Maybe the grass just seems greener on the other side of the fence, but I recall Wilfork and Ngata being that kind of tough hard to push out of the way guy I hoped Raji would be. I don't remember that much about Warren and Seymour and those others, but I don't recall guts hanging over the belt like Raji and Pickett either. I agree with you about the 80% of the snaps. I'd like to see them rotate at NT for now. I dread the thought of Raji being paid big money at some point, though. The big lump has been a colossal disappointment from my perspective. We won the SB IN SPITE of Raji. Pickett played OK, but not the kind of game you expect from somebody with his body type. Green actually did show some toughness, as I recall. We should NOT re-sign Raji, but instead get somebody like Green for 1/5 to 1/10 as much.
Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker
texas, maybe you are forgetting...
BJ Raji, with Howard Green, Cullen jenkins and Ryan Pickett playing alongside him in 2010 had 7.5 sacks, 5 PDs and a pretty famous INT in the playoffs returned for a TD, the first DL in the history of the Packers to do so. That one play won the NFC Championship for us. Also was the elephant blocker for Kuhn's score at ATL in the playoffs.
We kiss Jenkins and Green goodbye, then don't replace them for 2 years, and you question Raji's production? Its called a 3-4 defense for a reason. We've essentially been playing 2-4 for two years now, as no one has picked up the slack of those two player losses, and we have zero depth to work a rotation. At least Neal flashed some last season in the 13 games he played in. But, it is clear we need more than that.
During that SB we won, the one you are so heavily criticizing him for, he played twice as many snaps as any other defensive lineman, 60 snaps. 2 assists, 4 QB pressures and a QB hit.
Bring some legit players into our DL and Raji's production will soar again, just like IT DID in 2010. Don't rewrite history.