Packers 2023 Discussion Thread

[Joseph Zarr]

32 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

Well alight then.

https://wisportsheroics.com/nfl-green-bay-packers-linebacker-scamming-blake-martinez/

Yikes. Not a good look.

[BrewerFan]

8 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Family Night Observations:

• I remain befuddled by how the Packers as an organization and the local stations covering Family Night. 73K people there. International fan base. Had to randomly find the stream in Twitch? Repeatedly cutting away to commercials in team portions? Lame.
• After an over-amped overthrowing beginning to his practice, J Love was fantastic. He has such a good arm. He looked natural in the pocket (I know, doesn't mean much under fake live fire)
• WR Malik Heath looks like something. He really does. The off-season hype appears real.
• WR Jayden Reed looks like something
• TE Luke Musgrave is going to be a big problem for opposing defenses. I hope hope hope he stays healthy.
• RB Tyler Goodson appeared to get the predominant amount of 3rd team RB reps
• K Anders Carlson was very good. 8-of-9. Several 50 yd + boots. The lone miss was a terrible snap and a bad timing play. He appears to have plenty of leg to hit 55 yarders - something I definitely can't say about late 30's Mason Crosby
• C Josh Myers continues to have problems. I am pretty sure there have been five miscue snaps/exchanges throughout TC and he has been the C for all of them? He misfired an early snap to J-Love in an 11-on-11 period. A classic case of a Center snapping when the QB is getting the motion man going and was completely unawares. Not drafting C Creed Humphrey continues to haunt the Packers as they fell prey to their stubborn requirements over a clearly more talented player.
• S Jonathan Owens again started and played with the Ones
• DL Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden were in the backfield quite a bit with the back-ups. 
• DL Devontae Wyatt continues to flash

That's about all I saw. Curious if anyone else tuned in and saw other things.

I think that's all pretty accurate. It really does suck to think about the Humphrey vs Myers pick. It was a head scratcher at the time, but so have other Packers picks(Reed for instance or Rashan Gary for many). But man, that one hurts in retrospect. It's not even like drafting Sternberger a pick or two ahead of McClaurin, it's passing on the consensus #1 Center who was projected as high as a late 1st and taking a guy who was mocked much further down.

That said, I'll trust the Packers as they really do draft well(particularly if you ignore the 3rd round).

But Myers has looked like a miss for a while now. I'd just trust Stenovich and company, but this is the same group that inexplicably started Turner and Kelly when Nijman had been playing well, that started the year with Newman getting snaps. There have been a couple of situations they've been slow to act. I hope that's not the case here and Myers has a full season and with Jenkins and JRJ being as assignment solid a Guard combo as you can get, he'll start to play better...but I'm skeptical and that's without accounting for the bad snaps.

 

I like Tyler Goodson. He checks almost every box. He has great speed, he makes the right reads(which is an issue Dillon has, though he looked good last night). The only issue is he is taken down by arm tackles that Aaron Jones just runs right through. That's a part of Jones game that's wildly underrated. His power running. He's not Derek Henry, but for a little guy, he runs with a wide base and keeps those legs moving. 

Now, this part, I've got to remind myself the defense is always ahead of the offense in 11 on 11's and no OL grouping is going to play well when they're rotating in and out, BUT...the IOL didn't look good. Didn't look like they were passing off their men well at all. There was one play where Karl Brooks came off a stunt and you had 3 to block 2 and the LG(not sure who it was) but he picked up Brooks late and Brooks just walked him into Clifford. On Brooks is part, it was a really well executed stunt. He disengaged and showed a great burst, but I THINK it was Newman, he was just on his heels.

That said, Brooks looked like he has a real burst and I saw at least one play where Wooden really flashed as well. The DL was constantly re-setting the OL as well. Which again, early in camp, no Bakh, no Jenkins and on the other side, only Gary wasn't playing, so it's to be expected.  

 

As a result of things like that, it's hard to really get a read for the QB play. It's not hard to get an read on the type of arm Love has or how smooth and easy Musgrave moves, how dynamic the young WRers look.

