Mike McCarthy heads to the land of Cheese-heads to take over a Packers team trying to reclaim the glory of the past. Unfortunitely for McCarthy, the Packers are old and don’t have alot of explosive talent on the field. Even worse, McCarthy is going to be tasked with handling the touchy, sensitive Brett Favre “watch”. It’s been done before - Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson forced Dan Marino out. Jones is a great owner and Johnson had 2 Super Bowl rings when he arrived in Miami. The resume of McCarthy is not that strong so it should be interesting to see how it is handled. All of this could be avoided, of course, if the Packers go out and win ball games.
Team Strengths:
The Packers went defense in the draft, nabbing A.J. Hawk from Ohio State with the #5 pick. They then dove into free agency and grabbed Charles Woodson to pair with Al Harris. When healthy Woodson is as good as they come, and Harris is an above average #2 guy. Together the Packers will be able to play press coverage on the outside enabling the Packers to play run first. The Linebackers should be fun to watch, with Hawk and rookie Abdul Hodge from Iowa, along with Nick Barnett. The Packers are a little young and inexperienced along the D-Line, but do have KGB(Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila). Overall the Packers will play aggressive, in your face defense that will give opponents trouble.
Team Weaknesses:
As good as the defense looks, it’s the offense that will be the achilles’ heel of the Pack. There is no doubt that Favre is a Hall of Famer, but like a power pitcher that has to adjust the way he pitches as he gets older Favre needs to adjust the way he plays quarterback. He isn’t the same Favre that was winning 3 straight MVP awards a decade ago. Coach McCarthy has done a good job of getting in Favre’s face right from the start. After a recent scrimmage that included 5 Favre INT’s, McCarthy proclaimed to the press that 3 of the picks were unacceptable. I haven’t heard anything like this in Green Bay since very early in Mike Holmgren’s tenure. Problem is there isn’t a whole lot of talent around Favre on offense. Ahman Green is still coming back from a ruptured quad and has yet to practice. Jevon Walker was traded to Denver in the offseason leaving Donald Driver and Robert Ferguson as the lead wide-outs. The Offensive Line is also a big question mark heading into the season.
2006 Packers Schedule:
Chicago
New Orleans
@Detroit
@Philadelphia
St. Louis
@Miami
Arizona
@Buffalo
@Minnesota
New England
@Seattle
NY Jets
@San Francisco
Detroit
Minnesota
@Chicago
How does that saying go? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That’s Brett Favre in a nutshell. He has played the “gunslinger” so often it’s hard to imagine him in another role. Few times can you look at a team and realistically see two dramatically different outcomes. On one hand, Favre could make one last run, a cinderella story similar to John Elway. Elway, if you remember, rode the back of Terrell Davis and a stout defense on the way to Back-to-Back titles to end his career. Favre doesn’t have that kind of team around him, but needs to take the same approach. He needs to step aside and let his teammates carry him. If he does, the Pack have a chance. If he doesn’t, well, it could get ugly. My projection for the Packers this year is 5-11
Team Strengths:
The Packers went defense in the draft, nabbing A.J. Hawk from Ohio State with the #5 pick. They then dove into free agency and grabbed Charles Woodson to pair with Al Harris. When healthy Woodson is as good as they come, and Harris is an above average #2 guy. Together the Packers will be able to play press coverage on the outside enabling the Packers to play run first. The Linebackers should be fun to watch, with Hawk and rookie Abdul Hodge from Iowa, along with Nick Barnett. The Packers are a little young and inexperienced along the D-Line, but do have KGB(Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila). Overall the Packers will play aggressive, in your face defense that will give opponents trouble.
Team Weaknesses:
As good as the defense looks, it’s the offense that will be the achilles’ heel of the Pack. There is no doubt that Favre is a Hall of Famer, but like a power pitcher that has to adjust the way he pitches as he gets older Favre needs to adjust the way he plays quarterback. He isn’t the same Favre that was winning 3 straight MVP awards a decade ago. Coach McCarthy has done a good job of getting in Favre’s face right from the start. After a recent scrimmage that included 5 Favre INT’s, McCarthy proclaimed to the press that 3 of the picks were unacceptable. I haven’t heard anything like this in Green Bay since very early in Mike Holmgren’s tenure. Problem is there isn’t a whole lot of talent around Favre on offense. Ahman Green is still coming back from a ruptured quad and has yet to practice. Jevon Walker was traded to Denver in the offseason leaving Donald Driver and Robert Ferguson as the lead wide-outs. The Offensive Line is also a big question mark heading into the season.
2006 Packers Schedule:
Chicago
New Orleans
@Detroit
@Philadelphia
St. Louis
@Miami
Arizona
@Buffalo
@Minnesota
New England
@Seattle
NY Jets
@San Francisco
Detroit
Minnesota
@Chicago
How does that saying go? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That’s Brett Favre in a nutshell. He has played the “gunslinger” so often it’s hard to imagine him in another role. Few times can you look at a team and realistically see two dramatically different outcomes. On one hand, Favre could make one last run, a cinderella story similar to John Elway. Elway, if you remember, rode the back of Terrell Davis and a stout defense on the way to Back-to-Back titles to end his career. Favre doesn’t have that kind of team around him, but needs to take the same approach. He needs to step aside and let his teammates carry him. If he does, the Pack have a chance. If he doesn’t, well, it could get ugly. My projection for the Packers this year is 5-11
