Packers Updates & Other News

Packers ILB Nick Barnett has been participating more and more in training camp lately. He apparently by all accounts has been looking for contact with offensive lineman. Via Twitter and Locker Room interviews this off season Nick Barnett has been chomping at the bit to get back in there and play.

The Green Bay Packers have already landed in Arizona to play their game vs the Cardinals. Should be a good contest even though its preseason.

Rookie OLB Clay Matthews, and 2nd year QB Matt Flynn are basically day by day and are being held out from contact right now. Probably more for being cautious.

Rookie DL B.J. Raji continues to participate with the 2nd team defense. Will he start come week 1 or will the current depth chart change?

Veteran ILB AJ Hawk has been rotated or replaced with both Desmond Bishop and Brandon Chillar. Particularly with the Nickel Defenses. It looks like AJ Hawk may be on his way out in GB. I see AJ Hawk as a guy who is more about Run Defense, and not Pass Coverage or Blitzing. In my eyes, AJ Hawk is not your complete LB. And as soon as a guy comes along with the strength, speed, coverage ability, blitzing ability and run stopping ability (a nice combination) I expect AJ Hawk to be tossed aside as soon as the Packers find a more complete ILB to compliment veteran LB Nick Barnett. When AJ Hawk first came in he played on Special Teams and started at LB. He totaled 155 tackles between Defense and Special Teams leading me to believe he was a young stud LB who only had room to improve. Now that a few seasons have passed, I no longer see Hawk in that same light.

In other news:

Brett Favre of the Vikings (ugh) seems to have a few teammates who do not support him as their starting QB. Apparently their is a small 'faction' of players in the locker room who do not approve of him and would rather see QB Tarvaris Jackson as their starter instead. Maybe even QB Sage Rosenfels. This has both been reported and refuted. It seems that their might be some controversy there.

Also laced with some controversy is QB Jay Cutler of the Bears. Apparently he has stated that he wants to have the final say on who stays on the team and who goes. Weather this report is true or not I can not say for sure. I am not in their club house.

So if the Vikings have some controversy and the Bears have some controversy (distractions) and the Lions probability being very low of doing anything good - it surely seems like the Packers may have the edge at this point. Only time will tell.

Micheal Vick looked solid in his Eagles debut last night. He looked solid throwing the ball and running the offense. However, I do have a little concern. I am beginning to wonder if the Eagles are going to continue playing McNabb and Vick at QB back and fourth like that and running strange offenses like they did last night all year long? If so, that could create some confusion. I surely was very confused by what I was watching last night. I did not know who was playing QB from one play to the next. Could this create a problem that the Eagles have not thought about? We'll see as the season pans out.

This 'Titanic TV' at the new Cowboys Stadium is stirring up some controversy as well. During pre game warm ups a punter was seen intentionally punting the ball to hit the screen. This could create a huge problem and in fact, it already has. Many people want them to either raise it or remove it. Interesting. Lets just wait for it to fall down. That would make for a really good 'reality tv' video.