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Packers rookie CB is leading a younger and more aggressive secondary.

I know your belly is still full of Thanksgiving turkey and you’re probably all excited that you managed to outlast the middled-aged lady next to you for that discounted Xbox at Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

If you can overcome your full stomach and pause your Xbox euphoria, take a minute and watch the video of the Packers allowing a Hail Mary touchdown to the Giants’ Hakeem Nicks before halftime in last season’s playoff loss.

Makes your full tummy feel more like the stomach flu, right?

Now, take another look at the play. Notice the four players around the ball when Nicks comes down with it? Not one of them will be on the field for this Sunday night’s rematch.

Charlie Peprah is off the team. Charles Woodson is injured. Sam Shields is injured. And Jarrett Bush mainly plays special teams (I suppose it’s conceiveable that Bush could end up out there, but hopefully not).

If Eli Manning launches another Hail Mary on Sunday, the players around the ball will likely be a combination of Tramon Williams, Casey Hayward, Davon House, Morgan Burnett, Jerron McMillian and M.D. Jennings.

That group is a lot more aggressive than the group that stood there with their thumbs up their butts while Nix caught the ball in the playoffs.

Hell, Jennings has already intercepted a Hail Mary pass this season, even though it counted as a touchdown for the other team.  Read more... (414 words + 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

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With the departure of former starting safety Charlie Peprah, who was released in a very similar manner to former inside linebacker Brandon Chillar for failing his physical at the start of training camp in 2010, all eyes now look towards Charles Woodson, MD Jennings and Jerron McMillian to see which ends up being the starting safety opposite Morgan Burnett.

Only a couple of problems; Woodson is desperately needed at the line of scrimmage as the slot cornerback, Jerron McMillian is a 4^th round rookie who naturally shouldn’t be counted on to step in as a starting safety and actually produce and MD Jennings, who despite being a “football nerd” and making it as a undrafted rookie free agent last year “is too small and short and looks like a cornerback instead of a safety” as paraphrased by Bill Johnson during Green and Gold Today on July 25^th, 2012.

Is “the doctor” really too short and too small to be a safety with the Green Bay Packers?  I think the prototypical “safety” Bill Johnson is thinking of would be someone like Taylor Mays (who despite being a physical specimen apparently isn’t a half decent safety) who stands at 6’3” weighs 230lbs.  To figure this out, I’ve compiled a list of the Packers starting safeties from the last decade as according to Pro Football Reference.

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Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams will need to lead the defense back from a miserable 2011.

As promised, here are our pre-training camp grades for the Packers defense:

Defensive Line: D
Grading the defensive line depends on what type of grader you are. If you give points for potential, a ‘D’ seems too low. If potential ranks far below production, then a ‘D’ seems fair. Seeing names like Raji and Pickett makes you think this line should be damn good. But Raji was bad last season and Pickett is another year older. Sure, Raji has the potential to be great like he was at the end of 2010, but he had that same potential in 2011 and never reached it. Jerel Worthy is another guy that could make this group potentially better, but right now, I need to see actual improvement on the line before upping my grade.

Link: Listen to CheeseheadTV’s Brian Carriveau discuss the defensive line in this podcast.

Linebackers: B+
Clay Matthews is one of the best all-around players in the league and Desmond Bishop brings much-needed energy, attitude and a knack for making impact plays.  Matthews and Bishop carried the load at LB last season and need some help in 2012. Nick Perry could bring some much-needed relief. Ditto for D.J. Smith if A.J. Hawk continues to be a dud.  Mix in intriguing rookies like Dezman Moses and Terrell Manning and I like what I see at LB.  Read more... (666 words + 1 image, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

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Packers with injuries fail their physicals

A good number of Packers players (including some surprises) failed their physicals this week and will not be able to participate in the first days of training camp. Here is a rundown on what is know about each player so far:

Charlie Peprah:  (Released by the Packers)  A lingering knee injury caused Peprah to fail his physical and the Packers quickly decided to release him. I suppose that speaks highly of the plethora of young safeties the Packers currently have on their roster and how the Packers feel about them.  For Peprah, his best time with the Packers was certainly the Super Bowl season, but his play last year was dreadful at times, and I was considering him likely to be a camp cut anyway.

