Even Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has had a learning curve at the start of training camp.
Rodgers is adjusting to a revamped group of receivers that no longer has James Jones after the team moved on without Greg Jennings and Donald Driver last year.
Rodgers likes the depth and talent at the position, but he is tempering his expectations for how things will shake out by the end of camp.
“I’m going to sit back and watch in the pre-season as this unfolds,” Rodgers said. “We have four pre-season games for a reason and there will be a lot of opportunities for those guys.”
Several players are competing for possibly just three or four spots behind top wideouts Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb on the roster before the Packers kick off the season on September 4 at the Seattle Seahawks, the Super Bowl champions.
One of those young hopefuls is Jared Abbrederis. Green Bay selected the former Wisconsin standout in the fifth round of this year’s draft, but the rookie has a knee injury that kept him out of practice on Friday, with it unclear how long he will spend on the sidelines.
Abbrederis attended practice and meetings on Friday but was not available to the media.
Receivers coach Edgar Bennett said Abbrederis had been making the most of his opportunities and was off to a good start a week into training camp.
Rodgers is counting on similar improvement by the team’s other young prospects at receiver, as well as tight end. The Packers are looking to replace Jermichael Finley, who remains a free agent after he suffered a career-threatening neck injury last season.
“It’s a deep group and they know that there’s jobs up for grabs and there’s a lot of opportunities to be had in that room, and they’re going to have some really good guys throwing them the football,” Rodgers said.
The list of contenders to fall in behind the playmaking duo of Nelson and Cobb includes third-year player Jarrett Boykin; second-year players Kevin Dorsey, Chris Harper and Myles White; first-year players Gerrard Sheppard and Alex Gillett, the latter a converted quarterback; and rookies Davante Adams, Jeff Janis and Abbrederis.
The emergence of Boykin last season, when he finished third on the team with 49 catches for 681 yards and three touchdowns, might have affected the team’s decision to move on without Jones after seven years. Jones signed with the Oakland Raiders in March.
Green Bay added big-play prospect Adams (second round), Abbrederis and Janis (seventh) in the draft, along with tight end Richard Rodgers (third).
Janis has yet to practise in the preseason because of an illness.
The young guys may want to heed what Aaron Rodgers said about how they can gain his trust.
"It's really all about one thing – it's about mental preparation," Rodgers said. "The physical mistakes are going to happen.
“There’s going to be drops at times. There’s going to be a not quite on the same page every single time. But if you cannot line up right, if you can’t get the checks and if you can’t do what you’re supposed to do every time, then there’s no way you can possibly be on the field when I’m out there.”
Elsewhere, Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, has insisted his two-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for domestic abuse was an appropriate penalty.
The suspension has been widely criticised as too lenient, especially in light of the league’s penalties for players who use illegal drugs, but Goodell said he had taken Rice’s prior sterling reputation into consideration, along with the Baltimore player’s apology for his behaviour.
“Domestic violence is not acceptable,” Goodell said. “We went through the process of evaluating whether there would be discipline.
“What’s important here is that Ray has taken responsibility for this and has been accountable for his actions.”
Rice and Janay Palmer, his wife, had an altercation in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino lift in February and security video – which was posted online by TMZ.com – showed Rice afterwards lifting a motionless Palmer, who was then his fiancee, out of the elevator and onto the floor.
Rice was arrested and charged with domestic violence assault. In May, he began a one-year intervention programme that allowed him to avert prosecution and avoid serving jail time.
Charges against him will be expunged from his record upon successful completion of the programme.
Goodell said the two-game ban was consistent with other punishments handed down by the league.
“It’s important to understand this is a young man who made a terrible mistake,” Goodell said. “We’re very confident that this young man understands what he needs to do to move forward.”
Goodell said he had talked with both Rice and his wife before deciding on the penalty.
“I had the opportunity to hear from Ray, to hear from his wife and other people and I took all that into account,” he said.
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