Just watching old highlights here at my desk (LORD do I need help) and I came across this one – you remember it, I’m sure. It’s the Week One sack of Jay Cutler by Brandon Chillar that got us all excited to watch Chillar all year.

As it turned out, it was just about the only play he made before getting hurt.

I remember during one of our training camp live blogs positing the theory that the Packers should look at moving Chillar outside. I brought it up to a couple of the beat guys, who in turn told me it had been discussed by the coaching staff but, for whatever reason, they didn’t think it would be a good fit.

Look at it again – Chillar comes down from his inside backer position and actually lines up outside and Kampman, the actual outside backer, slides inside and then falls back into coverage while Chillar rushes from the edge, leaping over the pathetic blocking attempt by the back, bringing down Cutler from behind.

As the year went on, we kept waiting to see more plays like that one but instead we were treated to Chillar getting burned, twice, by no-name tight ends in St. Louis, getting mauled in the run game repeatedly and then to his getting hurt and then rewarded with a puzzling contract extension.

So here’s where I throw something against the wall, Packer Update-style:

What if the Packers knew there was no way Kampman would be back and what if the Chillar extension was a preemptive move to lock up the guy who would get first crack at replacing him?

Say, you know what? This pulling-things-out-of-thin-air is kinda fun…

Really interesting quote from Aaron Kampman (via Greg Bedard’s Packers Daily Briefing):

I love getting after the passer. I have a year’s worth of built up energy to get back out there and get back after the quarterback and I look forward to doing it.I haven’t been in my stance. All off-season last year, they didn’t let me get in my stance once. I was in the two point stance on the left side. It seems to be a perfect time to switch over and make that transition.

Emphasis mine.

What was that we were reading about Capers last summer?

Capers has emphasized all offseason that he can adjust the scheme and his calls to his personnel, and that he will mix in the 4-3 if needed in this season of defensive transition.

Hmmmm…..

Godspeed Aaron.

It’s good sport around the Packers Blogosphere to say that I ‘hate’ Aaron Kampman. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve been a fan from the day he was drafted and watched as more talented players fell by the wayside, while Kampman just worked longer and harder than everyone else. But the thing I always admired about him was just how incredibly bright he was. You could see this on the field on Sundays, when he would be diagnosing plays as they happened, even early on in his career.In the end, the Packers evolved on the defensive side of the ball in a way that just didn’t suit the tools Kampman brings to the game.

The man is truly ‘Packer People’ – and I hope he’s incredibly successful down in Jacksonville.

Here’s a storyline I haven’t seen yet from the Combine, one that I think is fairly obvious but that no ‘legit’ guy is going to write.

I guess that’s what I’m for.

The Packers don’t want to be the bad guy when it comes to the departure of Aaron Kampman. Not again. Not after being perceived as villains by a large portion of the fan base during the Favre drama two summers ago.

Look, it’s all well and good that Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy got up and blew verbal bouquets Kampman’s way on Friday at the Combine. All the right things have been said this entire offseason, from Thompson telling Greg Bedard that the team is planning on offering Kampman a contract to McCarthy talking glowingly about how much better Kampman would be the second year into the transition of Capers’s defensive makeover.

I’m sorry, but anyone who watches the game of football with any regularity and with even a modicum of honesty will tell you that Kampman was a complete fish out of water with his hand off the ground. He plays way too slow for the position, is incredibly stiff when asked to turn his hips and drop into coverage, and had trouble holding the point when defending the run without the benefit of exploding out of a three point stance.

And here’s whats scary to me – the Packers may be so scared of potentially looking the fool if yet another popular player ended up playing within the division (hello, Chicago) that they may be setting themselves up to bring Kampman back so as to ‘look good’ in the eyes of the fans and indeed, the rest of the league. I know – it sounds absurd. But how else do you explain the theory I heard from one source in Indianapolis – that the organization may have gone as far as feeding Mike Vandermause the meme for his column in the Green Bay Press Gazette last week.

It’s title? “Green Bay Packers Would Be Foolish To Let Kampman Go”

Now, I’m throwing a lot of smoke out there. But I tend to think there’s a very small fire underneath it all. My guess is that the Packers are truly conflicted about this and seriously don’t know what to do. More than one person I talked to this weekend made reference to the fact that, behind the scenes, Thompson is a lot more indecisive and prone to last minute decisions than his calm, bland demeanor would suggest. When I heard that initially, I pretty much dismissed it out of hand.

But then you look at things like the Ryan Grant signing, the way he basically caved at the last minute in face of the pressure he was getting during the Favre fiasco. Or you look at the cutting of Anthony Smith and then the attempt to claim him off waivers a few weeks later. There are plenty of other instances as well that hint at the depiction of Thompson as someone who is a little more reckless behind the scenes than the perception of Thompson as some emotionless automaton would suggest.

If Thompson is smart he’ll let Kampman walk, even if it means the Bears get the defensive end they so desperately need. Kampman may or may not hurt the Packers playing for the Bears. His being on the Packers roster certainly will.

Lots of opinions out there on what the Packers should do now that Aaron Kampman is back from his concussion and Brad Jones has looked competent. (Yes, I believe an “I told you so” is in order…)

I think Chris Lempesis has a good take over at Ol’ Bag of Donuts:

I have a ton of respect for Kampman and I still think he’s one of the best defensive ends in the game – in a 4-3 scheme, that is. But we have to admit this experiment is not working. It’s not an accident that this defense gave its best performance of the season without Kampman in the lineup. Dom Capers blitzed roughly 11 percent more of the time – roughly 51 percent of the time as opposed to roughly 40 percent of the time during the first eight games – as it was clear he no longer had to worry about covering for Kampman.

