The Packer Pundit

"If you don't like me, you don't like me. I don't need your vote for the Pro Bowl, I don't need all that (expletive). I'm here to win games and play football. So don't expect us to be friends when the game is over. Afterwards, we can talk, but during the game we're not going to be friends." -- Nick Barnett

Green Bay - It's been a long time since the Green Bay Packers have had an intimidator on defense - maybe as far back as the late Wayne Simmons - but they seem to have one now in Nick Barnett. The past few years, the Packers' defense could be described as milquetoast at best, devoid of a Ray Lewis, Rodney Harrison, John Lynch-type presence. But as the New York Giants game last Sunday showed, this group has a different idea of how to play the game, and a lot of it starts with the attitude of Barnett, the undersized but frenetic middle linebacker. "I just play," Barnett said. "That's just the attitude we're taking on. I try to lead by example. Go out there and just play. That's where you have to go out and be mean, you have to be a mean defense if you want to be one of the best. Look at all the defenses that were great. They were mean. That's the way we're trying to play." More >>



Packers, Rodgers committed to each other
By Rob Demovsky / gbpressgazette.com
In case Aaron Rodgers was wondering, the Green Bay Packers remain committed to him as their quarterback of the future. Coach Mike McCarthy reiterated as much this week. If you’re Rodgers, that news could be met with only half-hearted enthusiasm given the early developments this season involving the guy he someday is scheduled to replace. At 37 and in his 17th NFL season, Brett Favre had one of his best games of the last 2½ seasons in Sunday’s 35-13 win over the New York Giants, leading some — including his former position coach Steve Mariucci — to think Favre can, and just might, play beyond this season. “Hopefully they can get Aaron Rodgers signed to another contract to be the next guy when that occurs, because I’m telling you, if Brett continues to have fun, if he stays healthy, he might keep playing,” Mariucci said. “He hasn’t made that decision yet to retire.” Rodgers is in the third year of the five-year contract he signed in 2005 after Packers General Manager Ted Thompson selected him with the 24th pick in the draft. If Favre plays one more year and the Packers don’t do anything to Rodgers’ contract, he would take over as the starter going into the final year of his deal. If Favre were to play two more years, Rodgers’ contract would expire before he got a crack at the job. More >>



Close call for Wynn
By Jason Wilde / madison.com
GREEN BAY — DeShawn Wynn's cell phone rang around 2 o'clock. It was Sept. 1 — final cutdown day — and with the Green Bay Packers reducing their roster from 75 to 53 players, that's the last sound any fringe player wants to hear. Many of Wynn's fellow rookies had received the same call earlier in the day, telling them to come to pro personnel director Reggie McKenzie's office — and bring your playbook. "I was in the hotel," Wynn remembers. "I told my roommate, (rookie receiver) David Clowney, I'd gotten the call. He'd gotten one earlier in the morning. "I thought I knew what was coming." Three weeks later, entering today's game between the Packers and San Diego Chargers at Lambeau Field, Wynn has been the lone bright spot in a running game that's struggled during the club's surprising 2-0 start. More >>




With Favre, rewards outweigh risks
By Pete Dougherty / gbpressgazette
Early in the 1993 season, Steve Mariucci taped a picture of a dead horse on his office wall. Mariucci was the Green Bay Packers’ quarterbacks coach, and for more than a year, he’d admonished quarterback Brett Favre countless times in practice and meetings about not throwing interceptions, about taking a checkdown rather than a high-risk pass. Eventually, backup quarterback Ty Detmer started harping at Mariucci, “You’re beating a dead horse, you’re beating a dead horse.” Up went the picture, and when watching film, if Favre threw a bad interception, Mariucci would point to it rather than say anything. That lasted through the 1995 season, when Mariucci left to become head coach at the University of California. “Ty would laugh, and (Mark) Brunell, ‘Nice throw, Brett, way to go dead horse,’” Mariucci said this week. “Beating a dead horse. He’s a dandy.” More >>