8/27/2006
Headed home, sort of
Rookie linebacker A.J. Hawk, who is from the Dayton suburb of Centerville, has been to Cincinnati for competitions before - a game against the University of Cincinnati his freshman year, and Ohio's punt, pass and kick competition when he was 12. He did well in the competition, which was held at halftime of a Bengals game, advancing to the finals in San Diego. But there, things didn't go so well. "I still remember the finals - I shanked my kick, that's what cost me the competition," said Hawk, who has 20 family members and friends, including his parents, coming to the game. "That still hurts."
Turn it up
With the move inside because of a threat of a thunderstorm that never came, the Packers took advantage and turned on the simulated crowd noise to work on their silent snap counts. It worked well for the most part, although rookie left guard Jason Spitz was flagged for the offense's lone false start. "It's something you have to get used to with going through the silent count. It's the first time we've put it in for practice," Spitz said. "I just had a little mental error, and it's not going to happen again." Asked if the noise seemed louder than in most stadiums he played in while in college at Louisville, Spitz said, "Not really. Actually, it wasn't that bad. It was annoying."
Sanders Gets New Secretary for Defense
Coach Sanders, who has taken on the Defensive co-ordinators job from Coach Bates, has asked Pack GM Ted Thompson for a little extra help around the office. So Thompson hired Donald Rumsfield to help out when his current job expires. Rumsfield is delighted with his new assignment, however... dealing with rabid Packer fans when the defense gives up an easy score will make dealing with Congress and Iraqi Insurgents seem like a day in the Park.
Okay... I made that whole damn thing up just to see if you're paying attention! Now back to the News and Notes.
Extra points
Green wasn't able to finish practice, but said it was only cramps. He's still expected to play Monday night. Jagodzinski said he'd like Green to get eight to 10 carries. ... The Packers brought in punter John Torp for a workout. Torp, cut by Minnesota Aug. 17, is an undrafted rookie free agent from Colorado whose career average of 44.7 yards per punt ranks ninth in NCAA Division I-A history.
Favre might not play in final preseason game
Packers coach Mike McCarthy says Brett Favre will play into the third quarter on Monday night against Cincinnati. But from there, he may not play again until the season opener against Chicago on September 10th. The Packers wrap up the pre-season against Tennessee next Friday. But McCarthy says depending on Favre's production, he'll consider resting the franchise icon. Backup quarterback Aaron Rodgers is expected to direct the first-team offense some in Monday night's game. McCarthy says Rodgers needs to play live against the Bengals' top defense.
Woodson says bruised thumb won't cause problems
Packers cornerback Charles Woodson will handle punt returns to start Monday night's game against Cincinnati. He's been nursing a bruised left thumb, but says it won't affect him catching the football. In his words -- "I can catch the ball with one hand if I had to."
Manuel to debut against Cincinnati
Getting back to playing football against an opponent is incentive enough for Marquand Manuel. The veteran safety will make his pre-season debut Monday night when the Green Bay Packers play at Cincinnati, where Manuel began his NFL career. But Manuel says he won't be returning with a chip on his shoulder. He says it's never personal when a player is released. Cincinnati cut Manuel at the end of the 2004 pre-season after the sixth-round draft pick started a total of nine games the previous two years. Manuel still isn't sure what prompted his stay to end abruptly, other than being caught in the numbers game at his position. Seattle promptly claimed Manuel off waivers before the start of the 2004 season. And Ted Thompson, who became the Packers general manager after working for the Seahawks, signed Manuel to a five-year, 10-(m)-million-dollar deal in the off-season.
