Surviving Sunday: News, Notes and Analysis from Packers Preseason

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football
Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

If you missed the Packer’s preseason game on Friday Night, good for you! It was about as ugly a display of football as we’ve seen around here for a while.

Luckily, it was the only the first preseason game.  Realistically, when talking about anything that happened in this game, one must start with, “It was only the first preseason game, but…”

So that’s what I’ll do.

It was only the first preseason game, but, the secondary was just awful.

The depth at cornerback we’ve all been talking about might be a mirage. One thing I’ve learned over the last five years, those of us that follow the Packers close enough to know about all 90 players on the training camp roster tend to overvalue the guys on the backend of the roster. We all read articles about this guy or that guy who might be the “unheralded diamond in the rough,” that we tend to convince ourselves that they are better than they really are.  We especially see it every year with the final round of cuts as we try to predict the roster and practice squads. Every year there are players put on the practice squad that we all figured would get snapped up by another team. And you know what, it hardly ever happens. So when it comes to Davon House, Micah Hyde, James Nixon, Loyce Means, Brandon Smith, David Fulton, Chaz Powell and Chris Banjo, they have yet to show they are as good as their press clippings make them out to be.

It was only the first preseason game, but, it became perfectly clear why the Packers felt they needed to bring in another quarterback. Graham Harrell does not have the tools to be anything more than what he’s been, a below-average quarterback who still looks like the game is too fast for him. BJ Coleman, who has the tools, has not made the jump we kept reading about in his second year, at least during game action. Pperhaps in practice he has looked good, but in real game action so far, he has been shockingly bad. I had high hopes for Coleman when the Packers drafted him, and from what I’ve seen so far, he seems to have regressed. Some of his passes were so off the mark, you were left wondering who he was throwing to. Perhaps he was betrayed by a WR running the wrong pattern at times, but overall, he was putrid.

It was only the first preseason game, but, David Bakhtiari did not look out of place at left tackle for the Packers. While he didn’t have to go up against John Abraham in that game, whomever the Cardinals threw out there got nowhere near the Packers quarterbacks. Bakhtiari showed good feet, always staying centered in front of his man and used his hands very well, not letting anyone get into his body. Josh Sitton, playing next to him, said he didn’t miss one assignment, either.

It was only the first preseason game, but, Johnny Jolly was better than you might have expected. While not nearly back to his 2009 form, Jolly, who has been on a rep count, was very noticeable. He moved very well along the line and pulled a 360 degree spin move that landed him at Drew Stanton’s feet, just barely missing a sack. The numbers are not in his favor on the DL, but if he keeps improving, he’s going to make it difficult for the Packers to cut him.

It was only the first preseason game, but, Johnathan Franklin does not look confident running between the tackles. Once you get him out in space, with a toss or a screen pass, he can make people miss, but inside, I don’t think he’s able to read the play yet. I think that will improve with time, but it might take a good year for him to adapt to how fast things happen out there. But if Eddie Lacy is the real deal as “Mr. Inside”, the Packers can play to Franklin’s strength as “Mr. Outside” for now. I’d say that’s a pretty good combination.

Packers News, Notes and Links

Who had a good night and who had a bad night? Brian Carriveau gives you his “chips report” at CheeseheadTV and Jason Hirschorn picks the ‘Winners and Losers” at Acme Packing Company.

Some gems from Mike McCarthy’s post-film review press conference are discussed by Paul Imig at FoxSportsWisconsin.com.

Kelly Hodgson-Kline applies the packers 2013 theme of Protection, Connection and Reflection to Friday Night’s game and reminds us the Packers are still 0-0.

Jay over at PocketDoppler.com makes some bold predictions after Preseason game 1.

Mike Vandermeuse at PackersNews.com says Don Barclay helped his chances of winning the right tackle job with a good performance against the Cardinals.

Bill Huber of Packer report says it’s no time to panic after a woeful offensive performance.

 

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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.

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20 thoughts on “Surviving Sunday: News, Notes and Analysis from Packers Preseason

  1. Agree on all items. I was at the game and Jolly just looked so much better than the other DL. He will make the roster or be on PS while he gets his condition up.

    Hyde & Bush also stood out. The secondary was full of rookies making mistakes but Hyde was a tackler.

    Bakhtiari is legit. He might be better than Bulaga. Maybe the surgeon discovers that the ACL doesn’t need to surgery and the big guy comes back at RT.

    1. Practice squad is not an option for Jolly. Now, if he should suddenly develp an “injury,” he could be stashed on the PUP for 6 games…

      EDIT: meant to write recallable IR, not P.U.P.. he could be put on IR and designated as the one player that would be eligible to come back this season.

