Chery Sums Up Crux of Special Teams' Issues

Ah, out of the mouth of babes.

Jason Chery did more than give the Packers beleaguered special teams units a glimmer of hope last Thursday, he sent a clear message as to what special teams are all about.  Chery, a mid-training camp afterthought signing that had about as much chance to make the final 53 as a fourth-string quarterback, scintillated the crowd with a late 75-yard punt return for a touchdown...an opportunity he had to plead with the coaches to get.

Pete Dougherty gives a nice writeup on Chery and his sudden thrust to prominence: now apparently after having to beg for a chance to return one punt, he will now be fielding every punt and kick in the last preseason game against the Chiefs.

But one thing really stood out to me in Dougherty's piece:  an exuberant Chery described at length the process of petitioning the coaching staff, then getting out on the field.  With little time to properly go through the intricate coaching needed to properly field a punt and run it back, Chery got the Cliff's Notes version:

“By the time I finally went out there,” Chery said, “everybody was on me, the whole team was rooting for me, ‘Catch the ball, make sure you catch the ball,’ ‘Be calm,’ this and that. I was like, this is like college all over. The more they were telling me, the more a regular kid, he’ll get nervous.
“So I’m back there, I’m already nervous, my adrenaline is pumping, my eyes are red because I’m emotional — ‘Finally, my time.’ Then I said, ‘OK, catch the ball.’ So I caught the ball, and then I was, ‘OK, what am I going to do? So I caught the ball and made one move, because coach said, ‘Make one move and hit it.’ I did exactly what they told me to do, and I hit it.”

 
So, there you go:  just catch the ball, make one move, and score.  Sure, it doesn't hurt that Chery has 4.3 speed, but then, so does Sam Shields.  In a nutshell, Chery may have revealed one of the issues plaguing the special teams:  is it possible Slocum is trying to do too much?
 
Last week, I talked with Wally Pingel over at PocketDoppler, and hearing Chery seemed to echo my concerns I mentioned about special teams and Shawn Slocum.
 

More than anywhere else on a football team, special teams are all about fundamentals and execution. It’s always the same: snap, hold, kick; or field the kickoff, set up the wedge, and make your blocks. There’s no formation changes, no play-action, no disguising coverages. You don’t have the chess match like the offense and defense do. The breakdown on special teams is a breakdown of the most basic skills football players need to have, and that puts the bullseye squarely on the coach.

It's like a free throw in basketball.  There's no strategy, no plays called, no zone defense or man-to-man...you line up at the exact same point, with no defense, and try to hit the front of the rim exactly ten feet high and thirteen feet away.  It's about discipline, fundamentals, and doing the same motions naturally and consistently.
 
Special teams in football are similar...oh, don't get me wrong, I know there's a world of difference between the opposing players parting like the Red Sea and letting you shoot a free throw and all them coming straight at you with blood-curdling kamikaze screams.  But returning a punt shouldn't be that hard.   I took a little ribbing during the game last week when I asked how hard it had to be to catch a punt.  Yet, Chery did it, only thinking about the essentials:  catch it, one move, run.
 
When you think about the difficulties the Packers have had with special teams, several names come to mind:  Mason Crosby and his blind spot on the right hashmark, Jarrett Bush and Derrick Martin with their dumb penalties.  Slocum himself claimed last season he had to essentially bring Crosby back to ground zero in terms of his technique and start him over from scratch.  Why?
 
Derrick Martin, who added some unnecessary contact a couple of weeks ago against Seattle, compounds the problem with his swaggering attitude.  Despite his own head coach angrily denouncing his actions, Martin defied the admonishment, claiming McCarthy only has to do that for show.
 

Asked if the coaches were mad at him, Martin said yes.


“That’s what they’re supposed to do. You get ejected from the game, they’re supposed to yell at you,” Martin said. “So they yelled at me and we’re moving on.”