Beach forecast is quietly sunny
JASON WILDE / madison.com
Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but the Green Bay Packers really like what they've seen from undrafted free agent halfback Arliss Beach. General manager Ted Thompson, though, would like to keep Beach a secret in case he needs to stash the rookie from Kentucky on the practice squad after the final cuts are made Sept. 2. "I don't really talk about (impressive undrafted rookies) very often because there's no need in letting other teams know who I think is good and who isn't," Thompson said with a half-smile. "He did OK the other night. We'll see how he does the rest of the way." MORE>>
Dialing Long Distance
Rayner aiming for touchbacks
By LORI NICKEL / journalsentinel.com
For the last several years, the goal of the Green Bay special teams on kickoffs was to have Ryan Longwell boot the ball as far and, more important, as high as possible and have the coverage unit down it somewhere inside the 20-yard line. Not anymore. Behind the big leg of a young kicker, Dave Rayner, the Packers are going for touchbacks.
That's something new around here. In nine years as a dependable and accurate field-goal kicker, the one knock on Longwell was that he didn't have the big leg for long-distance kickoffs in the later years of his Packers career. After getting 11 touchbacks in 1997 and seven in 1998, Longwell had five combined in 2004 and 2005. With Longwell's off-season departure for Minnesota, the Packers have turned to the 23-year-old Rayner to give their defense better field position. With a tall frame, young legs and a year of experience as the kickoff specialist with Indianapolis last season, Rayner hopes to match the earlier success that Longwell had on kickoffs. There is no need to hide any deficiency in leg strength with placement on kickoffs. Rayner has the green light to go long because his leg has the ability to reach the end zone. MORE>> 
Not Super yet, but offense takes a step up
Packers show positive results
By ROB REISCHEL / Special to Packer Plus
Posted: Aug. 24, 2006
"We definitely improved from a performance standpoint from San Diego. I definitely think we hit the targets that we intended to hit. We wanted to get out there and play a physical football game and generate the home-field-advantage environment. I think our players really took advantage of that. I was really pleased with the enthusiasm and the physicalness that we played with, and obviously our productivity was what it needed to be." -- Coach Mike McCarthy
Before Packer Nation runs out looking for Super Bowl tickets, keep this in mind: much of what Green Bay's No. 1 offense accomplished in its 38-10 pre-season victory over Atlanta last Saturday came against the Falcons' second- and third-string defense. On the other hand, the Packers did several positive things against Atlanta's starters. And compared to the offensive showing by the offense in the pre-season opener at San Diego, the improvement was gigantic. MORE>>
Green Bay finds way to play take-away
Defense craves turnovers
By ROB REISCHEL / Special to Packer Plus
Posted: Aug. 24, 2006
"Turnovers win in this league, that's the bottom line. You get turnovers, you win the game." -- Al Harris
Ed Donatell was back at Lambeau Field Saturday. And for one of the few times since he was fired as Green Bay's defensive coordinator in January, 2004, the Packers' resembled an old Donatell-unit. In Donatell's four years on the job, the Packers forced an average of 36 turnovers a season - or 2.25 per game. Since Donatell's been gone, Green Bay has a grand total of 36 turnovers in two seasons - or 1.125 per game. During the Packers' 38-10 victory over Atlanta Saturday, though, it was like old times for Green Bay's defense. The Packers forced three turnovers and cruised to an easy victory. In the 32 games Green Bay has played since Donatell's departure, it's forced three turnovers or more just three times. MORE>>
Special Teams Should Start To Solidify
By Mike Spofford / Packers.com
posted 08/26/2006
Often during preseason games, special teams units are in flux with various players taking snaps on different units. But with the offensive and defensive starters expected to play well into the third quarter on Monday night in Cincinnati, the special teams units also will begin to develop some continuity.
Head Coach Mike McCarthy said the third preseason game is where he expects the special teams to sort themselves out, while the fourth preseason game is used primarily to make final roster decisions.
