Desmond Howard Part Of Great 1990's Packers Team | Where Are They Now?

The 1996-97 Green Bay Packers were one of the best teams ever assembled in NFL history. Scoring the most points as well as allowing the fewest that season, they were truly an oiled machine. Adding even more to the oiled machine was Desmond Howard, who set the league record for return yardage in a season that still stands to this day. So what are some of those Packers up to these days?

Gilbert Brown- “TheGravedigger”, as he was called, was a cog in the middle of a defense that was very difficult to run against. Brown is having a successful post-playing career these days. In addition to being a head coach of several obscure teams, including the Green Bay Chill of the Lingerie Football League, Brown is co-owner of the Milwaukee Mile.

Antonio Freeman- Antonio Freeman was one of Favre’s favorite targets during the 1990’s, and was as important down the stretch in 1996 as any other player on the roster. After retiring in 2007 as a Packer, Freeman got into television. He is now a member of the Washington Redskins Postgame show on Comcast Sportsnet Washington.

Edgar Bennett- Nicknamed “The Mudder” by some Packers fans, Bennett was tough between the tackles and even better in bad weather. After retiring in 1999, Bennett got into coaching. He has been a member of the Packers coaching staff for almost a decade now, and has served as the running backs coach as well as the wide receivers coach, the position he is in now.

Desmond Howard- The MVP of Super Bowl 31, Howard was the most explosive weapon on the Packers roster that season. These days Howard is one of ESPN’s most notable college football commentators and is a member of the famous “College Gameday” show that appears every Saturday during college football season on ESPN.

Craig Newsome- Craig Newsome, a former first round draft choice of the Packers, hasn’t had as good of a post playing career as the rest on this list. Newsome has battled drug addiction in his retirement. The good news is that he appears to have put that behind him, and is now coaching in Holmen, Wisconsin.

Doug Pederson- It seemed as if Doug Pederson was Brett Favre’s backup for most of his career, which he was. Now, Pederson is the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, and is tracking to be a head coach soon.

Wayne Simmons- I chose to put Simmons on this list for different reasons than the rest. We all know about Reggie White and his heart problems, which lead to his early death, but what some of you may not know, is that two members of that 1996 defense have already left this world. The other is Wayne Simmons, who died in a car accident in 2002 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Who Will Make Up The Packers Secondary In 2013?

As teams across the National Football League go through the beginning stages of off season work, it is pretty much a safe bet to say that the Green Bay Packers have the deepest secondary in league. That doesn’t mean we know who all four starters will be. Well, we know who two of them will be. We know that Sam Shields will start at corner back, as he has emerged as the ace cover man for the Packers, and Morgan Burnett will start at safety. That leaves the other corner back position and the other safety position up for grabs. Doesn’t mean they don’t have starters at those positions. Remember who these guys are. These are the Green Bay Packers, and this is how the league’s premier franchise goes about its business.

Tramon Williams: It wasn’t too long ago that Tramon Williams was one of the leagues better cover corners. The Packers rewarded his hard work, by giving him a 4-year, 33 million dollar contract extension. Since then, injuries and a decline in play have left a big question mark over his head. If he can stay healthy and get back to the player he once was, he will start.

Casey Hayward: 2012 second round draft choice Casey Hayward has quickly emerged as a rising star at corner back for the Packers. After not playing week one last year, he was quickly pushed into the lineup, and responded with six interceptions, and was a 2012 defensive rookie of the year candidate. Hayward lacks top end speed, but that shouldn’t hurt the Packers too much as Sam Shields, the ace cover corner, is perhaps the fastest player in the league. Hayward will need help over the top, and that is where Morgan Burnett and whoever else starts at safety will have to come up big, and I believe they will. Hayward has the skills to craft himself as one of the league’s best mid-range cover corners. Hayward will start if Williams isn’t healthy.

Jerron McMillian: Leading up to the draft, I kept telling people that Ted Thompson was not going to draft a safety one year after he traded up to draft McMillian, and I was right. McMillian is an interesting project. He has the tools to be a great player in the NFL, but he was somewhat raw when he got to the Packers least season. I would make a bet that McMillian would be the starter heading into 2013.

M.D. Jennings: After sparingly playing in 2011, Jennings took big steps forward in 2012, taking over as the starter when Charles Woodson broke his collarbone against the Rams. Jennings played very good football, especially for someone in his position, right up until the week 17 matchup against the Vikings. Still, Jennings appears to be yet another one of Ted Thompson’s undrafted free agent gems. Expect this competition to drag deep into training camp.

