News From The Pack

The Packers have locked up two defensive players, signing back up safety Derrick Martin to a two year contract and slapping the franchise tag on veteran nose tackle Ryan Pickett.   Martin is one of more than 200 NFL players caught in no man's land this off-season thanks to the soon to be expiring collective bargaining agreement. Because the owners opted out of the deal, the CBA moves into an uncapped year in 2010 and without an agreement, is set to expire at the start of the 2011 season which could open a huge can of worms, namely a lockout or a strike.  Meanwhile, with no cap, players will need 6 years to become unrestricted free agents.  4 and 5 year players are restricted and Martin fell into this category.  While he was used sparingly in the secondary, Martin proved valuable on special teams and according to his agent, liked his year in Green Bay after getting acquired from Baltimore in a trade for Tony Moll.  By resigning, he'll get just over a million dollars this season but added security with the second year.  As for Pickett, he's among five players who are unrestricted free agents (Chad Clifton, Aaron Kampman, Ahman Green and Mark Tauscher the others).   By using the franchise designation, Pickett is essentially taken off the market.  While teams can still negoitate with him, the Packers have the right to match any offer and if Ryan would sign with another club, as a franchise player, the Packers would get not one, but two number picks in return.  Don't think that will happen.  Franchise players automatically get a one year contract that is the average of the top five players at the position league-wide, in Pickett's case, that's slightly over 7 million dollars this year.   The Packers say they'll continue talking with Ryan on a long term deal but don't expect a quick signature.  Pickett will be happy playing for a salary that is doubled from last year and still become an unrestricted free agent next year.

The NFL scouting combine is underway in Indianapolis.  The top college prospects are paraded into Lucas Oil Stadium for shuttle runs, 40 yard dashes, weightlifting and broad jumps.  They are measured and given complete physicals.  Teams compile the information and add it to their files on their draft board.  Packers general manager Ted Thompson says the medical information on everyone is the biggest benefit of the combine and he enjoys seeing the kids placed in a professional, competitive situation but most of the scouting legwork is already finished and if a player disappoints in his workout, he has another shot at the upcoming pro days at their college campus.  I'll keep an eye on the combine and pass along any interesting tidbits from Indy.

A pre-trial hearing for defensive end Johnny Jolly was postponed in Houston, Texas yesterday and that could leave the Packers in a spot when they must tender a contract offer to the restricted free agent by March 4.   Jolly is charged with posessing at least 200 grams of codeine cough syrup which authorities say is mixed with soda to create a drug called "lean".   He was originally arrested in July of 2008 but had the charges dropped, only to have the case refiled last year.  If convicted, Jolly could face jail time and if he's found guilty, he would almost certainly face disciplinary action from the NFL, a likely 4 game suspension.  With the pre-trial hearing not set for March 8, after the contract offer deadline, the Packers may not be sure how to proceed.   If the Packers place a second round tender on Jolly, worth 1.75 million dolars, the team would receive a second round draft choice if another franchise signs him and the Packers decline to match.  A lower tender would drop the salary to 1.1 million and the Packers would get a pick from the round Jolly was originally selected, a 6th.  Jolly was productive last season, leading the defensive line with 75 tackles and batting a club record 11 passes down.  He also had an interception.  

It's one stop shopping.  The NFL scouting combine is next week in Indianapolis.  Over 300 draft eligible players will be poked, prodded, tested and interviewed by NFL general managers and scouts.  Packers GM Ted Thompson has said the most valuable aspect of the combine is the opportunity to get complete medical dossiers on all of the players, an impossibility for teams to handle on their own.  Next on Thompson's list is the chance to visit with and interview prospective draft choices.  Thompson said the actual combine workouts only serve as bench marks to check with prior workouts of the players but the bulk of the scouting work based on their play as collegians last fall has already been finished.

