He did seem to be just going through the motions when I went to a few practices. And the games he played he seemed a step or two behind. This was my only worry on defense. There was an awesome interview with Kevin Greene on The Fan addressing the outside linebackers. One of the better interviews that I have ever heard. He simply loves Clay Matthews and thinks he will be something special. Said he was fluid and has a great football IQ.
Has the utmost respect for Aaron Kampman also, true professional. They spent a lot of time together getting Aaron up to speed.
So now after hearing Greene talk I now see our linebackers as a strength!!



Green Bay — The least impressive starter on the Green Bay Packers' defense this summer intends to turn that around soon.

Strong safety Atari Bigby intercepted three passes in practice this week, moving with more of the reckless abandon that he demonstrated in 2007.

An ankle injury hampered Bigby in 2008.

"If I'm 100%, I'm your worst nightmare," Bigby said Friday. "If I'm hurt, then I'm just an average Joe.

"Right now, I just got off the field and I'm at 0%. But Sunday night, hopefully I'm 110%. I'm ready. Absolutely."

Bigby underwent ankle surgery Dec. 26 and had to sit out the off-season. Although able to practice once a day in August, he understands that his performance was less than scintillating.

Was Bigby just on veteran's cruise control?

"It had a little bit to do with that," he said. "But, remember, it was a new defense. I had to figure out what was expected of me, then I had to figure out where my help was from my teammates."

He also said his ankle felt a lot better now than it did six weeks ago.

Bigby also dealt with reporters suggesting that former Steeler Anthony Smith, who was cut Saturday, might be pushing for his playing time.

"Smith was a great football player," said Bigby. "But why did you all jump off my bandwagon so fast? I mean, I don't understand. No loyalty there. I mean, c'mon. You just wanted to jump on a new guy."

Thats because you stink out loud and have no coverage skills Bigby. After last night this guy better be finding his way to the bench FAST.

Safeties didn't look all too sharp in general last night. This is surely a position with little depth that we need to improve for our upcoming games. Really felt we should have kept Smith, hope to see Martin get in there, I don't think I saw him play against the Bears last night.

What did Bigby do wrong last night?

Nothing really, outside of biting on the fake on the goalline series that nearly ended up being a TD to Desmond Clark and taking a shot by Al Harris on the quadrupedal coverage play that knocked him out for a bit. GBP4EVER has his players that he just doesn't like and will bash regardless of how they played. I'm sure that sooner or later he'll criticize Al Harris and pontificate about how he's just not that good of a CB despite the fact that he played well in the debut game of the new defense (especially in run support) and made the INT that cemented the Bear's defeat at the end. Too bad he was celebrating too early and couldn't turn it into a pick-six. That would have been a fitting end for the defense.

I thought that overall, Bigby looked fine. He's still a bit out of position at times and is learning his assignment, but he had a couple of nice open-field tackles and played well when he was up in the box. He didn't make any huge errors that led to big plays, which is crucial when you blitz as much as the Packers did last night.

I'd still be interested in seeing the team bring in Bernard Pollard to back him up. The depth at safety has to be a huge concern. If either Bigby or Collins is out for an extended time, this defense could be in trouble. Rouse played okay, but it's clear that he's a reserve at this point.

No offense, but GBP4EVER is also the one who in week 2 last year said "IMO Packers secondary one of the worse in the NFL," LOL!

We had four interceptions and two returned for TDs in that game, aside from giving up two big plays to Megatron.

Well, IMO our defense/secondary is going to be as good as our pass rush is. Nevertheless, there were a couple breakdowns last night, the worse being the TD to Hester where Collins forgot what planet he was on (or maybe he really did cramp up). Good play by Rouse to stay with Olsen late in the game at the goal line and force the field goal. If Bigby can't stay healthy it won't matter how good he is anyway. But he didn't look any worse than anyone else last night. Olsen and Forte were invisible, and while that wasn't all thanks to Atari it does say somthing.

On Hester's touchdown, did anyone else see Collins stop for just a second when Hawk slipped while covering Olsen right in front of him? It looked to me like he keyed on that for just a second and then Hester blew past him because Woodson was expecting help over the top. It really looks like he planted to move on Olsen and then tried to get back once the ball left Cutler's hand toward Hester. By then it was too late.

