Morning Buzz: Packers, Rodgers making progress
Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.
There was no practice Wednesday, but the Packers are back at it today with an 11:15 a.m. practice session at Ray Nitschke Field. The National Weather Service is predicting some rain in the area. If things get bad, there’s a chance Mike McCarthy could move the team inside the Don Hutson Center, which would mean practice would be closed to the public.
We’ll start out with Pete Dougherty’s latest column on the NFL’s new helmet rule.
From Pete:
Like it or not, the NFL has to do this for the sake of its future. It needs to take head hits out of the game as much as it can or risk losing its perch as the king of sports in this country over the next 30 or 40 years. That might sound far-fetched now, but boxing was one of the United States’ most popular sports from the 1920s through the ‘50s and ‘60s. Fifty years later, it has declined to only a niche role in this country’s sporting landscape.
Like with most NFL rules changes, players will adapt quickly, and this won’t be the disaster that Sherman predicts.
“There may be a little bit of an adjustment period,” Packers tackle Bryan Bulaga said, “especially in the first few weeks of the season, especially if there are flags thrown and teams are getting hit with big penalties. Fifteen yards, those are big penalties. It could spike up quite a bit. But once players get a feel for it …”
The difficulties will come with linemen colliding off the snap, especially on short-yardage plays, and running backs going through the middle of the line and ramming into tacklers. In both instances, players often naturally lower their heads to get lower than their opponent.
Ryan Wood looks at Montravious Adams and his promising start to camp:
Tom Silverstein has an initial overview of the start of training camp on the latest Packers Podcast:
The news is not good on Jake Ryan’s knee injury:
Some Packers legends spoke to us about what it was like living in Green Bay:
Elsewhere, NFL Network reports progress on contract talks between the Packers and their quarterback:
Pro Football Focus is a fan of the contract the Packers gave to Tramon Williams:
Rob Demovsky writes on the Packers' patience:
Cheesehead TV looks at free-agent options to help fortify the defense:
Mike Pettine gives his take on how the Packers will move forward without Ryan:
Jason Wilde writes on Oren Burks:
Mike Daniels talked with James Jones:
Blake Martinez is enjoying the start to camp: