We talked about it earlier this week. How Casey Hayward was handed a starting cornerback job and has done nothing with that gift. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers have three rookie cornerbacks who have all been making their share of plays.
So, might as well replace Hayward, who can’t tackle and seems to have lost his ball hawkishness.
Nope.
“He’s my starter,” Packers cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt said of Hayward. “So I’m fine with him.”
Apparently, the Packers coaches haven’t seen enough bad from Hayward yet.
“I think Casey can be a really, really good player, and I think he’s going to show it,” Whitt said. “I could be wrong, but he’s going to have to prove me wrong.”
Now, we’re not surprised by this at all.
This is how the Packers operate under Mike McCarthy. Rarely does a rookie start from week 1, regardless of how good he looks or how good he might be.
Two prime examples are Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Clay Matthews.
Clinton-Dix didn’t start until the seventh game of his rookie season. Matthews didn’t start until the fourth game of his.
That makes two things clear. The Packers value what veterans bring — steadiness, reliability, assignment sure — regardless of whether those guys have tons of raw talent or not. They also don’t want any rookies coming in and thinking they’re bigger or better than the team.
So you can go ahead and sit your ass on the bench for a while.
Perhaps not fair, but it’s worked fine in the past. We’re sure the Packers can get by with Hayward playing mediocre defense on the outside for a few games.
We’d place a wager that one of the rookies — Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins or LaDarius Gunter — replaces Hayward as a starter before midseason though.