Who Brought This Guy?
By Max on May 09, 2010 with 9 Comments
I pride myself on my ability to recognize Packers players. I can almost always look at the player’s face and know who they are. If my facial recognition fails me, the jersey number is always a dead giveaway.
As I was reading an article over at Bleacher Report, I was surprised when I didn’t recognize the player in this photo. As I scanned the post, the first name I came across was Charles Woodson. I smugly thought to myself, “This schmuck put the wrong picture up.” But as I read on, I realized not only was I the schmuck, but my facial and number recognition was not nearly as good as I had thought.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the aforementioned player is Pat Lee. The young cornerback out of Auburn has only played in five games over a two-year span, but there are rumblings hopes this will be the year Lee blossoms into the player the Packers thought they were drafting with the 60th overall pick in the 2008 draft.
The knock on the 26-year-old is that he is injury-prone. With Mike McCarthy admitting that Lee’s knee injury last year was not necessarily season-ending (Lee spent the year on injured-reserve), the injury-prone report is somewhat questionable (no pun intended). Furthermore, if the Packers could have looked into the future and saw they would lose cornerbacks Al Harris and Will Blackmon to season-ending knee injuries, Lee almost certainly would have been on the field for the end of the season and the playoffs. Would it have made a difference? I have no idea. Would it have helped? I have to think so.
Clairvoyance aside, this is the year we finally get to see what Pat Lee can do. And with starting cornerback Al Harris coming off surgery to repair his ACL and MCL, the timing couldn’t be better.
After doing a little research, I found out Lee used to return kicks at Auburn, too. Wouldn’t that be a nice bonus? Maybe this is the year of Pat Lee. After all, according to the Chinese Zodiac, this is the year of the (Auburn) tiger. Regardless, I’m rooting for him.
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I believe Lee hurt his knee last year on a huge punt return
Lee injured his knee in the preseason last year on a kickoff return. It was not huge, but it was pretty good, and he was close to breaking it. In the little bit I’ve seen of him, I’ve been intrigued by his athleticism. I’m looking forward to seeing him on the field again.
Is he injury prone? Well, he’s had two serious injuries in two years, so I guess you could call him that. But the injuries were unrelated, and I haven’t heard that there is any sign of them being chronic (unlike, for example, Justin Harrell’s back), so I’m expecting him to be healthy this year. Presumably Ted Thompson is too, as he did not draft any CB’s.
Players to potentially have a breakout year:
Pat Lee
Justin Harrell (I’m not joking)
Brad Jones
Will Blackmon
T.J. Lang
B.J. Raji
Brandon Jackson
I won’t be surprised if Starks and Burnett really bring something to the table this year. Never know with rookies though.
Never seen any of the rookies, like you said, predicting with rookies is a crapshoot… Would’ve NEVER predicted than either CM3, and specially Jones would contribute… And on the other hand, thought that Raji would make an immediate impact.
put Quinn Johnson on the list.
Yeah, forgot about him. I believe we gain at least 0.5 yards every time he’s on the field, and him having full understanding of the playbook turns him into the starter…
That guy in the video = over-served yet awesome.
GBP 4 LIFE
He’s a curious case. Not quite a bust, but a high potential to be. Though you really can’t judge much on ’09, but I definitely agree ’10 will be make-or-break-ish