 

Without context, it's easy to feel more pessimistic about this offense after this Family Night, but then you just need to go back to Family Night a year ago and Rodgers and this offense weren't really moving the ball, they looked disjointed. So I'm trying to focus less on the fact that it seemed like the QB would have been hit or disrupted on every other throw and more focused on the throws and ball placement...and that looked good.

 

I am loving Musgrave and Reed in particular getting into it with Rasul Douglas and Jaire talking a little #%it to the WRers. It shows the rookies aren't intimidated and it shows the defense is not just counting the minutes during practice. They're really using this time to get better. Jaire is such a game changer.

Quote

 

TE Luke Musgrave is going to be a big problem for opposing defenses. I hope hope hope he stays healthy.

 

If I had to pick a "player of the night," or something corny like that, I'd have Carlson in there with his leg in front of 73K. That should quell some fears for a while. I'd have Mason on standby in case this team is good all the same, but great night from him.

The DL/OLBers looked explosive. I think Slaton has a breakout year. We said this last year, but I think it's coming. 

Watson, and the backup OTs Jones and Walker looked good, Van Ness looks like a young Rashan Gary(in that he's limited, strong as an ox, uses pretty much just a bull rush and hustles).

 

But Musgraves. What he did to Savage was....savage. He should be beating Savage on contested balls. And I understand Savage isn't Ed Reed, but he can cover from the slot. But when Musgrave put that shake on him at the top of his route and Savage went to the ground? DAMN that was dirty. That's the NFL's version of Trae Young crossing a guy over, putting him on his rear, then looking down at him, giving the little shoulder shimmy and draining the 3.

He could be one of those immediate impact players, and if he stays healthy...our first real threat since Finley? Jimmy Graham had a couple of productive years(overpaid, but productive). Tonyan was ultimately a disappointment, but had one big year. 

Musgrave looks like a totally different animal. He does look particularly soft in the blocking game, so he has a lot of room to go there, but the Packers are talking about how he's one of the FASTEST players on the team? I remember people saying he was disappointed in his 40 and all that, but, it's the Football speed. He's just smooth. He looks like Mike Cameron in CF chasing down a Fly Ball and just gliding. 

 

I think a personnel grouping with Watson, Musgraves, Doubs, Jones and then you could put Reed in there, Goodson as a Tyler Ervin type role, Dillon and have him serve as a lead blocker on occasion(as they did last year and was pretty effective). But all of those are going to open Musgraves up down the seem. 

Rodgers did not like throwing the ball over the middle, but I think that could open up the whole defense. If our starting secondary, assuming Stokes was healthy, matched up vs this receiving core, I think it'd be pretty interesting. 

Stokes-Watson(I'm just going speed and size and Stokes rookie year).
Jaire-Doubs(Doubs is a better route runner with deceptive speed).
Douglas- Reed?
Musgrave-Nixon or Douglas? 

Those guys are problems if they're healthy. If a team like KC plays Love the way they did in his first start...well, I don't think they'll stay in that coverage real long! 

                                                   

 

[homer]

 

 

[BrewerFan]

12 hours ago, homer said:

 

 

Just...swap out Chicago for Gotham. 

[BrewerFan]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:43 PM, Joseph Zarr said:

DL Devontae Wyatt continues to flash

Some really good tape from Family Night breaking down Wyatt. You see the potential.

Also take note that Van Ness gets a bull rush where he catches Tom off balance and on his heels and Tom recovers and while LVN may have made Love reset, Tom's recovery is reminiscent of Bakhtiari.  If they don't move Tom to Center, I really see both the physical similarities and the technical similarities between he and Bakh. 

 

Now, on this first play, we all know Newman isn't a world beater...but that's still impressive how Wyatt basically throws him.
ALSO love how they lined up with Two edges heads up over the OT in a 7 tech, the two DL at 4I or 3 Techniques and then had Quay and the other MLBer both in the A gaps while playing press. Just PLEASE find more ways to get Quay attacking in space, but I think we see this look vs the Bears but with Quay spying Fields.

