Green Bay Packers fans suffer rough Tuesday

by | Oct 5, 2010 | 2010 season, 2010 Trades

The Green Bay Packers escaped Sunday afternoon with a tightly contested win over Detroit. It’s hard to win in the NFL and the Pack did, so despite the closer-than-expected score, it was a good day for the green and gold. The weekend ended even better for Green Bay fans when the New York Giants exposed Chicago on Sunday Night Football.

It’s been downhill since.

Tuesday opened with the news that safety Morgan Burnett had torn his ACL and would miss the rest of the season. This was a pretty good-sized blow for a secondary already missing Al Harris.

Still, the secondary has been pretty good this season. The Packers are seventh in the league in pass defense through four weeks, giving up 185 yards per game. And Atari Bigby will be back eventually, so Burnett’s loss alone won’t kill Green Bay’s chances to compete for a Super Bowl.

But the news got worse.

A few hours later news leaked that the Buffalo Bills had traded Marshawn Lynch. To Seattle. For a fourth round pick next year and a conditional pick in 2012. Really? Ted Thompson wouldn’t cough up a fourth round pick to improve a run game that, so far, has looked anemic since Ryan Grant was shelved after a week one leg injury?

The Packers are averaging 94.5 yards per game through the first quarter of the season, 22nd in the league. The team averages 3.9 yards-per-carry (tied for 19th) and 24 attempts per game (21st). They have four rushing touchdowns, which ties them for fourth in the league, but so far Brandon Jackson and John Kuhn are far from proving they can carry the load they’ve been asked to take over since Grant went down.

(more…)

Seahawks run game transformed through draft and trades

by | Apr 26, 2010 | 2010 Trades, NFL Draft

Seattle finished 26th in the league last year in rushing, averaging just 97.9 yards per game. They were tied for 25th with a 4.0 yard per carry average and they were tied for 27th with just seven rushing touchdowns.

The NFL is a passing league but the Seahawks’ shortcomings on the ground had to be at least part of the reason why the team finished 25th in the league in scoring with just 280 points.

The Seahawks’ problems in the run game can’t be completely blamed on Julius Jones (leading rusher with 663 yards and a 3.7 yard per carry average. Future likely Hall of Famer Walter Jones missed the season. Matt Hasselbeck missed two games and was certainly not healthy all year. But Jones is hardly inspiring as a team’s top running back option. He’s more typically the type of guy coaches are always looking to replace in the starting lineup (witness Dallas and Marion Barber III when Jones was still there).

(more…)

McNabb to Redskins … interesting

by | Apr 4, 2010 | 2010 Trades, NFL Random Thoughts

The trade that sends Donovan McNabb to Washington will certainly be an interesting addition to the transactions sections of newspapers Monday morning. But does the move make Washington substantially better?

McNabb is probably a top 10 or so quarterback in the NFL, sure. But Washington went 4-12 last year not because Jason Campbell played poorly … well, maybe in part because Campbell played poorly.

But there was much more to it. First, Clinton Portis got hurt and missed half the season – and when he was healthy he appeared to be showing his age anyway.

Second, the Redskins offensive line was terrible – and that was before decade-long mainstay Chris Samuels suffered a career-ending neck injury.

Finally, the defense was no top-notch unit for the most part and head coach Jim Zorn was a lame duck from day two or three.

The Redskins did address the coaching situation by bringing in Mike Shanahan. The Portis situation … well, the Redskins have brought in Larry Johnson and Willie Parker, two veterans older than Portis who also looked to be declining in skills over the last season or two. So to say it has been addressed could be arguably accurate but to say it’s been addressed well is a question that won’t be answered for several months.

And to date the Redskins have done nothing of note to address the offensive line situation. So whether the Redskins roll with McNabb, Campbell, Joe Theismann or Sonny Jurgensen, the quarterback at this point will most likely be running for his life. And they’ve traded their second round pick this year in the deal to get McNabb.

I do think Washington will be better in 2010 just due to the better coaching staff. And McNabb likely is an upgrade over Campbell.

But I think it’s going to take more than what has gone on so far during this offseason to put the Redskins in a position to challenge for a playoff spot anytime in the near future.