1. Congrats to Aaron Rodgers. What an unbelievable trip this kid has taken from the nearly three hour wait he had to endure on draft day to this Friday when he signed a contract that will keep him in Green Bay through the 2014 season. The shopworn adage when evaluating quarterbacks is that it takes 10 starts in the NFL to truly evaluate whether a quarterback is going to be any good. Apparently, it only took Ted Thompson 7 starts when it came to Rodgers. The man has been more right than wrong when it comes to personnel matters, so I’m fully on board with what can only be considered the new face of the franchise - the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers.
2. Lots of nice sentiments in the comment sections, both here at Cheesehead TV and elsewhere in the Packer blogosphere in regards to Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila’s tenure with the Green and Gold. I don’t have much to add to what has already been said - the man is a class act and the kind of vocal Christan I wish more “Christians” would try to emulate in our country - a man who truly lived the teachings he espoused publicly. My favorite remembrance of Kabeer will always be the sideline interview during preseason last year when he was asked how he thought the Packers would do during the 2007 season. He stated, without hesitation - “We’re going to the Super Bowl.” And you could tell he really believed it. He took untold amounts of grief for that interview (including shots from yours truly in an early episode of Packer Transplants) but it turned out he knew more than  all the blowhards in the blogosphere and in the media. Sure, the team fell one overtime throw away from reaching the big game - but they were closer to achieving Kabeer’s prediction than the mediocre finish most had predicted.

Related posts

• Why Thompson Is GM…and We’re Not

According to Packers.com Aaron Rodgers has signed a new contract extension:

The Green Bay Packers have signed QB Aaron Rodgers to a long-term contract extension through the 2014 season. Ted Thompson, Executive Vice President, General Manager and Director of Football Operations, announced the signing Friday.

“As we talked about in the past, we try to be proactive in our discussions with our current players and we felt like this was an appropriate time to try to come to an agreement with Aaron,” said Thompson. “We feel like this is good for the organization and the players, and we will continue this approach as we move forward.”

Update: Here is Aaron’s interview after announcement.

Related posts

• No Veteran QB For the Packers?

Nice piece from Greg Bedard on Aaron Rodgers and his play so far this year. Bedard highlights Rodgers’ maturation in the offense and his many accomplishments through his first seven games as a starter. He also looks at what Rodgers has to do to “take it to the next level” (To his credit, Bedard doesn’t use this phrase - I just like making fun of people who do) - namely, win a game on his own.

And here, dear readers, is where trouble comes in paradise for our young hero.

To be charitable, Rodgers has looked efficient at the end of halves and games. But his glaring weakness has been his inability to get the ball into the end-zone in crunch time. Of course, this deficiency is magnified ten-fold because it’s something his predecessor became a legend doing, but even without the Favre comparison hanging over his head, Rodgers play would be described as ’steady’. And ’steady’ does not get you to the Super Bowl, unless you have a dominating defense, which the Packers most certainly do not (the Colts game not-withstanding).

And I think Bedard is a bit too kind when he says:

Rodgers hasn’t been put in many tight spots yet but the circumstantial evidence, while a mixed bag, at least points to him being able to get the job done when it counts.

I would look at the Tampa and Atlanta games as times when Rodgers could have started to “get the job done when it counts”, but failed both times, throwing two game-killing interceptions. These are the types of games Rodgers needs to start pulling out for him to, yes, you guessed it, “take it to the next level”.

Related posts

• Bob Sanders Answers My Question

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.
From a question about Nick Barnett for Winston Moss on Greg Bedard’s ‘Mondays With Mikey’s Men’ feature over at JSOnline, where Bedard lets ordinary schleps like you and me posit questions to the assistant coaches:

You’re OK with how Nick is playing?

Moss: Versus his opportunities, he’s making the plays versus his opportunities.

Do you need to free him up, get him more opportunities?

Moss: You’re asking the wrong guy.

Related posts

• Top 5 Seattle Game Thoughts

Perhaps lost amongst my much written about angst over Bob Sanders is the unbelievable admiration I have for Aaron Rodgers and his incredible display of gamesmanship yesterday. I know Rodgers has stated that Favre’s streak had nothing to do with his determination to play yesterday, but come on. You know it’s in the back of his head. Indeed, it’s in the back of everyone’s mind as we watch the beginning of the Rodgers era.

Not only did Rodgers play but he played well. Yes, he threw an inexcusable interception at the end of the game. But as I wrote several times this offseason - there will be bumps in the road. The key is for Rodgers to learn from the big mistake and then not repeat it.

But overall, Rodgers has been one of the more consistent performers on a team that is suddenly quite erratic. Here’s hoping McCarthy can get the rest of the team performing at a higher level to take some of  the pressure off Rodgers, because right now, he IS the offense.

Related posts

• Think About This

…we should all be ready for the Aaron Rodgers consecutive games started streak to end at four.

First there was the news that Rodgers was not throwing at today’s practice and then there was McCarthy’s press conference quote:

I’m going to give him every chance, every possible chance, to play in the game.

