Official Training Camp Thread

[MickeyDavis]

Training camp opens Saturday. 2:00 practice that day and 8:45/6:00 practices on Sunday. I hope to be up there for at least one practice provided there's no rain. I love it up there during camp.

Not a lot of unanswered questions this year. We'll see if Bigby hold out and if not can he still hold onto his job? Other than that there are a few backup spots open, punter open and not much else. Just need to get through the preseason healthy.

The last 3 Super Bowl winners had 8, 10 and 8 wins the year before. So there will be some surprise teams doing better than anyone thought. And some that do worse. I hope we fulfill our expectations because they are VERY high.

[Newz]

Packers have just as good of chance as anyone this season. I'm hoping Bigby loses the starting job and becomes a backup.

I'm also predicting we win 10 games and get to the Super Bowl against the Ravens... Then Ray Rice smashes us and we lose.

[ReasonablySober]

I'm not worried about getting run over by any team. We had the #1 rush defense in the league last season and it should have only gotten better.

The Bigby situation is one of the dumbest in recent memory. There is no chance he could have played elsewhere, he wasn't a star that the Packers absolutely needed, and they drafted his replacement. If anything he should have been at every OTA and essentially lived in GB this offseason. Now there's a good chance he'll be a backup heading into free agency.

I learned quite a bit from last year. The number one thing being take little from pre-season performances. I don't care if we're rolling teams or they're rolling us. It means nothing.

That said, I'm gonna keep my eye on a couple things.

1 - The young offensive lineman, notably Bulaga and Giacomini. I hope they look solid.
2 - Grant's backups, Starks in particular. It would be nice if Starks showed something.
3 - If Harrell does anything. At all.
4 - If Raji can hold up at NT.

Really looking forward to this season.

[Newz]

I learned quite a bit from last year. The number one thing being take little from pre-season performances. I don't care if we're rolling teams or they're rolling us. It means nothing.

Agreed. A lot of people went a little overboard after the preseason last year.

1 - The young offensive lineman, notably Bulaga and Giacomini. I hope they look solid.

I hope Bulaga is starting at LT or RT midway through the season and (obviously) I hope he is good.

Another guy I want to watch is Lang... I hope he is starting at LG or RT before the year is over, I think he has the potential to be an above average lineman.

2 - Grant's backups, Starks in particular. It would be nice if Starks showed something.

Yep. NFL has become a league where you need to have more than one guy. Grant is solid, it would be nice for another guy to show up as a playmaker.

3 - If Harrell does anything. At all.

Definitely.

4 - If Raji can hold up at NT.

Still not sure how I feel about swapping Raji and Pickett. I guess we did draft Raji to be the NT though... Hopefully it lets us continue to be good against the run and increases our ability to rush the passer.

I would add a 5 to your list and make it number 1 on my priority list though... How do the young corners (Lee, Underwood) look? I think they will be critical to our success this year.

[eagle13]

Things i'll watch

overall-
pass rush
special teams - hard to gauge in preseason

Specifically-
OLB - Jones & depth
CB - Harris, Lee, Underwood

PR & KR - Blackmon or who?

LG - College Spitz
RT- Lang Giacomini

HB- Starks
FB- Johnson EARN or given a spot

[LUKE23]

I'm not worried about getting run over by any team. We had the #1 rush defense in the league last season and it should have only gotten better.

The Bigby situation is one of the dumbest in recent memory. There is no chance he could have played elsewhere, he wasn't a star that the Packers absolutely needed, and they drafted his replacement. If anything he should have been at every OTA and essentially lived in GB this offseason. Now there's a good chance he'll be a backup heading into free agency.

I learned quite a bit from last year. The number one thing being take little from pre-season performances. I don't care if we're rolling teams or they're rolling us. It means nothing.

That said, I'm gonna keep my eye on a couple things.

1 - The young offensive lineman, notably Bulaga and Giacomini. I hope they look solid.
2 - Grant's backups, Starks in particular. It would be nice if Starks showed something.
3 - If Harrell does anything. At all.
4 - If Raji can hold up at NT.

Really looking forward to this season.

As long as our starting DL stay healthy, we WILL stuff the run. I'm hoping that with Raji at NT and Pickett at DE, we can get more pocket push, which will help our OLB's get to the QB. Pass rush is the #1 most important aspect of today's NFL, and we need to improve there. That will hopefully come with another year of the 3-4 instilled, Jones and Matthews improving, and the DL getting more push up front.

I honestly right now only have two big concerns with this roster (I have none on offense, I expect our line to play at worst average this year with Clifton/Tauscher both in on day one and healthy, and Bulaga added):

1. Secondary health and depth. I love Al Harris' attitude, but age and injury are against him. I'm not counting on big things from him at all this year. That means that Lee, Underwood, and Blackmon are going to have to step up. I think Lee and Underwood are both extremely talented, we need at minimum one of those guys to emerge as a real CB threat. I have faith in Woodson and Tramon, although Woodson is pushing father time a bit. We also have Bigby's contract question and while I like Burnett, he is a rookie. Secondary depth is a big question.

2. OLB production and depth. If Jones goes down, I don't like any of the options. I'm also not completely sold on him, although I thought he showed flashes last year. I just worry about too much attention going towards Matthews if other guys don't step up. Be nice if we could generate some pass rush from our ILB's too.

