Where are they now: Former Packer Legends- CRAIG NALL
03/20/2010 ~ By Brian E Murphy
~ Quarterback Craig Nall was a 5th round pick in 2002 by the Green Bay Packers, but playing behind Brett Favre means you don’t get any action in the regular season. But Craig Noodles Nall did get some.
In 2004 Nall played in 5 games as Brett Favre’s backup at Green Bay. He completed 23 of 33 passes for 314 yards and 4 touchdowns, with no interceptions, for a sensational passer rating of 139.4.
GREEN BAY, WI - DECEMBER 30: Backup quarterback Craig Nall #16 of the Green Bay Packers throws against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field December 30, 2007 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Nall also started for the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe in 2003 and was the league’s leading passer.
In 2006, the chiseled, 6-3, Nall signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Buffalo Bills, where he competed for the starting quarterback position until a hamstring injury suffered on the second day of practice ended his involvement in the competition. In 2007, he fell on the team’s depth chart behind J.P. Losman and Trent Edwards. At the end of pre-season, he was cut from the team’s final roster. Early into the regular season he was re-signed by the Bills but was released shortly thereafter.
On October 29, 2007, Nall was signed by the Houston Texans as insurance when starter Matt Schaub was hurt against San Diego. He was released by the Texans on November 21, 2007
He signed a one-year deal with the Packers on December 1, 2007, after they released safety Marvelous Marviel Underwood. Nall became a free agent in the 2008 offseason.
Nall was re-signed by the Houston Texans on November 5, 2008 after another injury to Matt Schaub. He was waived on December 17 when the team signed cornerback David Pittman.
He was also one of two players initially signed after an open tryout held by the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League on August 22, 2009.
Where is he now?
Usually on a golf course somewhere in the McKinney-Frisco area of North Texas, hustling friends and neighbors for skins money. Nall’s golf game is solid, and long, but he needs work on his short game, especially the short chips.
Nall is still young, and has almost 20 years left to iron out the kinks and pursue a career on the PGA Champions Tour starting in 2029.
As for football, he’s still better than at least 20 QB’s on NFL rosters today, and still young enough to make a name (again) for himself. Afterall, he’s more than 11 years younger than Favre is. He just needs the right situation, and another chance. Who knows, maybe Schuab will go down again this season.
2009 Player Grades: Offense
Jan 17, 2010 ~ By Bob McGinn, Journal-Sentinel
~Bob McGinn offers his team and individual grades in our 2009 Packers report card available in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Insider subscribers can chat with McGinn about the 2009 season and beyond at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Aaron Rodgers: Rated the ninth-best QB in the NFL by scouts entering playoffs. Just turned 26 and should get only better. Likes to wing the ball around but has a plan for every pass and almost never throws into traffic. Highly intelligent, in complete command of the offense. Respected by teammates for his ability and courage. About once a week he beats perfect coverage by running for a first down. Surprisingly athletic. Posted second-best passer rating (103.2) in team history…… Grade: B-plus Full Grades here
Despite having to try and dodge bullets for the first half of the season, Rodgers 2009 season was 2nd highest-rated in team history
2009 Player Grades: Defense
Jan 17, 2010 ~ By Bob McGinn, Journal-Sentinel
~Bob McGinn offers his team and individual grades in our 2009 Packers report card available in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Insider subscribers can chat with McGinn about the 2009 season and beyond at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
B.J. Raji: Played 385 snaps (36.4%), had 37 tackles (five for loss) and just three pressures. Played four positions: LE, NT and RE in base, DT in nickel. Erratic at the point. Flashed big-play explosion but was much more easily displaced by double-teams than Pickett or Jolly. His pass rush was disappointing. Wasn’t able to string moves together, and neither his bull rush nor his edge quickness was good enough to many win one-on-ones. High-ankle sprain slowed him until midseason. Staff will demand major improvement in his second season. Grade: D-plus Full story here
Rookie BJ Raji made a few great plays in 2009, but he'll be expected to do that a lot more in 2010, and will be expected to get some push towards opposing QB's finally.