I don't mind being wrong, especially when it comes to the New Orleans Saints pulling it off, beating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 last night to claim the 44th Vince Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl Champions.  I picked the Colts, but it was the Saints who got off the deck from a 10-0 first quarter hole, showed some big time guts by going for it and failing on 4th and goal from the one in the second quarter, only to  open the third with a stunning onside kick.  Then it was a Louisiana native, who went to college in Indiana, that sealed the Colts fate as Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Manning and raced 74 yards for the clinching touchdown that set off an epic French Quarter celebration in a town know for its ability to party.   It's only February but this may be the feel good story of the year.  How can you not be happy for Drew Brees and what he's meant to this franchise and how moving to the Crescent City only months after hurricane Katrina has impacted his life?   I know a couple of Saints players well and I'm happy both Darren Sharper and Mark Brunell will get fitted for rings.   As a rookie with the Packers in 1997, Sharper joined a Super Bowl champion and played in the big game his first year, only to be a part of the huge disappointment in the loss to Denver.   It took him over a decade to get back and win it.  Brunell was drafted by the Pack in 1993 and was one in the long line of talented Brett Favre understudies who was traded away.   He was shipped to Jacksonville in 1995 and twice had the Jaguars in the AFC title game, only to lose them both.  He's had a very productive career and while it turned sour in Washington, it ends happily as the backup man on a Super Bowl champion.  Packers head coach Mike McCarthy coached in New Orleans for 5 seasons as offensive coordinator and he speaks very fondly of his time there.   In my years of travel covering the Pack, New Orleans has always been one of my favorite stops, witnessing Green Bay's Super Bowl 31 victory over New England is clearly the highlight.   It's such a unique place, the history, culture and cuisine are unlike any other city in the country.   Next time your in the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street, look for my business card tacked on the wall along with thousands of others.  It was there I got into a wicked game of liar's poker with a few media friends and former Packers GM Tom Braatz one night.  Veteran Press Gazette and Milwaukee Journal beat reporter Cliff Christl and I closed down the Quarter on another Saturday night and he talked me into an establishment that stayed open all night and it was a bleary eyed Sunday covering that Packers-Saints game.  My sister Lori lived in Baton Rouge for years, she's a decorated photo journalist who captured the heart wrenching aftermath of Katrina.  Her poignant images conveyed the sorrow in the 9th ward, the helplessness of the residents who couldn't flee to drier ground and the determination of the city to rebuild.   A single football game won't drive one nail into a new sheet of drywall, create a minimum wage job for a father desperate to make ends meet but last night's result will get the hearts of New Orleans beating a little stronger, a big step for a great city.

There are only a couple of Green Bay Packers connections in Miami this week for Super Bowl 44, none on the Indianapolis Colts and three with the New Orleans Saints.  Assistant head coach and linebackers coach Joe Vitt was on the staff of Ray Rhodes in 1999 (which included current head coach Mike McCarthy) where he served as the defensive backs coach.    Backup quarterback Mark Brunell was a fifth round draft choice of the Packers in 1993 and spent a couple of seasons in Green Bay before getting traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars before the 1995 draft.   Darren Sharper joined the Super Bowl champion Packers as a second round pick in 1997 and played 8 years in Green Bay before leaving as a free agent to Minnesota.  After three years with the Vikings, Sharper joined New Orleans this spring.   As he arrived in Miami, Sharper talked about his time in Green Bay and the opportunity in front of his new team this week.

The Packers were well represented in Sunday night's Pro Bowl game, won by the AFC over the NFC 41-34 in Miami.   Aaron Rodgers started for the NFC and completed 15 of 19 passes for 192 yards, throwing a 48 yard touchdown pass to Steve Smith of the Giants in the first quarter and a 7 yard strike to the Eagles DeSean Jackson in the second quarter.  Safety Nick Collins played extensively in the secondary and recorded 4 tackles, three of them solo stops.  Rookie Clay Matthews was busy on special teams and recorded one tackle on defense.  Matt Shaub of the Houston Texans was named the game's Most Valuable Player.  The AFC starter passed for 189 yards and two scores.  Chris Johnson of the Titans scored the eventual game winning touchdown on a 2 yard run with 5:59 to play.  James Harrison of the Steelers intercepted Tony Romo on the next posession and the AFC ran out the clock to end a two game losing streak in the series.  For the first time in 30 years, the game was played on the mainland and more than 70,000 fans showed up in a light rain in Miami to watch it.

Charles Woodson was elected a starter for the NFC but did not play because of a lingering shoulder injury.  Woodson still picked up another honor over the weekend as he was named to the Associated Press NFL All-Decade team at cornerback.