Packers to start two rookie linemen but not Colledge? (1 Viewer)

[Bri]

With two preseason games in the books and two to play, Head Coach Mike McCarthy on Monday said he will not wait until the end of training camp to name his opening day starters along the offensive line.

Joining veterans Chad Clifton, Mark Tauscher and third-year center Scott Wells will be 2006 draft picks Tony Moll and Jason Spitz.

"This is the direction we'll go, with Tony at right guard and Jason on the left," McCarthy said. "I thought it was important and I think we've talked about it the last couple of weeks that I was not comfortable waiting until the end of training camp to name the starting five. So by going in this direction it gives us a chance to get these five guys prepped and ready for Chicago."

Moll, a fifth-round draft choice from Nevada, has had solid performances throughout training camp practices, capped by an impressive night vs. Atlanta, Saturday.

"When I got drafted it sounded like I would just be sitting the bench if I made it playing tackle," said Moll, who played tight end and defensive end in high school and tight end during his first four years at Nevada. "So I've made a complete 180 with this and hopefully it's a good decision. Now I can only play my best."

With two preseason games in his future to help him acclimate to his new starting role before the Chicago Bears come calling September 10, Moll looks forward to the opportunity to continue to impress coaches and the time to gel with the same set of linemen on each and every play.

"It shows that the coaches are noticing that I'm working hard and understanding what needs to be done at the NFL level," Moll said. "It's more than one guy. I'm part of a five-man line, so I can only do my part and I'm going to do it to the best of my ability.

"Everyone has their own little trademarks in what they do and everyone's a little different in their calls. Now that I know I'm going to be working with the same guys, it will make a difference."

Spitz, a third-round draft choice from Louisville, agrees that not having the pressure of trying to win a starting role the rest of training camp will help, but in no way does it give them room to relax.

"Anytime you're in there together as one unit it's going to give you time to gel," Spitz said. "I think it's going to be a long time until we are where we need to be. And in no way is (being named a starter) an indicator of how it's going to be the rest of the season.

"You can't get caught up in that. You still have to do your job and you still have to perform everyday. It's a 'show me' world so if I'm not doing my job, a couple of weeks from now it's not going to be the same five."

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/08/21/2/

You guys know I don't follow college ball but get loads of info from here and some draft sites.

What happenned to Colledge? Or is Spitz surprisingly good?

What's up here?

Bloom Chaos Commish? que pasa

 

[SCT]

With two preseason games in the books and two to play, Head Coach Mike McCarthy on Monday said he will not wait until the end of training camp to name his opening day starters along the offensive line.

Joining veterans Chad Clifton, Mark Tauscher and third-year center Scott Wells will be 2006 draft picks Tony Moll and Jason Spitz.

"This is the direction we'll go, with Tony at right guard and Jason on the left," McCarthy said. "I thought it was important and I think we've talked about it the last couple of weeks that I was not comfortable waiting until the end of training camp to name the starting five. So by going in this direction it gives us a chance to get these five guys prepped and ready for Chicago."

Moll, a fifth-round draft choice from Nevada, has had solid performances throughout training camp practices, capped by an impressive night vs. Atlanta, Saturday.

"When I got drafted it sounded like I would just be sitting the bench if I made it playing tackle," said Moll, who played tight end and defensive end in high school and tight end during his first four years at Nevada. "So I've made a complete 180 with this and hopefully it's a good decision. Now I can only play my best."

With two preseason games in his future to help him acclimate to his new starting role before the Chicago Bears come calling September 10, Moll looks forward to the opportunity to continue to impress coaches and the time to gel with the same set of linemen on each and every play.

"It shows that the coaches are noticing that I'm working hard and understanding what needs to be done at the NFL level," Moll said. "It's more than one guy. I'm part of a five-man line, so I can only do my part and I'm going to do it to the best of my ability.

"Everyone has their own little trademarks in what they do and everyone's a little different in their calls. Now that I know I'm going to be working with the same guys, it will make a difference."

Spitz, a third-round draft choice from Louisville, agrees that not having the pressure of trying to win a starting role the rest of training camp will help, but in no way does it give them room to relax.

"Anytime you're in there together as one unit it's going to give you time to gel," Spitz said. "I think it's going to be a long time until we are where we need to be. And in no way is (being named a starter) an indicator of how it's going to be the rest of the season.

"You can't get caught up in that. You still have to do your job and you still have to perform everyday. It's a 'show me' world so if I'm not doing my job, a couple of weeks from now it's not going to be the same five."

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/08/21/2/

You guys know I don't follow college ball but get loads of info from here and some draft sites.

What happenned to Colledge? Or is Spitz surprisingly good?

What's up here?

Bloom Chaos Commish? que pasa

I don't know, that's news to me, but seeing as I'm sitting here in North Pole, AK as DC's high school bball coach, it's disappointing.

 

[Big Score]

What happenned to Colledge? Or is Spitz surprisingly good?What's up here?Bloom Chaos Commish? que pasa

It is either Moll is suprisingly good, or Colledge is surprisingly bad.

