Adding Injury to Injury

Season on the Line

Tonight's road game against the Lions will be more of gut check than I realized. The best offensive line in recent memory is hurting and hurting bad. With the season on the line the hopes and dreams of all Packer Backers may have to be shouldered by Josh Walker, Don Barclay and Lane Taylor.

Starting center Corey Linsley (ankle) and right tackle Bryan Bulaga (ankle) were injured during the Bears game and were replaced by J. C. Tretter at center and Don Barclay. Bulaga didn't practice at all this week while Linsley was limited.

To add another injury to the list of woe Tretter went down in practice with an ankle injury (misery loves company). Right guard T. J. Lang (who has been having a subpar season so far) was also limited with a lingering shoulder injury leaving Josh Sitton (who also is having a subpar season so far while suffering from a myriad of leg issues with a toe from last year being the most severe) and left tackle David Bakhtiar (who is average at best and is also dealing with a knee injury) as the only offensive linemen that are guaranteed to start.

So if the worse possible scenario happened the starting offensive line with be left tackle Bakhtiari, left guard Sitton, and right tackle Barclay. Barclay has been forced into service at right tackle before and should be ok.

That leaves center and right guard open with second year undrafted free agent Josh Walker and third year undrafted free agent Lane Taylor to fill those spots.



Lane Taylor

Taylor appeared in 10 games as a rookie and 16 last year, but has been inactive for all 11 games this year. His most extensive action took place in week 8 of 2013 when he took over for Lang after the first series and played a total of 63 snaps. He was a four-year letterman at Oklahoma State where he started 47 of 50 games at right guard.

Josh Walker

Walker has been active for 10 of the 11 games this season after spending the final 13 games of last year on the practice squad. Walker originally was signed as an undrafted rookie free agent by the Colts out of Middle Tennessee State where he was a tackle starting 34 out of 49 games. During training camp he played both right tackle and guard.

Barclay is man for all seasons and could be pressed to play center despite having played only tackle and guard with the Packers and at West Virginia.

If both Linsley and Tretter are out and Barclay has to play center then Walker would play right tackle and Taylor right guard. Undrafted rookie free agent guard Matt Rotherman and second year undrafted free agent tackle Jeremy Vujnovich are the only offensive linemen on the practice squad.

This is a major mess in the making. The season could go down the tubes tonight all because General Manager Ted Thompson prefers to go cheap on backup offensive linemen. Heaven help us.

PREDICTION: I don't have a good feeling about the game against the Lions, so I predict a loss.