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per Bedard.

Great.

That sucks for Al.

Wow, he must be really behind. Even if he couldn't play til week 4 or so, I'd rather have him take a roster spot over someone who is likely not going to play a snap.

Sucks because he worked so hard to get back, but it's for his own good. Hopefully he can hit the ground running and get into game shape for the tough final stretch. I'm expecting big strides from Tramon in his absence.

Shite,

This blows. I guess they really do want him to get healthy instead of being thrown to the wolves.

Locks in the secondary:

Collins, Burnett
Woodson, Williams, Shields, Underwood, Lee
PUP: Bigby, Harris

Who else makes it?

Doesn't really surprise me.

I expect Bush to be back, which isn't the worst thing so long as he doesn't see the field unless one (or two) of Shields, Underwood or Lee gets hurt. Hopefully Bush can just play ST until Al gets back, then we can get rid of him.

LUKE23 wrote:Locks in the secondary:

Collins, Burnett
Woodson, Williams, Shields, Underwood, Lee
PUP: Bigby, Harris

Who else makes it?

Bush Martin Peprah (maybe blackmon if healthy)

LUKE23 wrote:Locks in the secondary:

Collins, Burnett
Woodson, Williams, Shields, Underwood, Lee
PUP: Bigby, Harris

Who else makes it?

Martin, Peprah, Blackmon (if healthy, like eagle said).

We might have Blackmon move back to CB, or maybe we can find a 6th CB from another team.

I'm not surprised at all.

It might be a good thing to limit Harris to 10 games and the playoffs he's not exactly young and I'd much rather have in January than September.

WeekapaugGroove wrote:I'm not surprised at all.

It might be a good thing to limit Harris to 10 games and the playoffs he's not exactly young and I'd much rather have in January than September.

Exactly my thoughts

I'm not surprised at all either. Hopefully Bigby and Harris can come back later in the year and really give our secondary some additional depth for the end of the season + playoffs. If we have most of our secondary completely healthy going into the playoffs (assuming no other major injuries on the team), I really like our chances of coming out of the NFC.

WeekapaugGroove wrote:I'm not surprised at all.

It might be a good thing to limit Harris to 10 games and the playoffs he's not exactly young and I'd much rather have in January than September.

This. I'd much rather have a rested, fully healthy Harris for the back stretch of the season. This is assuming of course, that he can still play CB well at the NFL level.

I saw that Bedard was criticizing the Packers for not drafting a CB to put more talent in the secondary. Let's look at this logically. Bulaga, Neal and Burnett were our first three picks. Burnett is starting, Neal is our fourth d-lineman and has been quite impressive, and Bulaga has fit the bill as a possible cornerstone at LT.

Are you meaning to tell me that anybody they would have drafted after that would have performed any better than Shields has to this point? I've been impressed with his ball skills and I think he looks like a nice prospect.

Ill-yasova wrote:I saw that Bedard was criticizing the Packers for not drafting a CB to put more talent in the secondary. Let's look at this logically. Bulaga, Neal and Burnett were our first three picks. Burnett is starting, Neal is our fourth d-lineman and has been quite impressive, and Bulaga has fit the bill as a possible cornerstone at LT.

Are you meaning to tell me that anybody they would have drafted after that would have performed any better than Shields has to this point? I've been impressed with his ball skills and I think he looks like a nice prospect.

Agreed. The only thing I'd interject is maybe looking to see what was available in FA, given that at that point it was a near lock Harris would not start the season healthy. Relying on a completely unproven player regardless at nickel is a tough proposition in today's NFL.

I don't even know who was available at FA CB, so maybe I'm off base. I'm generally a "build through the draft" guy.

I do agree that adding Shields looks like a nice move right now though, regardless.

LUKE23 wrote:

Ill-yasova wrote:I saw that Bedard was criticizing the Packers for not drafting a CB to put more talent in the secondary. Let's look at this logically. Bulaga, Neal and Burnett were our first three picks. Burnett is starting, Neal is our fourth d-lineman and has been quite impressive, and Bulaga has fit the bill as a possible cornerstone at LT.

Are you meaning to tell me that anybody they would have drafted after that would have performed any better than Shields has to this point? I've been impressed with his ball skills and I think he looks like a nice prospect.

Agreed. The only thing I'd interject is maybe looking to see what was available in FA, given that at that point it was a near lock Harris would not start the season healthy. Relying on a completely unproven player regardless at nickel is a tough proposition in today's NFL.

I don't even know who was available at FA CB, so maybe I'm off base. I'm generally a "build through the draft" guy.

I do agree that adding Shields looks like a nice move right now though, regardless.

http://thesportingreview.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/2010-nfl-free-agent-cornerbacks/

I didn't exactly follow any of these guys close, so i won't claim to know if any that could have been signed at a reasonable cost would be able to be a solid nickle/dime corner. Maybe Deshea Townsend who played for awhile in Pittsburgh and signed with the Colts for one year at i'd guess smallish cash?

Cromartie was also available and the Jets got him for a 3rd round pick in next years draft, but he does have character issues. That said, he's a real talent and if he bought in, a Woodson/Cromartie/Williams trio could have been really good and then be an outstanding foursome if Harris came back productive after game six.

Dude, When I suggested Cromartie at the time, many guys here hated idea of adding Cromartie b/c of his non-tackling. I agree that was a legit issue but so is our lack of DB talent. Like you said - if he bought in...

Its pretty obvious since he's not injured that Pat Lee is pretty mediocre.