Railbird Central : Abdul Hodge

Packers finalize roster with surprise moves

Brian Carriveau — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:22:02 GMT

In a pair of moves that nobody really saw coming, the Green Bay Packers released two players most people thought would play roles on the team this year. Gone are punter Jon Ryan and linebacker Abdul Hodge as room has been made to bring in two specialists.

The Packers finally filled the role of long snapper when they signed Brett Goode who was previously signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars but has never played in a regular season game.

To make room for Goode, the Packers released linebacker Abdul Hodge. After such a good showing during the preseason, not many fans thought Hodge would be released.

A former third round pick, Hodge nearly solidified himself as the top backup to Nick Barnett. But he had a couple of things working against him. After knee surgeries on both knees, he just isn't the special teams player that either fellow linebackers Tracy White and Desmond Bishop are. Many people thought that White may be at risk of being cut, but White also served as one of the team's six captains during the playoffs last year.

It's also possible that the Packers tried to trade one of the linebackers, but just couldn't work one out.

Another surprising move was the release of punter Jon Ryan in favor of former Washington Redskin Derrick Frost who was released this weekend. Frost was reportedly set to try out for the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday but signed with the Packers without a tryout.

While punting for Washington last year, Frost had both a lower gross and net punting average than Ryan. The only thought is that the Packers must hope Frost will be more consistent than Ryan.

Ryan was vulnerable to costly mistakes like the game against Cincinnati this preseason when he shanked one punt and had another partially blocked that both went for 15 yards or less. Fans will also remember Ryan's blocked punt and failure to catch another against the Chicago Bears last year in a crucial loss. Additionally, he never was noted for a high hangtime.

Ryan was a boom or bust type of punter. Even though he was a victim of an occassional miscue, he could also have one of the strongest legs in the league. His 72 yard punt this preseason is evidence of that.

Barring future injuries, the roster appears to be set going into week one of the regular season. And fans will start to get a good look at a couple new faces.

Blue chips, red chips & cow chips from Packers preseason finale

Brian Carriveau — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:33:00 GMT

Take a look at who played well and who played crappy in the final preseason game for 2008:

The blue chip, great performances:

The linebackers -- If head coach Mike McCarthy is really going to keep the 53 best players on the roster, is there any doubt he'll keep 7 linebackers? Come to think of it, the trio of Desmond Bishop, Abdul Hodge and Tracy White would make a good starting trio on a lot of NFL teams based upon the way they played on Thursday. Both Hodge and White tied for the team lead in tackles with nine. Two of Hodge's nine tackles went for a loss. Not far behind those two was Bishop who was next with seven tackles. And none of them appeared to be out of position. Also playing well was Brandon Chillar who had two tackles in very limited playing time. The top seven players appear headed for a roster spot unless the Packers find a trading partner for one of them. Even Spencer Havner had his best showing of the preseason, but appears destined for waivers.
The first string offense -- Maybe it's unfair to put the first string offense in this spot seeing as they really only played one play, but they made the most of their one play. Why risk further injury to the starters? They got the job done. Aaron Rodgers left the game with a 158.3 passer rating and Greg Jennings had one catch for 68 yards and a touchdown. And unlike the second string, the first string offensive line gave up zero sacks. These comments are made in jest, but it was an encouraging sign.

The red chip, solid performances:

Joey Haynos -- The undrafted rookie tight end is on the fence regarding a roster spot, but he did everything in his power to put on a good performance in his final audition. Haynos had three receptions for 35 yards with a long of 20. But more impressive was the way he broke tackles and fought for extra yards while falling forward when being tackled. Having a big frame helps in that regard. Haynos could be fighting Tory Humphrey for the final tight end spot, but he also could be a practice squad candidate if nothing else.
Noah Herron -- In limited opportunities, Herron had 79 yards on 14 carriers for a solid 5.6 yard average coming into Thursday night's game. He continued to up the ante last night when he added 25 yards on only 4 carries for a 6.3 yard average. And that's not counting the 19 yard run he had that was cut down to seven on a holding penalty. It's hard to see the Packers keeping both Herron and Vernand Morency. At least Herron has helped to make their choice a tough one.

The cow chip, crappy performances:

Brian Brohm -- Aside from the statstics, Brohm has really put the Packers in a quandry. If the Packers decide to add a veteran quarterback after the rest of the NFL teams decide to trim their rosters, they'll have to cut Matt Flynn and risk losing him to make room for a veteran QB, because you know they're not going to release the second rounder. So even though Flynn has outperformed Brohm, Flynn could end up lost due to Brohm's ineptitude. Thursday didn't help when Brohm had three fumbles (lost only one) and was sacked four times (at least one of which he could have avoided). He completed over fifty percent of his passes, but hasn't shown that he can consistently lead scoring drives like Flynn can.
The pass rush -- It's only the preseason, but have you noticed that the Packers only had two sacks the entire preseason. The Packers certainly weren't going to expose any new blitz packages and played pretty vanilla defense most of the time. But the defensive line didn't exactly wow anyone with pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Of course, that could change in the regular season. You just know Aaron Kampman will be his usual self, while seeing KGB could go a long way towards improved sack numbers.

Packers become deeper at linebacker

Brian Carriveau — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:31:34 GMT

One of the deepest positions on the Green Bay Packers roster is at linebacker, which is in stark contrast to last season. The opposite effect has happened along the defensive line where that is now a much thinner position, also a major difference from last year.

A year ago the Packers only kept five linebackers on the roster all season long. And behind the starters, no one had a whole lot of confidence in either rookie Desmond Bishop or backup Tracy White if they were forced into duty for an extended period of time. One year changes a lot.

"The plan is to keep the best 53 players on the final roster, McCarthy said One of the deepest positions is at linebacker, where as many as seven players could be kept (sic)," according to Packersnews.com.

In addition to starters A.J. Hawk, Nick Barnett and Brady Poppinga, the Packers have reliable and encouraging options including new free agent pick-up Brandon Chillar, a healthy Abdul Hodge, a more experienced Bishop, and a veteran White. Even good things have been said about undrafted rookie Danny Lansaneh, but he might be a practice squad candidate.

After maybe Chillar, the backup linebackers don't stand to see the field very often, so hopefully they will be special teams demons this year. White has even said it's a goal of his to go to the Pro Bowl on special teams.

If the Packers keep seven linebackers this year as opposed to the five they kept last year, they will have to keep two less people at other positions than they did a year ago.

One of those positions figures to be the defensive line where they kept 11 players last year. After trading away Corey Williams and having the position decimated by injuries, it would be a shock if they kept more than ten players along the defensive line.

The Packers also know that Justin Harrell will be eligible to come off the physically unable to perform list after week six, so in essence, he provides a little depth in case of future injury. Until that time, they may have to make due with a couple ends playing at tackle, especially on passing downs.

What a difference a year makes!