Jolly Suspended for at least one year

July 16, 2010 ~ by Lori Nickel

~The National Football League suspended Green Bay Packers defensive end Johnny Jolly indefinitely and without pay for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

The suspension, announced Friday, will last at least through the 2010 season. Jolly is eligible to apply for reinstatement after Super Bowl XLV, but his future with the team is unclear. He signed a contract tender for one year in June and was set to make $2.521 million this season.

Jolly, 27, is scheduled to go to trial July 30 on charges he possessed more than 200 grams of codeine during a Houston traffic stop in July 2008.

The Packers had excused Jolly from their June minicamp, with coach Mike McCarthy saying the team felt “it’s important for him to concentrate on his legal situation.” 

On Friday, the team issued just this statement from general manager Ted Thompson:

“Johnny is a good player that loves everything about the game of football. We appreciate the contributions he has made to the Packers the past four seasons. His focus and priorities now lie elsewhere – our thoughts are with him during this difficult personal time.”

Full Story here

Green Bay Packers to wear new alternate uniform on Dec. 5

July 15, 2010 ~ Green Ba y Press-Gazette

~The Green Bay Packers will wear their new alternate third uniform when they play the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field on Dec. 5.

Jason Wied, the Packers’ vice president for administration and legal counsel said a colder date was chosen because the team wanted to make sure the jerseys weren’t uncomfortable in warmer temperatures.

The jersey will be similar to the one worn by Packers in the first decade of the team’s existence. The jersey will be navy blue with a gold circle in the middle that includes the player’s number. The pants and helmet will both be khaki colored. 

The NFL has approved the use of a third uniform and the Packers have the option of using it for home games over the next five seasons.

Rodgers has silenced all his critics

July 15, 2010 ~ by Tim Keown

~Here’s what you see: The cool. The ball cap pulled low, the Cal T-shirt tucked into his jeans just perfectly so, as Aaron Rodgers orders Cobb salad — no bacon, no blue cheese — in the Berkeley restaurant he chose precisely because he couldn’t afford it as a college student.

The Nic Cage voice, the real-guy attitude, the movie-star smile, the way he treats everyone, even the starstruck waiter, with an engaged detachment that shows he’s in on the gig. You see the perspective. The way he can talk about football — or, as the pundits of profundity have renamed it, the Game of Football — as something important but not important, a kids’ game played by men who are paid like kings.

Full story here

Nick Barnett pays visit to NFL Access

July 3, 2010, by Brian E. Murphy

~Packers linebacker paid a visit to NFL Network on Friday and chatted up with Warren Sapp and the gang.

Among other comments from Barnett, Nick said “Super Bowl or Die” for the Packers this season, and he’s excited about Capers defense this season.

Full video here

Q&A – Packers Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin

July 2, 2010, by Jessie Garcia

~Q. You worked with Brett Favre and now Aaron Rodgers. What are some of the differences between the two?

A. I think they’re both very bright in their own way, kind of different. Brett had that country kind of way, but he was very intelligent. He processed football information in a different way than Aaron does but still very quickly. You could see that his mind was excellent on the field. Favre had a great memory schematically of the opposition, and what happened on specific plays. I think Aaron has that mind-set as well. One of the reasons he’s had success in his career is he’s a very bright individual. He prepares very well, and he’s got a quick football mind to process info. Aaron has a reason for why he does things, and I think they’re similar in that way. Brett had a reputation as a gunslinger, but he always had good reasons for doing what he was doing. Personality-wise they’re a little different but both excellent to work with. They’re very bright and wanted to win and do whatever it takes. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.

