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Scouring the internet there are a couple stories that pop out today.

There are two articles today about how McCarthy is adapting to becoming a married man again; Striking a Match (JS Online) and Family Life, Green Bay a Good Fit For McCarthy (Wisinfo.com). Both of these articles came as a surprise to me since I didn’t even know McCarthy recently got married. Supposedly McCarthy and his new wife (Jessica) got married shortly after the NFC Championship game. The articles are good reads if you are interested in finding out a little more about the leader of the Pack off the football field.

There is also an article about the Packers recently attending Kevin Jones workout. For all the details check out Lions Amoung Four Teams at Jones Workout (Detroit Free Press). It actually seems like the Packers have some genuine interest in acquiring Kevin Jones. According to the articl it seems like Kevin Jones has done a good job rehabilitating from his knee injury last season. If you really want to you could probably come up with many reasons why the Packers are interested in Kevin Jones. Some Packer fans are already worrying that this means that the Ryan Grant contract talks aren’t going well. I don’t beleive this at all. It would be stupid for the Packers and Ryan Grant not to reach an agreement. The Packers need Grat and Grant needs the Packers. I would be shocked if both sides don’t come to an agreement before training camp. I think the Packers are mostly showing interest in order to do their due diligence. Jones could also provide the Packers with another threat at the running back and he would also improve our pass catching out of the backfield. Despite interest being shown I would be surprised if the Packers actually signed Kevin Jones.

Yesterday I wrote a post about the Jason Taylor trade. It seems the chances of the trade happening have now become even slimmer. According to a source close to Jason Taylor he isn’t interested in coming to Green Bay at this point. Supposedly there are a couple reasons why he doesn’ want to come here. First we are kind of a dead zone for his acting career. He is preferring going to a team near California or Florida so he can work on his acting career in his spare time. Obviously Green Bay is not a hotspot for acting talent. Another thing that is working against the Packers (as far as Taylor’s concerned) is that we aren’t in a big TV market. Actually I believe we are in the smallest TV market in the league. He is concerned about this due to his acting career as well. The final thing Taylor doesn’t like about the Packers is that he doesn’t want to go through another transition from a hall of fame QB. He played three years with Dan Marino and then had to spend the rest of his career with the Dolphins trying to replace Marino, unsucessfully.For the full details check out this JS Online article.

If the Packers hope to get Jason Taylor they are going to have to convince him to want to come to Green Bay. There are several reasons why Taylor should want to come to Green Bay. While Green Bay obviously isn’t an acting hotspot, Taylor could improve his image and get his name out there for two seasons before he goes into acting. The Packers are a very good team and should win a bunch of games this season. This means that there will be more press coverage of the team which means Taylor will also get more attention. The Packers also have four prime time games which always leads to more attention for all the players. Finally I can see that he might have concerns about Rodgers after all the QB problems in Miami but I think he is overreacting on how much it will affect the team. The Packers aren’t a team based on one player. We probably have the best depth in the entire league and we are stacked all over the field. Even if Rodger does have some troubles the Packers are still a very good team.

If the Packers want Taylor somone from the team (McCarthy, Thompson, Rodger, etc.) needs to talk with Taylor and convince him that Green Bay is a good choic to end out his career and that his acting career won’t be put on hold if he does decide to come to Green Bay.

This latest news does put it in question whether I still want Jason Taylor. If he doesn’t want to come to Green Bay should we even want him. I am not going to answer this question but I would love it if some people would leave their opinions on it.

The hot rumor going on around the internet the last two days has been that Jason Taylor might be traded to the Green Bay Packers. This same trade was talked about around the draft and nothing came out of it. While I am not counting out the possibility of it happening, I wouldn’t get my hopes up just yet since many things need to be worked out yet. While I wouldn’t rule out the trade yet, a lot needs to happen if this trade is going to happen.

I can see at least four things getting in the way of this deal getting done. The first is whether Jason Taylor actually wants to play in Green Bay. If that is not the case there really is no reason to trade for him since he probably won’t give his all. The second concern is that he is going to want a raise. If a trade would happen the Packers would have to be willing to pay him more than he is currently getting. The Packers have a bunch of cap space but everyone knows that Thompson is pretty thrifty with his money. The first two concerns probably won’t affect the trade getting done but the final two will have a huge impact on the trade overall. They also make an impact on one another. The last two concerns are compensation for Taylor and how much longer is Taylor willing to play. It has been rumored that Taylor only wants to play one more season. If that is the case it will really impact the trade. Obviously we won’t be as willing to give up as much if Taylor only wants to play one season. If he is willing to play more than one season the Packers would be willing to give up more in order to get him.

So what do I think about the trade? I think the addition of Taylor could make the Packers defense one of the best in the league. Just imagine a defensive line on passing plays of KGB, Jenkins, Kampman, and Taylor. That would be a QB pressure machine. Taylor would really help the Packers defense but I only want him at a fair price. If Taylor is willing to only play one more season at max I would give up a 3rd round pick or a player (players like Ruvell Martin, Abdul Hodge, etc.)/pick combination. If we can get a guarentee of some sort for two or more seasons I would look into giving up a second round pick. I doubt this trade will ever work but if it does don’t expect it to be finished until just before training camp.

