I think they should try and get him in the starting LT spot as soon as possible and see what they got. Clifton might not be happy about it but hes still getting paid a lot of money. If he struggles then we still have Clifton to put in which is a luxury we may not have in another season.

"Stevetarded" wrote:

Green Bay Packers rookie T Bryan Bulaga stays true to his roots 

By Rob Demovsky rdemovsk@greenbaypressgazette.com April 28, 2010

On their way to the top, athletes often hear people tell them not to forget where they came from.

No one needs to tell Green Bay Packers rookie Bryan Bulaga that.

He was one of 16 prospects invited to New York City for the NFL draft last week. Each invitee was allowed to bring a handful of people, some of whom sit in the green room with them while the rest are seated in a VIP area of Radio City Music Hall.

Like most of the prospects, Bulaga invited his family. His mother, Kathi; father, Joe; brother, Bill; and sister, Kim, got the four spots backstage. With three of his VIP tickets, Bulaga invited Ed Brucker, Steve Spoden and Dirk Stanger.

Who?

Brucker is the head coach at Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock, Ill., where Bulaga played his prep ball. Spoden is the offensive line coach and Stanger the offensive coordinator.

I think we were the only high school coaches there, said Stanger, a backup quarterback at the University of Wisconsin in the mid-1990s. I saw a lot of guys with family and extended family, but I didnt see too many high school coaches, no. That meant the world to me.

Thats Bulaga in a nutshell.

Or maybe its that after the Packers took him with the 23rd overall pick in the draft on Thursday night, he called Stanger the next day when he was back home in Crystal Lake, Ill.

He called me Friday night to see if I could open the weight room at the high school for him on Saturday, Stanger said. Thats just how humble he is. Here he is, two days after being drafted, and he doesnt need to go work out at some fancy place. He knows where his roots are, and his parents have done a phenomenal job raising him.

Thats Bulaga.

Or maybe its that on the night before he was preparing to come to Green Bay for this weekends rookie orientation camp, he was back at Marian Central talking to a group of freshmen football players who were about to begin a workout.

Im up in the weight room at the school right now with our freshmen, Brucker said on Tuesday evening. Bryan came up to inspire them a little bit.

Thats Bulaga.

Or maybe its that earlier that day, he went to work with Kathi, who teaches reading at a nearby grade school, and talked with her students.

They were asking him if he felt bad that he wasnt drafted by the Bears, Kathi said. He said, No, Im a Packer. Hes very loyal, and he will be.

To hear those close to him talk, its almost as if Bulaga willed his way to Green Bay.

Sure, he wanted to be picked higher than 23rd. He was projected by some to be a top-10 or -15 pick. The San Francisco 49ers told him they planned to take him at No. 13 but then traded up two spots to take another tackle, Anthony Davis of Rutgers. Three tackles went before Bulaga. Oklahomas Trent Williams went fourth to Washington, and Oklahoma States Russell Okung went sixth to Seattle.

It caused some anxiety at the Bulaga family table in the green room and amongst the Marian coaches.

We were hoping hed go in the top 10, Brucker said. This Williams kid that went ahead of him, we had him for a dog. And the Davis kid, we were upset that he was picked after those two guys. Okung, we thought he was pretty good. Once it got by San Francisco, we kind of figured it was probably going to be (the Packers).

That was just fine with Bulaga.

I dont think he would have fit in out in San Francisco, and he even said he didnt like it out there, Brucker said. And he didnt like New York City. Thats why I think he went to school at Iowa. Hes just a middle-of-the-country type of kid.

While the experience in New York was enjoyable, Kathi could tell her son would be much more comfortable in a smaller setting.

Hes not flash and dash, she said. He was almost uncomfortable walking around New York in a suit for three days. He walked back from Radio City Music Hall with us one afternoon, and he had to go with a security guard. Thats just not him. Thats why I think Green Bay will be a wonderful place for him. Thats the kind of guy he is.

