Packer Problems?

[Zero2Cool]

I would like anyone and everyone to post concerns about the Packers team.

Management, Coaching, Players, Scheme or whatever it may be. No serious depth required.

 

[porky88]

Offensive Line - They're young but early on it's going to struggle. If you think GB is going to win in Week 1 you might be wearing Green and Gold Glasses because Chicago's D-Line is going to rip apart our O-Line.

Run Stopping - Adding Pickett, Manuel, Woodson, Hawk, and Taylor should be nice but are they going to make that big of a difference?

Running Game - Gado seems to be taking onto the new offensive slowly. Green and Davenport are out. While it's a nice backfield, I expect early on struggles.

Brett Favre - 29 INT's is no laughing matter. Favre is no longer the QB that can single handely win you a game. He needs to manage the game and let the playmakers to they're thing.

Someone step up on offense - Someone other than Driver and Favre on offense needs to emerge. I really like Greg Jennings to come into a zone later on in the year.

Coaching - 1st time offensive coordinator. 1st time defensive coordinator. 1st time Head Coach.

I expect a rough start but a strong finish. GB has a favorable schedule in the end playing games against the Jets, Lions, and 49ers. Should be able to take them. I still see anywhere's from 6-10 at the very worse to 9-7 at the very best. If we go 8-8 like I have them (I picked the games on the schedule) this year will be a very solid season for MM, and with a young team things would be looking up.

 

[Lare]

Wow, where do I start? How about at the top?

Offense. Let's face it, we have four legitimate NFL players on offense, Favre, Driver, Clifton & Tauscher. Granted, Green would be in that group also if healthy, but we have no idea if he can ever come back from the injury he has. Henderson is an aging warrior, Franks is solid but nothing opposing teams have to game plan around. That's it, the rest are "maybe's", "could be's" and "hopefully will's". You can cover up for a lack of elite players at the skill positions like RB & WR if you have a great OL, you can cover up for the lack of a great OL if you have good RBs and WRs. But with question marks all around you're looking at a season like last year.

Coaching. Not a lot of success in this group, although everyone has to start somewhere. A HC who will be our QB coach and OC, an OC who will be our DL coach. A QB coach and OL coach we'll never hear about. A ST coach who is way past the age of retirement. A DC who is riding on the coattails of his previous boss, a DB coach who was a disaster the last time he was here. Let's put it this way, if this group is successful here it will be the first time in their careers.

Special Teams. The bad news is we have no established kicker, punter, holder, kick returner or punt returner yet. The good news is our long snapper is back.

Defense. A lot of emphasis here in the offseason but questionable if it'll produce results. Manuel is coming off of an injury and wasn't even a starter for his last team, Pickett was an underachiever, Woodson has been injured much of the last few years and Allen was released by his last team. The additions through the draft should help but it's questionable if it'll be this year.

Favre. Brett will be Brett, but I still haven't heard a real rousing, enthusiastic comment from him yet about playing this year. According to the latest article he didn't even start working out until a month ago and is still struggling to learn the offense. Sounds to me like someone who is coming back to have some fun and get paid $10 million for doing it, not someone who's committed to going all out for victory.

Depth. Well all everyone can talk about is the great job TT is doing drafting, but I'm hard pressed to see where that is paying any dividends yet. Rodgers is apparently still struggling, several of last year's class are coming off of injury and others are starting by default. Collins and Hawk will be starting for sure this year and Colledge & Spitz seem probable. That three of these are rookies this year says a lot about the draftees from last year (Coston, White, Poppinga, Campbell, etc.).

To me, one of the biggest factors in this team's success this year will be how they start the season. If they come out and get some victories under their belt they could ride that momentum to a fair season. But if they struggle early like everyone expects them to, we could be looking at drafting Brady Quinn next year. And that may not be a bad thing.

 

[NDPackerFan]

This falls into the "whatever it may be" category....

I think ticket prices are way too high.

I think the Packers need some ******** clad supermodel-like cheerleaders.

I think St. Vince should be in the Packer Fan Hall of Fame (maybe he already is, but I didn't think so).

No serious depth required...I think that about covers it.

 

[arrowgargantuan]

O line, O line, O line...

the entire season is basically riding on it.

