I've said it before and will say it again. Losing Jenkins and not replacing him hurt us a lot last year. In my opinion Ted Thompson made a mistake by re-signing Jones and letting Jenkins walk. Jenkins was more important to this team then Jones was. Don't get me wrong I'm happy Jones is still in Green Bay and I do think he is good weapon to have but if I had the choice of having Jenkins or Jones I would go for Jenkins considering we all ready have a talented WR corp and let's not forget our TE's which some can lineup as WR as well.

Losing Jenkins not only hurt Raji but hurt Matthews as well. Teams we're paying more attention to Raji & Matthews because everyone knew the other players except those two was going to get to the QB.

I'm excited this year because I really think our defense got upgraded on the line. Raji will be more fresh on the field, opposing defenses will have Mathews - Raji - Perry to look for instead of only Perry & Raji. Hargrove brings a good balance to the rush defense & the rushing the QB something Jenkins had but not at the same level as Jenkins all tho it will do!

Only thing that worries me is the defensive backs this year. I think we're a little to inexperienced with House & Shields ... Bush I can never trust him no matter what he does. I think we will see Woody back at CB sooner then we all think. I hope tho that House & Shields play to there expectations and Woody stays at safety like that we will have the best defense in the league!

Anyways guess will have to wait until game 1 ... but we will get a glimpse this week in the pre-season game.

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Bush is a third stringer. But not on the outside.

Let him play behind Woody AND Hayward in the slot. Give the outside reps to the guys who have the potential to play there someday.

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Hmm, I see your point nerdmann. Honestly I would rather have some of the linebackers covering instead of Bush haha.

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lol, put McMillian in front of him too.

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Haha yep. One of the best quotes early on from Capers was to find out ways to always have the best guys out on the field. Sounds obvious enough eh? With the challenges these dynamic offenses pose nowadays, you can never have too much athletic talent with your backers and coverage guys.

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Cullen Jenkins wanted a lot of money to be retained before free agency started. The Packers, much like they have done under Ted Thompson, wait for the market value to be set before negotiating his contract. The Packers actually offered MORE money to Jenkins, but he choose to leave. So, no, Ted Thompson did not let him walk, Cullen Jenkins choose to be butthurt and left.

Losing Jenkins did hurt the Packers, just not as much as losing Nick Collins.

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How was resigning Jones a mistake? I don't see the connection to that and Jenkins at all.

I actually had a brain fart there when I read Jones. I was thinking Brad Jones, but don't remember him being resigned. Then remembered James Jones was resigned. That's one reason I like to type out the full name ... for my own personal sanity, lol.


I don't know the connection either, especially since James Jones didn't resign for a boatload of cash.

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I love Collins and when there was an old thread about possible future Hall of Famers, I put Collins name up there as a possible future Hall of Famer as he was a perennial Pro Bowler and all he needed were some SB victories and hopefully a pick six in a SB and he had a decent shot.

Still, I disagree with you here. If you look at the raw numbers, even without Collins, we had the INTs. What we didn't have was the pressure up front which put CM3 in coverage (where I'd rather NOT see him) and it exposed our DBs a lot more.

The INTs didn't go down last year from 2010 that much. The sacks however dropped dramatically. I don't have the raw stats for the pressures but I'd bet they dropped dramatically as well.

We could win the SB with the DBs we have right now, IF we can get some pressure up front (which would also take CM3 away from coverage duties which would greatly benefit the team).

We won't win the SB with the same DL we had last year.

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Overall impact.. as in terms to the entire defensive unit. I would say that both had a huge impact to the defense.. edge to Cullen but not by much.

I think it was apparent that without Jenkins ability to create a push, the entire defensive front was impacted. Much in the terms of when Ted first came and we lost Rivera and Wahle. We undervalued their impact on the performance of the entire group.

Simply, the other pieces just couldn't replicate the same consistent interior pass rush and the protection schemes of the opposition could be focused on the remaining threats.. Matthews and well to a lesser degree Raji. Wynn flashed here and there, but not consistently. Pickett & Green are more of pluggers... CJ is still a work in process.

IMO, that set in motion limitations on how much pressure we could apply and it got Capers to adjust and maybe try and overcompensate some.

Now.. Collins hurt in a couple of different ways.. the greater being two fold.

1) Communication ... on field and in play.. Woodson and Williams could rely on Collins being in place correctly and could play off that some. With him gone, you seen both Morgan and Charlie out of place at times.. forcing the corners to play more straight up. Woodson was exposed at times.. showing a little loss of step. Williams simply couldn't play his press game because of the shoulder and exposed his lack of recovery speed. Shields regressed.. basically a recipe for bending greatly.

2) Collins range.. hall of fame type range, could erase a ton of mistakes.. simply the remaining parts couldn't duplicate that.

IMO, Collins was a HOF type physically gifted athlete.. but I would not consider him a HOF candidate over his career. If he could have kept playing.. who knows.

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