 

[Chaos Commish]

What happenned to Colledge? Or is Spitz surprisingly good?What's up here?Bloom Chaos Commish? que pasa

It is either Moll is suprisingly good, or Colledge is surprisingly bad.

Spitz is surprisingly good. He took the job almost immediately and without a fight from anyone and isn't looking back. Remember Bloom reporting what a road grader this guy is? He is a natural guard or center, and he is very experienced in a pro style offense. He was ready. They tried Colledge at guard because the tackles are good, but Colledge has no experience there. He's not a short stout interior lineman, but a nice agile tackle in the making. He's 6-5 295 after gaining 15 pounds. You won't find those numbers assigned to many NFL guards. He also has very limited upper body strength. Boise just wasn't a big weight lifting school and Colledge has a lot of work to do. He'd be better off at tackle, and I suspect that is where he may end up, as a reserve. I don't know anything about Moll, just that he's winning the job, he's from Nevada, and he didn't just pass Colledge, but also Isaac Sowell's, a 6-3 330 pound road grader who is very powerful. I think this is all good news for GB. Their guards were horrible last year. Too much is made of rookie lineman not being any good. Baloney. Several were very good last year. Several needed work. It sounds like Spitz is going to be very good, and if Moll is the best they have for RG, then more power to him. This class of OLs was loaded. I said way back that the teams who took advantage would be improved for years and the Packers are one of them. There's going to be growing pains early in the season, but once they get through them, with Clifton and Tauscher on the edges, this line is going to come together nicely.

 

[cr8f]

What happenned to Colledge? Or is Spitz surprisingly good?What's up here?Bloom Chaos Commish? que pasa

It is either Moll is suprisingly good, or Colledge is surprisingly bad.

Colledge is now a tackle(he always was), but they will try him at the 2 spots on the left side. Being groomed to replace Clifton when he retires.

 

[gruecd]

What happenned to Colledge? Or is Spitz surprisingly good?

What's up here?

Bloom Chaos Commish? que pasa

It is either Moll is suprisingly good, or Colledge is surprisingly bad.

Colledge is now a tackle(he always was), but they will try him at the 2 spots on the left side. Being groomed to replace Clifton when he retires.

Exactly. Here's a column from Appleton Post-Crescent columnist Chris Havel:

Chris Havel column: Colledge ought to stay at left tackle

That's best place for 2nd-round pick

By Chris Havel

Daryn Colledge has gone from starting left guard to a second-team backup in what has been a frustrating first 17 days of training camp.

The second-round draft pick is down in the depth chart, but he isn't out of the Green Bay Packers' plans.

Coach Mike McCarthy's best move is to move Colledge back to left tackle, his natural position, and the sooner the better. I applaud the Packers' attempt to transform Colledge from a tackle to a guard, but not as much as I disagree with it.

McCarthy has shown the ability to make changes if he feels it is necessary, thus the reshuffling of the offensive line. Now, he needs to show he isn't stubborn by going the whole nine yards and moving Colledge to left tackle behind Chad Clifton.

Colledge is no more a left guard than Junius Coston is a left tackle.

The 6-foot-4, 299-pound lineman from Boise State has the long arms, quick feet and patient demeanor to be a truly special left tackle. He is strong enough to stone a bull-rushing defensive end, and clever enough to neutralize a pure speed rusher.

He isn't capable of brawling with powerful, immovable mountains in the interior defensive line. That isn't his forte. If that isn't obvious to McCarthy and his coaching staff by now, it ought to be.

Some have compared Colledge to Mike Wahle, the Packers' former left guard, by suggesting the rookie also could make the move to guard from tackle. It sounds nice, but Colledge and Wahle have entirely different approaches.

Where Colledge is similar to Clifton, a natural counterpuncher, Wahle was too aggressive to be successful at tackle. Once Wahle went to guard, he could use his innate toughness and nasty disposition to trade blows with the big boys. Colledge is more of a cerebral, finesse blocker best suited to left tackle.

As it stands, Colledge is languishing behind fellow rookie Jason Spitz while Tony Moll, like Colledge a former WAC player, moved into the starting lineup at right guard.

I suspect Colledge's pride and confidence have been rocked. I also suspect he will do everything he can to regain both.

That isn't going to happen at guard. Colledge plays too high, thinks too much and lacks the natural aggression required to thrive in the NFL's version of hell.

The Packers are a sprained ankle away from Josh Bourke, an undrafted free agent out of Grand Valley State, being asked to protect Brett Favre's blindside.

If Colledge, the sixth offensive lineman chosen in the April draft, isn't better than an undrafted rookie left tackle — and I say that with all due respect to Bourke — the Packers' scouting department blew it.

McCarthy needs to switch Colledge back to left tackle, where he can battle Bourke for the right to back up Clifton.

It creates competition at a critical position, and it just might prevent Colledge from losing whatever confidence remains.

He is too talented a lineman, and too valuable a backup left tackle, to be miscast at left guard.

 

[CletiusMaximus]

It would be nice if the second rounder was the one starting, but there is nothing odd about an O-lineman taking a couple years to develop in the NFL. I like everything I read about Colledge and he certainly is showing the right attitude, even though he was a disaster on the field in the first preseason game.

