After more than a month of training camp and preseason, we officially have first edition of your 2022 Green Bay Packers 53-man roster.

The couple days of roster cuts are always eagerly tracked by fans online, but it’s been some time since the Packers have had a truly shocking cut happen during this period. Once again, there were no real surprises in the Packers’ final 53. While some prognosticators’ predictions might not have been completely on the money, there were not any decisions that a reasonable person would not have foreseen.

However, if you had to pick a few notable decisions the Packers made in trimming their roster, these would be a few you might glance at:

• Samori Toure made the final 53 over Juwann Winfree at wide receiver in the seventh receiver spot. There were some who thought Winfree would earn his position on the 53 after a strong training camp and after some advocacy by Aaron Rodgers, but in the end the Packers liked Toure’s playmaking ability, and likely valued the fact that he was a draft pick. But never fear; Winfree cleared waivers and is safely stowed on the Packers’ practice squad. 

• Jack Heflin and Caleb Jones both did not make the 53, but Jonathan Ford did. Once again, this is likely an instance of the Packers valuing their draft picks, as it didn’t really seem like Ford had outplayed either of the former. Both Heflin and Jones will be back with the Packers on the practice squad and I wouldn’t be surprised to see both get playing time at some point this season, whether it’s due to elevation or promotion.

• There were some who predicted the Packers would keep only two running backs at first, and that’s exactly what they did. Tyler Goodson showed enough flash to get brought back to the Packers’ practice squad. What this also likely means is that the Packers think highly enough of Kylin Hill that once he’s fully healthy he will come back to the 53.

Most of the rest of the decisions basically went according to plan.

At this point, the Packers might have the strongest starting 22-man roster of anyone in the league. The difference makers will be depth and special teams. 

Special teams can’t possibly be as bad as last year, right? (Wrong, it can ALWAYS be worse).

As far as depth goes, the Packers are pretty well set at offensive line, linebacker (how weird is that?) and even corner; there’s a significant drop-off after their nickel corner, but how many teams in the league have a really strong fourth and fifth corner? Defensive line is looking better than it’s looked in years as well. Wide receiver has potential, but is unproven.

The areas of concern are safety, edge and tight end. If Kingsley Enagbare can translate his preseason into regular season, edge will be pretty well covered. Safety I’m not feeling so positive about. The team could really stand to add another player at that position. Tight end… Marcedes Lewis is still a great blocker and veteran presence, but at his age he should not be the most reliable player at his position group. This has to be the year Josiah Deguara steps forward, and Robert Tonyan must look more like his 2019 self than his pre-injury 2020 self for the Packers to really get the most effective use out of this position.

But I’m really picking nits here. Overall, this is yet another really strong roster put forward by the Packers. 

This team, though, has had plenty of strong rosters in the last several years. The question now becomes what they will manage to accomplish together.

We get a week and a half to sit and wait before that journey begins.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

One thing I managed to do this summer, despite how surprisingly busy it was for me while I was in between jobs, was get out to a whole bunch of new breweries here in Milwaukee.

One of those new breweries is *really* new, as in it opened to the public earlier in 2022. It’s Amorphic Beer in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, and it has a fun science-y theme with a slogan “Beer without form.” Their flights even come served in little beakers!

As you can see from the above photo, we tried a wide variety of their beers when I went for the first time on Father’s Day (and again just this last weekend). We had all kinds of beers, from your standard IPAs, wheat beers, saisons and pilsners to a couple more experimental beers, including fruited sours and a really cool cucumber kolsch called Hendrix and Cuke.

That’s right–a cucumber kolsch, which serves as my beer of the week for this week. 

The Untappd description of the beer reads, “Kveik Lutra fermented pseudo-kolsch beer with organic lemon zest, sea salt, and a hefty dose of cucumbers and gin botanicals.” The crisp, refreshing kolsch flavor is there, and just as cucumber adds a nice pleasant flavor to water on a hot summer’s day, so too does it add to the depth and refreshing nature of this beer. 

