The Green Bay Packers finally made it official with Ahmad Brooks.
The team signed Brooks on Sunday. In order to make room for him on the roster, the Packers put backup offensive lineman Don Barclay on injured reserve.
Barclay hurt his ankle in the Packers’ first preseason game against Philadelphia. He hasn’t been on the field since.
We expected the injury wouldn’t be a long-term one. It likely still isn’t, but the Packers can always designate Barclay for return from IR. All teams get two such designations beginning this year.
In terms of the backup offensive line, which was garbage all preseason, the Packers certainly kept enough bodies there. With Barclay on IR, the team still has nine offensive linemen. The backups are Kyle Murphy, Jason Spriggs, Lucas Patrick and Justin McCray.
As for Brooks, it will be interesting to see if he can contribute early, considering he’ll get one week of practice with the team before his first game.
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Pretty sad when Barclay is the key to the depth of your OL. The line would be looking so much better with Tretter on the roster but the frugal GM decided this was a better approach to protecting your HOF QB. Should be interesting when the inevitable injuries happen to the OL and OLB this season.
What else is sad is not spending money on 0 line depth. Instead 5 million is spent on an aging olb, simply because Ted can’t draft and “develop” olb’s to save his life. For my money, i’m prioritizing, i’m making damn sure i have someone (in case of injury) at least competent enough to protect the one man on the team who’s play is the difference between a winning or losing season.
I guess you can have 20 low level cheap back up lineman, but i’d rather have 1 that can play well if needed.
Well, i guess if Bakhtiari ever goes down, we have Spriggs, if he doesn’t work out and he won’t, we always have Murphy, if he doesn’t work out, they can try musical chairs with Evans and/or Bulaga. If that doesn’t work they always have Barclay, Patrick and McCray. and if that doesn’t work, they always have Tretter(oops)……
….it won’t matter, because by then Rodgers will already have been put on IR. Meaning, season was over anyway.
I wonder, given the fact the team went running back heavy, light on WRs compared to past years. and investment the team made in tight ends, that MM finally will make good on his promise that to run the ball more with play action passing being a point of emphasis. I actually think this defense could possibly be worse than last year, and it would be in the packers best interest to try and keep the defense off the field and play ball control. Just a thought, threadshit in political memes. Oh wait…, we don’t have fun stuff like that here :(.
I still think this offense has the potential to be prolific, if the line can stay healthy and pass block equal to last season. I do think we see more dump off’s and screen passes replacing run plays. I’m super anxious to see what Bennett brings to the table, he’s a wildcard. I got nervous watching him completely whiff on a easy block the 1st game, and miss badly on another. I just didn’t see him do anything special in pre-season. As far as Kendricks, the only thing i remember is a couple short passes caught and a simple catch dropped. we’ll see what happens.
As far as the defense… i don’t expect a lot, my attitude is, just be better than last season.
I don’t really put much stock in pre-season, except for the one’s against one’s. Just glad the real games are about to begin.
I’m all or nothing with this team this season….until the circus leaves town.
The only thing i do these days when McCarthy says they need to run more, and how important the running game is, i roll my eyes, it’s the same old, same old, year after year. McCarthy used to try to get in his predetermined amount of run plays in a game, regardless of the game situation. That burned him more than once and he learned from it.
So, fast forward…Ted drafts 3 running backs, and we have have Montgomery who is basically a rookie running back himself. Were going to get serious about the running game. So what does McCarthy do, get a good look at what he’s got with his new backs in pre-season? Not exactly….apparently trying to showcase Hundley as trade bait was more important than getting reps to the rookie rb class. When Hundley was pulled at halftime of pre-season game 4, then…..it was time to showcase the running backs. Little too late tiger.
So McCarthy can go on and on and on paying lip service to the importance of a running game, but two things always get in the way. The o-lines inability to run block, and the head coaches inability to make a commitment to the running game. I know, with Rodgers were a passing team, i get that. But stop with the lip service already,
“The o-lines inability to run block” –> yes, this is the key problem I see with the run. In one of the recent seasons I saw a stat measuring how far from the line the RBs faced contact. And ours were being hit the earliest. That speaks entirely of the OL and not of the RBs. So, I don’t advocate running it more just because. Actually, with this OL, we run more, we punt more, unless it is when the defense is truly sold out to pass defend.