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It's too early to question Nick Perry's effort.

There are several words used by analysts to describe college players entering the NFL draft that drive me crazy.

Examples include:

• Athletic. What does it mean to be athletic? Shouldn’t all athletes getting paid to play sports be considered athletic?
• High upside. How many teams draft players because they have little or no upside?
• Get-off. This is a newer term and it’s just weird. Am I reading about NFL prospects or porn actors?

Perhaps my least favorite words, however, are “effort” and “motor.” I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think effort has to do with how hard you try and motor has something to do with how hard you try throughout an entire play/game/season (I’m not sure about motor. It’s another one of those words, like “athletic,” that people tend to throw out there even though they really don’t know what it means).

Nearly every prospect is judged as either a max-effort guy with a high motor or someone whose effort is questionable with a motor that runs hot and cold.  Read more... (736 words + 1 image, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

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Rookie S Sean Richardson

Ted Thompson and the Green Bay Packers have signed a total of 27 rookies to contracts this offseason. 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.

Next up is safety Sean Richardson.

Born on Jan. 21, 1990, Seandre Antonio Richardson hails from Linden, Alabama, where he was given a key to the city upon his signing with the Green Bay Packers. He is the first football player from Linden to earn a Division I scholarship. He is the son of Darnell and Sandra Richardson and brother to Darnell, Jr., and sister Shonedra.

Sean was a starter at safety for his last three seasons with the Vanderbilt Commodores, and he never missed a single game, despite undergoing hand surgery in 2009. He became an instant contributor on special teams during his freshman year, concluding with the Commodore’s only touchdown (a muffed punt recovery) against Boston College in the Music City Bowl.  Read more... (507 words + 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

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Versatility could be Casey Hayward's greatest strength.

Remember when the NFL was about taking your best 11 guys and putting them against the other team’s best 11 guys? Those days are over.

Well, kind of. You still want your best 11 against their best 11, but those 11 change throughout the game much more often than they used to.

Today’s NFL is all about matchups and sub packages. Of course, certain players are so good that they will never leave the field, but just because a guy doesn’t play all three downs doesn’t mean he’s an inferior player. It means his skills might be a better fit in specialized situations, perhaps as a pass rusher on obvious passing downs, a slot corner on third down or a run stuffer in short-yardage.

Sub packages also depend on a coordinator’s scheme and gameplan. On defense, most coordinators these days want to try and create as much confusion for the offense as possible. Causing chaos is always good, too. The coordinator is likely asking himself how he can maximize the skills of each of his players to achieve the general goal of creating confusion and causing chaos, and he knows that this goal is easier to achieve with players that have diversified skill sets in line with the coordinator’s overall defensive vision.  Read more... (769 words + 1 image, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

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Sam Shields sends the Packers to the Super Bowl.

Think back to the beginning of the 2010 season for a minute. The Packers defense was coming off an embarrassing playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals and the secondary faced many of the same questions that the pass rush faces today.

But instead of answering those questions in the draft, Ted Thompson’s solution was to plug in an undrafted rookie free agent that few people had heard of and actually had more experience as a wide receiver than a defensive back. Sam Shields came into camp with the reputation as a speedster, and that’s about it. Besides his ability to run really fast, nobody knew much else about him.

“This is how you’re going to fix the secondary, Ted?” Packers fans asked.

“Yup,” Thompson replied before taking another sip from his bottled water and turning away.

“Improving from within” was a talking point that Thompson and Mike McCarthy hammered home through training camp and the preseason. By 2010, most reasonable Packers fans understood that Thompson was rarely going to sign a free agent or make a trade that grabbed headlines.  Read more... (685 words + 1 image, estimated 2:44 mins reading time)

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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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2012 NFL Draft

So here is part II of the reasons behind the draft picks (see part I here)  Again, I’m not assigning grades to the draft or to the players because I don’t believe you can tell whether or not a player will pan out within the first 30 something days.  What I am interested in is what the Packers were thinking of when they decided to draft a player; with that in mind, this is what I think the Packers want to accomplish with each draft pick and which player each rookie could be potentially be replacing.

Jeron McMillian – Projected Strong Safety – Round 4, Pick #38 (#133 overall) – Replaces Pat Lee

Rationale: First off let’s be honest here, I don’t think we have the next Nick Collins in McMillian; I was actually very surprised that McMillian was drafted at all by the Packers simply because he doesn’t fit into the mold of what the Packers look for in safeties.  The Packers are probably more interested in playing two free safeties (which there really wasn’t one this year in the draft), consider their preferred pairing of Collins and Morgan Burnett (who ironically never really played together): both have good ball skills and the ability to jump passing routes.  What McMillian does best is run support, which is almost the exact opposite of a ball hawk.   Then again even if McMillian is the next Collins I highly doubt that the Packers can afford to stick him out there in his first year, which is even more reason why I think Woodson will have to make the move to safety.  Read more... (1506 words + 1 image, estimated 6:01 mins reading time)

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GREEN BAY PACKERS 2012 ROSTER

(click here for a list of all Packers Players Transactions)

(For the latest updates/changes, see our Roster Page)

LAST UPDATED:
May 15, 2012

Current Player Total: 86
Rookies: 22

*** Players in GREEN are rookies. ***  Read more... (1011 words, estimated 4:03 mins reading time)

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