Nevertheless, Martin maintained his innocence and vowed not to change the way he plays.
“You can expect high intensity every play. I’ll be like that the whole time,” Martin said. “From what I’ve seen on film, I feel like I’ve played inside the rules of the game. If I get fined we will appeal it just to see. I feel like I did nothing wrong. I play like that every week – high intensity, high power, high aggression. And I will continue to play that way.”

Quite a difference in attitude between Chery and Martin, isn't there?  Now, I'm not saying this is the entire crux of the problems with special teams...I have a feeling it goes far deeper than that.  But, the idea that Martin is worrying more about his intensity, power, and aggression instead of worrying about what his coverage duties are tends to be a warning flag to me.  If he were truly concerned about his coverage duties, he wouldn't have been fisticuffing with an opponent while the ball was still in play. 
 
Focus on your role and assignments on special teams is paramount, and executing them is the key to success.  It's not rocket science...it's fundamental, perhaps the most fundamental (and the most methodical) you will find in football.  The holder snaps the ball to a predetermined spot each and every time.  The holder must field the ball and place it in the correct predetermined spot each and every time.  The kicker must execute his kick at the right power and angle each and every time. 
 
There's always room for physical error, but on special teams, there's no room for mental error, or a lack of discipline.  Give Chery, who earned several conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors while at Louisiana-Lafayette, a chance to show he's coachable.
 
And then, K.I.S.S--Keep It Simple, Slocum.

Interchangeability and the Case for Quinn Johnson

I'm a Quinn Johnson fan.  Loved the pick, love watching him play.  Honestly, if he makes the team this year, I'm considering getting a Quinn Johnson jersey.  Only trouble is, Johnson is as much on the bubble as anyone...and could even be a potential cut on August 31 if the coaching staff has already decided that the tandem of Kuhn and Hall, along with the potential of some of the tight ends can do the job.

You know what I mean...that trait the Mike McCarthy loves so much:  interchangeability.  McCarthy may just love having a guy like Tom Crabtree who can go out and play the tight end spot, but with his good blocking skills, be able to line up in the backfield, too.  And of course, we already know about John Kuhn's newfound talent at halfback.  Heck, you might be able to take all the backs and tight ends and choose their spots in each formation with a bingo-ball machine.

Except for ol' Quinn, he the one-trick pony laying crushing blocks, but inconsistent in the passing game and on special teams.  Compared to wily, versatile do-it-all fullbacks like Kuhn and Hall, Johnson appears to be the odd man out in McCarthy's Interchangeable Circus.

And, like Sam Shields, my hopes for him making the 53-man roster ebbs and flows through each practice and game.  One second, he's struggling to catch a low pass, and just when I start losing faith, he crunches a block that the television commentators crow about while replaying it in slow motion.  And then, just when I get my hopes up again, he looks lost on kickoff coverage.  And so it goes for a young player trying to crack the roster in the NFL.

Now, don't get me wrong:  I'm not bashing interchangeability.  But, I will be honest, I am old school and a bit X's and O's when it comes to the schematics of a football team.  When I think of versatility being a valuable asset, it's something I usually would think of in a top backup (a "sixth man", so to speak).  Good examples would be Brandon Chillar or Daryn Colledge, each valuable backup-caliber players who can play almost any of the positions left-to-right along the linebacking corps or offensive line.  And yet, these players don't quite have what it takes to crack the starting lineup and command their spot. 

No one talks of moving Chad Clifton inside or Nick Barnett outside (well, besides me), because they are the masters of their position...again, old-school thinking that starters command their role, while versatile players back up them and other positions nearby.

But the advantages of having players who are versatile are also considerable.  Kuhn may not get a ton of snaps as a fullback, especially with the number of double-tight end sets the Packers have been running, so having him able to line up in the backfield not only helps his playing time, but could potentially allow the Packers to keep only two pure running backs on the roster.  Spencer Havner's two-way ability is more than just a novelty, especially when he keeps finding the ball in the end zone.  Yes, interchangeability makes it a heck of a lot easier to plug holes in your lineup when injury hits.

