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Rookie OLB Dezman Moses

Ted Thompson and the Green Bay Packers have signed a total of 27 rookies to contracts within the past week. Eight of those were his 2012 NFL Draft picks, while the other 19 were undrafted free agents picked up immediately after the draft or brought in as tryout players during Rookie Orientation Camp. With the roster now at a full 90 players, it’s time to get to know some of these new faces.

First up is outside linebacker Dezman Moses.

Born on Jan. 4, 1989,  Dezman Mirrill Moses hails from Willingboro, N.J., where he played wide receiver and inside linebacker at Willingboro High. He was named first-team all-county, all-conference and All-South Jersey as a senior, when he hauled in 35 passes for 596 yards and 10 touchdowns as a wideout while recording 87 tackles and five interceptions – including two returned for touchdowns. Dezman is the son of Vernon and Valerie Moses and brother to two sisters, Lauren and Shaina.

Moses graduated with scholarship offers in basketball, football and baseball. He made the decision to play football at the University of Iowa, but transferred after two seasons to Tulane in 2009 and sat out that fall per the transfer rule.  Read more... (755 words + 1 image, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)

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Dr. Elliot Pellman's research is at the center of the NFL Concussion legal battle.

As I sat down at my computer this week with some desperately needed free time on my hands, I was all set to begin an article depicting the NFL as a gigantic scapegoat in the recent concussion lawsuits being filed against them. It just didn’t make sense to me. These players knowingly and willingly participated in a contact sport where injuries occurred on a regular basis. Not only that, they reveled in delivering big hits on their opponents.

Should they not bear the responsibility of their actions? After all, if a knee injury could leave a lasting effect on your life, it would only make sense that repeated trauma to the head (and brain) could do the same thing. It would be like a boxer suing someone else for injuries they sustained in the ring. They made their choice.

Then I started do my research. I knew I didn’t have the whole story, and my better judgment told me I should at least understand exactly what the former players were charging the NFL with.  Read more... (1346 words + 1 image, estimated 5:23 mins reading time)

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Oh yeah. I've got this.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I couldn’t be more excited about the 2012 Green Bay Packers draft class. I thought Ted Thompson did a great job targeting needed position players and acquiring them at a good value. For a GM who has scraped the bottom of the barrel for outside linebackers the past two years, it’s refreshing to see him pick a prospect like Nick Perry in the first round.

Of course, draft picks usually come with some baggage, and Perry is definitely no exception. Draftniks have identified a couple question marks when it comes to Perry’s future as an outside linebacker for the Packers:

1. Is he the right fit for a 3-4 OLB, or should he be playing as a DE in a 4-3 system? His body size seems to be large for an OLB, and he has expressed minimal enthusiasm about switching positions.

2. Does his motor run consistently enough for the professional level? Scouts have called him “a little soft” and noted that he has a tendency to take plays off.  Read more... (777 words + 1 image, estimated 3:06 mins reading time)

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How much would trading up for a player like Clay Matthews cost the Packers in 2012?

Ted Thompson and the Green Bay Packers have a lot of options in the 2012 NFL Draft with 12 overall selections, and they are probably going to need them with some of the defensive holes they need to fill.

Our own “Jersey” Al Bracco spent time presenting some First and Second Round trade-up scenarios that could possibly occur, and Thomas Hobbes looked into Thompson’s trading history in relationship to the Trade Value Chart (TVC).

A lot of people are wondering, though, does the old TVC still apply?

This will be the first draft under the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the NFL and NFLPA, and it comes with a shiny new set of rules for a rookie wage scale. Though we haven’t had a draft under these restrictions on pay, the 2011 rookie class did feel the effects of it when they were finally signed.

Below is a comparison of the contracted salaries of the top 10 picks in the 2010 and 2011 NFL Drafts. The numbers shown are in millions of dollars, and for simplicity in numbers, only the guaranteed amount has been recorded. It’s not a perfect barometer of the wage scale’s effects, but it should give you a general idea of what has happened:  Read more... (1087 words + 2 images, estimated 4:21 mins reading time)

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Was 2009 the best draft year for Ted Thompson?

With the 2012 NFL Draft just days away, I thought it might be interesting to rank Ted Thompson’s previous drafts as General Manager of the Green Bay Packers.

This activity will incorporate his first draft in 2005 through the 2009 draft. The 2010 and 2011 years will be omitted based on the reasoning that the players from those drafts are too young in their careers to accurately gauge. (But feel free to leave a comment on how you’d rank them if they were included.)

Now, in order to grade or evaluate something, you have to base your decision on a set of criteria. So here is what I will base the ranking on:  Read more... (1056 words + 1 image, estimated 4:13 mins reading time)

1. How much have the players in a specific draft contributed to the success of the Green Bay Packers?
2. Secondary to the first criterion is how well has the player has succeeded in the NFL overall.
3. How many “busts” did a specific draft include?
4. How much value did Thompson get with each selection based on overall pick number and the player’s future performance?

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As you may know from reading my past blog posts, I love me some stats. I don’t think they’re the be-all and end-all when it comes to football, but I do think they are a useful tool to use when analyzing a team, a unit, or a player. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy following sites like Pro Football Focus (PFF) and Football Outsiders (FO).

These two groups of data crunchers put a lot of time and critical thought into representing the performance of players and teams in the form of numbers. Through careful observation and grading of every play of every football game of the year, these statisticians are able to eventually tell us which team’s offense is performing the best based on their results and the strength of the defenses they’ve played.  Or they can present a numerical “grade” for an individual player for something like “pass blocking efficiency.”

Like I said before, they provide a great tool for professional football analysis. We can use the information to either support what we think we’ve seen, or use it as a jumping off point to examine something further.  Read more... (1203 words + 1 image, estimated 4:49 mins reading time)

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Yesterday afternoon, our fellow blogger in crime Zach Kruse shared an interesting bit of information over at CheeseheadTV.com. Apparently some Green Bay Packers sources indicated to Pro Football Weekly that they “will not be shocked in the least if the team releases injury-prone DE Mike Neal after the draft.”

Neal’s recent violation of the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy earned him a four-game suspension to start the 2012 season, and this has most likely put him on the short list in the mind of Ted Thompson. Of course, this is also just adding to the fact that, due to injuries, Mike Neal has only been active for 9 games in his first two years as a pro football player. And in only 3 of those games did he actually record a tackle.

A lot of fans have been hailing him as the second coming of Justin Harrell, though perhaps a bit prematurely. Now, though, it seems he also has a little bit of Johnny Jolly in him, too.  Read more... (1392 words + 1 image, estimated 5:34 mins reading time)

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