If you look at McCarthy’s history dealing with injured players, he has ALWAYS, without exception, used caution when it comes to playing them. Now, the Rodgers situation is unique, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the position he plays. It’s one thing to sit Charles Woodson or KGB. It’s quite another to sit the only quarterback on the roster to have an NFL start on his resume.

Add to the above the following from ESPN’s NFC North blog:

McCarthy added that “long-term effects” and “long-term vision” with Rodgers will be a primary focus in making a decision. McCarthy, however, cautioned reporters against interpreting those words to mean he won’t play Sunday.

Sorry Mike. Bloggers aren’t reporters, so I feel no obligation to heed your caution.

In Cheesehead TV’s estimation: Rodgers won’t start.

UPDATE: ESPN’s John Clayton seems to agree.

Related posts

• Think About This

…the Great Bailout of 2008.

Do I speak of the lunacy on Wall Street and in Washington? No. I speak of something far more devastating. The abandonment of the Green Bay Packers chances in 2008 by Packer fans, and more specifically, Packer bloggers who should know better. Steve over at PackerGeeks has a lengthy post detailing why, in the aftermath of the Cullen Jenkins injury (among many, many other things) it is time for Packer fans to “adjust our expectations”. He then goes on to tell us he himself, who saw the Packers as a 9-7 team, has officially downgraded the Packers to the “Will Be Lucky To Be .500″ category.

I understand this impulse, but I’m here to tell you it is WAY too early for this kind of talk.

First of all - yes, the Packers are finally getting bit by the injury bug. It was only a matter of time, especially after their relatively healthy seasons in 2006 and 2007. That’s just the law of averages. And yes, Aaron Rodgers’ injury is a cause for concern. As I’ve written many times, if the Packers are forced to go with Flynn for any length of time, the season is over. But from all indications (and we’ll know a lot more tomorrow) Rodgers will not miss Sunday’s game. It’s an injury that can be managed, much like Ben Roethlisberger is doing in Pittsburgh.

Secondly, a lot of fans, Steve included, are reacting to the teams poor showing in Tampa. This is understandable, especially given how poorly the team played on a very basic fundamental level. Blocking and tackling, the bedrock of football, were both atrocious this past Sunday. It’s easy to lose hope.

But what both points above have in common is that they can be overcome - with good coaching. And I am still of the belief that Mike McCarthy is a very, very good football coach. Yes, the Packers lost in Tampa. May I remind everyone that heading into Sunday’s game, the Packers were 1-5 in Raymond James Stadium with Brett Favre as their quarterback. And that lone win came in 2003 when Mike Sherman’s team had an unbelievable rushing attack, with three backs averaging over 5 yards a carry on the year. That’s how you beat the Bucs in Tampa. You pound it down their throat, negating all the speed of their defense and Monte Kiffin’s ability to tee off on the quarterback. Needless to say, this Packers team is not built that way, and they almost won anyway.

No, this is still a good team that ran into a buzzsaw Sunday. They will make the necessary adjustments and McCarthy will get them playing good football. They have three very winnable games lined up before the bye week. Yes, I said three winnable games. Atlanta and Seattle should actually be handled easily and the only thing making the Indy game difficult is the brilliance of Peyton Manning. But the Packers get them at Lambeau, and this Colts team can not pound the football the way Dallas and Tampa Bay did. The Packers will win the next three games and everyone will forget this horrible week where everyone thought the sky was falling.

Everyone but me, that is.

Related posts

• Thompson’s Turn

When Brett Favre retired, Mike McCarthy made it clear that Aaron Rodgers would be running basically the same offense that Favre had run the past three seasons. A tweak or two here and there, but basically, the same.

Today, when asked how much smaller the playbook would be if Matt Flynn had to start on Sunday, McCarthy replied:

We haven’t really operated on a very high volume all year, so that’s something coming out of the offseason. I think it’s important as a coaching staff to challenge yourself. I’ve dealt with very high-volume offensive game plans in the past. Over the long haul, I think it creates more opportunity for mental errors. I don’t think we have a volume issue as far as the size of our playbook for any of the quarterbacks to run. The percentage of that, the week will probably answer that question better.

He is one hundred percent correct, of course, about the potential for mental errors when opening up the playbook. One need look no further than Rodgers blowing the read at the end of the game yesterday, when he failed to find his hot read, Finley, for what would have been a sizable gain. But with the struggles of the offense to run the ball, and the struggles of the defense to stop opponents from running the ball and putting points on the board, the rewards far outweigh the risks in my opinion.

Rodgers looked shaky yesterday, but I would remind all the Chicken Littles of the world that the only time Favre beat Monte Kiffin’s defense down in Tampa was in 2003 when Sherman was coach and the Packers had three running backs averaging over five yards a carry. Other than that game, Favre looked much like Rodgers did yesterday every time he went down to Florida.

McCarthy has a good, young quarterback who will make mistakes from time to time. But he simply has to give him the freedom to make some plays, especially since his team can’t generate more than 30 yards on the ground on any given Sunday. Rodgers is the Packers’ best chance at putting points on the board, but he can’t do it if the opposing defenses know all four or five looks it’s going to see week to week.

Related posts

• Why Can’t Packer Fans Enjoy This?