What Happened to Raji?

[Smidgeon]

Seriously? Slump year or am I blind?

[AtlPackFan]

Everything I have heard is he is playing out of position a lot of the time...he's a nose playing a lot of tackle. But other posters who know a heck of a lot more about football than I do can give you a more definitive yes/no.

[Deputy Nutz]

He is just playing a shit load of snaps, and the fact that their is no pressure coming from the right side of the defensive lets offensive linemen double body Raji.

[MadtownPacker]

Jenkins left town.

[Smeefers]

I wish it was just the Jenkins leaving town bit. I watched him quite a bit through the game and I saw him getting stood up a lot. Don't get me wrong, he made a lot of good plays too that you don't see. For example, there was a screen play that he helped brake up because he smelled it out about 2 seconds after the snap. He just doesn't seem as strong as he did last year and he doesn't have any help. And he wasn't just getting stood up at the end of the game. On the first snap of either the first drive or the second drive I saw three guys penetrate and BJ stay on the line.

[Joemailman]

I wish it was just the Jenkins leaving town bit. I watched him quite a bit through the game and I saw him getting stood up a lot. Don't get me wrong, he made a lot of good plays too that you don't see. For example, there was a screen play that he helped brake up because he smelled it out about 2 seconds after the snap. He just doesn't seem as strong as he did last year and he doesn't have any help. And he wasn't just getting stood up at the end of the game. On the first snap of either the first drive or the second drive I saw three guys penetrate and BJ stay on the line.

I'm not great at X's and O's, but if three guys penetrated, and Raji stayed on the line, isn't it possible his assignment requires him to do that? Protecting against a cutback or such? I don't know, but perhaps we shouldn't assume his responsibilities are the same as what they were last year.

[King Friday]

The defense is spending a lot of time on the field, and I'm guessing Raji isn't going full out at 100% or else he'll be used up by the 3rd quarter.

[smuggler]

I'm with King. He's saving himself for the important situations.

[Gunakor]

He was fine last night. #1 job of an interior DL is to stop the run, right?

[Deputy Nutz]

Let downs usually happen after a players first breakout season. Raji had a slow start to last season, but came on at the end of the season and in the playoffs. Sometimes players think they have it all figured out and think they can just revert back to their play of last season while not taking the time and effort into fine tuning their technique. They also get caught up in stats, and when they are not coming like expected players tend to try and do too much.

With Raji I think it has more to do with the loss of Jenkins. Jenkins was more reputation than production due to injuries but teams had to account for him as the Packers second best pass rusher last season.

[pbmax]

Let downs usually happen after a players first breakout season. Raji had a slow start to last season, but came on at the end of the season and in the playoffs. Sometimes players think they have it all figured out and think they can just revert back to their play of last season while not taking the time and effort into fine tuning their technique. They also get caught up in stats, and when they are not coming like expected players tend to try and do too much.

With Raji I think it has more to do with the loss of Jenkins. Jenkins was more reputation than production due to injuries but teams had to account for him as the Packers second best pass rusher last season.

Its a fair point, especially in nickel when its just Raji and one other lineman inside. And since there has been little psycho, Raji isn't getting many passing downs off.

[Smidgeon]

Apparently in the Vikings game, they started resting him more in order to keep him more fresh down the stretch.

I guess I'm just not seeing any signature moments from him this year. To be fair--excepting interceptions--the defense had been below average until this game anyway. Maybe those signature moments are coming up.

[jdrats]

On Peterson't TD somebody on the interior got just blown off the line. Did anybody see if this was Raji, I couldn't see the number, but thought it was him?

[smuggler]

It wasn't Raji. Raji got his shoulders going the wrong way and was backside blocked.

[wist43]

As DN pointed out, he's playing a ton of snaps... young or not, that is going to wear a guy down.

They got away with it last year... but going thru a season with only 2 1/2 defensive linemen will bite you in the ass eventually.