The Packer Report
 
Alright, the vote is in and the super bowl is moving North. On the top of many peoples list is Lambeau Field. If a cold winter atmosphere and historical presence then Green Bay is the city for the Super Bowl.

Green Bay can present some challenges for a Super Bowl. One, the people of Wisconsin are extremely huge Packer fans. They are also spread out vastly across the state. What I am saying is, unless the Packers go to the Super Bowl, a Lambeau Bowl would make it difficult for people to travel to the stadium from far away.

I suppose Packer fans in Wisconsin would still flock to a Super Bowl at lambeau due to the historic nature the event would present for the National Football League and the Green Bay Packers.

2014 will be held in New York, lets prey for 2015 or 2016 or even 2020 would be fine. Bring the Super Bowl where it belongs. Give the Lombardi away where it is most significant, Green Bay.
 
Pizzotti was released a few days ago for a Canadian football league quarterback Graham Harrel.

Graham Harrel has a freaking cannon. In two consecutive years he threw for over 5,000 passing yards at Texas Tech, an NCAA record. He also tied Colt Brennan's record of 147 college career touchdowns and broke the passing touchdown record of 131 with 134 touchdowns. Not to mention he is ranked number two in the all time NCAA record books for total passing yards in a college career.

I don't know why he went undrafted in 2009 but, he did. He participated at the Browns' rookie camp but did not sign. A Canadian Football League picked up Harrel on a 2 year contract.

Harrel obviously wanted a change of pace and to get out of Canada when earlier this year he accepted a coaching job at Oklahoma State University. Coaching is in his blood with a father that is the highest paid high school coach in Texas. Everyone knows how big high school football is in Texas, so its a big deal.

Now the Packers have signed Graham Harrel. I am under the impression that Harrel is planning to both coach at Oklahoma State while participating on the practice squad at Green Bay. This could be extremely strenuous for the young coach, however it could also be extremely beneficial. As he learns more and more about the game from his father and he himself being football coaches, he will also be improving his mechanics and ability to perform.

Harrel could be worth a lot down the road. I would love to see some stiff competition between him and Flynn. Competition will only invoke greatness out of the both of them. Aaron Rodgers will be the Packers quarterback for a very long time. Flynn and Harrel are there for if he goes down or for after we win the superbowl this year, we can trade them off for higher draft picks.
 
Packers at Eagles        24-13  win
Bills at Packers            34-6   win
Packers at Bears         17 - 14 win
Lions at Packers          48 - 17 win
Packers at Redskins    21 - 17 win
Dolphins at Packers     27 - 24 win
Vikings at Packers       23 - 21 win
Packers at Jets           14 - 24 loss
Cowboys at Packers    24 - 23 win
bye
Packers at Vikings      14 - 24 loss
Packers at Falcons      24 - 13 win
49ers at Packers          16 - 14 win
Packers at Lions          31 - 3 win
Packers at New England  27 - 32 loss
Giants at Packers         24 - 6 win
Bears at Packers         37 - 7 win

finishing record for the packers going into the playoffs

13 - 3
Yeah the numbers dont really have much reason to them, except i feel like we almost choke against the niners or falcons and snap into shape for the stretch. Tom Brady steals the win in the last seconds of the game at new england.

Good news is we dont play very many veteran quarter backs this year. Favre Twice, Brady and Matt Ryan.  We shut down Romo last year, and I dont concider Cutler a veteran or elite.
 
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  When Brett Favre originally left the Green Bay Packers, the task of leading the team was left in the hands of the young Aaron Rodgers. Though it took Brett Favre a year, he made it to a divisional rival of the Packers, the Minnesota Vikings.

In the NFC East, a similar situation has risen. Donavan McNabb, the longtime leader of the Eagles, has left to play for a divisional rival, the Washington Redskins.

Set aside the 16 years of continuous play through hand injuries, the death of his father, his wife’s battle with cancer, and whatever else Brett Favre had going on in his dramatic life, Donavan McNabb is pretty equal to Brett Favre on paper.

They played a difference of 107 games, which means McNabb played 58 percent of the games that Favre played, which is roughly half. Favre had 61,655 passing yards and McNabb has 32,873, which is a difference of 53 percent, also roughly half. McNabb also has 48 percent of the touchdown passes Favre threw. Finally, McNabb threw for 34 percent of the interceptions that Favre did.

In roughly half the amount of games Favre played, McNabb has accomplished just less than half of what Brett Favre had accomplished in his Packer career. The extreme difference in interceptions is McNabb's justification of the fact that he is slightly behind Favre’s pace in other areas.

The point is, McNabb was just as important to the Eagles as Favre was to the Packers. Now that McNabb has joined their divisional rival, can Kevin Kolb accomplish what Rodgers did in Green Bay after the departure of Favre?

Rodgers has played in only 39 games for the Packers which is 15 percent of the games that Favre had played for the Packers. Rodgers has 2.5 percent more completion percentage than Favre finished with. He has 14 percent of the passing yards, 13 percent of the passing touchdowns and seven percent of the interceptions that Brett Favre has. Not to mention the fact that Rodgers has already run in nine touchdowns and Favre only had 13 in his entire Packer career.

