Packers know it will be hard to make Rodgers play safe

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Not that they weren’t already concerned, but last weekend made the Packers that much more conscious of keeping Aaron Rodgers upright.

With Michael Vick, Jay Cutler and Alex Smith leaving with concussions, it brought back into focus for them the risk their quarterback takes when he leaves the pocket.

“We can’t afford to lose our quarterback to not sliding and trying to make a play,” tight end Andrew Quarless said, via Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I definitely think it’s something he takes into consideration. If he goes down [because of injury], it’s going to be pretty tough.

“I wish you could see the coaches’ faces when he takes a hit.”

Rodgers’ inclination remains to err on the side of making a play, much to the chagrin of coaches and teammates.

But it’s not just when he’s outside the pocket, as Rodgers has taken a league-high 29 sacks.

“I get concerned,” center Jeff Saturday said. “He takes some shots now. He’s a tough kid. There’s a lot of times where I’m screaming, ‘Throw it, throw it.’ He can’t hear it, but you just want him to let it go because I want him to play the next play.

“But that’s ingrained in him. He knows if he’s willing to hold it for one second, he’s willing to take that shot to get the ball off and create the big plays.”

Of course, that willingness to go for first downs or hold the ball a second longer trying to make a play is part of the reason he’s good at what he does.

“Just reflect back to our last game vs. the Cardinals and his ability to make plays with his feet,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “ I think Aaron’s a lot more conscious of it [protecting himself] and it’s something, frankly, where hopefully we’re doing a better job of coaching it with our quarterbacks.”

Whether they’re ever able to coach that tendency out of Rodgers remains to be seen.

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We’ll wrap up the week on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk with the team that wears lightning bolts and powder blue.

And, yes, since Erik Kuselias put Bucco Bruce on the Tampa Mt. Rushmore, chances are he’ll try to put San Diego’s uniforms of yesteryear on this one.

I’ll stick with, you know, actual people.  (I’d make a Manti Te’o joke here, but just like the topic I’m “

You’ll stick with actual people, too.  Because there’s no way to add any candidates to the 12 finalists listed below.

One had a pretty thick beard.  He’ll also have a pretty thick stack of votes.  We’ll unveil the winners on Friday’s edition of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN.

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Former Bills Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, will walk from Buffalo to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio (213 miles), to raise money for children in need of prosthetics.

The Dolphins are having a series of player conference calls with fans between now and training camp.

Former Patriots WR Wes Welker was polite during a return to Boston to promote the guy who did his hair transplants.

Jets C Nick Mangold was asked about rookie QB Geno Smith, and replied: “He’s not a diva. I don’t see the diva. I don’t get where that came from.”

The Ravens, especially QB Joe Flacco, are confident in new C Gino Gradkowski.

Bengals CB Adam Jones, said in his early years, he was “a knucklehead, just young and dumb.”

The Browns worked with a group trying to encourage people to grow vegetables (which hopefully will not be thrown at them later).

The Steelers took a hit in court yesterday, in a case over who would have to pay for more seats in Heinz Field.

In case you were wondering, Texas rap legend Bun B said he was impressed with Texans RB Arian Foster’s rap ability.

There are folks in Indianapolis cranky about where the Colts cheerleaders shot their swimsuit calendar (their suits would have clashed with the green canal downtown, I guess).

In addition to kicking in for new scoreboards in Jacksonville, Jaguars owner Shad Khan said he’s also committed to their upcoming games in London.

Titans rookie WR Justin Hunter got on the field with his teammates for the first time this spring, after a balky hamstring kept him out previously.

Broncos QB Peyton Manning’s doing an Alzheimer’s ad to support the Pat Summitt Foundation.

Chiefs QB coach Matt Nagy loves QB Alex Smith’s football IQ.

Raiders rookie DE David Bass, from a Division II school said of the offseason work “I actually thought it was going to be harder,” which may explain a few things.

Chargers rookies got a mini-symposium in, as several lesser known L.A. Clippers came to talk to the players.

