Future of defense takes hit with Poppinga injury
The Green Bay Packers’ attempts to build their defense through the draft took a step backward with the loss of rookie linebacker Brady Poppinga to a major knee injury.
Poppinga, a fourth-round draft pick, will require reconstruction for a torn anterior cruciate ligament sustained while covering a kickoff in the Packers’ win over Detroit on Sunday.
Poppinga was making the transition from collegiate defensive end to NFL linebacker this year and made his first start of the season against the Lions. Though he still was relatively raw at strong-side linebacker, he would have been in the running for a starting job in training camp next year as part of General Manager Ted Thompson’s attempts to upgrade the defense’s talent.
Now, Poppinga has minimal chance to be practicing at the start of training camp next season and could miss the entire camp. Recovery from ACL surgery generally is eight to 12 months, so he’ll have to make an especially fast recovery to be much of a factor next season.
“I was already talking to him and thinking about things we’d do in the offseason to speed up his progress,” said Mark Duffner, the Packers’ linebackers coach. “I was and still am pretty encouraged about what he might be able to do.”
Poppinga is the second linebacker in the Packers’ 2005 draft class to sustain a serious knee injury. Kurt Campbell, a seventh-round draft pick from Albany, tore an ACL in training camp.
Campbell was a college safety/rover who at 6-foot-1, 227 pounds had the speed defensive coordinator Jim Bates covets in linebackers. He played at a lower level (Division I-AA) than Poppinga but had shown enough in camp to pique the Packers’ interest as a special-teams player and potential weak-side linebacker before getting hurt 12 days into two-a-day practices.
There’s no guarantee Campbell would have made the Packers’ roster this year, but he’s lost a valuable chance to grow if he had.
He missed extensive practice reps in training camp, and if he’d made the roster, he might have gotten on the field occasionally because of injuries to the rest of the linebacker corps.
“Unfortunately, these things happen,” Duffner said. “Campbell, early in camp, because he’d been a defensive back he was kind of a multi-purpose player, flashed early at times and kind of caught our eyes. A guy we had some high hopes for — it’s way early still, but we’d have loved a chance to see him more. Same for (Poppinga). It was more of a project for him coming from playing defensive end. He only played (linebacker) his senior year, but with his attitude and effort, he brought that along.”
Even without Poppinga in the running, the Packers probably will have turnover at starting linebacker next year. Middle linebacker Nick Barnett is a core starter, but one or both of the other starters probably will change next year as Thompson and Bates try to upgrade the defensive talent with young players on hand and probably a draft pick or two as well.
For instance, Paris Lenon has started nine games and figures to start the final three weeks this season, but he’s a career backup. Roy Manning, an undrafted rookie from Michigan, started two games at strong-side linebacker early in the year and plays occasionally in the nickel defense, but it’s still uncertain whether he was just a stop-gap or if he’s a future starter.
The Packers traded for Robert Thomas from St. Louis to start at weak-side linebacker before the start of the regular season, but that move was more for this year than a long-term solution at that key position. Thomas has 51 tackles but has blown coverage on several red-zone touchdown passes, has no fumbles forced and one interception and has missed three of the last four games because of a quadriceps injury.
Even Na’il Diggs’ future is uncertain after his season was ruined by a torn medial-collateral ligament in each knee — one in training camp, the other during the season. Diggs, who’s 27, has been a full-time starter since his rookie season of 2000 and has one year remaining on his contract, which consists of a $600,000 roster bonus due in March and a $2.3 million base salary in ’06.
The injuries raise concerns about Diggs’ long-term health, and there remain questions about how well he fits into Bates’ speed-oriented scheme. Diggs hasn’t been healthy enough to show one way or the other since he first was injured Aug. 8.
On the other hand, with Poppinga out, the Packers have one fewer option at linebacker, and depending on their offseason plans, might find Diggs’ $600,000 bonus a small price to pay for insurance. Poppinga’s injury might get Diggs back in the starting lineup this season.
“Even when he came back after the one injury, he was making progress and then got injured again,” Bates said. “It’s been hard for us to evaluate where Diggsy’s at in the scheme of things. We’ll go with where we’re at and at the end of the season sit down and have a total evaluation.”
