We’ll be seeing a lot more of this in the coming months.  The Kansas City Star takes a look at Aaron Rodgers and his role on the Packers.

Rodgers

was impressive in relief of an injured Favre last Thanksgiving in Dallas when he came off the bench and completed 18 of 26 passes for 201 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions in a loss to the Cowboys.

And he has impressed the coaching staff with his presence in the locker room during the start of the offseason program.

“I’m excited for Aaron Rodgers, but I’m excited every year,” said McCarthy, who guided the Packers to a 13-3 record and a berth in the NFC championship game last season after two nonplayoff seasons. “This business is incredible because every year is so distinctly different. Every team is a different team. Every season takes on different obstacles.

“We feel like we’ve been planning for this. Personally I thought we were a year away from life after Brett, but we’re prepared for this.”

Rodgers has a three-year jump on his competition, and the organization intends to keep winning with him. Veteran Craig Nall, a backup for most of the last five years, will not be brought back.

“You hope that when the names change the foundation is set and guys come in and play the way they’re supposed to play,” Philbin said. “Our expectations are high. You hope the Green Bay Packers’ offense has somewhat of an identity and guys understand what the expectations are.”

McCarthy does not envision changing the offense to suit Rodgers.

“Our offense will be very similar to last year’s approach,” McCarthy said. “Aaron has a top-level arm in the NFL. There’s not a throw that I would not be comfortable with him making. None of that will change.

“It’s important for Aaron to take over the huddle, command it. It’s different for every quarterback, so that’s something that our players are aware of and already used to. He’ll be able to be in charge from day one. … To replace a legend like Brett Favre, I definitely feel he’s the right guy for this task.”

This sucks for him.

This is a serious question. A young woman dies in a tragic motorcycle accident with one of your college football teammates. You somehow come into possession of her gas credit card. Can you imagine using it for six months, not paying the bills ($3,000), and thinking that you wouldn’t be caught? That’s allegedly what Jamar Hornsby did. He is — or was — a cornerback at the University of Florida.

How did he get into college? Seriously. What could this guy’s SAT scores have been?

Best line from the story comes from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Stephen Maynard: “I would love to hear the explanation for utilizing the card of a deceased person.”

Me, too.

From Tom Silverstein, here.

General manager Ted Thompson said the way the draft fell was the main reason the Packers wound up with two receivers, but the club clearly had its eye on going young because it signed three rookie free agent receivers shortly after the draft. The Packers had 13 receivers on the roster before Robinson’s release.

On the Monday after the draft, Robinson’s agent, Alvin Keels said, the Packers told him that Robinson would be on the bubble if he came to training camp and they asked him if he would like them to release his client. Keels asked them for permission to shop Robinson around the league for a trade, which he did, but ultimately a deal couldn’t be reached.

“There are a couple of teams who are interested,” Keels said. “They just weren’t interested in trading for Koren, at least at the terms the Packers were seeking. The Packers wanted a draft pick and a couple teams were offering a player that the Packers didn’t feel fit what they wanted.”

Thompson said he felt Robinson could definitely be an asset with another team and he was fairly sure he would get a chance with another team. He said part of the reason to make the move now was so Robinson could situated with a new team quickly.

“I think a lot of Koren,” Thompson said. “I’m very proud to be able to see him turn things around. He’s a true professional. He helped us in the locker room. He helped the young guys learn to be pros.”

Keels said Robinson was not bitter over his release and credited Thompson and personnel analyst John Schneider with saving his career. Both men had a relationship with Robinson from their days in Seattle and were willing to take a chance on him despite his troubles with alcohol.

Good (and fast) reporting on his release.  I’m really pulling for the guy.

Profootballtalk.com is reporting, via “league sources,” that Koren Robinson is going to be cut, maybe as soon as today. I hope they’re wrong, but it makes a certain amount of sense.

Robinson isn’t getting younger and the Packers are. With Jordy Nelson the top pick in this draft, James Jones in the third round last year, and Greg Jennings in the 2nd the year before — the Packers have invested heavily in young receivers. Robinson has helped on special teams, but aside from the one spectacular play (when he caught the ball on the ground and lunged for the first down before being touched by a defender), he has not contributed much as a receiver. I don’t think the Packers were counting on him to play to the level of his draft position — 9th overall in 2001, the pick right before the Packers took Jamal Reynolds (ouch) — but probably expected more than he’s given.

I expected him to be better and I still think under the right circumstances he can be a solid NFL receiver. And I hope he can stay sober.

UPDATE: The answer to the question posed in the headline is yes. It’s official. See Greg Bedard here and the Packers release here.

UPDATE II: Just as I was going to post some more thoughts about Robinson’s release, we got a comment from — I’m writing the entire name under protest — joshywoshybigfatposhy. As it happens JWBFP captures exactly what I’m thinking right now. Even if the move makes some sense from Ted Thompson’s perspective, it’s a bit unsettling. Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me. Anyway, I’ll let JWBFP do the talking:

I’m curious why Koren, at least at this point. I would think there are players with less value than him now, and given his circumstance, he’s never really had much consistent time to prove his worth to the Packers. I think any player would tell you that anything less than a full season w/training camp isn’t enough. He has decent size for our system as well.

I also have a sense that he’s staying on track with his treatment and at least portrayed a good attitude about things. Maybe I’m being naive, but I would think he could, at the very least, help with the other young receivers until it’s obvious he’s last in line talent-wise — as someone to show tell them where bad judgment gets you, and someone to show them how hard it is to gain back the trust of the league/players/coaches.