Of course, in practice, that isn't always the case.  When Chad Clifton got hurt early in the season last year, McCarthy put in motion a game of musical chairs, moving players up and down the line to compensate.  Suffice it to say, the results were less than stellar, and many of us wondered if we just would have been better off plugging in just one player at tackle and offering him schematic help, instead of moving Colledge from his guard position over to tackle, putting two guys out of position.

However, whatever your opinion is on interchangeability, this is a mantra of Camp McCarthy.  When final cutdown days arrive, a player like Anthony Smith, who strictly played safety and was not much of a special teams contributor, will find himself on the waiver wire while Jarrett Bush continues to have a job.

So, will Johnson's bone-jarring rush blocks be enough to keep him on the roster another year?  Odds would say not, but I am going to say it should be yes. 

Quiz Question:   Against the Arizona Cardinals in the playoffs last year, the Packers had six touchdown-scoring drives.  Guess the average time of possession on each TD-drive?

Well, the longest drive was 4:14, if that gives you any indication.  It took the prolific Aaron Rodgers-led passing attack only an average of 3:03 to make their way down the field and score (an average of 68 yards, by the way).  Many pointed fingers at the defense for their inability to keep the Cards out of the end zone, and rightfully so, but few pointed at the faults of the offense...and here is the fault that stands out.

The offense scored too quickly.  In a game like this, the Packers would likely have benefited from hanging onto the ball for a long, nine-minute drive, instead of scoring and handing the ball back to Kurt Warner in what became a game of Madden on the easy setting.    In the second half, Rodgers started out with 13 straight plays from the shotgun, and in all, attempted 33 passing plays to 10 rushing plays.

Now, I'm not so obtuse to realize that a lot of that is playing from behind, as well as taking what the defense offers you.  But, the Packers got into a shooting match that they lost control of.  They would score in three minutes, and the Cards came back and scored almost as quickly.

Ryan Grant finished with 64 yards on 11 carries, but had only 18 yards in the second half of the game when the offense compiled 322 total yards of offense.  I take nothing away from Rodgers, Jennings, and Co., who were prolific then and should be even moreso this upcoming season.  But at some point, the Packers needed to control the ball, keep it away from the Cardinals, take away their momentum.  And they couldn't.

At some point in the season, and most likely in the post-season, you're going to come up against a team that has your number.  They've studied your tape, they know your strength, weaknesses, and tendencies, and will simply match up well with you.  This is where interchangeability loses its luster.  Who could the Packers have put into the game on either side of the ball to stem the tide?  The Packer defense couldn't stop the Cardinal offense, while the Packer offense couldn't pace themselves and establish the running game.

And, guess who was inactive that game?  Quinn Johnson.

In a game like this, it doesn't matter if you are handing the ball to Ryan Grant or Brandon Jackson, or if you have John Kuhn or Korey Hall blocking.  Interchangeability usually also means similar skill sets, so you weren't getting anything "new" or different out of the substitutions.  In fact, the Packers had used the shotgun/empty backfield so much over the course of the second half it wasn't any wonder the Cards got away with sending more rushers than we had blockers on the game's final play.

Quinn Johnson has the potential to be that kind of game-changer.  Not "game-changer" in the sense that we normally think of it, like "Greg Jennings is a game-changer", but the kind of player who can force the opponents to change how they play us.

The dominant Packer offenses of the 90's had a definite modus opporandi with their running game.  While the first half was often all passing game, with usually 2-3 touchdowns scored, the second half featured the running game, with Dorsey Levens and Edgar Bennett draining the life out of the defense with an eight- to ten-minute drive or two.  This was even evident in the Super Bowl, though admittedly, the Packers were playing with a lead.

I'm a strong believer in keeping players with better-than-just-average abilities, and I think Johnson has the ability to force defenses to respect the run, to put an extra man in the box, to make the linebackers watch for #45 just as much as they are watching for #25.  While a shootout is fun to watch, it's no fun at the end if you've lost.

As for the argument that Johnson isn't an asset on special teams, I say hogwash.  We kept players on this roster because of their interchangeability and their ability to be contributors on special teams, and what did we get for that?  A special teams unit ranked #31 in the NFL by Rock Gosselin's respected ST rankings.  Loading our roster with Jarrett Bushes and Derrick Martins not only diluted positional talent, but didn't reap any benefits at all in special team play.

