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Cheesehead
Mike Florio at ProFootballtalk.com on Favre's return:
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"LORD FAVRE (YAWN) IS COMING BACK
ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre informed the team on Tuesday that he'll be returning for the 2006 season.
Anyone who has been coming to this site for the past month or so knows that this is old news. Indeed, we've just heard from our original source regarding the "Favre is returning" story that the more accurate characterization of the development is that Favre gave the team permission on Tuesday to announce publicly that which the organization already has known.
Though we never could quite figure out Favre's motivation for telling the team that he was coming back but not officially granting the team authority to say so, the simple reality could be that (as former teammate Mark Chmura suggested a few weeks back) Favre likes the attention.
And plenty of it he got.
At one point, we concluded that Favre's public questioning of the team's failure to make a splash in free agency was aimed at securing for himself a no-lose proposition in 2006. If the team sucks, he gets no blame. If the team is good, he gets all of the credit. So even though the chances of pulling an Elway are low, climbing back to the top of an undermanned NFC North could, given the low level of expectations, provide the same kind of feel-good final chapter to Favre's career.
Indeed, what has the team done since Favre's April 8 presser about nothing, where he called for the team to sign an impact free agent? Under his own stated reasoning, he rightly should have quit.
Frankly, we doubted our report that Favre was returning only once, in the wake of that press conference. But our source promptly informed us that the Packers had given the NFL specific assurances that Favre would be back before the NFL handed the team three prime time appearances in 2006.
And with the expectations now appropriately lowered in Green Bay, allow us to be the first to predict that the Packers won't be as bad as most pundits presume they will be. We'll predict at least a 9-7 record in Favre's final season, with an outside shot at a playoff berth.
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Does a nice job of summarizing. It was fairly obvious to me Favre would return when the Packers were scheduled on TV late in the season(TV must catch the tearful goodbye's...)
The guys at PackerChatters who have been talking to folks inside the team say Walker is starting to talk to to the team again and TT is open to discussing a new contract. Walker's return would go a long way to helping the team.
With Favre and Walker, the successful return of Green and the emergence of Gado, maybe the addition of Vernon Davis and a lineman or two, the offense will come back.
I've never figured out all the dissing of the Green Bay defense. The run defense wasn't great, but the pass defense was #1 in the league. With Pickett and Manual, the team will be better, especially if they can bolster the secondary via Woodson or the draft.
9-7 is not out of the question.
-------------------
"LORD FAVRE (YAWN) IS COMING BACK
ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre informed the team on Tuesday that he'll be returning for the 2006 season.
Anyone who has been coming to this site for the past month or so knows that this is old news. Indeed, we've just heard from our original source regarding the "Favre is returning" story that the more accurate characterization of the development is that Favre gave the team permission on Tuesday to announce publicly that which the organization already has known.
Though we never could quite figure out Favre's motivation for telling the team that he was coming back but not officially granting the team authority to say so, the simple reality could be that (as former teammate Mark Chmura suggested a few weeks back) Favre likes the attention.
And plenty of it he got.
At one point, we concluded that Favre's public questioning of the team's failure to make a splash in free agency was aimed at securing for himself a no-lose proposition in 2006. If the team sucks, he gets no blame. If the team is good, he gets all of the credit. So even though the chances of pulling an Elway are low, climbing back to the top of an undermanned NFC North could, given the low level of expectations, provide the same kind of feel-good final chapter to Favre's career.
Indeed, what has the team done since Favre's April 8 presser about nothing, where he called for the team to sign an impact free agent? Under his own stated reasoning, he rightly should have quit.
Frankly, we doubted our report that Favre was returning only once, in the wake of that press conference. But our source promptly informed us that the Packers had given the NFL specific assurances that Favre would be back before the NFL handed the team three prime time appearances in 2006.
And with the expectations now appropriately lowered in Green Bay, allow us to be the first to predict that the Packers won't be as bad as most pundits presume they will be. We'll predict at least a 9-7 record in Favre's final season, with an outside shot at a playoff berth.
----------
Does a nice job of summarizing. It was fairly obvious to me Favre would return when the Packers were scheduled on TV late in the season(TV must catch the tearful goodbye's...)
The guys at PackerChatters who have been talking to folks inside the team say Walker is starting to talk to to the team again and TT is open to discussing a new contract. Walker's return would go a long way to helping the team.
With Favre and Walker, the successful return of Green and the emergence of Gado, maybe the addition of Vernon Davis and a lineman or two, the offense will come back.
I've never figured out all the dissing of the Green Bay defense. The run defense wasn't great, but the pass defense was #1 in the league. With Pickett and Manual, the team will be better, especially if they can bolster the secondary via Woodson or the draft.
9-7 is not out of the question.