Q. The sacks were a huge problem last year. You drafted Bryan Bulaga. Are you confident that the sack problems are more or less a thing of the past?
Not necessarily, I kind of take things week to week. I’m not going sit here and say we’re over anything. Every game is different, every week is different, and every opponent is different. As I said during the course of the year, I always felt like our system, not that we’re smarter than anyone else, but we kind of knew what the problems were. It’s not like we’re getting outsmarted every week or the defense is tricking us a whole lot. We just gotta get back to playing more consistently and fundamentally than we had been playing. I’m confident our guys are going to attack that area once we get to training camp and the preseason. I’m confident we can do a much better job. Every year is different. It’s interesting, but we’re kind of a week-to-week operation. We kid ourselves as an offensive staff; we had the highest-scoring Packer offense in history. Holy cow, is that really true? I think our staff does a good job of staying focused on the weekly challenge that we have . . . certainly the sacks are going to be one of them.

A.

Q. The offense has set a lot of records and been successful in the past few years, but how do you view this group going forward?

Full article here

Ranking the best Packers games of 2010

June 30, 2010, by Brian E. Murphy

~The next game is the biggest game. Although a cliche, it’s somewhat accurate.

Divisional games, especially against the 2-time defending division champion Vikings, are unquestionably the most important because each game against them is a 2-game swing in the standings, plus key tiebreaker edges potentially.

Imagine, had the Packers just won either game against the Vikings last season, the Packers would have been the division winner at 12-4, while the 11-5 Vikings would have had to play the wildcard game at Arizona. That 1 game would have been at least a 2-game swing in the standings.

But this is a ranking of the best and most exciting 5 games on the schedule for 2010 and not the most important. 

If it was the most important 5, it would have the 2 games vs Minnesota, 2 games vs Chicago, and the road game at Detroit.

The Packers at Steelers game last year was the most exciting game of the whole NFL season, right ahead of the Colts comeback win over the Patriots.

So, here are the most exciting, intriguing 5 games on the schedule for the Packers this year, according to me.

• #5- Packers @ Bears, week 3 -ESPN
  A very key early season divisional rivalry game, on the road. Here’s the thing to remind people how crucial these early divisional games are: Last year, in the season opener that also was on primetime TV, the Packers barely beat Jay Cutler and the Bears with a long TD pass to Greg Jennings with under 100 seconds remaining.
  This was despite 4 Jay Cutler interceptions to none for Rodgers. So it was a very close game that easily could have gone the other way, and in fact the Packers needed all of Cutler’s 4 ints to escape with the win. Remember Johnny Jolly’s miraculous interception inside the 5-yard line?
   Had this game gone the other way, the whole season would have played out differently. Also remember that the Bears beat the Vikings in week 16 last year, and now have added Julius Peppers.
  The Packers will enter the 2010 season with high hopes, but a loss at Chicago here and the Packers easily could be sitting at 1-2, with the Bears at 2-1 or 3-0.
• #4-  Cowboys @ Packers, week 9 -NBC  
  This has been a key matchup for the past 3 seasons, and 2010 should be no different. In 2007, they played in week 13 at Dallas with both teams at 10-1, and Brett Favre put the Packers in such a deep hole (27-10) with 2 interceptions and a terrible performance, that even Aaron Rodgers 4th quarter heroics weren’t quite enough.
  That gave the Cowboys the #1 seed and the Packers the #2 seed that year. Of course, both teams lost at home in the playoffs to the Giants anyway, so the game wasn’t as important as everyone thought.
  Two years ago, early in Aaron Rodgers first season starting, the Cowboys smacked the Packers around in Lambeau in NBC’s Football Night in America. That pretty  much signaled the Packers problems and they faded to 6-10, while Dallas marched on.
  Last year, the Packers again hosted Dallas on NBC, but this time Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews hammered Tony Romo’s Cowboys. It was the game that turned the Packers season around after the mid-season slide left them at 4-4 after the embarrassing loss in Tampa Bay. This week 9 title will be just as significant as the previous two, and quite possibly as much as the 2007 game. The Packers will have a bye after this game, and then will travel to Minnesota and to Atlanta afterwards. It’s the end of a brutal stretch and it could have key NFC tiebreaker implications.
• #3- Packers @ Patriots, week 15 -NBC
  While not as important as the key NFC and NFC North games, this should be an exciting, cold-weather thriller between Tom Brady & Randy Moss, and Aaron Rodgers & Charles Woodson. Moss and Woodson were two studs in the 1998 draft, and have had some good battles against each other, but not for a few years. Rodgers has professed his admiration for Tom Brady, so he’ll be extra amped to show Uncle Tom his good stuff, on Football Night in America. Both teams figure to be battling for playoff spots and seeding, and with only two weeks left after this game, the game will have a playoff atmosphere.
   
