It’s almost amazing that the Green Bay Packers can’t even start training camp healthy.
But these are the Green Bay Packers. If injuries don’t happen today, they’ll happen tomorrow.
The Packers are starting training camp with six players on the physically unable to perform list. The biggest name on that list is receiver Jordy Nelson.
Nelson missed all of 2015 with a torn ACL, but has been ahead of his recovery schedule all along. Nelson seemed certain he’d be ready for training camp, but the Packers obviously disagreed.
Joining him as a no-go are tight end Jared Cook, linebacker Sam Barrington, guard T.J. Lang, center Corey Linsley and wide receiver Ty Montgomery.
Cook and Montgomery aren’t terribly surprising.
Cook, the Packers’ one significant free agent addition, underwent foot surgery in May or June. Montgomery missed most of his rookie season with a misdiagnosed ankle injury.
It’s entirely possible we won’t see Montgomery ever again.
Barrington broke his foot and missed all of 2015, minus a single game. His absence early on may allow rookie Blake Martinez to take his job.
Lang had shoulder surgery and Linsley is a mystery.
We’re not worried about either offensive lineman missing regular season time. Nor are we worried about Nelson or Cook.
While we’re not particularly worried about Barrington, he should be worried about retaining a starting job.
As for Montgomery, well, we’ll actually believe he’ll play again when we see him on the field in a regular season game.
Unlike the regular season, players can be removed from the PUP at any time during the preseason. The catch is they become ineligible for the regular season PUP — which would require them to miss the first six games — if they take part in a single practice.
Few surprises here. The Packers are the Kings of Caution. Ironically, it doesn’t seem to help.
My only concern here is Jared Cook. The guy signs a free agent deal and then has surgery? Wonderful. At least the deal being one season suggests he’ll need to take the field at some point.
It would be nice if they would actually say what was wrong with Montgomery. Did they amputate his leg or what? Honestly, he could be the odd man out in all the speculation with who the WRs will be.
We haven’t heard anything about Montgomery which is usually a really bad sign, like we didn’t hear much about Derrek Sherrod until his family came out and said his injury was far worse than we had heard. And he never played again. This smells like the Derrek Sherrod situation.
Like I said before, the Packers are betting the farm on Jordy Nelson being healthy. This is a huge risk because Nelson is 31 and now it looks like maybe Nelson wasn’t ‘ready to go’ like he claimed late last season. If Nelson goes down, the Packers passing offense will be just as bad as it was last season and I think there’s a better than 50/50 chance Nelson is done or will be only a small contributor.
The Packers messed up by not taking Allen Robinson (1400 yards, 14 TDs in 2015) when they took Davante Adams. They messed up this off season by not drafting a high round receiver.
I do think they relied heavily on Nelson, although not as much as Finley in 2010. I don’t think Jordy was the sole reason the offense stunk last season, I think it was more coincidental, at least I hope it was. Jordy being hurt contributed to the offense sucking, but probably the biggest contribution was the change in offensive philosophy.
Giving Clements play calling duties as the knee jerk reaction from the loss to the Seahawks in the NFC championship game. Tom Clements offensive philosophies and the plays he was calling throughout his brief tenure as play caller had much bearing on the offense. Remember, everything they did last year starting with training camp was predicated on Clements as the play caller.
Whatever trust issues there were with reluctance to play Janis/Abbrederis, even after Montogomery was hurt and Adams dropping everything thrown his way. No dedicated receivers coach. The fiasco with the running game, aside from Lacy being “hefty”, and whatever the hell they were doing with the musical chairs offensive line week to week towards the end of the season. Add Bubba Franks 2.0 (Richard Rodgers) into that mix. To say the Packers were a giant cluster fuck on offense last season would be an understatement.
Then McCarthy finally blew all that up toward the end of the season. Somewhat similar to the 2010 season after Finley got hurt, the offense really took a dump then as well. The dumpster fire that was the Packer offense in 2015 has to be an anomaly. But if Nelson can’t go or is ineffective, and they suck as bad this year, then one has to truly wonder about the offensive “genius” that is one Mike McCarthy. 11 years of learning on the job is just about enough.
Man. Great point after great point.
Whats going on with Corey Linsley?
It shouldn’t be understated that the Center-Quarterback exchange is the most important part of starting any successful offensive play. Mess that up and it doesn’t matter what X’s and O’s were about to be implemented.
Familiarization between those two parties is paramount.