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Green Bay Packers
Columnists: Brian Maafi
Offseason Review
The Green Bay Packers have had a crazy
offseason to say the least. It started out slow and quite not much news,
not many free agent interests. They fired defensive coordinator Ed Donatell
because of the defenses breakdowns during the season and playoffs, they
also fired Tight Ends coach Jeff Jagodzinski, Assistant offensive line
coach Joe Phillbin replaced Jagodzinski as Tight Ends Coach and Bob Slowik
replaced Donatell. They only had one big free agent, Chad Clifton so he
dominated most of the offseason talk for the first few weeks or so for
Packer fans. A lot of fans wondered if he would stay a Packer, would he
leave for big money? Would the Packers over pay for him? Would he get
franchised and sit out the whole year without a contract? or would he
get the transition tag? Before Packer fans found out what was going to
happen with Clifton they signed Steve Morley a offensive tackle who was
the top pick in the CFL draft one years ago who has great size at 6’7
335 he was signed for insurance for Clifton and also just to give the
packers depth along the offensive line and he will probably end up at
left guard, he is pretty athletic but does not have the feet for left
tackle in the NFL, he may battle with Tauscher for the left guard spot
of Wahle isn’t retained. Well the answers came early on. He was
given the franchise tag at the beginning of free agency. So now the questions
were, would he resign? would the team trade his rights for a draft pick?
or would a team be willing to give up a 1st and a 3rd round draft pick
for him? well those questions were soon after answered as well. Then March
3rd came and Packer fans were delighted Clifton had resigned for six-year,
$32.4 million deal, including an $11 million signing bonus, so all packer
fans let out a collective sigh of relief because they had their left tackle
back and the team didn’t over pay for him. Now that Cliffy was resigned
what were packer fans to talk about? free agency, the only problem with
that is the packers now didn’t have much cap room so they didn’t
show interest in any big names and only had a few players in for visits
which included Billy Volek, William Bartee, Mark Roman, Toby Gowin, and
restricted free agent Bryce Fisher. The Packers only signed one free agent
in the offseason on March 22nd they signed Mark Roman to a three year
deal. Roman is a player that fits the packers very well, he’s a
safety that can also play corner back and has very good coverage skills
for a safety and that was one of the packers weakness’ on defense
last year, beyond McKenzie, Sharper and Harris the packers coverage wasn’t
very good, especially at strong safety with Edwards for about half the
season and Anderson for the second half. In free agency the packers lost
Antuan Edwards and Josh Bidwell to Miami and Tampa Bay respectively. Edwards
wasn’t much of a loss since he had been pretty much a bust since
he was drafted, he’s battled inconsistency and injury his whole
career, he’s a corner back safety tweener who is not physical enough
for a safety and doesn’t have the cover skills for cornerback. Bidwell
was a loss though because he was Green Bays only punter and had a solid
year, the team actually offered him a bigger signing bonus than Tampa
but Bidwell chose Tampa where he can punt in better weather in hopes of
cashing in when he becomes a free agent in ’06. During all this
in late March Eric Crouch decided to come back to football for a third
time. He has speed and talent but will he be able to turn that into production?
he is being tried as a safety and also getting snaps as a punt returner.
The Pack also resigned Michael Hawthorne in late March to a two year deal
while he hoped on cashing in on free agency, he didn’t find the
interest or money he wanted so he decided to resign with Green Bay who
was the only team showing real interest in retaining the versatile defensive
back. He can play both cornerback and safety but somewhat like Edwards
is a little bit of a tweener, he doesn’t have great speed or quickness
but is 6’3 with long arms. There was also good news coming out about
the Packer rookies who ended up on the IR last year, James Lee is over
the pinched nerve in his back and has dropped some weight and gotten stronger,
and has rededicated himself this offseason. Chris Johnson one of the fastest
cornerbacks in the draft looked really good in pre-season and looked to
have the dime spot locked up until his hurt his knee and ended up on IR,
he still hasn’t been medically cleared to play yet but is getting
there and should give the team some more speed in the secondary. Carl
Ford who looked to have the #4 receiver spot locked up ended up spraining
his MCL late in the preseason and the prognosis was 10 weeks and Sherman
decided he couldn’t wait that long so he put Ford on the IR. Ford
was pretty much ready to play by week 11 or so, so he just worked hard
to gain weight and get stronger in the offseason and also studied the
playbook, he looks to have added 10 pounds of muscle this offseason which
should only help him this season and has a very good shot at landing the
#4 spot this year, he will also get a look at punt returner in training
camp. Also in late March the Packers started talks with the Browns about
acquiring Tim Couch the former #1 overall pick in ’99, with Favre
entering the twilight of his career the packers are looking for a future
replacement to him and Couch has a lot of talent my only problem with
him is he seems to have a problem with pressure and he is a little old
to be the ‘heir’ to Favre since Favre will probably play at
least two more seasons and Couch would be under immense pressure being
Favres replacement and I feel he would crack under the pressure, with