It’s not a combination I’d have ever thought of, but it really, really works–in fact, it works far better than a lot of fruit combinations I’ve had in beers, and I’m a person who enjoys a good fruited ale. The flavor is just present enough to be noticeable, but not so present that it overpowers a really pleasant, crisp German beer flavor. 

Amorphic Beer is brand new, so if you’re going to have their beers it’s pretty much going to have to be at their Riverwest tap room or at a few local establishments in Milwaukee. So if you’re in the area and looking to try something new, definitely swing by. They’ve got plenty of more traditional styles as well as some really fun experimental stuff–truly a brewery with beer for all palates. Check ‘em out!

The shuffling of announce teams

One of the things I’m curious to see this year is how the new announce teams fare across several networks. It’s sort of a new era of football broadcasting.

At NBC, Al Michaels is out, and Mike Tirico is in. Tirico is a really strong broadcaster on play-by-play; he understands when to hype up the action and when to back off, and never attempts to make himself the center of attention. He’s got a good understanding of the game, and has always been strong at developing a good rapport with his booth partner. I’ll be interested to see how his chemistry with Cris Collinsworth compares to that of Michaels and Collinsworth. We’ve had some tastes of them together a few times in the last few years, but it’s never been an every-week sort of deal.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, the favorite announcers of Packer fans on the internet, have moved on from their long run together at the lead mics on FOX to head to Monday Night Football on ESPN. MNF has desperately needed a revamp; their announce teams have been flat-out bad since the Tirico/Jon Gruden pairing, and almost embarrassingly bad at times. The addition of Buck (in my opinion, the second-best play by play man in the game) and Aikman (not really my jam, but he’s better than people give him credit for) affords MNF much more legitimacy and immediately provides a better product than the trash we’ve had to sit through for a while now. MNF had become utterly unwatchable.

Meanwhile, at Buck and Aikman’s former home, Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen get the lead job. It’s well-deserved; Burkhardt has been a great up-and-coming voice for a bit now, and Olsen has rapidly become one of the strongest yet most underrated color commentators on the broadcast networks. It’s a shame that Olsen is only keeping the seat warm for Tom Brady, who may or may not even be good at the job. But for this year, at least, it’s a really great partnership for FOX and a couple new faces (/voices) to the limelight.

Thursday Night Football moves to Amazon Prime, and Jeff Bezos and company shelled out the big bucks to draw the legendary Al Michaels away from Sunday Night Football. Michaels, in his late 70s, is still arguably the very best in the business on play-by-play and one of the greatest of all time, so this is a huge get for TNF. Joining Michaels is Kirk Herbstreit, who has been calling ESPN/ABC’s biggest college football game of the week for years and is now making a jump to the NFL. It’s a bit of a gamble with Herbstreit; how well will he translate to the pro game and audience? How will he pair with Michaels? But it’s certainly a booth with plenty of experience and credibility. I’ll be fascinated to see how the TNF presentation on Prime works out.

CBS is the only channel that remains the same, with the venerable Jim Nantz calling games and the extremely enthusiastic Tony Romo taking the color commentary.

For as much as people like to complain about announcers, I feel like this is the best slate of lead announcers we’ve had in a long, long time. I’m looking forward to this new era of broadcasting and hearing how their voices mesh with their networks’ presentation styles. And, of course, to the actual football itself.

Here’s to yet another fantasy football season filled with disappointment

Rarely do my teams perform well in fantasy football. I lucked into a championship once a few years ago, but in the league I’ve run for a decade and a half or longer, rarely have I even finished within the top half of my league.

This is coming from a person who fancies themself to be pretty knowledgeable about the sport of football. What’s funny is it always feels like the most successful teams in my league are run by the people who know the least about the sport. 

Perhaps you’ve noticed the same sort of phenomenon in your sports fandom. You put a ton of effort into filling out your March Madness bracket, only to have someone who knows absolutely nothing about college basketball pick their games based on which mascot they like more and end up crushing you in the point totals.

I feel like the same sort of thing happens with fantasy football. People who are so invested in the sport might overthink their decisions or try to get too cute. 

