The move was inevitable, and everyone knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Brett Favre was traded late last night to the New York Jets.

Even though I knew this was what was going to happen, it still shocked me senseless. I cannot imagine Brett Favre playing with anyone but the Packers.

I think that if I catch a Jets game this year, and I see him wearing any shade of green but that of the wooded hills of Wisconsin, I will be stunned beyond imagination. I can’t put enough emphasis on how hard this is or me to watch. I have always been, and always will be a Brett Favre fan, no matter what happens.

Green Bay management was so disrespectful to Brett it was disgusting. How can you simply treat your franchise’s best player in history like a has-been after a 14-4 season? How can you just throw out everything he has given you? How can you just shun him away like a plague upon society? It was purely horrible the way that Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy can just pass him up for a player who has not proven himself for one second.

Well, anyways, the main point of this blog is to dissect how this will affect the three tea involved here. The Packers, the Jets and the Buccaneers.

The Packers now have a lot of work to do. Aaron Rodgers does not have my confidence yet, and even though the 58 passes we have seen from him were good, he hasn’t started a game. There is a difference between a starting QB and a QB that comes in for 2 plays every once in a while.

The Packers still have all the weapons they did last year. Ryan Grant should have another spectacular season. Donald Driver and Greg Jennings are one of the greatest wideout duos in all of football, next to only Welker-Moss and Wayne-Harrison. It doesn’t really matter if it is Brett or Aaron throwing the ball to them, because you can expect them to make the catch, get extra yards, and plenty of TDs. The defense has their work cut out for them, with a tough bunch of running backs in the NFC North division this year, but I expect them to stop them cold with the exception of Adrian Peterson of the Vikings.

The Jets now are at least twice as good today as they were yesterday at this time. It started with of course, trading for Bret Favre, which makes them a hell of a lot better, but another move I like is the releasing/trading of Chad Pennington. He will be receiving one of the two today. Good move, Man-genius, does this mean I have to get off your case now? I guess so… for now.

Chad was past his best days anyways, and they drafted Kellen Clemens in the second round of the 2006 draft to replace Pennington if the 2006 season went bad. Fortunately for Pennington, he just delayed the inevitable and put together a miracle 10-6 season that was abruptly ended in the wild card round against the division foe Patriots.

The Jets drafted Clemens to be the next Pennington, because they knew he was nearing his end. But, now that Chad is gone, and Clemens doesn’t resemble Pennington’s playing style, could Favre take this up-and-coming QB under his wing and make him great? The answer at this point is no. Bret didn’t seem to have that great of an off-field relationship with Rodgers, so why would he have one with Clemens? At the same time, if you are Clemens, you just have to stand back, and watch, because Favre could potentially turn this kid into a playoff regular like Manning or Brady. We’ll have to see what happens next.

The Jets have plenty of weapons to accommodate Favre in the campaign attempt. Jones at RB, Cotchery and Coles as wide receivers is not a bad offensive core. The O-Line has also been intensely upgraded with Pro Bowl Guard and Super Bowl Champ, Alan Faneca. He can handle any defender on any play. Brett has some work to do, but the offense is good enough that he won’t have to fire 50 yard bombs every play to win a game.

The Buccaneers have now been the losers of the off-season, there is no question about it. First, they miss out on Jared Allen, who would have helped their run defense (which is good either way, but would be severely more potent with Allen), then in the draft, they (in my opinion) blunder and draft a cornerback. There were better players available for what they needed, which was a solid defensive end.

Then, they really screwed up and allowed the Jets in the Favre sweepstakes, and eventually, missed out entirely.

Let’s be honest, okay? Jeff Garcia is not going to win you a Super Bowl throwing only 13 touchdowns a year. It is not happening. Favre, however, threw 30+ last year, and had a chance at the Super Bowl. The Bucs are the biggest losers from April to August, and to be quite honest, I don’t have much confidence in this season for them, either. Both the Panthers and Saints are back on the rise, and aren’t afraid to play smash-mouth football with the Buccaneers. The Falcons are in no position to come out and win 10 games, but they could pull off a couple of upsets that may have you shaking your head.

Bottom line is this: The Jets now have the best chances to get to the post-season. The Bucs have too much competition in the NFC South to seriously get out there and have a repeat performance of last year’s playoff appearance.

The Packers need terrific play from Rodgers in the first quarter of the first game of the season if they hope to pull off a playoff berth. Detroit and Minnesota are both lurking in the mist, waiting for someone to slip up.

2008 Predictions:

Packers: 9-7, No. 6 seed in NFC
Jets: 10-6, No. 6 seed in AFC
Bucs: 7-9, no playoffs, lose division to Saints

-Mike Greenspire

I haven’t talked about the Brett Favre-Packers standoff yet, but I think now I am ready to voice my opinions about the situation.

In my opinion, now that Favre is back in training camp with the Packers, I think he needs to be the immediate starter. There is no doubt about it that the Pack will not win the Super Bowl without him starting.

This has an incredibly dynamic impact on the NFC North. Greater than most people realize. Now, the Lions, who may be ready to contend, look to be shut back up in the cellar where they always have been. The Bears look like toast anyways, having to decide the starting QB by a coin toss. It would have been better if it was a toss featuring John Elway vs. Terry Bradshaw, but it wasn’t. They are d-d-done.

The return of Favre hurts the Vikings the most, because they were the heir apparent to the NFC North reign after Favre retired in March, but now that he’s back, this will overall hurt their chances.

The Packers will win 5 to 6 more games with Favre than they would with Rodgers, which is more than enough room for the Vikings to slip in there. Now, that window is so much tighter that they may not be able to fit through it.

This also absolutely destroys any predictions in the NFC. Dallas, Seattle, New York, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Philly. All those teams now have to do a lot better if they want to make the playoffs and get a high seed.

The Packers are now sure-fire favorites to win the National Football Conference this season, as long as Favre is the starter all year.

The AFC could ALSO be affected by this. The Packers play the AFC South division teams this year (HOU, IND, JAX, TEN) and the Pack could give the Titans one more loss that knocks them out of the post-season and makes room for teams like Denver, Oakland or Buffalo to be the #6 seed. If you ask me, that could go either way, by making it tougher to be the #3 seeded AFC team, or perhaps making it easier.

Either way, the Packers have a much larger affect on the NFL post-season today than they did yesterday since Favre’s reinstatement.

You may lose with him, but you won’t win without him.

-Mike Greenspire

What a career. I'ms o glad that the younger generation was able to witness, in my opinion, the greatest QB of all time play his 17-year-long career.

Thanks for all the memories, Brett!

High five for a great career!

-Mike Greenspire