Injury will severely test the depth of the champion Green Bay Packers after they lost running back Edgar Bennett for the season when he suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon during the NFL’s opening exhibition weekend.
Bennett was the Packers’ leading rusher last year, although he had started to share playing time with Dorsey Levens, who starred in the Super Bowl. Coach Mike Holmgren planned to use both this year, sometimes in the same backfield, much like the Bears plan to use halfbacks Raymont Harris and Rashaan Salaam. William Henderson is the Packers’ regular fullback.
The acquisition on waivers of San Diego’s Aaron Hayden by the Packers just before training camp suddenly becomes an important move. Hayden disappointed the Chargers last season with only 166 yards and a 3-yard average, but gained 470 on a 3.7 average in 1995 and convinced the Chargers they should dispose of Natrone Means.
Second-year draft choice Chris Darkins of Minnesota, coming off a 1996 injury, and third-year draft choice Travis Jervey also have shown promise at times. Jervey gained 76 yards Saturday, including a 49-yard run.
Bennett and Levens were in the final years of their contracts, and there was speculation that the Packers would phase out the 28-year-old Bennett to keep the 27-year-old Levens if they had to make a choice. Bennett was unusually effective in muddy, slippery weather and was a particular nemesis to the Bears.
Ex-Bear Marcus Spears played three quarters at right tackle for the Packers, filling in for injured Earl Dotson and Bruce Wilkerson.
Detroit: Nowhere has the disappointment of one NFL season been so quickly erased by the optimism of training camp than in Detroit, where the Lions are enjoying unprecedented support.
Training at Saginaw Valley State University for the first time, the Lions under new coach Bobby Ross are drawing more than 6,000 fans regularly to practices. Season ticket sales are at a 13-year high after the team finished last in the NFC Central Division under Wayne Fontes with a 5-11 record.
“The attitude is great enthusiasm,” said receiver Herman Moore. “We’re optimistic as to what’s going to happen.”
“We have more fans here than we had at our replacement games during the 1987 strike,” said club Vice President Bill Keenist.
Like everyone else in the division, the Lions are chasing the Packers, who embarrassed them 31-3 in Fontes’ final game in the Silverdome last December in front of 73,214 fans, most of them cheering for Green Bay. Keenist has a plan to avoid that humiliation this year.
The Lions opened single-game sales to season ticket-holders first and filled orders from Michigan and Ohio before opening orders from Wisconsin.
Tampa Bay: The Buccaneers wanted help for quarterback Trent Dilfer, and are getting it with receiver Horace Copeland back from a knee injury that cost him last season. Both No. 1 draft choices, running back Warrick Dunn and receiver Reidel Anthony, are now in camp. Second-year fullback Mike Alstott from Joliet and Purdue looks ready to take up where he left off as a budding star in the league.
Minnesota: The Vikings opened the exhibition season with an unusually crisp performance against the Seattle Seahawks in the Hall of Fame game Saturday. Three quarterbacks–Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham and Jay Walker–threw touchdown passes.
Cunningham, back after a one-year absence, completed 10 of 14 passes in the 28-26 victory and explained why he is now wearing No. 7. “God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. No. 7 is symbolic of my comeback,” he said.
“I’m not looking over my shoulder,” Johnson said.