• #2- Packers @ Jets, week 8   
  Halloween day, the crazies will be all over in the new stadium in New Jersey for this game. The Jets made the AFC Title game this January, and are expected to contend for the Super Bowl again this season after adding LaDanian Tomlinson, Jason Taylor, Santonio Holmes, and Antonio Cromartie. All 4 of those guys have been in a Pro Bowl or 2 the past 3 or 4 seasons. Cromartie and Holmes are still early in their primes, while Taylor and LT are at the very back end of their Hall of Fame careers. Still, this team came 1 game away from the Super Bowl without any of them, and they figure to be better this year. Another interesting aspect is the Revis Island. Darrelle Revis and Charles Woodson were the top 2 guys for the NFL Defensive Player of the Year last year, and Jets coach Rex Ryan was vocal about his guy deserving it. Both defenses run aggressive 3-4′s too. There’s a lot to like about this matchup, but a win here could be the best road win in Aaron Rodgers career and set the Packers up for bigger and better things the 2nd half of the season. The Packers would like to be 6-2, 7-1, or even 8-0 when this game ends.
• #1- Vikings @ Packers, week 7 -NBC
  Benedict Favre returns to Lambeau Field. Last year, there were a lot of boos from the Packer faithful when Brett came out in white and purple. But then he went out there and carved up Dom Capers’ overmatched defense for the 2nd time of the season.
  Number 1, that should make Packer fans even more mad at him and realize he is the enemy now. So they will boo even louder this time. Number 2, Dom Capers has never beaten Favre and he absolutely must show some new and effective schemes to throw at Favre. When Favre doesn’t get pressured, he is a surgeon. Still. We all know it. But when he does get pressure, especially up the middle, he’s capable of donating presents to DBs and LBs. He knows what the DBs are doing at all times. This has to change. This game will have the atmosphere of an NFC Championship game, and some think it might actually be an NFC Championship preview. The Saints figure to fall back a bit. The Cowboys are a lot of  so-called experts picks to come out of the NFC, but both the Packers and Vikings crushed them last year, so I’m not so sore. That’s why this game might be the game of the year. Unlike the 2009 game of the year at Pittsburgh, this result will have added significance due to the division rivalry and the fact that the Vikings have won this division both years Rodgers has been the starter.

Clay Matthews Ready to Dominate

June 29, 2010, by Rob Reischel

~The 2009 NFL season still hadn’t ended, but Clay Matthews could already see what his future held.

Matthews, a standout linebacker who made the Pro Bowl during a terrific rookie season with the Green Bay Packers, was handled by one blocker most of last season. During Green Bay’s postseason loss to Arizona, though, that changed. Dramatically.

Running backs. Tight ends. Fullbacks. Extra linemen.

When it came to slowing Matthews down, the Cardinals decided it was all hands on deck. Despite constant double-teams, though, Matthews had Green Bay’s lone sack of Kurt Warner, forced a fumble and recovered one, as well.

Late in the game, with Packer defenders fading in the desert heat, Matthews was still fighting off double-teams and making Warner sweat.

“That game kind of showed me what things might be like now,” Matthews said recently during Green Bay’s ongoing organized team activities. “So the mind-set you need to have is two guys still can’t block me, bring on three guys. That’s what separates the great players from the average ones. You have to be physically dominant, but most of it’s a mind-set.

Full article here

Ranking the Packers most important 10 players

June 29, 2010, by Brian E. Murphy

~In the National Football League, it goes without saying that the quarterback is the position that captains the ship.

However, one needs to look no further than Pittsburgh to see how important their superstar safety Troy Polamalu is. Troy is the quarterback, the point guard of their Blitzburgh defense, and without him, they were a shell of their former selves, despite still having bookend OLB studs James Harrison and Lamar Woodley.

On the flip side, the running back position has shown to be less important, on many occasions. The Colts had injuries to Joseph Addai, and rookie Donald Brown, and they still almost went undefeated because of quarterback Peyton Manning. And Manning was MVP brilliant despite the retirement of Hit Man Marvin Harrison and losing another starting WR in Anthony Gonzalez.

Could the Packers survive and prosper without Ryan Grant, or Greg Jennings, or Nick Collins? Well a lot depends, but here are my rankings of the 10 most valuable Packers.

1. QB Aaron Rodgers
   Nothing against Matt Flynn or even Graham Harrell, but this team will only go as far as Rodgers takes them. He’s entering his 6th season on the team and 3rd as a starter, and he knows this offense inside-out. When he gets time to pass, he’s as good as anyone in the NFL from Manning to Brady to Favre.
2. CB Charles Woodson
   Like Polamalu in Pittsburgh, Woodson is the leader of the Pack on defense. He’s the only guy who can cover well, but better than that, he makes plays and makes big plays. Remember the Dallas game last year on the goalline covering Pro Bowler Jason Witten? He not only covered him, he picked off the pass and saved seven points. Remember his strip-sack on Tony Romo that led to a fumble recovery by Clay Matthews and an easy touchdown? Those plays are priceless. So his Charles.
3. WR Greg Jennings
   Now the rankings get tougher, but I believe that Jennings’ deep threat ability and the respect he commands from the opposing defense is very underrated in terms of importance to the Packers high-octane offense. Fortunately, he’s been durable so far in his career. But without him, I think the safeties would move in a few steps and begin to clog the middle of the field, taking away some of Driver and Finley’s effectiveness, as well as bottle up Ryan Grant.
4. OLB Clay Matthews
   We saw how atrocious the Packers pass defense was last year when they weren’t getting any pressure on the QB. Favre, Roethlisberger, and finally Warner made it pretty obvious. Matthews was the only guy who offenses schemed to keep out coming down the stretch last year. He applied more pressure than any next-two guys for the Packers. If they were to lose Matthews, fans would see a lot of opposing QBs have their career best days again like Big Ben, Warner, and Favre did.
5. S Nick Collins
   Nick is another guy who has been remarkably durable in his career so far. He’s been bumped and banged up many times, almost every tackle it seems. But he keeps getting up and he’s rarely missed a game, unlike his thicker counterpart Atari Bigby. I believe the Packers pass coverage would look terrible if they were to lose Collins for any amount of time, especially with a rookie being the next best safety back there.
6. OT Chad Clifton
   Despite the high draft pick Bryan Bulaga, I think we’ve seen enough evidence the past two years of how important old Clifton is, especially to Aaron Rodgers health. It seems in the past two seasons, Jared Allen has gotten to feast on backup LTs and has earned his Pro Bowl births both years because of those games. When Clifton has been healthy and in, it’s a different story as the 2008 opening game showed. That game, the 2008 Kickoff game, had the Vikings at Packers in Rodgers first game, on primetime for the world to see. Jared Allen did a lot of talking the week of the game about taking Rodgers out. Well when the game ended, Clifton had pitched a shutout on Allen. No sacks, not even a single tackle, and the Packers beat the Vikings. Since then, Clifton has not been fully healthy against Minnesota, and the Packers have lost all three games to the Vikings since then. It’s no coincidence.
7. NT/DE Ryan Pickett
   One of the most underrated players in the Packers, if not the whole league, is the Big Pickett Fence. Everybody remembers the Packers pass defense getting torched in Arizona, Pittsburgh, and Minnesota last year. But what people forget is that the run defense was the best in the league last year, and Pickett was the biggest reason, literally. He’s got the bulk, the movement, and the intelligence in there. He’s a great team player as well. BJ Raji might be moving to the middle this year, but regardless of who’s where, Pickett is a big key in the Packers continuing to slow down the Adrian Peterson’s of the world. 
8. WR Donald Driver
   Quickie has been unbelievably durable and reliable for the Packers since being drafted in the 7th round in 1999. While he may have lost a half-step by now, he’s still fast enough, and very savvy. He knows the routes like the back of his hand and he runs every route the same way, with DBs clueless as to which way #80 is going to go. I do like, actually love, the depth that the Packers have with Jordy Nelson and James Jones, but Driver is like glue at that position.
9. TE Jermichael Finley
   Finley has been getting a little too much press lately, perhaps. His play coming down the stretch last year was Tony Gonzalez-like, and he has a chance to become a superstar this year. But he hasn’t done it yet. That being said, he does have the ability to make this offense go to a whole other level. He’s a mismatch on slower and shorter LBers, and he’s too tall for any safeties to cover. As long as his knee is good, he’s going to have a big season for the Packers and Rodgers to Finley might become a patented line this year. And the drop-off from Finley to the #2 TE is more dramatic than any other #1-#2 spot other than QB.
10. ILB Nick Barnett
    The former Beaver came back strong following his torn ACL. He’s the emotional leader on the defense, the Packers version of Ray Lewis. Now I have to admit, I think Desmond Bishop might be a hidden diamond, but he’s not nearly as versatile as Barnett is. I think the Packers could survive some lengthy missed time to AJ Hawk, but not Barnett. Nick will have some opportunities for some sacks this year on Capers’ A-gap blitzes, and Barnett needs to ring some bells.

