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Packers: Not your typical roster
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
[email protected]
GREEN BAY -- Down in the bowels of Lambeau Field -- in an area not part of the daily stadium tours the team conducts -- are the position meeting rooms. They are located just off the Green Bay Packers ' locker room and furnished with comfy theater-style seats, wipe-away boards and a video projector.
Right now, the defensive line meeting room is standing room only.
OK, not quite. But close.
"It is kind of crowded, ' ' defensive tackle Corey Williams admitted Sunday after general manager Ted Thompson kept 11 defensive linemen on the 53-man roster. "Everybody 's not going to be able to sit in the comfortable seats. The young guys, we make them pull up chairs and sit on the side, by the wall. ' '
There 's no such problem in the tight end meeting room, where Bubba Franks, Donald Lee and position coach Ben McAdoo had the place all to themselves until rookie seventh-round pick Clark Harris was added to the practice squad Sunday.
"Bubba and I talked about it. We 're like, `Man, there 's just the two of us, so we 're going to have to have each other 's back, ' ' ' Lee said.
Yes, with 11 defensive linemen and 10 defensive backs and only two quarterbacks, two tight ends and five linebackers, the Packers ' roster entering next Sunday 's regular-season opener against Philadelphia at Lambeau Field isn 't exactly how Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy envisioned the 53-man crew breaking down entering camp.
But, as Thompson likes to say, it is what it is.
"(The roster) is a little bit out of balance than a normal, ' ' Thompson admitted. "When you 're sitting there in the summertime and in the spring, you 're thinking, `We 'll probably carry this many at (this) position, this many here. ' Ours is a little skewed.
"We wanted to make sure we tried our best to keep our best 53, and that might mean the roster gets skewed a little bit. ' '
Not included in those 53 was safety Marquand Manuel, who lost his starting job to Atari Bigby midway through camp and signed with the Carolina Panthers Sunday after the Packers released him Saturday.
"I think (Manuel 's release) is more of a reflection of the emergence of Atari Bigby and a couple of young guys that we have high hopes for that we think are going to be very good players, ' ' Thompson said. "We were very honest with Marquand all along, especially when it started looking like it was going to go the other way. Did we expect a little more last year? Yeah, but it wasn 't because he wasn 't trying. It just didn 't work out. ' '
One move the Packers made to balance out the roster was claiming ex-Pittsburgh Steelers fullback John Kuhn on waivers. Kuhn played nine games with the Steelers in 2006 after spending 2005 on Pittsburgh 's practice squad. He takes the roster spot of halfback Noah Herron, who was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury.
Kuhn was the second player added to the backfield in as many days, after Thompson traded what is believed to be a seventh-round pick to the New York Giants for halfback Ryan Grant. Thompson said Sunday that the pick is not a conditional pick.
Thompson said he did try to make other trades -- including dealing kicker Dave Rayner, who lost his competition with rookie sixth-round pick Mason Crosby -- but couldn 't get anything done. Thompson was especially surprised that there wasn 't more interest in the team 's 11 defensive linemen.
"(There was) some early, ' ' Thompson said, adding that he expects to keep all 11 on the roster all season. "I don 't know that we had anybody call us (Saturday) about that, which was a little surprising, but I had kind of made up my mind. I kind of wanted to keep this group together. ' '
Packers: Not your typical roster
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
[email protected]
GREEN BAY -- Down in the bowels of Lambeau Field -- in an area not part of the daily stadium tours the team conducts -- are the position meeting rooms. They are located just off the Green Bay Packers ' locker room and furnished with comfy theater-style seats, wipe-away boards and a video projector.
Right now, the defensive line meeting room is standing room only.
OK, not quite. But close.
"It is kind of crowded, ' ' defensive tackle Corey Williams admitted Sunday after general manager Ted Thompson kept 11 defensive linemen on the 53-man roster. "Everybody 's not going to be able to sit in the comfortable seats. The young guys, we make them pull up chairs and sit on the side, by the wall. ' '
There 's no such problem in the tight end meeting room, where Bubba Franks, Donald Lee and position coach Ben McAdoo had the place all to themselves until rookie seventh-round pick Clark Harris was added to the practice squad Sunday.
"Bubba and I talked about it. We 're like, `Man, there 's just the two of us, so we 're going to have to have each other 's back, ' ' ' Lee said.
Yes, with 11 defensive linemen and 10 defensive backs and only two quarterbacks, two tight ends and five linebackers, the Packers ' roster entering next Sunday 's regular-season opener against Philadelphia at Lambeau Field isn 't exactly how Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy envisioned the 53-man crew breaking down entering camp.
But, as Thompson likes to say, it is what it is.
"(The roster) is a little bit out of balance than a normal, ' ' Thompson admitted. "When you 're sitting there in the summertime and in the spring, you 're thinking, `We 'll probably carry this many at (this) position, this many here. ' Ours is a little skewed.
"We wanted to make sure we tried our best to keep our best 53, and that might mean the roster gets skewed a little bit. ' '
Not included in those 53 was safety Marquand Manuel, who lost his starting job to Atari Bigby midway through camp and signed with the Carolina Panthers Sunday after the Packers released him Saturday.
"I think (Manuel 's release) is more of a reflection of the emergence of Atari Bigby and a couple of young guys that we have high hopes for that we think are going to be very good players, ' ' Thompson said. "We were very honest with Marquand all along, especially when it started looking like it was going to go the other way. Did we expect a little more last year? Yeah, but it wasn 't because he wasn 't trying. It just didn 't work out. ' '
One move the Packers made to balance out the roster was claiming ex-Pittsburgh Steelers fullback John Kuhn on waivers. Kuhn played nine games with the Steelers in 2006 after spending 2005 on Pittsburgh 's practice squad. He takes the roster spot of halfback Noah Herron, who was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury.
Kuhn was the second player added to the backfield in as many days, after Thompson traded what is believed to be a seventh-round pick to the New York Giants for halfback Ryan Grant. Thompson said Sunday that the pick is not a conditional pick.
Thompson said he did try to make other trades -- including dealing kicker Dave Rayner, who lost his competition with rookie sixth-round pick Mason Crosby -- but couldn 't get anything done. Thompson was especially surprised that there wasn 't more interest in the team 's 11 defensive linemen.
"(There was) some early, ' ' Thompson said, adding that he expects to keep all 11 on the roster all season. "I don 't know that we had anybody call us (Saturday) about that, which was a little surprising, but I had kind of made up my mind. I kind of wanted to keep this group together. ' '