Confessions of a Polluted Mindset - July 1 2020

The Weekly Packers Brain Drain from Jersey Al.

Packers Legacy - The 1960s:  Perhaps Lombardi's first major "win" (which would pave the road for future wins) was convincing the Packers' Executive committee, notorious for having meddled in football and personnel decisions for years, to relinquish full control to a new first-time NFL head coach and GM. Even with that, he had to throw Packers' President Dominic Olejniczak out of a team meeting at the start of training camp, admonishing him to never again "come into any team meeting I am having with my players."

How about Bart Starr, having the balls to stand up to Lombardi and tell him that if he wants Starr to be the leader of the team, he is to NEVER chew him out in front of the team. If he had a chewing out coming, Starr was more than ok with that, as long as it was in the privacy of Lombardi's office. Otherwise, he told Lombardi, "don't ever expect me to go out there and be your leader." After that, Lombardi never raised his voice to him again.

The Packers, a team that had only won one game the year before, won their first game under Lombardi against the vaunted Chicago Bears. They were so excited, they picked Lombardi up and carried him off the field, a scene that would be repeated in the future after a much more meaningful victory.

 

Aaron Rodgers: I happened to come across a youtube video titled, "Aaron Rodgers' Best Play Against Every Team." It piqued my interest so I gave it a whirl. Of course, this is one person's opinion and list, but just play along here. When you think about the players that were on the receiving end of those plays, who do you think of? Jordy Nelson led the Pack with eight appearances, Davante Adams showed up in five. Who would you guess were the other prominent players? Randall Cobb? Greg Jennings? Well this is where it gets interesting - coming in with seven appearances was none other than James Jones.He surely benefited by teams keying on Jordy and Jennings, but man was he there when Rodgers needed him. And now, the biggest surprise of all. The man who became synonymous with the 2-yard out route. The man who moved like he was running through sludge. The man who perfected "catch and go to the turf." The man who spent four short seasons in Green Bay, mostly in a backup role. The man who appeared in three of Rodgers' best plays was...  Richard Rodgers. Obviously, I've been a bit too hard on the man.

(Note: After clicking the PLAY button, you'll again have to click on "watch on youtube" to view the video. Thank the NFL.)

Lunacy: Yes, we are in the depths of NFL offseason, where desperate people come up with desperate ideas to get themselves some attention - whether good or bad. This week's example comes from Pro Football Focus - an organization that provides us (and EVERY NFL team) with an array of stats, some more useful than others, but nonetheless, data to be used as one of many tools for analyzing player performance. So why, then, would such a "professional" organization want to sully their reputation by having a bunch of know-nothing trolls come up with and opine on ridiculous topics just to get clicks? Let me mention here that Golladay was my draft crush for the Packers - I would have been over the moon if they had been able to nab him and he is proving that the raw potential I saw was not a ruse - it's real and he's living it. Regardless, how can these knuckleheads include Davante Adams as nothing more than an afterthought? Submitted for your disapproval:

More PFF and Kevin King: Now for contrast, here is where Pro Football Focus shines - providing useful information. Why do I find this useful? Is it because they are hyping a Packers player? No, because it helps to support my "eye test" observations of Kevin King, mainly that he is very, very good with the ball/receiver in front of him but struggles mightily when teams go deep over the top of him. In the red zone, he doesn't have to deal with that second scenario, so it makes perfect sense he shines in that area.

 

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"Jersey Al" Bracco is the Editor-In-Chief, part owner and wearer of many hats for CheeseheadTV.com and PackersTalk.com. He is also a recovering Mason Crosby truther.  Follow Al on twitter at @JerseyalGBP

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12 points
 

Comments (17)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
NickPerry's picture

July 01, 2020 at 06:36 am

I had heard about this, now I've listened. It took 52 seconds to hear Davante Adams name in a 61 second video and it was more of an afterthought at that...What the hell is going on over there?

Marvin Jones? MARVIN JONES gets mentioned before Adams? Hell he's mentioned and Allen Robinson isn't even brought up who's better than Jones for sure and probably Thielin IMO.

For all that was said about Richard Rodgers athletic ability and speed the dude NEVER dropped the ball. There's a lot to be said for that AND those who think the 40 is the tell all be all of a player.

6 points
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RCPackerFan's picture

July 01, 2020 at 07:08 am

Rodgers was a good role player or a good backup type of player. The mistake was in thinking that he would be a starter. Players like him can contribute to teams. And those are the guys that can really help you win games. But the key is finding the right role for those types. I think he would be better in a LaFleur style of offense to be honest.

4 points
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Coldworld's picture

July 02, 2020 at 07:54 am

I agree. MM seemed unwilling to tailor usage to a player’s strengths and weaknesses. It always seemed that the system prevailed whomever was on the roster or available. At the TE position, that seemed to lead to years of trying to play as if Finley’s career had not been ended by injuries.

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JerseyAl's picture

July 01, 2020 at 10:34 am

Totally agree on Allen Robinson. Without Robinson pulling in bad passes, Trubisky would have been 10 times worse than he showed.