Cowboys K Dan Bailey said he’s adding leg strength.

Giants LB (and cancer survivor) Mark Herzlich will be hosting a Health Expo.

Former Philadelphia Soul coach Bret Munsey joined the Eagles as a college scout.

Redskins teammates are making fun of S Reed Doughty for being old.

Some Bears players are traveling to Germany to visit U.S. troops.

Lions DE Ronnell Lewis was arraigned on three charges from a bar fight, but his lawyer expects a “favorable resolution” when they go to court.

Finally healthy after a bout with a parasite last year, Packers LB Terrell Manning is ready to compete for a regular role.

The Vikings appear to have an abundance of options at kick returner, including rookie Cordarrelle Patterson.

Falcons rookie DE Stansly Maponga will be limited at the start of training camp following foot surgery.

Panthers TE Greg Olsen donated $289,000 to a local pediatric heart center.

Saints QB Drew Brees’ foundation picked up the tab for a local football team to travel to Orlando for a tournament.

The Buccaneers are being sued for sending annoying faxes (their Myspace campaign is sure to be a hit).

Cardinals RB Rashard Mendenhall has the inside track on the starting job.

The trick-shot video to get noticed is catching on, as the Rams have a rookie long snapper from Canada with his own Youtube highlights.

With new 49ers extension in hand, Justin Smith says his shoulder should be healthy enough by the start of training camp.

The Seahawks are seeking fan input (topics may include but are not limited to where their offensive linemen should relieve themselves).

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Titans wide receiver Justin Hunter’s first couple of months as an NFL player didn’t go exactly as planned.

Hunter injured his hamstring during the team’s first OTA session, forcing him to the bench and leading wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson to tell Hunter that he needed to be tougher about fighting through injuries in order to be on the field for unpadded practices months before training camp. That’s not the ideal introduction to your new team, but the offseason will end on a higher note for Hunter.

The wideout was able to take part in practice for the first time since that fateful OTA on Wednesday, the second day of the Titans’ minicamp. Hunter did individual work and some team drills, even trying to jump into scrimmage situations before the team pulled him out. Coach Mike Munchak cited his own experience as a player in allowing Hunter to work, saying Hunter has been held out largely as a precaution of late and that he remembers feeling like an outsider in similar situations. Hunter was happy for the change.

“Seeing all them guys working so hard out there, sweating and everything, I just needed to get out there and do the same thing,” Hunter said, via John Glennon of the Tennessean.

Hunter should be able to go without restrictions come training camp, where he’ll try to earn reps alongside Kendall Wright, Kenny Britt and Nate Washington.

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Roger Staubach knows something about being a Super Bowl-winning Cowboys quarterback. And he thinks Tony Romo can be a Super Bowl-winning Cowboys quarterback.

Staubach said on 105.3 The Fan that he believes Romo is the right quarterback to lead Dallas to a title, the way Troy Aikman and Staubach himself have done in Dallas.

“I think Tony Romo is a championship quarterback,” Staubach said, via the Dallas Morning News. “He can take a team to a championship. He can’t do it by himself, but I really believe he can do it. I just see what he does on the field, the plays he makes, the throws he makes, the sense that he has to move in the pocket so I’m pulling really hard for Tony because I really believe he is one heck of a quarterback, and that’s a feeling from somebody that I didn’t say that about any other quarterbacks except for Troy Aikman. I think Tony is the right quarterback, and we’re lucky to have Tony Romo.”

In Staubach’s opinion, the Cowboys, who were 8-8 the last two years, are close to contending for a title.

“Dallas will have a shot at it,” Staubach said. “When you’re 8-8, you can be 10-6. The Giants a few years ago were 7-7 and ended up 9-7 and got to the Super Bowl. Last year, Baltimore was kind of hurting at the end of the year. If Dez Bryant doesn’t have two fingers out of bounds, who knows. So at least I think Dallas has got the talent to be competitive with the league. We have hope that we can get to the playoffs and once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen.”

It hasn’t happened for the Cowboys with Romo yet, but Romo’s new contract suggests that Jerry Jones views things the same way as Staubach.

