Railbird Central : Tracy White

Questionable personnel moves could have led to Stock's firing

Brian Carriveau — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:09:49 GMT

Pro Football Weekly is saying that questionable personnel moves may have led to Mike Stock's firing as special teams coach of the Green Bay Packers.

Before the season even started, punter Jon Ryan was released in favor of Derrick Frost. It was a failed experiment general manager Ted Thompson said was done do bring more consistency to the position.

Supposedly better at pinning opponents inside the 20-yard line, Frost struggled even more than Ryan at that aspect of his game and had nowhere near the leg strength that Ryan had.

And according to league insiders, that move may have paled in comparison to letting go special teams ace and linebacker Tracy White near mid-season.

The Packers released White in order to elevate undrafted rookie linebacker Danny Lansaneh to the 53-man roster when it was learned Lansaneh would have been signed to another team's active roster.

White, a special teams captain during the 2008 playoff run, was let go, but the Packers rarely suited up Lansaneh on game days.

It's up for debate, but it's possible both Ryan and White could still be Green Bay Packers yet today if Mike Stock wasn't the special teams coach.

What happened on special teams?

Brian Carriveau — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:17:30 GMT

Special teams is becoming so bad that people are starting to wonder whether assistant coach Mike Stock should stick around next season. So what's been the problem?

It's possible that getting rid of Tracy White might have been a mistake. Arguably the team's best special teams player, White was asked to be special teams captain during the playoffs last season.

Now he's gone, and the Packers special teams units are faltering, especially the coverage units. Kickoff coverage has been an obvious sore spot. The problem really started sticking out after the Carolina loss in which the Packers gave up three returns of 40 or more yards.

But they also gave up a long return in their previous game against the Saints and haven't really been up to par all season long. The same can be said of punt coverage.

Gone is White from those coverage units. What else has changed from last year? Some of the other good special teams headhunters -- Jason Hunter and Charlie Peprah -- have been injured for lengthy amounts of time this season.

And since the Packers signed defensive end Kenneth Pettway, he's been a good addition on special teams if not the defense. Now he's gone too.

The Packers looked to be headed in the right direction last season. After finishing ranked dead last in the Dallas Morning News' special teams rankings for the 2006 season, the Packers made the biggest jump in the entire NFL to seventh last season. Now the coverage units are below average and the punting situation hasn't helped.

It's not like kickoff returns have been much better either. It's difficult to watch when the Packers can't even get back to the 20-yard line on returns.

Not all has been terrible, though. Will Blackmon has been a bright spot on punt returns. But it is baffling that he can do well on punt returns and not kickoffs.

And kicker Mason Crosby has been a model of consistency this season. Although it is interesting to note that Crosby doesn't have a game winning field goal since his very first game as a rookie last season.

As for special teams the rest of this season, keep your fingers crossed.

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!

Who's in line for final roster spots for Packers?

Green Bay Railbird Central — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:09:17 GMT

The Green Bay Press-Gazette's Tom Pelissero has a unique eye for picking out the unnoticed things that most observers fail to see at Packers training camp. While most eyes are on Aaron Rodgers and other star players, Pelissero has kept tabs on those players who will be fighting for roster spots. As astute fans know, special teams play a large role in earning those last few roster spots especially if those players aren't going to see a lot of time in the base offensive and defensive packages. Here's a look at some of those backup type of players making up some of the first string special...(read more)