After rookie Jake Ryan replaced Nate Palmer for performance issues for the second straight game at inside linebacker, we figured the change would be permanent.
Palmer has been a glaring weak spot and Ryan, in his first extensive action, led the Packers in tackles (10) against Carolina.
Despite that and earning only one of five positive grades (+2.6) from Pro Football Focus among the Packers’ defensive players, the coaching staff won’t give Ryan the nod.
Here’s defensive coordinator Dom Capers.
“I thought Jake did some good things,” Capers said. “We’re going to have to look at what the Lions were doing, and we’ll try to decide what type of play time we’re going to have, but Jake’s a young guy that’s learning like all of our young guys.”
Capers leaves the door open, but clearly isn’t making any commitment to Ryan.
Here’s head coach Mike McCarthy.
“Just OK,” McCarthy said of Ryan’s performance. “He had some productivity, but it wasn’t as clean as he would like and as we like. I think he was kind of in line with a number of our performances.”
We would agree. Ryan didn’t do anything spectacular out there on Sunday, but he was an improvement over Palmer. Plus, he’s a rookie with a much higher upside than Palmer and he’s only going to get better the more he plays.
So let’s make the call already, hey boys?
Yea and that’s the problem. The Packers love going down in flames with guys they know cant play. They throw a guy like Palmer out there game after game knowing damn well he cant play. In some cases it works, it appears with Randall it will work out, but most likely it doesn’t so to that I say, why not play Ryan? What the hell do they have to lose? Why not say Jake is ready, they have thrown him no confidence. By the way I was not in favor of cutting Hawk simply because I wasn’t buying stock into Barrington just because he played physical in a few games. Should have kept Hawk for this year and drafted an ILB high last year, that’s how you do this shit, they totally shit the bed thinking Barrington and someone else could handle the load this year.
You are correct, Stan. TT loves to get playing time from his cheap pickups. Hawk over Barrington or Palmer, easily. I would have
bundled the 2,3,4 picks in 2014 and traded up
to get CJ Mosley. ILB problem solved. TT would
NEVER give 3 for one, though, even if it brought
a Super Bowl. His rigid rules about drafting, trading, spending are more important to him
than winning. THAT’S the fundamental problem.
The Packers are being run by an ideology of
parsimony, not pragmatism. Thompson needs to
be canned immediately.
Yea, they were talking similar shit about this on Bill Michaels Monday. They didn’t understand why Ted wont go out and get depth when he knows we are short on a position. He loves relying fully on his draft picks, but when they cant play or are not fully understanding the position yet, were totally fucked for depth on a particular group for the season. They were saying you know Roman Harper is starting for Carolina at safety, still plays pretty well. The Pack could have had him back there, could have had Charles Woodson back there still. How much better would a vet back there with Burnett and Dix be, no way in hell the communication problems would still be happening. I totally agreed about that, and they mentioned same thing with the RB group, Lacy and Starks are banged up, but they wont put in Alonzo Harris, guy is on the active roster, fully healthy, big back to help take the load off and they said this is where Belicheck is great. He uses everyone on the roster, he would have went through 6 backs by now if he had GBs issues with running the ball.
I am pretty excited about this kid. I think he’s our answer to MLB2 and MLB in our dime packages. He should be able to free up Clay more to rush.
What do they have to lose? They need to figure out if this kid can play, or if they need to go back to the drawing board next year. Not a big fan of leaving clay in the middle
Me either, clay isn’t a tackling machine. It would be nice to have a true MLB back there. I don’t mind him in the middle on our base 3-4 but he needs to rush more out of our nickel and dime packages instead of playing the middle of the field
I didn’t see anything on tape that warranted Palmer being taken out. He played fine. ILB wasn’t the problem in Carolina.
I think this was as simple as playing a bigger guy against the #1 rushing team in the NFL. If you start him, the Panthers could have spotted him and targeted him in the passing game. By slipping him in the 2nd quarter, the Panthers didn’t seem to notice.
Keeping Clay in the middle takes fuller advantage of his agility, which is his best trait. When he’s on the outside, teams can simply double him or run away from him, nullifying his impact.
The Panthers appeared to game plan offensively for Clay Matthews, as did the Broncos. That’s because he’s one of the best ILB in the league, and you don’t move him from that spot.
Obviously, letting him rush on passing downs makes sense. But the Packers need to keep moving him around, allowing him to rush from different spots, which makes it harder for the offense to concentrate on him.
The thing about inside linebackers is you are either instinctive or you’re not. Nate Palmer is not. Palmer may get more comfortable at some point but right now he looks lost and has admitted as much (in so many words). Jake Ryan is instinctive and has looked decent in his limited play. It’s a no brainer to start him at this point.
REALLY? STEVIE WONDER CAN SEE HE NEEDS TO BE THE STARTER