Thompson Leaves Us Guessing, Again

The Packers only two free agent signings in the off-season, Duke Preston and Anthony Smith, are both gone. Preston was somewhat surprisingly shown the door last week, and in a mildly shocking move, Anthony Smith was part of the Packers final roster cuts today.

Smith had played fairly well in the preseason, even leading some to believe he was pushing Atari Bigby for a starting job. The Packers apparently felt differently.

Another move made by the team, that likely paved the way for the ousting of Smith, was the trade of Tony Moll to Baltimore for CB/S Derrick Martin.

The other moderate surprise, was the release of Ruvell Martin, opting to keep Brett Swain instead. Swain does have more upside, but Martin knows the system well, and is the big bodied receiver Mike McCarthy prefers. Trading Moll was no surprise, as guys like TJ Lang and Even Dietrich-Smith had both outplayed him, and Moll showed zero progression during his time in Green Bay.

Opting to keep all three fullbacks was a big surprise, and the release of Brian Brohm, last year's second round pick, and Terrell Sutton came as a bit of a surprise as well. The thought going into Tennessee was that Sutton would be scooped up by another team if he was let go, but with some other names out there now (Antonio Pittman, Gary Russell, Ian Johnson, Dominic Rhodes, Kory Sheets, etc ) that may not be the case, and they may be able to stash him on the taxi squad.

I'd guess Brian Brohm will clear through waivers and land on the taxi squad as well, but you never know. Someone may roll the dice on the former second rounder.

The thing to keep an eye on for the the time being, is whether or not they find a trading partner for Scott Wells, or John Kuhn/Korey Hall.

NFL Predictions

North

Green Bay (11-5)**
Chicago (11-5)*
Minnesota (9-7)
Detroit (3-13)
(Packers win division tie-breaker, based off finishing with a better winning percentage against the NFC than Chicago)

Green Bay
The Packers offense is going to be one of the best in the league. Greg Jennings emerged as a star last year, and Donald Driver is still as good as they come, but the big thing to keep an eye on is James Jones. Jones missed time and battled injuries last season. A healthy James Jones is going to make a huge impact to the air game for the Packers. In addition to Jennings, Driver, Jones and the sure-handed Jordy Nelson, there's the blossoming Jermichael Finley, to boot. Finley is going to be one of the games elite TEs in a few years. The biggest question mark on offense for this team, is can the line hold up? A shuffling of the lineup has given them better size up-front, and the hope is after a few seasons of playing next to one another, some continuity forms within the group. Defensively, you can't get much worse than the club was a season ago, but thus far Dom Capers has looked like one of the best hires from the off season. The new 3-4 scheme is going to attack and create turnovers. If the defense can be at least average, the Packers will be very good.

Chicago
The Bears made the biggest splash in the off-season, trading for Jay Cutler. Cutler gives the team their first legit QB since...well...a long time. The running game is strong, and while he might not have much left in the tank, Orlando Pace is an upgrade at left tackle. On paper, the receivers don't look good, but Jay Cutler is a good enough talent to make the receivers around him better. Devin Hester will stretch the field, and finally has a QB that can get him the ball, and Greg Olson should have a breakout season with Cutler throwing to him. Defensively, the team took a step back last year, but that won't continue this year. Tommie Harris is healthy again, and newly hired defensive line coach, Rod Marinelli, will make that unit much better. The Bears did receive a relatively big blow, losing Dusty Dvoracek for the season, but they're deep enough with guys like Mark Anderson, Israel Idonije and Anthony Admans to make up for it.

Minnesota
The Vikings boast aruguably the best running attack in football, with Peterson and Chester Taylor, and feature strong offensive and defensive lines, but there are questions surrounding this team. The receivers will be much better playing with Brett Favre than Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson, but not by much. I have serious questions whether a 40 year old QB who has "a tear" in his rotator cuff and "cracked ribs" can hold up for 16 games. Plus, I might be the only one, but I still think the Williams boys haven't avoided suspension and at some point, will sit out 4 games this season. Even though he plays 11 games in a dome this season, and will potentially only play in one cold weather game down the stretch, I just can't bet on Brett Favre.

Detroit
They made some upgrades, but this is still an awful football team. Is Matthew Stafford really a first overall pick talent? I don't think so. The defense will be improved under Jim Washburn, but this is still a bad defense and a very, very bad team. The lone bright spot being Calvin Johnson. If he can put up numbers like he did a season ago with guys like Dan Orlavsky, Duante Culpepper and Jon Kitna throwing to him, and no one reliable on the other side of him, how good can this guy be with talent around him?

The rest of the NFC picks can be found here. The AFC picks can be found here.

Wait, What?

The Angels traded for Scott Kazmir?

My only question is this, how the hell did Scott Kazmir clear waivers? Looking at the contract, it's not a burden (at least not to most teams), as Kazmir will make $8M next season, $12M in 2011 and has a $13.5M club option in 2012, with a $2.5M buyout.

Kazmir has had a bit of a rough season this year, largely due to playing in the AL East, but his career totals are still very good. Oh, and he's a young, left-handed starter. So I'll ask again, how the hell did no team put a claim in on Scott Kazmir?

WTF Doug?

