There has been a fair amount of roster turnover for the 2012 Green Bay
Packers. In just nine weeks, six players that started the season on the initial 53-man roster were either cut or put on injured
reserve. To get a feel for how much the Packers are missing each of the
six players no longer on the initial 53-man roster, here is a quick
look at where I ranked the six of them in my initial player rankings:
#52) Brandian Ross (CB)
- the biggest surprise to me on the initial 53-man roster was cut and
signed to the practice squad to make way for Erik Walden once he served
his one game suspension for off the field transgressions. Ross was
signed to the Oakland Raiders 53-man roster by former Green Bay Packers director of player personal Reggie
McKenzie, who is now the general manger for the Oakland Raiders. Look
for a number
of players that are cut by the Packers over the next few years to land
with the Raiders thanks to McKenzie's connection to the Packers.
#49) Phillip Merling (DL)
- I questioned the decision to keep Merling instead of Daniel Muir but
either one was going to be cut once Mike Neal returned from suspension a
quarter of the way through the season anyhow since Neal clearly has
incriminating information on one of the higher ups in the Packers
organization.
#47) Brandon Saine (RB) - A quality special teams player that
never got a real chance to play offensively is lost for the season with a
knee injury. Fellow running back Alex Green went through the same
thing between last year so Green will be a good resource
for Saine since next year will be a make-or-break year for Saine's NFL
career.
#31) Cedric
Benson (RB) - I have always been skeptical that the Packers actually need a
three-down running back. After seeing how well Benson performed in
limited action early in the season running with a real purpose, he
suffered a lis franc injury. The Packers put Benson on the "modified
injured reserve" so they have the option to add him back to the active
roster eight weeks from October 10th. Hopefully Benson can return
healthy because the Packers have gotten below average results from
their other running back (Green, Kuhn, and Starks).
#20) D.J. Smith (MLB) - According
to NFL advanced stats nerds, middle linebacker and safety are two
easiest positions to replace on defense. Since the Packers play a 3-4
defense they need at least two middle linebackers. The Packers lost
their best middle linebacker (Desmond Bishop) before the season started
so it looked like they could ill afford to lose their second best middle linebacker as well. A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones have been pretty good filling in
for Bishop and Smith so may be the stat hears are right.
#15) Nick Perry (OLB) - When news reports surfaced that Perry was
"going for a second opinion on his knee" he was actually having season
ending hand surgery. Perry being lost for the season coincided with
Claymaker getting hurt as well so the Packers might be forced to start
two new outside linebackers when they return from their bye. Obviously
Claymaker is irreplaceable but I feel confident that Erik Walden is
better than Perry now (may be not in 2013 though) so that might actually be an upgrade. Leaving Walden aside though, I
question whether Dezman Moses or Frank Zombo can even be 50% of
Claymaker.
Thompson replaced the six players discussed above with Andrew Quarless (TE),
Mike Neal (DE), Greg Van Roten (OG), Erik Walden (OLB), Johnny White
(RB), and Frank
Zombo (OLB). Check back tomorrow for where I rank the new roster
additions along with their 47 teammates in my mid-season player rankings
for the current 53-man Green Bay Packers roster.
No comments:
Post a Comment