Jermichael Finley still doesn’t trust his left knee. He doubts he’ll feel quite right until he has an offseason to heal.
But no matter how much treatment he has to get and how many scares he has to survive on the field, the second-year tight end is determined to keep making an impact for the Green Bay Packers’ offense.
This is, after all, the sort of contribution Finley expected to be making all season.
Since he returned from the sprained medial collateral ligament on Nov. 22 against San Francisco, no Packer has been targeted more (31 times) or caught more passes (22), thanks in large part to a mismatch-making role as slot receiver and split end defenses have yet to solve.
“The opponents don’t know that I kind of have a bum knee,” Finley said this week, referring to his production. “Hopefully, it can stay where it’s at right now — around 80, 85 percent and it’ll be good for the rest of the season.”
The injury dates to the first quarter on Oct. 25 at Cleveland, where Finley caught a pass on a crossing pattern from Aaron Rodgers and took a nasty-looking hit from defensive back Eric Wright.
An MRI revealed the sprained ligament, and though Finley pleaded his case for playing the following week at Minnesota, he didn’t return until four weeks later — the standard timeline for MCL injuries.
“It was a good call,” Finley said, “because I came out 100 (percent), and I’m starting to play ball now.”
The big scare came in the third quarter against Baltimore on Dec. 7, when Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth spun into him at the tail end of a running play. Fearing the worst, Finley went to the locker room to get checked out, but he returned a short time later to finish one of the finest games in his young career: seven receptions for 79 yards and two touchdowns in a crucial 27-14 victory.
He was in the next day for treatment that’s continued twice a day since, beginning with a session at 6:30 a.m. He says he doesn’t feel any pain in the knee, even if taking another hit so soon “didn’t help it none at all. It’s one of those things where you’re going to need that offseason to heal 100 (percent).”
Finley was on the injury report last week but was listed as probable, caught five passes for 70 yards in a win at Chicago and hasn’t been listed the past two days. That he’s in no immediate danger of missing more time is a major positive for a Packers offense that gradually is evolving to exploit his unique skill-set.
The majority of Finley’s damage in recent weeks has come on slants, stops and quick outs from standing positions, rather than the seams and deep outs he was accustomed to running from a traditional, three-point inline stance during his days at the University of Texas.
The Bears in particular tried to counter by having defensive backs jam Finley off the line, but at 6-foot-5 and 247 pounds, he can be quite physical — as cornerback Charles Tillman found out when Finley rocked him and caught a slant for 25 yards in the fourth quarter.
“I feel like that’s a big part of my game,” Finley said. “Guys want to press me and try to bully me, but at the same time, I’m like, that’s right down my alley. I’m licking at the chops when they do that to me.”
Finley also has so much speed and athleticism — he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.76 seconds and posted a 29-inch vertical at his pro-day workout in 2008 — defenses are reluctant to regularly match him against linebackers. So, opponents increasingly are countering the two- and three-tight sets the Packers played on 22 of 58 gradable snaps (37.9 percent) against Chicago by playing an extra defensive back.
“Sometimes, it’s a function of the right call at the right time against the right defense,” offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said. “But he’s shown up, he’s been productive, he’s caught the ball very well and he can create some problems, whether it’s zone or man. He’s got very good ball skills, moves well. I don’t know what his 40 time is … but he plays pretty fast, especially in the passing game.”
All of which could pay dividends for receivers Greg Jennings and Donald Driver if defenses start treating Finley, who had only six catches as a rookie, like the difference-maker he’s rapidly becoming. Since the San Francisco game, Rodgers’ ball distribution has been remarkably even between Finley (22 receptions for 228 yards and two TDs), Jennings (18-312-1) and Driver (17-224-2).
Asked if there ever was concern about Finley’s focus during his layoff, Philbin said, “He was rushing the guys, the trainers to get back onto the field. He looked at it as such a temporary injury that I don’t think it ever really got to that stage. If we had said, ‘Hey, it’s going to be a five-, six-week thing,’ then maybe we would have had some more concerns. But he was acting as if he was going to play the next week.”
Already with more production in four games since his return than six games before the injury, Finley has found peace of mind by deleting his Twitter account — “I needed to grow up; if I’d see one thing, I’d get mad and type something crazy” — but he remains a talker on the field.
He’s switched to a form-fitting, futuristic jersey that will make it harder for defenders to latch onto him at the line. And he has every intention of making a name around the league during the Packers’ playoff push, which he calls “something I’m going to do, for a fact.”
Provided the knee holds up.
“It’s just a trust issue,” Finley said. “But by game time, I’ll be so pumped that the knee is not something I’ve got to worry about.”
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