The Key Questions For This Season's Success

[The Shadow]

Ok, this is as good a time as any :

1. Will the defense continue the evolution to top-tier status?
Adding potential cornerstones like Hawk and Harrell to an upgraded talent core - Pickett, Woodson - with solid stalwarts like Kampmann, Harris, & Barnett plus emerging players like Collins, Jenkins, and Poppinga seems like a solid strategy for success.
The players have now had a year in the system.
But a defense must come together on the field.
If the defense takes that next step, the Packers will be in every game.

2. [b]Will the offensive line continue to improve?
Colledge, Spitz, Wells, and Moll now have a year of experience under their belts, as well as an offseason in a pro weight program. Their progress, as well as Barbre's and maybe Thompson's, will be the key to the offense.
3. Will Brett Favre take the leap to a new leadership/maturity level?
Favre's willingness to 'play within himself' with this year's version of the Green Bay Packers is crucial. If the team emerges as a true defensive force, less 'hometown hero' heroics are in order - in favor of a smart, ball security approach. Individual records are fine, but wins are the name of the game.

4. Will special teams finally become a positive?
Some of the younger players must distinguish themselves as ST aces, and the Packers must finally find the returners that can be true answers.

5. Will the secondary jell?[b]
Will Collins leave the lightbulb on that finally seemed to switch on in the last Bear's game? Will Manuel - or someone else - finally make the SS position a strength? Can Woodson & Harris stave off Father Time? Will Blackmon or Walker become that solid Nickel we need so badly? Will Underwood, Culver, and Bigby upgrade things?
And : will Schottenheimer prove he can coach them?

6. Can Morency and Jackson provide the ground game necessary for success?
I think we are all going to be pleasantly surprised with a fresh young tandem.

7. Will the receiving corp come through?
Driver is a known quality commodity. Jennings seems to have a lot of the same flair that Antonio Freeman had in his early phase. Jones could be the tough WR turning slants into long gains. Clowny could provide the same type of field-stretching that Berrian has done for the Bears. Carlyle Holliday impressed in his brief stint. And Koren Robinson's return could help on kickoffs as well as receiving.
Tight ends are more of a crapshoot. I suspect Lee will be the guy, and would not be surprised to see Bubba cut.

8. [b) How much will the year of experience help McCarthy's staff?
He seems like a bright guy, and the promotion of Moss seems like a solid move. Can he keep a young, improving group focused on the prize?
This year should reveal a lot about him.

[Bretsky]

To me 2 is the biggest key

Will the OL at least be average as a group, or will MM need to hide their deficiencies by holding additional receiving options in to block on passing downs?

I really have no expectations of Green Bay becoming a top tier running team so I think the above question will have huge relevance.

If MM has to do that the offense will have another long year.

[Packnut]

Favre

Favre will always be Favre, meaning he is'nt happy going 3 and out. You still need to score points in order to win. Playing conservative football ONLY works with a shut down defense or a defense that scores points. We have neither.

May-be in place of Favre not making mistakes i.e. throw picks, you should have mentioned one about not having 400 freaking drops this season. Or one about getting some kind of PRODUCTION out of the TE group. Or how about one needing MM to dump his max protect schemes and actually give his QB more than 2 targets to throw to. All of these things will contribute to Favre playing "smarter" football.

[The Shadow]

".....All of these things will contribute to Favre playing "smarter" football."

Receivers drop passes; that's part of the game. But Favre needs to work on playing smarter - consistently -in order for the team to win.

[Joemailman]

I think Favre did play within the system last year. His 18 INT's weren't bad considering he threw more passes than anyone in the league, plus the poor play of the defense for much of the year meant he was often trying to bring the team from behind. Favre's percentage of passes that were intercepted was lower than a lot of guys that had a higher passer rating than he did. His low passer rating was in part due to a low pass completion percentage. If the Packers can send more people out in pass patterns this year, the pass completion percentage should go up, and the interceptions should go down a little bit.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Funny! The Packers max protect on more plays than normal, and suddenly people act like they had max protect on a majority of plays.

[oregonpackfan]

All the points Shadow mentioned are certainly valid.

For me, the biggest concerns are:

--will the ground game become an influential part of the offense with Ahman Green gone?

--will the TE be a position where Favre can consistently throw to or will it just be used for blocking?

I agree with Bretsky that I don't think the Packers will be a top tier team but in the weak NFC-North division, they may qualify for the playoffs.

[Bretsky]

Funny! The Packers max protect on more plays than normal, and suddenly people act like they had max protect on a majority of plays.

With a WR group not deep enough last year the effects were obvious, regardless of how much they did it.