 

But onto the whole point;

 

[HarryDoyle]

14 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

Some really good tape from Family Night breaking down Wyatt. You see the potential.

Also take note that Van Ness gets a bull rush where he catches Tom off balance and on his heels and Tom recovers and while LVN may have made Love reset, Tom's recovery is reminiscent of Bakhtiari.  If they don't move Tom to Center, I really see both the physical similarities and the technical similarities between he and Bakh. 

 

Now, on this first play, we all know Newman isn't a world beater...but that's still impressive how Wyatt basically throws him.
ALSO love how they lined up with Two edges heads up over the OT in a 7 tech, the two DL at 4I or 3 Techniques and then had Quay and the other MLBer both in the A gaps while playing press. Just PLEASE find more ways to get Quay attacking in space, but I think we see this look vs the Bears but with Quay spying Fields.

 

But onto the whole point;

 

Newman isn't even a country bumpkin town beater. He's still on the team?

[BrewerFan]

4 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Newman isn't even a country bumpkin town beater. He's still on the team?

Yeah, I don't know what happened there. They seemed to like him...and he doesn't grade out as badly as he looked and "only" gave up 3 sacks, but I think that was Rodgers.

He's pretty similar to Elgton in terms of size, athletic ability...even both Miss. boys(at least for school). But he was a disaster at RT and he's not someone who inspires much faith, even as the 4th G or 4th or 5th OT. But unless Walker or Rhyan or someone moves ahead of him at Guard, he might make the team again. I'm not sure if Walker has even been getting reps at guard. 

 

Jake Hanson is still on the roster too, so...

That IOL just doesn't look great past Jenkins, JRJ and maybe Tom, Myers

Bakh, Jenkins, Tom, Myers, Runyan Jr, Nijman, Walker, Jones, Tenuta...and I think Newman will make the roster again this year.

Maybe they add a Guard or maybe he just gets better this year like TJ Lang. Remember how bad he looked rotating between RT and G first two years? 

[CheezWizHed]

Newman looked good (for a rookie) the first year, but he certainly couldn't pick up a stunt to save his life... I had hopes that was a rookie thing and he'd get stronger and smarter, but it certainly seemed like he is stuck in neutral.  Only highlights I've seen of him so far is of someone running him over. 

[HarveysWBs]

It’s preseason, but Jordan Love looked competent, and that’s a whole lot better than looking incompetent. So we’ve got that going for us…

[BrewerFan]

About as fun of a Pre-season game as I've seen in a long time. It reflected the youth and excitement around the team.

QB-Both Love and Clifford looked good.
Love was sharp. Very clean. One mistake came trying to force the ball to Watson vs Cover2. That's just a play that comes with experience. I would assume he was supposed to try and look the safety off and if the Safety doesn't bit, come back to Reed who was running a deep crosser and was wide open for what would have been a 20-30 yard gain depending on where he put it.

Also missed Musgrave on a throw he HAS to make(that guy really needs to stay healthy as he looks like such a difference maker).

Clifford looked like everything you want from a backup QB. He's not a threat to Love unless Love is bad, but he's an athlete, he's got decent size(6'2 222 4.62 40) and he looked decisive. Just lacks the arm strength to throw those longer routes from the opposite hash. But that's why he was a 5th Rd pick. After ONE Pre-season game, he seems to have justified one of the more controversial picks of the Packers draft.

No surprises. I think the 2 expected to make the roster make it.

RB-Jones caught a nice little ball from Love, got tackled and MLF got him the hell outta there. 

A pretty disappointing performance from this group as a whole. Goodson, a guy I was high on last year(I think just about every Packers fan was) again just goes down with a stiff breeze. He's a scat back. I'm not sure he runs with more authority than Tyler Ervin. Patrick Taylor is fine. A STer.

Emanuel Wilson though...even without that 80 yard TD run, he looked like a dude. 5'11 229 and he showed great vision and balance. Then on the big run after bouncing off a couple guys, their safety has the angle coming downhill and Wilson just outruns the angle. I'd predict we go with 2 RBs again and then call up Taylor, Goodson again, but Wilson may force our hand. Especially with Dillon as FA. 

