Link to discussion of DT's:
http://postcrescent.packersnews.com/app ... 10489/1989
Pickett, Williams, Harrell, Jolly and Cole make 5, the normal number most teams carry. Muir would be #6.
My guess is that the reports are probably accurate, that Muir has played well enough to look like an NFL guy. And my guess is that TT, who's an obvious believer in the value of a strong deep D Line, would much prefer to be able to hang onto all six of those guys, if possible.
If possible, how possible?
A) Keep Muir.... on practice squad. If they don't keep him on active, they'll certainly hope to keep him for practice squad. Question is, will he possibly be able to clear waivers? Or will somebody else pick him up. Is the chance of making it to practice squad good enough to risk? Or might TT keep him rather than risk losing him?
B) Keep Muir, trade somebody else. I think they're pretty keen on Jolly these days. So if they were to trade somebody, Cole is the only possibility other than Muir himself.
C) Trade Muir is obviously possible, if unlikely. To trade him, you'd need to find somebody else who liked him well enough to trade something (late pick?) rather than just wait the Packers out and get him once derostered. I believe he's had a good camp, but not sure he's been that jazzy or that other teams who didn't draft him in the first place have been paying so much attention to him that they'd trade a pick for him now.
D) Keep six DT's. They did it last year, so it's possible again. Likely or easy? Not necessarily. Two opposite angles on this. Given that Jenkins has often played inside and might be an excellent passing-down inside lineman, so that you'd get KGB, Jenkins, and Kampman all on the field at the same time, it might seem even more superfluous to carry 6 other DT's. The flip is that Williams played some end, and I think perhaps somewhat like Jenkins might seem to have the skillset so that he could do that again. If Kampman or Jenkins were hurt, I might almost rather have Williams playing end on run downs than KGB. So if Williams was viewed as a combo DT/DE, that might make it easier to justify keeping Muir as an extra DT.
Will be interesting. Big guys who are pretty good aren't easy to find, and those guys tend to injure often and tire easily. If Muir looks like an interesting, perhaps rather solid NFL lineman, I'd be pretty reluctant to lose control of him.
One spot-opening move I'd actually consider would be to drop the 3rd QB. Very rare that 3rd QB is needed on gameday. And, if a game works so that they start with all three but they need to be playing Ingle Martin during the game, relatively little likelihood that they'll still be in position to win the game. (New England game last year, had they known Rodgers had broken bone they should have brought in Martin; but by that point the game was blowout anyway.) Or, even if you do turn to 3rd QB and the game is close, still unlikely that Ingle Martin or Paul Thompson is going to win it for you. (Example the TJ Rubley game during the 90's. Neither Martin nor Thompson are great prospects I don't think, so I don't think there's much chance a different team would claim and roster either one. The risk of moving them to practice squad is negligible, and even if it happened, very unlikely that you'd regret it later.