FanHouse BrianBrohm

It isn't any surprise that since Brett Favre announced he'd be done with football (umm, the fourth time), the quarterback situation with the Packers would be tumultuous.

Nobody thought it would get to this. Even with Aaron Rodgers doing whatever he can in Green Bay to win people over, rumors are flying around that the Packers have worked out Duke basketball player Greg Paulus. Yes, that was "Duke basketball player" you just read.

It isn't any surprise that since Brett Favre announced he'd be done with football (umm, the fourth time), the quarterback situation with the Packers would be tumultuous.

Nobody thought it would get to this. Even with Aaron Rodgers doing whatever he can in Green Bay to win people over, rumors are flying around that the Packers have worked out Duke basketball player Greg Paulus. Yes, that was "Duke basketball player" you just read.

When the Packers used a second-round pick on Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, they were working from the assumption that Brett Favre was actually going to stay retired this time. Green Bay would take LSU QB Matt Flynn five rounds later just for good measure.

Turns out, Favre was just joshing about spending the rest of his days fishin' in Mississippi, he re-un-retired, the Packers balked, and the future Hall of Famer ended up with the New York Jets. And Green Bay enters the season with a first-year starter in Aaron Roders, and two rookies behind him on the depth chart.

And while Brohm seemed like the obvious choice for the No. 2 job -- he came from a prolific college program and was at one time considered a first-round talent -- head coach Mike McCarthy has named Flynn Rodgers' backup.

"Now's the time when your reps are limited," McCarthy said after Monday's practice. "The ability to keep splitting them, we didn't feel was in the best interests (of the team). It would have been in the best interests of the group, but I wanted to be sure we gave one of the individuals an opportunity to get ready. We just felt Matt was a little more productive than Brian in the preseason, but it's a competition that will continue."

These things happen and it really says nothing about Brohm's NFL future; he's just one of countless players whose careers got off to a bumpy start. It happens.

Well, well, well. Didn't see this coming, but Brett Favre has faxed a "hey, just kidding about the retirement thing" letter to the NFL offices, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen (via MDS at PFT).

So what does this mean? Apparently, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, whose had a keen interest in getting this resolved for awhile now, will reinstate Favre, and the 17-year veteran is back on the Packers' active roster, eager to make it 18. Despite his protestations, now would be the time to take pity on current Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

As MDS writes, once Favre is reinstated, the Packers will have a decision to make: they can either release him or trade him, or they can keep him around under the pretense that he's competing for the starting job.

Releasing Favre should be out of the question since he could end up with the division rival Vikings, a team many people feel are a quarterback away from making a deep postseason run.

Trading Favre makes the most sense, but the offers aren't exactly streaming in.

If I'm Packers general manager Ted Thompson, I keep Favre on the roster, but make it unmistakably clear that he'll be the third-string quarterback behind Rodgers and rookie Brian Brohm, which means he won't be active on game days unless there's a run on injuries. Sure, it's not the best use of the salary cap, but somehow it seems worth it. Plus, Green Bay can pretty much guarantee Favre will re-retire by Week 3 and we can all get on with our lives.

Until next spring, anyway.

I wonder if Daunte Culpepper will ever regret not signing with the Packers when he had the chance. I also wonder if Green Bay will wish that the former Minnesota quarterback took them up on their one-year, $1 million offer.

Whatever, after Culpepper said thanks, but no thanks, Packers general manager Ted Thompson looked to the draft to stock the position behind first-year starter Aaron Rodgers. Green Bay made out, landing Brian Brohm in the second round and Matt Flynn five rounds later.

The problem, though, is that there is zero NFL experience behind Rodgers, who, unlike Brett Favre, has an injury history.

...the Packers will be taking a bigger risk than when Rodgers backed up Brett Favre as a rookie in 2005. Favre was a proven iron man, whereas Rodgers has an injury history (a broken foot and substantial hamstring strain the last two seasons). It's risky, but not uncommon for an NFL team. ...

Last season, three rookies opened the season as their team's No. 2 quarterback, though none of the clubs made the playoffs: first-round pick Brady Quinn of Cleveland, second-round pick John Beck of Miami, and Buffalo Bills third-rounder Trent Edwards, who finished the season as the team's starter.

(Just so you know, Rodgers hates it when you bring up all the injuries.)

Picture a team that was one Jeremy Ito field goal away from a shot at the national title in 2006. Most of the major contributors were back on offense in 2007 and expectations were for a similar year. I'm not going to recap the season for you. I will say that I was probably more surprised at the outcome than most of the Cardinal faithful. Seems I have some sort of Brian Brohm flinch reflex.

Fast forward to six months after the season, and I think reality is sinking in on Tom Jurich.

"We're definitely in a rebuilding process," Jurich told the school's Athletic Association's board of directors. "We're very limited from a depth standpoint. The next two years ... I just want to get through them."

The team lost 12 starters and 5 draft picks. But I think this whole rebuilding thing started about the time Middle Tennessee State put up 42. There's no way a 5-7 team from a mid-major conference should be able to do that. It shows how quick your fortunes can change.

Having said that, I don't think the rebuilding process is going to be nearly as painful as Jurich. I think Hunter Cantwell is a fine quarterback that has shown the ability to lead the team. I'm interested to see if Victor Anderson will step up this year at running back. He was good enough for Rich Rodriguez to offer him a scholarship as a junior.

The defense will surely be better with the addition of Ron English as defensive coordinator. There's going to be a lot of youth on both sides of the ball. But that's not always a bad thing. It makes for a short memory. The change in expectations might actually be a good thing for the team. What Louisville truly lacked last year was an identity. The defense was constantly guessing. The offense did put up some big numbers, but the consistency was way off previous years.

