The Green Bay Packers began trimming their roster on Sunday, in order to get down to Tuesday’s league mandated 75-player limit. Three players got their pink slips – punter Durant Brooks, receiver JaRon Harris, and linebacker Stryker Sulak.
None of these cuts are a surprise, but Brooks’ release means that the Packers have settled on Jeremy Kapinos as their punter – at least for the time being. Kapinos has a net average of 46.3 yards this preseason and has improved his distance and hang time since the opening week of training camp. After replacing Derrick Frost during last season, Kapinos averaged 39.2 yards gross and 34.5 yards net in four games.
Kapinos is no world beater, but the free agent market for punters isn’t very good right now, and isn’t expected to be a lot better after final cuts are made, so the Packers will likely stick with Kapinos for better or worse.
Meanwhile, someone who may be a world beater – Charles Woodson – says the Packers have a chance to win it all this year.
“We’ve got a chance at winning the whole thing, I believe,” said Woodson after the Packers’ jog-through practice Sunday. “Still got a long way to go. We’re not there yet, but we have a chance.”
Woodson’s enthusiasm stems from the addition of defensive coordinator Dom Capers and the implementation of his 3-4 system.
“You guys watched our defense last year, it was basically, there was no creativity to it,” said Woodson. “This defense, there’s so many different packages, so many different ways you can attack an offense. You can keep an offense on their heels, as long as everybody knows what they’re doing, their assignments. It’s tough for teams to pick that up. There’s a lot to this defense. I think we’ve handled the transition pretty well.”
The former statement is a pretty bold one, although, after watching how the team has performed thus far in the preseason, it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility. Woodson has been a killer, as he demonstrated with a dominant performance on Friday night at Arizona.
One of the most important elements in accomplishing a goal is believing that it’s possible. If Woodson can make believers out of his teammates, the rest of the league better watch out.
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