Packers DT Justin Harrell has been a bust up to this point, and he has been oft-injured for most of his career to this point. Earlier in the off-season Justin Harrell was feeling great in Mini-Camps and OTA's and through the first week in Training Camp. Now, he's out once again with a back injury. I honestly feel like Justin Harrell could be a decent player if he was healthy. Obviously with him still being on the roster the Packers must feel highly of him. I would not be surprised if he ended up being cut sometime before the season starts. It has been reported that Justin Harrell is worried about his playing career. I am too. I think the guy could be decent, if not better, if he could just stay healthy – but he can not stay healthy.
QB Brian Brohm should be released already from the team. At first I felt that Brohm could come in and contribute if QB Aaron Rodgers could not turn out to be the QB the Packers thought he could be – however, Aaron Rodgers is that QB the Packers thought he would be and more. So the use for QB Brian Brohm is little to zero. Besides that, Brian Brohm has shown me nothing since last pre-season. I feel like he has no confidence in his own abilities and lacks the ability to see the field and read the defense. He lacks the arm strength and has little to no mobility (scrambling). I do feel that Brohm will be out of the NFL in about 5 years. In fact he has been hardly able to complete passes to his WR's. This is not good. What if Rodgers goes down and Flynn too? If that were to happen and Brohm was put in there, the Packers are in a world of hurt!
This young kid. RB Tyrell Sutton is an excellent runner. Hes small, strong, quick. He can see the field, find the gap and attack it hard and fast. He seems like your prototypical RB that you could throw into the game and get some positive yards. In the two pre-season games he's played in you can see his quickness and speed and his ability to see the field and just when you think the play is over as Sutton runs around inside a crowd he gains a few extra yards. In my view, the Packers need to keep this guy and get rid of Deshawn Wynn and Greg Lumpkin. Although I like Lumpkin but their can only be so many RB's on a single team. Unfortunately, I believe this Sutton kid gives the 'goodbye' to both Lumpkin and Wynn. This kid is really impressive.
LB Desmond Bishop is tearing it up in Green Bay. Hes been delivering big hits on running backs, intercepted 2 passes, forced a fumble, recovered a fumble, had (I think) 2 sacks, and probably 10 tackles and been all up in the backfield every time the Browns and Bills dropped back to pass the ball. Hes been disruptive, intense, and all over the field. A tremendous play making linebacker in the making in my book. I like this Bishop kid a lot. He is young, talented, intense, and hyped up. The perfect mentality for a linebacker and you can clearly see that with the way he is playing that Kevin Greene is their linebackers coach. Although I would not put that solely on Kevin Greene's coaching because I recall Bishop late last year coming to the team and beginning to play due to injury and he began playing well, making nice hits, being all over, showing his talent and ability. I liked him from the start.
Other Notes:
K Mason Crosby has been making plenty of kicks in practices but missed 2 long field goal attempts in the 1st preseason game. Made them in the 2nd game. Kind of worrisome.
The two FB's this year should be starting FB John Kuhn and rookie FB Quinn Johnson.
It looks like the Packers are going to be playing a lot of 2 TE sets this season. I have been seeing a lot of 2 TE sets so far in preseason. Mainly with Jermichael Finley and Donald Lee and both have been playing extremely well in the formation – blocking, and catching. Looks like Rodgers numbers will improve from last year's numbers.
WR's Donald Driver and Greg Jennings are playing very well and seem to be in good synchronization with QB Aaron Rodgers. 3rd WR James Jones seems to be playing quite well also. 4th WR Ruvell Martin has been pretty much a non-factor in this year's preseason. And 5th WR Jordy Nelson has been basically a non-factor as well. Not that both Nelson and Martin are bad it is just that niether guy has gotten the ball thrown to them a whole lot.
OLB Brady Poppinga has been playing very solid, intense football and has made some nice plays so far. He is definitely trying to win that other OLB job. But I think that job will probably go to Matthews if Matthews can get healthy and get in there and show what hes got. Although, if I were Capers and I had to make a choice right now and tomorrow was game day, week 1, I would go with Poppinga.
ILB AJ Hawk finally showed a little spark yesterday. He seemed to play up and more intensely than the previous game. He seemed to make better tackles (not many though). As far as Pass Coverage goes I have not seem much of Aaron Kampman or AJ Hawk yet in pass coverage so I can not yet make a judgement call on that. Although Kampman seems to be doing well at his OLB spot rushing the passer. I think he is starting to like it.
ILB Nick Barnett is saying via Twitter that he is hoping to see some action next weekend. I am guessing that he is starting to feel much better and is anxious to get in there and get some hitting in. He has been wearing his 'superman' glasses and growing out the 'fro' saying that once its unleashed (the fro) it can not be contained. I am guessing that he is referencing how he is going to perform this year. He has not had any hitting or contact since midway through last season. So I am sure he is just aching to get out there and 'lay the wood' on someone.
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