Packers LB Desmond Bishop: DPOY or Playing for a Different Team?

Desmond Bishop

Will Packers LB recover from his injury and be on the team come September?

This story from Tyler Dunne in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop is extremely well written. After reading it, you can’t help but like the guy even more than you probably already do.

In the story, Bishop says one of his goals is to win defensive player of the year in 2013.

Unfortunately, as entertaining as the story is, it doesn’t really address the main question I have about Bishop as the Packers open OTAs: What are the odds that he’s actually on the team once the season starts?

Reports surfaced during the NFL draft that the Packers were trying to trade Bishop. Several moves the Packers made in the offseason — bringing back A.J. Hawk, re-signing Brad Jones for $4 million, adding another inside linebacker in the draft — made it appear that the Packers might not be too confident in Bishop’s chances of returning from the torn hamstring he suffered last preseason.

“Trade or release Bishop?” you’re probably asking. “But I thought he was supposed to boost the Packers physicality and automatically improve the inside linebacker corp?”

In a perfect world, that’s exactly what would happen. But how perfect is the Packers’ world when it comes to injuries lately? Not very. J.C. Tretter, one of Green Bay’s fourth-round draft picks, just snapped his ankle in a fumble-recovery drill. Two of the past three seasons have seen the team ravaged by injuries. The scuttle around the Packers is that Ted Thompson won’t hesitate to jettison players who are hampered by injuries.

I suppose the release of D.J. Smith last month is a good sign for Bishop staying in Green Bay. Then again, Smith was also coming off a season-ending injury. Perhaps the Packers also won’t hesitate to cut ties with Bishop like they did with Smith if doubts about Bishop’s health linger further into the summer.

Look, it’s still May. This Bishop story has several chapters that have yet to be written. If you want to read another positive piece on Bishop’s outlook, check this out from Jason Hirschhorn at Acme Packing Company.

Dunne and Hirschhorn’s rosy outlook on Bishop could very well prove to be true. I hope it does. A healthy Bishop playing like he did in 2011 would do wonders for the defense.

But a torn hamstring is a nasty injury. Too nasty for Bishop to remain a Packer? I hope not, but right now, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Bishop is playing for a different team come September.

14 Comments On “Packers LB Desmond Bishop: DPOY or Playing for a Different Team?”

  1. Bishop better be n this team this whole year!

  2. “I suppose the release of D.J. Smith last month is a good sign for Bishop staying in Green Bay. Then again, Smith was also coming off a season-ending injury.”—>Um, hello? Bishop, too?

    When the rumors were circulating at the draft that the Packers were shopping Bishop, my first thought was “who would want him?” given that he hasn’t shown anything since his injury, which isn’t an easy one to recover from. Brad Jones is a valuable backup in that he has shown he can play inside or outside, and they are seriously lacking for depth. But they’re paying him an awful lot of money to backup…they were hedging their bets with this.

    My thought is that the Packers are needy enough on the defensive side of the ball that they aren’t willing to let this stone go unturned. Whether Bishop is all the way back or not, when healthy he has shown he can be a difference-maker and the Packers need to find out what he’s got before they make a decision on him.

  3. I don’t think Bishop will be traded. If he’s too injured to play at the same level again, no other team will want him. If he’s back to 95% or better, he’ll be our best ILB again very quickly.

    IMO this is Hawk’s last season in GB. The contract hit for cutting him is much more palatable after 2013. IMO one of the backups – Brad Jones, Terell Manning, Jamari Lattimore will be starting by then.

    With Bishop if he’s healthy. 2 new starters if not.

  4. i would like to see bishop back, he has shown that he is the best ILB on the team, and i look for him to really help this year providing he is healthy, we all know that A.J is not and was not worth his pick# in the draft and look for us to move on from him after this year!

  5. The Brad Jones signing points to a change being made at ILB. I sure hope it’s not Bishop. He’s the one guy that has an attitude in the middle. Who knows what the injury has done to Bishop. If it’s that bad, he won’t be tradeable.

  6. You can give all the thumbs down that you want but is Bishop is healthy he is not only our best ILB but arguably a top 5 on our defense.

  7. Smith and now possibly Bishop? If Bishop cannot play due to his injury that’s one thing but if he can play we need to keep him and get him back on the field. I am not sold on Brad Jones yet. Manning or Lattimore look promising but they are not battle tested or appear to have Bishop’s attitude. Maybe TT thinks that he can bring back Dave Robinson.

    • Obviously they aren’t going to release him if he can play. His injury could be career ending tho hence trying to trade him

  8. We need Bishop!

  9. The injury is the big variable in this equation.

    Also as decent as Brad Jones was last year, I think that Packer fans are overvaluing him quite a bit. There were plenty of times he was slow/late to the ball and/or took an abysmal angle on the tackle.

    If Bishop is gone, I’ll be very sad, but will consider Jones’ presence nothing more than a stop-gap so the levee doesn’t break.

  10. To Brooklyn–well you gave us permission fo the thumbs-down.;)

    Look, Bishop WAS the best ILB…in 2010. In 2011 the entire defense, including Capers, stunk up the place WITH Bishop. He’s in his late 20’s, makes $4 million a year an that torn off the bone injuy has ended other careers.

    When they paid Jones, we had to know Bishop’s days were numbered. Then Thompson all but amitted he tried to trade Bishop pre-draft. Does that sound like aplayer in the plans for 2013 and beyond?

    RE: Hawk—whether we like it or not, Ted loves the guy like the son he never had. He’s a sacred cow and it’s akin to nepotism. I think Hawk is safe at least through 2014. Then, he’s cut re: cap hit being manageable from that awfu contract in 2011. The pay cut does not eliminate the cap penalty for cutting AJ earlier, and that’s the way Ted waned it.

  11. Basically citing the above article readers will believe it since its valid and its great to read from a webmaster that’s blogging content on this topic publically to consider

Comments are closed.