Nick Perry Has a Bright Future, According to Nick Perry

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.