How is your team doing so far in training camp? A couple teams have already played, but most are on their second week, with games this weekend.
My 49ers are getting hit with injuries. Starting NT Glenn Dorsey and primary backup RB Kendall Hunter are both done for the season, and a few others are facing lost time. Other than that there dooesnt seem to be a whole lot of interest for Niner fans beyond the new stadium.
Packers have lost their “sixth” offensive lineman, Don Barclay and hometown hero rookie WR Jared Abbrederis to ACL tears. Their seventh round WR pick, Jeff Janis, had a case of the shingles right before training camp. That must suck.
Sounds like the offense is beating up on the defense in practice. Not a surprise. With the new coverage rules, I’m expecting the Packers to be in a lot of 42-35 games this year.
Especially in the NFC North, where the Vikings were #1 and the Bears were #2 for the worst scoring defenses in the league last year and the Packers were #8. The Lions were the only NFC North that was even just average.
The roster battles to watch are at safety, D Line, TE, and #3 WR. At safety, they’ve converted Micah Hyde from CB to safety and he’s running with the ones along with Morgan Burnett; but they also drafted HaHa Clinton Dix in the first round and seemingly like Sean Richardson, who can’t stay healthy. Along the D Line, they’ve moved Raji to NT and he’ll likely be teamed with Mike Daniels, who’s been a nice surprise and Datone Jones, last year’s first round pick. They’ve also got a few draft picks, Jerel Worthy, Khyri Thornton, and Josh Boyd who could make an impact. At TE, the injury to Jermichael Finley seems to have ended his career as a Packer, so they’ll be relying on Andrew Quarless to be his average self, and hope a young guy (Richard Rodgers has supposedly looked good and maybe Bostick will take a step forward) steps in to be a playmaker. Jarrett Boykin and 2nd round pick Davante Adams are fighting for the #3 WR spot.
The biggest thing for the Packers is health, including getting players back from injury. The Packers were the most injured team in 2012, and third most injured team in 2013 (for the Packers, only suffering an average amount of injuries is a nice break. They did it in 2011 after being third worst in 2010). They’ll be getting first rounders Brian Bulaga, Derrick Sherrod, and Nick Perry back, as well as Casey Heyward and Jerel Worthy. If they can stay healthy (let’s not get our hopes up), I think they could be impact players.
I am looking forward to seeing if Davante Adams is as good as some of his college tape shows, and to see if Julius Peppers has anything left in the tank/can adjust to OLB, but I don’t think we’ll see much of either of those until the season actually starts.
Brady being held outof tonight’s opener. Even less reason to watch, not that I planned to.
Things we learned last night:
Ryan Mallett is not Tom Brady.
The Redskins’ defense might not be terrible, but they really only played about 2 series, maybe 3.
That’s about it.
One thing that caught my eye last night was Peyton Manning’s arm strength looked bad last night. He was winding up and stepping into throws just to hit a nine yard hitch route.
It’s likely just pre-season game 1 and it will build up more as he goes on, and he’s never had a rocket arm anyway, so it’s likely not going to be a big deal, but it was noticeable.
For he Bears, the biggest drama (on a team that generally likes to avoid that kind of stuff) is that Martellus Bennett was fined and suspended from the team “indefinitely” after slamming Kyle Fuller to the ground following a play in practice.
There’s no doubt that Bennett comes to play during actual games but it’s been a running joke on how he’s been dogging it in training camp. Evidently he lays on the ground long after the play is over and then moves slowly back to the huddle instead of hustling. That plus his attitude following the skirmish is likely the whole reason for the suspension and I imagine he will be back by week 1.
In the meantime, the Bears got some really good play out of Zack Miller at tight end. No not that Zack Miller, the other Zack Miller. He got 69 yards and 2 TDs on Friday against the Eagles. Here’s to hoping that his performance is more than just one of those preseason blips.
Brees didn’t play against the Rams, but the Saints did show an improved running game with Robinson and Ingram…who also appears to have learned his blocking assignments for a change.
For the Rams, Sam saw some action and did…ok. Nothing outstanding, but nothing horrible. He’s going to have to improve if he wants to make the team.
The 49ers experiment with Blaine Gabbert as backup may be ending soon, but damn have we got a RB for the future. If more teams ran as much as the Niners, Carlos Hyde would never made it out of the 1st Round.
OMG JOHNNY FOOTBAAAAAAALLLLLL!!! dies
Rex Grossman signed with the Browns https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/499185910567927809
it’s happening! Cleveland confirmed for super bowl champions
can’t wait to see Sexy Rexy throwing dragons downfield to Josh Gordon
Rex Grossman, aka “RG 3 and Out”?
Not good news for Hoyer.
Seems like Adam Schefter is tweeting a torn ACL every five minutes nowadays.
Gotta out-do last season.
Bengals defense is gonna be fierce with Geno “Stacks” Atkins back this season, along with Vontaze “Nut Tapper” Burfict roaming the field.
Hue Jackson is going to make the offense much more dynamic (and more simple) than stupid, too-cute-for-his-own-britches Jay Gruden ever did (and it’s laughable that he’s the HC of the Foreskins now). Gio Bernard, now teamed up with a downhill runner like Jeremy Hill are going to be a force, along with increased involvement of Tyler Eifert and Jermaine Gresham.
We will be Patriots v2.0 offense prior to murders and injuries.
Ted Thompson has now signed a big-time free agent and pulled off a trade in the same calendar year. We truly live in extraordinary times. Yep, Jerel Worthy was a bust, doubly so that the Packers actually traded up to get him. Hope he makes the Patriots final roster so we get a 7th rounder for the trouble.
A snoozer Saturday night turned into a pretty entertaining game in the 4th quarter (Giants-Colts).
The Giants’ 1st and 2nd teams looked just awful; they got dominated on every part of the field. The 3rd stringers made a ludicrous comeback in the last 10 minutes to win it. Glad I stayed up.
Apparently Jimmy Graham pissed off Sean Peyton by drawing penalties for dunking over the goalpost twice in the last game. Not a fan of the rule, but hope he gets that out of his system before the games count.
Once again confirming my beliefs:
If the NFL’s “emphasis” on enforcing illegal contact and defensive holding are called in the regular season like they have been in the preseason, I will be utterly disgusted.
The change they made after the 04? season after the Pats beat the Colts to illegal contact are already out of control. It’s extremely hard to cover receivers and the refs can just call a game-changing penalty whenever they want. It’s one of the worst rules/enforcement changes in NFL history. It should be rolled back.
But instead they’re doubling down, and they’re calling light, incidental contact at any point during the coverage as a penalty. They already called as many penalties for it during the first two games of preseason as they did all last season, and that’s already under relatively strict enforcement.
They’re going to kill most of what makes football fun to watch in their pursuit of 7000 yard passing seasons and arena league scores. I’m surprised this hasn’t generated more discussion because it’s huge and game breaking.