Just wanted to throw it out there, but it was a good thing that Harris went out of bounds. Why get the touchdown? Yes, it is nice to run the score up on the bears, but why give the Bears even a slight chance to make a comeback or risk injury to the defense? If anything, Harris did not go down soon enough.

On to Bigby, though. I thought he had a solid game, to be honest. Dunno why some people are so down on him.

Please if you watched the game No Coverage Bigby failed several times to cover his guy and gave up a decent gain and almost allowed a TD. Bigby is awful coverage DB and thats a fact. Also yes AL Harris is just a average CB. Not a top CB. the guy is getting awfuly grabby at the line and can not keep up with a WR who has any kind of speed. I think its 90 percent Harris is done in GB after this year.

Wow, you seriously think Al Harris is an average CB. That's almost laughable, even at 34 he's easily a top 10 CB.

Collins was cramped up on the play and couldn't run full out.

The Safety play of Green Bay shut one of the best TE combinations in the NFL out Desmond Clark had one reception after which he was knocked out of the game and Greg Olsen (Cutlers' favorite target) caught one (1) pass for (8) eight yards.

The only think that "stink(s) out loud" is GBP4EVER ability to evalute defensive backfield play.

He claimed the same thing about Harris in '07 and '08 and was calling for Bigby to be cut when he was winning the NFC Defensive player of the month in December of '07.

He does love Packer football and is a good fan though.

As for the Collins mishap it was the combination of cramping and hesitating when Hawk stumbled covering Olsen that led to him not helping Woodson over the top when Hester beat him.

i agree, Bruce, except for the part i highlighted. Clearly, Cutler's favorite target is anyone wearing green.

Jason Wilde was on ESPN radio here in Milwaukee and said he believes Bigby's injury will be a 3-4 week injury

Yes I do I think Al Harris has hit the wall. I expect Williams to be starting ahead of him before the year is out.

That's just not going to happen.

If Harris hit the wall, he knocked it over.

Harris is still an elite corner with unparalleled work ethic.

NFP is reporting

The knee injury that Atari Bigby sustained in Sunday’s opener against the Chicago Bears might be enough to keep him out for a couple of weeks, but the Green Bay Packers don’t believe it will end his season.
link

Seems the Bears only picked on Harris's side once, and that ended their hopes for a game winning drive

Are you related to the ref who called the penalty on Al ?

We should have kept smith

+1 agree.

No offense GBP4EVER, but your clear bias against certain players certainly detracts from how seriously you can be taken.

You spouted off that Harris was done after the NFC championship game. I'm not buying it. Tramon Williams will end up being a great starting CB for the Packers, but it won't be this year or next year. I think that Harris will continue to defy your expectations and keep him at bay for at least another season.

Those 3 guys are very solid and should do well for Dom Capers in this defense.

I'll give you that Atari Bigby is limited in coverage, but I still think that he's a better player than you give him credit for. The whole defense is going to take some time before having every guy in place and I thought that he was playing well before the injury. He was very strong in run support and made several good open-field tackles. His blitzing is a concern, and I'm hoping that Rouse uses his opportunity to show that the light has come on. Once it does, he and Collins could be an awesome tandem. Until that happens though, Atari Bigby is still the best option.

All things considered, I'd still think about possibly bringing Bernard Pollard in for a tryout and see if he's a decent option to at least provide better depth.

I agree, but it's too late at this point. Bigby/Collins going down to injury in the same game could end up being a HUGE liability for this team. At least with Smith and Rouse I felt comfortable if they both were on the field (I'm probably one of few) Derrick Martin might be a guy that can play, but his injury history concerns me.

Smith, Francisco and Pollard all have had starting experience. I'd feel better with another guy on the roster.

The coaches apparently liked Rouse better than Smith because we could have easily cut Rouse instead.

Apparently Perry and Capers both like what they see in Rouse so maybe he will look better in this D. That completion he gave up to Dez Clark when he broke his back was way too deep of a drop, but it was also one of his first snaps. He actually came up very big in the drive when we held them at the goalline to a FG.

I thought Rouse would get cut going into to TC so I'm no huge backer, but maybe the different responsibilities in this D will mask his deficiencies and allow him to play well.

