Interview with Green Bay Insider Pete Dougherty from the Green Bay Press Gazette

  Transcribed 7/25 from Audible Podcast by Andy Hicks

Cecil Lammey: When looking over the Green Bay roster, who's going to run the football? Ahman Green is now a Houston Texan, You have Vernand Morency who came from the Texans to Green Bay. He looked pretty good in spot duty. The rookie Brandon Jackson. Even Noah Herron, who was dumped by the Steelers, but came from Northwestern. Which one of these guys is going to be the feature back in your opinion Pete or is it going to be a running back by committee?

Pete Dougherty: I think it's a lot more likely to be the latter, or at least the first two guys you mentioned, the two smaller backs Morency and Jackson. I think barring injuries those guys combined could easily get 80-90% of the carries.

Sigmund Bloom: Pete, let's talk about the player you first think of when you think about the Packers, Brett Favre. Coming back seemingly for another year, is this the last year? Another run at a title? Is this the year we possibly see him fall off? Maybe like Willie Mays, we sort of feel sorry for him? Or is his play at a high level as ever?

PD: You know it's tough to know that because you're right it could happen at any time. You talk to scouts around the league and you guys have probably read and heard elsewhere Sigmund, that about age 38 a lot of these guys start making a really noticeable decline. Favre is 37 right now, but he'll be 38 in October. Watching him in the minicamps and the OTAs, he's in good shape. He looked pretty decent. I certainly didn't see any major drop-offs there. He was by far the best quarterback in camp. You just don't know. A lot depends on whether they can run the ball. That will help them a lot. If the protections better with two rookie guards, if they're better and if they can do less max protecting and they can get more guys out in pass routes this year that would help. A lot of ifs there, but he still seems to have a pretty strong arm and he still moves fairly well even though he doesn't run that great. He still slips and slides in the pocket well or at least he did last year. If I were a betting man I would bet that he'll be pretty decent this year.

CL: Let's stick with the quarterback position and talk about the kid behind Brett Favre. Of course it's Aaron Rodgers, who seemingly is snake bit in his NFL career. What's your future outlook for Rodgers?

PD: It's tough to read. Especially with the quarterback position, you never know with those guys until they take command for 6, 8, 10 games, even longer. How do they do in all sorts of situations. You don't know until you actually see them do it. The one thing you can say from what you see in practice, is he's made pretty gradual, but steady improvement in the two plus years that he's been here. I certainly can't say that he's definitely going be the answer and he'll be the quarterback for eight years after Favre retires, but he hasn't shown enough at this point to say that he can't do it. That possibility still exists. He doesn't look like a can't-miss guy, but you can't just write him off and say he's no good right now either. Like I said you won't know until he gets put in that position. The people in the Packers, the general manager from what I hear thinks really highly of him, the coach thinks pretty highly of him. Thinks he has a chance. Even they're just projecting and none of us will know until Favre retires, whether that's after this year or next year.

SB: Pete, at the wide receiver position for the Packers we all know who Favre's favorite target is. Donald Driver will be back for another year, but let's talk about the position on the other side. Greg Jennings really surprised a lot of us by starting as a rookie and looking good doing it for the first five games last year. It almost seemed like there were two #1 options for Favre and then Jennings gets hurt and never really gets that form back. Are the Packers looking for him to hit the ground running and be that same guy we saw early in the year or is there a chance someone like Ruvell Martin could gain on him and maybe vie for that spot?

PD: Oh no. They are not only looking for him to do that, but they need him to do that. Look at their team and the question you are going to have is how are these guys going to score any points this year? One of the ways for them to be improved and move the ball and get big chunks of yards is for Jennings not only to be as good as he was early last year, but even better. They're projecting that. All this stuff is projections and guys are capable of making pretty big jumps from their first or second year and that's one they'll need because otherwise it's a pretty thin, unproven group behind Driver and Jennings.

CL: My final question for you has to go over to the defensive side of the ball. Let's talk about two linebackers; no it's maybe not the linebacker you think. It's A.J Hawk and Abdul Hodge. I really like these two kids. What are your future prospects for both of these two players?

PD: Hawk was the best guy on the field in the OTAs and minicamps this year. They leave him on the field for every snap. I remember in one of the practices he had a real nice interception on a red zone drill on Favre way back in the back of the endzone. The ball was snapped from the 15 or 20 and it was a really deep drop. He's one of these guys. He was pretty good from the start. He looks like he's just going to keep getting a little better, a little better. He combines a pretty high level of talent with also a high level of instincts. His prospects look pretty good. He could be a pro bowl guy, maybe as early as this year or a couple of years down the road. Hodge, they really liked him when they took him in the third round last year. He played in one game and he started at middle linebacker because of Nick Barnett's injury at Seattle and he had just a terrible game. He hurt his knee later in the year and he's been out all off season during the OTAs and the minicamps. He hasn't done anything on the field this off season, so it's impossible to know. He was one of the surprises of training camp for the first week or so and all the running drills they were doing. He was really hitting hard and filling holes and making tackles. He kind of leveled off after that. So they're going to be looking for a lot of that this year. My guess is he'll really have to play lights out to get on the field this year aside from special teams, unless there's an injury. If he's to have a good camp that would portend well for the next couple of years down the road. Where if he does get good enough they could start him at middle linebacker and move Barnett to strongside, then they'd really have a good threesome there.

SB: My last question. Staying on the defensive side, Nick Collins has really established himself in the secondary, but Marquand Manuel did not live up to expectations when he was brought in from Seattle last year. Now you have a draft pick, Aaron Rouse, another draft pick from last year, Marviel Underwood, even maybe Tyrone Culver figuring into the mix. Is this just going to be a free for all strong safety? Do you see anybody having the edge in that battle going into training camp?

PD: I would think it's really wide open. With the three most likely candidates being either Manuel, who they're hoping they can find somebody better, or Underwood who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, who played a little bit as a rookie the year before or Rouse who's just a real specimen at safety. He's a third round pick this year. He's about 6'4 and maybe 225. He's the biggest safety I've seen in person. My best guess is it will be one of those three. They're always talking up guys in the off season. They're saying Manual looks a lot better this year, last year when he joined them he was coming off, I think it was a torn groin in the Super Bowl. He didn't practice in the off season and only part time early in camp. They're saying that was a factor in his play last year. Who knows if it was or not? Ideally if one of those two other guys, Underwood or Rouse proves to be better than Manual then they'll start him there.

CL: You want to keep up with the Packers all year round you read everything Pete Dougherty writes for the Green Bay Press Gazette. Pete, thanks for joining the show man

PD: Okay guys good talking to you.