This sensational post from Greg Bedard over at the JSOnline Packer Blog regarding Ted Thompson’s role in the defensive coordinator search.

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• The Fate of the Packers

That’s the general attitude of most of the Packer beat guys at the Big Three that cover the team. (JS, GBPG, and the WSJ). However, the newest beat guy at the JS, Greg Bedard, has admitted to reading them and is, nay, WAS considered a friend of the site.

It pains us to see Bedard reference the Coaches Page on Packers.com in a post at 5:37 PM, knowing full well he could not POSSIBLY have thought to check it himself. No, my dear readers, undoubtedly Mr. Bedard saw my post from earlier today, (posted at 2:12 PM edt) thought it humors and decided to use the idea of linking to the (still hilarious) page without so much as a Hat-tip to CHTV, as Blogger-decorum would dictate.

Now, we know Greg can’t hat-tip us in a blog post because that would throw open the door on the locked room where he secretly checks out all the major Packer Fan Blogs when the likes of McGinn and Silverstein aren’t looking. No doubt his peers would cast him out for lowering himself to read such trash, such ill-informed SWILL! And being only his second year with the paper, Bedard can ill-afford to be cast in any dubious light, which his admittance by hat-tipping would no doubt do.

With all that said.

I am, in the glorius tradition of Stephen Colbert, hereby putting one Gregory Bedard ‘On Notice’ until he admits his pilferage of my Coaches Page idea and makes amends by admitting as much on the Packers Blog over at JSOnline. Or he can just send me a nasty email.

YOUR MOVE Bedard.

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• Rodgers Watch

Bob McGinn’s excellent year-end wrap up is just about spot on. Surprisingly, it reads as a tidy summation of almost every point I’ve made about the 2008 Packers throughout the year.

I will say that both in the column and in his season grades, I was surprised at how harsh he was in regards to McCarthy’s coaching. Yes, McCarthy presided over a collapse of historic proportions, and his coaching decisions had a large part to do with it. But he never lost his team, even in the midst of a 5 game losing streak and the squad played hard until the end of the year, even when they were out of playoff contention. None of that excuses the teams horrific record in close games, but I think McGinn discounts it more than he should.

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• Packers Closer To Harlan’s Replacement

That would be Ted Thompson’s response to Pete Dougherty’s question regarding any potential changes on the coaching staff. I love the word ‘bailiwick’ and am proud to be a fan of a team who’s General Manager uses it properly in a sentence, and without irony.

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• What We Know, or Think We Know

Greg Bedard starts the drumbeat for the Packers and Ted Thompson to persue Jason Taylor this offseason. Bedard points to Taylor being able to fill two glaring voids on the Packers roster: a pass rusher and veteran leadership.

I agree with Bedard’s sentiments overall, but he goes a bit overboard with the following:

The Packers would be instant Super Bowl favorites in the NFC next season if they did two things: Sign Haynesworth and trade for Taylor.

It’s a nice thought, but we all know that’s not how Thompson operates. But signing Taylor is the kind of move Thompson should be looking at this offseason - a bit outside his usual comfort zone.

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• Submitted Without Comment

Well, not really. But more than two of you have emailed me (indeed, commenter manolito posted it in a previous comment section) Bob McGinn’s column from Saturday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as ammunition for the Great Blog Battle of 2008 between CheeseheadTV and PackerGeeks and our differing views of Ryan Grant’s contract and performance so far in 2008.

McGinn does indeed highlight many of the same concerns I’ve been airing since the end of last season in regards to awarding Grant a new contract. And he liberally quotes two NFC personnel execs who rate Grant very poorly compared to his starting NFL running back brethren. He concludes with a nice summation of what has, in essence, been my argument all along:

The great backs seldom are able to explain how they do it. They just do.

Grant surely isn’t one of them even though the Packers decided to pay him like it.

Now, all this said - one need look no further than another McGinn article that was written on October 1st, 2006 to see how he is sometimes prone to accentuating the negative so as to make himself look smarter than the rest of us when it comes to the Green and Gold.

From a piece entitled “Troubling Signs From Woodson”

For now, at least, the megabucks signing of Charles Woodson hasn’t come back to haunt the Green Bay Packers.

But as the weeks and months, perhaps even seasons, of the Woodson chapter begin to unfold, the hunch is that general manager Ted Thompson ultimately will wish that he had spent his money on somebody else.

Safe to say that Thompson is quite happy with the signing. It’s also safe to say that this article belongs next to McGinn’s infamous piece calling for Mike Sherman to spend a first round pick on acquiring Drew Henson.

Hey, we all make mistakes. I don’t think McGinn is making one when it comes to his views on Grant.

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• Woodson and Harris Get Their Wish

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”.

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• Bob Sanders Answers My Question

I agree with Mike Vandermause.

Shocking, I know. But he is indeed spot on in this piece looking at how the Packers could and will improve over the remaining nine games of 2008.

One small nit I’d like to pick, however, is with his characterization of Ryan Grant’s critics, a crew of which I am certainly a member:

Hysterical claims that Grant simply isn’t that good and will never live up to his new contract are premature.

They aren’t hysterical, Mike. And with each passing week those claims are looking more and more prescient.

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• Vandermause At It Again