Does anyone else think that next year TT ought to maybe look at using a fairly high draft pick on a promising safety? Seems like for the past several seasons we've been holding our collective breath about the safety position. I don't believe Rouse is the safety of the future (although I think he's better than Mark Roman or Marquand Manual were). Collins is a stud, but TT is playing games with him over his contract, he may just say 'see ya' and take a big offer from another team. Then where would the Pack be??? Jarret Bush, Rouse and Bigby? I'm not ok with that!

When I saw Olsen motioning across that formation, I was screaming at the TV, "somebody better cover him". I was so happy to see someone trailing him in the defensive backfield and was surprised when it turned out to be Rouse. There may be hope for him yet (though if I could read that, then maybe it was a pretty easy read).

And he also flew up on the two runs prior to that and was a factor in both of those plays gaining close to nothing despite not getting the tackles.

I think in this D there is a much clearer responsibility on each play. The tough thing at safety is at times you are going to switch between having deep coverage or some type of medium range coverage based on the formation the offense is in, but that should all be communicated before the snap (and everyone calls out adjustments in the Capers scheme instead of just 1 or 2 guys).

But in short, the responsibility of the safeties in the last D were much greater because you had to be aware on the fly of what the offense was doing and decide which aspect to focus on which led to all the "communication problems" we had.

The entire D is like that in a lot of ways. You pretty much have a specific responsibility on each play that is much more clear which is why you can see guys flying around now so much more freely because they aren't having to react. They can simply attack.

Mr. Thompson will do as he see fit. Maybe he will, but I don't know (being wk 2 coming up) what the BPA in combination with need will be come April. I don't think I am holding my breath on the Safety position yet. With Rouse and Martin backing up Collins and Bigby, I think that a roster move maybe coming. This will ty into the trade senario perhaps. I don't know of any player on the roster that I would want cut on Defense and the LBs are pretty strong. Maybe one of the FBs could be traded as well?? I forgot that Bush is more of a safety now...

Bush is listed as the dime CB right now on the post cut depth chart. He had a very good preseason defensively so its very possible he's ahead of Blackmon at CB and we'll see him if we ever go dime (not sure how much dime Capers runs).

I could see Bush being a very solid CB in this system since his main problems were with penalties and a lack of awareness after the ball was in the air.

Who knows? It's TT. Besides, projecting to our areas of need for the 2010 draft is a bit premature, don't you think?

For one, I was happy that Rouse was kept around, but that's just because I think he can flourish in this system. He's a heavy hitting, big DB with a real D-Coordinator now. I think he'll do just fine.

Also, I'll wait till Collins signs somewhere else before I'll start planning for life without him.

I think this has been an area of need for several seasons, not just now! I mentioned Roman and Manuel, things have been very thin at that position dating back that far! This is nothing new. For a brief time in 2007 it looked like we were ok with Collins and Bigby playing well. The rest of the defense is really solid, with one or two really promising safeties this defense would be fully stocked.

No Harris is S-L-O-W. Slow CBs are bad. If Harris is starting next year for this team the something had to happen to Williams because otherwise there should be no way Williams is not the starter. Woodson is the best DB on this team no doubt. If anyone does not think Harris is not slow and can run with the good WR's just look at he got run down by Cutler. 3-4 years ago no one catches him. I hate anytime a fast WR lines up against Harris because you need to bring the saftey over to help cover because Harris can not keep up with him. Woodson still has the wheels to keep up with his guy but not Harris. Also if you see now Harris is playing more off the line then ever just to give him those couple extra yards so the guy does not blow right past him. A few years ago Harris was right in his face now the extra yards helps that he won't give up a big pass as much though it will give up more short yardage. Thing is with Bigby he is a hitter people love him because he hits hard. If not for that people would wonder why he is on the roster like people do Bush. If Rouse can stay healthy for a change I think he would be a better player then Bigby. But anyways Bigby has to go after this year injury prone and not a good cover guy. You can find better out there then him. Who knows maybe when Martin gets caught up he replaces Bigby. Heck I would even be up for moving Harris over to saftey to see if he can play there. Though I would not mind if Harris is on the team next year as the third CB he would be good as that but I think it is Williams time to take over as the number 2 CB. So what if I am Bias against a player who IMO is starting to show his age and thinks there is a guy ready to replace him and don't like a guy who I think is a backup saftey who is starting.

I wondered how on earth Cutler caught him too. But if watch the play again, Cutler had a huge angle at Harris and the blocker couldn't even get to Cutler. I don't think with the great angle Cutler had that anybody could have gotten past him. Maybe Cutler is so good at taking angles on interceptions because he's had so much practice, eh?

