FanHouse KevinGreene

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

By dealing up into the last part of the first round for Clay Matthews, Ted Thompson may have forever changed his image in Green Bay. He went from being consistently ripped for his trade-downs and seemingly passive nature during the draft to being branded a genius. Of course, if either of his first-round selections fail, he'll be back to being an idiot again.

The Green Bay Packers have spent the first part of the offseason fine-tuning their coaching staff, especially on defense. Anyone who watched the team play in 2008 knows this was work that needed to be done.

With Dom Capers in as defensive coordinator and former Carolina defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac now coaching the defensive line, things were looking up. Capers and head coach Mike McCarthy weren't done, however, and they've now made a hire that could be fairly described as "interesting."

With the Patriots linebackers dropping like flies in recent weeks, the news that veteran Tedy Bruschi could be done for the season probably isn't what New England fans want to hear as the team fights through the three-way battle at the top of the AFC East.

According to Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald, Bruschi suffered a knee injury in Sunday's win over Seattle that would likely keep him out of the lineup for three to four weeks. Since, as Guregian writes, the Patriots need every healthy body they can get in the final three games, it's likely they'll just place the 34-year-old Bruschi on injured reserve to free up his roster spot.

What they'll do with that roster spot, however, is unknown. A week ago, the Patriots brought in soon-to-be 40-year-old Junior Seau to replace Pierre Woods, after bringing in Rosevelt Colvin a few days earlier. If those recent moves are any indicators to the inner-workings of the Patriots front office, they'll likely take a look at anyone from Kevin Greene to Andre Tippett.

Bruschi has 75 tackles, no sacks and one pass defense for the Patriots this season.

When you're stuck in that NFL dead zone in between post-draft minicamp and the start of training camp, you find yourself looking for things to do. This is doubly true in the media, which suddenly has little to write about unless draft picks get signed or sketchy receivers get busted for cutting cocaine in the back of a van.

With that in mind, the gang at the Rock Hill Herald has decided to occupy fans time with a simple question: who's the greatest Carolina Panther ever?

Upon looking at this poll, though, "greatest" suddenly seems relative. Sure, you've got quality players on here -- Mike Rucker, Mike Minter, Steve Smith, Julius Peppers, John Kasay, etc. Some of these names, though, only serve to remind you just how young this franchise is. How many great years did Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster have? Does Kerry Collins deserve to be on here after only one great year? Can we consider his replacement, Steve Beuerlein, truly great? And didn't Sam Mills and Kevin Greene have their best years with other teams?

This year marks the Panthers' 15th season in the NFL. Perhaps we should wait another decade before running such a poll again. I'm not sure the franchise has been around long enough for us to consider this question. Besides, I'm too biased by the current lineup not to vote for Smith.

It's easy to get frustrated with the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting, which often seems to have no rhyme or reason. A guy can go from seemingly out of voter's minds to in the Hall of Fame in a year or two. And unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, where there seems to be a general consensus on what makes up a Hall of Famer, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a melange of different ideas of whose great. Quarterbacks are over-represented while centers and offensive guards might as well forget about getting the call.

But after this year's election of six nominees, several of which seemed like less than slam dunks, it's given hope to a lot of football fans that some of their favorite former players could sneak into the Hall of Fame. If you're Kevin Greene, you have to be thrilled to see Andre Tippett get into the Hall of Fame, because if Andre Tippett is a Hall of Famer, than Kevin Greene should be getting ready for his bust..