RIP A.J. HAWK

A.J. Hawk from behind

I want to start off by saying that former Packer linebacker A.J. Hawk is a fine individual and consummate professional. So, so long, and good luck (unless you end up with the Vikings or Bears) with your new team. I never hated you as a person, but had a major problem with you as a player. I will leave it at that.

 

Hawk was drafted No. 5 overall in the 2006 draft as General Manager's second No. 1 draft pick and played in 144 of 146 games while starting 136 over nine seasons with the Packers. If he was anything, he was durable.

 

Hawk had 100+ tackles in seven of his nine seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2010 - the Super Bowl year. He led the team in tackles five times tying him with Nick Barnett for the franchise lead (since 1975 when tackling stats began to be kept by the Packers - it wouldn't happen league wide until 2001).

 

Some want to say Hawk would be thought of differently if he had been chosen at, let's say, No. 24 in the first round or maybe in the second. That might be true and I've said before his career would rank up there with best if statistics are considered on their own. He finished this phase of his career as the Packers All-Time leading tackler with 1,118 eclipsing John Anderson (1978-89) by 98. But statistics alone don't tell the whole story and, in the case of Hawk, this has never more true.

ONE STEP FORWARD AND MAYBE TWO STEPS BACK

I am singing the praises of General Manager Ted Thompson (and anyone who knows me is aware of how much effort it takes for me to do that) with the release of the great pretender nine-year starting linebacker A.J. Hawk. In fact, when I started to write this joyous post my document crashed and I lost it. Now that shows how much I hate praising Thompson.

 

As I was driving back from a high school regional boys basketball game I was covering for a great metropolitan newspaper I heard on ESPN radio about Hawk being cut. I started singing, "Ding, Dong, the Hawk is gone." Thank goodness I was in the middle of nowhere, because I'm sure I would have been pulled over for being creating a driving hazard. I have been the leader of the "Dump Hawk" movement for at least five years.

 

Brad Jones & A.J. Hawk

I have intense feelings about the career of A. J. Hawk. He came out of Linebacker U (Ohio State) as the fifth pick in the Ted Thompson's second draft. Being drafted that high Hawk immediately became a starter at right outside linebacker. He remained on the outside his second season and moved to middle linebacker in 2008 when Nick Barnett was hurt.

 

He remained inside in 2009 when the Packers changed to a 3-4 defense. He has been a starter since his first year and has been extremely durable missing just two games and only six starts. His only missed games came in the middle of the 2011 season with a calf injury. Even last year he ended up playing in all 16 games, starting 13, despite being benched in game 9 when Clay Matthews was moved inside. He previously missed two starts in 2009 and one in 2010 and those must have been because Capers opened the game with a passing defensive alignment).

INTEREST HEATING UP FOR COBB

Randall Cobb

It seems someone does love Randall Cobb and I'm afraid its not the Packers. Reports today (Feb. 24) are the Raiders have put out the welcome mat for the Packers' No. 1B wide receiver/slot receiver/halfback, who was coming off an injury plagued season where he missed 10 games in the middle of the season with a broken shin only to put up big numbers during his contract year with career highs of 91 catches, 1,287 yards and 12 touchdowns.

 

The lack of movement on a new contract during the season was curious considering Cobb was going to attract attention and his demand of $9 million contract is very reasonable and isn't a budget buster. Thompson will have around $30 million cap money to spend and maybe more when he purges the roster of the expensive deadwood (i.e. hopefully Count Hawkula), so what's the deal?

 

First, it seems Thompson saw an $8 million saving when rookie wide receiver Davante Adams moved up the depth chart leaping over Jarrett Boykin to claim the No. 3 spot and then turning it up a notch at the end of the regular season and in the playoffs proving he could be the go-to man on the outside when Jordy Nelson was being double-teamed. I think that is the reason no contract talks were started during the season.

BOSTICK GETS HIS DUE

The personnel moves have begun and to no one's surprise (at least I don't think anyone should have been surprised) one of the goats from the NFC Conference Championship game tight end Brandon Bostick was cut.

Brandon Bostick

 

Bostick came in with a lot of promise, but never developed - in part because of various injuries (a broken foot that ended his 2013 season. He started them 2014 season with a leg injury and later missed two games with a hip injury) into a first or second team player.

 

However, another aspect of his inability to move up the depth chart was demonstrated early in the season when rookie Richard Rodgers was benched before the third game of the season - a loss to the Lions - and Bostick didn't fill the void.

