Packers start off-season workouts

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GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Packers started their off-season workouts yesterday. And it gave the players a chance to look ahead, after a 15-1 regular season was followed by a crushing playoff loss at home to the New York Giants.

Corner Jarrett Bush says the initial conditioning work is a big step toward putting that 37-20 divisional playoff loss behind them. Bush signed a new three-year contract in the off-season. He says he’ll focus on helping improve Green Bay’s pass defense, which was the NFL’s worst a year ago along with its total defense -- which gave up 412 yards a game.

The Packers are starting their off-season work a month later than in previous years. That’s because the league’s new collective bargaining agreement reduced the number of weeks for each team’s off-season program from 14 to nine. For the Packers, strength-and-conditioning will dominate the early work, followed by the mini-camp style organized team activities.

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Don’t be surprised to see Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers in more national commercials. Rodgers has hired Andrew Jeter as his new marketing agent, replacing H-Koal in arranging endorsement deals. Jeter says Rodgers has some solid regional ad partnerships that include Associated Bank, Ford, Nike, and the Milwaukee Brewers. He said the State Farm were a great national promotion for Rodgers. And Jeter says he’d like to look for another national deal. He also said Rodgers would continue working with the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, which is based in Milwaukee. The charity will hold its third annual “Evening with Aaron Rodgers’” fund-raiser on May 22nd at Milwaukee’s Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Tags: wisconsin sports, proam, football, packers