Time to Dissect the Defense
Jan 14, 2010 ~ By Tom Silverstein, Journal-Sentinel
~Before the start of training camp, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy will settle a debate that erupted during the last month about his defense.
Is it the scheme or the players that can’t deal with spread offenses?
Dom Capers improved the defense in 2009, but it is Capers who bears the responsiblity of devising a scheme to contain the QBs like Warner, Brees, Favre, and Roethlisberger. Those QB's were contained by less-talented defenses than the one Capers has in Green Bay.
There are many things on the off-season checklist for McCarthy following an 11-6 season that ended in an overtime playoff loss at University of Phoenix Stadium Sunday. Finding out why over the course of four weeks the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals were able to gash the defense to the tune of 58 first downs, 1,068 yards and 88 points is a priority.
“Trust me, we’ll take a long look at Arizona from a defensive standpoint, and Pittsburgh,” McCarthy said in his season-ending news conference Wednesday. “You’re talking about over 1,000 yards of offensive production in two days. We will take a long look at that, and particularly the quarterbacks.”
McCarthy dismissed the idea that because both of those teams know coordinator Dom Capers’ defense inside and out, they simply outwitted him with their game plans. Capers employs a Pittsburgh-style 3-4 defense, which the Steelers still run, and Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt knows it from his days as Steelers offensive coordinator.
Both the Steelers and Cardinals found a formula that featured multiple-receiver formations and lots of completions in the middle of the field. The Cardinals did a particularly good job of beating Capers’ pressures and exploiting matchups in the secondary in their 51-45 victory.
Capers called the Cardinals game disappointing because of the number of breakdowns in pass coverage.
“I mean, just base fundamentals, things we had worked in practice came up, and you don’t expect that when we’ve seen those same things in practice and seen us match them up pretty well in practice,” Capers said. “I don’t know if that comes from the heat of the battle of a playoff contest where the tempo picks up, but we didn’t execute with the same degree of efficiency that I had seen us (do) the second half of the season.”
Capers said the combination of the success the Cardinals had running the ball and the number of missed assignments in coverage made it difficult to counter Arizona’s passing game. He said he mixed up defensive calls throughout the game but couldn’t find the right buttons to push against veteran quarterback Kurt Warner.
Short-handed?
One of the issues McCarthy has to consider is whether Capers was left short-handed against a high-powered Cardinals offense. The loss of veteran cornerback Al Harris on Nov. 22 left him with two inexperienced cornerbacks in Jarrett Bush and rookie Brandon Underwood to cover Arizona’s third and fourth receivers.
Full story here
Woodson Is NFL Defensive Player of Year
Jan 13, 2010 ~ ESPN
In his own view, Charles Woodson put together his best pro season in 2009. How appropriate, then, that he is The Associated Press 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
The versatile Woodson tied for the league lead with nine interceptions, returning three for touchdowns, and was a key to the Packers’ turnaround on defense. His role in Green Bay’s performance — second in the league in overall defense, first in interceptions (30), takeaways (40) and turnover margin (plus-24) — earned Woodson 28 votes Tuesday from a nationwide panel of 50 sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the NFL.
Charles Woodson, the 1997 Heisman Trophy winner, is the first cornerback chosen as the top defensive player since Deion Sanders in 1994.
Full story here
Rookie Brad Jones making the most of his Opportunity
Jan 10, 2010 ~ By Lindsay H. Jones, Denver Post
~It was the news Brad Jones had always wanted to hear, but when his coaches with the Green Bay Packers told Jones in mid-November he would be starting at outside linebacker, Jones could only sit, stunned.
“It was a shock for about five minutes,” Jones said. “I was just like, ‘Wow. This is my shot. This is my chance to do it.’ ”
Jones said he was "ecstatic" to be joining a team like the Packers that played a 3-4 defensive scheme.
