Green Bay — Midseason, a time for reflection on what has been and what might be, has arrived in Green Bay and the National Football League.

Some teams discovered their hopes were little more than pipe dreams. Other teams suffered major injuries to quarterbacks and valuable players, and their hopes have dimmed.

Underachievers though they might be, the Green Bay Packers are among the fortunate few still very much capable of winning the Super Bowl.

Look at the Packers' roster. Tight end is their only position where the die is cast and it's wait 'til next year for an upgrade, although even there hope exists in the likely return of Andrew Quarless from a knee injury.

General manager Ted Thompson, having passed on the opportunity to acquire Vernon Davis in a possible trade with San Francisco, obviously doesn't view tight end as an area of urgent need.

At the 21 other starting positions, not to mention depth across the board, the Packers can match their roster with anyone's.

Thompson always likes his players and his teams, and he has every reason to like this one.

Fans can be a lot like scouts, nitpicking this player and that player. Sometimes familiarity does breed contempt when it comes to watching the same team week after week.

A general manager used to say to his scouts, "Tell me what a player can do, not what he can't do."

Continue Reading @ JSOnline 

JSOnline wrote:

Cosell said that Rodgers is “part of the problem” for the Packers, while Jaws revealed (as noted by friend of TBL Will Brinson) that he’s dropped Rodgers out of the top spot on his coveted quarterback big board.

It was more a matter of over-achieving for six games, then coming down to earth against a couple of really good teams playing inspired football at home. When I say "over-achieving", I mean playing better than would be expected from the personnel we have - specifically, an O Line that is mediocre at best, receivers who might not start for a lot of teams except for Cobb, an average RB taking over for a plow horse, a collection of disappointments other than Daniels in the D Line, very limited quality LB personnel other than Matthews and Peppers who seems to be good for about 5 minutes of decent play then nothing, pretty good DBs, but they better be with all the pressure on them for man coverage in a defensive scheme that literally can't survive without massive creative blitzing.

It all is made possible by our All World QB, our game changer LB, and the ultimate schemer of a D Coordinator.

We still should win it all, but just think how good things could be if the supporting cast even was just average quality.

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker 

I just hope that if the Packers easily beat the Lions we don't get the illusion of grandeur again in Titletown. We have been exposed on defense as being super soft over the middle by two teams in a row and beating weak teams in the league doesn't make us title contenders. Where is our pass rush? Not even a pocket collapse in the last 2 weeks. We make Payton look 15 years younger and he was quick to expose our soft spot play after play. It really appears we are content with business as usual in Titletown and the gap gets larger between us and the elite teams in the league.

Originally Posted by: gotarace 

It was more a matter of over-achieving for six games, then coming down to earth against a couple of really good teams playing inspired football at home. When I say "over-achieving", I mean playing better than would be expected from the personnel we have - specifically, an O Line that is mediocre at best, receivers who might not start for a lot of teams except for Cobb, an average RB taking over for a plow horse, a collection of disappointments other than Daniels in the D Line, very limited quality LB personnel other than Matthews and Peppers who seems to be good for about 5 minutes of decent play then nothing, pretty good DBs, but they better be with all the pressure on them for man coverage in a defensive scheme that literally can't survive without massive creative blitzing.

It all is made possible by our All World QB, our game changer LB, and the ultimate schemer of a D Coordinator.

We still should win it all, but just think how good things could be if the supporting cast even was just average quality.

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker 

Love the post Texas but for one i'm not totally convinced Dom's as cagey as your praise. The last three games have been a complete train wreak on the defensive side of the ball. The smoke and mirror show has been exposed and we have been caught with our pants down. The blueprint to beat us is there and it is the execution of the opposing teams that will weigh heavily on our success.
Your post seams to point a finger at Ted Thompson's draft and develop tweener picks that rarely have developed talent at the position drafted at. The pressure falls on the coaching staff with many of his picks to make them something they are not...without much success with many of them. Maybe Ted's time in Green Bay is coming to a end.

Originally Posted by: gotarace 

A little ToP will do wonders to help this D.

As for Ted, we've got plenty of talent. Aaron needs to pull his head out, and that will help us considerably. The WRs have been getting open and getting deep, they just haven't connected.

Originally Posted by: nerdmann