Johnson offers something against the grain of what Mike McCarthy has traditionally valued....and perhaps he is a one-trick pony, a crushing blocker that would signal whenever he's in the game that a rush is coming.

Perfect.  Can you imagine the audibles Aaron Rodgers would have available to him when opposing defenses bring eight or nine in the box to guard against the run?

It's not often that you look at an offense and find a need to slow it down, but last January, we might have seen it.  Quinn Johnson offers the Packers the ability to apply the brakes when you need, as take the wind out of the sails of the opposing defense...just like the championship teams of the 1990's used to do.

Donald Driver's Odds for Post-Career Honors

After wrapping last night's episode of Cheesehead Radio, Jersey Al and Holly were doing a post-show chat with me.  And, Holly went on a rant about one of the few topics that can get Packer fans feeling like they are getting the short end of the stick:  the importance of Donald Driver and the respect he receives from the rest of the NFL.

Now mind you, as the Packers prepare the play the Colts tonight, we are talking about one of the few quarterbacks and receiving corps that can have a legitimate challenge to the Packers' supremacy this upcoming year.  Dallas Clark, when asked about the receivers as a group earlier this month, "They're the best in the NFL."

Naturally, I would take umbridge to any such claim, but Payton Manning vs. Aaron Rodgers is still far from a clear-cut victory at this point in A-Rodge's career.  However, the explosive potential of Jennings, Driver, Jones, and Finley would match up very closely to the Colts' package of Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, Anthony Gonzalez, and Clark.


Let's put it this way:  the passing game is not a critical concern for either team.


But what got Holly's goat was the attention paid to Reggie Wayne, the Colts' venerable receiver. Now, I don't know about you, but being an avid fantasy football player for some time now, it was somewhat surprising to learn that Wayne is 32 years old.... I still tend to remember him as the young wide receiver playing next to Marvin Harrison.   But at his age and production, he's reached the point of some gaudy statistics that people are beginning to fawn over.


For example, Wayne is on the verge of compiling his seventh straight 1,000 yard season, which is a record among active players...and people are talking about it.   But, can you guess what NFL player he shares this honor with?  None other than our own Donald Driver.  But often, Driver gets lost in the shuffle when discussions revolve around the better receivers in the NFL, and his prominence is certainly hampered by the presence of Greg Jennings.  


But Driver's leadership and team-record breaking performances should garner him as many post-season honors as Wayne or any other of his contemporary peers, like Torry Holt, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, and Chad Johnson...players who've had perennial strong seasons since the early 1990's and are now reaching the twilight of their careers.


A question I posed a few weeks ago was whether or not Donald Driver's career had earned him the post-career honors that might be awaiting other prominent Packers, and whether the national oversights that have been a trademark of his career will continue after his playing days are over.


In order, I will address if Donald Driver's career earned him 1) The Packer Hall of Fame  2) The NFL Hall of Fame 3) His name on the Lambeau Field Ring of Honor, and 4) #80 to be retired.


1)  The Packer Hall of Fame (chances: 100%):  When you go back in time and think of the Packers' greatest wide receivers over the course of their long and storied history, three names come to mind:  Don Hutson, James Lofton, and Sterling Sharpe.  Hutson and Lofton are already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Sharpe remains eligible. But 34-year old Donald Driver has surpassed these true legends in many statistical categories, and the fact that it doesn't appear his career is over for at least another two years means he's just going to be even more superlative.


Driver now ranks #1 in Packer history in total receptions (647), #2 in total yards (9,050, just 606 behind Sharpe), and #5 in receiving touchdowns (49, tied with Lofton, needs 1 TD to tie Max McGee, 8 to tie Antonio Freeman, and 16 to tie Sterling Sharpe for 2nd overall).  It's nice to know that Hutson's 99 TD receptions is likely safe for a long time.


