Jermichael Finley's Season Is Over
Tight end Jermichael Finley will be placed on season-ending injured reserve. Safety Anthony Smith will take his place on the 53-man roster.
Head coach Mike McCarthy said during his day-after press conference that tight end Jermichael Finley will be placed on injured reserve, ending his season.
Safety Anthony Smith, who the Packers are working to acquire in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars, will take Finley's place on the 53-man roster.
It was speculated that Finley, who tore his meniscus in Week 5 against the Washington Redskins, would possibly be able to come back late in the season after an 8 to 10 week layoff.
The Packers ultimately decided they couldn't wait for Finley. His return was uncertain, and he was occupying a roster spot in the meantime.
Several media outlets reported last week that Finley would be placed on injured reserve. While the Packers didn't make a move immediately, they were proven correct.
Not only have the Packer cleared room for Smith, they may have to clear more space for the players coming off the Physically Unable to Perform list. However, no move is inevitable.
The players, by rule, have a three-week window to return to practice and be evaluated and then another three-week window to be activated to the 53-man roster or be placed on injured reserve.
The loss of Finley is obviously a blow to the offense. In basically only four weeks of play, he had 21 receptions for 301 yards and a touchdown. Despite not playing in most of the past two games, Finley is still second on the team in receptions behind only Donald Driver and still ahead of Greg Jennings.
Comments (31)
October 18, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Well, that sucks.
October 18, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Tough call, big gamble on weather Finely could have been ready at the end of the season. He is still such a young player, if he was a 7 year veteran, maybe you keep him on the roster.
It can't be over looked that the Packers have so many injuries, keeping Finely on the roster even harder.
October 18, 2010 at 12:33 pm
great. more good news
October 18, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Hate this decision.
October 18, 2010 at 01:02 pm
Why? The Packers need players NOW. Finley was going to be out at least ten weeks---or until the last two games of the season.
You say you need him for the playoffs? First, you need to GET TO the playoffs.
Secondly, you don't risk further damage/the long term health to/of one of your best players.
His injury is quite serious. Putting him on IR was a no-brainer and most teams would have done so immediately, instead of getting cute and waiting for two weeks like Thompson always does---thus depriving the roster a healthy body.
October 18, 2010 at 01:59 pm
Smith better be way better than peprah. if he's not then you just erased all chance of having finley so that you could bring in a guy who's not as good as the guy you already have.
If smith IS better than peprah, I guess this makes some sense. although I would have cut quinn johnson instead of giving up all hope on finley.
man, this is getting confusing.
someone put together a projected 53 for me for when chillar, pickett, mathews, neal, harris, starks, tauscher, and bigby all come back.
for some reason i feel these moves signal the end of bigby for the year.
why do i think that everything's still gonna fall into place?
why do i still have a funny feeling that this team is gonna get healthy and peak at just the right time?
no reason for these thoughts... but yet they're still there.
weird.
October 18, 2010 at 02:01 pm
Exactly. I think the slim chance that Finley plays again this season is still worth more than Quinn Johnson's weekly contributions.
October 18, 2010 at 02:03 pm
"someone put together a projected 53 for me for when chillar, pickett, mathews, neal, harris, starks, tauscher, and bigby all come back."
Well, you only need to make room for Harris, Starks and Bigby. The other guys are already on the roster.
Nance will be cut for Starks.
No idea who goes for Harris and Bigby.
October 18, 2010 at 02:12 pm
It's simply because you are the NEW RickyBobby...and I, for one, love it!!
October 18, 2010 at 02:50 pm
i think that feeling is called hope, which all true packer fans always have.
October 18, 2010 at 02:11 pm
lars -
It's not a "no-brainer" to me. Frankly, I think there is are some guys on this roster that don't add a lot of value. As someone else has pointed out, I would trade, for example, Quinn Johnson's contributions for the chance that Finley can be back for the playoff run and playoffs.
Finley is an elite/dominant player. Those types of players are rare. You need them to win in the playoffs. I am not interested in building a team that just gets TO the playoffs. I want to win there.
If the decision was to protect his long-term health, fine. But we haven't heard anything supporting that.