So Aaron Rodgers has been on par with Brett Favre thus far in his short time with the Packers, and has been much better with ball security as well as in rushing the ball. What exactly does Kevin Kolb have to accomplish statistically to successfully fill the void of McNabb? Well, all the percentage change that Aaron Rodgers has accomplished is what Kolb must accomplish, and here are the results:

In order for Kevin Kolb to have successfully filled the void of McNabb in the same fashion as Rodgers, he will need to finish off the 2010 season with a completion percentage greater than 60.4 percent, throw for over 2950 passing yards, complete at least 20 passing touchdowns, and throw less than six interceptions. If Kolb could manage to run a few in that would help too, considering McNabb ran in 28 touchdowns on the ground over the course of 148 games.

Is it realistic to think Kevin Kolb can accomplish these numbers? A lot of people said it wasn’t possible for Aaron Rodgers, and I think we all realize he’s doing just fine. Aaron Rodgers has an extremely young team surrounding him going into the season next year. Most of this young team was on the playoff bound 2009 squad, and they are ready to give this thing another run of it.

The Eagles also have a young squad. Cutting older, yet productive, players like McNabb and Westbrook shows that they are committed to creating a team from the ground up. So both the Packers and the Eagles have similar teams in the fact that they are young, talented, and full of potential.

The first obstacle that blocks Kevin Kolb’s road to greatness just happens to be Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. The consensus as of now around the sports community is that the Packers will be winning hands down in the season opener, especially because it is Kolb’s first game as the starting quarterback for the Eagles. Though, unlike Aaron Rodgers, Kolb had started a few games for McNabb due to injury before he became the official starter of the team.

I would love for Kevin Kolb to be able to develop into an excellent franchise quarterback. However, the odds are definitely stacked against him, as the numbers that I believe he must meet to consider his goal accomplished are not easy to come by.

Aaron Rodgers played excellent football in 2008, however, the team just could not win games, losing several in overtime. After leadership was established and things started flowing with the dangerous Packer offense, they had finished the 2009 season with an 11-5 record.

Similar things could happen with Kevin Kolb and the Eagles; I think they will be a tough team to beat in the upcoming years but, until we see Kolb in action it is hard to tell. 
By Brandon Long
Featured on Bleacher Report

 
  Who will fill the enormous shoes of the 12-year Green Bay Packers veteran wide receiver, Donald Driver?

This is the question everyone has been asking throughout Packer Nation. The next Driver needs to have character and loyalty to Packer Nation, along with the on-field abilities to make jaw-dropping plays.

So, is James Jones ready? If Driver left today, could the 2007 NFL Draft third-round pick Jones step up to the plate?

Jones grew up in San Jose, Calif., a Gunderson High School Grizzly. He ran track, played basketball, and was the star quarterback on the Grizzly football team.

Every one of the 800 or so students at Gunderson High received a Mac Book Pro in 2009, so I’m going to guess there is a good bit of money to be spent around there.

Let’s be serious, a school isn’t going to give a hoodlum a free laptop, so I think Jones’ character should be solid coming out of high school, and is one that has stuck with him since arriving in the NFL.

The fact that Jones played football throughout high school as the “star” quarterback shows that he should have a strong knowledge of the game.

Jones played three years of good football at San Jose State, where he flew under the radar until his senior year. That's when something happened.

In 2006, Jones made his name with 70 receptions for 893 yards, and 10 touchdowns. Jones helped lead San Jose to the New Mexico Bowl, where he caught seven passes for 106 yards, and two touchdowns. This earned him the game's offensive MVP honor, along with a second team All-WAC selection, and an invite to the NFL combine.

At the combine, Jones shined as the strongest wide receiver there, and in the draft.

Jones tied the combine's wide receiver bench-press record in 2007, with 22 reps at 225 pounds. He ran a 4.54 40-yard dash with a vertical jump of 34.

In comparison to the NFL Pro Day held about three weeks later, everything was the same, however, his broad jump increased seven inches from 9’11” to 10’6”. I’d say this is an impressive result coming into the draft.

So in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers selected Jones.

In 2007, Jones was looking at a similar schedule to this years.

That year, Jones made his NFL debut in the Packers' season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, but he didn’t get his first taste of an NFL end zone until Week Four, when he caught a Brett Favre pass against the Minnesota Vikings.

In 2008, Jones was inactive for five weeks with a sprained knee. So with 10 games played with only two starts on the season, it showed that Jones needed to be healthy, or it's not going to work out in Green Bay. With only 20 receptions and 274 yards, it looked as though maybe Jones wasn’t the guy, placing sixth on the team.

On Dec. 14, 2008, in Jacksonville, Fla., and at the prime of his health during the season, Jones racked up 132 yards including receptions of 46, 40, and 34 yards. This included a highlight reel-worthy juggling catch, while keeping his feet inbounds, and battling against safety Reggie Nelson for 40 yards.

