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Packers CB Casey Hayward

Packers cornerback Casey Hayward was the 62nd overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, but he was among most impactful defensive backs in football last season.

According to Pro Football Focus, opposing quarterbacks had a collective passer rating of 31.1 when throwing at Hayward. And among cornerbacks who played at least 50 percent of their team’s defensive snaps, Hayward came in at No. 3 in the league, sandwiched between Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield.

The rookie went from being buried on the depth chart early in the season–Hayward played just three snaps in the season opener against the 49ers—to being, perhaps, the most irreplaceable part of the secondary.

When veteran Charles Woodson suffered a broken collarbone in Week 7, Hayward’s presence became increasingly important. From Week 7 to Week 14, Hayward played 88.5 percent of the Packers’ defensive snaps.

Coming into the season, Woodson was expected to play safety in the base and bump up to slot cornerback in the nickel. But when Hayward emerged as the team’s most reliable turnover creator, playing primarily in the slot, Woodson’s role was drastically reduced by the time he returned for the playoffs.

This offseason, the Packers decided to cut ties with Woodson, who was set to count nearly $10 million against the salary cap. Woodson, 36, remained a fan favorite at the time of his release, but the presence of a promising young talent in Hayward made the move easier to swallow.  Read more... (1267 words + 1 image, estimated 5:04 mins reading time)

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How do the new Packers compare speed-wise to other rookies?

Even though most of my time for the past month has been spent doing team draft grades, I have indeed been watching roster activity and the rumor mill. I want to touch on a couple of aspects of the Packers’ current roster and it’s composition.

But before I head in that specific direction I want to debunk one of the myths I heard during and just after the Packers 2012 draft. I heard talk on national TV and read several articles in print that a big goal for the team this off-season was upgrading team speed. My observation two months after the draft would be that rumors to that affect were greatly exaggerated. Either that or they absolutely had one of the League’s slowest collection of players coming out of the 2011 season, during which they went 15-1. Yes they lost to the Giants in their first Playoff game, but I think that has more to do with their D having problems (like many do these days) containing ELI, and the fact the Packers’ O suddenly decided to become a turnover and mistake machine.

I will grant you that some of their rookie additions could increase team speed incrementally if they pan out, but based on the simple numbers coming out of the combine, Green Bay is still going to look a tad slow indoors on fast tracks. Let’s just look at the numbers of players who are now Packers who ran a 40-yard dash at the combine and how they fared.  Read more... (1140 words + 1 image, estimated 4:34 mins reading time)

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Pigskin Paul analyzes the 2012 NFL Draft Class of the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings.

LIONS

The LIONS made the Play-Offs with 10-Wins and but for a few less injuries, and a bit more talent at certain positions they might have been able to make a solid run at a Super Bowl appearance. Lots of teams could say the same thing, but those other teams weren’t setting a League record for futility by going 0-16 but a few years ago. The team has truly come a long way since the FORD family parted ways with MATT MILLEN, and turned most of the personnel matters, including the DRAFT, over to MARTIN MAYHEW. The 2011 DRAFT didn’t even yield much immediate help because of serious injuries to NICK FAIRLEY & MIKEL LESHOURE.

The 2012 LIONS DRAFT looks promising on paper. RILEY REIFF may be the most talented OL that the team has drafted in the past decade. Whether he takes over at LT or RT he almost certainly guarantees that MATTHEW STAFFORD will take less hits in the pocket starting now. He’s a good athlete and comes from the FERENTZ school of OL play, which means he’s fundamentally sound and tough already. He’s a great value at Pick 23. The team took a slight flier in Round 2, by picking OKLAHOMA/WR/RYAN BROYLES. He’s coming off a serious knee injury and will most likely start the season on the PUP list. But if he returns to pre-injury form he’ll make NATE BURLESON an extra piece by season’e end. He’s only the NCAA D1 all time receptions leader, and is a dangerous Return Man as well. Healthy, he was a marginal late first rounder only lacking in great speed.I like the calculated gamble.  Read more... (3046 words + 1 image, estimated 12:11 mins reading time)

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2012 NFL Draft

So here is part II of the reasons behind the draft picks (see part I here)  Again, I’m not assigning grades to the draft or to the players because I don’t believe you can tell whether or not a player will pan out within the first 30 something days.  What I am interested in is what the Packers were thinking of when they decided to draft a player; with that in mind, this is what I think the Packers want to accomplish with each draft pick and which player each rookie could be potentially be replacing.

