Pack v. Bolts Pregame Post

Finally, gameday has arrived again. The Packers square-off against the San Diego Chargers tonight at Lambeau Field.

The biggest news coming out of San Diego is how many players aren't coming out of San Diego with the team.

Chargers' Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer announced that seven players, including starting linebackers Donnie Edwards and Ben Leber, as well as linebacker/defensive end Shawne Merriman, will not accompany the team to Green Bay.

Preseason games are pretty worthless, though, but at least it's 100% live. Well, it's at least live. I'm not sure how many established first team NFL players bust their humps in the first preseason game. I'm certainly not saying that they dog it, but I don't see the sense of urgency present during the regular season and playoffs. Nor would I expect to. If we gain a little crispness each week and avoid serious injury--that's a great preseason outing.

We really have to take note of individual performances during the preseason. This seems so foreign because football is the ultimate team game. It's hard not to analyze the defense as a whole. For example, after last week's scrimmage, most people thought, myself included, the defense's 2nd unit was an absolute sieve. While that was very accurate, the plain truth is that if all those guys actually ended up playing together, then something has gone horribly wrong. So who cares how the 1's or the 2's or the defense or even the defensive line looks? We need to find guys that can play.

One of those guys certainly appears to CB Mike Hawkins. Wow! What an instinctive athlete. I don't know what the Packers are paying Alonzo Highsmith, their scout that found Hawkins and insisted that they draft him, but it's not enough. Of course the biggest concern about Hawkins is durability. There's guys who play four years of college ball and hit the wall 3/4 of the way through their rookie NFL season. Hawkins played 5 college football games and some arena football. Plus, he only weighs 180 pounds. That's a huge concern. The Packers gave Craig Newsome some practices off during his rookie season to help keep him fresh. Hopefully, we can do the same here. Is he stout enough or will he just get flung to the side by big, strong receivers?

Another player who we want to keep our eye on is LB Roy Manning. He seems to have a nose for the ball and runs to it well. He also figures to get more reps with Na'il Diggs knee injury (thank goodness that Diggs stands a good chance of being back for the season opener).

Some other players I'm anxious to see...

LB 55 Ray Thompson: Is he going to make plays or just be a fast guy running around the field?

TE 87 David Martin: Can he take advantage of the incredible opportunity before him?

DT 95 Donnell Washington: How is a guy with his measurables third on the depth chart? Can he play with a sense of urgency?

RG 79 Will Whitticker: He's worked with the 1's some this week as he's starting to get a grasp of the offense. He's a mountain at 6-5, 338 ponds. The coaches say he's pretty agile for a guy that size. He'll have to be to play guard. Can he pull it all together at once and fill one of the huge holes we have at guard?

DT 90 Colin Cole and 99 Corey Williams: Can these two guys build on the performance they had last week and provide the Packers with solid depth at DT and position themselves to take over as starters should Grady and Cletidus not see the light?

Of course none of these questions will be answered in just one preseason game, but we can start to look for those answers tonight.

The game will be televised on ESPN. Kickoff is 7:00PM, Lombardi Time.