Packers Stock Report: The Bears (and the Vikings) Still Suck Edition
Micah Hyde’s punt return for a TD elevates the Packers rookie into this week’s rising category.
The Packers closed down the Metrodome in style Sunday night, bowling over the Vikings and filling the cavernous white bubble with the sweet sounds of Go Pack Go!
Hearing Go Pack Go echoing throughout the Metrodome as the Packers beat the Vikings is one of the best sounds in all of sports. I won’t miss the Dome, but I will miss the times when the Packers play well enough to allow Cheeseheads to take the place over.
Now that the Packers have dispensed of the Vikings and Christian Ponder, it’s on to the Bears and Jay Cutler Josh McCown. Instead of extending this intro any further, prepare for Bears week by watching this educational and informative video:
On to the stock report:
Rising
Micah Hyde
On his Tuesday afternoon radio show, Aaron Rodgers wondered how Hyde fell to the fifth round in the draft. The rookie is a solid all-around player — a decent tackler, decent cover guy, decent slot blitzer, and now he has a punt return TD under his belt. In a secondary filled with young talent, Hyde is fitting right in.
Mike Daniels
The type of relentless pass rush and the ability to finish a sack once he gets in the backfield is just what the Packers needed this season. Many thought it would come from rookie Datone Jones, but it’s actually coming from Daniels. Daniels added two more sacks on Sunday. Christian Ponder is not a good quarterback, but he is elusive and not easy to bring down. Daniels got him twice.
T.J. Lang
What’s left to say about the interior of the Packers offensive line? Lang has been battling some bruising defensive tackles all season and keeps on winning those battles much more often than he loses. Lang might be a bit undersized, but he’s athletic and excels on combo blocks when he’s asked to get to the second level.
Steady
Jordy Nelson
It’s like Nelson and Rodgers had a devious plan on Sunday night against the Vikings:
Rodgers: “Hey Jordy, instead of getting wide open tonight, just glue yourself to the nearest defender so I can show off by whizzing a pass right by the guy’s ear hole and into your hands.”
Nelson: “Whatever you say, boss. As long as the ball doesn’t get lodged in someone’s ear hole, I’ll catch it.”
Eddie Lacy
Lacy has been the definition of a steady running back so far. He’s not going to wow you with his moves or break off long runs on a regular basis, but if you need someone to help you consistently move the chains, Lacy is the guy. It’s also refreshing to see a Packers running back deliver a few blows instead of just taking them. He doesn’t shed many tacklers, but when Lacy gets tackled, he’s usually the aggressor and drives the tackler(s) backwards.
Falling
Tramon Williams
With two more pass interference penalties on Sunday, Williams has been flagged in three straight games and in four of the last five. That’s unacceptable, regardless of how well Williams has been playing otherwise. I’m not part of the crowd that is screaming for Williams to be benched, but he needs to cut out the penalties and play better.
Greg Jennings
Calvin Johnson had 329 receiving yards on Sunday. Greg Jennings has 336 receiving yards for the entire season. Jennings only has 101 more receiving yards than Jarrett Boykin. I’ll never say Jennings made a bad decision to sign with Minnesota — you gotta make as much money as you can when your window is open in the NFL — but…well…ok…I don’t care how much they’re paying him, Jennings made a bad decision to sign with Minnesota.
29 Comments On “Packers Stock Report: The Bears (and the Vikings) Still Suck Edition”
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Jennings:
I think Jennings made wise decision in taking all the money he could get.
The loser here is the Vikings and their salary cap.
The real winner is the Packers, who now have more room in their salary cap (top 6 in the league I believe) and have replaced a 30 year old with Jarrett Boykin, a 23 year old. Miles White is also 23.
Actually, Jennings is the loser both ways. The Packers initially offered Jennings $10Mil. He turned it down and then only took the $9mil from minty after he tried FA and failed to get 12-14/yr. at that point, the pack backed off and said fine, you can walk. What’s truly laughable is that Jennings attempts to claim he is such a team player when his move was specifically to get out from under Rodgers and the WR group shadow. His decision was specifically about “me”. Now he will be stuck languishing on a bad team, in last place for the foreseeable future. GoPack!
Tramon Williams deserves a little slack on one of those calls. Absolutely a phantom call. If he’s our worst DB, then we’re doing just fine, thank you.