Jeron McMillian – Projected Strong Safety – Round 4, Pick #38 (#133 overall) – Replaces Pat Lee

Rationale: First off let’s be honest here, I don’t think we have the next Nick Collins in McMillian; I was actually very surprised that McMillian was drafted at all by the Packers simply because he doesn’t fit into the mold of what the Packers look for in safeties.  The Packers are probably more interested in playing two free safeties (which there really wasn’t one this year in the draft), consider their preferred pairing of Collins and Morgan Burnett (who ironically never really played together): both have good ball skills and the ability to jump passing routes.  What McMillian does best is run support, which is almost the exact opposite of a ball hawk.   Then again even if McMillian is the next Collins I highly doubt that the Packers can afford to stick him out there in his first year, which is even more reason why I think Woodson will have to make the move to safety.  Read more... (1506 words + 1 image, estimated 6:01 mins reading time)

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The Packers have signed DT Jerel Worthy

With rookie camps set to begin today for the Green Bay Packers, it is quite encouraging to see numerous rookies signing contracts before camp starts.

Rob Demovsky at the Green Bay Press-Gazette has reported that three of the Packers’ draft picks signed contracts yesterday.  Those three players were second-round pick Jerel Worthy, fourth-round pick Jerron McMillian and seventh-round selection Andrew Datko.

Each of these three players look to be critical to the future for Green Bay, which makes them being signed and ready for camp even more encouraging.  If that wasn’t enough, it was reported this morning via Casey Hayward’s agent Scott Smith that he had signed a contract this morning.  Hayward is another rookie who will likely see limited playing time as a rookie, but will be a future starter for Green Bay.

The only draft picks that haven’t signed are OLB Nick Perry, DT Mike Daniels, OLB Terrell Manning and QB B.J. Coleman.  However, Demovsky reported earlier in the week that Green Bay is expected to have all draft picks signed by the end of this week.

While this may not be the most exciting of news, the fact that rookies are getting signed early is great for the team.  It also means that real football is closer than we can imagine.

I hope we’re all ready.

Update:

As of late this morning, the Packers are now reporting that all their picks except for OLB Nick Perry have signed with the team.

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1. 

   2012 NFL Draft

   Ted Thompson hasn’t gone crazy:  While many people were surprised by the fact that Thompson traded up several times, a good indication that Thompson is still following his MO is that he’s trolling the media about his “change” in personality.  If you’ve followed Thompson enough, you’d know that he’ll never tell anyone anything, so if he’s saying he’s doing things differently, chances are he really isn’t.  I now think Thompson wasn’t as averse to trading up in the past as we all thought; it simply didn’t make much sense in previous years to do so.  For instance right now Thompson probably has one of the best teams in the NFL in terms of depth so he can afford to trade picks to move up the draft but when Thompson took over in 2005 the team was in a salary cap nightmare and salary cap nightmares usually also mean that there were no quality backups on the team (or else why pay more for an aging veteran?).  Secondly, the rookie salary cap has altered the draft to a point where the picks at the top of the 1^st round are the most valuable (as they should be) and teams have adjusted accordingly by trading up in order to secure the best talent for them. In fact the majority of 1^st round draft picks ended up being selected by teams who were not the team originally award the pick.  I am a little surprised that Thompson was so quick to recognize the change and act upon it, which is why I now think that Thompson isn’t averse to trading up, he just could justify paying the price in the past.

 Read more... (825 words + 1 image, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

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Packers Second Round Draft Pick Casey Hayward Vanderbilt

With another second-round pick (62nd overall) in the 2012 NFL draft, the Green Bay Packers selected Casey Hayward, a cornerback from Vanderbilt University

Once again, the Packers traded up in the second round, giving up their 3rd (#90) and 5th round (#163) picksto the New England Patriots for their 62nd pick.

Player Details

CASEY HAYWARD

Cornerback/Free Safety
Vanderbilt University Commodores
#19
5:11.3-192
Perry, Georgia
Perry High School

CAREER NOTES

Hayward appeared in 50 games for the Commodores, starting his last 37 contests, as he recorded 199 tackles (146 solos) with 18.0 stops for losses of 35 yards, a quarterback pressure and a forced fumble…Defended 46 passes, deflecting 31 tosses while coming up with fifteen interceptions for 126 yards in returns (8.40 avg) and one touchdown…Saw brief action on offense as a senior, gaining 60 yards on five carries (12.0 ypc)…Added 11 yards via a kickoff return and 12 yards on a punt return…Hayward’s fifteen interceptions rank second among active players in the NCAA football Bowl Subdivision ranks, topped by only Sean Baker of Ball State (18)…His fifteen interceptions also tied Leonard Coleman (1980-83) for the school career-record and rank tied for 14th in Southeastern Conference annals (most by an SEC performer since Corey Webster of Louisiana State recorded 16 thefts, from 2001-04)…Hayward became the first defensive back to lead the team in tackles-for-loss in a season (8.5 in 2009), which are also the most by a Southeastern Conference in a season…The cornerback had 242 passes targeted by the opposition into his area, as 71 were completed (29.34%) for 498 yards and two touch-downs, an average of 7.01 yards per completion and 2.06 yards per pass attempt  Read more... (543 words + 1 image, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

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