With Super Bowl XLV rapidly approaching, most sports bettors and Las Vegas experts are busy with the Props for Super Bowl provided by BetUs. But for those trying to get an angle on who will actually win the contest, they have to ask themselves one thing: how many injuries can the Green Bay Packers withstand?
Most of the injury-related headlines have revolved around Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey, who says he’s 75 percent sure he’s going to play while the news outlet doubt that he’ll be able to play at all with a serious ankle injury. And while the game-time injury news is quiet, the cumulative injuries that the Packers have suffered have to be factored.
Green Bay has put 15 players on injured reserve this season, which includes five starters. Only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost more starters to injury this season.
The Packers will be without Pro Bowl talents like Jermichael Finley, Ryan Grant and Nick Barnett, and while they gotten to the Super Bowl without them, they might feel their absence on the big stage more than ever. After all, every weakness is magnified at the Super Bowl.
Grant may be the injury that costs the Packers the most. They haven’t been able to run the football with any consistency since they lost him but rookie running back James Starks has injected some life since taking over the starting role in the playoffs.
But Starks is still a rookie sixth-round pick who played very sparingly in the regular season. Going up against the No. 1 run defense in the NFL, Starks is likely to be more intimidated than Grant would have been and he’s more liable to make a mistake.
Regardless, the Packers injuries have piled up and while they haven’t been burned by it yet, they may really feel the absences at the Super Bowl this Sunday.
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