One of the biggest questions we have going into the first week of the season is how the Green Bay Packers defensive line is going to look.
This wouldn’t be a question if Mike Pennel wasn’t busy smoking dope and getting caught doing it. Pennel looked like a beast during the preseason, but unfortunately, he’ll sit the first four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
When you put him on a line with Mike Daniels and Letroy Guion, you’ve got yourself a nice starting front three.
We don’t know who’s going to start alongside Daniels and Guion in week 1, although conventional logic says it will be rookie Kenny Clark. That is the reason the Packers drafted him in the first round.
That’s no certainty, of course.
Clark is supposedly on track to play this week, but he was sidelined by a back injury since August 22. That means lack of reps, which is never a good thing for a rookie. Not only that, but Clark didn’t seem to make much of an impact when he was on the field.
If Clark ends up being the starter, it’s probably by default more than anything else. The Packers’ other options are another rookie — Dean Lowry — and a guy who spent all of last season on the practice squad — Christian Ringo.
If Clark is going to start showing us something, now would be a good time for that happen.
If that doesn’t come to pass, we fully expect the Packers defense to start the season in more unconventional fashion. They certainly have plenty of big-bodied outside linebackers, some of whom even have experience playing the defensive line.
We’re talking about Julius Peppers, Datone Jones and Nick Perry.
Dom Capers just might have to open up the defensive playbook to account for the Packers’ lack of depth on the defensive line. At least until Pennel returns.