H
HardRightEdge
Guest
Here's my run down at this stage assuming no PUP/IR worthy injuries. I think it's pretty conservative list:
QB (2): R and H - They're the only guys in camp along with Coleman; we don't do vet backups and certainly not at this stage of the off season. C would need to markedly outperform H to make the 53 because C has practice squad eligibility and H does not. C's not having that kind of camp by all reports. MM seems not to like wasting a roster spot on 3rd. QB. Most teams don't.
TB (1): Lacy - There's enough positive and negative to say about the other 4 candidates that clarity won't come until the preseason games. (Should we also include Pease? No. He'll go PS if anything.) There's no substitute for game play to sift down the options. MM has gone with 3 in the past. Maybe 4 this time. All these guys are young, 3 years or less in the league, which makes it harder to call...it's not your usual "he's a fresh 4th. round pick so he's in" situation. I suspect "availability" will help decide the matter...war of attrition. One of these guys could separate by stepping up and winning a kick return spot (we're talking about Franklin here). MM tossed out the challenge with his Cobb comments.
This about sums up the TB situation at this stage; the proof will be in the preseason putting:
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_/id/58592/little-sorted-out-yet-in-packers-backfield
FB (0): One of these years Kuhn will be gone. I couldn't confidently state it won't be this year, especially if MM wants to keep 4 TBs and 4 or 5 TEs.
OL (6): B, S, EDS, L, Barkley, Newhouse - Whoever wins RT, even if it happens to be Bakhtiari, Barclay and Newhouse will still be around. Barkley's working at C and can play some G as well, though he's been muffing a lot of snaps learning the trade. Lang has shown up in the depth chart as a backup C, but I'm not sure what that's worth. Van Roten might sneak in, but I think he has PS eligibility left. Newhouse is the backup LT, like it or not, and can work at G in a pinch. Barclay and Newhouse have game experience and versatility. I was tempted to add Bakhtiati to the list on the strength of favorable reviews out of camp, but I'd rather see some game experience first since there's only one or two spots open. Bahhtiari probably could not sneak onto PS...somebody would scoop him. He has that going for him. Most of the others not mentioned have PS eligibility, haven't played much if at all, and could get to PS without a claim. I wish I could add Sherrod to the list, but that wouldn't be right. If by chance he makes it back, maybe we could trade Newhouse to Denver.
TE (3): F, Q and Mulligan - Enough good has been said about Q and Mulligan to lock them in. I like Taylor and was tempted to make him a 4th., Williams does nothing for me, I like Stoneburner's name a lot, and Bostick is still hanging around. But lets face it, when you get down to the 4th. and maybe a 5th. TE we're talking about special teams, preseason play and "availability" as deciders.
WR (4): N, J, C, Boykin: There's been enough Bennett enthusiasm for Boykin to think he's penned in for #4. He also has the benefit of having actually taken a few NFL snaps. I would have liked to have heard some early reports on the rookie speed guys, but they've been on the shelf. Ross could make his case for #5 if he earns the punt return job (against my personal eye test) or adds some other value like gunner (can he tackle?). Anything happening with Dorsey? I'm not sure there's enough value in this group for a #6 especially so long as Finley is around. In retrospect, #6 Boykin was brought in to hedge the departures of Driver and Jennings. WRs need feet wetting time, especially a guy like Boykin. I think 5 would do it, with some reload of the PS.
DL (5): R, P, J, N, Daniels - Worthy doesn't look like he'll be game 1 ready. I was tempted to add Wilson for his reliable work against the run in base. He could stick until at least Worthy's return, or maybe Boyd bumps him....there's just not enough with Wilson to get all that excited about. With the two big men on the bubble for next year as FAs, somebody among Jolly, Pena and Miller will likely emerge but I'd not want to venture a guess until preseason go-time...PS is a possibility for the two young guys. Boyd might be the man there as well...Trgovac liked his 1 tech work at Miss St. during the scouting.
OLB (3): M, Perry, Moses - Maybe Neal belongs here with all that OTA work outside. Second coming of Ted Hendricks! OK, not quite. Who does that leave? Palmer and Mulumba? May the best man win. This group looks light in numbers for a 90 man training camp. The thinking here is that Jones can move outside if the injury bug bites.
