…or perhaps I should say “hoped” he would:

Maybe Grant is a ‘mudder’, much like his position coach was during the Holmgren years, who will get better as the fields get slower in the late fall and early winter months. Perhaps we’ll see Grant start breaking big runs when the weather turns and game conditions start to resemble the 10 game stretch Grant had last year.

Grant showed up and then some yesterday. Now, can he sustain this over the remainder of the season? It will be interesting to see how he (and the offensive line) look next Monday night in the dome down in New Orleans. I’m praying Grant makes me eat my words regarding his tepid showings earlier in the year. As Corey said on a recent podcast, never am I happier in my incorrectness than when I am wrong about any of the Packers’ downfalls. Maybe I’ll even send Steve a case of PBR to apologize. Maybe.

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• Words I Don’t Often Use

Well, not really. But more than two of you have emailed me (indeed, commenter manolito posted it in a previous comment section) Bob McGinn’s column from Saturday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as ammunition for the Great Blog Battle of 2008 between CheeseheadTV and PackerGeeks and our differing views of Ryan Grant’s contract and performance so far in 2008.

McGinn does indeed highlight many of the same concerns I’ve been airing since the end of last season in regards to awarding Grant a new contract. And he liberally quotes two NFC personnel execs who rate Grant very poorly compared to his starting NFL running back brethren. He concludes with a nice summation of what has, in essence, been my argument all along:

The great backs seldom are able to explain how they do it. They just do.

Grant surely isn’t one of them even though the Packers decided to pay him like it.

Now, all this said - one need look no further than another McGinn article that was written on October 1st, 2006 to see how he is sometimes prone to accentuating the negative so as to make himself look smarter than the rest of us when it comes to the Green and Gold.

From a piece entitled “Troubling Signs From Woodson”

For now, at least, the megabucks signing of Charles Woodson hasn’t come back to haunt the Green Bay Packers.

But as the weeks and months, perhaps even seasons, of the Woodson chapter begin to unfold, the hunch is that general manager Ted Thompson ultimately will wish that he had spent his money on somebody else.

Safe to say that Thompson is quite happy with the signing. It’s also safe to say that this article belongs next to McGinn’s infamous piece calling for Mike Sherman to spend a first round pick on acquiring Drew Henson.

Hey, we all make mistakes. I don’t think McGinn is making one when it comes to his views on Grant.

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• Woodson and Harris Get Their Wish

I agree with Mike Vandermause.

Shocking, I know. But he is indeed spot on in this piece looking at how the Packers could and will improve over the remaining nine games of 2008.

One small nit I’d like to pick, however, is with his characterization of Ryan Grant’s critics, a crew of which I am certainly a member:

Hysterical claims that Grant simply isn’t that good and will never live up to his new contract are premature.

They aren’t hysterical, Mike. And with each passing week those claims are looking more and more prescient.

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• Vandermause At It Again

The Blog Battle between Cheesehead TV and PackerGeeks may have come down to a simmer (mostly due to my inability to carve out a couple hours to chart Grant’s carries one by one - three kids and a neglected wife are not conducive to film study) but I found Eric Baranczyk’s analysis over at JSOnline interesting.

Regarding Grant, Baranczyk writes the following:

I don’t think Ryan Grant’s numbers - 33 carries, 90 yards — were totally indicative of how the offensive line played. I know the coaches said they gave Grant a passing grade on his reads, but I thought he made at least a couple bad and costly decisions. I guess the one play that sticks in my mind was third-and-five, and he bounced it out when he could have stuck it inside. I think the blocking was there, but for whatever reason he saw the safety slide and he went outside. It was obvious it was an inside zone play and he ran right into the end. The reason you know it was designed inside zone was that the tackle let the defensive end get up-field. If it is an outside zone play, the tackle is going to push the outside shoulder of the end. So it was an inside zone play, Grant went outside and it lost three yards.

Not exactly the searing play by play I was hoping to undertake before this weekends game (because after Sunday I’m sure we’ll have a whole host of other things to talk about) but it starts to get at what I was seeing watching Grant in Seattle. One other play I’d point to is a 2nd and 8 in the third quarter where Grant, with the play designed to go to the left (a shock, I know) Tauscher executes a perfect backside block while the rest of the line slides to the left, leaving a huge hole for Grant to cut back into on the right side. Instead, Grant plows into the seething mass of humanity in front of him, bringing up 3rd and 6.

There were others I remember making mental notes of while falling asleep while feeding the baby, but for now the above will have to do for my last salvo in the first Not So Great Blog Battle of 2008.

