1) Introduction: When the Green Bay Packers drafted C. J. Wilson in the seventh round last season, I immediately went searching for You Tube videos of him. I found some video that really impressed me, leading me to believe he could be as good as Mike Neal, who the Packers took in the second round. Of course, that was a stretch, but my point is, my expectations for Wilson were probably higher than most.
2) Profile:
Clifford James Wilson
Position: DE
Height: 6-4 Weight: 271 lbs.
Born: March 30, 1987 in Bellhaven, NC
College: East Carolina (school history) (Wilson college stats)
Drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 7th round (230th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft.
3) Expectations coming into the season for that player: As a seventh round draft pick, just making the roster would normally be exceeding expectations. Wilson, however, showed enough for the Packers to cut Jarius Wynn and keep Wilson on the active roster. And it sure was a good thing they did.
4) Player’s highlights/lowlights: C.J. Wilson got his first significant playing time when he was thrown into the fire of the Packers’ home game against the Vikings. With both Cullen Jenkins and Ryan Pickett injured and out of the game, the Packers were down to 3 healthy defensive linemen (the others being B. J. Raji and Jarius Wynn). C.J Wilson played like a veteran that day, recording 5 solo tackles and 4 assists. The playoff game against Atlanta, where he had 3 tackles, one assist and a sack was another highlight. As for lowlights, it was difficult coming up with specific examples, so we’ll go with the 5 straight games after the bye where he saw little or no action when the Packers picked up Howard Green.
5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: Wilson’s contributions were limited, but when called upon, he did an adequate job for a seventh round draft pick from a small college. He proved to be a bit more than just a warm body.
6) Player’s contributions during the 6-win end-of-season run: Wilson found some playing time down the stretch when Dom Capers mixed in a 4-man defensive front, mostly against strong running teams like the Giants Falcons and Steelers.
Season Report Card:
(B-) Level of expectations met during the season
(C) Contributions to team’s overall success.
(C) Contributions to team’s success during the playoff run (last 6 games)
Overall Grade for the year: C
——————
Follow Jersey Al:
Follow @JerseyAlGBP
Add to Circleson
Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
——————
Comments are closed.