Regardless, Donald Driver has not only statistical significance, but he's been arguably the most popular, charity-minded, and charismatic Packer player of the post-Holmgren era.  When popular players like Don Majkowski and Mark Chmura make the Packer Hall of Fame, there's no way Donald Driver misses out.


2)  Pro Football Hall of Fame (20%)  Making the Pro Hall is a much harder task, not only because of wider competition, but because name recognition and national attention pays off...and that is something, as Holly begrudged, that Driver hasn't always had.


Looking at Driver's base career numbers  (647 rec., 9050 yards, 49 touchdowns), we can pretty safely say that if he plays another healthy two seasons, he will be in the 10,000 yard club.  That is a mark only achieved 32 times in the history of the NFL, although it is likely that Chad Johnson (9,952) and Reggie Wayne (9,393) will get there before Driver.


But getting 10,000 yard receiving is far from a ticket into the Hall of Fame.  Of the 32 players in the 10,000 Yard Club, 15 are still playing or are not HOF-eligible yet.  Another two (Shannon Sharpe and Tony Gonzalez) are tight ends.  That leaves 15 players who have 10,000 yards receiving and are eligible for the Hall, and of those, only eight are in....guys like Rice, Irvin, Lofton, Monk, Largent, and Joiner.  Guys who you can picture in their uniform, and even still remember their number.  The question is whether or not Driver fits that mold.


Or, does he fit the mold of the guys who have 10,000 and haven't made it?  Guys like Jimmy Smith, Andre Reed, Cris Carter, and Irving Fryar...guys who quietly put up yards for teams, yet didn't come away with Super Bowl rings.  And that may be a big mark against Driver if the Packers don't end up winning one in the next couple of years.


The other thing working against Driver is, quite simply, the number of wide receivers that he will be competing against in his years of eligibility.  Issac Bruce, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, Randy Moss, Tory Holt, Mushin Muhammad...all will be on the ballot with Driver, and many have that name recognition that Driver sometimes does not get on the national stage.


And since Driver is buried on the receiving touchdown lists (at #104, he presently trails Larry Fitzgerald), the chances that Driver will be looked at as a prolific WR becomes even smaller.  


Again, the chances of Driver getting national attention and respect will go up wildly if the Packers secure a Super Bowl in his career, and then the talk of being a consistent go-to guy for two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks can get some play.


3)  The Lambeau Field Ring of Honor (40%)  At present, twenty Packers have their names circling the facade at Lambeau Field, a way to give a slightly higher honor than the Packer Hall of Fame.  The names include more than just players, as Lombardi and Ron Wolf find their names emblazoned for all time for anyone attending a game at Lambeau Field.


The question is, does Donald Driver have the "honor" to join this illustrious group?  Most of the names on the wall are still reach back to the historical days, names that when being considered were already etched in the minds of many Packer fans as legends.


Unfortunately, the biggest criteria for being on the Wall of Honor is being in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  When Ron Wolf was placed on the Lambeau walls in 2006, he had the "honor" of being the first and only Packer there who was not in the Hall of Fame (and still holds as the HOF has not come calling for him yet).


That may be one of the keys to Driver making this honor, as Wolf's "induction" onto the wall almost seemed in response to the failure of Wolf to make the cut in the Hall of Fame voting.  Driver, who may also suffer from this fate, may get a reprieve from the Packers, who wish to place an honor on a long-serving and civic-minded team leader.


One of the other concerns brought up when I posed this question was Driver's childhood, when he was homeless and selling drugs out of the back of the van he lived in.  One commenter said, "No drug dealer is going to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame."  And he may well be right.


But, Driver's childhood wasn't anything he had control over.  He was raised by a single mother, and all the children in Donald's family resorted to selling drugs and stealing cars in order to support the family.  "Quickie" wasn't just a nickname he earned for his running speed, but his driving-away speed. One day, a U-Haul pulled up to the house, with Driver believing that his family was finally out of trouble and were moving to a better place, only to find out the U-Haul was their new home.  He slept on the streets, in hotels, and in cars, and worried day-to-day on how he was going to make it to the next.


