I'm very excited about this team, I do think they have a legitimate super bowl shot, but I do have a few concerns...
On Offense with a healthy Finley I'd say this is a Top 2 offense in the league, without Finley, I'd say Top 5.
I think after our TOP 2 wide outs, we have good depth but they are a bit young and may take time Develop. I'm hoping if we go 4 or 5 wide based on Rodgers insane accuracy and the new kids we picked up are just natural gifted catchers, then we can still be productive with young talent.
There are times when the TE is important and losing Finley hurts. There's some good talent coming up but it's young and raw, and even Finley took time to develop, so I'm not expecting great things from this unit, I think it's going to be the below average performing unit on offense for 2014.
I love the ability to balance the passing game with a punishing run game. I also have confidence our line is much better this time around, with adequate depth. All in all, I see a top 5 offense.
On Defense...I'm HOPING Top 15 defense. I'm worried about a gaping hole at ILB next to AJ Hawk. I think Hawk will be his usual self but Brad Jones DOES NOT impress me. I think he's one of the worst starting ILBs in the NFL.
I don't think he's starter material. He's no desmond Bishop. I'm hopeful Lattimore comes up, but it's hard to hope a guy becomes a great starter.
OLB should be fun to watch with Matthews, Peppers, and behind them Perry, Neal. All of them are elite to talented, 3 of them have had some previous health issues, so hopefully they all have healthy seasons. This is our best unit and should be making big plays regularly.
I'm fairly confident in the secondary. Shields, Tramon, Hayward, House, Bush. That's Solid starters, and good depth. Burnett and Haha, Micah, Sean Richardson. I also think that's decent.
I just think a good Dline can make up for any shortcomings in the secondary. I think our secondary is decent
but I'm worried about the Dline.Will Raji playing his old postion kick butt again? He was pure garbage last year. And who's next to him? All young unproven guys. They all showed some talent, and flashes of looking good, but not a single one of them are true proven guys. We can hope Daniels, and Boyd and Jones take their game to the next level. Jerel Worthy is a huge question mark. I was super excited when we drafted him, but his performance prior to injury was so-so, granted he was a rookie. Guion is he anything more than just a body? Thorton the rookie, should we expect much?
No Pickett no Jolly no CJ Wilson. Not complaining, I'd only want Jolly back if he was healthy. Love Pickett but seems father time may have caught up to him.
Last year our defense couldn't stop a RB to save its life. Toby Gerheart guys!?!
Remember TOBY!?! I think he needs to buy last year's GB defense dinner for the fat $10 million contract he got from Jax. He looked unstoppable.
Every RB had a field day on defense, and it started with the Dline. I watched guys run up the middle of the field, our front line getting their asses kicked, and then saw Brad Jones falling backwards with his arms flailing meekly
, until he got injured...
I'm not expecting much improvement at the ILB with Brad Jones back again, I do expect the secondary will be OK, but the real story is how this Dline holds up. The OLB's will get their sacks, but when it's crunch time and the opponent is holding onto the ball just running the clock out to avoid giving the ball back to Rodgers...Will this dline make a play and stuff the RB, or are they going to rush it down our throats and our Dline will be helpless to stop it?
That's the main concern I have. Can we get those defensive stops? It's all up to a bunch of guys who show potential, but no idea if they can do it. I think that's the difference in how far our team goes in the playoffs (barring injuries of course). If the Dline comes through this could be a special season.
