Everyone except the Green Bay Packers’ opponents has pretty much seen enough of inside linebacker Brad Jones.
If he played for another team, Jones would either have been benched or kicked to the curb after last week’s turd of a performance. But this is Green Bay, where veterans don’t get benched.
Ever.
Regardless of how bad they are.
But maybe there’s a point of suckitude that even the Packers won’t tolerate. On Monday, defensive coordinator Dom Capers was noncommittal about Jones remaining a starter.
“Tomorrow, we’ll come back and look at it, and as we get ready each week as we game plan, we go through and look at personnel and how can we get our best people on the field and pick up and move forward,” Capers said. “Because I told the guys in the meeting today, that’s what this game is all about.”
We have long been supporters of Jamari Lattimore, who would seemingly be the top option if Jones were to be benched.
Although Lattimore will make some mistakes and be overly aggressive at times, he also makes plays, which is a foreign concept to both of the Packers’ current starting inside linebackers.
And now that Jones is missing tackles on a regular basis, we might as well live with Lattimore’s mistakes because at least he brings something else to the table.
Lattimore filled in while Jones was injured in 2013, a season that saw him record 35 tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble.
The other option would be Sam Barrington, who we haven’t seen much of. But really, could he be worse than Brad Jones?
We don’t see how that’s possible.
Honestly, despite Jones’ performance, we’d still be surprised if the Packers made any lineup changes. People get uncomfortable when things aren’t status quo in Green Bay.
And remember, this isn’t about Brad Jones. It’s about pad level. And this is the week we’re going to correct that.