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Sam Shields was one of the bright spots for the Packers against the 49ers.

The Packers season is over. They got smoked by the 49ers in the NFL playoffs on Saturday night.

I’m sick of writing about it. I’m sick of talking about it. I’m sick of thinking about it.

On to the stock report:

Rising

Sam Shields
The combination of Shields getting healthy and realizing he’s a restricted free agent really got him going. Shields will likely get a first-round tender and I expect the Packers to open their checkbooks and lock him up for the next few years. Let’s hope he stays motivated, keeps improving, and plays like he did down the stretch.

James Jones
With Greg Jennings likely gone and Jermichael Finley possibly following him out the door, Jones can establish himself as an upper-echelon receiver next season. Jones came to play on Saturday night. It was nice to see Jones use his size a bit this season. I always thought he played smaller than he was, but he went up and got a few balls in traffic this season and played angrier.  Read more... (559 words + 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

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Packers RB Cedric Benson

The Packers’ offensive line was dominated by the New York Giants in week 12, and it won’t be getting any help from tackle Derek Sherrod this season.

Sherrod was retained on the reserve/physically unable to perform list on Tuesday, thus ending his season before it even got started. The team faced a deadline this week to either activate him or stash him on the reserve/PUP for the remainder of the 2012 season.

Since starting right tackle Bryan Bulaga was lost for the season, the Packers were forced to move around the pieces on their offensive line. Left guard T.J. Lang has moved to Bulaga’s position at right tackle, and Evan Dietrich-Smith has taken Lang’s place at left guard.

The Packers haven’t been able to protect Aaron Rodgers all season, as the quarterback has been sacked a league-high 37 times through 11 games this season.

Now that Sherrod’s season is officially over, the Packers’ only backup offensive linemen are undrafted rookies Don Barclay and Greg Van Roten. Barclay can play either inside or outside at guard or tackle, whereas Van Roten is strictly an interior lineman.

Not only will the Packers not be getting a boost from Sherrod this season, they may be without starting running back Cedric Benson for the rest of the year as well.

Benson suffered a Lisfranc injury Oct. 7 at Indianapolis, and his foot hasn’t healed as quickly as the Packers had hoped. If he opts to have surgery, that will likely end his season.  Read more... (369 words + 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

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After scoring the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Cobb is rising again this week.

I didn’t think the Packers were going to pull that one out on Sunday. The offensive line couldn’t do much of anything, Mason Crosby gave away points, and the Lions seemed one play away from delivering the dagger.

Then all of the sudden, the offensive line came together, Aaron Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb on a crazy play, and the Packers had a division win on the road in November despite a ton of injuries and being way off their A-game.

Crosby even made a kick and Jermichael Finley came up with a few big plays.

Weird game, that football.

New Feature: A few of the writers here on AllGreenBayPackers.com have put together a podcast based on Adam’s Stock Report. Want more discussion and other writer’s views on who’s rising and who’s falling? You got it! You can download the podcast from itunes or use the player below. Give a listen:

Onto the stock report:

Rising

Randall Cobb
Cobb is like the wide receiver version of a stud running back. You keep feeding the ball to your stud running back even if he’s been contained because you never know when he might break a big run. With Cobb, you keep throwing it to him (and sometimes handing it to him) even if he’s been bottled up most of the game because there’s always a chance for the big play. That big play came late in the fourth quarter on Sunday and brought the Packers a division win.  Read more... (785 words + 1 image, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)

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Packers right tackle Bryan Bulaga has struggled this season.

According to Pro Football Focus, Packers right tackle Bryan Bulaga has allowed 18 quarterback hurries, three sacks and three hits through the first five games.

In 12 games last season, Bulaga allowed 21 hurries, one sack and two hits.

I’m no math whiz, but after crunching those numbers, Bulaga has already allowed the same number of hurries, sacks and hits through five games in 2012 that he allowed in 12 games in 2011.

So what the heck is going on? Bulaga was one of the buzz players entering training camp. He was pegged as a player with the chance at going from good to great.

Injury report
Could he be hurt? Bulaga popped up on the injury report with knee trouble, and perhaps the injury is more serious than the Packers are letting on. That’s pure speculation, but given the way he’s played so far, it’s a definite possibility.

At this point, I almost hope he’s playing hurt. I don’t want to believe that the Packers once promising first-round draft pick at tackle has taken a turn for the worst and is going from good to not-so-good. If he’s playing hurt, there’s hope that he’ll get healthy and get back to playing at a high level again.

If he’s just regressing, well, that’s scary. That gives the Packers two first-round draft picks at tackle who are shaky at best (Derek Sherrod being the other). First-round draft picks are precious commodities. It’s tough to be a successful team if you whiff on your first pick in consecutive drafts.  Read more... (572 words + 1 image, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

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Approximately 20 minutes after roster cuts had to be submitted to the league office, the Packers’ final three moves became known.

The Packers waived QB BJ Coleman, placed OT Derek Sherrod on IR/PUP and LB Vic So ‘oto on IR (he suffered an ankle injury in last night’s game)

View the complete list of all the Packers roster moves here:

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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.

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TE Andrew Quarless will probably start the year on the PUP list.

The first NFL roster cut-down of the season is fast approaching. On Monday, August 27th, the Green Bay Packers will need to have trimmed their roster down to 75 players from their current total of 90.

Even though these are essentially the worst players on the team, the decision of who to cut is a tough one. Not only do Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson need to consider the skill of each player, but they also have to take into account the remaining depth they’ll have to work with for the remainder of the preseason. This being the case, the first roster cut-down can be a good time to declare some of the Injured Reserve (IR) or Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) players for the start of the season.

As a reminder, only players who did not practice at all during training camp are eligible for the PUP. They remain on the list for the first six weeks of regular season, after which they have a three-week window to return to practice. From the point at which the player returns to practice, the team has an additional three weeks to decide whether to elevate them to the 53-man roster, place them on injured reserve, or release them.

Here is a group of eight players who could possibly end up on one of these lists during the upcoming roster cut-down:

Physically Unable to Perform (PUP)  Read more... (944 words + 1 image, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)

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Herb Taylor: Packers’ starting left tackle

Offensive tackle was a position of strength for the Green Bay Packers at this time last year. Chad Clifton was coming off a resurgent 2010 season, Derek Sherrod was the Packers’ first-round selection, and Marshall Newhouse was perhaps the most pleasant surprise of training camp.

But now, a concussion is keeping Newhouse out of practice, Sherrod still has yet to practice all summer, and Chad Clifton is out of football entirely.

In comes 27-year-old journeyman Herb Taylor.

Although he hasn’t played in a regular season game since 2008, Taylor has been far more consistent than rookie Andrew Datko in practice, thus giving him the nod alongside T.J. Lang on the left side of the line in Newhouse’s absence.

Taylor was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft out of Texas Christian, making one start and appearing in 18 games with the team. After a relatively promising first two seasons in Kansas City, Taylor bounced around between Denver, New York, and even spent some time in the UFL with the Las Vegas Locomotives.

Still, despite Taylor’s tenacity and refusal to give up on his NFL dreams, he simply isn’t ready to be relied upon to protect Aaron Rodgers’s blindside at this point.

At Monday night’s practice at Ray Nitschke field, Taylor faced the daunting task of blocking three-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker Clay Matthews. On one occasion during a red-zone period, Matthews played Taylor like a puppet, sliding the 305-pound tackle into the Packers backfield and disrupting Rodgers’s throw.  Read more... (471 words + 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

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