March
Packers DE Mike Neal Suspended: What Lies Ahead?
Will Mike Neal be in camp this summer?
As Al alluded to earlier, the Green Bay Packers are making headlines during the first day of free agency. Unfortunately, none of them are the good kind.
The news about Scott Wells likely leaving aside, the big topic of the day in Packer Nation is the four-game suspension of defensive end Mike Neal for violation of the league’s performance enhancing drugs policy. Neal has missed a large amount of time his first two seasons due to injury and today’s news raises a few questions.
First is a simple “why?” Neal was becoming the next Packer defender to have the “injury prone” label slapped on his forehead after the merciful departure of Justin Harrell. Neal knew he wasn’t seeing the field that much so why take the PEDs? Was he hoping to get the upper hand over his teammates ahead of him on the depth chart?
If that’s the case, could it be time to hand him his walking papers?. That’s not how things are done in Green Bay and Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson will not hesitate in making that message crystal clear to Neal. McCarthy and Thompson pride themselves on running their team the right way and shenanigans like this will not be tolerated one bit.
While he may deserve a second chance, he’s teetering on thin ice due to his injury history and with him entering his critical third year this is the last thing neal needed as he makes his case to remain a Packers.
