Railbird Central

Future Packer Ras-I Dowling?

Brian Carriveau — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:25:42 GMT

Saturdays were made for college football. In an attempt to tie the college game to the Green Bay Packers, we present our weekly "Future Packers" series.

Will the players featured in this weekly column actually become Packers? It's a long shot. Consider it a bit of a draft preview and a look at the needs of the Packers heading into next offseason.

This week's future Packer: Virginia cornerback Ras-I Dowling

As some of you may know, last weekend I traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia ostensibly to go on vacation. However, I like to think I went to there to scout some future pro players.

I took in the Virginia Cavaliers/Duke Blue Devils game last Saturday. And knowing one of the most highly rated cornerbacks in all of college football was playing, I kept a close eye on Ras-I Dowling.

Just looking at him, Dowling is certainly a physical specimen. Standing 6-2 and weighing 200 pounds, he's every bit the size you want in a cornerback.

As with a cornerback that size though, you worry about his speed and whether it's good enough to keep up with NFL-caliber wide receivers. From what I saw, Dowling showed decent enough speed to make it in the NFL, although I'm sure his 40-yard dash time will be highly scrutinized when the Combine rolls around.

Even though Duke won the game 28-17 and threw for 348 yards in the process, Dowling was surprisingly not exposed. Sure, he gave up a couple receptions to men in his zone, but Dowling was able to keep receivers in front of him. It was his fellow defensive backs who gave up the long, back-breaking receptions.

Dowling even showed what he's 6-2 frame brings to the game when he batted away a jump ball-type of pass in the endzone at the last moment.

The Virginia Cavaliers haven't exactly been a good a team this year, but Dowling shows flashes of being dominant. In a 42-7 win over Indiana this year, he led the team in tackles with nine, and also had a sack, an interception and a forced fumble. The turnovers both led to Cavalier touchdowns.

Even in the loss to Duke, Dowling showed he wasn't one of the reasons for the loss. Based upon what I've seen and what else I know about him, I expect Dowling to go no later than the second round of this upcoming draft.

Today, Virginia faces Miami at noon. Given that Miami has one of the better passing games in the ACC and highly talented receivers, it's worth keeping an eye on how Dowling performs against the Hurricane passing attack.

The Green Bay Packers may or may not have a need a cornerback this upcoming year. Guys like Charles Woodson and Al Harris are getting up in age, but they show no signs of slowing down. And nickel back Tramon Williams is proving to be a capable replacement.

But the Packers have drafted two cornerbacks each of the past two years in Pat Lee and Brandon Underwood, and so far neither of them has shown what it takes to play in the NFL. They're still young, however, and things still have time to change.

Even so, the Packers don't figure to draft a cornerback in either of the first two rounds in 2010 given more pressing needs at other positions. But given Ted Thompson's penchant for acquiring draft choices, it wouldn't be far fetched to see the Packers draft a cornerback in the second round like they did in 2008.

Packers Daily Links 11.7.09

Brian Carriveau — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:55:25 GMT

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The Packers, for all intents and purposes, admitted a huge blunder yesterday by attempting to put in a waiver claim on Anthony Smith, recently released by the St. Louis Rams. The Jaguars, the only other team to put in a claim, were awarded the veteran safety, however. "If Smith had been awarded to the Packers, they would have had to remove a player from the 53-man roster," writes Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "A good guess is that the club would have released one of three backup safeties: Matt Giordano, Derrick Martin or Jarrett Bush." This is one of the more egregious mistakes made by Thompson in recent memory. The Packers wouldn't have had to resort to putting in a waiver claim in on Smith had they just kept him coming out of training camp all along. This goes to show that the fans and bloggers clamoring for the Packers to keep Smith saw a little bit further into the future than Ted Thompson.

In a bit of a surprise move, it looks like the Packers could institute a rotation at right tackle for Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "Whether it’s (Mark) Tauscher or Allen Barbre, who has started the first seven games of the season, it looks as though both will play," writes Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "(Head coach Mike) McCarthy indicated on Friday that a rotation is possible." I wonder why Tauscher's situation is different from that of Nick Barnett earlier in the year. For the first couple games of the season, the Packers started Nick Barnett and let him play for a certain number of snaps then pulled him. Why would they change philosophies?

