MJD Open to Trade

[El Duderino]

Yeah, kind of seems like we maybe should have taken Helu or Hunter, but I still want to see more of Green as I think he'll be a good receiver at the least.

Yea, Green hasn't had even just one standout play which i can recall, but between his injury and limited snaps while playing with the starters, i'm not ready yet to right him off yet as mainly just a 3rd down back going forward.

As to Ayt's point about a lack of a big play back even though defenses have to almost always play pass first, i do agree that it would be nice to have say a quick and shifty back who could make a defender or two miss on the first level as defenses play both safeties back in coverage, and thus that back being able to break off more big play runs.

Sproles with the Saints was able to do that pretty consistently. Brees would be in shotgun a lot as Rodgers is and New Orleans would run those quick hitting run plays right up the gut with Sproles. If he had even just a tiny seam at the line and then could make say a LB miss, he often could break off 10 plus yard runs and is a big reason why he averaged 6.9 yards per carry. Man, what a great signing by New Orleans and Sproles would also be a fabulous fit in the Packers offense.

[zmanishere11]

I got some crap for saying I'd trade Jennings for MJD straight up, but if you're going to trade for MJD, you have to give him a new contract, and the only way to do that with this roster is to trade a similar salary.

I think most are underestimating what an actual running attack would do for this offense. I went as far as to say we lost the Giants game last year thanks to our running game (bad fumbles by Starks / Kuhn, missed block by Starks => hit on Arodge / fumble).

Just think of defenses having to respect the run. Biting on play action. Paying attention to the screen. All things they don't currently have to worry about because our running game B L O W S.

Losing Jennings would suck, but I'm confident enough in our WR's where I could deal with that.

The whole MJD thing is never going to happen, I just hope to god that some day TT can put a guy like MJD behind Rodgers before he's 35.

[ReasonablySober]

I got some crap for saying I'd trade Jennings for MJD straight up, but if you're going to trade for MJD, you have to give him a new contract, and the only way to do that with this roster is to trade a similar salary.

I think most are underestimating what an actual running attack would do for this offense. I went as far as to say we lost the Giants game last year thanks to our running game (bad fumbles by Starks / Kuhn, missed block by Starks => hit on Arodge / fumble).

Just think of defenses having to respect the run. Biting on play action. Paying attention to the screen. All things they don't currently have to worry about because our running game B L O W S.

Losing Jennings would suck, but I'm confident enough in our WR's where I could deal with that.

The whole MJD thing is never going to happen, I just hope to god that some day TT can put a guy like MJD behind Rodgers before he's 35.

While I'm not all aboard the Jennings for MJD train, I think he's correct in pointing out the affect a star runningback would have on the passing game. Right now defenses play seven in coverage because they know we can't run the ball. At the very least MJD keeps them honest.

I'm fine with giving our **** ground game another year. But if our defense is the same as it was last year, or even close to what it was, then we're susceptible to what happened against the Giants and that's our passing game not being perfect. Rodgers getting hit, players dropping passes, no ground game to fall back on.

[Ayt]

Yeah, kind of seems like we maybe should have taken Helu or Hunter, but I still want to see more of Green as I think he'll be a good receiver at the least.

Yea, Green hasn't had even just one standout play which i can recall, but between his injury and limited snaps while playing with the starters, i'm not ready yet to right him off yet as mainly just a 3rd down back going forward.

As to Ayt's point about a lack of a big play back even though defenses have to almost always play pass first, i do agree that it would be nice to have say a quick and shifty back who could make a defender or two miss on the first level as defenses play both safeties back in coverage, and thus that back being able to break off more big play runs.

Sproles with the Saints was able to do that pretty consistently. Brees would be in shotgun a lot as Rodgers is and New Orleans would run those quick hitting run plays right up the gut with Sproles. If he had even just a tiny seam at the line and then could make say a LB miss, he often could break off 10 plus yard runs and is a big reason why he averaged 6.9 yards per carry. Man, what a great signing by New Orleans and Sproles would also be a fabulous fit in the Packers offense.

A quick, shifty back like Sproles would be perfect. A lesser though still very good player like a Kevin Faulk would also be great.

But even beyond that, we play a lot of singleback formations with 3 WR or with 2 TE (where one TE is basically an H-back, or where Finley is in the slot or out wide with the other TE inline) and we still don't get very good production out of the running game even though teams often match that with a nickel. A bigger, one cut back with some explosion and decent vision should be able to gash teams. There are a lot of running backs in the league that would be very effective in that formation for us, but, unfortunately, Ted hasn't found one.