Green Bay Packers: The bloom begins in June
Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said it best this week as the team continued their organized team activities: No jobs will be won in June.
However, based on the word that seems to be coming out of Green Bay this week there are three major things developing:
• That there could actually be good news at the safety position and the potential that there will be several players pushing one another for playing time;
• That the tight end position is looking stronger each day with the workout emergence of draft choice Richard Rodgers and the work ethic of undrafted tight end Colt Lyerla; and
• The center position could indeed be locked up early by second-year player J.C. Tretter – even though he hasn’t played a single down in the NFL. But we won’t tell rookie Corey Linsley …
Will center Corey Linsley push J.C. Tretter for the starting position? Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Kruse over at Cheeseheadtv.com wrote yesterday that he’s cautiously optimistic about all these factors as the coaches and players get to know one another during the very early going. But if what Kruse is saying comes to fruition, the Packers may have clearly taken the steps necessary to fill the gaping holes that dragged the team down to mediocrity last season.
Throw in the fact that the Packers are surely to have a logjam of studs at running back and a wide receiver corps that Aaron Rodgers thinks could be one of the best the teams has had in years, this could indeed be the makings of a special group.
Each year, NFL teams transform into something completely different from the season before. Long gone are the days when players stay with a team their entire career. We have been living in the era of the free agent for years and we’ve seen how the game and how the teams continue to change and evolve. We’ve seen teams go from worst to first many times and we’ve seen teams seeded last in the Playoff chase win Super Bowls – the Packers included in that bunch.
But as we slide through the month of May toward July and the start of training camp, we can start to get excited about players like safety Sean Richardson who showed only a glimpse of who he could be late last season; we can only hope that center J.C. Tretter and Corey Linsley might give the Packers the option of having two players who could start at that position; and we can continue to see significant depth develop across the entire team. Lord knows that if there’s a team that needs depth it’s the Packers.
Will the emergence of Tretter and the competition of Linsley allow us to forget that the team has had four different starters at the center position over the course of the past four years?
So, what about the tight end position?
Will the addition of Rodgers and Lyerla help us finally forget about Jermichael Finley, his drama and his huge salary?
Will having DuJuan Harris contributing once again in the offensive backfield give the Packers a true trifecta with Harris, Eddie Lacy and James Starks? And if that is indeed the case, what will happen with second-year player Johnathan Franklin?
So many questions, and so much to look forward to as the position battles develop come July and August.
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We will be watching Micah Hyde, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Sean Richardson as they work to add skill and production to the back end of the Packers defense; we will be watching as J.C. Tretter and rookie Corey Linsley take to the competition for center with the end result being depth and consistency; we will be watching the tight end position – Andrew Quarless is penciled in as the starter, but what about Rodgers and Lyerla? And where will Brandon Bostick, Ryan Taylor and Jake Stoneburner fit in?
The stage has been set for the training camp battles, and if one thing is for certain, McCarthy will have some very difficult decisions to make as the roster cutdowns approach during and at the end of training camp.
Predicting the 53-man roster will be difficult.
I guess that’s why McCarthy and Thompson get the big bucks.
Stay tuned …