"It's important that we come out of Monday night's game that we feel real good about some guys that jump out and take leadership of the special teams," McCarthy said. "I think we have a pretty good idea of the individuals that could be core players, but every successful team that I've been around has a bell cow - an individual or individuals that take hold of that." MORE>>
Return units develop slowly
Woodson to take punts; kickoff plan unsettled
By TOM SILVERSTEIN / journalsentinel.com
When he went trolling for talent in the draft this spring, Green Bay Packers general manager landed three prospects with return ability. Barring a Desmond Howard-like late bid for a job, it appears none of the three - receivers Greg Jennings and Cory Rodgers and cornerback Will Blackmon - will be lining up with the starting return units when the regular season begins Sept. 10.
On Saturday, coach Mike McCarthy said veteran cornerback Charles Woodson would be the team's punt returner Monday night against Cincinnati. Even though Jennings will also be used in the game, it appears the decision has been made to go with the veteran when the games count. "It's definitely Charles' job," Jennings said. "I just hope to get back there sometime if Charles needs a blow. If they've had a rough defensive sequence and he needs a blow, I'll go out and help him out. Charles is good at what he does and that's another position where he's experienced in doing that, and so he definitely has the upper hand. I have no problem being second behind him." MORE>>
A long preview of things to come
Regular-season practice schedule starts
By TODD ROSIAK / journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 25, 2006
These are without question the dog days of August in the National Football League. One glimpse around the Green Bay Packers locker room Friday afternoon was enough to hammer that point home, as players struggled to recover from a second straight overtime practice session. The team went hard in full pads for 2 hours 40 minutes in a hot and humid Don Hutson Center before retiring to Lambeau Field, where many players appeared to be feeling the aftereffects of coach Mike McCarthy's move to a regular-season practice schedule.
"You guys probably got to ask him," cornerback Al Harris said when asked about the length of the workout. "Yeah, you guys bring that up, know what I mean? I just go with the flow. Whatever Coach says, that's what we do."
Practice on Friday mirrored what Green Bay would normally do on a Thursday in the regular season. The 2½-hour practice in shells on Thursday on Ray Nitschke Field, meanwhile, represented a normal Wednesday. MORE>>
Packers prepare to unleash young lions
A dozen rookies could make the team
By TOM SILVERSTEIN / journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 25, 2006
As the Green Bay Packers approach the final week of the exhibition season and continue work on finalizing their 53-man roster, one thing is clear: They're going to be a young football team.
With the first cut scheduled for Tuesday, as many as 11 of the team's 12 draft choices plus at least four rookie free agents are still contending for roster spots. Considering the team carried 13 rookies and first-year players on its opening day roster last year, it's possible nearly half the team will be made up of players with no more than one year of National Football League experience. When general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy make their final decisions a week from today, they'll be asking themselves how many rookies they can keep this year without compromising their chance of being a winning team.
"You try to make the best decision you can for the football team," Thompson said. "There's always a tradeoff with rookies. If they're the better players and better athletes, then that's a plus. They'll probably make more mistakes than a veteran, but we have to be honest: Veterans don't always play perfect games." MORE>>
Comfortable under the salary cap
By Pete Dougherty / greenbaypressgazette.com
"You certainly don't like to be up against the (cap) line. If you have a little cushion, it gives you some flexibility if you have injuries, which we all do. Certainly, there's possibilities of entering into discussions with people you want to do extensions with." -- Ted Thompson
The Green Bay Packers' salary-cap challenge is to perpetuate this year's largess indefinitely. They're looking to join teams such as Philadelphia and Minnesota, which have been among the NFL leaders in cap room for the past several offseasons, because they've turned, then kept, the cap cycle in their favor. That is, they use their enormous cap space to front-load contracts, which means less money is pushed to future caps, which means future caps will have more room, which will allow them to front-load future contracts, and so on. To that end, the Packers went into the offseason with almost $30 million in cap room. They front-loaded the deals of their three major contracts, yet have about $7.6 million in cap room as of Thursday. Perhaps the best way they can make use of that room is signing a core player or two to contract extensions this season, even if it means choosing from a pool deeper than just the players in the last year of their contracts. MORE>>
Published by PackerPundit On Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 6:58 AM.
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