By the time the Green Bay Packers finished training camp last year, Steve Morley looked like a promising project who was worth the $100,000 bonus they paid to outbid several NFL teams.
Though the former Canadian Football League player was raw, he appeared to have the size (6-foot-7, 330 pounds) and athleticism to possibly develop into a starting guard in the NFL, perhaps in his second or third season.
However, after a sub-par spring in NFL Europe, the second-year pro instead will go into 2005 training camp in an uphill battle just to hold onto a roster spot with the Packers.
"Am I disappointed? Yeah," said offensive line coach Larry Beightol of Morley's play in Europe. "Is that going to hold him back from having a chance to make the team? You'll have to ask him."
NFL Europe is an excellent place to get young offensive linemen extensive playing time and helped launch the career of, among others, former Packers guard Marco Rivera. However, Morley started only three of 10 games for the Rhein Fire, all at left guard.
Beightol said reports on Morley from NFL Europe's training camp in February and March were good, but that Morley struggled once the games began.
The Packers' position coaches reviewed the game videotapes of their players in Europe weekly.
"He didn't look like he played with any passion, any piss and vinegar, anything you want to say," Beightol said. "I don't know what happened when he went over there, I wasn't there. I'm not going to hold that against him, it's just that he didn't make the kind of progress you'd like somebody to make."
Morley will have to regroup quickly and make a jump in training camp to win one of the nine or 10 jobs on the Packers' final roster, a roster that looks far more crowded than when Morley went to NFL Europe in March. If free-agent guards Adrian Klemm and Matt O'Dwyer win starting jobs along with mainstays Mike Flanagan at center and Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher at tackles, that will leave four or five roster spots open for backup linemen.
Several of those jobs probably will go to players who performed well either last year or this offseason. Slimmed down third-year pro Kevin Barry is a lock because of his key role in the Packers' U-71 package and might even battle for a starting guard job. Also, fifth-year pro Brad Bedell has taken major steps this offseason toward nailing down the backup left tackle position.
Barring injury or unexpected problems, two other front-runners are backup center Mike Wells, who's a Beightol favorite, and backup guard-center Grey Ruegamer, who will open camp in the thick of the battle for a starting guard spot.
There's always the chance that injuries or decline in performance could change the offensive-line dynamic in training camp. But for now, Morley is facing a difficult battle that could leave him fighting it out with several players for one roster spot: former sixth-round pick Brennan Curtin, who's coming back from knee-reconstruction surgery; fifth-round pick Junius Coston; seventh-rounder Will Whitticker; and perhaps first-year pro Atlas Herrion.
Though Morley says that playing in Europe was worthwhile and made him a better player, he's concerned about making the team.
"For sure now, after not starting over there. They sent me over there to do that," Morley said. "There's more guys here now."
Last offseason, Morley showed enough athleticism in minicamps that the Packers opened training camp with him at left guard in the No. 1 offense while starter Mike Wahle recovered from a bruised knee. Morley held up well enough until Wahle's return four weeks into camp that his NFL future looked bright even though he was inactive on game day all season. He was only 23 and still getting used to the speed and techniques of the NFL game after playing in high school and college in Canada, and then one season in the CFL.
But his indifferent performance in NFL Europe has him in a battle for his professional life. Beightol and coach Mike Sherman haven't decided where he's going to play, though swing guard might be the best bet.
"We thought he made more progress when we had him inside as a guard," Beightol said. "But right now, we don't know where we're going to play him. We're certainly going to give him a look and give him an opportunity to see if can contribute to our team."
