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The Packers, for all intents and purposes, admitted a huge blunder yesterday by attempting to put in a waiver claim on Anthony Smith, recently released by the St. Louis Rams. The Jaguars, the only other team to put in a claim, were awarded the veteran safety, however. "If Smith had been awarded to the Packers, they would have had to remove a player from the 53-man roster," writes Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "A good guess is that the club would have released one of three backup safeties: Matt Giordano, Derrick Martin or Jarrett Bush." This is one of the more egregious mistakes made by Thompson in recent memory. The Packers wouldn't have had to resort to putting in a waiver claim in on Smith had they just kept him coming out of training camp all along. This goes to show that the fans and bloggers clamoring for the Packers to keep Smith saw a little bit further into the future than Ted Thompson.

In a bit of a surprise move, it looks like the Packers could institute a rotation at right tackle for Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "Whether it’s (Mark) Tauscher or Allen Barbre, who has started the first seven games of the season, it looks as though both will play," writes Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "(Head coach Mike) McCarthy indicated on Friday that a rotation is possible." I wonder why Tauscher's situation is different from that of Nick Barnett earlier in the year. For the first couple games of the season, the Packers started Nick Barnett and let him play for a certain number of snaps then pulled him. Why would they change philosophies?

McGinn uses a little statistical analysis to show that Josh Sitton is performing the best among all the offensive linemen on the Packers. "Sitton said he doesn't 'keep up with the stats,' but if he did he would see these numbers: He has allowed two of the team's 25 knockdowns, 5 1/2 of the team's 45 hurries and none of the 16 1/2 sacks assigned to the offensive line," reports McGinn. The stats show the same thing in the running game. This is a pretty good read on one of the more unheralded players on the Packers' roster.

Demovsky takes a look at kick Mason Crosby's troubles from long range. "The Packers spent a sixth-round draft pick on Crosby in 2007 because they were looking for more accuracy than they got in one season from Dave Rayner, another strong-legged kicker who hit 74.3 percent of his kicks in 2006," writes Demovsky. "They said they wanted at least an 80-percent kicker." Basically, the Packers have pretty much the same kicker in Crosby that they did in Rayner. In fact, Rayner might have been even better at kickoffs than Crosby. The Packers need better production from Crosby or it's certainly worth looking at another kicker next year because three years into his NFL career, Crosby has been below average.

"Green Bay Packers Johnny Jolly, Al Harris and rookie B.J. Raji have been fined $5,000 each by the NFL for actions in last Sunday's loss to the Minnesota Vikings," according to (we assume Chris Jenkins of the) the Associated Press. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Jolly denied being fined. Seriously? How much more immature can Jolly get? It's getting to the point where the Packers probably can't afford to keep a cancer like Jolly around for another season.

Jason Wilde spoke with punter Jeremy Kapinos yesterday and got down to the heart of his problems. "Kapinos said he actually needs to kick fewer 50-yard punts and instead get his hang time numbers up, which will allow the coverage units to get in better position and should in turn improve his net average," writes Wilde. For a person that makes his living punting at six figures per year, I hope Kapinos is capable of making such a change. He's identified a problem. Now is the time to fix it.

C.D. Angeli of Tundra Vision questions the acquisitions of Mark Tauscher and Ahman Green. "Why in God's name are these guys getting significant playing time at all?" asks Angeli. "Ted Thompson has had five seasons to prepare for each of these declines and departures. Five years is the 'old plan', the universally accepted time period that a good GM could turn things around and get a team to a Super Bowl." Thompson has probably had the most draft picks in the entire NFL over the past three or so seasons. He's not just failing on the high draft picks. He's failing at a majority of all draft picks.

Justin Brasser of Packers Gab looks for B.J. Raji to play a larger role starting this week. "Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly, and Cullen Jenkins will remain the defensive line starters, but as the season progresses, look for the Packers to use a deeper rotation to keep those guys fresh," writes Brasser. "Raji will play a larger role." If Raji doesn't start to show up starting this week, the press will need to find out why next week.

Holly has an in-depth look at the Packers' opposition, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, over at The Other 31 this week.

Railbird endorsed video: Page McConnell of Phish used to play with the Spam Allstars a couple years ago. Here they are playing "Gallo Pinto"...