers on here said giving up 600 yds is unacceptable?? They make excuses for it, and dismiss it as a fluke. They accept our SB win as the trend line, and dismiss the preponderance of negative evidence around them as outliers.

Like you just did - "... you don't need a top 5 D... especially when you have Rodgers at the helm". You're perfectly willing to accept shitty defense, b/c in the homer view, Rodgers will clean up the mess.

I guess that is the same approach TT and MM have as well.

Holy fuck, there's an actual realist on this board. I thought it was just full of kool-aid chugging homers that refuse to see the truth.

[bobblehead]

We snuck in a window in '10... it happens. The level of competition was watered down that year - we got on a roll, and we got lucky.

The same can be said of Indy - lower level of competition that year. Great QB, watered down competition... they got lucky - one and done. Same as us.

And since when have any of the homers on here said giving up 600 yds is unacceptable?? They make excuses for it, and dismiss it as a fluke. They accept our SB win as the trend line, and dismiss the preponderance of negative evidence around them as outliers.

Like you just did - "... you don't need a top 5 D... especially when you have Rodgers at the helm". You're perfectly willing to accept shitty defense, b/c in the homer view, Rodgers will clean up the mess.

I guess that is the same approach TT and MM have as well.

In a true statistical anomally we followed up being "lucky" by going 15-1 the next season. Nobody wins it every year. NE is the only team to dominate in the cap era. This team is good. We have a shot to get "lucky" every year. If your prediction is that we will get beat at some point before winning the superbowl, you are probably right. If you are wrong; we win it; and you call it luck...well you're just that, wrong.

[bobblehead]

That leaves them with 9 Dbs, which they have done before, but when you start filling names into slots this year, you would like to have 10 DB's too,

Four safeties, although I'm not sure who the fourth would be (Banjo??), so they might only keep three, and plan on picking up a fourth if injuries hit. They will only have three active for games anyway.

Five CBs - Williams, Shields, Hayward, House, Hyde

Unless they go with only 3 safeties, it leaves no place for Bush (many won't mind that) or any of the youngsters like Means or Nixon. Smith is probably destined for PS anyway, maybe with at least one of Means and Nixon.

I would expect Hyde is getting some work at safety. He fills the emergency safety role. I like Richardson a lot, but it looks like another injury ruined career.

[bobblehead]

McCarthy will just revert back to his stubborn unwillingness to commit to the run game - .

You got one point correct whilst trying to be sarcastic. I will be screaming by week 5 that we only had 9 run plays called in each of the last 3 games. We will lose 2 of those. Pb will tell me that running isn't important and look, we called 26 running plays this week and won afterall, proving that MM calls a lot of running plays.