[BEARMAN]

Why don't you fellers just raise the white flag and call it a day ? Haven't you all relised that cheese left out of the frig too long spoils? Now that is what you all got there in gb, a whole lot of spoiled cheese ! Speaking of cheese, my fave is blue, with alittle goat ever now and then, how about you all ? Your team must like limburger, 'cause they "stink"

[Bretsky]

Why don't you fellers just raise the white flag and call it a day ? Haven't you all relised that cheese left out of the frig too long spoils? Now that is what you all got there in gb, a whole lot of spoiled cheese ! Speaking of cheese, my fave is blue, with alittle goat ever now and then, how about you all ? Your team must like limburger, 'cause they "stink"

REX GROSSMAN EVERYBODY

[HarveyWallbangers]

Just think. If the Bears had won the Super Bowl last year, they would have only been 4 championships behind Green Bay. Now, they still need 5 championships to tie the Pack.

[Merlin]

I agree that Favre played well within the system last year. The Packers were in "max" protect A LOT last season. Not a majority of the time, but most of the time when they needed a crucial first down or score and that hurt us. His passer rating had more to do with the low per catch yards then the completion percent. Everyone knows the QB Rating is a joke and normally doesn't show the true talent of a QB unless he goes 10 for 15 for 150 yards and 3 TD's and no ints every game. Can't seem to find any QB in the league who can do that week in and week out. Favre threw the ball more then anyone else last season and had 18 ints, big deal. He would have probably had 3 or 4 more TD's if people could catch the damn ball and we may have won one or two more games.

Favre is not the problem. The offensive line played okay for starting basically 3 rookies. I expect this year they will have that "gell" thing down and they will play just fine. Driver will get his, Favre will throw the ball. Outside of that, what can you say for certain will be positive on offense? The RB position? Nope. The FB position? Nope. The other 2 WR positions? Nope. The TE position? Nope. TT basically put all of our eggs into the "someone has to step up" bs basket. It is highly unlikely that more then one player steps up, sometimes two and hardly ever three. We need 4-6 players to step up on offense from a cast of rookies and no names. I just don't see it.

Defensively, we have the talent save Manual. I just don't think Sanders is the answer at DC. It took him most of the season to get them to communicate and be all on the same page. Why? The defense didn't change much from the year before and they players on defense weren't stupid. So what's the excuse? I don't think Sanders has a clue as to what he is doing, so much for first time DC's. Our secondary coaching with Shittenheimer (who has NEVER been successful at ANY level) is probably the biggest achilles heal you will ever see. We have to rely on the talent of the players this season because the coaching just isn't there. They should be improved but if they don't address the Manual issue (cut his ass), then anyone with a WR that can run a 40 yard dash backwards in 20 seconds will beat him for the deep ball.

Face it, our special teams is a joke. Step up or not step up, it will take 11 guys to step up on those units, again, I just don't see it with a bunch of no names and rookes.

[HarveyWallbangers]

His passer rating had more to do with the low per catch yards then the completion percent.

Actually, it had a lot to do with the completion percentage. In Favre's two worst seasons, he had 5 more interceptions than TDs and 9 more interceptions than TDs--compared to the same interceptions as TDs last year. His yards/attempt were almost identical to last year, but because his completion % was over 60% those years (compared to 56% last year) his passer rating was virtually the same as those two years--despite the high number of interceptions those two years.

Also, because the drops also affects his yards/attempt, it has a double effect on his passer rating. It hurts his completion % and his yards/attempt. Let's say he had 20 less drops last year, and those drops would have netted 200 more yards. Then, his yards/attempt all of a sudden becomes 6.7. That's about where he was at in a lot of seasons in his career and puts him closer to his career average of 7.0 yards/attempt than his 6.3 yards/attempt he had last year.

[Patler]

His passer rating had more to do with the low per catch yards then the completion percent.

Actually, it had a lot to do with the completion percentage. In Favre's two worst seasons, he had 5 more interceptions than TDs and 9 more interceptions than TDs--compared to the same interceptions as TDs last year. His yards/attempt were almost identical to last year, but because his completion % was over 60% those years (compared to 56% last year) his passer rating was virtually the same as those two years--despite the high number of interceptions those two years.

Also, because the drops also affects his yards/attempt, it has a double effect on his passer rating. It hurts his completion % and his yards/attempt. Let's say he had 20 less drops last year, and those drops would have netted 200 more yards. Then, his yards/attempt all of a sudden becomes 6.7. That's about where he was at in a lot of seasons in his career and puts him closer to his career average of 7.0 yards/attempt than his 6.3 yards/attempt he had last year.

Intersting "what ifs".

If he had 20 fewer dropped, and picked up 200 more yard because of it, his QB rating would have been 76.75. If one of the drops would have been a TD, it goes up to 77.29

[Merlin]

Passer rating is a joke no matter how you analyze it. Here is my passer rating:

1) Who won
2) Did the QB do anything to help the team
3) Did the QB do anything to hurt the team

2 = perfect.