Was release of Thomas just a move, or a message?

The decision to release second-year cornerback Joey Thomas on Wednesday didn’t send shock waves through the Green Bay Packers’ locker room, but one day after the most significant roster move of the season, some players still weren’t sure what to make of it.

Was it a case of getting rid of a guy the team felt no longer could help it win?
Or was it coach Mike Sherman’s and General Manager Ted Thompson’s way of sending a message that the team’s 1-6 start was unacceptable?
Twenty-four hours after the move, players on Thursday expressed everything from indifference to uneasiness about their place on the team to relief that something drastic finally was done.

“That’s a statement,” right tackle Mark Tauscher said of the move. “Anyone that says it’s not, I don’t think is very smart. When you see a third-round pick get cut — and he had started a game not that long ago — that’s a wake-up call. Guys need to start practicing and playing harder and playing smarter. A lot of times that can be used as a positive.”
Tauscher might be in the minority. Seven players on the 53-man roster were asked about the move, and only the sixth-year veteran and another offensive lineman, backup Grey Ruegamer, viewed it as a “statement.”

“Sometimes in this business, you need to make an example out of someone,” Ruegamer said. “Maybe he wasn’t cutting the mustard, so you just cut him. I think some shake-ups can help. I mean, it couldn’t hurt when you’re 1-6.”

Some players, such as defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, said he didn’t know what to make of the move and maintained that it was “none of my business.”

“You’re asking the wrong guy,” he said. “I’m just a football player, and I’m just focused on my own business. People will take it differently, I guess.”

Others, such as linebacker Na’il Diggs, said cutting a player just to send a message to the rest of the team isn’t right.

“I would hope somebody losing their job wouldn’t be used to motivate us, but you never know,” Diggs said. “That’s a pretty drastic move if somebody’s doing it to make a point. I think it was something much more than that. I don’t think it was just to shake things up.”
Kicker Ryan Longwell said he didn’t need to see someone get released to know that NFL jobs almost always are on the line.

“I think we’re all well aware that you can be let go at any time,” Longwell said. “That’s the nature of the business. Sometimes you see it from afar. Sometimes you see it like you did yesterday. We’re all aware that we’re walking on thin ice around here.

“I don’t want to read too much or too little into it. I think you’re always interested in what’s going on upstairs, but at the same time, although we’re teammates, we all have to look out for ourselves. You just try to get to the next day and get to the next game. That’s the way I’ve always approached it, and a move like yesterday’s just reiterates that.”

Said cornerback Al Harris: “I’ve just got to make sure I’m on top of my game so that I’m not next.”

For a team that opened the season with 11 rookies (nine draft picks and two undrafted free agents) on its roster, perhaps that’s the message that needed to be conveyed.

“Sometimes, a lot of the younger players don’t realize just how precious these jobs are,” Ruegamer said. “They think maybe it’s like college, and you’re on scholarship. Well guess what, buddy? You’re not guaranteed anything here. You have to work for everything you get. It just serves as a reminder.”

If releasing Thomas was indeed a move made to shake things up, it was the first major attempt to do so in a season in which the Packers started 0-4.

In 2003, when the Packers were 3-4 heading into the bye week, safety Darren Sharper stood before a handful of reporters and ripped everything from recent game plans to players he felt weren’t living up to their large contracts. It may have been purely coincidence, but the Packers won seven of the next nine games following Sharper’s rant and won the NFC North.

Nothing of that magnitude has happened this season. Perhaps that’s because Sharper is now a member of the Minnesota Vikings, or perhaps it’s because players were put off by Sharper’s comments.

“That really doesn’t do any good, and that’s not what wins games,” Diggs said. “That was just Sharper being Sharper. This is a different group of guys. Younger guys aren’t going to take that path.”

Ruegamer was skeptical that comments like Sharper’s do any good.

“To do it through the media is bull(expletive),” Ruegamer said. “As a team, as players, you don’t do it that way. You talk face to face about it. You don’t do it through the media. That’s going behind someone’s back.”
source : www.packersnews.com