Advertisement
The Green Bay Packers' third-year lineback suffered what coach Mike McCarthy termed ''a chest injury'' in Monday night's preseason-opening loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Hawk not only sat out Wednesday night's practice — believed to be the first time he's missed a practice since entering the league — but McCarthy ruled Hawk out for Saturday night's game at San Francisco as well.
"He will not be available this week," McCarthy said. Asked if Hawk could play if it were a regular-season game, McCarthy replied, "I don't know. I would say not."
McCarthy said the injury occurred when Hawk broke up a third-down pass to tight end Ben Utecht on the Bengals' third series. Hawk did not leave the game because of the injury.
Not kicking himself
Mike Stock certainly wasn’t thrilled with Jon Ryan’s 14- and 15-yard punts in Monday night’s preseason loss to Cincinnati.
But the Green Bay Packers special teams coordinator isn’t overly concerned about the punting situation — and isn’t chalking up Ryan’s inconsistency in the game to a lack of competition in camp.
“Listen, there’s competition,” Stock said. “There may not be anybody here, but there are a bunch of guys not in the league or on teams that have two punters in camp. The NFL is ‘Not For Long.’ There’s no comfort zone.”
Stock likened Ryan’s 15-yard shank to not swinging through a short iron shot in golf — “You decelerate, and you shank the ball; it’s the same with punts,” Stock said — and said the 14-yarder was caused by a protection breakdown to Ryan’s left. On his other five punts, Ryan averaged 46 gross yards per punt and 38.0 net yards per punt. With the two short punts, his averages were 37.0 gross and 31.3 net.
On the other end of punts, Stock said he liked what he saw from Will Blackmon, who figures to keep the job if he can stay healthy, as well as rookie Jordy Nelson.
Hands-on approach
Wide receivers coach Jimmy Robinson said Chris Francies should have used his hands — instead of his body — to try to catch what turned out to be an interception for Aaron Rodgers when the ball hit Francies between the numbers and bounced off his chest.
“We always prefer every catch to be caught with the hands,” Robinson said. “I think Chris would like to have that one back.”
Asked to assess the battle among Francies, Brett Swain, Jake Allen and Taj Smith for a potential sixth receiver spot on the 53-man roster, Robinson said, “I wouldn’t want to handicap it at this point. We have a long way to go yet.”
Thompson moving on
General manager Ted Thompson is happy to be focusing on football and not the Brett Favre situation.
“I don’t know if relief is the right word, but it’s good to get back to football and be able to think about emergency lists and advance scouting and college scouting and doing our day-to-day job,” Thompson said.
Asked if there was any criticism that he thought was unfair, Thompson said, “Everyone has their own take on this. I think you could call people in Russia and they would give you an opinion on this one. There is not much that you can do about that. I think you try to just do your job every day and be able to look at yourself in the mirror at night.”
On guard
While offensive coordinator Joe Philbin acknowledged that rookie right guard Josh Sitton struggled at times Monday night, he wouldn’t say Sitton was outplayed by Allen Barbre, who’s competing at left guard with Daryn Colledge.
Thus, the guard competition will continue, unlike in 2006, when the coaches wanted to establish starters early in camp.
“You look back two years ago and that was a little different situation. There was a sense of urgency just to get those guys ready to play,” Philbin said. “We have a little more time to see how this unfolds. We’ve got to let these guys play some football.”
With center Scott Wells returning to practice Wednesday night, Sitton remained at right guard with the No. 1 unit. Jason Spitz, who had been starting at right guard before moving to center for Wells, was the No. 1 left guard.
Is KGB OK?
Pass-rushing defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila’s arthroscopically repaired knee still is bothering him, but Thompson said the club isn’t overly concerned with the practice time he has missed.
“We kind of know what Kabeer brings to the table, but he has been struggling with trying to get all the way back,” Thompson said. “We don’t feel like we need to rush him. We don’t want to prolong this, so we want to take our time.”
Meanwhile, Thompson said defensive tackle Justin Harrell (back) is “making progress.”