October 18, 2010 at 01:01 pm
Personally, I still feel if there were any possibility for Finley to help us in the playoffs, we could have waited it out. Accountability, reliability...what about just plain ability? Cheers to you Nick McDonald.
October 18, 2010 at 01:06 pm
Yea, take it our on the innocent kid.
Here's a newsflash---the Packers only have 9 healthy OLinemen now, and Clifton and Tauscher are on their last legs. They don't even know when Tauscher will be healthy enough to play.
Lang still hasn't fully recovered from his wrist injury and the PS guy is awful.
And, you want to carry a severely injured TE on the roster until late December in case he MIGHT return for the last two games of a rapidly declining season? Really?
October 18, 2010 at 01:29 pm
Maybe they could cut one of the 3 fullbacks if their oline depth is a concern.
October 18, 2010 at 05:47 pm
What? And end that explosive three fullback formation? I loved our fullbacks until they became half backs.
October 18, 2010 at 01:02 pm
To be sure, finley is an extraordinary talent and matchup nightmare. However, this team can absolutely win without him this year. We imploded in Chicago, and experienced near implosion against Detroit. Finley played both of those games. His presence did not over-shadow the horrendous play calling. No question him being healthy this year would help a lot--a ridiculous statement of the obvious.
But with or without him, if MM doesn't demonstrate some willingness to adapt to game situations, we will continue 2nd half performances like the last 4 weeks. We stunk in all 4 2nd halves and we had Finley for 2 of 'em and he was out for 2 of 'em. Questionable play calling was the common denominator.
October 18, 2010 at 01:14 pm
WE SUCK AGAIN!!!
October 18, 2010 at 09:24 pm
rofl!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4jGSvxCRp4
October 18, 2010 at 01:27 pm
Easy decision. 8-10 weeks is the season. What about the playoffs you ask? This team is not going to the playoffs. When you're this decimated, you have to pull out the close games. We don't.
October 18, 2010 at 02:07 pm
Look at the rest of the NFC. The Packers are 1-game out of being tied for the best record.
Writing them out of the playoffs at this point is just silly.
October 18, 2010 at 05:48 pm
**** straight!
October 18, 2010 at 06:53 pm
Writing them out of the playoffs is silly, yes. But writing them in is just as illogical. While we are one game off of the best record, we aren't going to be blowing many teams out anymore due to an accumulation of injuries and our remaining schedule. This team, and coach, will have to learn how to win close games, which they haven't shown the ability to do in recent years. I, for some reason, am optimistic that McCarthy just takes a few weeks to make obvious adjustments (see last year). It'll just be a function of whether those adjustments are timely and effective.
October 18, 2010 at 02:07 pm
Why does the ledge looks so appealing? Maybe I can fly...
October 18, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Why does the cliff look so appealing? Maybe I can drive my car off it...
October 18, 2010 at 02:47 pm
At least Thompson had the nerve to admit he made a mistake and go after a player we should have never cut. He will be better than any 7th rounder you can draft.
October 18, 2010 at 02:57 pm
so last night i read that they traded for smith and started chuckling.
my wife asked why i was laughing. i told her that the Packers had just traded for a guy that they used to have and let go.
she asked why that was funny. she didn't understand.
here's what i said...
-imagine you had a coke.
-then you decided you didn't want the coke so you threw it away.
-someone walked by, saw the coke and picked it up.
-you saw that person with the coke and decided that you did, in fact, want it.
-the guy with the coke said you could have it for $1.
-so you paid the guy a dollar so you could have the coke back.
Now she understands.
October 18, 2010 at 04:37 pm
Awesome....LMAO
October 18, 2010 at 05:52 pm
Who wouldn't throw an old Coke away when you have ice cold PBR's? **** happens, you do what you have to do.
October 18, 2010 at 07:03 pm
Other injuries determined Finley's trip to the IR ..... To hold a roster spot (until the last two games of the season) for a player who may or may not be available is crazy ........ Very similar to having two punters on your 53-man ala Sherman a few years ago ...... I'd rather see Finley 100% at the 1st minicamp 2011 ......
October 18, 2010 at 07:08 pm
Two punters?? ...... Or was that two kickers?? ...... I forgot ...... I'm trying to forget all the Sherman years.
October 18, 2010 at 08:02 pm
No big deal. This season's a write off anyway.