McGinn uses a little statistical analysis to show that Josh Sitton is performing the best among all the offensive linemen on the Packers. "Sitton said he doesn't 'keep up with the stats,' but if he did he would see these numbers: He has allowed two of the team's 25 knockdowns, 5 1/2 of the team's 45 hurries and none of the 16 1/2 sacks assigned to the offensive line," reports McGinn. The stats show the same thing in the running game. This is a pretty good read on one of the more unheralded players on the Packers' roster.

Demovsky takes a look at kick Mason Crosby's troubles from long range. "The Packers spent a sixth-round draft pick on Crosby in 2007 because they were looking for more accuracy than they got in one season from Dave Rayner, another strong-legged kicker who hit 74.3 percent of his kicks in 2006," writes Demovsky. "They said they wanted at least an 80-percent kicker." Basically, the Packers have pretty much the same kicker in Crosby that they did in Rayner. In fact, Rayner might have been even better at kickoffs than Crosby. The Packers need better production from Crosby or it's certainly worth looking at another kicker next year because three years into his NFL career, Crosby has been below average.

"Green Bay Packers Johnny Jolly, Al Harris and rookie B.J. Raji have been fined $5,000 each by the NFL for actions in last Sunday's loss to the Minnesota Vikings," according to (we assume Chris Jenkins of the) the Associated Press. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Jolly denied being fined. Seriously? How much more immature can Jolly get? It's getting to the point where the Packers probably can't afford to keep a cancer like Jolly around for another season.

Jason Wilde spoke with punter Jeremy Kapinos yesterday and got down to the heart of his problems. "Kapinos said he actually needs to kick fewer 50-yard punts and instead get his hang time numbers up, which will allow the coverage units to get in better position and should in turn improve his net average," writes Wilde. For a person that makes his living punting at six figures per year, I hope Kapinos is capable of making such a change. He's identified a problem. Now is the time to fix it.

C.D. Angeli of Tundra Vision questions the acquisitions of Mark Tauscher and Ahman Green. "Why in God's name are these guys getting significant playing time at all?" asks Angeli. "Ted Thompson has had five seasons to prepare for each of these declines and departures. Five years is the 'old plan', the universally accepted time period that a good GM could turn things around and get a team to a Super Bowl." Thompson has probably had the most draft picks in the entire NFL over the past three or so seasons. He's not just failing on the high draft picks. He's failing at a majority of all draft picks.

Justin Brasser of Packers Gab looks for B.J. Raji to play a larger role starting this week. "Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly, and Cullen Jenkins will remain the defensive line starters, but as the season progresses, look for the Packers to use a deeper rotation to keep those guys fresh," writes Brasser. "Raji will play a larger role." If Raji doesn't start to show up starting this week, the press will need to find out why next week.

Holly has an in-depth look at the Packers' opposition, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, over at The Other 31 this week.

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Three tweets 11.6.09

Brian Carriveau — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:20:50 GMT

I'll be providing at least three thoughts about the Green Bay Packers per day on Twitter. Here what I'm tweeting about:

1. Remember when Nick Collins returned three INTs for TDs last year? Somehow I knew that could never happen again. #Packers #NFL

2. Now that Charlie Peprah has signed on with another NFL team, I'm thinking that he would've been a better option than Matt Giordano.

3. The #Packers need a big win this weekend to gain some momentum heading into the following week's game against the #Cowboys.

Join the craze. Click here to follow Railbird Central or Brian Carriveau on Twitter.

Packers Daily Links 11.6.09

Brian Carriveau — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30:49 GMT

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According to Tom Pelissero of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, B.J. Raji is ready for an increased workload. That's partially based upon his solid play in the past two games. "Raji played the best game of his young career on Oct. 25 at Cleveland, where he registered two solo tackles in 14 snaps and showed his restored explosion by driving back veteran guard Hank Fraley during a goal-line stand," writes Pelissero. "He had two more solo tackles in 12 snaps Sunday against Minnesota — a performance that would have graded out better had he not drawn a 15-yard face mask penalty." The Packers didn't draft Raji for overall for nothing. It would be nice if he stepped up an made an impact down the stretch.

