Mike Pennel — Kelly Hayes’ boy Mike Pennel — got the most extensive playing time of his Green Bay Packers career against the Chicago Bears last Sunday.
He didn’t exactly set the world on fire, as he was at least somewhat to blame for the fact that the Bears ran for a disgustingly hearty 254 yards. Nonetheless, the coaching staff appears to be on the verge of favoring Pennel over their other “nose tackle” Letroy Guion.
By the Journal Sentinel’s count, Pennel played 22 snaps to Guion’s 28 on Sunday. That’s a substantial shift towards a guy who’s only been active for one NFL game prior to week 4.
So the situation seems pretty clear. The Packers don’t love what Guion (6-4, 315), who is considerably smaller than Pennel (6-4, 332), brings to the table as a run stuffing nose tackle and they’re ready to give someone else a shot.
Now, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Guion isn’t all that great. This is a guy who got cut by the Minnesota Vikings in the offseason, after all. Great idea to anchor your run defense with some Vikings’ trash, Ted.
Guion has a whopping three tackles on the season. Pennel had two last week.
And you know these fat boys aren’t hustling downfield to tackle anyone. Their stops come at the line, so tackling stats are very indicative of whether someone is doing their job in this case (unlike with A.J. Hawk, who can jump on a pile after the whistle and get an assist).
We certainly don’t expect Pennel to come in and solve all of the Packers defensive issues. However, we’re pretty sure we’ve seen enough of Letroy Guion already.