I'm also concerned about the lack of depth at Safety. I liked the way Smith played in the pre-season. I was shocked when he got cut. There had to be more to that than meets the eye. Right now our Safety depth, for lack of a better term, is scary. I wouldn't mind seeing a top-flight Safety taken high in the draft next year. I think LT and SS are two huge needs next year.

Al Harris is not a safety

Cutler did not catch Harris - what game were you watching???

Cutler had an angle, Harris played unselfish veteran football by running out of bounds rather than risk getting stripped or making a mistake trying to score when it was unnecessary (see Darren Sharper) Instead he advanced the ball and ran out of bounds with his GREAT play interception securing a HUGE victory in the home opener against a division rival.

Only you GBP4EVER could find fault with a game saving interception and unselfish play by a veteran leader who delivered with the game on the line

Couple things wrong with these statements.

There are many different types of coverage that a DB plays. How far they line up off the LOS is not due to how fast they, but to what scheme they are. Zone defenses typically line up farther off the LOS, Man to man are typically closer. They are playing a lot more zone this year, hence, the lining up farther away.

There are 6 different shells that the defense can play. They can go Cover 1, Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 4, Cover 0, and Tampa 2. Each of these pertains to the amount of zone or man to man that is used by the secondary. They can also plan a mixture like a Cover 2 man under.

If Capers is calling a Cover 4, Harris better not be up on the LOS bumping his guy. If he is calling a straight up Cover 2, Harris better be protecting his zone near the LOS, if he calls a Cover 2 man under, Harris better be on his man and not let him go.

Without knowing the plays called or the coverage the defense is in, it is just silly to bash a DB for how far off the line of scrimmage he is.

Good synapsis, I think. I would like to know about the various Ds. Maybe a new job.???

Its definitely odd to criticize Harris for playing off the line when that is exactly what he's supposed to be doing on many plays now. Watch all our CBs. Sometimes they are ten yards back.

Like Taylor Mays!!! Wishful thinking, he'll be top ten anyway. There are two positions that Thompson goes on the cheap, offensive linemen and safetys. Off the top of my head isn't Colledge his highest picked offensive lineman?

I think Bigby definitely has his strengths, and I consider him a passable starter, but his position would still be one of the first I would look at upgrading, given the chance. I don't get the Harris-bashing at all. Still an excellent corner, IMO.

Remember that he also drafted Chris McIntosh (1st), Steve Hutchinson (1st), and Ken Hamlin (2nd) while he was at Seattle.
EDIT: Ken Hamlin is obviously not a lineman, just to show that he has drafted quality Safeties.

This has to be one of the most uninformed posts I've read on this board. It's common knowledge that the new scheme dictates that our DB's will often be playing with more of a cushion than they used to. It has nothing to do with whether they can still play tight bump and run coverage... which they still can. Comments like this make it impossible to take your point of view seriously.

Bigby looks he'll always be hurt, he lacks the stature to take the beating at SS.

I think that's why Miami gave up on him.

Rouse continues to be out of position, sure he makes a play now and then but the light just has not gone off yet

Please have you seen Harris? He has been playing off the line since the NFC champioship game. Do you watch the games? All of last season harris played with a gap giving him the distance needed to help prevent getting burned. You dont like I post then bug off and dont read them.

GBP4EVER: A better question is can you watch certain players with out your bias blinding you to what is going on.

Woodson made big plays on Sunday and had an overall good game- you have to love that -- he also made critical mistakes like missing an open-field tackle and getting caught peeking in the backfield on Coles TD and was totally out of position on the TD to Ochocinco and the 44-yard flea-flicker.

Al Harris has been the Packers most consistent DB so far this season.

I saw Tramon Williams and Woody playing 10 yards off their men on several occasions against the Bengals. They've clearly both lost a step. I expect them both to be replaced by midseason.

Why do you assume that because they are playing "10 yds off their men"
that it is because they are slow and not where they are supposed to be
based on the defense called??
You final sentence shows no football knowledge at all. Sorry.

Go Pack!!

That was actually sarcasm because of posts made earlier in the thread. I was applying the same logic to Woody and Tramon that had been applied (wrongly) to Harris to show how ridiculous the initial assertion about Harris was.