Kind of winging it here. I haven't done a lot of digging but these are glaring issues going into the season if certain things happen, or don't happen.
For openers, I don't think we have a solid crew at CB. I think we're going to get hurt by it if that doesn't change. I understand Alexander being gone but they need to find someone out there in free agency who can step up and be a solid contributor. It's probably our most glaring weakness on the team. My second concern is the defensive line. I just don't think we have the horses to play inside and be difference makers. If it was going to be there with the players we have now, we have it would have seen it last year. What we have is another year of relying on is Kenny Clark who turns 30 in I believe October. If he suffers any kind of an injury I don't count on Wyatt or any of the rest of that batch to push the center of the line back, and you can count on having to keep an inside linebacker right behind the tackle box to insure they can make run stops instead of letting them go for 10+ yards. Couple that with weak CBs and we're going to look at people blaming Hafely for poor decision making and the blame should really fall on those who failed to address these two needs as primary in the draft instead of adding two WRs so early in the draft.
On offense, if the Packers traded away any of the existing linemen presently on the roster and slated in the 2/3 deep in some spots, they're playing with fire. You need to maintain a quality line to keep Love from being injured again. Two injuries in the front line of this group could throw it all into chaos and that must be avoided. Love is not going to move forward without solid protection. As for trading Willis, I wouldn't do it unless the Packers got a draft pick at least in the 3rd round and we all know that's more than likely not likely to happen. You don't weaken a position without being able to see considerable gains from it. At this point, they've backed themselves in a corner where they might expect a fairly sold CB in trade for him because of the weakened CB corps. That's not good, because one of those WR picks could have brought us a top CB candidate out of college.
I keep hearing from so called "writers" how the Packers will probably trade Watson or Doubs because of the salary issue next year. Why? You're not going to get squat for Watson because nobody knows if he's even going to get back on the field and be productive, and potentially not play a down all of next year. Tell me what GMs in this league would give the Packers anything of value at this point? In fact, I think it's possible the Packers waive Watson off IR although highly unlikely. As for Doubs, they're going to see how it's going over the first handful of games and if they see what they want and need, they're going to negotiate a new deal with him for probably 3 years. At the bottom of that list, Heath is more than likely odd man out. Possibly even Hardman who would only be owed $150k. A $1 mill cut in cap space.
Our problem at depth is going to be the cap. If a guy who's scheduled to make (estimates here) $2.5 mill is only a little bit better than another who is scheduled to make $1.5 mill, expect the guy with the lower cap hit to stay. This is the problem with so many teams. Too much pay going to the front-line personnel and not enough to cover quality subs.
Anyhow, the biggest problem the Packers face this year in having a fairly decent year is the injury bug because they lack depth in key positions.