Jones made seven solo tackles in that first start against Dallas, and with veteran Aaron Kampman now on injured reserve, Jones, a rookie from the University of Colorado, has emerged as one of the Packers’ best pass rushers in the second half of the season. He has four sacks in Green Bay’s last five games and will start today for the Packers in their NFC wild-card game at Arizona.
“He’s making the most of the opportunity he has,” Colorado linebackers coach Brian Cabral said. “We always felt when he left here that his best ball was ahead of him.”
It wasn’t that Jones didn’t excel in Boulder. He was a starter for three seasons, with an increasingly diverse role over his last two years as a hybrid linebacker-defensive end.
Despite finishing his college career with 252 total tackles and 9 1/2 sacks — including seven in 2008 as a senior — Jones hadn’t come close to reaching his potential, in part because he never had substantial competition at his position in Boulder.
Jones was not among the college players invited to the NFL combine in Indianapolis last February, but he performed well enough at CU’s pro day last spring, with a time of 4.54 seconds in the 40-yard dash, to earn some draft buzz. Jones was told he was a likely second-day pick, possibly in the fourth or fifth rounds.
Instead, he lasted until the seventh round, when Packers coach Mike McCarthy called to tell Jones he would be drafted at No. 218 overall with Green Bay’s final selection.
Full story here
Aaron Rodgers’ next Mountain to Climb is the Playoff Mountain
Jan 10, 2010 ~ By Mike Vandermause, Press-Gazette
~Aaron Rodgers has spent much of his competitive life proving the skeptics, critics and naysayers wrong.
He wasn’t supposed to be good enough to earn a Division 1 college scholarship. He wasn’t deemed worthy enough by a majority of NFL teams to be taken in the first round of the 2005 draft. His form wasn’t sound enough, his body wasn’t durable enough, and his arm wasn’t strong enough.
Rodgers is 1-0 against Peyton Manning. Could they meet again next month?
Every time he showed up his doubters, they would find something else to criticize.
He passed for more than 4,000 yards in his first season as an NFL starter in 2008 and despite enduring a painful shoulder injury, started every game. The myth that he lacked toughness was debunked, so the knock on him shifted to his inability to win close games.
Full story here
Clay Matthews has Arizona Cardinals LT Jeremy Bridges’ respect
Jan 9, 2010 ~ By Tom Pelissero, Press-Gazette
~If there were any doubt in Jeremy Bridges’ mind that Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was an impact player, Matthews erased them with his performance last week.
Cardinals left tackle Jeremy Bridges, left, had his hands full with Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, trying to keep him away from quarterback Matt Leinart during last Sunday's game in Glendale, Ariz.
Matthews drew two holding calls, one of which resulted in a safety, and had a career-high seven hits on the Arizona Cardinals’ quarterbacks. Three of those came on one drive against Bridges, a longtime rotational player at guard who took over at left tackle when the Cardinals put veteran Mike Gandy (sports hernia) on injured reserve on Dec. 23.
“He’s good,” Bridges said on Friday of Matthews, the first-round draft pick who has recorded 19 of his team-leading 35 QB hits in the past five games.
“He’s got a lot to learn, but as far as just ability, raw ability, the kid’s fast, quick, strong. He’s going to be one of the good ones.”
There’s a good argument to be made Matthews already falls into that category.
After missing most of the preseason with a hamstring injury, he took over as the starter at right outside linebacker in the Packers’ fourth game, ended up leading the team with 10 sacks, received a Pro Bowl invitation and only seems to be expanding his pass-rushing repertoire as the season goes on.
Look no further than the array of moves he used against the Cardinals in last week’s regular-season finale. He beat Bridges with speed moves off the edge, gave left guard Reggie Wells trouble on stunts and even displayed some uncommon power by flattening rookie running back Beanie Wells late. Full article here
Packers’ Woodson finally Reciprocating the Love
Jan 7, 2009 ~ By Charles Robinson, Yahoo Sports
~Charles Woodson sat alone in his car. He looked out the window, and two strangers were clamoring for his attention.
