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
