Brats & Beer

Rookies Go Camping

There’s some fairly encouraging news coming out of Green Bay where the new class of rookie players are going through their paces at mini camp. Up until now it has all been pure speculation as to whether any of these guys can play and will contribute to the Packers success, so its good to finally hear some actual news about how they look on the practice field.

Our #1 draft pick, Justin Harrell, is at least talking the right game. He says he wants to be a star, he doesn’t resent all the booing fans on draft day and he thinks Green Bay reminds him of his hometown. I’ll give him credit for trying to get off on the right foot with his new team and community. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like he’s done much on the field so far: The team held him back from contact drills due to his injury last year. Maybe in a couple weeks at the next camp we’ll get to see what the draft has done for our defensive line.

Brandon Jackson also sounded like he made a good impression on the team and the media. The Press-Gazette said on its camp blog that the former Nebraska running back showed “nifty moves” in practice. DeShawn Wynn, however, had a pretty rough time. He fumbled a handoff from John Stocco and fell over his own feet trying to get through traffic. Later he pulled a calf muscle and sat out the rest of the weekend. Ugh.

Some encouraging news too on the free agent front. According to the Journal Sentinel the Packers are taking a serious look at Keyshawn Johnson and whether he would be a good fit for the team. There are a couple tasty nuggets in the article, but the quote that really drew my attention was from an NFL source who said about the recently released reeciever, “He doesn’t have a lot of speed or quickness, but he’s big going over the middle. When you don’t have a tight end, he’s basically your tight end.”

When was the last time the Packers had a serious threat going over the middle, where Brett Favre loves to gun the ball? I think Antonio Freeman was the last Green Bay reciever to be really effective doing that. The prospect of the Keyshawn joining Green Bay is really sounding good to me, even with his motor mouth. Unfortunately, it sounds like the Giants and Seahawks are also interested, and I doubt that Ted Thompson will get involved any sort of bidding war.