Poppinga, a fourth-round draft pick, will require reconstruction for a torn anterior cruciate ligament sustained while covering a kickoff in the Packers’ win over Detroit on Sunday.
Poppinga was making the transition from collegiate defensive end to NFL linebacker this year and made his first start of the season against the Lions. Though he still was relatively raw at strong-side linebacker, he would have been in the running for a starting job in training camp next year as part of General Manager Ted Thompson’s attempts to upgrade the defense’s talent.
Now, Poppinga has minimal chance to be practicing at the start of training camp next season and could miss the entire camp. Recovery from ACL surgery generally is eight to 12 months, so he’ll have to make an especially fast recovery to be much of a factor next season.
“I was already talking to him and thinking about things we’d do in the offseason to speed up his progress,” said Mark Duffner, the Packers’ linebackers coach. “I was and still am pretty encouraged about what he might be able to do.”
Poppinga is the second linebacker in the Packers’ 2005 draft class to sustain a serious knee injury. Kurt Campbell, a seventh-round draft pick from Albany, tore an ACL in training camp.
Campbell was a college safety/rover who at 6-foot-1, 227 pounds had the speed defensive coordinator Jim Bates covets in linebackers. He played at a lower level (Division I-AA) than Poppinga but had shown enough in camp to pique the Packers’ interest as a special-teams player and potential weak-side linebacker before getting hurt 12 days into two-a-day practices.
There’s no guarantee Campbell would have made the Packers’ roster this year, but he’s lost a valuable chance to grow if he had.
He missed extensive practice reps in training camp, and if he’d made the roster, he might have gotten on the field occasionally because of injuries to the rest of the linebacker corps.
“Unfortunately, these things happen,” Duffner said. “Campbell, early in camp, because he’d been a defensive back he was kind of a multi-purpose player, flashed early at times and kind of caught our eyes. A guy we had some high hopes for — it’s way early still, but we’d have loved a chance to see him more. Same for (Poppinga). It was more of a project for him coming from playing defensive end. He only played (linebacker) his senior year, but with his attitude and effort, he brought that along.”
Even without Poppinga in the running, the Packers probably will have turnover at starting linebacker next year. Middle linebacker Nick Barnett is a core starter, but one or both of the other starters probably will change next year as Thompson and Bates try to upgrade the defensive talent with young players on hand and probably a draft pick or two as well.
For instance, Paris Lenon has started nine games and figures to start the final three weeks this season, but he’s a career backup. Roy Manning, an undrafted rookie from Michigan, started two games at strong-side linebacker early in the year and plays occasionally in the nickel defense, but it’s still uncertain whether he was just a stop-gap or if he’s a future starter.
The Packers traded for Robert Thomas from St. Louis to start at weak-side linebacker before the start of the regular season, but that move was more for this year than a long-term solution at that key position. Thomas has 51 tackles but has blown coverage on several red-zone touchdown passes, has no fumbles forced and one interception and has missed three of the last four games because of a quadriceps injury.
Even Na’il Diggs’ future is uncertain after his season was ruined by a torn medial-collateral ligament in each knee — one in training camp, the other during the season. Diggs, who’s 27, has been a full-time starter since his rookie season of 2000 and has one year remaining on his contract, which consists of a $600,000 roster bonus due in March and a $2.3 million base salary in ’06.
The injuries raise concerns about Diggs’ long-term health, and there remain questions about how well he fits into Bates’ speed-oriented scheme. Diggs hasn’t been healthy enough to show one way or the other since he first was injured Aug. 8.
On the other hand, with Poppinga out, the Packers have one fewer option at linebacker, and depending on their offseason plans, might find Diggs’ $600,000 bonus a small price to pay for insurance. Poppinga’s injury might get Diggs back in the starting lineup this season.
“Even when he came back after the one injury, he was making progress and then got injured again,” Bates said. “It’s been hard for us to evaluate where Diggsy’s at in the scheme of things. We’ll go with where we’re at and at the end of the season sit down and have a total evaluation.”
No comments:
Post a Comment