Square peg. Round hole. You know the cliche.

Kampman should become a situational player. Have him rush with his hand on the ground in nickel situations and occasionally bring him in at LOLB when it’s clear the opposing offense is in a passing situation.

He’d be an expensive situational player, for sure, but that would be the best way to maximize his skills. It will keep him fresh and mentally focused on doing what he excels at.

I agree with a lot of this, but I’m not sure I’m sold on the whole “Capers blitzed more because he didn’t have to cover for Kampman” Really? You’re sure? Not saying it isn’t possible but this seems like an awfully wide-brush to be painting with. Jones was steady and made a few tackles, looked good out in space, but looking good and making plays are two different things. Now, has Kampman made plays? Good question…

Chris then goes on in his post to detail how the Packers made KGB a pass-rush specialist when it became obvious he was over matched in his starting role, and that was indeed successful. And I don’t doubt the staff has talked about it, at least amongst themselves. But I really don’t see them going to Aaron Kampman and saying that, on top of playing him wildly out of position all year, they are now going to ‘bench’ him. Would making him a pass rush specialist be the best for all concerned? Probably – but Kampman got awfully touchy when he had to switch positions…but was still a full time starter. I can’t imagine what the locker room session would be like if a rookie 7th round pick put him on the bench.

UPDATE: And then there’s this from Bob McGinn:

I’m not sure Brad Jones played all that well. He had issues in coverage. His pass rush probably was average or below. He was respectable at the point. We should be evaluating him against the NFL standard at his position, not the rookie standard at his position. The Packers are in a battle for a playoff berth and this isn’t time to look at rookies. If Aaron Kampman is healthy, he starts and he plays the entire game. I don’t care what defense it is or where he is playing. Kampman is one heck of a football player. Have some people forgotten that? If so, that amazes me.

According to Mike McCarthy, Aaron Kampman, he of the Sunday concussion, could practice on Friday in hopes of playing this weekend.

Asinine.

Read this and then tell me the Packers should even be entertaining the idea of playing Kampman this weekend. It’s absurd. If Kampman takes the field against the Cowboys, I will be deeply disappointed in the Packers – yes, much more so than I was after the Buccaneer loss.

Seriously.

Biggest game of the year, matched up against a rookie, finally has his hand on the ground…and nothing. Meanwhile. Clay Matthews, a rookie, going against a much better player, makes all sorts of plays against the run and at least provides a modicum of pressure.

Sorry, I don’t get a lot right, but I nailed this one.

If the Packers aren’t going to trade Aaron Kampman, they need to make the most of his services until he signs with Minnesota as a free agent leaves in free agency at the end of the year.

Up to this point, 1/4 of the way through the season, Kampman has looked miscast, to put it gently, at the linebacker position. The concern this offseason was Kampman’s ability to turn his hips and get back into coverage. While still not the most elegant move in his repertoire, he has been surprisingly solid in this area.

What has become apparent, however, is that rushing the passer from a two point stance is not working for Kampman.

At his old defensive end spot, Kampman was able to use the power provided by the burst from his three point stance to do any number of things, be it using speed to try and get the corner on a guy or bull rushing tackles into the pocket. This season, while standing up, Kampman’s rush hasn’t been nearly as effective. Indeed, he was pretty much handled by Viking’s rookie tackle Phil Loadholt. Yes, he got the one, clean hit on Favre, but it should be pointed out that it came on a stunt through the middle – Kampman didn’t win an individual matchup to get there.

When the word came that Kampman was being moved to linebacker, and that the Packers were moving to the 3-4 in general under Dom Capers, I felt sure that we would be seeing a multiple front defense. I even remember an interview with Capers and/or McCarthy (I’ll try to find it tonight) where it was said we’d probably see a lot of the same Nickel package that we saw under Sanders (the one bright spot of his tenure). I thought for sure we would see some four man line, with Jenkins kicking inside to defensive tackle and Kampman at his old end spot with his hand on the ground. I mean, didn’t we hear over and over how Capers was not going to force his players into roles they weren’t comfortable in? That he was going to fit his scheme to the players, not the other way around?

Four games into the season, nothing could be further from the truth.

On 3rd down, we have seen a rigidity that would make Bob Sanders proud. Capers seems hell-bent on using his 2-4-5 formation, no matter how ineffectual it is. It makes it all the more difficult to watch when you look over in Denver at Mike Nolan’s use of Elvis Dumervil. He is all over the place, sometime in a two-point stance, sometimes in his old three-point. And he is almost always rushing the passer. Kampman was almost an afterthought in the pass rush schemes on 3rd down against the Vikings.

Now, there has been speculation that it is, in fact, McCarthy that is forcing Capers to run a strict 3-4 scheme. If that is true, it is a damning bit of information. Why on God’s Green Earth would you get rid of Sanders and his inflexible scheme only to hire someone and force them to be…inflexible. (Of course, the notion is so absurd, it could only come from someone who hears voices in their head and then writes them down as reportage…)

Whatever the reason, Capers needs to take a long, hard look at his use of not only Kampman, but his linebackers in general. For all the positive press they received in training camp and the preseason, they are most definitely underachieving up to this point in the 2009  season.