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Packers CB Tramon Williams

Coming off a memorable postseason in 2010, Packers cornerback Tramon Williams suffered a serious shoulder injury in the first game of 2011 that still hasn’t fully healed.

A year earlier, in the Packers’ run to Super Bowl XLV, Williams emerged as one of the top cover corners in football.

That season, Williams started all 16 games for the first time in his career. He intercepted a career-high six passes in the regular season and picked off another three balls in the playoffs.

At that point, ProFootballFocus ranked Williams No. 7 among the 69 cornerbacks that played at least 50 percent of their team’s snaps. This past season, Williams came in at No. 43 among 71 players at the position.

The shoulder injury has certainly played a part in Williams’ performance the past two seasons.

“I had some tears in my shoulder and I had nerve damage in my shoulder, and it was tough,” Williams told 107.5 The Fan in March. “I only missed one game because of it, but it should have been one of those things to where I should have sat down for quite a few games. But at the same time, I haven’t been hurt at any point in my career … Everyone goes through adversity at some point in their career — that was one of my points, and I got through it.”  Read more... (879 words + 1 image, estimated 3:31 mins reading time)

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Wait, is that a wide receiver over there?

Shhhhhh… be vewy, vewy qwiet… It’s wabbit wide receiver season…

Trapper Ted is up to his old tricks., i.e.,  his normal off-season compulsive collecting of no-name wide receivers. On Wednesday, the Packers signed Alex Gillett, a 6’1″, 214lb former QB turned receiver from Eastern Michigan.

That brings the number of wide receivers currently on the Packers roster to eleven. That may seem like a lot at first glance, but it’s actually fairly normal for the Packers. I know this because I remember calling a few years in a row for the Packers to carry one less wide receiver on the camp roster so that they could bring in a second placekicker to make Mason Crosby actually, you know, earn his spot.

But no, we can’t waste a precious roster spot on a second kicker, I kept hearing. Well lo and behold, look what the Packers have done this season. Hey, they even went out and got an Italian kicker – Mama mia!

But before this veers off into another epic Crosby rant (I’m kind of due, aren’t I), let’s get back to the subject at hand.

The argument in favor of bringing so many receivers to camp has always been that they need camp bodies to run routes during practices so the main receivers don’t get worn out. I totally bought into that theory, but still felt it was a waste with the Packers only keeping five wide receivers – until last year.  Read more... (541 words + 3 images, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

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Will Packers LB recover from his injury and be on the team come September?

This story from Tyler Dunne in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop is extremely well written. After reading it, you can’t help but like the guy even more than you probably already do.

In the story, Bishop says one of his goals is to win defensive player of the year in 2013.

Unfortunately, as entertaining as the story is, it doesn’t really address the main question I have about Bishop as the Packers open OTAs: What are the odds that he’s actually on the team once the season starts?

Reports surfaced during the NFL draft that the Packers were trying to trade Bishop. Several moves the Packers made in the offseason — bringing back A.J. Hawk, re-signing Brad Jones for $4 million, adding another inside linebacker in the draft — made it appear that the Packers might not be too confident in Bishop’s chances of returning from the torn hamstring he suffered last preseason.

“Trade or release Bishop?” you’re probably asking. “But I thought he was supposed to boost the Packers physicality and automatically improve the inside linebacker corp?”

In a perfect world, that’s exactly what would happen. But how perfect is the Packers’ world when it comes to injuries lately? Not very. J.C. Tretter, one of Green Bay’s fourth-round draft picks, just snapped his ankle in a fumble-recovery drill. Two of the past three seasons have seen the team ravaged by injuries. The scuttle around the Packers is that Ted Thompson won’t hesitate to jettison players who are hampered by injuries.  Read more... (461 words + 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

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Former Packers DB Charles Woodson

After another lengthy stint on the free-agent market, former Packers defensive back Charles Woodson has signed a one-year contract to return to the Oakland Raiders, according to the team’s official Twitter account.

Woodson was the No. 4 overall pick to the Raiders in the 1998 NFL Draft. He played eight years with Oakland but had no serious suitors when he became a free agent in 2005.

Late in the free-agent process, Woodson signed a seven-year contract to play in Green Bay where he would go on to play seven seasons. He was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 and was a four-time All-Pro selection during his seven years with the Packers.