Last season, Jones was back to full health, but he  didn’t maintain a starting position over vets Driver and Greg Jennings. Jones started just three games, and posted 32 receptions for 440 yards. He tied for second on the team with five touchdown receptions.

One game where Jones came to play last season was against Tampa Bay. In the opening drive, QB Aaron Rodgers dropped a bomb to Jones that allowed him to break free for a 74-yard touchdown pass. The last time something similar happened, was when Favre connected with Antonio Freeman for an 80-yard TD in 1998.

In the playoffs, Jones he showed that he can be consistent on long plays in shoot-out situations. He posted only three catches in the Packers' Wild Card game against the Arizona Cardinals, with an average of 16.7 yards, and a total of 50 yards. He made a late game “spinning catch," similar to what Jennings did against Pittsburgh, and took the ball from the 25 in for a 30-yard touchdown.

Now let's analyze all of this info for a second.

The question is weather or not Jones could fill the shoes of Driver if he had to tomorrow. Though this is an extremely promising resume, one would have to say no.

The injuries and inconsistency Jones showed in the 2008 season is the main reason for doubting him.

Driver doesn’t miss a beat. If he does miss a beat, he still plays amazing football when he is on the field. Jones had a chance to show us this same attribute, and did not. In two out of his three seasons as a member of the Green Bay Packers, Jones has looked to be just waiting to blossom.

Jones has shown the flashes of greatness that the Packers need from him, but he needs to be more consistent.

If Jones makes  much of an impact on the 2010 season as he did last year, then I will feel much more comfortable than I do right now with him taking the field as the team's No. 2 wide receiver.

By Brandon Long
Featured on Bleacher Report
 
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The entire Packer community already knows about their two 1000+ yard receivers in Greg Jennings and Donald Driver, their 1000+ yard rusher in Ryan Grant, and the 3000+ yards of cannon power delivered by the next legend of Lambeau, Aaron Rodgers. Despite the o-line issues from last year, which I am confident have been solved, the Packers are one well rounded team, especially when we talk about the receivers.

Of course, the name on the tips of everyone’s tongue is Jermichael Finely. In the beginning of the 2009 season it was still not clear weather Finely or Lee would win the starting tight end position.

Finely got the chance and prove him self only to be injured and forced to sit for three games. He came back, and by the end of the season, he was the biggest threat on the field in a wild card shoot out in Arizona. With nearly 700 yards and 5 touchdowns, it is not a stretch to think that in 2010 the Packers could have a third thousand yard player on the field with tight end Jermichael Finely.

Now, don’t get me wrong with all this Finely hype, I know the weapons the Pack have at tight end are still there with Spencer Havner and Donald Lee. Havner has been having a few off the field issues, but if he keeps his act clean he will likely take the second tight end position from Donald Lee. I think hands down, this is the deepest group of tight ends in the league.

Now lets look at the wide receivers, other than Driver and Jennings. I mean, we all know how amazing these guys are and I don’t care what anyone says, Driver still has it all. He is aging, but with a one handed grab using his helmet against Tampa Bay last year, and again the thousand yards receiving as his proof, he will be here for a while.

Jordy Nelson and James Jones are the two guys looking to fill Drivers shoes once he decides to hang up his pads. For now, I am sure the two of them are perfectly fine playing behind the legendary Packer.

James Jones came on as a starter in 2007 for the Packers, and has been extremely consistent with the packers ever since his first NFL touchdown against the Vikings from the arm of Brett Favre in his last season in Green Bay.

Jordy Nelson was picked up during the 2008 draft with a trade to the Jets, the same time Jermichael Finely was added to the group. His first year he posted 366 yards and 2 touchdowns, and performed roughly the same in 2009.

Nelson is consistent and under the radar so, if the packers stack the field, Nelson may be left wide open in comparison to Driver, Jones, and Jennings.

James Jones had 440 receiving yards with 5 touchdowns last year. Jordy Nelson picked up 322 with only 2 touchdowns. Keep in mind, he averaged 14.5 yards a play. Basically if the packers need a first down, get it to Nelson.

That is seven combined touchdowns from the three and four receivers, seven to Finely, a couple to Havner and Lee, six touchdowns to Driver, and four to Jennings, not to mention two more passing touchdowns to John Kuhn. Every single eligible receiver will catch the ball and every eligible receiver will score.

With a newly beefed up offensive line that should give Aaron Rodgers more time to use any weapon he chooses, including his feet or the feet of Ryan Grant, who is in his prime, the possibilities are endless for this offense.

With Driver, Jennings, Finely, Lee, and Jones all on the field at one time, what is a defense supposed to do? This is my argument for why the Packers will have the most potent receiving corps in the 2010 NFL season and due to the fact that the ball is spread almost equally throughout their many weapons, the Packers will have one of the most productive and unpredictable offenses in the NFL.

By Brandon Long
Featured on Bleacher Report