Posts tagged Al Harris at FanHouse

We told you earlier Monday of the firing of Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Bob Sanders. It was hardly a surprise, but the fact that head coach Mike McCarthy waited a full week after the end of the season made it possible that he had someone specific in mind to take over.

I mentioned then that former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan was close to McCarthy, and there were already rumors that he was a candidate for the gig.

Now, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is reporting that Nolan is rounding up defensive assistants, and he is preparing to become the Packers' new defensive coordinator.

While this is certainly good news for Packers fans, as Nolan is an accomplished defensive coach, things aren't all rosy. There are some serious questions that surround this potential move.

Namely, what scheme will the Packers play?

Wednesday, you had a chance to read a brilliant piece by our own Michael David Smith. In this week's Every Play Counts, MDS ripped apart the underachieving failure that is the Packers' defense.

Among the primary issues of late has been the move of cornerback Charles Woodson to safety. As MDS pointed out, Woodson has played okay. He didn't make any spectacular plays, but he did his job adequately. The problem with the move is that it simply transferred the hole in the Packers' defense from safety to cornerback. Because the Packers have stubbornly refused to adjust their scheme, third cornerback Tramon Williams has been constantly left alone in situations that he's not good enough to handle by himself.

From the sounds of it, however, the Packers and their coaching staff didn't read Every Play Counts.

This season hasn't been full of good news for Green Bay Packer fans.

Not that any of them should be asking for sympathy. In an era of increasing "parity" among NFL teams, the Packers strung together an impressive string of seasons. Green Bay has just one sub-.500 finish since 1992, by far the least of any NFL franchise.

However, this year's team is in danger of making it two sub-.500 finishes since 1992, as the Packers are at 5-6 and staring at a third year out of four without a playoff berth. While blind, gullible, and stupid people are bound to blame this on Aaron Rodgers, the real reasons behind Green Bay's subpar record go much deeper than anything Rodgers could be fairly blamed for.

One of those reasons is extremely uneven play from the Packers defense. Part of this is injury-related, as Green Bay has lost starters on the defensive line (Cullen Jenkins is injured, and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila was ineffective before being cut) and at linebacker (Nick Barnett is injured). In the secondary, safeties Atari Bigby and Aaron Rouse have been in and out of the lineup because of injury, and cornerback Al Harris had to battle back from a potentially season-ending spleen problem. These injuries have tested Green Bay's depth, which hasn't responded well.

When Harris was out, youngster Tramon Williams started and played okay. If Harris is right, Packer fans will be seeing more of Williams and some other young players next season.

The Miami Dolphins need some help in the secondary and think former Patriot Ty Law is the answer. The only problem is that Law may not be interested in them.

In the wake of a few signs of weakness from the Dolphins' secondary, including the need to manage cornerback Will Allen's knee injury, Miami has shown a preliminary interest in Pro Bowl cornerback Ty Law, a source said Thursday.

However, in an interview with NFL.com on Thursday, Law, a free agent, sounded as if the would prefer to play for either Dallas or Green Bay if one of the teams was interested in him.

Dallas has an opening in their defensive backfield due to Pacman Jones' suspension and injuries to Terence Newman. Green Bay lost cornerback Al Harris for the season. Both likely would have a better shot at getting to the postseason -- or at least the Super Bowl -- than the Dolphins.

Miami just doesn't have the overall talent and are dealing with Will Allen's knee injury.

Law's experience is valuable. He has won three Super Bowl titles with the Patriots and been to five Pro Bowls. The question is how much does he have to give after sitting the first seven weeks of the season?

As we get ready for this week's huge matchup between the Packers and Cowboys, I exchanged e-mails with Rick Stratton from The Packer Backer Blog. Rick was nice enough to offer some insights on Green Bay for this week's Behind Enemy Lines feature.

Sportz Assassin: How impressed are you with Aaron Rodgers, thus far ... and do you think he can get Green Bay to the Super Bowl this year?

Rick Stratton: Everyone here is pleasantly surprised with Aaron's near-perfect play. Even the most die-hard Favre fans are happy with him. I think folks are starting to see why the Packers wouldn't take Brett back so quickly. However, we are all worried about an injury. Our backups are rookies.

