Looking at the Packers defense, there’s always a lot to be concerned about.
In the secondary, there’s some good safeties, but they’re a luxury, not the necessity that good corners are. Sure there’s a lot of potential at corner, especially with young guys like King, Randall, and Rollins. But King’s a rookie and Randall and Rollins were exhibits B and C for last years cornerback suck-o-rama. And House got cut from Jacksonville.
At linebacker, things aren’t much better. No one in the three-headed monster at ILB will ever resemble Ray Lewis… by the way they look so far, they won’t even resemble Desmond Bishop (not that they’re terrible, mind you). At OLB, CM3 and Perry are injuries waiting to happen and they are backed up by preseason wonder Jayrone Elliott and total-bust-looking Kyler Fackrell. Oh and Biegelmania, who’s out, looking to join the starters in getting the injury-prone label already.
Sure, the young corners could rebound from last year and the linebackers could stay healthy, but we were really counting on the defensive line to be a strength this year.
Led by top-flight bad#ss Mike Daniels, the group also has what looks like a big riser in Kenny Clark, who made some impressive plays late last year in limited snaps and looks to have had a huge offseason (the dude is young and still growing… and he’s already big). In free agency, the group gained solid rotational vet Ricky Jean Francois.
That’s a pretty good threesome, but you need more guys than that. And the Packers have… had it.
Start with Letroy Guion, who had outplayed his modest free agent deal and been a very important part of the line rotation for years. He’s stupid (stupider than we know about because Ted wouldn’t have waited as long as he did to cut him unless something else happened – something we don’t know about), so he’s gone. Then the team drafted Montravius Adams, who we’re high on, but he’s out.
Now things have gotten worse.
Dean Lowry, who had been looking like he also made a huge second year jump after flashing a lot late last year, may be missing some time. He bent his knee the wrong way last night against Washington and, as Zach Kruse shows, it looks like a pretty big boo-boo.
Oh, but he walked off on his own power.
Yup, so did Jordy.
At best, it looks like a mild hyperextension with a 2-4 week recovery time, but something could have easily snapped in there, making this a 6-12 month ordeal. Even in the best case, opening day against the Seattle running attack is in jeopardy.
The fact that no one is saying anything worries me. McCarthy said there’s most tests coming. When’s the last time you heard that and everything turned out well?
Dean was supposed to be a big part of the line. With Daniels and Clark, they would form what could become one of the best young three man fronts in the league, potentially dominant. Now, with depth already lagging after cutting Guion and losing Adams (who will be hard pressed to assimilate into the system in the regular season when all the installs are done and each week is just about game-planning), Lowry could be out, leaving RJF as the presumed starter with no depth to speak of.
Ugh.
Let’s pray for the best – get well, Dean!