ILB (2): H, J - MM said this week that this is the deepest ILB group he's had in GB. Interesting. Besides H and J, we've got incumbents Lattimore, Manning and Francois. MM let his hair down and said he likes Barrington's recklessness. Is this the new McCarthy? Did he check with Capers first? We could keep all of them I suppose since Jones is an OLB swingman if necessary. I'm certain we'll keep two out of three incumbents, probably all three, but I'm not confident enough to add any one in particular to the list. Barrington could be a wildcard upsetting the equation.
CB (5): W, S, Heyward, House, Bush - Bush might be the most controversial call in this list, but I'm not seeing a new 4.45 or better guy who's a lock who might be able to push out Bush as a gunner. I may be missing something there...maybe Means, maybe Nixon. Hyde, Means and Nixon are competing for perhaps one open spot. Looks like a BPA situation...if one of these guys just looks like a good player (or a gunner), we might open a 6th. CB spot for him especially with half the D backfield suffering various dings and ailments. Broken record...preseason is go-time.
S (3): B, J, M: Three incumbents here. We need a 4th according to form. When injuries hit, I think we'd all like to hear MM speak the words, "I'm going to play Banjo", but it looks like the spot is up for grabs. It's possible there won't be a spot. If we went with 6 CBs, Bush might fill the #4 spot at S. He's been around long enough, played enough dime CB to experience safety-like responsibility, shows open field tackling skill as a gunner, and he's not that bad with the play in front of him. Richardson's situation is a shame...the neck thing is not looking good.
ST (3): C, M, G: Incumbents stick. MM called Tavecchio by the wrong first name today. He's here for a reason, but serious competition is apparently not it. A whiff of competition to get Crosby's juices flowing appears to be the intent, or so it would seem.
Summary: That's 40 names, right at my earlier off-the-cuff number. This was not reverse engineered, I swear. That leaves 13 open spots. I've got only 2 non-incumbents on this list...Lacy and Mulligan. There's room for new guys, but my sense is we're not going to see the typical 11 or 12 spots turning over barring injury...this is a very young team coming in particularly with the bench incumbents. The caveat is how we get through the preseason health wise. You gotta figure there will be at least a handful of incumbent names who end up on PUP or IR by the end of preseason...every team experiences that...we just don't know which ones or how many.
QB (2): R and H - They're the only guys in camp along with Coleman; we don't do vet backups and certainly not at this stage of the off season. C would need to markedly outperform H to make the 53 because C has practice squad eligibility and H does not. C's not having that kind of camp by all reports. MM seems not to like wasting a roster spot on 3rd. QB. Most teams don't.
TB (1): Lacy - There's enough positive and negative to say about the other 4 candidates that clarity won't come until the preseason games. (Should we also include Pease? No. He'll go PS if anything.) There's no substitute for game play to sift down the options. MM has gone with 3 in the past. Maybe 4 this time. All these guys are young, 3 years or less in the league, which makes it harder to call...it's not your usual "he's a fresh 4th. round pick so he's in" situation. I suspect "availability" will help decide the matter...war of attrition. One of these guys could separate by stepping up and winning a kick return spot (we're talking about Franklin here). MM tossed out the challenge with his Cobb comments.
This about sums up the TB situation at this stage; the proof will be in the preseason putting:
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_/id/58592/little-sorted-out-yet-in-packers-backfield
FB (0): One of these years Kuhn will be gone. I couldn't confidently state it won't be this year, especially if MM wants to keep 4 TBs and 4 or 5 TEs.
OL (6): B, S, EDS, L, Barkley, Newhouse - Whoever wins RT, even if it happens to be Bakhtiari, Barclay and Newhouse will still be around. Barkley's working at C and can play some G as well, though he's been muffing a lot of snaps learning the trade. Lang has shown up in the depth chart as a backup C, but I'm not sure what that's worth. Van Roten might sneak in, but I think he has PS eligibility left. Newhouse is the backup LT, like it or not, and can work at G in a pinch. Barclay and Newhouse have game experience and versatility. I was tempted to add Bakhtiati to the list on the strength of favorable reviews out of camp, but I'd rather see some game experience first since there's only one or two spots open. Bahhtiari probably could not sneak onto PS...somebody would scoop him. He has that going for him. Most of the others not mentioned have PS eligibility, haven't played much if at all, and could get to PS without a claim. I wish I could add Sherrod to the list, but that wouldn't be right. If by chance he makes it back, maybe we could trade Newhouse to Denver.