 

[NDPackerFan]

Guards...I feel pretty d@mn good going into the season with Clifton, Tauscher, and Wells at center as I'm sure most of you do. If the guard play can keep some of those DT out of the backfield, it could be a good year.

 

[4packgirl]

please for the cripes sakes, let our O-line gel quickly & gel well.

and whoever said somebody besides driver & favre need to step up on offense - i say AMEN!! last season, i think i said that innumberable times during each game!!

we need some strong leadership from somebody besides favre - i hope MM will end up being a cowher-type & put a fire in their bellies!!

 

[NDPackerFan]

Exactly...I used to love watching Holmgren on the sidelines when the offense would false start, illegal shift, or whatever...

Holmgren would start by scowling, turning beat red, and then his neck would start puffing out like his head was going to explode. He was a far cry from watching Sherman chew on that frickin' pen all game long with the deer in the headlights look.

Anyway, my point is that I believe MM will bring some fire to the sideline and hopefully get that in our players as well.

 

[Since69]

Something not mentioned yet, but that bothers me a great deal, is the growing perception that a player can just whine his way out of Green Bay.

How TT handles Harris' contract talks will say alot about the future of this franchise...

Personally, I think TT should hold firm - no new contract and no trade. If Harris doesn't like it, he can sit. I don't have anything against Al (he's actually one of my favorite Packers) but TT really, really needs to draw the line here or we'll soon see all our talented players vanish like rats off a sinking ship.

 

[SuperRat]

Unhappy players, Guards, Running game. Favre would have done nowhere near as bad last year is he had a good running game. It is key. The turnovers of Favre were largely because of no running game. He must not throw the ball 40+ times a game. The defense was a big factor in the suckage last year as well, but I feel that has been addressed as well as it could be as this point. If there is no running game, there is no season. I'm confident that unhappy players won't be too much of an issue when the season actually starts but if Harris holds out then that is big.

 

[4thand26]

Harris. If he holds out, I believe GB is dead. Harris and Woodson at CB could be a devistating combo.

 

[SuperRat]

Harris would be a setback but it wouldn't be that bad. It would be like last year with Woodson instead of Harris at #1 CB and Carroll at #2 again. It would be a big drop down, but it isn't like Carroll hasn't had to cover #2 WRs before. Carroll isn't that bad and hopefully will improve. Now if Harris had held out last year that would of gotten very ugly.

 

[packerfan4ever]

i think we will hyave a good o-line green will be back fergason is a bust but we have other talent in that area,we need the running game to open up and i like how gado and heron made some of that happen on their own last season,our d-line will be good harris swhould get paid for what he does he's been there and made things happen,i guess he wouldnt complain if we didnt give big bucks to a guy who may be injury **** so he does have a beef

 

[4thand26]

Harris would be a setback but it wouldn't be that bad. It would be like last year with Woodson instead of Harris at #1 CB and Carroll at #2 again. It would be a big drop down, but it isn't like Carroll hasn't had to cover #2 WRs before. Carroll isn't that bad and hopefully will improve. Now if Harris had held out last year that would of gotten very ugly.

I just think that the combo of Harris and Woodson will go a VERY long way this year.

 

[SuperRat]

Yeah Harris and Woodson have the potential to be huge. But it wouldn't be absolutely devastating to lose Harris because we do have a player with experience at the number 2 spot. I don't think Harris will miss any time anyway.

 

[Anubis]

I would like to be optimistic, however...

O-Line:

Blew last year and not much has improved this year. Granted there was very little we could do in the FA or draft, but that only means we can expect more of the same. I really hope that MM is able to work some miracle on it.

Kicker:

We don't have one. Period. Thanks TT!

Wideouts:

We have Driver. While Gardner could "break out" this year and Jennings could become the next T.O., this is still a major concern. As it stands, the only proven receiver we have is Driver, and the other 31 teams in the league know it.

Running Backs:

I think this is less worrisome than our wideout situation, but with both Green and Davenport coming off serious injuries and Gado (who was also injured) having a hard time with the new offense, it is a concern.

Holdouts:

First Walker, now Harris. I personally thing the Harris thing is a bit blown out of proportion, but I can see his point. TT should spend money on the guys who have earned it, and cut the ones that have not. End of story.