      1. Not sure Jolly is eligible for the regular season PUP since he’s been practicing regardless if he get “injured”. I don’t know if you were referring to the new IR designated to return option for one player – aina hey.

  2. im thinking coleman may end up needing a spring of keep him out of way again, then put on PS 1 more yr. coach speaks to high of his potential to give up yet.Im actually wondering if harris ends up on pup then see what shakes out around Nov with Rb crew. By Nov someone will end up hrt he cna replace–in mean time he has missed way too much training camp for (basically) a rookie (plus).Also this kid walker makes me think of Wes Welker-small little guy that just seems to eat up catches, get open and bounce right up.

    1. Wright benefits from playing the role designed for Cobb. Catch a lot of shorter passes, then he’s in the open fied a little. Good PS candidate and might have a roster spot IF, big IF, they go w/ 6 WR. It would help if he had any return ability, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

  3. Hyde is raw, but I loved the tackling. House just got beat repeatedly in man- to- man coverage.

  4. Jolly is long past PS –he cant be on–i do wonder if league may allow some kinda exemption for few weeks but doubt it–this is very unusual,dont think it has happened before where player is back on team after few yrs right as main training camp starts–other few instances (vick burress ) teams had whole offseasons to get ready. PSBakhariari and Barcley remind me of clifton and Tauch (tauch was better run than pass) and clffy was better pass than run. Would be Awesome if we had our new bookends for yrs to come–what to do with ulaga when he comes back LOL.

      1. Actually u hit like on my Fb page a few months ago.Im also Packattack on most of the old(times4,packerchatters,packerwire ect) packer sites and even going back to the old AOL days of chat rooms.We have club for coming up on almost 20yrs–used to have to send out over 500email and had about 1000’s regular before NFL ticket happened and place we met changed ownership–now we have about 100’ish regualr show up.

    1. Sherrod and Bulaga should be our current version of Clifton and Tauscher. THat would be ideal. Injuries to both are preventing that… Lets not go overboard on Bahktiari and Barclay just yet. Remember they should be backups right now, and would were it not for injuries to Bulaga and Sherrod.

  5. I payed very close attention to Bakhtiari. I thought he did a excellent job, has really good feet. While he may be a better candidate for RT, he’ll be a decent LT and with time and a year in NFL weight room and experience, he might be hard for Bulaga to replace. I thought Franklin would be one of those that picks up steam as he learns the offense and speed of game. Franklin will be able to run inside but for now give him plays to use his speed to go outside and in the passing game, That’s where he’ll help earlier in season. Franklin didn’t get any snaps with the #1 offensive line either did he? Maybe House had one of those games but he looked as bad on defense as Harrell did on offense. My concern is depth on this team, especially on the offensive line. There’s been so much turnover since SB year, very young team when your QB at 28 or 29 is one of oldest, other than Pickett. I just hope McCarthy isn’t so predictable this season and actually adds so twists. We’ll find out in week one about any twists. Get healthy guys and stay healthy, whooping the 49ers would go a long way in helping this teams confidence.

    1. When you take what would be the starting OT off the roster, of course the OL depth is going be concerning. Imagine if Bulaga and Sherrod were entrenched as starters at OT and Tretter were the backup at the interior OL. How would the depth would look then?

      Packers have 3 guys that should be among the top 7 OL on the shelf! Do that to SF and their depth would be a concern too!

  6. “So when it comes to Davon House, Micah Hyde, James Nixon, Loyce Means, Brandon Smith, David Fulton, Chaz Powell and Chris Banjo, they have yet to show they are as good as their press clippings make them out to be”

    All but two of these guys will have their faces on milk cartons in a couple weeks. They have no press clippings.

    1. Chris Banjo had a absolutely wonderful game. He would be a great asset to the Packers Organization!!

  7. I payed very close attention to Bakhtiari. I thought he did a excellent job, has really good feet. While he may be a better candidate for RT, he’ll be a decent LT and with time and a year in NFL weight room and experience, he might be hard for Bulaga to replace. I thought Franklin would be one of those that picks up steam as he learns the offense and speed of game. Franklin will be able to run inside but for now give him plays to use his speed to go outside and in the passing game, That’s where he’ll help earlier in season. Franklin didn’t get any snaps with the #1 offensive line either did he? Maybe House had one of those games but he looked as bad on defense as Harrell did on offense. My concern is depth on this team, especially on the offensive line. There’s been so much turnover since SB year, very young team when your QB at 28 or 29 is one of oldest, other than Pickett. I just hope McCarthy isn’t so predictable this season and actually adds some twists. We’ll find out in week one about any twists. Get healthy guys and stay healthy, whooping the 49ers would go a long way in helping this teams confidence.

  8. Still Sunday the 11th here, so,

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GREEN BAY PACKERS!
    Founded on August 11, 1919.

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