WRer-Malik Heath just played outstanding in every facet. The Packers HAVE to love the run blocking as much as snagging a couple of tough balls in the middle of the field knowing the safety was closing on him.

But when he ran the CB into the kicking net, then backed off and drew the penalty? That is the type of thing that helps you make a team. 

Toure-The guy the Packers coaches and FO bring up unsolicited on a regular basis had a ugly play on a KR, but outside of that, he also played about as well as you could ask. 

Reed went up and showed how tenacious he is in 50/50 situations. 

Wicks, Heath and Toure look like they've gotta be the obvious favorites behind Watson, Doubs and Reed to make the team. 

 

TE-Musgrave only finished with 1 catch on 8 yards, but Love missed him on one, Clifford missed him on another. But he was constantly getting open.
Austin Allen- at 6'8 260 was WIDE open with room to run and pick up 20-25 yards on that Packer boot off the outsize zone action and Clifford just missed him. Despite the size, he's not a great inline blocker.

I think Big Dawg would be inking a contract to return to Green Bay had Tyler Davis injured himself a week earlier.

 

OL-Really interesting to me that JRJ and Tom both took snaps at Center. 
Caleb Jones looked good when he was in. Didn't see the injury, so hopefully it's minor...but again, a 6'9 370LB OT gets an ankle injury, is it ever minor? 
Luke Tenuta who looks like HE could be a nice project who starts paying dividends this year, he went down with what looked like a much more significant injury SOLELY from the look on his face. 

 

Rasheed Walker was really lazy on a couple of outsize zones going away from him. He HAS to close down...and while it's tough to beat the 3 tech to the spot, you're blocking down. You have to take him and just move him. That's the WHOLE point of the play. TO OPEN THE CUTBACK LANES. One one big loss the Bengals 97 crossed his face, the Packers got no movement on the right side and IIRC, it was Taylor, he had to cut back and it was a 5-6 yards loss because Walker gave up on the play. 

There was too much mixing and matching to really tell how Schnieder did or any other individuals for the most part. JRJ looked capable at Center. I think that's a really interesting development. It's clear the Packers are not happy with Myers. 

Oh, we DID have some Sean Rhyan sightings and he looked good. I believe he and Newman were in the game on the Wilson runs. 

 

Offense-Looked about as clean as you could have hoped for week 1 of the Pre-season.

Emanuel Wilson, Malik Heath and Sean Clifford did the most IMO to cement or improve their chances to make the team.

 

DEFENSE--

Well, they were flying around. 

Valentine looks like a dude, Cox Jr looked good. The young DL looked good, particularly Wooden IMO. Enagbare looked good.

Slaton showed a lot more burst last night. Ford also looked much better getting into the backfield. Tariq Carpenter was up and down, but in there for 3 quarters. Clearly the Packers wanted to get a long look at him. 

 

Secondary-CB looks like it's a deep group. Nixon, Valentin and Ballentine played aggressive vs the run.

 

Some breakdowns, but Joe Barry seemed like he might, could be following through on promises to be more aggressive. Put together more aggressive schemes than we've seen from a Packers defensive unit in a long time for a Pre-season game. 

 

The defense is far more set than the offense, so it was more about how the fringe players played and I think those guys did as well as you could have reasonably expected. 

Safety is a problem, but with the depth we have at CB, I'm still hoping we see Douglas playing some safety. Nixon also looks like the nickel at this point. Especially with Stokes fighting back from a pretty significant lower leg injury.

 

Overall, this was what you hope you see from such a young team with so many guys fighting for playing time, for roster spots. Doesn't really tell me much about what this team will look like during a 17 game schedule, but they played fast, they bounced back from mistakes and Love showed about as much as you could have hoped.

 

[GAME05]

Clifford has confidence and I like where he's putting the ball, but he sure likes to lock eyes on his first read. 

[yourout]

Beautiful night in Lambeau.

