Even with Wells out again with a ‘trunk’ injury (what the hell does that even mean?) Allen Barbre can’t lock down a guard spot, having once again split time with Daryn “Alphonso Boone Is My Daddy” Colledge at this mornings practice.

This is getting ridiculous. Barbre was touted by McCarthy all offseason as someone who the organization thought was going to make a big jump this year, someone they thought so highly of there was no need to navigate ‘the dangerous waters’ of free agency, even armed with a stupid amount of cap room and the mother of all catches available for the landing in Alan Faneca.

But instead of naming Barbre the starter, they have fooled around with his splitting time with Colledge, who has pretty much proven that he will be adequate right up until he gets his quarterback killed on one of his horrible, once-per-game lapses in pass protection. Now, they have become overly enamored with a rookie on the right side, but have declared that former right side starter Spitz is too good to be on the bench. So Barbre, even though he has played well throughout camp, and absolutely pummeled people during the Bengals game, sits on the bench while Spitz is doing his best Daryn Colledge impression.

Start Barbre. Let Spitz and Sitton battle it out when Wells comes back. Enough of this.

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… Alan Barbre competing for the left guard spot? I mean, I understand wanting to get your rookie Sitton on the field and all, and the fact that Campen and McCarthy have repeatedly stated that Jason Spitz is their best guard regardless of side (wonder how they feel about THAT statement after watching the tape from Saturday night) but how in the hell does Barbre go from looking good in OTAs, then lining up with the starters on the second day of training camp, to barely being able to sniff the starting lineup?

McCarthy and Campen need to get this fixed and stop screwing around. If Sitton is that good, fine, but Spitz has shown that he can be bullrushed regardless of which side he is on (or even if he’s in the middle - anyone remember his stint at center against the Bears last year? Not pretty) Let Barbe at least get a look in. As Vic Carucci notes over at NFL.com, Barbre looked good against the Bengals. ‘Good’ is not a word that leaps to minds when assessing Spitz’ performance.

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• Who’s Lying Now?

Lost amongst the Favre brew ha-ha, (and really, what football info hasn’t been?) is the fact that starting center Scott Wells has been out with an injured ‘trunk’. (Don’t ask) While no one thinks it’s serious, he’s been out a good couple days now and it is definitely something to watch.

The good news is that Wells absence has allowed rookie Josh Sitton a chance to shine with Jason Spitz moving over to center while Wells is out. (Remember, Spitz was drafted as a center) Watching Sitton during Family Night, I can tell you the kid has the one thing the Packers’ offensive line has lacked since McCarthy installed his zone-blocking scheme. To put it simply, Sitton’s got a bit of nasty to him. The guy keeps blocking up until (and possibly just after) the whistle blows. And for a team that was the worst in the league on third and short, he’s a welcome addition.

Now word comes that McCarthty has indicated that Sitton is being given a chance to win the right guard spot, indicating that Spitz could move to left guard if Sitton was inserted on the right after Wells’ return. Anything that sends Colledge to the bench is fine with me…

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From the Insider Blog over at the Green Bay Press Gazette:

As some fans again were chanting “We want Favre” during a red-zone team drill, Aaron Rodgers proceeded to get his pass batted down at the line of scrimmage by Cullen Jenkins. Some of the chanting fans erupted into cheers — such is the circus-like atmosphere that has pervaded Clarke Hinkle Field

These people are a disgrace to Packer fans everywhere. I’m happy to report that Rodgers responded by throwing a touchdown pass to James Jones.

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• What I Don’t Get…

How else to explain the Packers’ attendance at a recent workout of ex-Lions running back Kevin Jones?

As I wrote on May 29th, Jones is worth bringing in for a look.

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• This One Goes Out…

Mike Florio over at Pro Football Talk is a mixed bag. He can break some pretty big NFL stories and start a great rumor with the best of them - all while being a complete jackass.

A perfect example of the latter is on display today in his post regarding Ryan Grant and Grant’s contract situation. He makes several great points about the matter at hand, but can not help himself when writing the following about reasons for Grant’s success last season:

A passing game led by a Hall of Fame quarterback and a very overrated corps of primarily young receivers didn’t hurt last year, either. (emphasis mine)

Overrated? Really? Leading the league in yards after the catch means you’re overrated? Wow, tough room.

It’s a shame Florio can’t help making an ass out of himself like this, because he generally does solid work when analyzing contract demands, holdouts and anything cap related. And he was, bar-none, the single greatest source of information on the Michael Vick story, long before the rest of the “Real Media” (as he likes to call them) picked up the narrative. That’s what makes it all the more disappointing when he throws out sophmorish insults like the one above, which only serve to undermine his credibility.

It should be noted that Florio’s occasional fill-in Michael David Smith, from Football Outsiders, is just as good without the stupidity and bad jokes. Florio should really hand the reigns over to Smith full time and just get out of the way.

UPDATE: Florio has commented in the post itself that he meant to write ‘underrated’ - which makes much more sense. This doesn’t change the thrust of what I’ve written above.

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• The Good and the Bad (Waiting On Ugly…)

Here I thought that the idea was to infuse the offensive guard position with talent, both through the draft and by letting the talent on the roster mature, and then let the contenders battle it out through the summer and the two players that performed the best would be named the starters for 2008 before the Monday night game against the Vikings.

How old fashioned of me.

Seems the Packers are looking at continuing the philosophy of ‘riding the hot hand’ along the interior of the offensive line. (Though I would posit that what they did last year was go with the healthiest, least bad option…) Via Pro Football Weekly’s “The Way We Hear It” we learn that as many as five players could be shuttled in and out at the guard position, presumably depending on what situation/down & distance the offense finds itself in.

I can not express enough how much I hate this idea.

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• The Good and the Bad (Waiting On Ugly…)

Greg Bedard makes a good argument (sorry, sub required) for why the Packers are going to be a solidly better 53-man roster. He also paints a good picture of the huge risk that Ted Thompson is taking by having 2 rookies and the heir with no “vet”. He makes the same point as Aaron that the season can be kissed goodbye if Brohm has to play early or mid-season. (or at all this season really)

Where I have issues is with his possible solutions. Just like in the song by Kenny Rogers- “you gotta know when to walk away, know when to run” and when you have to choose between the likes of Duante Culpepper, Gus Frerotte and Joey Harrington- you do just that.

While Aaron has made the case for Tim Rattay, (whom Bedard neglects to mention) and Quinn Gray got a look by the Packers in March, Cleo Lemon was signed before the Packers could really do anything about it, Gus Frerotte doesn’t work with the offense and is old, and Joey Harrington sucks. I think Ted Thompson looked at the field of has beens and not quite goodies and saw the prudent thing would be to double down on youth. Or as Aaron puts it in his case against Frerotte but could really apply to any possible so called “veteran” QB signing this year:

” at least then you’d be developing a quarterback, rather than letting a retread ground your season into the dirt”

The only retread I want to see grind my season into the dirt lives in Mississippi.

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