FanHouse Jeremy Kapinos

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Injuries are not an excuse. It's also not permissible to point fingers at guys on the other side of the ball when your team has problems. No one in Green Bay will do this, despite the way things went down last year. The Packers lost eight of their ten games by a combined total of 30 points. Despite this, no one in the locker room pinned the blame on the three-ring circus in training camp, major injuries on defense, or anything else.

GREEN BAY, Wisc. -- Typically, it's the third preseason game when you see starters get the most playing time. Since the Buffalo Bills are playing five games instead of four, they only expect to use their starters into the second quarter at Lambeau FIeld.

The Packers should use their top players for around 20-25 snaps Saturday night at Lambeau Field. That should even out fairly well. When the Bills have the ball, the Packers will face something they aren't used to seeing.

Yesterday, Ciskie pointed out that the Packers were still without a punter. (Even though nobody pays them any attention, they are sort of important.) On Monday, they released incumbent Derrick Frost, who was signed just prior to the season opener to replace the inconsistent Jon Ryan.

Well, got some good news, Bruce: Green Bay inked former Nittany Lion Jeremy Kapinos, which means, barring an asteroid strike, the team will have a punter for this weekend's game against the Texans. And while I'll gladly admit that punters are seldom newsworthy, it was hard to overlook head coach Mike McCarthy's comments following the Kapinos signing:

"I want him to punt the ball in the right direction," McCarthy said. "I'm expected to win games. He's expected to punt the ball in the right direction." Then, McCarthy added, "I'm not trying to be funny."

Whoa, there, Mike. Let's try to keep expectations realistic here. You want this guy to not only kick the ball, but kick it in the right direction.