4 points
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RCPackerFan's picture

July 01, 2020 at 06:45 am

Packers Legacy -
I haven't seen an of these yet. But I am loving loving this on the confessions!

Aaron Rodgers:
The part that has been missing from Green Bay's offense is that solid go to guy. A guy that Rodgers can count on if his 1 and 2 options are covered. That has been missing for a while. That is why last year when Allison was playing as poorly as he was, it really hurt the offense. And when EQ was on IR that really hurt the team. That is where I'm really hopefully we continue to use the RB's and TE's more and more in the passing offense so we aren't solely relying on WR's. But we do need a good solid #3/4 WR to be able to make a play when needed.

Lunacy:
Golladay is a good WR. No question. I would take him on my team. But is he the best in the NFC North? NOPE.
I just hope we can start getting training camps and stuff back so that we can actually start to have an actual NFL season. And so that we can actually have something real to talk about. these guys have had nothing real to talk about for to long. Now they are over analyzing everything.

More PFF and Kevin King:
Most times PFF is good at what they do. Not always as proven above. But they do provide nice details about players. They are not always right, but I agree with you that with Kevin King it appears they are spot on about him.
One part that really helps King in the redzone is his size. It is hard to get a ball over him in the redzone. And he is long enough to break up the underneath stuff.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what our CB's look like this year! Alexander another year here. With Savage having another year. i think our CB's could be really, really good!

3 points
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murf7777's picture

July 01, 2020 at 07:53 am

If he stays healthy I believe Kevin King will make a pro bowl or two in his career. Not many athletic, 6’3 corners in NFL. I hope Packers can sign him.

7 points
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Lphill's picture

July 01, 2020 at 08:48 am

I liked Richard Rodgers I don’t recall many drops , sure not the fastest guy on the field but solid hands.

4 points
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Coldworld's picture

July 02, 2020 at 07:58 am

I just wish he could have added a little more physicality to his game. I believe that might have been the difference in terms of longevity.

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mnbadger's picture

July 01, 2020 at 09:01 am

James Jones was the perfect Packer and one day should be in their hall of fame. True professional.
He was my favorite guest on any of the weekly Packer TV shows.
Great player, teammate, father and citizen. GPG

5 points
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TarynsEyes's picture

July 01, 2020 at 09:08 am

PFF is so over run with its own use of formulas to evaluate players and conjure up more stats that can only be used by their computations to decode, has become more farce, with their revelations.

6 points
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Oppy's picture

July 04, 2020 at 09:47 pm

It's a lot like your use of the English? language.

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13TimeChamps's picture

July 01, 2020 at 10:08 am

Lunacy: Great! I've never been a fan of PFF, but I hope they can get every team on our schedule to treat Davante as an afterthought. Pretty sure he'll be looking at some monster numbers if they do.

6 points
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dobber's picture

July 01, 2020 at 12:42 pm

PFF: The problem with analytics in football is that there are too many players on the field and too many changes in game plans (and from down-to-down situations) from week to week to focus on individuals. Analytics are built on repetitive action. It works well in baseball, which is a 1-on-1 game in a team sport context. There are so many repetitions (n is extremely high) in baseball, and even basketball. Football is a hard sell on analytics, IMO. You have to take them as what they are: a ballpark estimation.

5 points
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Bure9620's picture

July 01, 2020 at 12:59 pm

Analytics can be a framework and a guide for how a team is performing but cannot be counted on solely. If you remember, the Packers drove analytics people crazy last year as their "win total was not representative of their actual play." Something can be said for that but my response would be the Packers did things well that were needed to win games. They gave up some big plays and yards, but their Red Zone defensive efficiency was very solid as was offensive red zone efficiency. They also did not turn the ball over much and typically won the turnover margin in most games.
If you win the turnover battle, and do a good job of keeping teams out of the endzone, you are going to have a chance to win a lot of games....

6 points
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Jonathan Spader's picture

July 02, 2020 at 09:42 am

Ok Leatherhead ;) (I agree)

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Tundraboy's picture

July 01, 2020 at 11:46 pm

More fine work Al. I HAVE to start binging the Legacy series.

Bart. One tough dude, just not the flashy hot dog type. The dynamic with Vince was , well I don't how to describe it, but the stuff of legends it certainly was.

Jones. No surprise there. He made so many clutch, insane catches over the years.

PFF. Who cares, but Golliday is something special. So is Adams,and in important games.

1 points
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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

July 02, 2020 at 05:09 am

The median for red zone possessions per game is 3.3 possessions, or about 53 per regular season. Not sure what that works out to in terms of number of snaps, but I'd guess 150 plays, though I could be way off. So, King's 90 grade versus his overall 62.5 means he probably was still an average CB on the other 700 snaps he played.

I can make a pretty good argument for Golladay, Diggs and Thielen as equal to Adams using just normal stats. All have better DVOAs, yds/target, and better hands. All are bunched up in terms of PFF grades, though Adams has the highest grade. The big difference is that Adams is top 3 in getting open against man coverage, very good against press and very good against zone. See the link.

https://twitter.com/MattHarmon_BYB/status/1272956168248295425

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