Nov 28th 2008 8:20PM by Bruce Ciskie (author feed)
Filed under: Packers, NFC North, NFL RumorsThis season hasn’t been full of good news for Green Bay Packer fans.

Not that any of them should be asking for sympathy. In an era of increasing “parity” among NFL teams, the Packers strung together an impressive string of seasons. Green Bay has just one sub-.500 finish since 1992, by far the least of any NFL franchise.

However, this year’s team is in danger of making it two sub-.500 finishes since 1992, as the Packers are at 5-6 and staring at a third year out of four without a playoff berth. While blind, gullible, and stupid people are bound to blame this on Aaron Rodgers, the real reasons behind Green Bay’s subpar record go much deeper than anything Rodgers could be fairly blamed for.

One of those reasons is extremely uneven play from the Packers defense. Part of this is injury-related, as Green Bay has lost starters on the defensive line (Cullen Jenkins is injured, and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila was ineffective before being cut) and at linebacker (Nick Barnett is injured). In the secondary, safeties Atari Bigby and Aaron Rouse have been in and out of the lineup because of injury, and cornerback Al Harris had to battle back from a potentially season-ending spleen problem. These injuries have tested Green Bay’s depth, which hasn’t responded well.

When Harris was out, youngster Tramon Williams started and played okay. If Harris is right, Packer fans will be seeing more of Williams and some other young players next season.Continue Reading