BOSTICK GETS HIS DUE

The personnel moves have begun and to no one's surprise (at least I don't think anyone should have been surprised) one of the goats from the NFC Conference Championship game tight end Brandon Bostick was cut.

Brandon Bostick

 

Bostick came in with a lot of promise, but never developed - in part because of various injuries (a broken foot that ended his 2013 season. He started them 2014 season with a leg injury and later missed two games with a hip injury) into a first or second team player.

 

However, another aspect of his inability to move up the depth chart was demonstrated early in the season when rookie Richard Rodgers was benched before the third game of the season - a loss to the Lions - and Bostick didn't fill the void.

 

What was reported was while Rodgers had a bad day at the blocking office Bostick also had a bad day on special teams (foreshadowing) with two penalties, so he didn't take a snap against the Lions. The explanation was his practice habits didn't warrant playing time.

 

Tight End Coach Jerry Fontenot made this observation at the beginning of October, "I need to feel more comfortable with the things we're doing in practice. I need to see that he's making split-second decisions, the right decisions. We're still getting there." Fontenot said if Bostick could run all of his snaps out of the slot as a pass-catcher, then he'd be playing. But the offense calls for tight ends to do more, like block, play in-line, line up at fullback and out wide. Bostick doesn't have it down. He remains a Dynasty hold, but nothing else.

 

The enigma that is Bostick was summed up by Coach Mike McCarthy at the beginning of November, "I like what Brandon's done the last couple of weeks. Bostick has played just 20 offensive snaps this season after continuously being compared to Jermichael Finley over summer. But he wasn't practicing well and has had trouble picking up the offense. The Packers have been getting nothing from the tight end spot, with rookie Richard Rodgers struggling badly."

 

So with a wide open hole the size of a Brontosaurus (that dinosaur was one of my favorites when I was a kid when it was called that) at tight end Bostick blew his opportunity by his practice habits through the first eight games. As has been the case with Bostick with McCarthy basically telling him there was a job to be had he blew that chance when he only played seven snaps against the Bears, but came up with the hip injury and missed the next two games (No. 10 and 11).

Brandon Bostick



He was just afterthought in the final five games and was a major red flag coming into the playoffs. However, either there were other players worse than Bostick or Special Teams Coach Shawn Slocum was a grade-A, No. 1 idiot, but in any case there he was on the field in a key spot with the game on the line.

 

The rest is history. He botches the play and the Packers get knocked out a chance to win their fifth Super Bowl, which I think they would have done. This is what hurts the most. The Packers would have won the Super Bowl.

Carroll Dale

Now Bostick becomes the 19th ex-Packer (that I have found) who has signed with the Vikings over the years beginning with Carroll Dale in 1973. He joins wide receivers Greg Jennings and Charles Johnson. Last year besides Jennings and Johnson, inside linebacker Terrell Manning spent a few days with the Vikings earlier in the season to make it three.

 

There is good chance he will be more like Manning than Jennings and Johnson if the comments of Coach Mike Zimmer can be taken literally,

 

"He’s an athletic guy that did well on special teams," Zimmer told reporters. "I’m going to try to improve the roster however we can do that. I mean, I wish we could bring in 200 guys and let them go. But it’s good. We all make mistakes. So, we’ll try not to put him on the onside kick team."

Is he kidding? Did well on special teams!!!!! Either Zimmer has a bizarre sense of humor, or he's in denial and has been bowled over by the promise of what's below the neck of Mr. Bostick. However, it's been what's above Bostick's neck that had betrayed that famed, in song and story, athletic ability of his (remember he was thought of in the same sentence as Jermichael Finley last summer).
 

Good luck..............strike that. I don't wish anybody good luck when they sign with the Minnesota Vikings. They are the enemy and I hope bone-head Bostick shows up for mini-camp. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.