Don't Buy This Jersey

Another game, another poor showing for Brian Brohm. The NFL game just looks like it moves too fast for him, and he looks confused in the pocket and often gets a case of happy feet. I'm guessing, even though he was a second round pick last year, his days in Green Bay are numbered.

It's going to get really interesting, depending on what happens up North. The Vikings currently have 4 QBs on their roster, and there is no way they keep all of them. After having just traded for, and given a two-year contract to Sage Rosenfels, he's safe. The Vikes are also said to be really high on John David Booty (aren't we all high on booty), and can't stash him on the practice squad, leaving Tarvaris Jackson.

I'd love nothing more than to see the Vikes axe Jackson due to signing Brent Favre, and the Packers scoup him up as a backup.

The Color Purple

1/4, 4 yards, while engineering two three-and-outs. Yes, it's just the preseason, but I took great joy in watching the King of all Douchebags, look like crap.

I hope to god Tarvaris Jackson outperforms him all preseason, and in turn gets cut/traded by the Vikings, just so this douchebag can grab a roster spot.

The Vikings do realize they didn't trade for Tom Brady, don't they?

Hello, Again

After a much needed time off to recharge the batteries, I'm back...thanks to the 3 readers we have for sticking around, looks for a heavy dose of updates in the coming days

Sorry I wasn't around to provide you with last week's edition of the last blog you check of the day when there's absolutely nothing else to do and you just drank your last Miller High Life. I'm back this week with another spectacular mailed in edition of The Friday Five!

1.) Tour de France

This will be my last Tour update so all three of you who are reading this can breath a sigh of relief. At mid tour, it was my prediction that Alberto Contador would win followed by Andy Schleck and Bradley Wiggins. I pegged Lance Armstrong to get fourth. I was pretty accurate as Lance and Bradley flip flopped positions at the end. It's interesting to hear what is being said between Contador and Armstrong regarding the tension among the team throughout the tour. I think both riders have big egos (deservedly so) and neither was a bigger jerk than the other. My qualm with Lance is that I get the impression that he thinks he's much bigger than the tour (who starts their own team because they weren't happy with the last one?). Over here in the States, I believe that is true. Overall in the sport of cycling, he's pretty much old news. That said, I was glad to see that he was still able to keep up with the "kids" as well as he did though. Intersting side note... this was the first year I can remember where there were ZERO riders caught for blood doping. Key word being "caught".

2.) Good Bye Vinny

I learned today that UW-LaCrosse alumn Vinny Rottino was traded for former Brewer, Claudio Vargas. Granted, Vinny is not a top prospect, but it's always nice to be able to cheer for a homegrown player.

3.) Golf Horror Stories

This week on Bob and Brian, they were reading listeners' bad golfing stories. I don't have one in particular, but if I add up a couple separate one's, it makes an okay story. In La Crosse, I was golfing at Forest Hills Golf Course (both situations were at this course). It was a best ball scramble and I was teeing off on hole 4. I pulled out my trusty driver and was ready to knock it at least 150 yards (no matter what club I use, it all seems to end up that far). I took my swing and smashed the ball directly into the sign that said "Hole 4"! It ricochet'd off of that and went screaching back at us and nearly took out my friend Boomer, who quickly hit the deck before any damage could be done. Total yards for hole at this point... -25 yards. Obviously, we took someone else's ball on that shot. I line up for shot number two with a 6 iron. This time, it went almost directly sideways, but miraculously found a way to go negative. I gave up on hole number 4. Total yardage for my two shots... -30 yards.

Also on this course, on a different occasion, me and a friend did some golfing. On hole number 1 as we were nearing the green, my belt broke. From that point on, I had to swing my club and then rapidly grab my shorts so they would not fall down. After I had finally gotten my ball onto the green, I noticed a guy driving a golf cart while holding a big piece of plywood. I saw that there was some work being done near where we were so I figured he would be coming by us. As I was putting, I hear a crash. This course worker had managed to run over my golf clubs, bending one of the stands into a 90 degree angle. All he could say to me was, "Man, this just isn't my day." Funny, as I thought it wasn't MY day. So that's my two stories combined into one.

4.) Running out of ideas

Anyone see the Milwaukee Air Show this past weekend? It was actually more entertaining than I had expected it to be. The jets we have now-a-days are just awesomely impressive. It was equally impressive being able to see all the weird people of Milwaukee passing by. There are a lot of them too! Also got my first sun tan of the year... not burn!

5.) Any good music?

I was telling Justin that I enjoy the music recommendations I read on The Rightfield Bleachers thing at the Sportsbubbler. Seeing Saves the Day, Alkaline Trio, and New Found Glory made me feel like a school girl. So I have some similar recommendations myself. Also, I wanted to point out that I am enjoying MGMT more. I heard them a while back and just couldn't get into them. But when you hear theirs songs in the background a few times, they become quite catchy and addicting. For those of you into a bit of the old school (late 90's/early 2000's) punk music, I'd recommend checking Barely Blind out. Also, try out Danger is my Middle Name and Broadway Calls. All three of these bands beat the Disney music that is out there now. For you fans of 90's music and harder melodic punk, Four Year Strong just put out an awesome covers album which includes songs like Semi-Charmed Life, Ironic, Fly, Spiderwebs, So Much for the Afterglow, etc. Very entertaining album.