National Football League

Bell hopes to rebound as Packers hunt for CB depth

Published Dec. 24, 2009 1:51 p.m. ET

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If Josh Bell can make his level of play match his level of self-confidence, the cornerback should have no problem making a bigger impact as the Green Bay Packers push for the playoffs.

Bell, who signed with the Packers on Nov. 24 in the wake of a season-ending knee injury to Al Harris, struggled on the decisive final series of Sunday's 37-36 loss at Pittsburgh. After getting called for a defensive holding penalty earlier in the drive, Bell was a step too deep in coverage on Ben Roethlisberger's last-second touchdown pass to Mike Wallace.

Going into Sunday's game against Seattle, it doesn't sound like Bell has lost confidence.

``I can't wait to get that play again,'' Bell said. ``Three seconds left on the clock, throw it to me. And I will hopefully feel that my coaches and my teammates would be confident that I'd make that play.''

After the loss to the Steelers, one thing is clear: Whether it's Bell or somebody else, the Packers need to find somebody who can make that play.

Harris' injury moved Tramon Williams, a capable No. 3 cornerback, up the depth chart.

Williams generally has played well, but the Packers are having trouble finding additional cornerbacks to put on the field on passing downs. A pair of potential nickel and dime options, Will Blackmon and Pat Lee, also are on injured reserve with knee injuries.

The Packers' remaining options besides Bell include fourth-year player Jarrett Bush; rookie Brandon Underwood, a sixth-round pick out of Cincinnati; and Trevor Ford, an undrafted rookie free agent from Troy who spent most of the season on the practice squad.

Despite giving up big plays against Pittsburgh, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Bush remains the Packers' nickel back - but wondered if the Packers were asking him to do too much.

``At the end of the day we've got to make sure we're giving our players the chance to be successful, whether it's 10 snaps or 40 snaps,'' McCarthy said. ``That's the way we look at. We definitely feel that it's something we can move forward with because if we didn't, we wouldn't go in that direction.''

Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers expressed confidence in Bush, but expects teams to keep going after him.

``You have a day like we had (Sunday), you put it on film, you're going to be tested,'' Capers said. ``That's what people are going to do - they're going to look at that and see if they can't duplicate it.''

Meanwhile, Bell, Underwood and Ford will compete for dime coverage responsibilities.

``We believe in having competition throughout the week,'' McCarthy said. ``It's healthy. So all three of those corners will have an opportunity to potentially be up. We'll see how that works out this week too.''

But even after Bell struggled on Sunday, Capers said he still had a chance to be on the field. Capers said Bell has stood out in practice and now needs to take that performance to the field.

``I think with where we are right now, Josh has got to step up and he's got to produce,'' Capers said. ``He has to step up and play for us.''

That's just fine with Bell, who made five starts as a rookie for Denver last season and believes he would have been in the Broncos' plans this year if he hadn't hurt his knee in the preseason.

After giving up the final play on Sunday, Bell was pulled aside by teammates Charles Woodson, Nick Collins and Williams.

``This is a great team, because when we came into the locker room everybody, the secondary, the leaders like 'Wood' and Nick and Tramon were telling me, saying, 'Don't worry about all that. Don't worry about all that,''' Bell said. ``And that was one of the greatest things, and I feel I've been trained pretty well by coaches now and coaches previously to know that, hey, it's football.''

Williams says he and his teammates believe Bell has a good future with the Packers.

``The thing about it, that could have happened to anybody,'' Williams said. ``That's what you've got to let him know: forget about it, it happened. The main thing now is move on and learn from it. That's about it. You never want to get down on a guy. Everybody makes mistakes. Just go out there and continue playing.''