 

[homer]

Packers are gonna have to make some tough cuts on offense 

[yourout]

37 minutes ago, homer said:

Packers are gonna have to make some tough cuts on offense 

Really like the young group of receivers

[yourout]

Outside of the kicking situation safety is by far the weakest position in the squad.

They need to be looking to trade for a vet.

[BrewerFan]

4 hours ago, yourout said:

Outside of the kicking situation safety is by far the weakest position in the squad.

They need to be looking to trade for a vet.

I don't think outside of kicker, I think just in general.

Carlson is going through his rookie bumps, but he's got a monster leg and he can look really good at times.

But the safety position...unless we get an unexpected contribution from Savage and then move Douglas(which seems unlikely)...I don't know what the plan is.

1st-Get Stokes back. The CB position at the moment should afford him plenty of opportunity to take his time, but outside of that, you have

CB-4 Locks(Stokes PUP)
-Jaire(true #1)
-Valentine -They've said he's arguably not just been the standout rookie of the camp, but the standout PLAYER...which is insane as a 7th round pick, but every time we've seen him, he looks outstanding. He looks like a starting outside CB.
-Nixon-Has the slot position 
-Douglas- He's filled in very well, but he's not an ideal match with these other CBs. Even Moreso when Stokes comes back. He's at his best reading the QBs eyes, playing the ball. 

Likely to make 53

-Corey Ballentine-He's a competitive CB. He's looked good at times. He's physical and a very good STer.

Long shots

-Jean-Charles-Seen some flashes from him, but we've seen those the last couple years. 
Practice Squad
-Kiondre Thomas-He's physical and pretty solid in coverage, but has had a quiet camp.
At this point, I think he's waived and finds a place elsewhere.
-William Hooper- He's got good speed, he's also made some nice plays, but he's also been very physical.
He has one more week and has a chance to play himself onto STs.

Joe Barry needs to be creative and get the 4 CBs on the field as much as possible.

Savage-Should get another chance, but he's best suited as a slot and he's not been very physical. Just kinda peaked year 2 and then hasn't been reliable since.
Sapp, Ford...none of them have really shown much.

Anthony Johnson is a guy I'm holding out some hope for. He may not start early on, but he has the ability to work his way into the lineup. Good coverage skills, physical...and smart. 

 

That'd be my secondary

Jaire/Valentine/Douglas/Nixon/Savage and then Anthony Johnson in the nickel or Rudy Ford if you need a little more thump. But you can move guys around. Just call it 4 CBs and 1 Safety if it makes Barry feel less apprehensive about "moving Douglas to safety." Let him play Robber or play some Cover3 match with him playing that underneath zone. Less run and cover, more read the QB and jumping routes. 

 

[yourout]

8 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

I don't think outside of kicker, I think just in general.

Carlson is going through his rookie bumps, but he's got a monster leg and he can look really good at times.

But the safety position...unless we get an unexpected contribution from Savage and then move Douglas(which seems unlikely)...I don't know what the plan is.

1st-Get Stokes back. The CB position at the moment should afford him plenty of opportunity to take his time, but outside of that, you have

CB-4 Locks(Stokes PUP)
-Jaire(true #1)
-Valentine -They've said he's arguably not just been the standout rookie of the camp, but the standout PLAYER...which is insane as a 7th round pick, but every time we've seen him, he looks outstanding. He looks like a starting outside CB.
-Nixon-Has the slot position 
-Douglas- He's filled in very well, but he's not an ideal match with these other CBs. Even Moreso when Stokes comes back. He's at his best reading the QBs eyes, playing the ball. 

Likely to make 53

-Corey Ballentine-He's a competitive CB. He's looked good at times. He's physical and a very good STer.

Long shots

-Jean-Charles-Seen some flashes from him, but we've seen those the last couple years. 
Practice Squad
-Kiondre Thomas-He's physical and pretty solid in coverage, but has had a quiet camp.
At this point, I think he's waived and finds a place elsewhere.
-William Hooper- He's got good speed, he's also made some nice plays, but he's also been very physical.
He has one more week and has a chance to play himself onto STs.

