Barclay suffers torn ACL

[Carl]

I couldn't disagree with this more. In general, an NFL team is only as good as its backups. It is rare for teams to make it through a season mostly unscathed from injury. Some of those backups fighting for jobs in all of the preseason games will likely be starters at some point during the season. The Packers, as discussed ad nausea, have suffered a higher number of injuries than average recently. As for the offensive line and OT specifically, here is a good quote from a Don Barclay article:

http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/minus-don-barclay-packers-likely-to-need-derek-sherrod-in-2014


Probability says that we were going to need our primary OL backup at some point this season. This isn't a panic button moment, but it certainly hurts.

I realize it's rare that a team will make it through the season without injuries. In my opinion though, if those injuries don't include key guys like Rodgers, Matthews, Jordy, etc. or if injuries to key guys only cause them to miss a game or two, this team will be okay. The drop off from our best guys to their back ups is much greater than the drop off from Barclay and the next man up.

The Super Bowl team is a great example. They had a lot of injuries, including a starter on the o-line, but none of them were to Rodgers, Woodson, Matthews, Jennings, Collins, or any of the most important guys to the team.

 

[NorthWestCheeseHead]

On the upside, the tear was clean apparently so there was no secondary damage.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/270143461.html

Packers offensive lineman Don Barclay suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will be lost for the season, according to a source with knowledge of the injury.

The only good news for the Packers and Barclay is that there was no other damage in the knee that would complicate recovery. In some cases, the medial collateral ligament is torn or there is cartilage damage as well.

But according to a source, Barclay suffered a clean tear of the ACL.

 

[JBlood]

I´d rather have

Agree!!! stop the musical chairs

We seem to have problems with 1. identifying the best linemen, and 2. identifying which position they are at their best. I think most of this is due to MM liking players who can play any position and I can understand why. With injury and free agency there is always a musical chair of roster changes which makes a versatile lineman particularly valuable.

 

[NorthWestCheeseHead]

I realize many people won't fully understand the funny of this gif. But I do and that's enough for me.

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[PikeBadger]

I really feel bad for Barclay as I think this was his contract expiration year. For a UDFA especially, he's had a fantastic career so far. He has become a very skilled and versatile component of the O-Line. He must be very mentally disciplined to have been able to learn 4 positions in such a short time. We'd have had some potentially serious problems without his contributions the last few years. He's a major plus to the staff that allowed them to go with just 7 o-lineman on the active roster. I definitely see us going with 8 now because Lang is probably the only guy that rivals his versatility.

 

[El Guapo]

The Super Bowl team is a great example. They had a lot of injuries, including a starter on the o-line, but none of them were to Rodgers, Woodson, Matthews, Jennings, Collins, or any of the most important guys to the team.

Let's use your example. We lost our starting right tackle (Mark Tauscher), our starting tight end (Jermichael Finley), our starting running back (Ryan Grant), our starting inside linebacker (Nick Barnett), our starting right OLB (Brad Jones), and our starting safety (Morgan Burnett). Just because you picked the healthy guys for your example, it doesn't belittle the importance of the players that did get injured. You can bet your bottom dollar it would have made a difference had Quarless, Bulaga, Brandon Jackson, Bishop, Zombo, or Peprah went down with an injury in camp. With the exception of the Zombo/Walden duo, there was a sharp step down the ladder after that.

To the original point of this thread, Barclay is such a versatile lineman that can play all five positions on the line capably. You don't find those guys everyday and we do not have another backup with those skillsets.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

I really feel bad for Barclay as I think this was his contract expiration year. For a UDFA especially, he's had a fantastic career so far. He has become a very skilled and versatile component of the O-Line. He must be very mentally disciplined to have been able to learn 4 positions in such a short time. We'd have had some potentially serious problems without his contributions the last few years. He's a major plus to the staff that allowed them to go with just 7 o-lineman on the active roster. I definitely see us going with 8 now because Lang is probably the only guy that rivals his versatility.

I think it's possible the Packers will have only 7 OL on the active game-day roster with Sherrod being the backup at both tackle spots and Taylor backing up Sitton and Lang. In case of an injury to Tretter Lang would move over to center.

 

[HardRightEdge]

I´d rather have the starters stay in their respective spot and not move them around.

1. Is he still the "dancing bear" we drafted or has the leg injury taken away some quickness?
2. Can he learn to finish blocks? That was a big problem in his rookie year.
2b. Corellary to 2. above: Can he muster some "nasty"?
3. How long will it take a guy that missed that much time to get back to "contact conditioned"? Will he get enough snaps in preseason to get where he needs to be?

I liked the draft pick at the time, hold out some shred of hope he'll be a good player, but those are some big question marks for 2014 and his contract is up at after this season.

 

[Carl]

Let's use your example. We lost our starting right tackle (Mark Tauscher), our starting tight end (Jermichael Finley), our starting running back (Ryan Grant), our starting inside linebacker (Nick Barnett), our starting right OLB (Brad Jones), and our starting safety (Morgan Burnett). Just because you picked the healthy guys for your example, it doesn't belittle the importance of the players that did get injured. You can bet your bottom dollar it would have made a difference had Quarless, Bulaga, Brandon Jackson, Bishop, Zombo, or Peprah went down with an injury in camp. With the exception of the Zombo/Walden duo, there was a sharp step down the ladder after that.

To the original point of this thread, Barclay is such a versatile lineman that can play all five positions on the line capably. You don't find those guys everyday and we do not have another backup with those skillsets.

You're missing the point of my post. Yes, a bunch of guys went down, but none of them were absolute studs. My point was a team can get buy with losing average to solid starters, but once they lose their stars, they're really hurting. Take the injuries to the guys you listed and make the healthy guys I listed injured and that team would have struggled to win it all.

Last year certainly speaks to what losing stars can do, both on offense and defense. Was more the specific guys who were injured that hurt the team more than the total number of injuries