The Green Bay Packers have officially listed outside linebacker Nick Perry as questionable for this weekend’s showdown with the New England Patriots.
Perry missed last week’s game with Minnesota because of a shoulder injury. He hasn’t practiced since suffering the injury back on Nov. 16, but he was listed as limited on Friday.
That means if the Packers actually had a practice on Friday, they assume he would have participated in some fashion.
“Nick Perry’s making progress,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “Really from yesterday to today, he’s improving. So we’ll see what he’s able to do in the rehab with the trainers and the medical staff, and we’ll have more information tomorrow. But he’s getting better.”
Without Perry, who had been starting at outside linebacker since the Packers moved Clay Matthews inside, the defense was mediocre. That’s not to say Perry’s absence was the only reason for the downturn, because there was plenty of ho hum play going on all over the place last week.
However, the Packers are clearly more effective when Matthews is inside. With Perry out, he was moved back to outside linebacker. Sam Barrington took Matthews’ place inside.
With an offense the caliber of the Patriots’ coming to town, we’d feel a lot better if the defense had that flexibility of playing Matthews inside again.