By: Chris Terlop
Injuries have plagued the Packers the past few years and head coach Mike McCarthy plans to prepared this season. In the first day of OTA’s being open to the public and the media it was obvious that players will spend a lot of this offseason learning multiple roles, anticipating injuries that are bound to happen.
One of the most obvious was 290-pound defensive end lining up at outside linebacker for a few plays. When asked about it McCarthy said, “We're going to expand Mike Neal's role. Going to wait on specifics until Week 1 of the season.” Now Neal may have been out there on Tuesday because Dezman Moses missed practice and the Packers are short-handed, but the reps will be helpful if there are other plans at work here.
Tight End may be the deepest position on the Packers’ roster this season and they were lined up all over the field on Tuesday. Jermichael Finley, Andrew Quarless, Brandon Bostic, DJ Williams, Matthew Mulligan, even undrafted rookie Jake Stoneburner were lined up with a hand on the ground, in the slot, split out wide, and as fullbacks and H-backs. Getting these human mismatches to understand multiple positions will take advantage of the depth and will allow McCarthy to use them if injuries hit the receiving corps.
Speaking of receivers, McCarthy wants all of his receivers comfortable in the slot and out wide; “Ability to stay interchangeable a true asset to program, especially at wide receiver. Ability to keep moving players around is something we feel we can use to our advantage. How it plays out in game plan will ultimately tell the story.” He went on to say James (Jones) and Jordy (Nelson) will get reps in the slot and it will be important for them to get that down as well.
Last but not least, the starting offensive line is all set outside of right tackle. The second squad, however, was a place of experiments. Greg Van Roten took snaps at center and guard, while Don Barclay and David Bakhtiari took snaps at both right and left tackle. Andrew Datko joined the fun taking snaps at both guard positions. The Packers refuse to be caught off guard this year if the injury bug bites the line again.
It is always better to be proactive than reactive and that is exactly what McCarthy and his staff are doing this offseason. Versatility could very well save the Packers’ season.
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