The kid is fearless, and so is his team

Graydon from Menomonie, WI

Pitcher and catchers report in one week. Or no?

Not looking good, unfortunately.

This “voidable years” contract game is like paying your credit card bill with your credit card.

Of course it is, and if the Packers hadn’t been on the brink these last couple of years, I doubt they’d have employed the practice this much.

What exactly are all or the main duties of a quality control coach? I really have no idea what they do.

Generally speaking, quality control coaches do a lot of film breakdown of opponents to compile scouting reports. They stay ahead on the preliminary work on an upcoming opponent before the rest of the coaching staff dives in to create the game plan. They also coordinate the scout-team work in practice to get the starting units the best possible looks at their upcoming foes. They might assist with a position group here or there, too, potentially to prepare them for a higher-level role down the line.

So as we get closer to Thursday to finding out if LeRoy Butler will be a Hall of Famer, let me ask this again for the millionth time. Does Sterling Sharpe have any chance of ever making it? I see players with short careers as Terrell Davis and Kenny Easley in and another receiver, Harold Carmichael, with similar numbers in receiving yards in. Sterling’s numbers of 8,134 yards and 65 TDs to Harold’s 8,985 yards and 79 TDs and Harold played more years. I would think Sterling belongs.

We’ve discussed Sharpe plenty in this space before, so you must’ve missed it. Davis’ induction absolutely opens the door to more short-career players getting in, though I’ve pointed out in the past that Davis has postseason stats and accolades difficult to match. Tony Boselli is another with a shorter career who’s been a finalist previously (and again this year). If he gets in, that’s another positive sign. Sharpe just became eligible for senior committee consideration a couple of years ago, so I think his case will be reviewed again in due course. I would advise against comparing stats from players who didn’t play at the same time, though. Carmichael and Sharpe retired just 10 years apart, but their primes were closer to 15 years apart and the game was changing considerably.

Subhadeep from Middletown, CT

Andrew Whitworth story for this SB is a good story that I have not seen covered here. He was a great left tackle for the Bengals for a decade before being shipped to the Rams. Will be a nice story for him to win SB playing against the team that he spent a decade with.

It’s a pretty cool story regardless of the game’s outcome, frankly. To be 40 years old and starting at left tackle for one of the best teams in the league is remarkable.

Mike, I see that your rookie year overlaps with William Henderson’s final year. He was one of my favorite players of the Favre era; humble, workmanlike, high character. Do you have any Henderson anecdotes?

Just one. I forget which game was coming up, but Henderson was recovering from a knee injury and I was part of a small scrum of reporters at his locker after practice one day trying to find out if he planned on playing Sunday. He gave the typically evasive answers, that he was pleased with his progress but wasn’t going to promise anything. Shortly after, I headed out a back hallway after the locker room closed and Henderson happened to be walking by the other way. He just smiled at me and winked, so I knew he was going to play. I couldn’t report it, but I knew I didn’t have to write extensively about contingency plans.

David from Bay Minette, AL

I noticed that during the season, we missed a lot of interception opportunities, but I also noticed that our tackling was much improved from our secondary. Do you believe there was a concerted effort by the coaching staff to do less big hits/chances for picks and concentrate more on sure tackling?

Not necessarily. The Packers missed plenty of INT chances in prior years, too, and the 2021 defense had its own rough tackling games (the December stretch vs. Chicago, Baltimore and Cleveland come to mind). Sure tackling comes mostly from being in fundamentally good position to make tackles. Missed tackles come from poor positioning and poor angles. I think, on balance, this defense kept players in the right positions to make tackles.