Grading rookie safeties 

Nice article over at NFP. A slew of rookie safeties across the league will be evaluated over the next couple weeks of preseason. Obviously we are in a situtation where our hand is being forced most likely for Burnett to start week 1. Included is what I believe a fine list of criteria of what we should watch for starting Saturday. Will keep this checklist handy for Saturday night and see if Burnett is the real deal.

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I hope Burnett stands out come saturday, he and how the d-line looks when its not Raji, Jenkins and Pickett, along with the OLB position is what ill pay most of my attention to.

The Punting battle is also intresting, but i doubt anyone of them is gonna be real good anyways, seems thats like a theme for this packers team, no stable O-line and poor punting.

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I wonder if other teams spend much time game planning around our poor punting game; or if they spend more time worrying about our prolific offense?

Remeber the curse of Craig Hentrich, and that one we hang on Wolf.

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We shouldnt give up on bettering aspects of our team, just because we seem to have gotten it together on offence. Though i agree that i would rather field a good offensive team, than a good punting team.

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A GBPG article discussed how they are putting a lot more emphasis on ST during practice. They are working very hard on the holding penalties that kept our return yardage down on Punt and Kick returns. They are also working on getting off blocks, tackling and lane discipline so the coverage teams don't have breakdowns. The Kickers are both having good camps and while Masthay has a slightly stronger leg, Bryan has some tricks in his bag from Australia. His directional and pooch punting outstanding and his get off time is better.

Another thing they are doing is putting more veterans in special teams. Like Holmgren did in '96.

I would post a link but I don't want to Hijack Tezzy's thread.

I am disapointed Bigby is hurt. Not because I like Bigby, but because I would rather Burnette have some competition. If he is better than Bigby, great, we are upgrading. But we don't know unless they can compete against each other. If he isn't Bibgy would stay the starter while Burnette developed.

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If I don't hear his name, I'm happy. As long as he's assignment sound, that's the most important thing because GB has a tendency to get out of position.

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I'm not to worried about the pass defending aspect of his game. I am a little concerned about his tackling though. Coming out of college, people were knocking his tackling ability.

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Thanks for the article, Tezzy. That's a nice breakdown of the skills needed to play safety in the NFL. I think Porky makes a good point. If we don't hear Burnett's name, that will be a good sign. A pick would be nice, of course, but then I might worry that it would go to his head and he would start freelancing a little out there. A solid, boring preseason is probably the best thing that could happen for him.

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