 

What was reported was while Rodgers had a bad day at the blocking office Bostick also had a bad day on special teams (foreshadowing) with two penalties, so he didn't take a snap against the Lions. The explanation was his practice habits didn't warrant playing time.

TED THOMPSON'S FIRST YEAR

Ted Thompson

I kept waiting for someone to notice that I left out General Manager Ted Thompson's first year at Green Bay in my last two posts, but nobody did or nobody cared, so here's why I did that.

 

I wanting to devote an entire post to just his first season after he was hired in January of 2005 and here it is.

 

It was said at the time that Thompson went to the powers that be after the season and said he couldn't work with Sherman, who was ignoring him the whole season. I guess that could have been the case, but I felt at the time that decision had already been made when Thompson was hired. I was surprised he didn't fire him immediately, so they wasted a year in getting the new front office on its feet.

 

Let's look at his first official act of signing rookie free agents for mini-camp. Not a single player of the 22 signed made the team. Not unusual for rookie free agents around the league, but as it turns out unusual for Thompson. One of his hallmarks is finding undrafted rookie free agents that end up making the team for a cheap rate. So I give Thompson a minor negative on his first official act.

 

Next up was designating TE Bubba Franks as a transition player. Bubba had been the go-to guy in the red zone for Brett Favre over his first five seasons starting almost every game and catching 28 touchdowns, including 27 the previous four years. But he only caught four touchdowns over the next three seasons after signing the big transition contract, including going on injured reserve with a neck injury after only 10 games in 2005. He was released after the 2007 season and joined Favre with the Jets in 2008, but even that didn't revive his career and he was released after eight games. So I give Thompson a BIG NEGATIVE on his second official act.

TED THOMPSON'S FREE AGENT RETENTIONS AND LOSSES, PART 1

Nothing of major importance has happened since yesterday, except the release of a brain dead tight end and an often-injured wide receiver, so I will go on with my analysis of General Manager Ted Thompson's foray into free agency, or as I like to call it "the black hole" part of the NFL off-season.

Yesterday I talked about the signing of free agents and I left someone out of the 2014 signee class of two. I had listed zero free agents signed and technically that was true. I added Julius Peppers, even though he really was a waiver wire pickup since he had been cut, but I forgot to add nose tackle Letroy Guion (another waiver wire acquisition). Both signings were a plus and should have been added to the positive side of Thompson's ledger.

Peppers signed a three-year deal with a high cap number for 2015 and 2016, so his contract has to be addressed this off-season. Guion signed a one-year deal and his status (he was a major plus last season) is up in the air because of his arrest on drug and gun charges. We'll have to see how that plays out and how righteous the Packers will be on players with legal problems.

So now to the topic at hand. Players retained, players lost through free agency or being cut. Did they start on their new teams or did they pull a General MacArthur and just fade away? Let's see how he's done over the years.

2006: The Packers lost six players to free agency.

1. RB Tony Fisher signed with St. Louis after four years with the Packers. He was an undrafted free agent and nothing more than a second-string backup (60g-5st; 235 rushes for 880 yards and 4 TDs. and he only spent one year with the Rams appearing in eight games with six rushes for nine yards...Serviceable backup, but no big loss.

Free Agency and Ted Thompson

It seems General Manager Ted Thompson feels good about letting Randall Cobb hit free agency. I've got a problem with that for two reasons. It will drive up the price if the Packers do re-sign him, but more importantly Cobb will end up signing elsewhere.

 

Randal Cobb

 

Thompson pre-empted Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson when it was their time to test the free agent waters and ended up with relative sweetheart deals. He could have done the same with Cobb as most reports kept saying Cobb was waiting for the front office to make a move and most Packers want to remain Packers.

 

From the lack of contract I have to conclude the development of Davante Adams has caused Cobb to be expendable. Like I said I have a problem with that. Except for the broken shin Cobb has been a durable player and last year took the step to become a superstar. In the Packer offense there is a need for three No. 1 receivers and right now before Cobb walks (and I think the odds are better than 75 percent he will and much to my chagrin will probably end up in Seattle to replace Percy Harvin) leaving just two.

B.J. Raji

The recent trials and tribulations (maybe I'm jumping the gun on the term trials) of nose tackle Letroy Guion brings me to one of my favorite subjects, B.J. Raji.