that being said I think he would be a good back up for Favre but I just
wouldn’t want him replacing Favre. Then in early April it was discovered
that Mike McKenzie desired a trade and didn’t want to come back
to the team. He said(through his agent) that it was a number of things
one was that he felt he was under paid with all the cornerbacks in free
agency getting big deals that he felt he was better than he thought he
deserved to get paid the same, the second reason was the packers passing
assistant defensive back’s coach Lionel Washington over for the
open defensive backs coach job vacated by Slowik who is now the defensive
coordinator, instead Sherman hired former Detroit defensive coordinator
Kurt Schottenheimer. He also didn’t really like former defensive
coordinator Ed Donatell’s defense and felt that switching Donatell
for Slowik was just a facial change and nothing was really going to change
with the defensive system. He has said he would rather retire than to
play for the packers again. Sherman has attempted to bridge the gap but
McKenzie seems set on his plan as of right now things have not changed
and some teams have contacted Green Bay about McKenzie but so far it seems
Green Bay is set on standing their ground with McKenzie who has three
years left on his contract. Then the Packers went into the draft with
eight picks and with no real big holes except at defensive end and corner
back they could just let the draft come to them. Sherman chose not to
let the draft come to him, and reached for Ahmad Carroll a speedy, explosive
corner who is only 5’9 1/2 and has to play against Moss(6’4),
Rogers(6’2), Williams(6’2), and Terrell(6’3) in the
NFC North. They also have to play Mushin Muhammed(6’2), Amani Toomer(6’3),
Tyrone Calio(6’4), Rod Gardner(6’2), Andre Johnson(6’2),
Terrell Owens(6’3), and Reggie Williams(6’3) and with Carroll
being a underclassman I don’t feel he is ready to be a starter let
alone take on all these tall receivers and I don’t feel he’ll
ever be more than a nickel back in the NFL, I will admit though if I am
proved wrong. The packers than traded down in the 2nd round when there
were plenty of good players there at #55 they could have taken(Odom, Hill,
Ware, etc..) their next pick was in the 3rd round at #70 and Green Bay
selected Joey Thomas, a very talented but sometimes cocky cornerback from
Montana State. He has size(6’1 195) and speed(4.4). Competition
is a bit of a question for him but he showed very well at the senior bowl
against some of colleges best players. The packers next picked at #72
in the 3rd round and selected big talented Donnell Washington from Clemson
a junior defensive tackle, who is known for having 1st round talent but
4th round work ethic and play. He also scored a eight on the wonderlic
so that also raises red flags about his smarts. He is known to have a
lazy attitude and even his college coach berated him for declaring and
not staying for his senior year. The packers next made the biggest reach
and dumbest move of this draft by trading up to the end of the 3rd and
taking Punter BJ Sander from Ohio State who by most accounts was a 5th-6th
round player, he only started for one year at OSU and isn’t anything
special talent wise so it makes you questions Sherman’s drafting
ability. Sander now has more pressure on him than Brett Conway did four
years ago being a 3rd round pick himself. The packers traded their 4th
and 5th round picks to trade up into the 3rd for Sander so now the Pack
only has three day two picks one in the 6th and two in the 7th. Now Packer
fans had to wait awhile before the pack picked again then all the sudden
in the 6th round the packers traded up in the 6th using their original
7th round pick and selected defensive tackle Corey Williams from Arkansas
State, he showed well in the 40 and bench press at the combine but his
vert and broad Jump were weak showing he lacks explosiveness and there
were some medical red flags on him as well, he had a ankle problem all
the way through his senior year that he had actually gotten late in his
junior year as well. He has good size but would probably be best if he
lost 10 pounds so he could play three-technique tackle. The Packers have
said that both he and Washington will see playing time at power end but
I can’t see either being an effective power end and both will be
limited to defensive tackle. The Packers then selected Scott Wells, center
from Tennessee with pick 251. Wells has a good shot at making the team
with Grey Ruegamer as the only center on the roster and he is a center/guard
tweener and Wells is a fighter and actually reminds me of Frank Winters
and looks similar to him in body shape. Overall a questionable draft but
I like the Thomas and Wells picks. Now on to after the draft there has
been rumors from mini camp that ’03 3rd round semi bust Kenny Peterson
has dropped from 310 to 289 and has looked faster and quicker and will
probably get moved to power end and has looked good in camp so that may
help fill the hole at power end, Kenny has a lot of talent he just needs
to develop it. Going into the ’04 season the Packers have a great
shot at winning the North and getting into the playoffs and should fight
for home field advantage, the other teams in the North have helped themselves
but rookies usually only contribute so much in their first year so the
Packers should be ok but with Favre’s retirement coming up soon
and the other teams in the North’s good drafts the Packers need
to watch their back the next few years but even without Favre the Pack
does have talent on offense and defense. So far its been a offseason of
peaks and valleys like an EKG machine. Here’s to hoping for more
peaks than valleys during the regular season and playoffs.
©2004
Sideline Scouting Services
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