Packers: Positives, negatives from Week 11 vs. Seahawks

Positives and negatives from the Green Bay Packers’ Week 11 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

The Packers still have yet to beat a team quarterbacked by even an above-average player. They are going nowhere fast, and need to make significant changes.

Here are some positives and negatives from the loss:

Positive: Aaron Jones

It took Mike McCarthy long enough, but the offense is simply better with Aaron Jones on the field. It was quite inexcusable for McCarthy to give the starting job to Jamaal Williams for as long as he did.

Jones is the better runner, pass protector, and receiver. The Packers have failed miserably in the draft in recent years, but Jones finally looks like a legitimate hit.

The Packers should still be encouraged by Jamaal Williams’ ability to complement Jones in the backfield.

Ted Thompson drafted Jones, Williams and Devante Mays to be the type of combination at the running back position that he was shooting for when he drafted both Eddie Lacy and Jonathan Franklin in 2013.

Negative: Nick Perry

The Packers would be wise to cut Nick Perry after June 1 in the offseason. Doing so would save them $11 million against the cap.

Perry has been a non-existent player in the front seven for years now, and is only becoming more and more injury prone and inconsistent. Green Bay should let both Clay Matthews and Nick Perry walk out the door after this season.

The Packers strangely did not address the edge rusher position this past offseason, and with Matthews a free agent and Perry among the league’s worst outside linebackers, the team must overhaul the position.

With two first-round picks in their back pocket, the Packers could potentially double down at the position, even with one of them being towards the end of the round given how well the Saints have played this season.

Positive: Robert Tonyan

With three aging tight ends, the Packers need to look to the future to find a tight end they can stash into their depth chart going forward. Undrafted out of Indiana State, Tonyan hauled in his first career reception for a brilliant 54-yard touchdown from Aaron Rodgers against the Seahawks.

Brian Gutekunst has quite a challenge on his hands when it comes to finding out a way to somehow build up this roster into true contention status.

Tonyan may be the team’s fourth-string tight end, but he is the only player at the position that the Packers can hope to have once the careers of Jimmy Graham, Marcedes Lewis, and Lance Kendricks are over with.

Tonyan has potential as a jump ball receiver, and in Mike McCarthy’s non-existent scheme, the Packers should try to feature Tonyan in certain 50-50 situations.

Negative: Injuries

The Packers were already pretty beat up before their matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. In that game, they lost Jimmy Graham, Mike Daniels, Bashaud Breeland, Raven Greene, and others.

They seem to be among the most beat up teams in the NFL year after year, and this season is no exception. At a time when it appears that the team is not responding to its head coach, and the best the team can hope for is a wild-card berth, injuries are the last thing this team needs.

The Packers simply have to figure out a way to find more durable players for their roster. Whether it is a problem with their strength and conditioning or otherwise, it is simply ridiculous that a team suffers this many injuries year in and year out. It’s up to team management to figure out a way to help solve this issue.

Positive: JK Scott

JK Scott appears to be the answer to the age old question: Will the Packers ever have a good punter?

Tim Masthay was never more than an average punter, and Jacob Schum was equally disappointing. Justin Vogel had some good moments out of Miami, but the Packers were wise to prioritize Scott.

Scott has already become one of the better punters in the NFL. The Packers have never been good at pinning their opponents deep in their own territory and routinely lose the field position battle, but Scott is helping slowly change that. The Packers may have found their punter of the future.

Negative: Rest of special teams

The Packers fired Shawn Slocum only to replace him with the equally incompetent Ron Zook. They are so putrid in kick coverage that it is an absolute embarrassment that Mike McCarthy hasn’t taken steps to help improve that phase of the game.

McCarthy can provide nothing on the defensive side of the ball, and apparently has even less to give on special teams.

The Packers will never be able to compete with the elite teams of the NFC unless they can get their defense and special teams up to snuff with the rest of the league.

Right now, it looks like the same old Packers yet again. Not only does Mike McCarthy need to go, but Ron Zook should be shown the door immediately.