Sportz: The defense has played pretty well ... but has had its lapses. Is that something that you're a bit concerned about?

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: The position has been an issue in Baltimore since, well, the club moved from Cleveland. Brian Billick turned out not to be such a smart guy, after all, which explains Tony Banks, Elvis Grbac, Chris Redman, and Kyle Boller. Second-year player Troy Smith showed promise during a brief stints last season, but Joe Flacco is the team's newest franchise quarterback. Now it's just a matter of getting him up to speed on running the offense. Heat Index: 4

Running backs: Letting Jamal Lewis walk after the 2006 season was a no-brainer, even if he had a resurgence of sorts with the Browns. Willis McGahee is more than capable when healthy, and rookie second-rounder Ray Rice should see plenty of action. Heat Index: 7

In totally believable news, Brett Favre, retired for most of the spring, apparently wants to play one more year. According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, Favre has relayed this very important nugget to head coach Mike McCarthy, but we'll all have to wait patiently to see how the most predictable comeback in sports plays out.

While we twiddle out thumbs, PackerReport.com provides some context, and it sounds like some people in the organization are ready to move on without Brett.

According to Mortensen, the Packers source said the team would be reluctant to allow him to return because "Brett retired for the right reasons." Plus, the Packers have spent the offseason tailoring the offense to Rodgers' strengths, and selected two quarterbacks in April's draft.

Still, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility; as PackerReport.com notes, Favre's salary no longer counts toward the cap, the Packers didn't spend the freed-up money this offseason, and seventh-round pick, quarterback Matt Flynn, could move to the practice squad if Green Bay decided to rejigger the depth chart to accommodate Favre.

UPDATE: Hmm. Evidently, Favre wanted to come back, the Packers said, no thanks, prompting Favre to ask to be released. The Packers again said, no thanks. Weird (via Pancake Blocks).

Maybe Brett Favre isn't retired after all.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that Favre has told Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy that he has thought about playing this year. Although Favre's comeback talk is apparently in its preliminary stages, Mortensen also reports that Favre's family is encouraging him to play.

Packers cornerback Al Harris appeared with Mortensen on ESPN's NFL Live this afternoon and said that Favre has told him that he "has the itch" to keep playing.

Favre tearfully announced his retirement this off-season, and almost immediately afterward there were rumors that he'd be back.

The Packers had very few needs heading into the 2008 draft, and that goes a long way in explaining their very successful (but ultimately disappointing) 2007 showing. Losing Brett Favre is the most obvious loss, but 2005 first-rounder Aaron Rodgers seems ready to assume the role. The next biggest issue could be defensive tackle Justin Harrell's availability, but after that, Green Bay's biggest personnel concerns are mostly depth-related.

As I mentioned in April, the Packers will eventually need to find the successors for cornerbacks Al Harris and Charles Woodson, who are a combined 64 years old.

They selected Auburn safety Patrick Lee in the second round of the '08 draft, but he's not the only guy vying for playing time:

Tramon Williams, the physical second-year pro from Louisiana Tech, finished last season as the No. 3 cornerback and has held that spot on the depth chart throughout the past month's organized team activities. However, the same was true last summer of Patrick Dendy, who ceded the role to Jarrett Bush in training camp and didn't make the team.

Bush, Will Blackmon and rookie Pat Lee are the other logical candidates for a nickel spot that again could be won and lost from week to week, even series to series.

NFL owners voted today to table a measure that would have prevented NFL players from wearing their hair in a manner that covers the names on the backs of their jerseys.

It was the second time the league tabled such a motion after previously doing so at the league's March meetings.

By tabling the measure, rather than simply voting it down, the league leaves open the possibility that it could crop up again. But suffice to say that this is going nowhere. Right now there are so many more important things than the length of players' hair that there's just no way the owners are going to decide to pick a fight with the players over this.

Previously on FanHouse:
NFL Owners Could Vote Tuesday to Ban Hair Covering Backs of Jerseys
Herm Edwards on NFL Hair Proposal: Is it a Cultural Thing? No, It's a Uniform Thing
NFL's Deal With Union Says 'No Player Will Be Disciplined Because of Hair Length'
NFL Could Ban Hair Flowing Out of Helmets