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Quote:
Defensive tackle Justin Harrell, who missed last year's off-season practices due to injury, is out again.

According to the Packers' website, Harrell (back), Johnny Jolly (shoulder) and cornerback Will Blackmon (foot) will not participate in the 13 practice sessions but "should be cleared for the start of training camp."



http://blogs.jsonline.com/pack....ned-again.aspx


Quote:
McCarthy revealed that defensive tackle Justin Harrell had "minor" back surgery early in the off-season.

"He's fine, he's doing well," McCarthy said. "He can probably be back sooner rather than later. Anytime a young player misses time, it's not to his benefit. But he'll be fine. We're probably being more cautious with the 80 roster spots and other things."



http://blogs.jsonline.com/pack....t-of-otas.aspx



Never heard of a minor back surgery...

Everyone needs to STFU about Harrell and just let him play.

Everyone still has a stick up their @$$ from last year's draft and how terrible of a pick Harrell was because they hadn't heard of him and he was hurt in college. Just let the kid play...he's getting surgery and he'll be back for training camp...big deal.

Where is the article about KGB's surgery?

Harrell has missed a few games early from previous injuries and because we knew he was a project.

From now on, wait until he actually misses a few games to make a judgment. I'll judge the kid after we see what he can do following the '09 and '10 seasons. If he misses a bunch of playing time and/or sucks, then I'll call him a bust.

KGB has 8-9 seasons? Has led the team in sacks frequently.

Harrill? No comparison.

Each draft several kids just do not cut it. I agree that it is too early to pass judgement - but it is totally fair to observe and comment on the facts.

Two very promising young Packers, that I am pulling for, are having a tough time staying healthy - Harrill & Blackmon. They simply need to stay healthy. If Wynn gets hurt again (provided he even makes the team) he'll be another ...

eagle13 wrote:KGB has 8-9 seasons? Has led the team in sacks frequently.

Harrill? No comparison.

Each draft several kids just do not cut it. I agree that it is too early to pass judgement - but it is totally fair to observe and comment on the facts.

Two very promising young Packers, that I am pulling for, are having a tough time staying healthy - Harrill & Blackmon. They simply need to stay healthy. If Wynn gets hurt again (provided he even makes the team) he'll be another ...

That's fine. I have no problem with anyone noting that Harrell is having surgery but to have the tone of "Harrell hurt AGAIN" just shows a bunch of bias towards a player before he has even had a chance to develop or show us anything.

CharlosVllnueva wrote:That's fine. I have no problem with anyone noting that Harrell is having surgery but to have the tone of "Harrell hurt AGAIN" just shows a bunch of bias towards a player before he has even had a chance to develop or show us anything.

I don't think there's any bias at all. There's clear frustration that a 1st round pick who was injured most of his high school career and his college career and only played in 7 games as a rookie is injured again when we all had high expectations for him this off season. People want to see Harrell succeed, and his main problem all last year was conditioning and too hear that he might miss time again to work on his conditioning is obviously frustrating

notoriousTJ11 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



I don't think there's any bias at all. There's clear frustration that a 1st round pick who was injured most of his high school career and his college career and only played in 7 games as a rookie is injured again when we all had high expectations for him this off season. People want to see Harrell succeed, and his main problem all last year was conditioning and too hear that he might miss time again to work on his conditioning is obviously frustrating

My point is that when he was drafted management basically told us that he was a project and that he might not even be ready to play in the '07 season for the first few games.

No doubt in my mind that most Packer fans have a boner to see him fail so they can say "I told you so." If he sucks in 2 years, I will call him a bust.

Maybe I'm too much of a Thompson apologist for this pick, because I'm sure I've rooted for other draft picks to fail in some way or another...but I think a fanbase that is rooting for the kid to fail or jumping on him for an offseason surgery isn't going to help matters for a kid that already has some obstacles to overcome.

CharlosVllnueva wrote:Everyone needs to STFU about Harrell and just let him play.

Everyone still has a stick up their @$$ from last year's draft and how terrible of a pick Harrell was because they hadn't heard of him and he was hurt in college. Just let the kid play...he's getting surgery and he'll be back for training camp...big deal.

Where is the article about KGB's surgery?

Harrell has missed a few games early from previous injuries and because we knew he was a project.

From now on, wait until he actually misses a few games to make a judgment. I'll judge the kid after we see what he can do following the '09 and '10 seasons. If he misses a bunch of playing time and/or sucks, then I'll call him a bust.

We want to see the kid play, but he doesn't. That's the major issue. He was morbidly out of shape last season because he missed time due to that shoulder injury. Dude needs to get his ass in shape before the season begins. There is no comparison to KGB either. KGB is a seasoned vet and former pro-bowler. I hope the kid is healthy by the start of camp though. I'd love to see him succeed and prove everyone wrong.

NFL teams don't usually spend first round picks on projects except at the QB position. most first round picks in the NFL are expected to either start or make significant contributions their first year. most second round picks in the NFL are also expected to make significant contributions their first year.

I believe most people were critical of this pick because he was injured when the Packers drafted him, and he probably could have lasted until the third round and still been available.

it's hard to critisize the player who never plays. but it's very easy to critisize the GM for wasting a first round pick to draft him.

I'm not critical of harrel. I'm crititcal of thomson.

I agree with you CV. Give him a chance he'll be ready for TC.

