The Packers are going to be playing Morgan Burnett at LB more this upcoming season (per Pete Dougherty) and the Safety will be replaced with Kentrell Brice.

Arizona did something similar with a Safety last season and I think it's a good move to get more versatile and faster.

What do you think about this?

---

with Burnett I think it would only be on passing downs. Because our ILB can't cover. Burnett isn't big enough IMO to hold up against the run and Olineman. The guy in AZ I believe is around 225lb now. There are a couple interesting prospects in the draft if the team wants to look at a hybrid like that. I had hoped that Aaron Rouse would have worked into a role like this back when him and Nick Collins were in the development stage yet.

Obi Melifonwu, S from Connecticut. 6'4" 224lb, 4.40 40yd, 44" vertical. Might make a good matchup against TEs in the NFL today. We would probably need to spend our 1st on him or move up in the 2nd.
Obi Melifonwu 

Montae Nicholson, S from Mich St. 6'2" 212lb, 4.42 40yd, 35" vertical. Not as good a matchup on TE but being a little shorter might make him better in the run game. And we might be able to get him in the 3rd and have our 1st and 2nd rounder picks for pass rush.
Montae Nicholson 

---

I like the idea!
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds and how effective it is.
We need something, anything to make this defense better.

Brice is good.. Either way it will be better than watching Hyde trail the crossing routes by 5 yards.

Link?

The Packers’ ability to move Burnett around and not lose anything on the back end was one of the defense’s greatest strengths in 2016. Clinton-Dix played all 1,237 defensive snaps, with promising undrafted rookie Kentrell Brice assuming 336 snaps when Burnett dropped down to cornerback or linebacker.

http://www.packers.com/news-and-events/article-player-feature/article-1/Morgan-Burnett-tested-his-limits-in-2016/f001a711-b92b-4a08-991d-560a125a42c5#ixzz4cHYNooHc 

When Kentrell Brice was injured on the 1st play of the Atlanta game, the ability to move Morgan around went out the door.

Add The fact that Burnett, Randall and Rollins were all less than 100% and then Hyde goes out with an injury, that pretty much sums up what went wrong.

Looking foward to see what 2017 has in store for The Packer db's.

---

Link 

---

At this time of the year many like to speculate and project and imagine . Ted Thompson always adds to this drama with his annual smoke and mirrors campaign. He brings in potential draftees at different positions to divert attention away from his true intended direction.

IMO, the Packers greatest need is at the CB position. I would trade into the top 4 to get Ohio State's Marshon Lattimore ahead of Tennessee . Leave Morgan Burnett in his Safety position. Better CB play would help the pass rushers put more pressure on opposing QB's .

GB's LB's and OL can handle rushing attacks, the greatest area of critical need is to shut down opposing passing attacks. Yes the short passing game does require GB's LBs to play in coverage, but I believe that Martinez and the others will step up to that challenge this season .

The key position is at CB/CB's , get rid of the dead weight and get the very best quality that this upcoming draft has to offer.

---

I'm thinking they need to think about reinforcing Safety if Burnett is going to play a lot of LB. Without Burnett the Safety group looks pretty thin and one key injury could get them into trouble.

Safety group (without Burnett)
Clinton-Dix, Ha Ha
Brice, Kentrell
Evans, Marwin
Whitehead, Jermaine


Brice might be ready to step up... but is Evans and/or Whitehead? Just feel like they should add extra depth there (FA or draft) if Burnett truly is going to be playing a lot of LB this year.

Of course, they the link just says doing it more... it doesn't say a lot more.

So Burnett is replacing Hyde, and Brice is replacing Burnett is what I'm thinking this means.


Also one other thought... on the play where Eagles Barbre injured Matthews, Barbre went to block Burnett at LB... and Barbre smartly realized that Burnett wasn't reacting to the play and was frozen there trying to figure it out still, while Matthews was hard charging and attacking the play... Barbre then left Burnett to get Matthews.

If Burnett was reacting to the play, Barbre probably would of blocked him, which would of gave Matthews the clear shot at making the play... but because Burnett wasn't reacting quickly at LB, Barbre got a cheap shot (according to Matthews) in on another player, injuring that player.

So, I slightly blame Burnett slow diagnosis/reaction time at LB to that play, partly to blame with Matthews getting injured.

Now of course you can't (or shouldn't) judge a player solely based on one play... but I wondered how much slow diagnosis/reaction happened on other plays with Burnett at LB.

---