I don’t know. My sense is that Tramon Williams is trying awfully hard to work himself down the depth chart. Thankfully, we have a lot of younger players trying to work their way up.
I tend to agree that, with 5 playable corners, the Packers are in great shape.
Jennings made a VERY bad decision, financially and otherwise. I hope he doesn’t expect any more big contracts in the future… have you seen his numbers? He could have been The Man in Green Bay receiving passes from a Hall-of-Famer. Instead he trashed AR and now sits in last place, with terrible receiving numbers.
Don’t forget Mason Crosby. His FG accuracy
and directional kicking drew praise from
coach MM.
How about those Buffs…Crosby,Jones,Bak!
Go Pack Go!
Yeah! Go Buffs! I’m one too. 🙂
Did anyone, anywhere believe that furious backpedal he was working on last week? Everyone knows that was worthless damage control on his part. The fact that he finished with 1 catch, for 9 yards is beautiful! GoPack!
I don’t ever wish for any player to get hurt. It is a game after all, but a little icing on the cake was when the Vikings back up RB, Gerhart I think, scored the touchdown, he absolutely leveled Jennings.
http://www.vikings.com/media-vault/videos/Gerhart-13-Yard-Score-vs-Green-Bay/75ac2b29-5a73-4668-8d4b-8ee19b77ecb4
I don’t think Tramon Williams is falling, that is a little harsh for what was a blown call on one interference. Williams has been a crucial part of our secondary.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WillTr99/penalties/2013/
Williams has been falling since winning the Superbowl. I just think that it has to do with complacency. He lost the hunger. You can tell that he’s not trying that hard out there.
If by “He lost the hunger” you mean “He had to deal with a significant shoulder injury,” then I’m all with you.
I stand by putting Tramon in the falling category. The Packers can overcome those penalties against the likes of Brandon Weeden, Christian Ponder and the Lions w/out Calvin Johnson. Against better QBs in the postseason, though, it’ll be much more difficult.
I’m not writing Tramon off — just saying the last few weeks he’s been falling. I still think Tramon is a good player and valuable part of the defense. I’m confident he’ll clean it up.
Yep.
Bad decision? Jennings is making more than any Packer receiver and is putting in far less effort. He may be genius.
But making less and having much less fun than if he had stuck with GB.
It all depends on what Jennings values. If he values money, he made a calculated decision that he would be worth more at the end of 2012 than he was offered by GB. He got injured again and lost the bet.
If he values wins and Super Bowls, then he made a very bad decision.
Clearly, Jennings values money over success on the field.
I hope D jones devolops into a consistent pass rusher by seasons end. He seems to be getting a little bit better the more he plays. If he can unleash his potential (he showed promise in training camp) down the home stretch and into the playoffs, and with Clay and Perry coming back, this D will be scary good.
THANK YOU! someone speaks my language!
Tramon is still a good CB. Shields has passed him and he is there with Hyde, House, and Hayward (the 3 Hs). But, he is not worth $6.2 million (going to $7.2 million next year). I hope he plays well the rest of the season and helps the Packers win another SB.
Next year, he will either take a big pay cut like AJ Hawk or he will be cut. The Packers have adequate depth at CB without Williams.
^this
^this, if the Packers sign Shields long term. Which is to be hoped they do, becausethen they could also afford to move Hyde to safety.
We need to keep Shields.
I would love to see Hyde succeed as a safety as well, he seems to have instincts for stopping the run and playing near the line of scrimmage, also seems to function well in space. He doesn’t seem to me to be quite as good out on an island. I think he has potential to be a really good football player.
I know others have stated it, but I can’t remember a time when a group of first year players have been so impressive. Hyde, Bahktiari, Lacey, Franklin, Palmer, White, Jones and Mulumba alll stepped in to provide solid to sometimes great performances. The performance of Jones has been more like what I might expect from a first year guy- a little bit uneven. The others I think have all gone beyond my expectations at this early stage in there careers. Heck, I didn’t think some would make the team a short time ago!
I believe in the long run, Henning would have made more money in GB too, cause I doubt he will finish out his contract with the Vikings. There is no way of knowing, but production keeps you around, and he had a much better chance of producing in GB for multiple years.