The Packers arent expecting the 6-foot-5, 314-pound Bulaga to start as a rookie. They drafted him to be the heir apparent at left tackle to veteran Chad Clifton. Bulagas high school coaches moved him to left tackle before his senior season and he flourished. He developed quickly at Iowa, so fast that he left after his true junior season.

While Kathi admitted neither she nor her husband were particularly athletic, their children are. Bill was a pitcher at UW-Platteville, and Kim is on a volleyball scholarship at the University of South Dakota.

She knows where Bryan gets his size.

My great-grandfather was 6-6 and 300 pounds, she said. So 100 years ago, that was a big man. Bryan kind of resembles him. Weve got a picture of him, and its like, There it is, thats got to be it.

Packers' first-round pick Bryan Bulaga looks lean 

[img_r]http://cmsimg.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Avis=U0&Dato=20100429&Kategori=PKR01&Lopenr=100429097&Ref=AR&MaxH=240&MaxW=180&Border=0[/img_r]Packers first-round draft choice Bryan Bulaga met with the local Green Bay media this afternoon. Here are some highlights from that session:

*Bulaga is around 315 pounds, and looks lean, not fat. His body type isn't unlike current Packers left tackle Chad Clifton.

*Bulaga dropped to about 302 pounds last season during his bout with a thyroid problem and essentially couldn't do much for about three weeks. He said he is back to 100%, and believes his optimal weight is 315.

*His goal will be to get on the field as early as this year. If that doesn't happen, he said he only has himself to blame.

*Bulaga did offseason workouts in Phoenix and worked with former Packers offensive line coach Tom Lovat one-on-one.

*He doesn't put much stock in the knock against him that he has short arms. He said he has never been in a game where he said to himself: "Gosh I wish I had longer arms."

*He wasn't asked about his arm length by scouts or teams, but was expecting it. His response would have been: what am I supposed to do about it?

*He said NFL tackle Joe Thomas supposedly has short arms, but that hasn't affected his level of play. Bulaga said what's important is what you do on the field, and putting yourself in the right position.

*Bulaga said he hasn't spoken to Chad Clifton yet. Clifton was working out in the morning as part of the Packers' offseason program, but Bulaga missed him. Bulaga said he hopes to learn from Clifton as much as he can.

*When he watches football games, he only focuses on what the offensive linemen are doing.

*The most nerve-racking part of the draft was not knowing what team or city he would be going to. Now that he is in Green Bay, he's glad he can focus solely on football.

*This is the first time he has been to Green Bay. "I love it," he said. He likes a smaller community. It reminds him of where he grew up. He's glad there are no traffic issues and getting to the stadium is so easy. "I like the family atmosphere a smaller community brings," he said. Fans cared when he went to college in Iowa City, and he expects the same type of thing in Green Bay.

*His actitivies on his first day in Green Bay included getting fitted with equipment, having some medial testing and hanging out. The rookies are scheduled to have dinner tonight.

*He sold the trusted moped he used to get around campus in Iowa City. He wants to buy a truck, but hasn't done it yet.

*Besides having news reporters at his house since the draft, things have been pretty normal, he said.

*He said it was a hard decision to leave school a year early, with the bonds he formed with teammates and coaches at Iowa. But he has no regrets. He believes he made the right decision. Being a potential first-rounder helped him with that decision, as did his college coach, Kirk Ferentz.

*He isn't taking any college classes now. He has a year remaining in school to get his degree.

*The main issue with his thyroid condition last season was its effect on his heart. It could have been life threatening. He thinks it was a virus, and contrary to some rumors, had nothing to do with him getting a tattoo.

*The hardest part of dealing with the thyroid issue was standing around and not being able to jog, work out or lift weights. It was not fun at all, he said, and in three weeks of inactivity wasn't in the best of shape.

*Bulaga said his stamina is back and he's at full health. How can he tell? His weight room numbers are back to previous levels.

*His first preference is to play left tackle, the position he manned in college. But he's willing to try the right side, or some other spot along the line, if that's what the team wants.