One of a few possibilities would make this role obsolete, and they may all be true for all I know: 1. He’s really not doing well/doesn’t work hard enough/isn’t a good leader; 2. The Packers don’t feel their receivers are at-risk enough to need an example like Robinson around; 3. They feel as if their “log-jam-competition” method is getting out of hand, and no longer applies at receiver.

Lori Nickel has a brief get-to-know-you chat with Brian Brohm, here.

Brohm on Brett Favre’s retirement:  “It would be cool, just growing up, huge fan, to be able to hang out with a Hall of Fame quarterback would have been pretty awesome.  But you know if he doesn’t retire, then maybe I don’t get drafted (by the Packers). So it’s kind of a double-edged sword there.”

Yesterday I heard Tim Hasselback on Sirius NFL Radio make an impassioned argument that the Packers should not have drafted Brohm, period.  I think Hasselback is very smart — one of the smartest football commentators out there — but his argument was preposterous.  More later.

More here.

His parents, like Jermichael Finley’s, must have fought about his first name.

“Conner.”

“Andrew.”

“No, Conner.”

“I said Andrew, dammit!”

“How about Andner?”

“That’s stupid.  Why not Condrew?”

“Perfect.  I love you.”

“Next time you feed, and I’ll water!”

Read Cheesehead TV’s response to my recent post lobbying for the Packers to keep RB Justin Beaver on the roster. Fairly strong reaction I’d say to an innocent argument for keeping a hard-working, qualified, local, talented player on the team. I maintain that signing Beaver would have provided a bit of a lift for fans and the overall team - just like Donald Driver making the team got people pumped up a few years ago. (Of course, Aaron conveniently left out my Driver analogy which read: “Think about how excited we all were when we’d read stories about Donald Driver and how this 7th round pick might make the team. Then he made the team and elevated his game to Pro Bowl level. We love stories like that here and the timing of this story could help Packer Nation move forward”).

But I have other issues with Aaron’s response. I sense that Aaron believes the Packers are fine at the RB position. I don’t. We don’t have major talent back there (Grant excluded). Aaron, just because you predict that Jackson will “surprise” this season doesn’t make him a high-caliber player now - all he’s done so far is lose his starting job (last year). While I certainly hope Wynn, Jackson or Morency do emerge as legit players and I don’t feel any of these guys are awful, right now, the fact is, RB is still a position of need and adding Beaver would add needed competition and depth at RB.

Also, importantly, Aaron left out an important piece of my post - Beaver’s versatility. I wrote: “He is fast, very quick (”quick as a hiccup” according to McCarthy), very strong, young, hard-working, devoted - and he’s somewhat versatile in that he can return kicks and compete at RB.” Beaver could be a solid option as a return guy - bringing speed, quickness and also toughness to a position that needs it. He has an upside on special teams that Jackson, Wynn and Morency don’t seem to have. I think it’s a mistake not to give Beaver a chance and instead waste 13 roster spots on wide receivers (which essentially leaves 10 guys competing for 2 spots).

Anyway, bottom line is, we should still sign the guy and give him a chance. We may have just turned our back on the next Devin Hester or Steve Tasker or Travis Jervey.

Per Greg Bedard it’s Kyle Ward, a cornerback from Louisiana-Lafayette.  Bedard writes:

Former Louisiana-Lafayette cornerback Kyle Ward is the second person to agree to a free-agent contract with the Packer since the rookie camp, according to the school.After transferring from Alcorn State where he ran track, Ward (6-1, 197) made only 15 tackles as a senior with the Rajun Cajuns because of injuries.

A website called Draftdaddy.com had this to say: “Kyle Ward is a very fast cornerback. He has some upside potential and we like him a lot.”  Here is Ward’s bio at the UL-L website.

Scout.com is reporting that the Packers have signed a third tryout player, also a defensive back.

This passage comes to us from the “pool report” on Barack Obama’s trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, yesterday. A pool report is sort of a cheat sheet for reporters, a summary of events written by a reporter who was present for those who were not. This one was written by Michael Powell, a fantastic writer with the New York Times.

As Obama was campaigning, he stopped in a bar called The Raleigh Times, in a building that used to be occupied by a newspaper of the same name. Powell writes:

Obama found himself momentarily beerless. As the primary season
has semi-bizarrely centered of late on his eating and drinking (he
stands accused of doing too little of either), he moved quickly.
“Where’s my beer?” he asked, loud enough for the reporters to hear.
What’s your pleasure, Mr. Candidate? He eyed an array of mighty
fine micro brews on tap, from the loverly amber Maharaja IPA to the
“naturally cloudy” Blanche Bruxelles. He zeroed in on the mass market.
“PBR [Pabst Blue Ribbon for the uninitiated],” he said.
An Illinois man recently asked to be buried in a casket in the
shape of a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon, but I digress. Obama held up the
pint, said “Cheers!”, and quickly took a sip, then another, then
another. Having established he was a sport albeit not an inebriated one,
he set to working the crowd.

I don’t know whether to be impressed that the Democratic nominee for president chose Pabst over all of those fancy beers or to be depressed that he apparently didn’t finish his beer. (That’s the kind of thing that could lose an election in Wisconsin.)

But I do think it’s funny that Michael Powell, knowing his readers are from the national media, felt the need to translate “PBR” for them.

Who says the Washington press corps is out of touch?