Joe Barry needs to be creative and get the 4 CBs on the field as much as possible.

Savage-Should get another chance, but he's best suited as a slot and he's not been very physical. Just kinda peaked year 2 and then hasn't been reliable since.
Sapp, Ford...none of them have really shown much.

Anthony Johnson is a guy I'm holding out some hope for. He may not start early on, but he has the ability to work his way into the lineup. Good coverage skills, physical...and smart. 

 

That'd be my secondary

Jaire/Valentine/Douglas/Nixon/Savage and then Anthony Johnson in the nickel or Rudy Ford if you need a little more thump. But you can move guys around. Just call it 4 CBs and 1 Safety if it makes Barry feel less apprehensive about "moving Douglas to safety." Let him play Robber or play some Cover3 match with him playing that underneath zone. Less run and cover, more read the QB and jumping routes. 

 

I think they probably learned more about where they're at last night versus the Cincinnati game.

Much closer test for the offense to the actual regular season game.

[BrewerFan]

7 hours ago, yourout said:

I think they probably learned more about where they're at last night versus the Cincinnati game.

Much closer test for the offense to the actual regular season game.

It's always hard to tell. A lot of times the younger teams will look the best in pre-season as you're playing guys who could/should play a big role in the regular season later in the pre-season games.

 

Heath for example, he's made this roster IMO. I can't imagine how he doesn't. And I think he's going play a significant role in STs before earning snaps on offense, but he brings that toughness you lost with Lazard. 

Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden are both guys who have looked good. Enagbare has looked outstanding. Van Ness looks...one dimensional at this point, but sooo much like Gary(power rush and then hustling down the field to make plays). 

I don't know what this team is in terms of Wins and Losses, but there is a whole lot of exciting young talent.

Musgrave, Reed, Heath, Wicks, Valentine(he really looks like a starter in the NFL...and I don't care if he's covering backups).
Wilson is a guy I think they lose if they don't keep him. And I know people think that every year, there's always going to be a guy fans think will get claimed...ignoring each team has players like that. But Wilson is different. The balance he runs with, the power, speed and MOST importantly, his vision and reads are better than any RB sans Aaron Jones.
 

And Clifford has been an awesome surprise as well. 

 

It's got a similar feeling to the Brewers. This year probably won't be "the year," just as '24 likely won't be the year for the Brewers, but you can see so many of the pieces in place. And then you look ahead at the '24 draft, which is insanely deep, particularly where the Packers likely need help(OT/DL)...and I'm just hoping the old man in New York gets to 65% of the plays.

[yourout]

15 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

It's always hard to tell. A lot of times the younger teams will look the best in pre-season as you're playing guys who could/should play a big role in the regular season later in the pre-season games.

 

Heath for example, he's made this roster IMO. I can't imagine how he doesn't. And I think he's going play a significant role in STs before earning snaps on offense, but he brings that toughness you lost with Lazard. 

Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden are both guys who have looked good. Enagbare has looked outstanding. Van Ness looks...one dimensional at this point, but sooo much like Gary(power rush and then hustling down the field to make plays). 

I don't know what this team is in terms of Wins and Losses, but there is a whole lot of exciting young talent.

Musgrave, Reed, Heath, Wicks, Valentine(he really looks like a starter in the NFL...and I don't care if he's covering backups).
Wilson is a guy I think they lose if they don't keep him. And I know people think that every year, there's always going to be a guy fans think will get claimed...ignoring each team has players like that. But Wilson is different. The balance he runs with, the power, speed and MOST importantly, his vision and reads are better than any RB sans Aaron Jones.
 

And Clifford has been an awesome surprise as well. 

 

It's got a similar feeling to the Brewers. This year probably won't be "the year," just as '24 likely won't be the year for the Brewers, but you can see so many of the pieces in place. And then you look ahead at the '24 draft, which is insanely deep, particularly where the Packers likely need help(OT/DL)...and I'm just hoping the old man in New York gets to 65% of the plays.