UPDATE: Jeremy Green over at Scouts Inc. via ESPN on Grant:

Against the Seahawks, Grant had his head down and missed a hole or a cutback lane on several occasions. Patience is important in the scheme, but seeing the hole immediately and blowing through the line quickly are just as crucial. Grant’s explosiveness clearly isn’t there yet.

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• Blog Battle! PackerGeek Style…

33 carries. 90 yards.

It was painful yesterday watching Ryan Grant plow into pile after pile of linemen. Sometimes, there was no place for him to go. Other times, and this is the killer, there were huge lanes for Grant to cut into that he either stumbled trying to get to, or simply didn’t see. It was a shocking display for a back that many people both in the media and in the Packer organization thought was poised to become one of the elite backs in the league.

Elite backs don’t carry the ball 33 times for 90 yards.

For whatever reason, the vision and the burst that Grant displayed last year have vanished. He can’t see the cutback lanes that do form while he’s running into imaginary ones that apparently only he can see. Worse yet, the few times his line and his vision are in concert, Grant gets ahead of himself and doesn’t show the necessary patience that would allow his blocks to set themselves before he can weave his way through the defensive secondary. Instead, he’s rushing forward, into the backs of his lineman, or worse, tripping over their legs while one step away from a big gain.

Yes, the offensive line has been inconsistent. Yes, he is most likely only rounding into shape after his hamstring injury. And yes, McCarthy is doing him no favors with the predictability of his formations and his playcalling. But for a back who was deemed as ‘indispensable’ when Grant and the Packers were in contract negotiations (and that’s a long, leering look at you, PackerGeeks) he has looked awfully pedestrian six games into the season. Indeed, the much maligned Brandon Jackson has looked better in all phases of the game. (Shame about his illness on Sunday)

Maybe Grant is a ‘mudder’, much like his position coach was during the Holmgren years, who will get better as the fields get slower in the late fall and early winter months. Perhaps we’ll see Grant start breaking big runs when the weather turns and game conditions start to resemble the 10 game stretch Grant had last year. But right now, Grant can not be described as anything but a colossal disappointment and Exhibit A as to why you don’t pay a guy based on 10 games, not to mention that Thompson’s initial offer, which Grant’s agent labeled ‘insulting’, is starting to look much closer to Grant’s actual value.

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• Blog Battle! PackerGeek Style…

Mr. Herman,

You made it abundantly clear that you found the Packers initial offer to your client Ryan Grant insulting.

You know what I find insulting? That your client clearly didn’t keep himself in game shape this offseason and during his ludicrous holdout. Grant is STILL not participating in practice due to his hamstring.

Glad you got your percentage.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nagler

Cheesehead TV

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• Why Thompson Is GM…and We’re Not

Mike Mcarthy is talking, but I’m not listening.

Coach is quoted as saying, regarding Grant playing tonight:

If he can go, I would like to see him go

No you wouldn’t.

You’re telling me McCarthy is going to play Grant on a gimpy hamstring for a meaningless preseason game, but would NOT play Kabeer or Woodson against the Cowboys in a regular season game with playoff positioning hanging in the balance? Right.

Also, reports say that Al Harris’ back has acted up, so I would be shocked to see him on the field tonight in anything other than street clothes. This is actually a great development for the short term, as it should give the defensive coaching staff a good look at guys like Tramon Williams, Will Blackmon and Jarrett Bush against Cincinnati’s stellar wide receiver duo of Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh. I’m also hoping Patrick Lee gets some looks with the number ones. As I wrote after Family Night, the kid has the goods.

However, long-term the idea of Harris’ back is extremely troubling. It’s an injury he dealt with all year last year, without ever missing a game. As anyone with a football IQ could tell, Harris really struggled against the more athletic number one receivers he faced. He needs to be at one hundred percent (and yes, I know the shop-worn platitude that no football player is ever at one hundred percent - you know what I mean) for Sanders to trust his coverage enough to send waves of blitzers at the quarterback. Otherwise, we may see the Packers’ new ‘Full Onslaught’ mentality put back on the shelf before it’s even out of the box.

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• The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

I guess it was inevitable. When players, especially running backs, hold out of camp, they almost always end up getting injured when they finally report. Well, that’s exactly what happened to Ryan Grant, who sat out this mornings practice with what Mike McCarthy said was a hamstring strain. Great. Because hamstrings don’t have a tendency to linger or anything. I’m just glad Alan Herman got his 10 percent…

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• Kudos To Deshawn Wynn