NFL PLAYER NEWS

Packers not optimistic WR Jennings will play Monday

The Sports Xchange

September 20, 2012 at 5:25 pm.

Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

Head coach Mike McCarthy didn’t deliver a glowing progress report on Greg Jennings after the Pro Bowl receiver missed practice Thursday.
Maybe we were a little too optimistic (earlier in the week),” McCarthy said. “He’s not quite where we hoped he’d be by now.”

Jennings’ absence from practice raises the possibility he could miss a second straight game because of a nagging groin injury.

The Packers returned to the practice field after having Wednesday off as they ramp up the preparations for the game Monday night at the Seattle Seahawks.

Jennings had been involved in some portions of the team’s padded practice Tuesday. It was his first on-field work since sustaining the injury in the final 2 minutes of the season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 9. McCarthy said Jennings’ work Tuesday didn’t go as well as the team’s medical staff hoped, leaving him to go through more tests Wednesday and further rehab-oriented exercises Thursday.

“It is Wednesday on a normal week,” McCarthy said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Not having Jennings for another game would be a significant loss for an explosive offense that has sputtered more often than not in the first two games.

The Packers rank 23rd in the league for total offense and are tied for 14th in passing offense. Of the team’s five touchdowns, only three have come from the offense and the other two by special teams.

Green Bay has scored just 22 and 23 points the first two times out in starting 1-1.

The Packers will face a formidable Seahawks defense, which is allowing an NFC-low average of 46 rushing yards per game and ranks sixth in the league for total yards.

Tight end Jermichael Finley, who stands to be a primary outlet for Rodgers over the middle if Jennings can’t play and the Seahawks intend to take away the deep ball, has been struggling at the outset. Based on statistics from Pro Football Focus, Finley has three dropped passes (second highest among tight ends) and also lost a fumble after making a catch deep in Chicago territory in the last game.

What’s more, Finley finds himself in the crosshairs of some off-the-field controversy that ensued in the past week. Finley’s agent, Blake Baratz, tweeted after the Packers’ 23-10 win over the Chicago Bears on Sept. 13 – a game in which Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers yelled at receiver James Jones for running a wrong route on a pass that was intercepted – that Rodgers “is a great QB he isn’t a great leader.”

McCarthy said Thursday the attention brought by the Internet swipe Baratz took at Rodgers wouldn’t be a distraction as the team gets ready to play the Seahawks.

“I don’t really get involved in ignorant comments on social media,” McCarthy said. “That is not a locker-room issue, in my view. … I feel strongly that we have a very healthy locker room. That’s something that hasn’t been discussed.”

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