 

I love him as a person and loved him as a high draft choice when I saw how much power he had to manhandle a center when crushing the pocket as a nose tackle. Now that is important to remember he was a great nose tackle coming out of Boston College and a good nose tackle his first two years in Green Bay.

 

Raji's first year was also the first year Dom Capers took over the defense. The Packers moved Aaron Kampman to outside linebacker (which turned out to be a disaster and basically ended Kampman's career) when Capers converted to the 3-4.

 

Raji made one start as a backup to Ryan Pickett at nose with Johnny Jolly at left end and Cullen Jenkins at right end. He played in 14 games and made 25 combined tackles with one sack. I think he had a good rookie season.

His second season Raji took over at nose tackle as Pickett was moved to left defensive end. It was also the year Jolly got in trouble and Jenkins had injury issues eventually giving way to Howard Green, who had a great game in the Super Bowl. But I digress, as I seem to do at times or maybe many times.

 

Raji came into his own during the Super Bowl season starting all 16 games at nose tackle with 39 combined tackles and 6.5 sacks. He intercepted a pass in the conference playoff game against the Bears (picking off Jay Cutler's replacement after he suffered the mysterious knee injury and sat out the remainder of the game. Typical Cutler response when he is having a bad game, but again, I digress) and scoring a touchdown where "The Raji" celebration dance was born. Check out the clip of his touchdown or his guest appearance on an Aaron Rodger's State Farm commercial. He's the man.

 

 

Touchdown Dance

Peyton Manning

An interesting scenario seems to be forming along the corridor between Mile High Stadium and Soldier Field.
 

Over the weekend quarterback Peyton Manning was reported to have told John Elway that he was healthy and willing to return to the Broncos for another season.

(US Presswire)

 It wasn't a surprise to me. I said all along that Manning was going to return whether or not he was on one leg and possessed half a throwing arm. Manning is all about "me" and that means records and he wants to retire the holder of every passing record, which would mean breaking all of Brett Favre's records.

 

He broke Favre's record for touchdown passes this past season (530 to 508) and will break the yardage record (needing 2,148 yards and he will do that easily in the first eight games) next season. So reason one to return.

 

Now I will digress for a rant. There are two people that gripe my butt as far as breaking records. No. 1 A pretender like A. J. Hawk breaking a truly great outside linebacker John Anderson's Packer record for tackles. More on that later. No. 2 Peyton Manning break the touchdown passes record.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART ISA

This will be my 10th post since starting this enterprise and to celebrate this event you get lucky. Every 10th post will be a hodgepodge of interesting (hopefully) little tidbits of stories around (and sometimes very far around) and about the Green Bay Packers.

 

So to begin what from now on will be called "From the Sublime to the Ridiculous" is a story about a couple who bought a genuine Vince Lombardi sweater at a thrift shop for $.58. I would call that sublime.





The Sublime

It seems a man named Sean McEvoy from North Carolina was watching a documentary on Vince Lombardi when he noticed Coach Lombardi was wearing a sweater that looked like one they had purchased from a local thrift shop. The wife remembered a name tag and it turned out it was that sweater and it was appraised at $20,000. The only decision they have to make is to sell it on ebay or donate it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Why can't I be that lucky? I can tell you I don't buy clothes at thrift shops. Maybe I should begin to? But maybe not I'm not that lucky.

Brett Favre, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, The Gunslinger

The long nightmare of Brett Favre's mouth seems to have finally come to a close. Don't get me wrong. I love the man, the myth, the legend, the gunslinger, the greatest Packers quarterback (by statistical analysis), the face of the Packers, the man who brought the team out of the Wilderness Years and made Green Bay relevant again.

 

I watch the games in my town in what is now known as a Bears bar. This makes watching the games a Maalox event because Bears fans are absolutely the worst people (even worse than Seahawks fans only because they have been at it longer) to watch games with in general and to be a Packerbacker in the same room with them. They go out of their way to hurl insults at us when we just want to watch the game and don't make comments about them (unless provoked, since I have been known to make comments back, but only if hurled at first).

 

Anyway the excellence that is Favre (interceptions withstanding) seemed to have really got under their fur. Anti-Favre comments are the majority of their insults, but since he left they seem to have settled on just insults in general.

 

But I digress again. A little more historical context. I'm not a fan of Ted Thompson (the list of many reasons will be another rant) and I felt (seems I'm in the minority on this one) he wasted Favre's last years, especially the 2007 season when we lost to the Giants in overtime at Lambeau.