Desmond Bishop: (PUP) Bishop please! Say it ain’t so!. Desmond has a calf strain suffered in his training session last week and was placed on the non-football related injury list. He’ll be back soon.

Derek Sherrod:  (PUP) Sherrod’s recovery from the broken leg has gone very well, according to Mike Mccarthy, and the Packers expect him to be ready “soon,”, which I would take to mean sometime in the next week or two.

Andrew Quarless: (PUP) No surprise here. The severity of the knee injury he suffered last Dec 4th makes him a longshot at best to even participate in camp. I’d say he’s a lock to never be activated in camp and be on the PUP list when the season starts.  Read more... (849 words + 3 images, estimated 3:24 mins reading time)

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The Green Bay Packers released safety Charlie Peprah on Wednesday

In the first stunning move of training camp in 2012, the Green Bay Packers have released safety Charlie Peprah according to Jason Wilde of ESPN 540.

Peprah, who was the incumbent starter from 2011, reportedly had offseason arthroscopic surgery on his knee and didn’t participate in the offseason program. With the players just recently completing their physicals,  some speculation is surely going to be that Peprah failed his physical but no official word from the team has been given as of yet.

With Peprah gone, that leaves MD Jennings and Jerron McMillian to battle it out for the other safety spot should Charles Woodson remain in the cornerback decision.   Morgan Burnett is expected to be the other starting safety entering the preseason.

With Nick Collins out with a neck injury, Peprah ranked second on the team last season in interceptions and was first in interception return yardage.  However, thanks to his regression from 2010 when he played a key role in the Packers’ run to Super Bowl XLV,  Peprah’s starting spot was in danger entering training camp this summer.

Peprah, however, will not even get the chance to compete to keep his own job.

Kris Burke is a freelance sports writer currently residing in Wisconsin. His work has been linked to by sites such as National Football Post and CBSSports.com. Follow @KrisLBurke

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Surviving Sundays With No Packers Football

The Green Bay Packers are huge in Oregon.

If you’re too lazy to click on the link, it basically highlights how a recent poll showed that most Oregonians cheer for the Packers over the nearby Seattle Seahawks. This doesn’t surprise me. The Packers are the greatest team ever. Everybody should cheer for them.

Unfortunately, not everyone realizes this. On July 4, Deadspin asked which sports team is the most American. They shouldn’t even have to ask. It’s the Green Bay Packers. And it’s not even close.

What’s more American than having a professional football stadium next to a K-Mart? Instead of being surrounded by fancy clubs and five-star restaurants, the area around Lambeau Field boasts local pubs that serve beer and fatty foods that are dipped in batter and deep-fried. People tailgate before, during and after Packers games. In the stadium, you don’t sit in a cushioned seat with a back rest, you sit on old-school metal bleachers.

Packers fans wear Styrofoam cheese on their heads. And blaze orange deer hunting gear.

This is America, people.

I know the Packers are no longer the Little Engine That Could. They’re a large, rich organization that is trying to squeeze every last dollar they can out of their fans and customers, just like every other NFL franchise. But I don’t care. They’re still located in Green Bay, Wis., population 104,057. They’re still small-town in my book.

The Packers are about as American as you can get.  Read more... (693 words + 1 image, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)

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Clay Matthews aims to lead an improved Packers' defense in 2012.

“The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

The Packers have taken that step with regard to their pitiful defensive performance during the 2011 season. Many Packers have expressed their dissatisfaction with how the team played on that side of the ball, the latest of them Tramon Williams.

According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Williams voiced his thoughts on the 2011 campaign.

“But at the end of the day, (did) we have a terrible defense? Yeah, we did, but we were productive out there. We did what we’ve always done. We turned the ball over. We have some things to build off now. We have some more pieces to the puzzle and we’re excited about it, and just ready to get back out there now.”

Williams joins Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews, who each criticized the team’s defense down the stretch of last season. All three acknowledged that the defense just wasn’t good enough and gave up too many yards and points. The saving grace throughout much of the year was the defense’s ability to create turnovers, as mentioned by Williams. The amount of turnovers created likely masked the depth of Packers’ defensive issues.  Read more... (686 words + 1 image, estimated 2:45 mins reading time)

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