The Green Bay Packers Stay Quiet in the 2009 Off Season

It seems that ever other team in the Green Bay Packers division has been making a big splash this off-season, as the Packers remain silent and try to build on the talent they already have. Brett Favre continues to make the news around the league everyday, but the Packers insist that they have moved on and will be fine without him. The biggest move the team made was sign wide receiver Greg Jennings to a contract extension. Aside from that all they did was draft lineman BJ Raji and linebacker Clay Matthews.

Minnesota is abuzz with news over the possible signing of Brett Favre, there is excitement in Detroit with the signings of some huge free agents and the emergence of QB Matthew Stafford and the trade for Jay Cutler has Chicago Bears fans hoping for a Super Bowl appearance. While each team has made moves and pushed themselves into the spotlight the Packers seem confident with what they have and feel they can compete with the best teams in the league. It seems anything they do, or don’t do, will be compared to Brett Favre and there will always be talk of how good they could be if they still had him on the roster.

There is hope that QB Aaron Rodgers will emerge and finally become the player that the team thought they would get when they drafted him. There is also some hope that the team's switch to a 3-4 defense will allow them to have an improved defense and shut down the run game. Those are both hopes, but the team will have to work hard to make either of them become a reality. The team will be the only one in the NFC North that will be using the 3-4 defense and the only team that hasn’t made a splash in the QB department.

It remains to be seen what will happen, but it seems that many have cast the Packers aside and already forgotten just how good they were only two years earlier. They still have all the players that lead them that year and many players are continuing to get better. The hopes that the team can push it to the next level will undoubtedly rest on Aaron Rodgers and many feel that the team will only go as far as he can carry them. While they haven’t made any impact moves, keep your eye on the Packers because they could be the surprise team in the NFC this year if all chips fall in the right place. Rodgers wants nothing more than to prove that he can lead the team the same way that Favre did all those years.