It’s reported that Favre will be on the cover of Madden 09. Obviously the “curse” is a little different when it deals with a retired player. So what’s the worst thing that could happen as a result of this cover? Favre could keep playing. That would mean the Packers would have to keep his $12million salary on their payroll for this season.
In other news, the Packers are looking at washed up QB Daunte Culpepper to serve as a backup to the surely to be on IR Aaron Rodgers. Let me help you out, he’s no good! The only time his career was ever worth anything was when he could blindly hurl the ball downfield to Moss. Look at his last years as a Viking. Granted he got hurt, but even when healthy he was horrid without Moss around. He’s still probably not 100% recovered from his knee injury either.
I understand that you sign a guy like Culpepper because he’s a veteren and not a terrible backup option. I know that you go into a situation like this hoping that Rodgers will do fine and stay healthy. I just can’t think of what will happen if Rodgers isn’t fine. Are we really going to potentially enter the Daunte Culpepper era in Green Bay?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3358557
According to reports, the Washington Redskins offered Cincinnati a 1st round pick this year and a conditional 3rd round pick next year (which could potentially be a 1st rounder) for angry receiver Chad Johnson. What did the Bengals say about this generous offer? NO!
Quoted in the above-linked ESPN.com story, Bengals coach Marv Lewis said the following about the situation:
“I’ve stated our case with Chad,” Lewis said. “He has a contract through 2011. He’s stated without an opportunity to go to a different team and a new contract, he wasn’t going to play. I think he’s a man of his word and says he’s not going to play, so don’t play.”
It’s also reported that Philly and Dallas have had trade offers rejected by the Bengals.
So it seems one of two things are at play here. A) Cincinnati really doesn’t want to trade Johnson and would rather have him sit out the season and collect fines from the receiver. or B) They really don’t care for the NFC East and a team from a different division needs to make an offer.
Very interesting stuff. I honestly think the Bengals are stupid for not taking an offer. I understand the problems involved with giving in to player demands, but you are risking the future of your team in order to prove a point. Two extra first round picks could be the difference in turning the franchise around. A grumpy receiver, playing or not, isn’t going to do it. Cincinnati could easily get a top defensive tackle with their current top pick and use the additional pick from Washington to grab a corner or linebacker. That’s two potential impact players that could start or at least contribute from day one. Instead, they are going to throw that out the window so they can let Johnson sit and pout all year.
If I were a Bengals fan, I’d be mad no matter what happens here. Same thing went down with the Packers when Javon Walker decided he was done with the team. If you’re a fan, you hate that the star receiver isn’t playing. At the same time, the Packers were able to turn a player who wasn’t going to play, into a bunch of draft picks. Granted, the Packers weren’t able to get a ton of value out of Walker as he was coming off injury and really only had one good year anyway. Johnson, on the other hand, is at a premium value right now. It’s not likely that he’ll be worth any more after sitting at home for a year.
So there were briefly some rumors about a Brett Favre comeback. Believe it or not, old Bus Cook was thrown out there as part of the story. The claim is that Cook has been trying to work out a trade for the retired QB.
If this is true, it seems to be poorly thought out. If Favre were to play again, I think anyone could agree that he would wantto play for a Super Bowl contender. The problem is, what team out there would be a QB away from potentially making a deep run into the playoffs, aside from Green Bay? The teams that will contend already have that position filled. The teams that don’t, need a lot more help than what Favre could offer. The only fit I could imagine would be Baltimore. If the press runs with this story, I could see the press pushing the Ravens too. The problem is, there isn’t enough talent around the QB and the defense is getting old and worn out. There’s no way a 38 year old guy can fix that.
So if this is just a rumor, Favre needs to prove it and turn in his retirement paperwork. He can’t let this drag out. Bare minimum, his retirement will add a ton of cash to the Packers’ cap that can dramatically effect their draft day plans. Brett says he is done with football, so he needs to do the right thing and make it official.
Run-down feeling
McCarthy wants to beef up Packers’ ground game
So McCarthy thinks the Packers need to improve their ground game. I’d agree. If you want to look at just one big reason the rushing attack didn’t really get going in 2007, look at the performances in 2007:
- Week 1 vs Philly: 17 carries - 46 yards
- Week 3 vs San Diego: 13 carries – 42 yards
- Week 4 at Minny: 20 carries – 46 yards
- Week 5 vs Chicago: 21 carries – 77 yards (if you subtract a 44 yarder by Wynn)
- Week 6 vs Washington: 20 carries – 56 yards
- Week 12 at Detroit: 16 carries – 69 yards (if you subtract a 31 yarder by Grant)
- Week 13 at Dallas: 18 carries – 62 yards (if you subtract a 62 yarder by Grant)
- Week 15 at St Louis: 22 carries – 31 yards (if you subtract a 24 yarder by Grant)
- Week 16 at Chicago: 20 carries – 59 yards (if you subtract a 66 yarder by Grant)
- NFC Championship vs NY Giants: 14 carries – 28 yards (13 yards of that came on 1 run by Grant)
During those 10 games, if you subtract the biggest runs (some games have multiple big runs, but I only counted the longest for simplicity) the Packers averaged 18.1 carries for 51.6 yards. That’s a terrible performance. Their rushing success wasn’t much better in other games, but I’m simply pointing out the ones where they gave up on the running game (with less than 25 carries per game). It’s obvious that their rather pathetic numbers are heavily inflated by a few long rushes in each game. I don’t count big runs as carries because it’s more a result of that particular play going great for the offense and terrible for the defense, it’s not a good judge of offensive line performance overall.
If this hopes to improve, it might not be easy – check out a few of the Packers ’08 opponents:
- Chicago Bears – played the Packers tough against the run in both games
- Minnesota Vikings – #1 run defense in NFL
- Dallas Cowboys – #6 run defense in NFL
- Indianapolis Colts – #3 total defense in NFL
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers – #2 total defense in NFL
- Seattle Seahawks – #12 run defense in NFL
- Jacksonville Jaguars – #11 run defense in NFL
- Tennessee Titans – #5 run defense in NFL
Really, the only “bad” defensive units they play all season are in 5 games: Detroit (twice), New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston. Chicago would be in there, but they always take it to the Packers.
Aside from a major offseason move to improve the o-line, and a change in philosophy by McCarthy; there’s no way the running game is improving. In fact, I think it’s highly likely the Packers will drop off next year.
During the regular season, the Packers were 28th in the league with a pathetic 24.2 rushing attempts per game. Even so, this stat is somewhat inflated by 3 “big” games against New York, Minnesota and Oakland where they had 29, 29 and 36 attempts respectively. Take these games out of the mix and the average drops down to 22.6 attempts/game. With such a half-hearted dedication to the run, how can the team ever expect to improve?