I think you guys are missing my point a bit.

And I can understand it a bit now that I realize he needs more conditioning...maybe I've always been irked about this by those idiots that made the OMG JUSTIN HARRELL WTF?!? youtube video. There are just a lot of idiots out there cheering for him to fail because them as the armchair GMs figured he must suck because they hadn't heard of him and he was hurt.

If all of these people ran the team, here would be the starting lineup:

QB - Brett Favre (Until age 65)
RB - Dominic Rhodes and Travis Henry
FB - Justin Griffith
WR - Driver, Chad Jackson (averaging 8 receptions/year), Donte Stallworth
TE - Daniel Graham
OL - Out of money, so a bunch of rookies.

And we would have not re-signed Nick Barnett or Aaron Kampmann. Gotta put that money into the Graham and Stallworth contracts.

(In other words, we would be the Vikings or the 2005 Packers)

I wasn't immediately in Justins corner after the 07 draft, but once the shock wore off of picking a guy that "experts" didn't have going that high, I came around and realized that with some coaching of technique and some conditioning this guy will be a major load for opposing OL's to deal with. There is no finesse just pure stregth and brute force in this guy. He's crazy strong, and he should successfully be able to suck in about 2 OL-men each play which will help Kamp and pickett and the linebackers.

I agree with your last post CV about all the JH hate that seems to be out there. Until proven otherwise I trust TT judgment and word on players that come in.

BTW that you tube video is really really stupid.

It occurs to me that to some small degree TT's drafting of Jordy Nelson with this year's first pick was a sort of subconscious "F-you" to all the fans that booed him last year for the Harrell choice. The more insulting and reactionary fans get, the more obscure TT is prepared to go to prove who's in charge and who's the man.

Give the kid a break when he gets healthy he will be a good tackle. The only reason he keeps getting hurt is because he is trying to get out there too quick because you guys are wanting him off the team. He is trying to win everyone back over and all we are doing is saying that he sucks and that it was a wasted pick. Just let the guy get healthy and leave him alone. If he sucks on the field then criticize him but don't if you haven't seen him play. Watch some film of him when he was in college and healthy...he was a total beast. If he can come back healthy this year or next we will have gotten a good pick at tackle and you guys will be posting about how good he is. I'm rooting for you Justin. Get healthy and show us what you can do. Just stay away from our wives in the meantime haha.

TheGhostDog wrote:It occurs to me that to some small degree TT's drafting of Jordy Nelson with this year's first pick was a sort of subconscious "F-you" to all the fans that booed him last year for the Harrell choice. The more insulting and reactionary fans get, the more obscure TT is prepared to go to prove who's in charge and who's the man.

TT conspiracy theories are baffling. Do you really think he -- and his staff -- decide on guys based on their obscurity to the average fan? You really think he's trying to stick it to the common fan by picking guys they may not have heard of? WTF would be the point of doing that?

Plus, its not like Nelson was some obscure player. He was a consensus All-American and broke several Big 12 records for receiving this past year.

TheGhostDog wrote:It occurs to me that to some small degree TT's drafting of Jordy Nelson with this year's first pick was a sort of subconscious "F-you" to all the fans that booed him last year for the Harrell choice. The more insulting and reactionary fans get, the more obscure TT is prepared to go to prove who's in charge and who's the man.

This is one of the most bizarre ideas I've ever seen posted.

I think you are overlooking the operative words here, "to some small degree". TT wouldn't draft an unknown or unexpected player purely out of spite if he didn't believe they were skilled - he takes pride in and respects his position too much for that and is dedicated to putting together the best team he can.

Although publicly TT rarely, if ever, shows much emotion, I am guessing that privately he takes takes some glee in spotting talent and not being afraid to draft it much sooner than the host of mediocre GMs who are too concerned about covering their own asses to "reach" for a player. TT has proven he's not afraid to draft from obscure schools early, pulling an early 2nd round trigger on Nick Collins out of Bethune Cookman and Greg Jennings out of Western Michigan, for example.

Yet when I look at how the 2008 draft unfolded I get the sense that there was more behind TT's decision process than cold, unemotional logic and simply the BPA. We know in hindsight that TT had prioritized getting depth at OL, QB and CB in the draft, so why draft Jordy Nelson at #36? No WRs were drafted in the first round, and only 2 were gone by the time the Pack made their first pick, whereas Nelson would likely have been available when the Pack drafted again later in the round (here's 2 scouting sources that listed Nelson as only the 10th or 15th best WR available:http://profootballexperts.scout.com/a.z?s=211&p=9&c=12&yr=2008&nid=83&lnid=124&rc=4&pid=16 ,
http://www.thefootballexpert.com/wrrankings2008.html ). We know WR was one of the strongest positions on the Packers roster, so it wasn't a need pick. We know TT liked Brian Brohm, a "big name" QB that noone would've batted an eye if he had drafted at 36 - a conservative GM more concerned with preserving his job would've taken Brohm there, so why didn't TT make the safe pick? And finally, we know TT was well aware of the booing for Harrell and Nelson picks - he brought it up himself in draft day 1 press conferences that he got booed again. When I add it all up I think that, on some level, TT privately revels in showing how much more he knows than everyone else and makes the daring pick. But disagree all you like, I am just looking for patterns in behavior, a poker player looking for a tell.