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With the drafting of Jeff Locke in the fifth round of the NFL Draft in April, it seemed the writing was on the wall that Chris Kluwe’s time with the Minnesota Vikings was coming to an end. After eight seasons serving as the team’ punter, the Vikings released Kluwe in May.

According to Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com, special teams coach Mike Priefer felt “very strongly” the Vikings needed to go in another direction.

“I just felt like we needed to make a change there,” Priefer said.

The change was easier to make once the Vikings selected Locke. After getting a chance to see Locke during the Vikings’ rookie mini-camp, the team made the decision to release Kluwe. He later signed a one-year deal with the Oakland Raiders.

Priefer called Kluwe “a distraction” last season after he wore a “Vote Ray Guy” patch over the league’s 50th Anniversary Hall of Fame patches for a game in December. Combined with his outspokenness in support of the LGBT community, it seemed as though the reasons for replacing Kluwe could have been more due to his off-field actions than his on-field performance. But Priefer said that wasn’t the case.

“I have a lot of respect for Chris Kluwe,” Priefer said. “I think, based on what he’s done in his career, as a man and as an athlete, and for anybody that stands up for what he believes in like Chris did, I have a lot of respect for guys like that.”

In the end, Priefer said the Vikings were seeking “more consistency and productivity” from the position.

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The Cleveland Browns announced Wednesday they have added five scouts to their personnel department to serve under general manager Michael Lombardi.

Brent Blaylock, Brendan Donovan, Matthew Manocherian and Patrick Moore were brought on to serve as college scouts while Frank Edgerly will be a senior pro scout for the team.

Edgerly has spent the past four years working as a scout for the New England Patriots.

Donovan spent the last two years as the director of on-campus recruiting for the University of Florida. Moore served as an assistant coach for Fordham University from 2007-2011. Manocherian spent the last three years as a scouting assistant for the New Orleans Saints

Blaylock may have the most interesting path to the Browns as he spent the last two years working for Penske Racing. Prior to his time in motorsports, he served for three years as assistant director of football operations for the University of Miami after a year working in the Miami Dolphins operations department.

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Jacksonville Jaguars rookie offensive tackle Luke Joeckel had believed he was going to be the first player selected during the NFL Draft in April. It didn’t happen as the Kansas Chiefs selected Central Michigan’s Eric Fisher with the first pick instead.

Instead, Joeckel had to wait an extra 15 minutes before being selected by the Jaguars with the second overall pick.

But when Joeckel’s expectation had been to be the top overall pick in the draft, there was still some disappointment when his name wasn’t the first to be called by Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“At the time it was not the most pleasant thing ever,” Joeckel said on the Draft Tracker podcast at NFL.com.

Joeckel said he’s happy to be with the Jaguars and he believes it’s a good fit for him as well. Eugene Monroe is set to enter the final year of his rookie contract and Joeckel could ultimately replace him on the left side of the line after this season. For now, Joeckel is slated to be the Jaguars right tackle. Still, not being the top pick won’t be something he soon forgets.

“It definitely kind of put a chip on my shoulder, not being the first tackle taken,” Joeckel said.. “Which is a good thing. It’s a good thing to help drive you and help compete against another guy in your same position. A guy that got the first pick in front of me.”

Just don’t expect Aaron Rodgers to share in Joeckel’s pain of falling a whole one slot on draft day.

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New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has taken plenty of abuse – most of it justified – from teammates, media and fans alike for his performance as the team’s starter the last two seasons.

Teammates anonymously took shots at the Jets signal-caller last year and have continued to do so well into the offseason.

But not every member of the Jets appears to be down on Sanchez as the team’s starting quarterback. Center Nick Mangold expressed support for Sanchez during a promotional event on Wednesday.

“I believe so,” Mangold said when asked if the locker room supports Sanchez, via Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post. “I haven’t walked around with a pen and paper and taken a poll, but from the feeling I get, the locker room wants to win. Whoever gives us the best chance to do that, we want out there — and at this point, Mark gives us that best chance.”

