The personnel at cornerback and inside linebacker remain largely unchanged from a year ago. Can they improve in an area that was exposed by veteran quarterbacks a year ago?
Mike McCarthy singled out second year cornerback Brandon Underwood in his press conference yesterday as the most improved player of those heading into their second year.
Football Outsiders reason that the Packers could be in for a season full of shootouts. Unfortunatley, they use some faulty logic reaching that conclusion.
Let it be known - I agree with Mike Vandermause. (I may as well give up now)
In light of the fact that I completely contradicted myself earlier this week, I went back and watched the three games that McCarthy and Capers are no doubt going to pay the most attention to when reviewing tape this offseason - the second Vikings game, the Steelers game, and the Cardinal playoff game.
And despite the secondary being torched repeatedly in those contests, especially in the playoff game, I'm pretty sure my first take was the correct one - an improved pass rush, namely a compliment to Matthews who can win a one-on-one at the line of scrimmage, will solve a lot of problems the Packers had against Favre, Roethlisberger and Warner.
In looking at the secondary, I fell victim to what I call looking through the "offseason-lens" - where you remember every big play, both good and bad, but forget that there are hundreds of other plays that happened inbetween. Going back and watching the three games in question, you can see the potential in Brandon Underwood. Josh Bell is not nearly the liability that that final pass against Pittsburgh makes you remember him as. Improvement from those two players alone will go a long way in shoring things up on the back end of the defense. And this is even before counting on anything from Al Harris, Will Blackmon or Pat Lee.
On today's show, Andy takes a look at the biggest weaknesses for the Packers and what they'll need to overcome if they want to be competing for a Super Bowl in February. Don't miss it!