Maybe all this bonds the team together, and the coaches learn from their mistakes. Stranger things have happened. Louisville hasn't set the world on fire recruiting over the last three years, but 47th, 26th, and 43rd isn't exactly anything to cry about either. West Virginia has proven that you can win with that kind of recruiting in the Big East. And so has Louisville for that matter.

Dynasty Diaries takes a look at keeper leagues for fantasy football as the season quickly approaches.

With the retirement (finally) of Brett Favre, the Packers now have a new face to the franchise ... only we can't yet be 100% sure whose face it is just yet at the QB position. To me, the real face of the Packers franchise for the next few years is going to be Ryan Grant. I firmly believe the running game is going to take center stage and Grant is going to be an elite back. He's a solid first round pick in yearly fantasy drafts as far as I'm concerned (comparable value to Willie Parker) and houses even more value in keeper leagues -- being that he's only 25 years old and doesn't have much tread on his tires.

Once Brettfavre (I say it as one word because I'm trying to blend in with the rest of the media that refuse to either call him "Brett" or "Favre") called it quits, the reins of QB up in Lambeau Field were handed to Aaron Rodgers.

Or were they?

Last week, before drafting two quarterbacks to fill out the depth chart, the Packers were entertaining thoughts of signing Daunte Culpepper. That now looks like a long shot, and the odds get even longer when Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy basically says as much.

The team had it's first day of rookie minicamp on Friday, and following the script that was apparently circulated among all 32 teams, McCarthy reported that the rookies were "coachable," "performed well given the circumstances," and "showed glimpses of potential." Between the cliches, he did suggest that Green Bay could have the league's youngest group of quarterbacks on the 53-man roster (to go along with the league's youngest team):

McCarthy said there's a "good opportunity" that the Packers will enter the regular season with two rookies behind Aaron Rodgers. "Well, there's a good opportunity that could happen. We have a lot of work to do. It's not just at the quarterback position, but we have a lot of work to do at the football team. That's a big part of it, and we'll have them ready to play. That's our job."

The two rookies are Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn, drafted in the second and seventh rounds. Although both had solid collegiate careers, that generally doesn't mean much when talking about NFL productivity as a rookie. Of course, that the Packers opted for inexperience and youth over Culpepper, tells you all you need to know about the state of Culpepper's game.

Whoever ends up in the job, the point remains the same: if Rodgers goes down, the Packers will be in trouble. Until they coax Brett Favre out of retirement, anyway.

I did this last year, so it seems only fitting that I would do it again.

And it wasn't even close. Louisville had five players drafted, while Pitt and West Virginia had three apiece. Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati, and Connecticut had two each. And for the first time since 1975, Syracuse did not have anyone selected.

That's 19 players drafted. And any way I slice it, that's just not all that good for a BCS conference. Looking at the distribution of what rounds the players were taken, it was pretty well spread out over the entire draft for the Big East. But that doesn't make it feel any better. It's especially bad if you look at a team like West Virginia that has had three 11 win seasons in a row along with three straight top ten finishes. They've had exactly four players drafted in the last three years. And Chris Henry and Pac Man Jones the year before that. So we won't even go there.

The ACC? Yeah, that conference we've been quietly laughing at after Miami, Va. Tech, and Boston College left. Yeah, they had 33 players drafted this past weekend. The coaching must really suck over there or something.

Pac 10? Oh, they had 37 players drafted. SEC? 35. Big 10? 28. Big 12? 27. Hell, C-USA had 11 players drafted! Patriot League? Never mind.

Even more upsetting for West Virginia fans, two players left early for the NFL and weren't drafted. Those two being Darius Reynaud and Johnny Dingle. Yeah, sorry folks. Those Dingle-Berry photo's won't be happening anymore. Those are definitely two players the Mountaineers could have used this year, though. I'm not saying that their stock would go up any with one more year of college. But it sure wouldn't go down.

Louisville will have the most holes to fill as well. You don't replace Brian Brohm, Harry Douglas, and Art Carmody. I know there are others, but those three were special at their positions. West Virginia won't be far behind with the loss of Slaton and most of the secondary and defensive line. Rutgers, well we don't know how bad it is because we haven't seen anyone but Ray Rice run the ball. The rest of the conference should be fine. And that's not a good thing if you think about it.

So maybe the quarterback position wasn't as strong as a lot of mock draft nerds suspected. Matt Ryan went third overall, and the Ravens traded back into the first round to grab Joe Flacco, but Brian Brohm and Chad Henne lasted until late in Round 2. Still, four guys went on the (new and improved!) Day 1 of the draft, which is right about at the historical average*.

But there are still plenty of guys who will be kickin' it in their parents' living room today waiting -- hoping -- that their cell will ring with good news. One of those guys, Kentucky's Andre Woodson, was considered a first-round pick just four months ago, and now, to hear NFL Network's Charlie Casserly tell it, anyway, will be a late Day 2 selection.

Taking a similarly precipitous fall (at least as perceived by the media) is Hawaii's Colt Brennan. Word on the street has the Bears interested, which might explain why Chicago passed on Brohm and Henne on Saturday. (Well, either that or they're certain that their "wishing is believing" personnel strategy will finally pay off with Rex Grossman this season).

In addition to Woodson and Brennan, there are other intriguing names still available for those teams looking for long-term projects. San Diego's Josh Johnson and Oregon's Dennis Dixon are the two biggest and Johnson, after an impressive off-season of workouts, could be gone early in the third round.

* no idea if this is true, but it sounds right