I think we're good at all positions on offense and on the line. LB is deep on the inside but only has one true impact guy across the board (Matthews).

[MickeyDavis]

And once again I'll wonder why the hell we matched Tennessee for Jarrett Bush.

[Newz]

And once again I'll wonder why the hell we matched Tennessee for Jarrett Bush.

Hopefully he doesn't see time (or make the team for that matter) unless there are serious injuries.

It would be nice to have him as just a pure special teams player who can be an emergency CB I guess.

[chuckleslove]

Greg_A_Bedard

Just saw Packers CB Tramon Williams and his wife. He looks much thicker than I remember - in a good way. Body of a starter. He played it off

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

Adam_Schefter

Packers safety Atari Bigby signed his tender with Green Bay today and will be at training camp on time.

Great news. I'm still a Bigby fan. If Burnett is legit and pushes Bigby to the bench, great, then our safeties get that much deeper.

[Ill-yasova]

Players I'm excited to see this camp:
1. Patrick Lee- He seems to have all of the tools to be a starting caliber CB but injuries always seem to take him out early.
2. Quinn Johnson- I just wanna see him beat people up. The impression I got last year was that he wasn't the sharpest guy and was taking time to learn assignments and reads. Well, he should be caught up by now and Johnson moving at full speed is an awesomely terrifying thought.
3. TJ Lang- Has a great chance to earn a starting job. Also curious to see how looks getting some minutes at LT in the preseason as he will be Clifton's backup.
4. CJ Wilson- Inside pass rushers are rare and according to scouting reports Wilson has the abilty to be disruptive from the end position.

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

Players I'm excited to see this camp:
1. Patrick Lee- He seems to have all of the tools to be a starting caliber CB but injuries always seem to take him out early.
2. Quinn Johnson- I just wanna see him beat people up. The impression I got last year was that he wasn't the sharpest guy and was taking time to learn assignments and reads. Well, he should be caught up by now and Johnson moving at full speed is an awesomely terrifying thought.
3. TJ Lang- Has a great chance to earn a starting job. Also curious to see how looks getting some minutes at LT in the preseason as he will be Clifton's backup.
4. CJ Wilson- Inside pass rushers are rare and according to scouting reports Wilson has the abilty to be disruptive from the end position.

I'm pretty sure Lang is going to back up Tauscher on the right side, or at least that's what McCarthy said after the draft. Bulaga will be the back up on the left side (assuming he signs his contract soon, which I think he will).

[Turk Nowitzki]

Those two tweets about T. Williams and Bigby were both very good news.

Here's to making it through camp without any major injuries.

[MickeyDavis]

I'm definitely going to be at Saturdays practice and Sunday morning practice. Can't wait to be up there again.

[Newz]

Who is supposed to start at LG?

I sure as hell hope it isn't Colledge.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I'm real interested in the corner play in pre season. I would assume woodson sits all or most of the games so one of underwood or lee underwood will be going agaist the 1s.

[eagle13]

Who is supposed to start at LG?

I sure as hell hope it isn't Colledge.

Coaches are calling LG as competition between College & Spitz.

Keeping Lang at RT since he's the future there (possibly sooner) which is the right move.

Only way Lang competes at LG is if Breno shows something - anything - at RT. The coaches talk him up but so far talk is all its been. Breno has been nothing and it would surprise (delight) me if he becomes anything.

[Siefer]

Biggest concerns:

Our biggest questions are going to be on the offensive line at outside linebacker opposite of Matthews, and in the secondary. On the line, I'm happy that we've got more stability going in, but we're still running two near-broken down tackles out there. I'd love to see Colledge on the bench to start the season. At OLB, Jones has promise, but I'm still not sold. I'm worried we're still going to have major issues getting to the quarterback. Finally, we really need some of our young guys in the secondary (Lee, Underwood, Burnett) to show something. Harris is a bit of an x-factor, but we can't really count on much from him, as much as I want to see him return to form.

Who I'm most excited to see early on:

Easily Finley. It's no secret that he's poised to have an outstanding year, but he's got to keep after it. I'd like to see him improve as a blocker and how he handles double coverage.

As an aside, it'd be swell if we actually have a punter worth a damn this season. Our offense is so good that it dulled the awful special teams play somewhat, but our defense had the 24th ranked starting field position (against) in the league last year, mainly because of the worst ranked punting game in the league. It'd be huge if we could at least get our punting (and special teams play as a whole, really) to middle of the road levels.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestats

[RiotPunch]

It is finally this time of year again....

Interested to see Tramon's improvement in the secondary, hoping and praying that Harrell can bust out and finally be a contributor and that Brad Jones has also taken his game to another level.

Also can't wait to see the rooks. Especially Bulaga, Burnett, Starks.

[LUKE23]

I'm hoping Lang can win out for the LG spot, but if not, then I hope it is Spitz. Colledge is a wimp. I really hope they just keep developing Bulaga at LT and don't even consider throwing him at LG.

So I'm hoping for this year:

Clifton/Lang/Wells/Sitton/Tauscher

Long-term:

Bulaga/Lang/Spitz/Sitton/???

Be nice if Giacomini could step up at RT, but I'll believe that when I see it. Lang could also be moved to RT. Sitton is a stud at RG.