TT:

While countless threads have been started tearing down the job he has done so far, I will say that I like the direction the team is headed under his leadership. HOWEVER, IMO he blew it in a number of places. The kicker situation, lack of FA moves to improve the team (read IMPROVE, not maintaining status quo) and letting Jim Bates go are all concens about his leadership. Time will tell if he is a genius or a failure.

I still think our D is vastly improved from two years ago, and as long as Harris shows up for camp, it will only continue to get better. We now have a solid LB core and excellent secondary. Let's see if we can improve the pass rush now. I still think with our new D and Favre at the helm on offense, we could still overcome many of these concerns and make a run for the NFC North.

GO PACK!!!

Robert C. Hedley

 

[IndiPack]

Individual player attitudes, that's my concern.

 

[digsthepack]

I do not know how TT could have done anything differently with the kicker situation. Longwell went to a dome to chase the Pro HOF....as did Vinatieri. It is not as though he did not offer worthy deals for both....same with Sharper last year....left for little more money and showed himself to be the prima donna many always thought he was.

That said, it may be hard to fill Longwell's shoes...but that is the situation for better than half the league.

The guard situation is an obvious area of concern...although I like what I hear/see about our young talent there.

The health, or lack thereof, of our RBs is troubling. We will have to wait well into camp to see if Dooks and AG still can perform.

 

[NDPackerFan]

I hope Longwell gets turf toe on his first kickoff in Minny and misses the rest of the year.

He'll go on to blame the manufacturer of the kicking tee he used. :wink:

 

[Zero2Cool]

I hope Longwell gets turf toe on his first kickoff in Minny and misses the rest of the year.

He'll go on to blame the manufacturer of the kicking tee he used. :wink:

Nah, he'll blame the shoe saying it didn't 'hold right'.

 

[DePack]

Hard to tell digs.....there were conflicting stories about Vinatieri. I thought he said in one article that the Packers never made him an offer. That was so long ago I may be mistaken.

Either way....I don't care. You can find a kicker anywhere. The biggest difference between Vinatieri and some of these other guys is that he got chances to kick clutch field goals. Most other kickers never get a chance to kick a Super Bowl winning kick. I'm glad TT didn't spend a ton of money on a kicker. I'd rather him spend it on a football player.

 

[NDPackerFan]

Hard to tell digs.....there were conflicting stories about Vinatieri. I thought he said in one article that the Packers never made him an offer. That was so long ago I may be mistaken.

Either way....I don't care. You can find a kicker anywhere. The biggest difference between Vinatieri and some of these other guys is that he got chances to kick clutch field goals. Most other kickers never get a chance to kick a Super Bowl winning kick. I'm glad TT didn't spend a ton of money on a kicker. I'd rather him spend it on a football player.

DePack,

I'll be curious to see if you still feel that way if Cundiff misses 3 game-winners this year and the Pack end up 7-9 instead of 10-6 and a playoff berth.

I'm not saying what the Packers record will be but my point is that there is a huge difference in some of these kickers - Vinatieri is better than most more than just because he's been given an opportunity to kick some big field goals.

 

[DePack]

Hard to tell digs.....there were conflicting stories about Vinatieri. I thought he said in one article that the Packers never made him an offer. That was so long ago I may be mistaken.

Either way....I don't care. You can find a kicker anywhere. The biggest difference between Vinatieri and some of these other guys is that he got chances to kick clutch field goals. Most other kickers never get a chance to kick a Super Bowl winning kick. I'm glad TT didn't spend a ton of money on a kicker. I'd rather him spend it on a football player.

DePack,

I'll be curious to see if you still feel that way if Cundiff misses 3 game-winners this year and the Pack end up 7-9 instead of 10-6 and a playoff berth.

I'm not saying what the Packers record will be but my point is that there is a huge difference in some of these kickers - Vinatieri is better than most more than just because he's been given an opportunity to kick some big field goals.

Fire him and get another. Who's to say Vainatieri would have made them. Do you rmember Vanderjagt last year or Anderson with the queens a few years ago. Kicker's are a friggin' crapshoot. You hold your breath everytime one attempts a fieldgoal.

 

[bozz_2006]

that's true. like any other position in the league (disregarding freaks like Favre) the biggest difference between the average players and the elite players is related to the mental part of the game, not the physical. The difference in skills is so negligible, it is only the tough minded player that makes an impact on the game. we will see how tough minded Cundiff is.... i'll hold my breath.