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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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Can Jerron McMillian fill the shoes of Nick Collins?

It was a formula that paid dividends for the Green Bay Packers the last time around so GM Ted Thompson figured it was worth trying again.

In his first draft as head of the Packers football operations in 2005, Thompson selected a player from a small school who in time had a big impact on the organization.   In the second round of the 2005 draft, Thompson selected safety Nick Collins from small Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida.  At the time, it was viewed as a reach taking a player from such a small school so early in the draft.  Many wondered what the then-rookie general manager was doing.

The “reach” paid off big time as Collins became the best safety the Packers have had since the retirement of Leroy Butler (no offense to Darren Sharper).  Collins will forever immortalized in Packers lore for his highlight reel pick-six of Ben Roethlisberger in Super Bowl XLV and the celebration following that was the cover image for the Green Bay Press Gazette following the Packers’ victory.

Fast forward to this past spring.  Thompson again found himself in need of safety, ironically because Collins suffered a likely career-ending neck injury in Week 2 last season.  Thompson found a diamond In the rough in Collins, so Thompson may have thought he could do it again.  Read more... (790 words + 1 image, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)

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Most of the offseason chatter about Packers starters getting benched has centered on A.J. Hawk being replaced by D.J. Smith. That very well might happen, but what about other starters that could find themselves on the bench once the season starts?

Erik Walden
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Walden totaled just three sacks, 14 QB hits and 22 QB hurries in 15 starts. From week 12 through the playoff loss, Walden had zero sacks, four hits and six hurries (he also got arrested). His (-20.5) overall rating by PFF was the worst among 3-4 OLBs by almost 10 points.

Packers fans don’t need fancy stats and analytics to know that Walden was bad. If he was simply average, and provided at least a little pressure on the QB down the stretch, who knows how last season might have ended? Rookie Nick Perry likely will take over here.

Jarius Wynn/C.J. Wilson
These two combined to start six games, so it’s a stretch to call them starters. Howard Green also started five times, so we’ll consider Wynn/Wilson/Green a sort of three-headed monster that started most games somewhere on the defensive line. With Green gone, there’s only two heads of the monster left, and I’m not sure that either head will start this season.

Wilson seems like a good athlete, which gives me some hope that he could eventually turn into a serviceable player. A permanent starter? The jury is out.  Read more... (568 words + 1 image, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

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Former Packers safety Nick Collins after his touchdown in Super Bowl XLV

Just like that, it was over.

It was an abrupt and all too soon ending to the career of Nick Collins in Green Bay.  It was a career that gave fans a play in Super Bowl XLV that will be in their memory banks forever and Collins was arguably the best safety the Green Bay Packers have had since Leroy Butler retired.

Unfortunately, thanks to a poor hand dealt by the football gods, Collins’ days as a Packer (and perhaps even an NFL player) came to an end at a time of neither his nor the Packers’ choosing even though it was the Packers that released him.

Thanks to a frightening neck injury suffered in Week 2 last season against the Carolina Panthers, the Packers felt like playing Collins again would be too much of a health risk for the safety so they released him with Collins’ long-term health foremost in their minds.

Since that day, little has been heard from Collins regarding his future in the NFL.  A comeback with the Packers won’t happen given the selection of Jerron McMillan in the fourth round of this spring’s NFL draft.

So what is to become of Collins? There are a few theories.  Read more... (466 words + 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

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Imagine you’re a student and you have a practical exam coming up; in this test you’re asked to perform a specific skill and the instructors will not only be grading you for your ability to conceptualize what you are doing and why but to also that you can put it all together and actually get some results.  I’ve been tested this way dozens of times as a undergraduate and graduate student and I can safely say that just because you know what you are doing and why doesn’t always mean you can do it in real life.

The same is true for football players; as instructors to the game, coaches often will be assessing a player’s ability to conceptualize what they are doing and why, but also how well they perform that skill.  And just the same as any other student, just because you know what you are doing and why doesn’t always mean you can do it in real life.  There are countless examples of players who have the mental aspect of football down pat but lack the technique required to be successful in the league.

Now imagine a practical exam where you can study and figure out what you need to do and why, but weren’t actually given a chance to practice that skill before the exam, how well do you think you would do? Again from experience I can tell you you often don’t get the desired results because while your mind knows what to do your body doesn’t have the muscle memory to successfully perform that skill.  Read more... (1063 words + 1 image, estimated 4:15 mins reading time)

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Green Bay Packers CB Charles Woodson may not keep smiling if the rest of the pass defense doesn't step up soon.

Every cornerback wishes he was Charles Woodson; you hear college cornerbacks during the draft process mention his name as someone they’d like to emulate, you hear coaches gush about his exceptional ability to conceptualize the game of football and you hear the admiration of his teammates on his leadership abilities.  And rightly so, Woodson is one of those rare breed of players that has the skill set to transcend the game of football; Woodson doesn’t play defensive back, Charles Woodson defines how good a cornerback can truly be.  As mentioned by fellow writer Chad Toporski, Pro Football Focus actually created a position called the “Woodson” that “mixes one part cornerback, one part safety, one part linebacker”, which naturally only has one member, Charles Woodson.

However, I do wonder if Woodson’s uniqueness is a double-edged sword.  On one hand, the Packers defensive secondary has a first hand view of how great a “Woodson” can be; but on the other hand, what happens when someone who isn’t Charles Woodson tries to play like Charles Woodson?

Stay with me here; Charles Woodson’s greatest skill at this point is his exceptional ability to predict routes and offenses; as such, usually when Woodson gambles on a play he’s right.  I would argue that while his physical skills have diminished, as is natural for a player after 15 seasons, his gambling acumen has kept him near the top of the list when it comes to the best defensive backs.  So what happens when you have young defensive backs like Morgan Burnett, Sam Shields and Jarrett Bush trying to emulate Woodson?  In one word: disaster.  Read more... (1091 words + 1 image, estimated 4:22 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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