TE (3): F, Q and Mulligan - Enough good has been said about Q and Mulligan to lock them in. I like Taylor and was tempted to make him a 4th., Williams does nothing for me, I like Stoneburner's name a lot, and Bostick is still hanging around. But lets face it, when you get down to the 4th. and maybe a 5th. TE we're talking about special teams, preseason play and "availability" as deciders.
WR (4): N, J, C, Boykin: There's been enough Bennett enthusiasm for Boykin to think he's penned in for #4. He also has the benefit of having actually taken a few NFL snaps. I would have liked to have heard some early reports on the rookie speed guys, but they've been on the shelf. Ross could make his case for #5 if he earns the punt return job (against my personal eye test) or adds some other value like gunner (can he tackle?). Anything happening with Dorsey? I'm not sure there's enough value in this group for a #6 especially so long as Finley is around. In retrospect, #6 Boykin was brought in to hedge the departures of Driver and Jennings. WRs need feet wetting time, especially a guy like Boykin. I think 5 would do it, with some reload of the PS.
DL (5): R, P, J, N, Daniels - Worthy doesn't look like he'll be game 1 ready. I was tempted to add Wilson for his reliable work against the run in base. He could stick until at least Worthy's return, or maybe Boyd bumps him....there's just not enough with Wilson to get all that excited about. With the two big men on the bubble for next year as FAs, somebody among Jolly, Pena and Miller will likely emerge but I'd not want to venture a guess until preseason go-time...PS is a possibility for the two young guys. Boyd might be the man there as well...Trgovac liked his 1 tech work at Miss St. during the scouting.
OLB (3): M, Perry, Moses - Maybe Neal belongs here with all that OTA work outside. Second coming of Ted Hendricks! OK, not quite. Who does that leave? Palmer and Mulumba? May the best man win. This group looks light in numbers for a 90 man training camp. The thinking here is that Jones can move outside if the injury bug bites.
ILB (2): H, J - MM said this week that this is the deepest ILB group he's had in GB. Interesting. Besides H and J, we've got incumbents Lattimore, Manning and Francois. MM let his hair down and said he likes Barrington's recklessness. Is this the new McCarthy? Did he check with Capers first? We could keep all of them I suppose since Jones is an OLB swingman if necessary. I'm certain we'll keep two out of three incumbents, probably all three, but I'm not confident enough to add any one in particular to the list. Barrington could be a wildcard upsetting the equation.
CB (5): W, S, Heyward, House, Bush - Bush might be the most controversial call in this list, but I'm not seeing a new 4.45 or better guy who's a lock who might be able to push out Bush as a gunner. I may be missing something there...maybe Means, maybe Nixon. Hyde, Means and Nixon are competing for perhaps one open spot. Looks like a BPA situation...if one of these guys just looks like a good player (or a gunner), we might open a 6th. CB spot for him especially with half the D backfield suffering various dings and ailments. Broken record...preseason is go-time.
S (3): B, J, M: Three incumbents here. We need a 4th according to form. When injuries hit, I think we'd all like to hear MM speak the words, "I'm going to play Banjo", but it looks like the spot is up for grabs. It's possible there won't be a spot. If we went with 6 CBs, Bush might fill the #4 spot at S. He's been around long enough, played enough dime CB to experience safety-like responsibility, shows open field tackling skill as a gunner, and he's not that bad with the play in front of him. Richardson's situation is a shame...the neck thing is not looking good.
ST (3): C, M, G: Incumbents stick. MM called Tavecchio by the wrong first name today. He's here for a reason, but serious competition is apparently not it. A whiff of competition to get Crosby's juices flowing appears to be the intent, or so it would seem.
Summary: That's 40 names, right at my earlier off-the-cuff number. This was not reverse engineered, I swear. That leaves 13 open spots. I've got only 2 non-incumbents on this list...Lacy and Mulligan. There's room for new guys, but my sense is we're not going to see the typical 11 or 12 spots turning over barring injury...this is a very young team coming in particularly with the bench incumbents. The caveat is how we get through the preseason health wise. You gotta figure there will be at least a handful of incumbent names who end up on PUP or IR by the end of preseason...every team experiences that...we just don't know which ones or how many.
