It’s a good thing training camp isn’t a week old yet. If it were mid-August, then it would probably be time to panic. Panic about the guy the Green Bay Packers seem content to hand the starting center job, J.C. Tretter.
Tretter has been one of the few offensive linemen of note so far in camp. And you know our policy on offensive linemen — when you hear about them, it’s only because it’s negative.
While they’re essential to the success of the team, we should not be hearing about offensive linemen. They should be pushing, shoving, bleeding, slobbering and whatever else it is that they do in silence, unnoticed.
But J.C. Tretter is getting noticed. He’s getting noticed the same way all offensive linemen get noticed — by getting beat.
What’s even more alarming is that Tretter is getting dominated by fat ass B.J. Raji. Three or four years ago, that wouldn’t be of too much concern. But if you saw Raji and his fat ass play last year, then you know it’s a huge concern.
So now we ask two questions.
The Packers drafted a center this year — Corey Linsley. Considering Tretter missed most of last season because of a broken ankle AND that he’s never played center before, why isn’t Linsley getting a legitimate chance to compete for the starting center job?
Oh, that’s right. Because this is Green Bay. These things are predetermined before camp even opens.
And, did the Packers bone it again when they let Evan Dietrich-Smith leave via free agency?
We say again because the Packers have boned it numerous times with the center position in recent years. First, they let Scott Wells leave as a free agent without having a decent contingency plan. Then they signed Jeff Saturday to replace him. He ended up getting benched.
Then they decided to go with Dietrich-Smith, but they openly admitted that was a boner move when they let him sign with Tampa Bay this offseason for just over $3.5 million annually.
We’ll reserve judgment on Tretter for a bit, but we’ve been down this road before.
It’s not a good sign with the head coach admits you’ve looked like shit though.
“He needs every rep,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “I can’t tell you if there is someone in the locker room that’s prepared himself as much as he has, and he’ll continue to do so. It’s not going to look clean; our team isn’t clean. Let’s be honest with you, we’ve missed blocks, we’ve did some wrong things. That’s why you practice. Our fundamentals are critical, and that goes from the player to the group all the way through. But JC needs this work.”
Hey, at least he’s prepared himself to suck!
10 Comments
Well Monte according to some center is not an important position and the money was just to much for the Packers to resign EDS. You and some others (me included) are just being negative and worriers. Right now we just have to hope this is early camp jitters as there is no return for EDS. I for one hope Tretter or Linsley step up, and maybe BJ has turned the corner (although it must have a huge radius) and is a top 3 nose tackle.
Jesus, jump the gun
So our starting center is supposed to be a guy who never played center because he got injured early last year…only people behind him are rookies or out of position guys…Did I read that right? No John, it is time to panic.
he was beat while raji went around him that cant happen to centers in games cause theres 2players right next to you
Until some team gets the stupid idea to blitz a linebacker or safety up the middle. Or maybe overload the DL to the middle. I would be sure that a D coordinator would never try to take advantage of the weakest link on the O line. Again I want to be positive and this is probably just early camp jitters.
Not afraid to say i told you so. I thought eds was just fine at center, in fact, dont be surprised if hes even better this year.
Letting Scott Wells leave was the right move imo. He wanted more than be was worth and he was injured most of the time in st. Louis anyway. Good riddance.
July 31 and you’re dropping “I told you so already”? Wow.
He is effectively a rookie. Sure hope he develops a lot. The Center position is actually quite important, second perhaps to left tackle in my opinion.
The center position becomes even more critical than normal when you are in shotgun and run a hurry up offense a large percentage of plays.
The only bad move Thompson made this offseason was letting EDS go. EDS graded out as a top ten center last year. Surely a tackle from the powerhouse football program Cornell with zero NFL experience can play up to that level right? All the “this is going to be the best offensive line in McCarthy’s tenure” nonsense needs to stop. The O-Line allowed 44 sacks last year and that was with EDS. In fact when was the last time a GB O-Line allowed under 35 sacks? 2009? 2010? The O-Line in 2010 compared to the line in 2014 is pretty much Joe Montana to Rex Grossman. And that’s pretty bad since Sitton is the second best guard in the NFL and Lang is in the top 20.