Packerholic

While things were tense this offseason the Packers chose to go with Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers rewarded that decision by having a great season so far. It now seems that Aaron Rodgers has been rewarded with a five year extension so Rodgers will be the Packers starting QB to 2014. While details haven’t been announced yet, this is a great signing in my opinion. Rodgers has shown throughout this whole debacle with Favre that he is a franchise QB. He has stayed calm and has been professional through the whole experience. That is just off the field.

On the field Rodger has played just well. He has been highly effective and has been one of the bright spots this season. While he might not bring the excitement or kooky plays that Favre brought the team, Rodgers has already shown that he is a accurate passer and avoids mistakes. Even if you don’t like how the whole Favre situation went down, you must admit that Rodgers has filled in very well for Favre. I kind of feel a little sorry for our NFC North foes especially since they have all had troubles finding QBs and then we replace a legend with another good QB.

As already mentioned details of the deal haven’t been announced yet, but I have a feeling that Rodgers’ deal will be highly frontloaded since the Packers have till November 2nd in order to apply more money to this year’s salary cap. The Packers have over $20 million to spend so I am guessing a lot of Rodgers guarenteed money will be moved into this season. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we see another player sign an extension before Sunday.

So are you as excited about this signing as I am?

It’s the Wednesday before the bye week and you wouldn’t expect much news regarding the Packers. Surprisingly there are a couple stories worth bringing up.

First we’ll begin with some good news. Early this morning Coach McCarthy became a father once again when his wife (Jessica) gave birth to his new baby girl, Gabrielle Kathleen. Congratulations to the McCarthy’s. It’s always good to hear a positive story after all the negative stories involving a certain player that used to wear #4.

Speaking of that Favre finally gave his side of the story. Obviously he denied the whole thing. Well that isn’t a suprise since he would be an idiot to say he did even if it is the truth. According to Favre, Millen actually called him to talk about hunting. He then asked Favre to give him some tips on the Packers. Favre also claims that the reports of him calling Tony Romo were also false since Romo actually called him. If these two reports are true it will definently take a load off the Favre hating. The problem is that Favre has pretty much no credibility anymore after this offseason. I hope he is telling the truth but at this point I have no idea if he is. I doubt we will ever find out the truth behind what really happened. Even if Favre wasn’t guilty of the latest accusations I sill need time to forgive him for what happened this offseason (he was at least partially responsible for what happened). Hopefully Favre can just learn to shut up for once and just play out the rest of the season. If he doesn’t ruffle anymore feathers, and these rumors are never confirmed I believe most Packer fans will eventually forgive him. I know I will but I need some time and that means that Favre needs to stop his vengeful ways.

Finally it appears that if things go as planned the Packers should come out of the bye pretty healthy. McCarthy is giving the team the week off but is forcing the injured players to get their normal rehab treatments. Al Harris was also medically cleared to resume playing. I personally think that during the Titans game we should play him as the #3 in order to get him back into playing shape. Tramon showed in the last game that he is a very good #2 so why not bring Al Harris back slowly. As long as there aren’t any setbacks I believe we will see all our players back (obviously not the IR players). Players like AJ Hawk, Aaron Rodgers, and Charles Woodson will also be able to fully heal from their injuries so they should be able to play at an even higher level.

Good news regarding injuries. Aaron Rodgers and AJ Hawk are both going to play today. I think both are huge for the game. First having Aaron Rodgers at least gives a shot through the air. His arm strength might not be 100% but I would still take him over Matt Flynn. The Falcons will now at least have to respect the pass and that should give the running game a chance for success. Second AJ Hawk’s return is huge since we need all the help we can get against the running game since we haven’t stopped anyone yet and the Falcons are one of the best running teams in the league.

There is some bad news though even though it isn’t surprising. Charlie Peprah will be getting his first start today since Bigby and Rouse are both inactive for the game. While I don’t think Charlie Peprah is a bad safety I don’t think he is anything more than an average safety. Thankfully the Falcons aren’t the best passing team at this point in the season. Bigby better get back soon since the Packers need him especially with all our latest injuries on defense.

For those of you are interested here are the Packers inactives for today’s game:

• Brian Brohm
• Atari Bigby
• Kregg Lumpkin
• Al Harris
• Korey Hall
• Aaron Rouse
• Jason Hunter
• Breno Giacomini

The Packers didn’t come out of the Tampa Bay game very healthy. We actually lost several key players. Packers Nation started  worrying about the season (myself included) but it turns out that we overreacted a little. Good news is coming out of Green Bay on every injury sustained in last week’s game.