New Packer Coaching Staff

The off-season of our discontent finally bore fruit today when Coach Mike McCarthy unveiled his 2015-16 coaching staff. I can't say I'm very excited about the moves, but...well, let's leave it at that for the moment.

First let's look at my checklist for the coaching staff this off-season.

1. Fire Special Teams Coach Shawn Slocum. (Check). This needed to be
   done years ago. While I'm more than happy Slocum is gone, I'm less than
   happy his assistant has been elevated to the job. Mmmmm, I think I've
   seen this movie before. When was it? Mmmmmm, Oh, yeh. It was on Jan.
   13, 2009 when a certain Shawn Slocum was promoted to take over for the
   retired or fired Bob Stock after spending three years as his assistant. Ron
   Zook has only been Slocum's assistant for one season, so maybe his
   incompetence hasn't stuck on him yet. My opinion is just making a change
   at the top is not enough. Someone from outside is needed to replace a terrible special teams unit that has been bad for a decade. (Uncheck).
2. Fire Mike McCarthy play caller. (Check). McCarthy's second half conservatism has irked me for many years. I can literally tell what will happen after halftime and I've been right. When the offense has been on afterburners in the first half it grinds to a halt in the second half - not because of defensive adjustments, but because of McCarthy starting to run out the clock on the first offensive series of the third quarter. Hooray!!!!
   Tom Clements taking over may or may not be a good thing, but I'll give him a chance. (Still check).
3. Fire Dom Capers. (Uncheck). PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make it 3-for-3. I'm waiting, but I'm not holding my breath. If Capers was to fired t then we would know it. But adding a new assistant coach and no announcement means I will end up 2-for-3. I hate being 2-for-3. (Future no
   check).

 

Warren Sapp

I said I would get back to the current off-season maneuvers by Coach Mike McCarthy and General Manager Ted Thompson (although I guess I may have to wait for the draft to get any action out of Thompson), but another story caught my eye and I just have to comment about the trials and tribulations of one Warren Sapp.

 

I don't dislike many players I've never met who never did anything to me personally, but in the case of Warren Sapp I totally, down to my core, hate the man. I'm not a fan of Deion Sanders because of his immense ego and I do not like Michael Irvin (for his cocaine use and his huge and growing ego and the fact he got away with offensive pass interference every time he played the Packers - sometimes right in front of the refs - and the fact a cocaine addict was inducted into the Hall of Fame), but I don't hate them.

 

In the case of Warren Sapp I have no problem hating the man, so in my mind what has happened to him made me smile. If anyone deserves misfortune and ridicule Warren Sapp does.

 

For those of you who are new to Packers (at least new since Nov. 24, 2002) Warren Sapp blindsided Chad Clifton on an interception severely separating his pelvis. After the game Coach Mike Sherman made a point to confront Sapp and say "cheap shot, mother....." and Sapp responded, "If you're so tough put on a jersey." I had my problems with Sherman, but for what he did that day he will always be on my list of great men. As far as Sapp is concerned I agree with Sherman he's a "cheap shot artist" on the field and small man for many reasons off the field. And he's now proven me right.

Back from the Great Depression

It's been eight days since the Super Bowl and I'm just beginning - and I do mean beginning - to come out of my Great Depression following the Great McCarthy Collapse.

 

As I watched the Patriots luck out a win I couldn't help to comment to the other Packerbackers I was watching the game with that the Packers would have won their fifth Lombardi Trophy. I was immediately shut down and told not to go there. But I did. The Packers would have beat the Patriots. I have no doubt.

 

So knowing that fact I'm still in a depressed mood and will be for some time. Normally I could dwell in the shadow of the Valley of Death until the draft, but thanks to McCarthy we have stuff to talk about. And I would have been talking about the firing of the special teams coach and the possible relinquishing of the play playing by the man himself other matters were settled today in the NFL and I feel compelled to comment on them first.

 

Today Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy's appeal of his conviction of domestic abuse was dismissed because the hittee wouldn't pursue the matter. While it's bad enough this sad excuse for a man gets to resume his career at some point after - in his mind - being found not guilty, it says more to the sad state of the modern woman in our society.

 

Ever since the women's liberation movement and all the gains women have won as they escaped the home and entered the business world comes crashing down because of women like Hardy's whatever she was or Ray Rice's fiancée and all the women and girls who work the sex trade as strippers or online sex girls - I'm not counting actual prostitutes because...well for this argument that end of the spectrum is left off the table - and the entire trillion dollar legitimate women's industry.