Or at least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself when my team underperforms yet again.

Last year, it was basically the fault of Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle and a few other high-profile players who spent a lot of time on the bench.

This year in my primary league, i feel like I’ve done pretty well for myself. We had our draft Tuesday night, I drafted in the third position, and I think I came away with a pretty good team. 

Which means come October I’ll probably be desperately trying to trade for anyone who can score points worth a damn.

On Wisconsin!

There may not be any Packer football this weekend to get excited about, but this DOES mark the first week of the season for the Wisconsin Badgers football team!

The Badgers host Illinois State on Saturday evening in a game that SHOULD be a pretty easy beatdown. The Badgers enter the year ranked number 18 and have a few tough games on their schedule this season, notably traveling to Columbus to play Ohio State on September 24th. 

Will the Badgers finally get more consistent quarterback play? Will the defense play up to its potential? We know they’re going to push people around and run the ball, but will the rest of the offense look like something out of this century?

No matter what, I’m looking forward to watching. I’ll actually be attending my first game in a decade this season when I return for Homecoming. I went to UW and attended every single home game during my four years there, but since the I’ve only been to, I believe, only one game, a couple years after I graduated. 

It won’t be the same student section experience, but I’m far too old for that these days. But it’ll be sort of like going home when I walk into Camp Randall for the first time in so long. It’s really an incredible gameday experience if you ever have the opportunity to check it out. There’s a reason why Madison consistently ranks among the best college sports towns in the nation!

Around the NFC North

Once again we’ll take a quick look around the NFC North at what the Packers’ rivals are doing.

• The CHICAGO BEARS claimed more players off waivers than any other team in the NFL. What does this say? Well, for one, it means the team was less satisfied than any other team in the NFL with the players it had on its roster with its initial cut to 53. It also means this is a team that likely still has a lot of roles in flux on its roster heading into the season. The team brought in six players off waivers (none being wide receivers), meaning there are at least six roster spots that have a bit of turbulence heading into the year.

• The DETROIT LIONS cut former Packer Tim Boyle, an unfortunate and premature end to the Tim Boyle Laser Show in the Motor City. They also cut David Blough, bringing in Nate Sudfeld as their new backup to Jared Goff. Outside of that, the Lions finished a reasonably entertaining run on HBO’s Hard Knocks and now hope to not be the worst team in the NFC North for once. They’ve got their work cut out for them.

• The MINNESOTA VIKINGS enter the season with strong expectations as always, largely due to the strength of their offensive skill positions. But if the Packers are a top-heavy roster, the Vikings are much, much more so. The Vikings have an excellent starting pair of wide receivers but little depth behind them. Cornerback depth is concerning, especially for a division that harbors Aaron Rodgers. Tight end depth is not great, and the team’s starter has 66 career catches. Even inside linebacker, despite the presence of Eric Kendricks, could be a weak spot. Finally, the team always has troubles with offensive line in recent years. Overall, there are still plenty of question marks for a team that fancies itself a contender. 

Welcome to September

It’s very difficult to believe the summer is basically behind us already. Today is September 1st. It’s my first day with students back in the classroom, which means summer is truly all but over for me. It’s the first day you’re reasonably allowed to have Oktoberfest on the shelves (I can’t believe these breweries putting it out there in July!!). The days are slowly starting to get shorter, the hot days are becoming fewer, and the smell of pumpkin spice has begun approaching.

Most important, though, is football is on the way. It feels like a lot of people place fall as their favorite season of the year. I’ve never been one of those people–the warmth and energy of summer are what make it my favorite time of year. But there’s something to be said for a great football game on a crisp fall day, with the leaves turning colors and a slight chill in the air. 

We may be in the final quarter of the year, but it’s only the first quarter of the NFL season. So crack open an Oktoberfest beer and give a toast to the season to come. 

One week til football

One week until the NFL season kicks off with the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills. Who could have predicted this being a premier, season-opening matchup five years ago? 

Seven more days until football that matters, and this is a great one to get things started. Can’t wait!