Brad Jones to Get Expanded Role?

[SEWICHEESE]

He depended upon Neal to be healthy and fulfill his potential at that spot.


That was the critical mistake - IMO.

 

[SEWICHEESE]

Well, the injuries to Neal were not the same each year, so I'd argue it is in hindsight. Will he suffer another long term injury to a different body part next season? I don't know, and neither do you and neither does Ted. But to think it was unrealistic for Ted to expect Neal to be healthy enough to replace Jenkins to me is flawed logic. Like ThxJackVainisi said above, based on what Neal has shown he could do when healthy, there was no reason not to think he could replace Jenkins. I don't think Neal was every fully healthy last season, so hopefully that knee strength is back and he can be the playmaker he's shown he could be capable of.

Let me just say that if we dont agree on things and have different opinions thats cool because its fun to discuss this stuff. If we all agreed on everything that would be quite boring, so dont think any of my posts are personal attacks on any of you because these discussions can often get nasty pretty quick and thats really stupid. I just wanted to get that out there.

Rearding Neal, from what I know about his injury history he has one bad knee and one bad shoulder... his injuries occured in HS and college, he has had at least multiple injuries(shoulder seperations and knee injuries) on both, prior to last training camp's knee injury. These are red flags as to the reliability of him being your only solid option to fill that important position. So on that basis I thought going into last season, letting go of Jenkins was a mistake. Does Neal have talent? Yes but that doesnt matter if he cant stay healthy and that was a legit concern going into the season not just a 20/20 hindsight comment afterwards.

 

[TJV]

Southpaw,

If an argument is old perhaps you could just re-post your initial answer to it, if you had one. And do you really not recognize the offense’s contribution to the playoff loss to the Giants? If the Packers had replicated the game they played on offense against the Giants in New Jersey even without Clay’s INT (not an unreasonable expectation since the playoff game was played in Green Bay)… if the offense hadn’t dropped several passes, a few in crucial spots… if Rodgers hadn’t missed a wide open receiver for a TD… if Clifton hadn’t missed a block so badly on a three-step drop which resulted in a fumble lost instead of a TD… IMO the offense was every bit as responsible for that loss as the defense. I haven’t seen a single post alleging the Packers don’t have to improve their defense. But if the offense repeats that performance in next season’s playoffs, the Packers will lose that game, too.

… it appears he is about to make the same mistake again this coming season by keeping around guys like Jones, Zombo and Walden, Neal, Wynn, Green who not only can't play, but can't stay healthy. … Perhaps it's time we stop wasting our time with these guys who can't play and are made of glass and find some new blood. That's all I'm saying. It's like putting money into a piece of **** car that is just going to keep nickel and diming you.

You are jumping the gun big time with this assumption. Do you have any doubt that Thompson will use valuable picks in the draft on defense? Perhaps not the first four in a row as many fans desire because he will still be looking for value, but I’ll bet he uses at least two picks in the first three rounds on defense. Who will those players be? Will one or more be presumptive starters? Consider the fact you can’t answer either question.

Other than noting that he played last season and that the Packers were disenchanted with him, did the article that is the subject of this thread mention Walden being in their future plans? In fact wasn’t the sole purpose of the article to say that Jones will get a shot at an expanded role while McCarthy said he isn’t the full time answer at ROLB? And BTW, wouldn’t it be idiotic at this point not to invite Neal back to camp? And why not see what progress Jones and Zombo can make? The NFL allows for an 80 man roster and obviously all 80 won’t make the team. You don’t really need to be reminded that players can be invited back and not be depended upon, right? Yes it’s the offseason, but why ***** about something before it happens?

 

[SpartaChris]

Jesus Christ give it a rest with these analogies of we won without him we don't need him.

It's old. The only reason we went 15-1 was because Rodgers could score almost whenever he wanted, but he's not going to be able to do that forever. If we went 15-1 without a bunch of players then why the fuking uproar about needing address the defense right now? Hey we went 15-1, right? We can do it again no problem

Just stop



Is that so? Giving up 30 some points was all on our offense right?

Jesus Christ, give it a rest with the ignoring of the facts. It's old.

We went 15-1 because our offense was rock solid and our defense wasn't as bad as ESPN wants you to believe. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot separating us from either of the two Super Bowl participants this year. Yards != points and we were middle of the pack in points allowed.

And looking at just the points allowed in that playoff game as your marker is flat ignorant. 8 drops. 4 turnovers. Two onside kicks that we failed to recover, allowing the Giants to take possession on a short field. That's what killed us. Our defense did more than enough to give us a chance to win the game, including preventing the Giants from gaining a single first down in the entire 3rd quarter. That should have been more than enough for this team to take the lead, but nope, the offense didn't get it done.

So how about you just stop?

 

[Bagadeez04]

I don’t care who emerges as the answer at the OLB spot opposite Matthews as long as someone does. If it’s Brad Jones that’d be great since he’s already on the roster and at a bargain price.

Jones isn't the answer at ROLB...that's the point as far as I'm concerned. If at the start of the season next year Brad Jones is starting at linebacker...we're in trouble and looking probably looking at a similar defensive situation to last year.

 

[13 Times Champs]

Don't fret about the defense. It's the offense in some peoples mind that should be blamed for us not progressing further into the playoffs.

