The Green Bay Packers are not a healthy bunch.
Although many have compared to 2012 team to the 2010 Super Bowl team because of their slow starts and high talent levels, the 2012 Packers are probably more like that team in another way. They’re injury-prone.
The 2012 Packers have now put 11 guys on injured reserve. That number will swell to 12 if James Starks’ season is over, as reported. Still, they’re not nearly as injury-riddled as the 2010 Packers… yet.
Here’s a look at how the two squads stack up in the injury department. Starters are noted with an *.
Players on injured reserve (2010)
- Nick Barnett*
- Morgan Burnett*
- Brandon Chillar*
- Jermichael Finley*
- Ryan Grant*
- Justin Harrell
- Spencer Havner
- Brad Jones*
- Derrick Martin
- Mike Neal
- Marshall Newhouse
- Brady Poppinga
- Anthony Smith
- Mark Tauscher*
The Packers had seven starters and 14 total players on injured reserve in 2010. A lot of people forget, but Brandon Chillar actually opened the season as a starter at inside linebacker over A.J. Hawk. In fact, Hawk didn’t play a down in the Packers first game that year. Also, we’re not including Josh Bell, who went on injured reserve during the preseason, then got released, but choose to stick around Green Bay to rehab anyway.
PUP list (2010)
- Atari Bigby
- Al Harris
- James Starks
Bigby and Harris likely would have opened the season as starters if they were healthy.
Players on injured reserve (2012)
- Cedric Benson*
- Desmond Bishop*
- Bryan Bulaga*
- Johnny Jones
- Nick Perry*
- Andrew Quarless
- Sean Richardson
- Brandon Saine
- Derek Sherrod
- D.J. Smith*
- Johnny White
The Packers have five starters and 11 total players on injured reserve this season. We’re including D.J. Smith among the starters because he opened the season as a starter at linebacker for Desmond Bishop. We also expected him to replace A.J. Hawk in the lineup had Bishop not gotten hurt.
PUP list (2012)
- Derek Sherrod
- Andrew Quarless
- Frank Zombo
Sherrod practiced for a couple weeks, but was never activated and was eventually moved to the reserve list. Quarless was activated for a couple weeks and then put on injured reserve. Had he been healthy, you would have expected Sherrod to push for a starting job somewhere on the offensive line.
Anyway, as you can see, this year’s Packers still have a little way to go to beat the 2010 team.