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Packers counting on mix of veterans, youngsters to step in for injured receiver.
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5 Packers most impacted by Nelson’s loss
- Thread starter Da-news-now
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Right now while Nelson was a blow having 3 starting OL is a bigger issue... and no the "they would play if it was a regular season game" comments don't hold water. Lang has to go through protocol and Bak knee is now and I quote "in another procedure" AKA we hope like hell he heals or were screwed.
Sitton is just an Ankle but for him to get healthy means staying off the darn thing. WR is all the talk but an unhealthy line is going to be a much bigger issue.
Sitton is just an Ankle but for him to get healthy means staying off the darn thing. WR is all the talk but an unhealthy line is going to be a much bigger issue.
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Right now while Nelson was a blow having 3 starting OL is a bigger issue... and no the "they would play if it was a regular season game" comments don't hold water. Lang has to go through protocol and Bak knee is now and I quote "in another procedure" AKA we hope like hell he heals or were screwed.
Sitton is just an Ankle but for him to get healthy means staying off the darn thing. WR is all the talk but an unhealthy line is going to be a much bigger issue.
And Nelson's injury makes it even that much more of an issue than it would have been otherwise. There are going to be a lot of plays where Rodgers needs more time in the pocket than he ordinarily would, because his primary receiver is going to have a harder time getting open than Nelson would have had. He's going to have to wait longer for routes to develop, and do more checkdowns, but he won't have the luxury of sitting back and watching plays develop. He's going to just have to get rid of the ball, or run it himself. The running game may not be as reliable a fallback as it was last year, because Lacey doesn't have the wheels to get around the corner, and the holes may not be there this year.
McCarthy's going to need to get some work done on a few quick-out plays. The downfield passing game is going to be hurt if the line is thinned out that badly.
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I agree. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I've been saying it for years. TT does not value OL enough to keep proper depth at the position. Pre-season gets particularly tough because the o-line play deteriorates so badly when the back-ups are in that it becomes harder to evaluate your skill players. QBs having to run around practically from the moment the ball is snapped and RBs with no place to go. WRs running good routes but not getting to show they can make the catch because the QBs have no time.
The o-line accounts for 1/4 to 1/5th of your starters and that means you need to draft 1-2 of them every year. They don't need to be early picks, but those guys in Rds 3-5 like Linsley and BahkT are what you need to keep bringing in to maintain depth. I would gladly give up Thornton, Bradford and/or Hundley right now for 2-3 more competent offensive linemen.
The o-line accounts for 1/4 to 1/5th of your starters and that means you need to draft 1-2 of them every year. They don't need to be early picks, but those guys in Rds 3-5 like Linsley and BahkT are what you need to keep bringing in to maintain depth. I would gladly give up Thornton, Bradford and/or Hundley right now for 2-3 more competent offensive linemen.
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I don't disagree with you on the importance of the OL depth but to be fair, last years OL was the best in the league. It was slated to get Barclay back who by all accounts was a stellar back-up. Last year we had David Bakhtiari, Bryan Bulaga, Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, Corey Linsley, JC Tretter, Derek Sherrod, Lane Taylor. We were returning all the starters getting Barclay back and brought in a few others. By all accounts the line was not an issue.
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As long as the starters held up, I don't think anyone would disagree (although I still tend to think Bak is just OK, the accolades coming mostly from the situation in which he emerged). On the three backups you mention, Sherrod isn't worth discussing, and he looked every bit as good as the returning Barclay does. Tretter still has to see any real reaction, even if he was going to be the starting center last year (by default, remember). Taylor isn't even getting most of the talk this year, with a lot of 'who?' players competing. Just saying that this year was going to be one in which I held my breath every time the starting five wasn't on the field, and, although we're still a couple of weeks away from "count 'em" games, it's already happened.
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You can only carry so many offensive linemen though and no one thought is was weak enough to have to draft for it. We knew we were weak in the secondary, at linebacker and DL. The Hundley pick baffled me and not picking any OL may not have been the best move but it is really easy to second guess all this now with what is occurring.
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This staff likes to use versatility to safe roster spots on the OL. That's cool, especially for a deep team that cultivates gems as much as we do. But let's face it, we need a T who can actually play. There's plenty of depth inside, but only two guys who can get it done on the edge.