--Mike Vandermause, mvandermause@greenbaypressgazette.com

Green Bay Offensive lineman Bryan Bulaga will line up for the first time as a Green Bay Packer Friday afternoon, but it won't be the first-round draft choice's first taste of how the NFL game is played.

In his preparation for the scouting combine, Bulaga spent five weeks at Athletes' Performance in Phoenix, working one-on-one with former Packers offensive line coach Tom Lovat.

One of Mike Holmgren's most trusted assistants in Green Bay and Seattle and the father of Packers strength and conditioning coach Mark Lovat, Tom Lovat spent four hours a day watching film with Bulaga and helping him translate what he learned in the classroom onto the field.

"(He's) a former offensive line coach who has coached a lot of good players," Bulaga said during an introductory news conference Thursday afternoon in the team's media auditorium. "That's who I was working with one-on-one out there was him, and I felt he did a really good job with me and I learned a lot from him."

Lovat, who lives in the Fox Valley, trains offensive line clients for agent Tom Condon at the AP site in Arizona. Two years ago, he worked with No. 1 pick Jake Long of the Miami Dolphins and last year worked with St. Louis' No. 1 pick Jason Smith.

His impression of Bulaga is that the Packers got themselves a smart, blue-collar athlete who knows how to play the game. Lovat said he told his son and offensive line coach James Campen that Bulaga is a guy they should look at closely but shouldn't expect to land with the No. 23 pick.

"I really thought he'd be gone in the first five or six picks," Lovat said. "I thought Kansas City would take him. He's not as athletic as Jason Smith, but he played basketball in high school and he played baseball. He has skill. He's strong and he's going to work hard. When he gets it in his mind to do something, he does it."

Among the questions Bulaga addressed Thursday, on the eve of the Packers' rookie orientation camp, was the doubt some scouts have about him playing left tackle because his arms are less than 33 inches long. Bulaga chuckled about those questions and said if he had been asked about his arms in interviews at the combine, he would have been honest and told people they weren't going to get any longer.

"I've never been in a situation in a football game where I have thought to myself after a play, 'Gosh, I wish my arms were longer,' " Bulaga said. "I've never been in that situation, nor have I been in a situation where I was run-blocking a guy and my hands were too small to fit around his chest plate."

Scouts do tend to get caught up in numbers, but there are reasons they like left tackles with longer arms and big hands.

The longer a lineman's arms are, the harder it is for a pass rusher to grab his jersey and use it for leverage. Long arms also allow a tackle who gets beat around the corner to reach out and push the pass rusher past the quarterback.

In Seattle, Lovat had the fortune of coaching Walter Jones, one of the best left tackles of all time and an exceptional physical model, but he also coaxed good seasons out of Ken Ruettgers, Bruce Wilkerson and Ross Verba, none of whom were classic left tackle specimens.

"I don't think it matters one bit," Lovat said of short arms. "(I coached) Dan Dierdorf. He had short arms and he had to block (Ed) "Too Tall" Jones every year. Jake Long's arms aren't that much longer (than Bulaga's).

"It's all about instincts, getting yourself in position. I guess if you were getting beat around the corner every time, you'd have to have long arms. If you know a guy is quicker than you, then it's about being in good position."

Asked to compare Bulaga to someone he coached in Green Bay, Lovat said the closest would be Adam Timmerman, a starter at right guard from 1996-'98 who went on to become a Pro Bowl player in St. Louis.

"He has a work ethic like Adam," Lovat said.

Bulaga said he knows he'll start out behind veteran Chad Clifton and that he is not guaranteed playing time this season. But he also came out of Iowa a year early because he felt he was ready to play in the NFL and wanted the chance to prove it to somebody.

The clock starts on his career this weekend along with the rest of the Packers' rookies.

"I want to play football," Bulaga said. "But if the case is that I'm not playing, then I didn't earn it and the coaches thought I wasn't ready, and that's just the bottom line. I'm going to determine if I'm on the field or not. It's as simple as that."