Thoughts on the upcoming Green Bay Packers Season

I usually don’t watch any pre-season games, but I will be watching tonight’s Packer games.

This is going to be a challenging season for the packers.

IMHO, there are three big issues for the packers:

1) Defense: How will the defense adjust to using primarily a 3-4? There is a lot of “fingertip feel” that the defense is going to have to build up and throughout the season to be successful since football is a game of seconds and inches.

2) Kicking: Will punting suck again? Will field-goal kicking be subpar? Punting and place kicking were so poor last season, it was like giving the other side an additional first down conversion each series. Also, do the packers have the capability top win games with last second field goals? It remains to be seen.

3) Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers proved he was smart enough and physical enough to be a starting pro football quarterback. He showed grace with the whole Favre distraction. What Rodgers did not show is if he is a clutch playmaker or not. The packer offense had a dearth of successful late game drives. It may have been do to a sum of factors. It maybe be that Rodgers doesn’t have “it”. We will know by the end of the season for sure, one way or another.

The Packer’s Biggest Draft Mistake of My Lifetime (maybe ever) says “he was addicted to alcohol and painkillers the entire time he played for the Green Bay Packers”

That would be first round pick offensive lineman Tony Mandarich:

Mandarich says he preferred getting high to working out when he was in Green Bay.

“(I) was not the same person they drafted. . . . I got to the point where it was a struggle to work out three or four times a week because the priority of getting high was above the priority of working out,” Mandarich said. [Link]

Why was he the worst First round pick (2nd pick overall in the NFL draft)?

1) He never worked out as a starter. He kind of sucked.

2) He was picked ahead of the best NFL running back in the last 20 years (and one of the best , maybe best, ever).

My god, can you imagine what a powerhouse for the ages the Green Bay Packers of that era would have been with both Brett Favre and Barry Sanders? Damn!

Will Tom Brady be out for the Season?

Maybe. So, they are looking to bring in a veteran QB.

I wonder of Brett Favre thinks he un-retired a few weeks to soon?

Update: Yes, he’s out for the season.

Our Long State Nightmare Is Over – Favre is Now a Jet

From JSONLINE.com:

Late Wednesday night the Packers and Jets agreed to a trade that would send the quarterback to New York for an undisclosed draft pick, an NFL source confirmed to the Journal Sentinel.

Is this like a Divorce from a Failed Marriage? Eugene Kane thinks so:

That’s what happens to some people at the end of a turbulent relationship. It’s the final kiss-off for a once-satisfying partnership that turned ugly for reasons not immediately discernible but clearly irrefutable. All you know is by the time it’s over, you wonder what ever attracted you to this person in the first place.

We’re talking real human emotions and feelings here between committed individuals, not the current pop soap opera involving a millionaire professional football player breaking up with his multimillion-dollar sports franchise. But the same observations about relationships can be applied to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers as to any divorce between longtime couples.
[…]
Listening to coach Mike McCarthy talk about his meeting with Favre this week, what struck me most was the sense that each party seemed to want some sign of greater commitment from the other to make things work. In my experience, whenever one person in the relationship questions the other’s commitment, that’s a sure sign things are getting dicey.

Favre’s inability to get over perceived slights from the Packers management was easily identifiable to anyone who has been on the downside of a failing marriage. Some say he’s playing the diva, but he’s also clearly having trouble being dumped for a younger replacement.

Is this how the old-time fans felt when Bart Starr (the greatest packer QB of all) retired to be replaced by Scott Hunter? Maybe not. Starr went out with grace and style and remains beloved. Of course, he didn’t go play somewhere else.

My Favorite packer Quarterback was The Majik Man who made Packer football fun again with a team that could win. I am sure there will be future QBs who will too.

Photoshopped Photo scraped without permission (fair use) from Andrew Arvan as on JSOnline.com

Somehow, I felt compelled to think of this:

On Brett Favre: It is time for the Packers to gracefully let him move on

I have been a Packer fan since I was a kid and my dad taught how to follow pro football (real football, not soccer) starting with the 1972 season were the Pack won the central division. It was a long drought until the fun 1989 season!

The Favre drama is distressing.

The way I see it, he had until draft day, to seriously come back as Packer.

He is the past. He is old and will not improve physically. He is no longer the stretch QB or cold weather QB he used to be.

It is time for the Packers to move on.

It is time to move on, but to not destroy the Packer-Favre relationship.

The Packers should trade for a 1st round draft pick to any other non-conference rival team that Gavre agrees to. If he is really set on going to a conference rival (aka the Vikings), we should get a 1st and two 3rds as compensation.

Favre can move on. In a few years (after he retires again after this season), the Packers canretire his jersey and induct him into the Packer hall of fame. His season as a non-packer can be forgiven and forgotten. After all, even Saint Lombardi went on to coach for the Redskins.