Heath and Reed's hands are really impressive. Both of them can get balls in contested space.

[BrewerFan]

On 8/20/2023 at 7:31 PM, yourout said:

Heath and Reed's hands are really impressive. Both of them can get balls in contested space.

I'd like to see Musgrave make a contested catch, but he's always open...nobody can cover him!

But Reed goes up and gets the ball like AB. Just that mentality that he's coming down with it.

Heath is gonna be a fan favorite.

[CheezWizHed]

I was impressed by Love yesterday.  He hasn't seen much pressure this year, but he really was unfazed by it.  I absolutely loved the little pump fake that got a blitzer up in the air and then he simply side-stepped and ran past him. BEEE-AAA-utiful.

Love has shown enough in pre-season to be at least an average starter at QB.  How will he be able to produce against starting defenses that are game-planned against him?  How will he be able to adjust the offense, pick-up blitzes and hot reads?  How will his accuracy look in tight coverage or throwing WRs open?  Those are the things that will determine if he is a decent starting QB or a top-tier QB.  

I'm looking forward to the season!

[BrewerFan]

4 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

I was impressed by Love yesterday.  He hasn't seen much pressure this year, but he really was unfazed by it.  I absolutely loved the little pump fake that got a blitzer up in the air and then he simply side-stepped and ran past him. BEEE-AAA-utiful.

Love has shown enough in pre-season to be at least an average starter at QB.  How will he be able to produce against starting defenses that are game-planned against him?  How will he be able to adjust the offense, pick-up blitzes and hot reads?  How will his accuracy look in tight coverage or throwing WRs open?  Those are the things that will determine if he is a decent starting QB or a top-tier QB.  

I'm looking forward to the season!

One thing that's been really good for Love is that he has not been pressured in this pre-season. 

He's either gotten the ball out quickly, or he's run play action and has had really nice pockets. That throw to Reed vs the Pats(IIRC) where he's running a crosser and holds the ball a little longer to let him clear the LBer is a perfect example. If our OL can do that for him this year, I think he's going to make the FO look very smart. 

A really good pre-season from him. Just two deep shots to Watson I didn't love. One he threw despite safety help over the top and the other in this last game Watson had a 4-5 yards in man coverage and Love underthrew him(it was into the wind).

That's getting awfully nit-picky for the preseason though.

 

But of course, his anticipation, identifying the coverages, blitzes, those will make the difference between a QB you can win with and a QB that will win you games. 

 

 

Clifford has been so much better than I'd hoped for behind Love as well. So I'm feeling very good about this offense going into the season. 

 

[CheezWizHed]

12 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

A really good pre-season from him. Just two deep shots to Watson I didn't love. One he threw despite safety help over the top and the other in this last game Watson had a 4-5 yards in man coverage and Love underthrew him(it was into the wind).

That's getting awfully nit-picky for the preseason though.

Yeah, I couple times I saw something kind of "meh" from him and had to think... did Rodgers do that last season (i.e. underthrow Watson or throw some contested balls)?  And the answer was yes.  The key will be how often he does it, but you expect the QB to attempt some splash plays that are semi-risky. 

His overall play though is very good.  His poise, patience, and pocket presence (alliteration unintended) have all been excellent in the pre-season against vanilla defenses.  The key will be if it remains that way in the regular season against blitzes and defenses built to stop him. 

[RobDeer 45]

How are we feeling about the Van Ness pick so far?  Haven't seen a ton on him and I know he's a bit of a project, long term pick.  Was just curious what the sentiment is on here.

[CheezWizHed]

Production wise, I'd say he is about the same as Gary during his first year.  He seems to be in the right place defensively (which Gary struggled with early), good hustle, he just isn't making any splash plays.

By judging where he plays in preseason games, he seems to be about 4th in the rotation... Gary, Smith, Hollins, LVN, and Engabare even though Engabare makes more splash plays and similarly has a good grasp of the D, holds the edges, etc...

I'm guessing that we won't see him much early in the season unless there is a blowout.