His mother made the ultimate sacrifice, splitting up her children and sending them to live with relatives far and wide.  Donald vowed to his brothers and family he would pull them out of poverty, and set his mind to achieving those goals with the best gifts God gave him.  He was a track and field star at Alcorn State, but chose to go with the Packers when selected as only a sixth-round draft pick in 1999, passing up a chance to qualify for the Sydney Olympics the next year.


He lived up to his word, being a model player, a model teammate, a model husband and father, and a model community member.  He supported his brothers and mother, and crated the Donald Driver Foundation, dedicated to helping homeless families.  Most of all, he never takes a day of his life or his career for granted, and that is evident in his approach to the game and in how he takes care of his body as he thrives past the warranty for NFL players.


When I used to argue with Viking fans about Randy Moss, they often used the argument that Moss's criminal behavior and negative impacts on and off the field were all due to the difficult childhood he had, that he was a man to be pitied, not held accountable for his behavior.  In response, I first used the example of LeRoy Butler, a Packer who conquered not only a tough upbringing but physical limitations to become a team leader, and then the example of Donald Driver, a man whose bleak upbringing dwarfed the excuses Viking fans made for Moss.  Moss acted like a self-absorbed, me-first player who "played when Randy wanted to play", while Driver took every opportunity he could get and fought his way into the starting lineup and became Brett Favre's favorite target.


To use someone's childhood as an excuse for adult transgressions has some merit, but it still comes down to the choices the adult makes...not the choices that were made for him as a child.  Likewise, you shouldn't hold Driver's childhood and the decisions that were made for him against him when it comes to considering the body of work he's accomplished as an adult.  He could easily have made destructive choices that could have been explained as "nurtured" from his role models as a child.  The point is, he did not.


Donald Driver may not make the Hall of Fame, but if there is a man who has defined "Packer People" over the course of his career, it's Driver.  And perhaps that is what will define the new Ring of Honor at Lambeau Field.


4)  #80 Retired (10%)   Can you see it up by the scoreboard?  #14, #3, #15, #66, #92...#80?  We all know there's probably another single-digit number that will eventually find its way up there, too, but that is a long ways away.   If they chose to consider Driver's #80, though, it would be an uphill battle.


However, look at the numbers that are up there.  Don Hutson, Tony Canadeo, Bart Starr, and Ray Nitschke were all lifetime Packers, as it is highly likely Driver will be.  In the grand scheme of things, I think playing most of your career with the Packers (if not all of it) should be a primary consideration for having your number retired.  I was actually quite critical of the decision to add #92 to the list, a decision made on emotion following Reggie White's tragic death, without taking into account that White had actually spent more years with the Eagles than with the Packers.  Arguably, his more statistically impressive years were with Philadephia.


Taking nothing away from White, who I think played a critical role in the resurgence of the Packers, but it did "lower the bar" in some ways for consideration of having your number retired.  With perhaps the exception of Canadeo, the other players with numbers retired dominated the NFL at their position during their playing days, if not revolutionizing the position itself....and all as Green Bay Packers.  Adding White to the list, who played less than half his career in Green Bay, closes the door on many of the arguments that can be made to exclude Brett Favre from a similar honor.  


Which, in a way, also opens the door for Favre's favorite receiver in Green Bay, Donald Driver.   He will finish as a lifelong Packer and has been a great receiver and team leader.  However, it would be more difficult to prove the case that Driver dominated his position over the course of his career, much less revolutionized it. 


He does perhaps fit the mold of Tony Canadeo, a popular and productive player in a time span where success was sparce, in the twilight of Lambeau's divorce from the team.  He was the first Packer to ever run for 1,000 yards, just as Driver can make the case he may be the first Packer player to have 1,000 yard receiving for seven (or eight) seasons in a row.


Again, not having a ring on his finger may hinder his slim chances for seeing #80 up on the scoreboard, but it's perhaps all the more reason to root for the Packers' success this year.  


If anyone deserves to be cheered for, it is indeed Donald Driver.