Sanchez had arguably the worst season of his four-year career last season. He completed just 54.3-percent of his pass attempts with 13 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. He also fumbled 14 times and lost eight (butt fumble included) – both career-highs.

The Jets have to get better quarterback play next season regardless of who is the starter. Mangold said he liked what he saw from Sanchez during the team’s offseason program and thinks it will be a tall task for rookie Geno Smith to supplant Sanchez as the Jets’ starter.

“Mark had a little bit better idea of the ideas and of seeing things, which are things Geno is going to have to work his butt off on,” Mangold said.

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Earlier today, Tom Curran of CSN New England gave an ominous assessment of the manner in which the investigation regarding a death of Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez’s “associate” could unfold.

It’s apparently unfolding.

The victim has officially been identified as 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, and his death has been ruled a homicide.  According to FOX 25 in Boston, police have determined that four men — including Hernandez and Odin Lloyd — were in a vehicle together after leaving a bar, and that only three of the men returned to Hernandez’s home.

Per the report, and supplemented by tweets from Ted Daniel of FOX 25, forensic evidence collected by police places a vehicle “driven by” Hernandez at the “crime scene.”  It’s unclear whether the crime scene was the location where Lloyd’s body was found, or whether the crime (i.e., the site of Lloyd’s murder) occurred elsewhere.

FOX 25 also reports that Lloyd sent a text to a friend referring to Hernandez.

Our mildly-educated guess is that more evidence of text messages and other electronically-created footprints will be used to further piece together the puzzle.

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Regarded as a potential deep threat, Vikings first-round receiver Cordarrelle Patterson has something that arguably will be even more valuable over the balance of his career, if he keeps it — the ability to get open at the top of his route.

Veteran Greg Jennings praised Patterson for what Jennings calls “that definitive step,” which creates separation from the defensive back.

“I remember coming out [of college],” Jennings said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com.  “I had that definitive step.  That kind of gets washed out because everything they teach you is that they want everything to look the same.  The definitive step starts to kind of fade away, but that’s what creates that separation.  I just told him, do not lose that.  Because the more I see him do that, the more I remember when I used to do that and create so much, even more separation.  I’m starting to creep that back in. . . .

“That’s a gift. You can’t really teach that.  He has it.  And I remember, that was me.  I was coming out and sticking everything.  And the coaches were like, ‘We just want to round it, we just want to round it.’  Slowly but surely, I started rounding everything.  The route still looks good, but it just doesn’t have that crispness about it.”

As for Patterson’s speed, that’s a given.  “If you see the back of his jersey, you might a well stop running, because it’s over,” Jennings said.

The Vikings have been trying to keep expectations low for Patterson as a rookie.  With first-round phenoms like Randy Moss in 1998 and Percy Harvin in 2009, too much pressure to excel could turn Patterson into another Troy Williamson.  Vikings fans would surely settle for something in between, since that would mean the offensive has discovered balance.

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The Dolphins got their Mt. Rushmore today, and three of them were easy:  Shula, Marino, Csonka.

The only discrepancy between Pro Football Talk and PFT Planet came on the question of whether Bob Griese or Jason Taylor should get the fourth spot.

Watch the video, hear the debate, check out the voting results, and chime in below.

Along the way, feel free to argue for or against our decision to omit team founder Joe Robbie from the list of finalists.

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In the post-bounty NFL, players and coaches aren’t supposed to say publicly the stuff they undoubtedly scream privately.  Titans safety Bernard Pollard didn’t get the memo.  Or he doesn’t care.

Bet the latter.

“I don’t care what they have to say,” Pollard said regarding those who may criticize him for using such blunt language, via Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean.  “If they feel like we’re going to carry guns and knives and try and stab people and try and kill them, shame on you. You are an idiot.  For us, when we say kill, we want to go out there and knock the [heck] out of people, we want to hit you.  And for me, we’re going to help you up because I’m going to knock you back down.  I have been at plenty of pee-wee football games where I have seen my son, my daughter, and you hear parents, you hear women, white, black, Hispanic, Chinese, Japanese, telling their sons, ‘Kill them! Telling their daughters, Kill them!’

