Green Bay Packers Team Needs at BetLM

GREEN BAY (NFL/Florio) – The Super Bowl champs in 2010 and the top seed in the NFC after the 2011 reg­u­lar sea­son, the Pack­ers are built to con­tend once again in 2012. Led by a G.M. who has lit­tle appetite for vet­eran free agency, it’s impor­tant that they keep mak­ing good deci­sions in the draft, in order to ensure that the team will con­tinue to con­tend on a year-in, year-out basis. Espe­cially since the Pack­ers have a few glar­ing holes that need to be filled in the short term.

Defen­sive end: The Pack­ers let Cullen Jenk­ins walk away in free agency last year, and they were never able to prop­erly replace him. They need a so-called “five tech­nique” line­man to help tie up block­ers, which will make the line­back­ers look a lot bet­ter. With­out a strong defen­sive line in 2011, the line­back­ers looked a lot worse.

Out­side line­backer: Clay Matthews regressed last sea­son, due in large part to the dip in the per­for­mance of the defen­sive line. He needs to turn it around, and the Pack­ers still need an effec­tive book­end, who will be able to help harass the likes of Matthew Stafford, Eli Man­ning, Drew Brees, and Jay Cutler.

Defen­sive back: Safety Nick Collins (neck) may be done, and cor­ner­back Charles Wood­son is get­ting closer and closer to the end of the line. The lack of a push from the front seven puts extra pres­sure on the sec­ondary, high­light­ing what­ever flaws may reside there. Though bet­ter play from the defen­sive line and line­back­ers will make the defen­sive backs auto­mat­i­cally look bet­ter, picks still need to be invested at the cornerback/safety posi­tion, given that the Pack­ers are deal­ing in their divi­sion with pro­lific pass­ing attacks in Detroit and, with the arrival of Bran­don Mar­shall, Chicago.

Offen­sive line: Jeff Sat­ur­day will serve as a finger-in-the-dike at the cen­ter posi­tion; the Pack­ers need a long-term solu­tion. They also need to feel more con­fi­dent about their left tackle sit­u­a­tion, a fairly crit­i­cal spot for an offense with a right-handed quarterback.

Run­ning back: The Pack­ers cur­rently have three run­ning backs on the ros­ter. James Starks, Bran­don Saine, and Alex Green. Need I say more? (Maybe not, but I will any­way.) A mid-round choice and a late-round flier will beef up the depth chart, pro­vide some special-teams help, cre­ate com­pe­ti­tion, and per­haps pro­duce a work­horse, sooner or later.

Quar­ter­back: What? A team with the reign­ing league MVP at the quar­ter­back posi­tion needs a quar­ter­back? With Matt Flynn gone and no vet­eran signed in free agency, the Pack­ers need a No. 2 quar­ter­back who hope­fully can be groomed to do what Flynn, a seventh-rounder in 2008, did when called upon to play. And then the Pack­ers need to hope that he’ll be called upon to play rarely.

Hav­ing a true fran­chise quar­ter­back makes a team a con­tender, regard­less of the qual­ity of the rest of the ros­ter. But the Pack­ers learned the hard way in 2011 that the things that hap­pen when the fran­chise quar­ter­back isn’t on the field could pre­vent the team from get­ting to the Super Bowl. Only mod­est improve­ment of the Pack­ers’ defense in 2012 will put Titletown’s team back in the title game – if the MVP keeps play­ing like one.

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