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Well the lockout has  finally ended and we can all get back to talking about real football. One of the first topics to tackle is free agency, which the Packers should have a pretty easy time with.  The Packers, who under General Manager Ted Thompson have a long history of ignoring free agency and locking up their own players well in advance, should be able to stay clear of the feeding frenzy that will ensue for players like Nmandi Asomugha and other big profile free agents.

Closer to home, the Packers are pretty much squared away with their own players as well.  Players like John Kuhn and Mason Crosby make up the majority of the Packers free agent class and should be resigned (if the Packers choose to do so) without much issue.  The two notable exceptions are Cullen Jenkins and James Jones.

Cullen Jenkins in my opinion is good as gone, he has a shot at setting the bar for free agent defensive linemen this year and felt a little snubbed that the Packers made no attempt to try to resign him during the season, which probably has to do with his age and injury history.  However his versatility in 4-3 and 3-4 defensive fronts and his overall production will make him a hot commodity.  Read more... (1528 words + 1 image, estimated 6:07 mins reading time)

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Mike Neal missed most of the 2010 season with a shoulder injury.

There isn’t much to criticize Ted Thompson for these days. If you’re searching for something, it would probably be the fact that his recent high draft choices, particularly on defense, have gotten themselves injured with some frequency .

Green Bay Packers’ defenders drafted in the first three rounds since 2009 have missed 29 games. That total rises to 39 games if you count Brad Jones, a seventh round pick in 2009.

It’s not like Thompson has been drafting players that had injury issues in college. But for some reason, they get hurt once they join the Packers.

The first three picks in the 2011 draft were all pretty durable in college. Will they stay off the IR once they join the Packers? Hopefully.

Just for fun, lets review the NFL injury history of the first three picks in 2009 and 2010, then take a look at the durability of the 2011 class.

2009

BJ Raji
Raji was hobbled by a sprained ankle early in his rookie season. He missed two games, started only one, and never really got going. He rebounded in 2010 and now looks like one of the more promising interior defenders in the league.  Read more... (540 words + 1 image, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

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Lip service. That’s all we’ve gotten as Packers fans when it comes to the subject of poor special teams play. It’s not acceptable, we’ll get it fixed, blah, blah, blah.

In 2006, Mike McCarthy came to the Green Bay Packers and brought with him veteran coach Mike Stock to coach special teams. McCarthy was familiar with Stock, as they were on the same staff in Kansas City in the late 90s. They hired Shaw Slocum as Stock’s assistant and his first NFL job after 12 years coaching special teams and linebackers at the college level.

Stock stayed with the Packers through the 2008 season, suddenly deciding to retire a few days after the season and only 10 days after Mason Crosby’s 38 yard game winning field goal attempt versus the Chicago Bears was blocked. The Packers would later lose that game in overtime.

In what would be the first of many coaching changes Mike McCarthy would make that offseason, many have  speculated that Stock was given the option to retire rather than be dismissed. Whatever really happened with Stock, McCarthy decided to give the Special Teams Coordinator job to Shawn Slocum.

That’s when things really started to fall apart.  Read more... (761 words + 1 image, estimated 3:03 mins reading time)

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1) Introduction: Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn! It’s surprising that John Kuhn has risen up to be a folk hero with the Green Bay Packers fan base considering it wasn’t even a lock that he would had made the team in 2010. In 2009 the Packers made a highly unusual move by drafting a fullback, and in the 5^th round to boot. That created a log jam with incumbents Korey Hall and Kuhn. In a even more unusual move, the Packers chose to retain all 3 for the 2010 season which is surprising since many teams only have one. With the injury to starting running back Ryan Grant in week 1, John Kuhn basically switched to running back for the first half of the season before going back to full back for the second half of the season with the emergence of rookie running back James Starks. But by then Kuhn had not only enamored himself with the fans but also to the offense as he became the primary short yardage back and also clutch goal line receiver for the Packers.

2) Profile:

John Kuhn

Position: FB
Height: 6-0    Weight: 255 lbs.

Born: September 9, 1982 in York, PA
College: Shippensburg  Read more... (607 words + 1 image, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

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1) Introduction: In a strange way, Daryn Colledge reminds me of all the public-sector employees protesting in Wisconsin. On the surface, you want to dislike the protestors. They pay next to nothing for healthcare and retirement benefits while the state runs a deficit and the private-sector struggles. But when you dig deeper, you realize there’s more to the story. Here we are less than a couple years after Wall Street fat cats, crooked home lenders, and clueless politicians wrecked our economy, and somehow we have now managed to blame teachers, 911 operators, garbage men and other public employees for all of our woes. I feel the same way about Colledge. We blamed him for much of the offensive line’s incompetence early in 2009. Then we got mad at him in the offseason when he had the audacity to be upset at the contract tender the Packers offered him. No, Daryn Colledge is not a standout lineman. But like the protesting public employees, he also doesn’t deserve all the angst that’s been spewed in his direction.

2) Profile:

Daryn Wayne Colledge

Position: T
Height: 6-4    Weight: 300 lbs.  Read more... (581 words + 1 image, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

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“By the time you get to the draft, those names go back to the original place they were before we came to the combine, I swear it happens.” – Ted Thompson 2010

The reason why the Packers are the reigning Super Bowl Champions is undoubtedly because of the draft; Ted Thompson is notorious for ignoring “big name” free agency and instead focusing basically all of his efforts on (and after) the draft, So it only stands to reason that if you understand the draft a little better you will understand the Packers a little better.

With that in mind, the quote above stands out as a little odd; if Thompson was gonna marry the draft like we all think he would, why does he put so little emphasis on the first date so to speak?  Why is he basically saying that the combine is useless?  Personally I think he’s not actually talking about the value of the combine itself but rather the hype that the combine generates.  I’ve written about the effects of hype during the combine and during the draft here (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/381271-is-packers-gm-ted-thompson-right-after-all-part-two), and the potential disasters it can cause a team.  Read more... (1238 words + 1 image, estimated 4:57 mins reading time)

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As heretical as it may sound, the sheer amount of injuries that have devastated the Packers this season might have just made them a more dangerous team. The Packers of today are essentially an entirely different team than the one that took the field 5 months ago and that has caused confusion for other teams.

One of the most important pre-game preparations is watching game film on team’s and player’s tendencies. The tricky part about playing a team with a new or relatively new players is that there simply isn’t much tape on them.  Couple that with a smart coach who plays to his player’s strengths and the whole team can operate differently.

For instance, the 49ers obviously were at a disadvantage since they had no way of knowing that James Starks was going to be the “hot” running back in week 13 nor did the Bears pay much attention to Erik Walden in the days leading up to the week 17 game.  Read more... (1288 words + 1 image, estimated 5:09 mins reading time)

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