FanHouse Johnny Jolly

Editor's Note: Bruce Ciskie, a lifelong Packers fan, opines about the state of his beloved team.

High expectations greeted the Green Bay Packers in August, as the team arrived at training camp. Practices -- held across the street from Lambeau Field -- were very physical, as the Packers tried to show they wouldn't be bullied around like they were far too often in 2008.

That 6-10 season, we all were told, was a memory. It was a fluke. It wasn't how things would be conducted in Green Bay. Bad tackling, soft defense, poor special teams play, and stupid penalties were going to be a thing of the past.

Or not.

The Green Bay Packers need all their key defensive players to stay healthy. Most of them failed to do that last year, and too many important guys missed significant time.

After a generally fortunate preseason in terms of health, the Packers were dealt a blow in their final practice game at Tennessee. Rookie defensive lineman B.J. Raji, who had been seeing time at both end and nose tackle in the Packers' new 3-4 defense, went down with an ankle sprain. That injury will keep Raji out of Sunday night's game against the Bears.

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Injuries are not an excuse. It's also not permissible to point fingers at guys on the other side of the ball when your team has problems. No one in Green Bay will do this, despite the way things went down last year. The Packers lost eight of their ten games by a combined total of 30 points. Despite this, no one in the locker room pinned the blame on the three-ring circus in training camp, major injuries on defense, or anything else.

GREEN BAY, Wisc. -- Typically, it's the third preseason game when you see starters get the most playing time. Since the Buffalo Bills are playing five games instead of four, they only expect to use their starters into the second quarter at Lambeau FIeld.

The Packers should use their top players for around 20-25 snaps Saturday night at Lambeau Field. That should even out fairly well. When the Bills have the ball, the Packers will face something they aren't used to seeing.

As the Green Bay Packers prepare for the upcoming season, they are also awaiting the results of their makeover on defense. Coordinator Dom Capers was brought in, and the installation of the 3-4 defense likely holds the key to Green Bay's chances in the NFC North.

The Packers have leaned quite a bit on younger players long the defensive front in recent years. One of those younger players is 2006 sixth-round pick Johnny Jolly, who has done a nice job at defensive tackle, but now is staring at a felony trial that starts Friday.

And so it continues...

Packers 2007 first-round pick Justin Harrell is still injured -- as he has been for most of his brief NFL career -- and the team hopes he's healthy enough to report to training camp in six weeks or so.

Rob Reischel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asks if Harrell is "injury prone or simply unlucky" before correctly answering his own question: "Truthfully, Green Bay Packer fans could care less. All they know is defensive tackle Justin Harrell's run of inactivity marches on."

Certainly, part of it is luck, but Harrell has an extensive injury history dating back to high school.

[In high school] he battled shin splints and had a bad lower back. At Tennessee, Harrell underwent surgery for shin splints on his right leg in 2003 and missed more than half of spring practice that year. That August, Harrell broke a bone in his right ankle and missed the first five games of the season.

It all makes you wonder why Green Bay thought Harrell was worth the16th-overall pick in the draft. Whatever, the Packers need him healthy for 2008; he's supposed to help fill the void left by Corey Williams, who was traded to Cleveland earlier this offseason.

Right now, though, that job belongs to Johnny Jolly, who's currently ... recovering from an injury.

Training camp has not gotten off on the right foot for the Green Bay Packers. Even before the first practice began, they found themselves to be one man short after wide receiver Donald Driver failed a team physical.

"He has a re-occurring injury with the shoulder that he hurt last year, so, he will be day-to-day with the shoulder," McCarthy said.

Day-to-day should be considered an optimistic diagnosis. Unfortunately, Driver may not return to the field until August 11th at the earliest. Even when he does return, he's going to have a lot of catching up to do. Thankfully for the Packers, he's a veteran who won't struggle too much after missing a little over two weeks of camp.

In addition to Driver, the Packers suffered another loss yesterday. Tight end Tory Humphrey injured his ankle during practice and had to be carted off the field. The team has not given specifics on how severe the injury is, but it doesn't sound pretty.

Other Injury Notes: Defensive tackles Ryan Pickett and Johnny Jolly also missed practice due to failed physicals, while rookie running back DeShawn Wynn sat out with a stomach virus.