GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -Justin Harrell knows this is the year he was supposed to show everyone what Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson saw in him on draft day last year.
The Packers traded fellow defensive tackle Corey Williams to Cleveland in the offseason, presumably to make way for last year’s first-round pick to play a much more significant role than he did as a rookie.
Instead, Harrell got hurt. Again.
Now he’s finally back on the practice field – and feeling plenty of pressure to perform.
“Trading Corey and just all the moves they made were pretty much made for me to come up and start proving what they brought me here for,” Harrell said Wednesday. “So I feel like there’s a lot of pressure for me to go out there and perform and try to help this team somehow.”
The Packers took Harrell with the 16th pick in the first round last year – a surprise, given that Harrell had missed most of his senior season at Tennessee because of a torn biceps tendon and the Packers had more pressing needs at other positions.
After an unimpressive training camp, Harrell was inactive for the first four games last season. He finally played his first two games in October, only to hurt his ankle and sit out five more games.
Harrell came back and started the final two regular-season games and the Packers’ divisional playoff against Seattle. He was playing fairly well by the end of the year, but some fans already had turned on him – and the dreaded b-word was being thrown around.
Was Harrell a bust?
He certainly didn’t help his case when he hurt his back lifting weights in March and had to have surgery. The injury didn’t heal in time for training camp and he had to have another operation, sending him to the Packers’ physically unable to perform list and making him ineligible to play in the first six weeks of the season.
Now Harrell is back and says he’s been pain-free since the second surgery. And he’s ready to turn the criticism into motivation.
“You don’t want anybody talking bad about you,” Harrell said. “This is a little bit more motivation, just all the people that said I was a bust and this kind of stuff. I mean, it’s a little added motivation to go out there and kind of prove them wrong. But I’ve still got to keep that in the back of my mind and just focus on doing my job.”
lay in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lambeau Field.
“I feel like I can,” Harrell said. “Just going out there today and just banging and doing all of them things and not having any pain, that was my No. 1 goal. I’ve been playing football all my life and you don’t lose the game of football, just the speed and things like that. I feel comfortable I could go out there and play.”
Coach Mike McCarthy certainly could use him; the Packers had only three defensive tackles active for last Sunday’s victory at Seattle. But McCarthy doesn’t want to push Harrell into action out of desperation.
“I’m not going to put him in the position where he can’t be successful,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think that’s very smart. I know our injury situation would create more urgency for that, but we’ve got to make sure he is ready to play, just like any other player that comes off of a medical situation. That’s what we’ll do. We’ve got three days to watch him work and then we’ll make a decision.”
Either way, McCarthy said he is excited to have Harrell back.
“He hasn’t played football since last year in the (NFC championship) game,” McCarthy said. “Any time you see a player go through a personal challenge of overcoming a medical situation, the excitement is more for him to get back out there and play.”
Despite all the criticism, Packers defensive coordinator Bob Sanders says he sees a lot of potential in Harrell.
“He’s big,” Sanders said. “He’s hard to move out. He’s hard to bounce around in there. That’s what you need, those big bodies in there that you can’t knock out of a gap.”
Harrell knows he’s bound to be a little rusty when he finally gets back on the field, but he can’t wait for his next chance to prove that the Packers didn’t make a mistake by drafting him.
“There’s a lot of excitement going around,” Harrell said. “I think I’m more excited than anybody, just knowing that I’m out there and finally healthy. I can go out there and just focus on trying to get back there on the field on Sundays.”
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