So what do you think about the posibility of a Jason Taylor trade? Do you even want him on the Packers roster and if so how much would you be willing to give up if he only plays one season or more than one season. Feel free to leave a comment with your own feelings about the trade.

The last two days I have been in Green Bay attending the two mini camps. While fans were only able to see about an hour of practice each day I would have to say I am pretty pleased that I went. It was nice to finally see the inside of the Don Hutson center (it looks huge once you get inside it). Also being in the Don Hutson center, fans got to get much closer to the action (probably about 10-15 feet between the fans and players). While I couldn’t see the whole practice I will still give some observations on the practices and there are some pictures from the practice at the bottom of the page.

• I don’t have anything to say about the special teams play since the kickers and punters practiced outside when fans where inside the Don Hutson center. Jon Ryan did spend some time chatting up the refs during practice (see picture below).
• I also don’t have a whole lot to say about the defense since for the most part they practiced on the other side of the Don Hutson center. From the couple team drills I saw I could tell that the Packers defense seems to be much more aggressive this season. Defensive players were all over the field making plays. One more thing to add is that Nick Collins is still the starter at safety even though I have heard that Rouse is right on his tail.
• Rodgers seems to have good control over the huddle already and he made some really nice passes as well. He did miss a couple passes though but I believe these kinks will be worked out when Rodgers develops more chemistry with his WR’s. You can already tell Rodgers has a connection with Driver since he made several nice passes to Driver.
• I saw some good and bad things from Brohm. He made some nice throws but you can tell that he needs to work on his accuracy and he also needs to develop more chemistry with the WRs. Brohm did show he is pretty good at scrambling since he got safely out of the pocket and gained some yards on a blitz play. I also got to chat with Brohm’s parents a little (they actually were standing behind me and my family watching the practice). According to his mother, Brohm is really happy that he was picked by the Packers.
• All I can say about Matt Flynn is that he is a project. At this point I believe he needs work on both his accuracy and arm strength. He did improve in the second practice. If Flynn somehow would have to play this season the Packers are in a lot of trouble. Matt Flynn probably needs at least two seasons of development to even be the backup for the Packers.
• As far as the RBs go there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. Ryan Grant didn’t practice again since he is without a contract. By how he was acting at practice it does seem like he is getting close to a contract. The only other running back I have to comment on is Brandon Jackson. I would have to say I am quite impressed with how much he has improved from last season. He seems much faster, chooses his lanes quicker, and he just looks stronger all the way around. I expect Brandon Jackson to be a very good #2 this season.
• As far as WRs go you can tell that they are a tight group. Driver, Jennings, Jones, and Martin were pretty much fooling around the during both practices. They were still doing what they were expected to do but they were just goofing around in their waiting time. As far as the young receivers I don’t have a ton to say. I couldn’t see much of Jordy Nelson since he always lined up on the other side of the field. Jordy Nelson is a lot bigger than I expected though. He is much taller than I expected. It looked like he ran nice routes and he looks sure handed. As far as Brett Swain goes he seems to be a very average receiver. He doesn’t seem that bad in any aspect of his game but he also doesn’t seem to have any strengths either.
• As far as TE’s go there isn’t much to say about Donald Lee and Tory Humphrey. I will have to say Tory Humphrey will have to work for his job this training camp since he has some competition for his job. Jermicheal Finley looks to be a great TE in the future. He is huge. He might be the biggest TE I have ever seen. He also seems to be very sure handed. Two undrafted TE’s also impressed me. Joey Haynos seems to be a well rounded TE. He is pretty short for a TE but he has pretty good hands. The TE I was surprised by most was Evan Moore. I know most of you probably don’t even know who he is. I know I didn’t before this practice. Evan Moore really stood out in practice though. He has amazing hands and has great leaping ability. He is probably a long shot to make the team though since at this point he is more of a WR than a TE. He is probably the skinniest TE I have ever seen. He will need to bulk up to become a good TE. With his great hands and his height he could become a surprise once training camp rolls around.
• I don’t have a whole lot to say about the offensive line. I am not much of an offensive line guru so I won’t even bother trying to analyze which offensive lineman looked good and which didn’t. I will mention that the Packers might finally have decided to play Colledge at tackle since during the second practice he filled in for Clifton which made Barbre the guard along with Spitz. I have a feeling we are going to see Barbre and Spitz as our guards this season.
• For those of you who thought Ted Thompson was a jerk, I will have to say that you are incorrect. Ted Thompson is actually a pretty good guy since he talked to all the fans during practice. He also fooled around with the players by sounding an alarm to switch drills early. I know some people think Ted Thompson looks like a jerk but I think that is mostly due to the fact that he is terrible in front of a camera. When you take away the camera he is actually a good guy.

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