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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HardRightEdge" data-source="post: 617016">Perhaps.  But there is no basis to think so.  Positive comments by McCarthy are no guarantee.  We've hear them before with Harrell and Coleman.  Nor is preseason performance.  I prefer to go by what I've seen in money games.</blockquote>Perhaps.  It's easier to remember the guys who bounce back from an ACL after one year.  It's harder to remember the guys who take longer or wash out.  A guy can get away with range of motion limitations at G or C playing in close quarters.  OT is a different matter.  Barclay is more of a scrapper than an athletic guy; any diminishment of his athleticism would prove problematic.  He was not a full participant in OTAs.  Tretter has limited experience, which is the issue at hand, and has not looked good in his few snaps.  Saturday was penned in at C at some cost; that did not work out so well.[/QUOTE]First of all, 27% of the snaps is not an afterthought.  If that were the case, we wouldn't care much about who plays on the base D-line since that's about the number snaps at those positions in a typical game.  Regardless of what one might think about the importance of the position...it is still a position to be played and there is no experienced depth.  So, add FB to the list.Now, as to the position's importance.  Many, if not most, of those 191 Kuhn snaps post-bye were in run blocking.  Lacy and Starks combined for 182 carries post-bye.  Kuhn himself ran the ball only 14 times and caught 2 passes post-bye.A fullback blocking in zone scheme has to find the right guy and at the right angle so as not to plug up a potential running hole, and he has to make a pre-snap read just as O-Linemen must do and then get at right quick.  Kuhn will never be confused with a road grader, but he makes smart decisions, gets in sync with the O-Line, and gets a body on a guy that matters.  McCarthy has tried Ryan Taylor, Quarless and Rodgers at H-back in recent years without much success to date; it's as simple as they didn't/don't effectively read and react in a scheme where there's no predefined man to hit except perhaps in short yardage blocking.While FB/H-back is nearly universally discounted as an afterthought, he's on the field for a reason.  Having a guy on the field who doesn't know what he's doing, which has been the case with those aforementioned H-backs, is tantamount to playing 10 on 11 for those 27% of the snaps.  Kuhn being named first team All Pro among the dozen or so "first team" FBs left in the league was not entirely arbitrary nor merely a career award.I like Ripkowski.  The fact Stoops runs a zone scheme at OU works in his favor and may go some ways in accounting for why he was drafted.  But there is still a learning curve.  There is not bench experience.  We have to see him play.  Again, the position belongs on the list.Oh, he'll be suspended alright.  The only question is when and for how long.  Even if the NFL's investigation is not complete by opening day, they may suspend him with pay anyway.  With the league's new-found sensitivity to violence against women (discharging a gun would certainly qualify as sufficiently threatening), figure on 3-4 games.  "Conduct detrimental" does not even require a criminal charge or plea.  The only thing working for him is he's such a low profile player his stupidity is barely a blip on the NFL's PR radar.Quarless is in his contract year.  He's a merely serviceable player in need of an upgrade.  Any viable alternative at all would result in him not being offered a contract after this season.  Rodgers could not bump him out of the starter's spot.  Then the team brought Gresham in for a visit.  I'd consider him squarely on the bubble pending a replacement.  Since the replacement is not on the roster currently, consider it a depth issue. Well, we've already discussed the issues associated with merely having Guion absent.  Even in a 3-4, there are essentially 4 starters to handle both 5- and 3-tech  D-Line is fairly unique in that a 3 down player is typically limited to 75% or less of the snaps so there's still some gas in the tank come the 4th. quarter.  Consequently a 5th. is needed to round out the rotation unless you've got three Mike Daniels on the roster, which the Packers clearly do not.With Guion suspended, there are 5 guys with NFL experience, mostly undistinguished, including Pennel with 171 snaps last season.  I find this last number interesting.  Before I looked it up, I would have guessed about 100, which I take to be testament to his general invisibility.  If Guion were not suspended, he'd not be on this team.  He'd be the #3 NT with no ability to play any of the other D-Line positions.Even without the suspensions, I judge this to be the Packers weakest starting/rotational position group.  If there were experienced depth on the roster, that would not be the case to start with.We're talking about depth, right?  3-wide is the "starting" alignment, just as nickel is the "starting" defensive alignment.  Adams is a starter.  Rodgers too in Quarless' absence, which may become permanent sooner rather than later.[/QUOTE]

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