    Just Missed
    Scott Wells, Ryan Grant, Mark Tauscher, Josh Sitton, Cullen Jenkins

    Wells and Grant are the most underrated players in this team. Grant simply gets the job done, doesn’t screw up, doesn’t fumble, and doesn’t miss time. His availability and durability have been crucial to the offense.
    Wells is solid anchoring the O-line. While some people have tried to push Scottie out the door in favor of the larger Jason Spitz, Wells just keeps answering the bell and helping pave the way for Ryan Grant and protecting Rodgers from the big guys like the Williams Wall, Jay Ratliff and Shaun Rogers.

Bishop wants (and deserves) more playing time

June 28, 2010, by Greg A. Bedard

~Players don’t come much more loyal or understanding than Green Bay Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop.

He is set to enter his fourth season, and from all appearances Bishop continues to be stuck in the same place: core special teams player, reserve inside linebacker with little hope – outside of an injury – for any real playing time.

For a lot of players, frustration would be too much to hide. Ask his coaches and teammates, though, and Bishop is the same player he’s always been. Still works hard. Still just does his job. Doesn’t make waves.

But that doesn’t mean Bishop, who has demonstrated big-play ability when given the chance, ignores his circumstances.

“It’s a real sticky situation,” Bishop said Monday. “I want to be out there badly. But at the same time, some people out there don’t even have jobs, so I’m kind of grateful to be in the position I’m in to even have a job and being able to compete for whatever.

“The team is trying to get to the Super Bowl. That’s the main goal. But at the same time, in the back of my mind, I’m itching to get in there and make my statement.”

Full article here

Johnny Jolly & Purple Drank: ESPN goes Outside the Lines

June 27, 2010, by Brian E Murphy

~They call it “The City of Syrup”. Johnny Jolly might have coughed away his multi-million dollar NFL career because of it.

ESPN aired a documentary about the relatively unkown drug, purple syrup, that’s actually quite popular amongst many pro athletes and many residents of Houston. Lil Wayne, 36 Mafia. Johnny Jolly is the latest big name from the inner-city black ghetto’s to join the wave.

What Jolly was arrested for two years ago is part of a concoction that consists of prescription cough syrup, Sprite and Jolly Ranchers. No pun intended, Jolly.

ESPN’s report is here

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