Versatility and instincts made Woodson a turnover machine at the peak of his career. His post-game speech, in which he urged the team to have “one mind, one goal, one purpose and one heart” after defeating the Chicago Bears in the 2010 NFC Championship Game, is referenced on the team’s rings for Super Bowl XLV.

After originally suggesting he only wanted to play for a Super Bowl contendor, Woodson changed his tune as he remained unsigned. The Raiders won  But now Woodson, 36, will return to Oakland to help shore up a secondary that allowed the fifth-most points in the NFL last season.

The Packers, meanwhile, will turn to Jerron McMillian and M.D. Jennings to fill Woodson’s shoes safety. Both players saw time with the first-team defense Tuesday at the Packers first public OTA of the 2013 season.  Read more... (282 words + 1 image, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

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Packers rookie offensive lineman J.C. Tretter

If I put the over/under on the number of rookies the Packers will have starting on the offensive line for the regular season opener at 0.5, would you take the over or the under?

What if I changed the season opener to week 10, but kept the over/under at 0.5?

If you believe some of the scuttle out of the Packers rookie mini-camp, recent draftees David Bakhtiari and J.C. Tretter are in the mix to start at right tackle. There’s also an outside chance that Tretter or undrafted rookie free agent Patrick Lewis of Texas A&M could give presumed starter Evan Dietrich-Smith a challenge at center.

If I had $100 burning a hole in my pocket, I’d take the under for the season opener and the over for week 10.

I don’t think Mike McCarthy wants to start a rookie right away. Ideally, I think he’d like to see Marshall Newhouse, Derek Sherrod or Don Barclay win the job. That’s not to say the rookies won’t get their fair shot. I’m confident they will.

But unless one of the rookies blows the veterans out of the water, McCarthy probably wants the young guys to develop a bit before getting tossed on the field to protect the league’s highest-paid player.  Read more... (529 words + 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

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Undrafted rookie running back Angelo Pease

It’s only been a few days and already the rookies are making an impression on Green Bay Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy.  That’s what players are supposed to do and especially guys who are anything but guaranteed a roster spot.  That, alone, isn’t earth-shattering news.

But as we have seen before, this team has had success finding some gems in the undrafted free agent pool.  One such player is running back Angelo Pease.  During the first day of drills, McCarthy was so caught off guard by one of Pease’s runs that he thought he was watching second round draft pick Eddie Lacy.  It’s pretty safe to say that Lacy is a lock to stick on this year’s roster.  For Pease, who rarely saw the field for a very good Kansas State team last season, that comparison is a good early sign.

Here is what McCarthy had to say after practice:

“That’s a big time cut. Frankly, I thought it was Eddie Lacy, the way he dropped his weight and hit the hole,” McCarthy gushed. “Those are things we’re looking for.”

Now again, it’s only one moment and one practice.  There is a long way to go, but if he’s worth a mention in a post-practice recap, we may want to keep an eye on him.  Read more... (448 words + 3 images, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made his acting debut on NBC’s The Office on Thursday. It was, well, not very good.

Rodgers picked a bad show to make his TV debut. The first couple seasons of The Office were excellent (if you’re one of those people who insists on telling anyone within earshot how much better the British version of the show is than the American version, go away. Nobody cares. You’re not cooler than everybody else in the room like you think you are.). Unfortunately, the show has been steadily declining since its promising start and has fallen off a creative cliff since Steve Carell left.

Thursday’s episode couldn’t even be saved by a cameo from the former MVP.

But Rodgers’ appearance on the program got me thinking: What current or past TV show or movie would you put Rodgers in if you had such power?

I’d cast him as Stan Gable, the lead jock/villain/bully on Revenge of the Nerds. It’s not the most glamorous role, but I think it fits Rogers perfectly.

Gable was a jock, obviously a good match for Rodgers, the star quarterback. Gable also had a tinge of cockiness too him, ditto for Rodgers. I don’t see Rodgers being mean-spirited like Gable, but that’s why they call it acting. I’m sure Rodgers has the chops to play the role of a**hole in a comedy, if needed.  Read more... (856 words + 1 image, estimated 3:25 mins reading time)

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