From the reports, looks like Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy want ten not nine players on the defensive line in order to dominant the line of scrimmage. I thought they would want more flexibility in the defense as a whole. That is my reasoning for seven linebackers. I guess that is why they get paid the big bucks J. Individual reports on the ten potential players for defensive line. We will start with Aaron Kampman, Aaron is having a solid training camp but he is still getting stuffed by Mark Tauscher in one on one pass blocking. That‘s, alright because the same thing was happening a year ago. Plus Kampman is coming off minor knee surgery. Ryan Pickett, on the other hand went into the doghouse on the first day of training camp due to not passing his physical testing. Basicly not finishing sprints in a certain amount of time between the width of the practice field. Ryan has recently past and is back on the field and clogging up the middle as usual. Corey Williams was immediately put as a backup to Justin Harrell when the official depth chart right before training camp started. Corey is playing with the starting line up due to the fact that rookie Justin Harrell is trying to get back into football shape after being out for 10 months from football. Then Cullen Jenkins, there was a report stating just recently that has Mike McCarthy saying that Jenkins is having a solid camp is ready for a possible breakout this year at defensive end position.
Now we will go over the second tier of players that could be on the final roster. One positive report coming out camp is on Michael Montgomery. Montgomery is having a monster camp and by all counts the coaching staff is looking to get him anywhere between 15 to 20 snaps a game. That will be huge for giving breaks to Kampman and Jenkins while keeping KGB only as a designated pass rusher. Montgomery has come from no where because last year he was left for dead due a knee injury toward the end of last season. The knee is fine and he has added 15lbs on his frame to be more stubborn against the rush. Another good report is that Collen Cole started out with the starters in the beginning of camp. Cole is still good against the rush. A bad report coming out of camp is from Johnny Jolly the second year defensive tackle had a solid off season but the month before showing up to training camp, something happened. He fail his physical training test along with Ryan Pickett. The Packers are not committed to Jolly and could easily go with an undrafted rookie Daniel Muir who has put together some solid practices before hurting his ankle. Muir is back and hopefully will play Saturday in the intra squad game. Getting back to Jolly, in one on ones pass rushing he was getting blocked by everyone except for Pat Murray. Pat is an undrafted rookie offensive lineman that at this moment just looks lost at training camp, but that is another story. KGB is the next player that is not getting a lot of positive press, due to not being able to get off blocks in order to rush the passer effectively. I had a feeling KGB might not be able to go back to his old ways of a designated rusher but we are early into camp. If KGB continues this way then look forward to Jason Hunter as his replacement. There was a scene with one of the defensive ends not being able to make it to the cooling tent. Larry Birdine collapsed to all fours just off the field and had a scolding from Carl Hairston to the effect, that type of effort or lack there of will not be accepted. Birdine, gave up on not finishing one of the defense line drills. So it looks like Larry Birdine just bought himself a one way ticket out of town.
At this moment that is all the updating I have except for the second installment of the potenial starting ten defensive lineman. Starting lineup Kampman, Pickett, Williams, Jenkins with Montgomery, Cole, Harrell, KGB then Muir for the defensive tackle and Hunter for defensive end as backups.
Go Pack!!!
By Joe Blackwell