Packers Prepare For Super Season

As we turn the calendar to August, it is time to turn our attention to football season. All 32 teams are reporting to camp this week which to mean indicates the end of baseball season is here. It is officially time to focus on football.

For the Green Bay Packers, Coach Mike McCarthy started camp off by talking about the realistic shot at a Super Bowl in Title Town. This is definitely as close as this team has been since the NFC Title Game in 2007. Here is what excites me about the Packers of 2010.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is about ready to become a superstar in this league. If he played in New York or Dallas, he already would be. Last year he threw 30 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions while racking up over 4,000 passing yards. The last half of the season he was a machine. I think back to games against Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and the final two contests against Arizona where he was nearly unstoppable. It is very exciting to think about what he is going to do this year.

Tight end Jermichael Finley was one of my picks last year to be a breakout star. An injury early on delayed that a bit, but by the last month and a half of the season, he became a major threat in the Packer offense. He is big, runs routes well and has great hands. A couple scouts have already said that this offense is going to be very hard to contain with Rodgers having Finley, Greg Jennings and Donald Driver to throw to.

The linebackers on this team are scary good. Clay Matthews had an incredible rookie season a year ago, and he is only going to get better. AJ Hawk might be a step down from an all-pro linebacker, but only a step down. He is very consistent. And Nick Barnett can still bring it. This may be the best linebacking core in the conference.

Here is what worries me about this Packer squad.

The lines. Teams that win championships have dominating front lines. The offensive line will again be very fragile this year. They drafted Bryan Bulaga in the first round and hopefully he can step in and be a big time tackle. And last year this line came around so maybe it will continue to give Rodgers the time he needs like they did the second half of last season, not the first half. The loss of Johnny Jolly on the defensive line hurts. But this is the year for B.J. Raji to step up and anchor a line that luckily is quite deep even without Jolly.

The Packers have done nothing to improve special teams. They have no return specialist. They are not strong at punter. Mason Crosby needs to rebound from a dismal year and prove he can kick in this league and you never really know what your coverage teams are going to look like until the first couple weeks of the season.

Lastly, I am a little worried about the mental thought process of this team. This team knows it can win in the regular season, and some of these guys were around three years ago when they made the run to the NFC Championship game. But that was not with Aaron Rodgers leading this team and many other players who are now expected to contribute. This team needs to prove that it can win in the postseason against the likes of Minnesota, Dallas and New Orleans.

It’s still a little early to predict what I think this team is going to do this year, but I definitely have them as a playoff team barring major injury problems. The issues with the lines and special teams though has me wondering how far they can go in the playoffs. I think it will really come down to those couple areas. Let’s watch two or three preseason games and then make some predictions!

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