The NFL’s trading deadline came and went and as usual the Green Bay Packers did not even attempt to improve their team, even though they have one of the league’s worst offenses to this point and apparently have no faith in young players like Jared Abbrederis, Jeff Janis and Kennard Backman. The Packers receiving corp has been awful, yet only one of those three players has even caught a pass. Just imagine how much of an improvement to the tight end group Vernon Davis would have been.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is deathly afraid to throw an interception and ruin his stats so he only really has three targets – Randall Cobb, James Jones and Davante Adams. Cover those guys and Rodgers hangs on to the ball and either takes a sack or tries to run. Hence, the Packers are ranked 28th in total offense this year.
I think the biggest problem is Rodgers doesn’t trust his young receivers and until “you have earned his trust” you won’t see any passes. Abbrederis has been on the roster for weeks and doesn’t even have a target. Same with Backman, who has been on the roster all year watching Richard Rodgers do nothing.
Under the Packers’ previous quarterback, Brett Favre, if you were on the field you were good to enough to contribute. He wouldn’t hesitate to throw it to anyone, covered or not. Worked out pretty good for him as he won more games than anybody until Peyton Manning tied him Sunday night. Favre played that way in Green Bay, New York and Minnesota. He made stars out of guys like Jerricho Cotchery and Percy Harvin for heaven’s sake.
I don’t think the Packers will be able to attain any of their goals until they start using all of their weapons. The problem is we are now eight games into the season so these guys have lost seven games of seasoning. It’s basically now or never. They might have to take their lumps and lose a few games but I think they are going to have a hard time winning the way it is now anyway. Get the young guys some balls and maybe you have some weapons to rally with down the stretch.
Rodgers needs to change his ways if the Packers are going to make a run this year. It is absolutely amazing that Rodgers has never been able to lead his team back from a 10-point halftime deficit. But it’s hard to rally when you are so conservative.
It will be interesting to see if last Sunday’s embarrassing performance instigates any change in philosophy. If not, the Packers chances of making the playoffs will drop significantly. Four of their last six games are against teams that currently have winning records and the Packers have only beaten one such team, the St. Louis Rams in Lambeau, with a winning record.
It’s gut-check time in Green Bay.