The most significant injury in the game was Aaron Rodgers. This morning McCarthy reported that Rodgers has a shoulder sprain. As long as McCarthy isn’t sugar coating things Rodgers should be able to play this weekend. At this point Rodgers thinks he will be able to play but McCarthy won’t say for sure if he is going to play or not until today and tomorrows rehab. I think we dodged a bullet here but it better have shown Thompson that he needs to pick up a veteran quarterback. The best thing for the Packers would be for Brohm to magically come up with an injury so we can stash him on IR. We can then sign a veteran to be Rodgers backup for at least this season. The Packers need to add another quarterback since I think the Packers have no shot of ever winning a game with Flynn or Brohm behind center.

The second most serious injury was to AJ Hawk. Jay Glazer reported yesterday that AJ Hawk tore his groin which would have put him out for the season. Jay Glazer’s sources were obviously wrong on this one since McCarthy said it is only a strain. Hawk might miss this week’s game but at least it isn’t the season ending injury that Glazer predicted. Hopefully we can get Hawk back as soon as possible since based on current play he is easily our best linebacker.

Another serious injury was sustained by Cullen Jenkins. Cullen Jenkins is suffering from a pectoral strain. At this point McCarthy really didn’t say anything about his availability but at least he shouldn’t be out more than a couple weeks. Cullen Jenkins has had a good season this year and is playing the second best of any defensive lineman on the roster.

Nick Collins appears to be suffering from the same injury as last week. I am guessing he will be able to play this week as well as long as he doesn’t have a set back. I hope Bigby is able to come back though since it appears that Aaron Rouse could miss some time. Aaron ROuse ahs also struggled this season so it will be nice to get Bigby back as soon as possible.

The final injury update I have for you is that supposedly Justin Harrell is actually progressing well. According to Pro Football Weekly Justin Harrell is in the best shape he has ever been in while with the Packers. While I am not going to put a lot of confidence into this report it will be great if it is actually true. The Packers have shown that they need help at the defensive tackle position. Our defensive tackles are being run over and another body in the picture could never be a bad thing. While I don’t think Harrell will have a great season, I think just having another defensive tackle will be huge.

The final news I have today actually doesn’t deal with injuries at all. Derrick Frost has played far from good. There were rumors that he might be cut but it appears that he will be getting another week. If he suffers again though I think he will lose his job. A familiar face could become his replacement. While Jon Ryan is currently on the Seahawks, the Seahawks are currently looking at replacements. Since there probably isn’t much as far as free agent punters I wouldn’t be surprised if the Packers resigned him. If you are thinking that Jon Ryan wouldn’t want to come back he has even said that he would gladly come back to Green Bay if the Packers wanted him back. Wouldn’t that be weird if Jon Ryan was cut and resigned in the same year?

Aaron Rodgers vs. Lions Defense

Although Rodgers already proved himself last week, Rodgers needs another good performance to gain everyone’s respect. Next week will be a very big week for the Packers and Aaron Rodgers. He can’t struggle this week and then have to face the Cowboys with all the pressure on his back again. Rodgers needs to play well against the Lions since we obviously want to win and he needs to continue to build confidence throughout the season. While the Lions secondary is pretty weak the Packers can’t underestimate them. The Packers need to get out to a quick lead and put the Lions away quickly. The Lions fell behind early last week and they started to tear each other apart. If the Packers get out to an early lead, I can’t see the Lions coming back to win the game.

Charles Woodson and Al Harris vs Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson

While most people might not think highly of the Lions offense the Packers can’t underestimate them. The Lions do have a very dangerous passing game if they re given the chance to get on a role. Roy Williams has already shown that he is a very good receiver and most people think Calvin Johnson will have a big season. They are also both big physical receivers which the Packers have had troubles covering in the past. Al Harris and Charles Woodson will have their work cut out for them. If the Packers get on a quick lead I think their job will be easier but they will need to be on the top of their game for the entire game since the Lions could easily catch up as they showed against the Falcons (they still lost by quite a bit but they did make the game closer than it should have been).

Packers Offensive Line vs. Referees

While this kind of a joke, it is quite serious at the same time. The Packers’ offensive line really needs to get into shape. They cannot under any circumstances have as many penalties as they did against the Vikings. We shot ourselves in the foot time after time and we just can’t keep doing it. While it might not lose us the game this week it will definently cost us the game against the Cowboys unless we fix these problems and quickly. It’s hard enough winning a game without hurting yourself. Hopefully Mike McCarthy drilled this into the offensive lineman’s heads this week so we won’t have a repeat performance of Monday night.