Packers Passing Game Has Been Too Good For Too Long

            

For the last 3-4 seasons Green Bay Packers fans have enjoyed the league's best offense, and even more specifically, the best passing game in NFL history. This passing game has been highlighted by the deepest collection of wide receivers we've ever seen. A few years ago NFL Network did a top 10 in terms of best collection of wide receivers in NFL history. Had they waited until now to do that list, these Packers would have been at the top of the list, by a large margin. Other passing games have been good, a few even great. This passing game could go down the field, in short order, because they simply felt like it. This passing game has even gotten the nickname “5 and fly” because these Packers went five wide and all five went vertical.

Granted, it was fun while it lasted, but the passing game the Packers have had is not there anymore. Greg Jennings has signed with the Minnesota Vikings, Donald Driver has retired, Jermichael Finley has regressed, and Jordy Nelson now has the “don't know” mark attached to him because of his hamstring issues. In other words, “5 and fly” is gone. I know, you are thinking “That can only be a bad thing right?” Well, not necessarily.

Yes, this Packers passing game has been great to watch. But, problems have arisen since this passing game developed into what it was. For example, the running game has been the leagues worst for a while now. But what I see as the biggest problem though, is the inefficiency the Packers have played with as a team when we discuss all aspects that lie outside of the passing game. The tackling on defense has gotten sloppy, and this sloppy tackling was on display in the divisional playoff game last season against the 49ers. The overall blocking by the offensive line has gotten sloppy, and if the Packers want Aaron Rodgers to play out his contract, the pass blocking has to get a lot better. Hopefully this rearranging of the offensive line will help that cause. The penalties stat has also gone up, and championship football teams don't commit senseless penalties.

In my opinion, this all correlates with the passing game the Packers have had. So stay with me on this before you get too confused. I strongly believe that due to the historic success of the passing game, the rest of the team has become nonchalant. Due to the ability of the passing game to put points on the board at will, it appears to me that the rest of the teams has come to expect the passing game to go down the field, bail them out, and put tons of points on the board. In other words, the disappearing of the “5 and fly” will maybe force the Packers to clean up this sloppiness in other areas of the game, and play with the intelligence and discipline that a championship team is supposed to play with.   

Packers Draft Not The Only Thing Going On This Spring

Yes, the draft is the biggest thing going this time of the year in football. Despite what some of us may think, other football related news has taken place, and much of it is Packers related.

Over the last few weeks the Packers have made Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews contract extensions official. Big surprise?  Not really. Rodgers received a five year-110 million dollar contract. Matthews got six years and 66 million. Now I won't go into the details because I bombed out of college math, and it takes a real mathematician to understand these deals. From the way I understand it, the Packers front-loaded a bunch of guaranteed money to make like easier down the road. Rodgers, in total, will receive 40 million for the upcoming season, the same number that Drew Brees will get. But not all of that is cap money. Rodgers cap hit will never go above 21 million. Rodgers and Matthews combined cap hits will only go over 30 million three times the next six years. The long-range-genius of Ted Thompson has struck YET again. This also means the Packers could have brought back Greg Jennings for a similar deal that he got from the Vikings if they thought he was worth it. Add the fact that Thompson didn't draft a receiver until round seven. That right there tells you everything you need to know about what Thompson thought of Jennings value.

Mike McCarthy has decided to take the old “student body left” scheme philosophy, and applying to his offensive line. The Packers two best lineman, Brian Bulaga and Josh Sitton, are going left, literally. Bulaga will move to left tackle and Sitton to left guard. This also says a lot about Bulaga's current health as he recovers from ACL surgery. EDS will start at center (And that scares me), and T.J. Lang will move to right guard. That leaves the right tackle position wide open; the candidates are Marshall Newhouse, Don Barclay, Derrek Sherrod, Andrew Datko, David Bakhtiari, and any other lineman in camp. In other words, nobody knows who will start there until they actually start there week one. This could either work, or as one JS-Online poster put it, McCarthy could just simply be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Either way, we will find out.

One of the many undrafted free agent signings by the Packers was Illinois State QB Matt Brown, who has good size and tools that can be developed into something more down the road. Brown will come to camp, giving the Packers four QB's in the preseason. The Packers would love for B.J. Coleman to win the backup job, and if he does, Graham Harrell gets cut, and Brown goes to the practice squad. However if Coleman doesn't win the backup job them Harrell remains the backup, Coleman goes back to the practice squad, and Brown gets cut.