“Do I believe they mean kill them?  Literally kill them?  No.  So if you have never played this game before and you want to take that and run with it, go ahead.  Shame on you.  You’re a fool.”

Some would say Pollard is the fool for so brazenly using the kind of tough talk that underscored the one-year banishment of former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who coincidentally now works for the Titans.  The bounty scandal has driven “kill”-type comments out of the NFL mainstream, prompting strong reactions in those rare situations where, for example, Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Gray refers to firing up the “Gator Truck” or Bills defensive lineman Mario Williams says that he always hears defensive coordinator Mike Pettine say “Kill ‘em or hurt ‘em,” one day before saying Williams has actually never heard that.

Pollard’s defiance almost guarantees that he’ll hear from the league office, where Commissioner Roger Goodell is striving to make the game safer.  Or to at least make the game appear safer.

“I really don’t care what the Commissioner is doing,” Pollard said.  “I don’t think he has ever played football, he has never played in the National Football League and he has never walked in my shoes.  And I haven’t walked in his either.  I don’t know what he has to say about me, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t care what he has to say about me.  I know that we have to have that mentality to play the game. You have to be [ticked] off, and you have to do some things to [tick] other people off. . . .  If you don’t like that, I’m sorry for you.  We’re not going to change, and we’re not going to apologize.”

Of course, Pollard is the same guy who declared that the NFL will be gone in 30 years, presumably due in large part to the mentality he so fiercely embraces.  The end result is the kind of maddening inconsistency that helps explain why Pollard has bounced from team to team (to team to team) during his career.

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For three of the spots on the Bills’ Mt. Rushmore, the process was easy: Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and O.J. Simpson.

For the last spot, things got slightly more complex.

I gave it to receiver Andre Reed, and PFT Planet awarded it to defensive end Bruce Smith.

Check out the video of the segment from the Pro Football Talk on NBCSN discussion, featuring Frank Wycheck, Ross Tucker, Erik Kuselias, and yours truly.

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Last week, former NBA coach Phil Jackson called the term Redskins “highly offensive.”  This week, a former NHL coach of Native American origin agreed with the assessment.

“I’d be very offended,” former Sabres and Islanders coach Ted Nolan told Tim Graham of the Buffalo News regarding the prospect of being greeted with a label the D.C. football team insists is an honor.

“There are certain things you can’t call black people or Chinese people or Jewish people. We as Native Americans, or First Nation people as we’re called in Canada, we find it offensive, too,” Nolan said.

“Sure, the Redskins name has been around for generations, but when you’re a person of that race and someone calls you a redskin, they don’t know why they’re saying it, where the word comes form or what the word means,” Nolan said.

“I never did like the word. And that’s where the president of the United States lives.  It doesn’t compute.”

With that, Nolan becomes the most prominent Native American with ties to the sports world to speak out against the name.  His words could influence other Native Americans to abandon their nonchalance regarding the term, causing opposition to become more organized — and to expand.

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Controversial Chargers physician David Chao recently resigned his post with the team due to health concerns, along with a desire to spend more time with his family.

The decision apparently was influenced by a fairly important external development.  According to Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today, a pair of San Diego hospitals had barred Chao from performing surgeries.

“I have been informed that Dr. Chao has lost his surgical privileges with the only two hospitals he had surgical privileges with: Scripps Mercy [Hospital] and Scripps [Memorial Hospital],” an attorney said in a sworn declaration submitted in connection with a pending lawsuit against Chao.  “This has led, apparently, to Dr. Chao resigning his position with the Chargers. This will also inevitably lead to the closure of . . . Dr. Chao’s surgical practice.”

Chao’s attorney disputed the claim, arguing that Chao still had a page on the hospitals’ website.  And then Chao disappeared from the hospitals’ website, according to Schrotenboer.  A spokesperson for the facilities declined comment.