RealGM

http://blogs.jsonline.com/packers/archi ... -week.aspx

Thank God.

After the bye, we should see the Pickett/Harrell DT duo in action. Hopefully that shuts down the run up the middle.

Also other big news: Harris COULD be back after the bye.

The bye couldn't be coming at a better time for the team and Pickett. He seemed to be nicked up in multiple spots and my guess is some of that is from him sitting out nearly all camp and not playing in any preseason games. Mix in he's had to play a ton of snaps with the shortage of DT's and we may have dodged a bullet with Pickett. To often when football players spend training camp not practicing and not playing preseason games, they become very vulnerable to serious injury when they are forced to play a lot.

Having a 4th DT in Harrell should provide some badly needed rest to his fellow tackles and now maybe they won't get moved as easily. Plus, even if not likely, some extra rest might allow Jolly to bring something in the pass rush, the line badly needs at least one tackle to bring some pressure.

I'm starting to get a little more excited about our prospects this season. Rumours of our demise were always premature.

TT deserved a lot of flack for hording 30 million dollars in cap space instead of investing a little into depth, but even if he did, we'd still be hindered somewhat w/ the extent of injuries we've been forced to endure. A reasonably healthy defense at the very least we'd be 4-2, not having lost the Atlanta game at Lambeau. Our front four finally won't be worn out by the end of a games and how good will our nickel package be when Harris returns?

Also, Ryan Grant is still in preseason form because of his training camp hold out and subsequent injury. He's only received about a month of reps. As a result he's still not seeing the cut back lanes and sliding off tacklers for the extra yard or two which keyed his success last season. I mean he's running directly into linebackers and it's not like he's ever been adept at bulldozing ballcarriers with his lean frame. Some improvement will surely come with practice throughout his season. If he would have ran for more than 54 yards against Dallas, the Packers could have: kept the dominant Dallas O-Line from wearing down our thin front 4, scored TD's instead of field goals, and thrown the deep ball; potentially beating Dallas.

I expect the Packers to finish with above .500 record from this point forward.