Here's another interesting take on Colledge, somewhat better than Havel's colum in my opinion:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=487046

A work in progress

Colledge struggles with transition to guard

By TOM SILVERSTEIN

tsilverstein@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Aug. 22, 2006

Green Bay - The Green Bay Packers drafted guard Daryn Colledge in the second round with the thought he would be ready right away for the National Football League.

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They still think he'll be the real deal someday, but what they underestimated was how a lack of upper body strength and a new position would impact him.

Members of the organization say the 6-foot-4, 299-pound Colledge, who at the scouting combine in March ran the third-fastest 40-yard dash (5.05 seconds) and posted the second-highest vertical leap (32½ inches), is even more athletic than former Packer Mike Wahle when he came out of Navy in 1998 (Wahle ran a 5.2-second 40-yard dash).

As the sixth offensive lineman selected in the draft, Colledge, a left tackle at Boise State, was expected to be an instant starter. But after holding the left guard position from the day he was drafted until his first NFL exhibition game against San Diego, he was demoted in favor of another rookie, fifth-round draft choice Tony Moll.

"I think he's smart and wants to be a player," general manager Ted Thompson said. "But you never know. Going from tackle to guard, sometimes it's easy for guys and sometimes it's not. I would still expect him to be a good player for us."

On Wednesday night in the team's only practice, Colledge worked for the first time as a Packer at left tackle. After the workout, coach Mike McCarthy said Colledge would work at both left guard and tackle in hopes of being able to back up both positions.

Colledge's route is not dissimilar to that of Wahle, who played in only one game his rookie year and didn't become a fixture in the starting lineup until his fourth season. Wahle, a tackle in college, started out as a guard, was moved to tackle, was benched for poor play and then re-emerged as the team's left guard, where he started 64 straight games until leaving in free agency for Carolina after the 2004 season.

Like Wahle, Colledge hasn't made the transition well to guard. In the San Diego game, he was knocked around like a bowling pin and seemed to be a step slow on everything he did.

The most noticeable thing was that he was overpowered too many times. Some scouts think his lack of upper body strength was an issue and pointed to the fact that at the combine he bench-pressed 225 pounds a total of 21 times, which ranked tied for 29th among the 43 linemen who performed the test.

"I don't know if it's weight room strength necessarily," offensive line coach Joe Philbin said. "It's functional playing (strength). Some of it is related to his technique that will help him play stronger. Some of it may be straight-out strength issues."

By comparison, Moll, also a college tackle, scored just an 18 on the bench press test at his workout. But Moll is more of a mauler and plays with the aggression of a former tight end who used to have to block bigger and stronger linemen during his first three years at Nevada.

Colledge admits that his overall strength might be holding him back, although he didn't discount the shift to a new position and his inability to master proper technique as reasons. One scout said the type of weight training used at Boise State emphasizes movement and agility more than raw strength, and Colledge doesn't dispute that.

"I knew upper body-wise I had some work to do," Colledge said. "At Boise State University we weren't huge upper-body lifters, we were more Olympic body lifters, legs, hips and things like that. That was one of the places I wanted to get better.

"I'm extremely excited about this season, but I'm extremely excited about having an off-season with a guy like (strength coach) Rock (Gullickson), a guy who I can spend a lot of time with. I intend on staying here year round."

Despite his shortcomings with upper-body strength, the Packers think he can function well enough this year if he would clean up his technique. Perhaps because he is playing a new position or perhaps because he thought he had the left guard position locked up, Colledge did not make the strides he needed to in the technique department.

Labeled cocky by some scouts, Colledge was forced to eat a big slice of humble pie when he was sent to the second team.

"It's most disappointing to me because I let it happen," Colledge said.

"I put myself in that position where they could say, ‘Hey, maybe he's not the best guy for the position.' That's my fault. It's my job every day to show them that it was a one-time occurrence, it was a fluke and it won't happen again."

Colledge can and might still be a factor this season and it might be at left tackle. Given the knee problems starter Chad Clifton has experienced during training camp, it's possible he will break down during the season and Colledge will be called upon to fill in.

Strength issues aside, he will have to get the job done.

"I think a lot of it is related to better leverage and playing with a better pad level, using his hands wiser, tighter," Philbin said. "That will allow him to play stronger. Some of it is strength, but I think a lot of it can be corrected with proper technique."

It's possible the Packers' assessment of Colledge as an NFL guard might be wrong and tackle will be his position. Thompson said the Packers don't view Colledge just as a guard, but they put him there because they already had two good tackles.

What they're counting on is that over time, the combination of his athletic ability and improved technique will make him a perennial starter. But they also could be looking at a development period that goes well beyond this year.

"He will be fine," offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski said. "Some guys sometimes take longer than others."

 

[Big Score]

Yeah don't get me wrong when I wrote that Colledge might be surprisingly bad. That was not me saying he's a B - U - S - T. It was me saying that what the Pack expected him to ba able to do, has not come about...yet!

The flip side of course is Molls. Obviously the Pack figured him as depth, not a rookie starter. Now he's turning into quite the pleasant surprise for them.