With quarterback Aaron Rodgers sidelined with an injury during the first few practices this week, backup Matt Flynn has been getting an increased amount of snaps with the no. 1 offense and has reportedly looked good. "I actually thought he had a very good day today," head coach McCarthy is quoted as saying by Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He's throwing the ball with more velocity. It's nice to see the improvement that he's made from Year 1 to Year 2. The ability to throw with more velocity, playing with his feet, his time clock has definitely picked up. I thought he did a lot of good things today."

For a guy that rarely misses practice, the fact that Donald Driver has missed a few this week comes as a mild concern. "Driver’s status after suffering a stinger last Sunday sounded slightly less certain," writes Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com. "Asked if he thinks Driver will practice on Friday, McCarthy responded, 'I hope so. Donald doesn't miss practice, so we'll see where he is tomorrow.' However, McCarthy said he 'definitely would consider playing Donald without any practice.'" You have to figure Driver will be ready by Sunday. Because if he didn't play, the Packers would head into the game versus the Buccaneers with their top receivers being Greg Jennings, James Jones and then Jake Allen.

McCarthy has been mum on tight end Jermichael Finley's availability for this weekend's game, but a more encouraging report came from one of the assistant coaches. "The Packers aren't expected to have Finley available this week, but (tight ends coach Ben) McAdoo reported that he's pretty close to being healthy again and was bouncing around during the jog-through as though he were ready to jump into the huddle for the next play," reports Silverstein.

Speaking of tight end, the Associated Press (and I can only assume Chris Jenkins) profiles Spencer Havner. "Making the most of his increased playing time in the wake of an injury to tight end Jermichael Finley, Havner has caught three touchdowns in the Packers' past two games, tying him with Donald Driver for the team lead," according to the AP. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that Havner would be tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions?

With Brandon Chillar out for a couple weeks with a broken hand, it appears A.J. Hawk is going to get a majority of snaps in the nickel defense, but all the inside linebackers are getting some practice time. "According to Hawk, he, Nick Barnett and Desmond Bishop have been rotating at the two inside linebacker spots to get well-versed in all of the packages in case of injury," writes Bill Huber of Packer Report.

Aaron Nagler of Cheesehead TV calls for more of Ahman Green in the running game. "It took one play on Sunday for Green to show what he could do to help the Packers’ offense in an area that has been nothing short of abysmal under coach Mike McCarthy," writes Nagler. "Catching a short swing pass out of the backfield it looked like he was dead to rights. But Green slipped the tackle, turned up-field and ran for a first down. It’s a play we’ve seen Ryan Grant fail to make time and time again, but Green makes it look effortless." One play is an awfully small sample size, but one thing is for sure. Grant has failed to deliver with a much larger sample size.

Gene Bosling of Ol' Bag of Donuts is critical of Aaron Rodgers. "There’s the other side of Rodgers, what you see on Sundays: Too many snaps where he looks 20-25 yards down field, makes a read or two there and never comes back to a checkdown," writes Bosling. "The times where he seems not to have the “internal clock” to step up and feel a pass rush like the great ones so often do. The red-zone inefficiency. The games where he doesn’t really get the offense clicking until the Packers are throwing every down in the second half."

Monty of Total Packers finds that the Packers make the playoffs after 10,001 simulations.

Greg C. of Packers Lounge wonders if this past Sunday's game was a "signature loss."

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Special teams player of the week vs. Vikings '09

Brian Carriveau — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:14:04 GMT

On Tuesday night, members of Cheesehead Nation voted for A.J. Hawk as the special teams player of the week against the Vikings. He became the seventh separate player to win the award since the season began. Hawk was singled out among these candidates and their credentials:

A.J. Hawk: Forced the fumble on kickoff in which the Packers were able to turn into a touchdown and get momentum back on their side early in the second half.
Nick Collins: Recovered Hawk's fumble immediately following a Packers field goal to open up the scoring in the second half of the game.
Brett Goode: Flawless snapping performance and one tackle for a punt coverage unit that held the Vikings to 7.4 yards per punt return.
Derrick Martin: Led the Packers in special teams tackles with two.

The Cheesehead Nation special teams players of the week:

Week 1 - Brett Swain

Week 2 - Tramon Williams

Week 3 - Johnny Jolly

Week 4 - Korey Hall

Week 5 - Mason Crosby

Week 6 - Spencer Havner

Week 7 - A.J. Hawk