 

[SpartaChris]

Don't fret about the defense. It's the offense in some peoples mind that gets blamed for us not progressing further into the playoffs.

Probably because it was.

 

[SEWICHEESE]

Probably because it was.

Last year the offense had 2 letdown games. The defense had probably too many to list. I think that is the main point and main problem with the team. Not that your saying the opposite.

 

[13 Times Champs]

Probably because it was.

I think a fair assessment would be to also list the many failings of the defense that day.

 

[SpartaChris]

I'm not absolving our defense completely of blame, but to pin the loss squarely on their shoulders is naive. My point was, has been and still is that our defense did enough to put us in a position to win that game, same as they did all season long. The refusal to acknowledge otherwise is to choose to be ignorant about what really happened in that game.

 

[13 Times Champs]

I don't think the defense played as well as you seem to believe during the season. Neither the offense or defense put us in a position to win the Giants game. During the regular season I saw an offense playing at a high level and a defense that rarely did. I guess I'll just be ignorant with my thoughts.

 

[SpartaChris]

During the regular season I saw a defense that could be improved, but did enough to win. A defense that finished 14th in points allowed going into the last game of the season where we sat several key starters, and then finished 19th in points allowed after. A defense that led the league in turnovers. Yet somehow that's horrible..

 

[13 Times Champs]

During the regular season I saw a defense that could be improved, but did enough to win. A defense that finished 14th in points allowed going into the last game of the season where we sat several key starters, and then finished 19th in points allowed after. A defense that led the league in turnovers. Yet somehow that's horrible..

The defense I saw was mostly horrible. Couldn't tackle, couldn't rush the passer, couldn't cover opponents receivers. I don't have all the #'s for those things, but I don't think they were very good. Agree with your last statement.

 

[Bagadeez04]

Probably because it was.

Oh come on now the offense wasn't the problem...I mean they were a let down in the playoffs but they were the highest scoring team in the league.

The D was a consistent problem year-round and we knew that if the offense ever slipped up and had a bad game...we were toast.

That's exactly what happened against Kansas City and New Jersey.

 

[GeeDogWarrior]

Well said.
I love this team, and TT is the main man to thank for it.

But think about this for a second: If David Akers foot didn't have a bad game in the 2010 Wildcard game, this team would have now been 0-3 in the playoffs, 3 straight 1 & dones.
Thank God Akers had that bad game.

James Jones actually catches the ball, we're up 28 - 10 in the 4th qt, probably up 28 - 3 if Rodgers hadn't fumbled near our endzone in the 2nd half. ... then again, refs do their job, we probably make a run in 2009, guys catch some passes/dudes cover their guys in the giants game, we're probably celebrating our 2nd consecutive superbowl win

 

[Southpaw]

During the regular season I saw a defense that could be improved, but did enough to win. A defense that finished 14th in points allowed going into the last game of the season where we sat several key starters, and then finished 19th in points allowed after. A defense that led the league in turnovers. Yet somehow that's horrible..

When your defense is ranked 32nd out of 32 teams in the league, that's horrible. No matter how you slice it.

 

[SpartaChris]

When your defense is ranked 32nd out of 32 teams in the league, that's horrible. No matter how you slice it.

Sure, if yards were equal to points, it would be horrible. Yards != points. In fact, when you dig into the numbers, there wasn't a lot separating us and the Patriots or Giants.

We were 14th in points allowed entering week 17, where we rested several of our starters and then 19th in points allowed after. #1 in turnovers.

I'm not saying now, nor have I ever said this was a great defense. I fully admit it wasn't a very good defense. It was good enough to win, and that's about it. But it also wasn't as bad as people like to make it out to be, as the facts I listed above state. And it also wasn't the reason why we lost that playoff game.

 

[SpartaChris]

Oh come on now the offense wasn't the problem...I mean they were a let down in the playoffs but they were the highest scoring team in the league.

The D was a consistent problem year-round and we knew that if the offense ever slipped up and had a bad game...we were toast.

That's exactly what happened against Kansas City and New Jersey.

You're right, the offense wasn't a problem most of the season, and our defense was just good enough to win provided the offense produced. But in the playoffs, our offense had 8 drops, 4 turnovers and failed to get points for an entire quarter when the defense shut the other team out. Defense isn't why we lost that playoff game.

 

[FrankRizzo]

James Jones actually catches the ball, we're up 28 - 10 in the 4th qt, probably up 28 - 3 if Rodgers hadn't fumbled near our endzone in the 2nd half. ... then again, refs do their job, we probably make a run in 2009, guys catch some passes/dudes cover their guys in the giants game, we're probably celebrating our 2nd consecutive superbowl win

Exactly. It all goes to show you how close/tight things are, how many factors there are in deciding games, ultimately who becomes champion.
The Vikings kicked the Saints *** in that NFCCG, but lost because of turnovers and bad calls.
Our 2011 offense was better than than the 2010 offense, but didn't look like it in the playoffs.
Actually outdoors in the 2010 season playoffs, at Philly, at Chicago, our offense wasn't too good either.

 

[TJV]

When your defense is ranked 32nd out of 32 teams in the league, that's horrible.

This point has been refuted so thoroughly you discredit the rest of your argument by repeating it. No matter how you slice it.