It was 2006. The Green Bay Packers were in the midst of a losing streak. His knee was hurting and his shoulder was in a harness. In the physical sense, he was all there – the prickly Wisconsin weather left little doubt about that. But mentally, he was alternating between pissed off defiance and wondering, “How the hell did I get here?” And now there were two people – true Wisconsin folks – sitting in another car, smiling at him. The look on Woodson’s face must have spoken volumes.
“Coming here, the way people have embraced me, the way they respect the way I play the game, community-wise, for me there’s a loyalty there,” Woodson says. “I wouldn’t want to leave these people. That’s coming from my heart. I would not want to leave them.”
“We don’t want anything from you,” a man behind the wheel said after rolling down his window. “We just want you to know that we really respect the way you play.”
With that, the window rolled back up, and the car pulled away.
There are a lot of moments that have delivered Woodson to where he is now – in Green Bay, back amongst the league’s elite cornerbacks, and likely on the verge of the NFL’s defensive player of the year award. But Woodson punctuates this one with a toothy, 100-watt grin.
“That,” Woodson said of the brief encounter, “meant everything to me.”
Looking back, the ego has healed and the darkness has lifted. Woodson is no longer locked into mortal combat with his surroundings. The city he once couldn’t fathom playing in has now come to define the next phase of his life – the one that has put his raucous days with the Oakland Raiders behind him, and made the sourest points of his reputation seem more relic than reality.
Four years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find an NFL executive outside of Green Bay who would have believed that was possible. Fresh into the first free agency of his career, Woodson was nothing less than radioactive. He spent two months as an NFL orphan, holding out for something, anything better than Green Bay. All the while, his agent would shrug, and Woodson would stare at the ticker at the bottom of his television, cursing when his name was never mentioned amongst the best available free agents. Eight seasons into his NFL career, his Heisman Trophy, All-Pro credentials and reputation as a lethal shutdown specialist had been cast into the abyss. And that’s precisely where Woodson thought he was going when Green Bay was his one and only option.
“It was tough to watch,” said Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who remains one of Woodson’s closest friends in the game. “… I’m not gonna lie. Green Bay was a head-scratcher. The amount of money he signed for [$52 million over seven years], you thought ‘Oh good, at least he’s well-compensated.’ But then you thought ‘Green Bay? This doesn’t even fit Charles’ personality. It doesn’t seem like a place where he can be himself.’
“But you ask Charles now, and he’ll tell you it was the best thing that could have happened.”
FULL STORY HERE
Cardinals-Packers: Switch to 3-4 fueled Pack’s defense
Jan 7, 2010 ~ By Bob McManaman, Arizona Republic
~As good as quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been this season for the Green Bay Packers , one of the main reasons they have had so much success has been their transformation on the other side of ball by implementing the 3-4 defense.
In the off-season, the Packers hired Dom Capers as defensive coordinator and brought in several new assistant coaches to teach the new scheme, which has worked wonders.
Kurt Warner on the Packers defense: "Not only are they athletic, not only do they have a good scheme, not only are they smart. But when the ball is in the air, they're great at going and getting it."
The Packers finished the season as the second-ranked defense overall in the league. They are first in the NFL in rushing defense, fifth in pass defense and lead everyone with 40 takeaways.
It was a work in progress that head coach Mike McCarthy said his players probably didn’t fully reach their potential until the off week in mid-October.
“It was definitely something that you build,” he said Wednesday. “You come in, put a new staff together, meet with the players and then you go to training camp but you don’t have enough time to do everything.
“You try to do as much as you can in the preseason games, but there’s still nothing like regular-season games to get you ready.”
The Cardinals have been as impressed as anyone – especially quarterback Kurt Warner.
Full story here
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