Sherman Blows

I think some people realize that Sherman is a big part of the problem but have a hard time putting it into words to those who can't find reason to put the blame on Sherman.

Here's my crack at it:

I'm disheartened to see how few Packer fans realize that Sherman is at best an average coach but an absolutely horrible GM. What that man has done to this roster is sickening. Give him another crack at it and he will have this roster so utterly destroyed that when Favre does retire we will be a 2-14 team for a long time. The further damage another year at GM is immeasurable.

Let me explain:

- The drafting of a bust-punter in the 3rd round who never sees the field is obvious to all. It's the type of thing that alone should get a guy canned. Further amplfying the mistake, that Sherman refuses to cut his losses and keeps 2 punters on the roster all year. That 3rd round pick could have been a valauable defender this year, and definitely a piece for the future. Instead a punter who many thought would go undrafted was sitting on the bench all year.

- The biggest fundamental flaw of Sherman is his draft philiosophy or complete lackthereof. He's trying to win 2-3 dome games a year by adding speed to the defense instead of building the team for Lambeau. This was one of Ron Wolf's core philosphies. Wolf built the team around bulk, size and sure tacklers. He only made the mistake once when he drafted Buckley and he knew not to make the mistake again. In December and January at Lambeau, if you make sure tackles and keep your footing, all the track stars of the world on the visiting sideline will be useless.

Just look at yesterday's game and all season for that matter. No incredibly deep passes completed against us. Just short stuff with tons of YAC due to p*ss-poor tackling. Under Sherman we have Barnett who can run like a deer but is making all those tackles 6 yards downfield. And when gievn the chance to be a blitzing playmaker, he gets muscled out of the play and can't get to the QB.

We draft a smurf with blazing speed at CB who can run like the wind, but is unable to bump WRs at the line and grabs them to compensate. Not to mention his shoddy tackling and poor footing in the exact conditions this team used to thrive in. All of this leading to him becoming the poster boy in the NFL for pass interfence calls with referees.

So what we have is a team drafting speed to win in the 2-3 dome games per year, but now we no longer have any advantage at home. We went 4-5 at home this year. And we have numerous playoffs failures at home where that essentially used to be impossible. I can't believe I heard our own players acting like the field was in the worst shape ever. The field was terrible in December and January back in the Super Bowl years. But back then it was to our advantage.

Just think how few yards Minnesota would have had yesterday if we could tackle. I'd bet that 2/3 of their yardage if not more came after the first defender missed. That's how you win in bad weather. Sure tackling because the ground is too poor for any deep passing game.

- Special teams are another key indicator that points to a terribly assembled roster. When you have mind-bogglingly poor special teams, it is because of very poor depth. No matter who we bring in to coach the ST units, the play out there is terrible. Those guys drafted in the later rounds are there to hopefully develop into future starters. But in the meantime they have to play special teams. And the talent level at the end of our roster is horrible. Horrible due to horrible drafting and the immediate signs show themselves on special teams. Can you remember off the top of your head any punt return that Antonio Chatman had that was longer than 5 yards, because I can't. Nuf said.

And none of this even mentions how horrible Sherman's record in free agency is. He has not made one single good signing. Joe Johnson, KGB. amd Mark Roman are all either utter faliures or vastly overpaid. Grady Jackson fell into his lap because the Saints were able to sign him initially over the Packers, and then decided to cut him midseason for no real apparent weekend. No other team wanted him.

If Sherman is allowed even 1 more year, the reprecussions will be felt for a long, long time.

If anyone wants to even argue for him as a coach. Remember a few things...

- He lost the players when he fired Donnatel and hired one of his buddies. He also bypassed a very good coach in Lionel Washington to be DB coach. Instead another pal, Kurt Shottenheimer was hired from the outside and Washington was left at assistant DB coach. Guys like Sharper and McKenzie give all the credit in the world to Washington for having them ready to play big roles in their rookie years.

Sherman is never a difference maker on the sidelines. He may not lose games strategically, but he never wins them. Given opportunities to go for the jugular the man is a punter. 4th and inches against Philly and punting when he told that O-Line all year how much confidence he had in them. I've heard rumblings that many of the lineman lsot repect for him last year after that one.

Just look at yesterday. We got to within 7 twice by being aggressive on defense. But then we immediately stopped blitzing and Minny goes right down the field. It's like Slowik and Sherman had the guts when we're down 14 and nothing to lose, but when the game tightens up we go passive again. You can blame Slowik at first but when everyone in the stadium can see the difference from when we're blizing to when we're back in coverage, that's when a head coach has to take a walk down the sideline and tell his D-coordinator to get back to being aggressive.

So that's all I gotta say about the Packers.