Packers Increase Pressure on Aaron Rodgers, Still Don't Have Punter for Sunday

By no means do I wish to alarm anyone, but I think this is weird.

As of this writing, Wednesday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers don't have a punter.

I wouldn't worry much about this if the team had a bye week. Instead, they have a home game against Houston Sunday.

And they don't have a punter.

The Packers cut the ineffective Derrick Frost on Monday. You might remember him as the guy who honked four pathetic punts the prior Monday night in New Orleans. It's an excusable thing for a punter to have a bad day in a driving rain or on a windy day. What isn't so passable is for a punter to suck it up in a domed stadium.

When the Packers made the move, they began scheduling free agent punters for tryouts. That was Monday. With a couple more scheduled to try out Wednesday, the Packers are getting close to the deadline.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette says former Redskin draft pick Durant Brooks and Patriots castoff Danny Baugher are due for workouts Wednesday.

While both show reasons to think they could be good, there are 32 such jobs in the NFL, and neither of them have had any success finding one yet this season.

Baugher's story is a bit interesting.

Baugher spent part of the 2006 season on the New England Patriots' practice squad and almost won the job in training camp the next season. In three games during the 2007 preseason, Baugher punted nine times and had averages of 44.8 (gross) and 39.0 (net). According to the Boston Globe, he appeared to have the inside track on the job after the team cut veteran Josh Miller. However, the Patriots cut Baugher when veteran Chris Hanson became available.

Then, in a bizarre turn of events, Baugher was charged with assault and battery the day after the Patriots released him. He was alleged to have assaulted his father in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant at 4 a.m. According to the Boston Herald, which obtained the police report, Baugher was drunk at the time and told police that he "was released by the New England Patriots, and he was not handling it very well."

I don't know about you, but I tend to agree that he "wasn't handling it very well".

Maybe the Packers will just go without a punter Sunday. After all, there hasn't been enough pressure put on Aaron Rodgers to perform this season. Why not add a little bit more?

"Hey, Aaron. We're going without a punter this week, so you're going to have to at least get us in field goal range every time we have the ball. No problem, right?"