Hey everyone, Nick Perry actually practiced for the first time in 2014 on Thursday!
Yes, I think we can all agree that deserves a round of applause.
Perry, who has never not been injured, was dealing with foot and knee injuries all offseason. He had taken part in nothing — not OTAs, not minicamp and not training camp, until yesterday.
The foot injury was a holdover from last season. It’s something he dealt with for the majority of 2013. It cost him five games and he played through it for 11 games. Most of that time, he was taking a backseat to Mike Neal. Whether that’s because of the injury or just because Neal was playing better is open for debate.
Perry played in only six games in 2012, after being selected in the first round of the draft.
So, as we said, the guy is always injured.
That’s one thing if it’s legitimate. Some guys just have bad luck. James Starks used to always be injured, but he rewrote that story by making it through the majority of the 2013 campaign unscathed, while averaging more than five yards per carry.
A period of being injury-prone followed by a period of staying healthy and kicking ass makes you an ass kicker. It makes people forget that they considered you injury-prone to begin with.
Nick Perry has not earned that distinction.
We’re starting to wonder just how legitimate his injuries have been.
The nerve, huh?
We wouldn’t be bringing this up if, A. Perry had done anything at all this offseason. Seriously, how can you legitimately be injured for seven months out of the year unless you blew out your knee? And, B. the coaches hadn’t been openly pointing out how Perry hasn’t been doing anything this offseason.
Both Mike McCarthy and linebackers coach Winston Moss specifically singled Perry out this offseason for not participating in drills.
It wasn’t, “Well, it’s too bad Nick Perry is injured” stuff. It was “Nick Perry needs to be on the field” and “Nick Perry hasn’t done shit” stuff.
Here’s Moss’ quote: “Nick Perry, in my book, has done absolutely zero.”
Here’s McCarthy’s:
“Obviously we’re in a nine-week program going on here in Year 4. To get all that work done, nothing changes. You have a season to get ready for. You have this much work. And to do it all in a nine-week period, and for a player to miss all of it, obviously it’s not a good situation to be in.
“I think any of the players who did not take advantage of this nine-week opportunity or due to injury is definitely something they’re going to have to work harder to catch up once training camp starts.”
Now, you wouldn’t say something like that about Jermichael Finley. You’d say, “Oh, that’s a medical situation. He’ll return when he’s healthy.”
But they would say it about Nick Perry, which makes you think of a whole bunch of possibilities. It makes you think the coaching staff believes Perry should have been on the field. It makes you think maybe Perry is working this injury thing a bit because, well, he’s lazy. It makes you wonder if Perry isn’t an out and out vagina. And most importantly, it makes you believe there’s a real good chance that we’ll be able to officially place the bust label on Perry this year because the Packers are going to discard him.
That last possibility is probably why Perry was talking himself up, on Thursday.
“I still think I have a bright future,” Perry said.
“I can do a whole lot. There’s flashes from the previous years, but I can bring a lot to the table, as well.”
In reality, we have no idea what Perry can do. He hasn’t been on the field enough to do it. He probably isn’t going to be on the field to do much this year either.
The Packers are currently using Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers as the outside linebackers on the No. 1 defense. Neal will be the first guy off the bench and there are a number of other guys — Child Warrior Andy Mulumba, Nate Palmer and Carl Bradford — who actually have been participating this offseason.
We’re not going to write Perry off just yet, but he certainly has ground to make up at this point. Frankly, the guy is probably better suited to playing defensive end in a 4-3 than he is playing outside linebacker in a 3-4.
He may actually be better off playing elsewhere and I don’t think you could say the Packers would miss him. Of course, that means the they wasted a first-round draft pick.
Child Warrior Andy Mulumba…..!
Good one …
On some other Packer blog sites it has been mentioned that folks who have contacts with the Packers training staff think Perry is very lazy, especially compared to guys like Neal. Perry has a lot of potential talent but doesn’t seem to want to get any better.
In his defense, I think the Packers maybe played him last year when they should not have. The guy can make plays. He was starting to look good, having 3 sacks and a couple forced fumbles in 2 games, then broke his foot. The Packers brought him back after only a few games and I think it was too soon. Now they say he is still suffering from the broken foot, yet they had played him with the same injury late last season. It doesn’t make sense.
A rare complaint from me….
Just wondering how good GB could be with a first round pick that’s actually a difference maker. Seems like Clay is the most recent one. Not bitching about Thompson…just sayin…
Agreed. This whole first round injury crapshoot is getting pretty old.
The 2nd rounds have almost made up for it though.
Hope Perry does go through season injury free. He does hold the edge better than Neal and has an ability to get sack fumbles. It would also give us a great group of outside linebackers.
If it does not work out we can blame this on those assholes in Chicago. The Bears took Shea McClellan a couple of spots ahead of us. McClellan would have been better as a linebacker but the Bears tried to make him an end instead of taking Perry who was a natural at end. We could have had McClellan and put him at his natural position, linebacker. Those Bears always do unnatural things. Of course I guess it looks like we did something similar.
The draft is a crapshoot. So he was a first round pick, if he sucks and is lazy cut him.
Let me guess. The same people who were certain that Mike Neal was a bust are now certain that Nick Perry is one.
Perry has made plays when healthy. No doubt this is a huge year for him.
Personally, I think he’s going to be on the field a ton.
You think he will be on the field a lot? Sorry, I just dont see it, barring injuries. You can pencil in CM3 and peppers as starters, and Neal and Perry as rotational guys. I doubt the guy is on the field for more than 35% of the snaps. Maybe on early downs because he is the best OLB besides CM3 against the run on the team.
35% of defensive snaps would constitute “a lot” in this defense. And you are also assuming that our other OLBs stay healthy, which is a near impossibility. Last season, every OLB we had dealt with injuries.
Except Peppers will also be playing with his hand in the dirt a decent bit, as well as ILB, in fact it’s likely Neal, Perry, Peppers, even Matthews, and perhaps Bradford-if he indeed makes the team-and Jones will be rotating around the field. Don’t be surprised to see a lot of sub-packages at any level of the D with the players we have tis year.
I don’t see how you can call Perry a vagina. Those things can take a pounding. Perry cannot.
^
Most intelligent observation ever made.