vegas492

Totally agree, but throw a little more love Preston's way. He drops into coverage, sets a very mean and strong edge and is very effective as a rusher, as evidenced by his 11.5 sacks compared to Z's 10. Preston's PFF score is lower, but Z has 100 more pass rush snaps than Preston. Preston has been that all around EDGE that you just love to have. Drop and cover, rush...he does it all. Both have been excellent!

It not just health, it is usage. Prime example is Aaron Jones. He's special. No doubt about it anymore. And we are keeping him fresh. This Bears game is going to be physical. Would be wonderful to have Jamaal smash for yards and then we get Jones in there when the D is a little tired. And if we do commit to the ground game, that should open up passing lanes a little later in the game. The key will be our defense. If we can get a little lead early and commit to the run, I think we have this one. If Rodgers has to throw 35-40 times I think our odds of winning goes down. Get it done o-line!

Concerning WR's...I think that PFF ranks them outside of the QB play. For example, if they are covered like a blanket, they may get a negative score even if the ball doesn't go their way. And if the WR wins their route and the ball doesn't go their way? Positive score. I know it is tricky. And far from perfect. Last time I looked, Lazard had a monster score for run blocking, which is inflating his overall score. Guessing that is still the case. Though I do very much like him, don't get me wrong, but that run blocking score was like the second best in the league at WR, so naturally it would inflate his overall score.

Without looking things up, we tend to see scores as 0-100. 0 being terrible. 100 being outstanding. And the fact is, you need to look at how the position fares in the entire league when posting things like this. Last time I looked, which was a few weeks ago, Aaron Jones was leading the league with his rating. And it was under 90. When I looked at guards, ours were still looking good compared to others. 64 starting guards in the league. What's the high score, what's the low score, then....what is the median? I think ours were both a little ahead of the median. Just something to consider when looking at PFF scores.

One interesting point in this whole discussion regarding Mack. I think he has already re-negotiated his deal to kick that cap hit down the road. He did it this past year in order for them to sign those journeymen free agents to fill holes. That contract has absolutely hurt them, and really it has hurt them because their QB has not been what he thought he would become. Yet. That being said? I'm still a huge Mack fan. He's an insanely good player. We are pretty lucky that Z is playing at level close to him. And let's pray that Z can keep that level of play up for a few more years.

I agree with your post as well. I still hope that he signs a relatively team friendly deal, but who knows. What I do know is that for the past 4 years, Blake has been the definition of consistent and good. He's not great. But he is very much consistent and good. Things get pretty muddy with him when you start looking at some of those top ILB contracts.

I've really grown to admire Jones this year. He doesn't run. He glides. He bounces outside and angles just disappear. I find many of his runs breathtaking just because he's making some really tough runs look easy. Yah, he's special in that regard. We are lucky to have him. And we are using him extremely well and not wearing him out.

I get your post, but answer me this... How is Blake Martinez not the very definition of "consistent, good play at the position"? He's near the top in the league for tackles. He gets sacks, he wears the communication headset...and....he's always available even when dinged up. If that isn't consistent and good, then I don't know what is.

I'm down with OBJ if Rodgers restructures his deal to create space for him. 99.5% sure that would never happen. But...it's fun to dream.

Seems like we've played a lot of zone this year, but....we rattled Trubisky pretty good in that first game with some blitzes up the middle and manning up outside. While I agree that zone is a nice defense against him, I think the goal is to get those feet moving right away and make him uncomfortable. I'd like to see a lot of Z up the middle with Gary/Fack on the outside. Play those drop/rush games with Preston all game long. And let's hope that Amos shows up again. Would be great if Savage played this game at the same speed he played the first game. God he was fast back then.

The very definition of Roquan Smith.

Great post. I was going to point out that PFF scores look bad because we tend to look at a 60's number as "bad". But it isn't. Not in how they look at guards.

Haskins is in the shotgun and retreats backwards. You think he wasn't as deep in that set as a standard 5 step dropback? To me it looks like he is 8 yards deep after he drops when he gets the snap. As far as his arc goes, where are his hips again? He's stiff. There's not much bend there at all. He's running full speed while pretty much standing up straight. I do like the rep, but it does show what Gary needs to work on.

I get the Graham angst. I do. He's not worth the money, but it is money we needed to spend on that position this year due to the structure of the contract. He's fine. Our QB has missed plenty. But it isn't all his fault. What if half those Jones TD rushes were simply passes? Rodgers QBR goes way up and we aren't really singing the same song. To give ARod credit, he's been fine with handing the ball off at the goal line and taking the rushing score. I haven't heard him talk negatively about that, so that there is a nice "win".

As AG points out, Graham's non-blocking is more myth than reality. He's fine there right now. And I feel like Tonyan may be a little better as far as blocking goes. I must say, though, that I too am disappointed by his inability to catch tough balls. I thought his catch radius was a positive of his and in a few of these occasions, he's failed. Which means our ultra conservative QB simply isn't giving those contested balls anymore.