This makes me want to do a fucking backflip:
AP reports Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre has been in touch with Packers general manager Ted Thompson and new head coach Mike McCarthy on an almost weekly basis of late, but there is nothing new to report regarding his decision to possibly retire. The fact that Favre is calling regularly from his Mississippi farm to check in would seem to be a positive sign that he is still open to returning for a 16th season. Thompson said the team has not established a deadline for Favre to make a decision. "We haven't really established a deadline," Thompson says. "I think all the parties know when a decision probably needs to be made." Ideally, that would be by the March 3rd start of free agency.
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The way he played last year, I don't know that this is a positive.
Please. No one was saying he should retire when he had like 14 TDs and 8 picks through 6 games.
He definitely tried too hard to make plays last year, and he probably should have trusted the guys around him to make a play a little more, but take that many guys off of any team in this league and the QB is going to look pretty dumb.
This year was an abberition. No running game to take the pressure off him, no blocking, no go-to WR, no safety net (Franks and Green barely played), playing from behind all the time...it was just bad all around.
Yeah but the Packers are probably going to be no better than a .500 team this next season as well. In fact, they may be fortunate to even be that good. They are thin for talent in most key positions. They are a team on the downslide. Favre isn't going to suddenly get this massive upgrade in talent around him. This isn't the same Packers squad he had for many years. His gambling style simply isn't going to work on a team with a small margin for error.
The massive upgrade in talent will come simply from having guys be on the field. Take a look at the list of guys that missed fairly significant portions of last season and who will likely be back next year: Javon Walker, Ahman Green, Samkon Gado, Terrence Murphy (he's iffy to come back, but was a very promising 2nd round pick), Bubba Franks.
Not to mention the 20 million bucks in cap room that could be used to sign an NFL-caliber guard or two.
So to recap, he gets both his safety nets back (Franks and Green) as well as his deep threat, and he should have some semblance of a running game next year.
Don't write them off as a sub-.500 team just yet. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's a long offseason. They've got a ton of cap room and the #5 pick in the draft.
There's no reason that team can't contend next year if they have a good offseason. Worse teams have come back quicker. Without the injuries (and a slew of bad luck) that team is +/- 1 game of 9-7 last year. They weren't nearly as bad as their record....
And if the hockey team had gone into a 9-12-4 skid (or whatever it is) because Johnson, Mitera, Hensick, Cogliano, Kolarik, and Sauer had gotten hurt, we'd be giving them a little bit more leeway right now, wouldn't we?
If there's one player in the NFL that deserves the benefit of the doubt, it's Favre.
He was throwing it more times (career high in attempts) with a lot less talent (no Walker, Franks, Green, Murphy, Ferguson/Driver for a couple games, David Martin, Davenport) to throw to...
So he's throwing more passes to guys he's not used to playing with. Doesn't surprise me the INTs went way up.
When 5'8" Antonio Chatman is your #2 WR, Donald Lee is your top TE, and you've got street free agents at running back (and NFL Europe talent at guard) should anyone be surprised that he had a terrible year?
That's how I was in 96. I flipped on the championship game in about the 3rd period. Watched that and overtime, and jumped around when Morrison won it, but I think that was the first game I had seen all year.
Now in 98, I still hadn't seen too many games (probably the GLI and a couple others) but I followed it closer...watched the overtime through my fingers. I could barely watch, and I was going bezerk when Langer won it. Can't believe I wasn't here for that...grr!
Favre is definitely on the downside, but this is the only truly bad season he's had since his second full year in the league (and that year he even bad the pro bowl)...I guess 1999 wasn't great either but he was playing with a broken thumb on his throwing hand.
The 5 previous seasons he's gone:
2000: 3812 yards, 20 TDs 16 INTs
2001: 3921, 32, 15
2002: 3658, 27, 16 (and he should've won a 4th MVP award...they gave it to Gannon)
2003: 3361, 32, 21
2004: 4088, 30, 17
That's not a guy that's looking for a place to retire. He had one bad year, but there were a ton of mitigating circumstances...he can still play. He just needs a little more support than he did before. The old Favre probably could have carried that team last year. He can't do that now, but he can still play the game at a level a lot of guys can only dream of.
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