No, the Green Bay Packers haven’t re-signed former first-round bust [intlink id=”100″ type=”category”]Justin Harrell[/intlink], but the plight of defensive end [intlink id=”1033″ type=”category”]Mike Neal[/intlink] is becoming eerily reminiscent of Harrell’s.
That’s not a good thing, considering Harrell was an injury waiting to happen.
Neal underwent knee surgery this week and is expected to miss a significant amount of time, according to [intlink id=”67″ type=”category”]Mike McCarthy[/intlink]. Although McCarthy said the Packers won’t put Neal on injured reserve, this will be the second of Neal’s two seasons in which he’s missed significant time due to injury.
Neal played only two games in 2010 before going on injured reserve with a shoulder ailment.
“We’re just used to it,” defensive end Ryan Pickett said when asked about Neal’s injury. “We’re used to that adversity. We have to have guys picking up the slack. They’ll have to pick up the slack until he comes back.”
Unfortunately, it’s something we’re getting used to too — Neal not playing.
It’s too early to label Neal injury-prone, but Harrell, who had constant back injuries among other ailments, played more in his rookie season than Neal did.
Harrell was on the field for 13 total games in 2007 and 2008. He missed the entire 2009 season before playing in one game in 2010 before going on injured reserve.
We’d be surprised if “significant time” meant Neal plays in more than eight games this season. That will give him 10 games in his first two NFL seasons, three less than The Walking Wound, himself played in his first two seasons.
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Ths is terriable news…we NEED Mike Neal badly…there are mud holes in Denver that are deeper than Green Bay’s defensive line…
Yikes. What type of surgery did he have specifically?
D line is fine. They only use two down linemen in the nickel with Picket and Raji. Not that Neal wouldn’t help with depth, but one guy doesn’t make a team. We learned that last year. My guess is cartilage, otherwise a ligament would be season-ending.
Jarius Wynn and CJ Wilson are both decent players. The Packers will be fine there.
Harrell had back problems. That is a quick ticket out of football. Neal has had flukish injuries to his shoulder and knee. He should be back.
This a blow especially before a game with a run heavy team. 2 d-line men was no-where near enough to get pressure on brees, so the pack need to get 3 men in the line at all times. Its times like these when jenkins will be missed
It seems like the fatter and more out of thew shape these guys are…the better (sometimes). This man needs to stop working out like he’s training for Mr. Olympia!
When the Packers announced Neals injury, MM said day to day, Harrell said he was fine, after 3-4 weeks, i posted in nfl.com, that I felt Neal was going to have surgery, 2 days later, he had surgery. @ nursratchett…The Packers wont disclose Neals injury in detail, which is b s. They dont want to admit another mistake. This article states its 2 early to label Neal injury prone, i disagree, 3 injurys so far, 2 serious. TT doesnt have any luck, drafting Def ends, go the way of Ryan Pickett, sign someone that plays. @Shawn…Cj and Wynn, are Back ups, on their best day. Harrell had back problems, because he was lazy, fat, and never stayed in shape, and overdid it lifting. Now Vic So’to hurt his back, and is out ( I loved this guys motor) he was lifting too much, hope its not serious we dont need to go through this shit again…btw, mark my words, Neal will be going on IR…I think his career is toast, he had 3 surgerys in college, some people can hide their head in the sand, i cant.