good

Wishful thinking, IMO.

I think it little more likely they will cut Raji before this season starts than they would have before the last season started.

The fact that they are willing to offer the guy 4 million for one year tells me they are still over-rating him. If they really wanted him to "fight to make the team", they would have held out for vet minimum and fill the rest with incentives.

You heard it here first: unless he is on IR or PUP with an injury, Raji is on the game day roster for 16 games next year. I don't think drafting the 2014 ROY at NT will change that.

Jarret Bush has shown himself more worthy of a $4 million/year contract than Raji.

If that rumor is true that he was offered a contract that would have averaged $8 million a year. I really want to know what is going through his mind when cashing his 2014 season paychecks. Will he be thinking "this could have been twice this much" or will he be thinking "this SHOULD be twice as much" and use that as motivation?

Raji motivated? No fuckign way.

I'm probably in a very small minority on this -- I don't think Raji's biggest problem is his dedication/motivation/effort, etc. I think it is simply that he is not as good as people thought he was.

In another thread a long time about Jay Cutler I made this point: you can't go by sideline (or even line of scrimmage) demeanor

Most NFL players who play out their initial contract have the ability to make great plays from time to time. The problem with most of them, however, is that they lack the talent to make those great plays with consistency.

Raji, to my mind, is just not a great player. He's not going to be a game-in and game-out dominator. That's sad, perhaps, given that he was a first-rounder. But that's what he is. A typical NFL utility player. A talent not much above veteran minimum.

The number of reps he continued to get last year, and the fact that the Packers only dropped from 8 to 4 million (instead of, say, 1.75 million), tells me the Packers still see him as more than that.

I think they're dreaming.

I think he had two problems.

1: He was playing out of position. He's not built to play end. He's built to play NT.

2: He was assigned to take up blockers. But that's not his game. His game is penetrating on the interior.

3. Brad Jones

I have a had time seeing them cut Raji this year... I think he'd have to fall out of the top 8 DL for them to do that...


Though I'm still interesting in what this defense will be like as I'm assuming it won't be like last years, as they not bringing back the run cloggers (as of yet).

So is Raji going to be used like a normal NT or are they going to try to get him to be a pass rushing NT?

I still don't understand why he was ever moved to end. The dude is 337 pounds.

I don't know why, but I believe they thought it would maximize their DL talent.

I've heard someone say they tried using Raji like they used to use Jenkins, but Raji just doesn't have the hand fighting speed, quickness, skills to do it.
Also Pickett was the best run defender and best two gap guy, which you normally use as a two gap NT.

Because in all of 2011 and early 2012 he wasn't doing jack at NT and when they gave him snaps at DE mid 2012 he finally started showing up some. Also Pickett was better at doing the things at NT that they wanted their NT to do.

People keep acting like he was just doing great at NT and they up and moved him and he started sucking. That's not exactly the accurate timeline.

I think there are two reasons. One being, they wanted to play both Pickett and Raji and of the two Raji was better suited for DE. And the second, with the number of snaps Raji was playing and the formations they used Raji was playing both NT and DE. by keeping him at DE only he could concentrate on just DE technique instead of needed to practice both.