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Packers CB James Nixon

On Wednesday, the Oakland Raiders signed cornerback Brandian Ross to their 53-man roster. And today, the Packers have filled Ross’s spot on the practice squad with another cornerback.

James Nixon, an undrafted rookie cornerback, joined the team and joins Lawrence Guys as the Packers’ only two defensive players on their eight-man practice squad. Nixon started out his collegiate career at Temple, before transferring to California University of Pennsylvania for his senior season.

However, Nixon only made two starts at cornerback his senior season, as the coaching staff shuffled him all over the field, playing defensive back, running back, wide receiver and special teams.

Nixon, listed at 6’1″ 190, has great size for the position. He played some running back and wide receiver at Temple, and he ran a blazing 4.31 forty-yard dash at his pro day. After spending a couple seasons at Temple as a running back/wide receiver hybrid, Nixon switched to defensive back for the Owls.

Ted Thompson chose to sign Nixon instead of adding wide receiver Tori Gurley, who was recently waived by the Minnesota Vikings. The addition of Nixon gives the Packers 11 defensive backs.

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Marques is a Journalism student and also a columnist at Jersey Al's AllGBP.com and Bleacher Report. Follow Marques on Twitter @MJEversoll.

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Former Packers CB Brandian Ross

When the Packers’ 53-man roster was released, one of the surprising “keeps” was cornerback Brandian Ross.

A second-year undrafted player out of Youngstown State, Ross put together a solid training camp and impressed the coaching staff enough to keep him on the roster as the 11th member of the secondary. However, he only lasted one week on the 53-man roster, as he was demoted to the practice squad once outside linebacker Erik Walden was reinstated by the league.

Following Walden’s reinstatement, Ross cleared waivers, which allowed the Packers to bring him back to the practice squad on Sept. 12.

Ross will join Reggie McKenzie and former Packer cornerback Pat Lee in a beat up Raiders’ secondary. Buried on the depth chart with the Packers, Ross will surely have a better opportunity at playing time in Oakland. With starters Ron Bartell and Shawtae Spencer both out with injuries, Lee and Joselio Hanson are slotted to start for the Raiders this week against the pass-happy Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Packers now have an opening on their practice squad, which currently features just one defensive player in lineman Lawrence Guy. No news has been released as to who the Packers will sign to fill Ross’s spot, but it’d be surprising if they left Guy as the only defensive player on their eight-man practice squad.  Read more... (320 words + 1 image, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

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OL Chris Scott becomes the Packers eighth practice squad member.

According to Packers.com, the Green Bay Packers have finalized their 8-man practice squad. Along with the reported signings of their seven training camp players, the Packers have added OL Chris Scott. He was a fifth round draft pick in 2010 by the Pittsburgh Steelers, though he started out on their practice squad. In 2011, he began the season on the PUP list, after which he was added to the active roster. He only appeared in two games, however. The Packers list Scott as a guard/tackle.

It’s not surprising that Ted Thompson has added another offensive lineman to the list, considering he kept a record-low (for him) seven players on the 53-man roster. This brings the total of offensive linemen on the practice squad to three.

Here is a list of the eight practice squad members to begin the Green Bay Packers 2012 season:

• WR Diondre Borel
• TE Brandon Bostick
• QB B.J. Coleman
• T Andrew Datko
• DE Lawrence Guy
• G/T Chris Scott
• RB Marc Tyler
• G Greg Van Roten

Chad Toporski, a Wisconsin native and current Pittsburgh resident, is a writer for AllGreenBayPackers.com. You can follow Chad on twitter at @ChadToporski

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One measure of the strength of a team’s roster is how many of their waived players are claimed by other teams. Here’s a list of cut Packers players that have found themselves a spot on other teams’ 53-man rosters.

… There were no signings.

none, nil, naught, zero, zilch, nada, bupkus.

I guess there’s an exception to every rule…

Go Pack!

P.S. Tori Gurley reportedly has joined the Vikings practice squad. He’ll certainly have a much better chance of getting called up there, but having to were a blonde wig with braids? Don’t know if that works for him…

Dale Moss tweeted Sunday morning that he’s headed to the Tampa Bay Practice Squad.

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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.

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The Green Bay Packers have made their first Practice Squad signings.

The following players have been signed so far according to various reports and sources.  Any reported signings will not be listed here, however, if not reported by a verified member of the media following the Green Bay Packers:

Green Bay Press Gazette

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

2012 Packers Practice Squad:

OG Greg Van Roten

TE Brandon Bostick

QB BJ Coleman  (Operation Conceal Coleman was a success!)

DE Lawrence Guy

WR Diondre Borel

RB Marc Tyler

OT Andrew Datko

G/T Chris Scott (2010 Steelers 5th rd draft pick)

Follow Jersey Al:

          Follow @JerseyAlGBP           Add to Circleson

Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.

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This is the face many players are dreading to see this week.

First, a little bit of a disclaimer:

I HATE doing roster predictions.

Why, you may ask? I don’t like pretending I’m smarter than I really am.  Packers GM Ted Thompson has one of the shrewdest minds in the NFL, and I don’t.  If I did, I wouldn’t be writing this right now.

I do not envy Thompson at this time of year, however.  He has done such a masterful job at building a roster that he in a sense backs himself into a corner each training camp and has to make some difficult choices. A third stringer on the Packers is sometimes good enough to be a starter on the other 31 teams, but thanks to the ludicrous depth Thompson has built, they’re stuck on the bench.

Since we’re on the topic, here’s my best guess at what the Packers’ opening day roster will look like:

Quarterback (2)—Rodgers, Harrell

I’m still on the fence as to whether or not the Packers hang on to Graham Harrell or trade for a more experienced backup.  Even if Harrell plays poorly against the Chiefs on Thursday, the Packers may keep him anyway.  If the Browns offer some conditional picks for Colt McCoy, if they even try to trade him, then I could see Thompson pulling the trigger.

Running Back (5)-Benson, Green, Saine, Kuhn, Starks  Read more... (823 words + 1 image, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Jayme Joers (As heard on Cheesehead Radio – 08/28/12 ). Special Guest was Bill Huber of Packer Report and together we analyzed the Packers roster and predicted the final 53.

The Show can be downloaded from itunes here, or just click on the play button below:

Al: It’s that nerve-wracking time time of year in the NFL. The time when marginal NFL players are holed up in their rooms praying there isn’t a knock at the door. With each NFL team having to pare rosters from 90 players to 53 over the course of five days, that means almost 1200 players will lose their jobs on Friday.

Jayme: Coach Mike McCarthy spoke about the rigors of this week from the coaches’ perspectives. Having to evaluate so many players and choose a roster that covers all the team needs is painstaking from a workload perspective and painful from a personal perspective. McCarthy called this week the worst part of the job, specifically having to tell young men their NFL dreams are over, at least for now.

Al: For those fringe players whose dreams are still alive this week, they have one more chance to convince the coaches they are worth keeping. The Packers will face the Kansas City Chiefs this Thursday night at Lambeau Field, with starters being used for one series at most. Once the game is over, the Packers will have less than 24 hrs to make their final roster moves and get the roster down to 53.  Read more... (788 words + 3 images, estimated 3:09 mins reading time)

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