Allelujia!!!

The Packers finally cut Ahmad Carroll.


Packers cut underachieving Carroll
Cornerback was a first-round pick in Sherman's 2004 draft
By TOM SILVERSTEINtsilverstein@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 3, 2006
Green Bay - Time finally ran out for Green Bay Packers cornerback Ahmad Carroll.
Thirty-four games into his NFL career, the Packers sent the first-round pick packing, placing him on waivers Tuesday afternoon. The move came less than 24 hours after Carroll played one of his typically uneven games, ultimately giving up several big plays that undermined the defense in the Packers’ 31-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles Monday night.
The Packers waited and waited for Carroll, a 2004 pick of former coach and general manager Mike Sherman, to bring his maturity and technical discipline to a level equal to his outstanding athletic ability. In the end, they could wait no more and decided it was better to part ways than to kid themselves that he was going to be able to help them this season.
"Prior to my arrival he is one who has been challenged, particularly with the way people go after him with the deep ball," coach Mike McCarthy said. "I think he’s improved in his special teams and I think he’s improved in his bump and run. I think he’s a young, improving player.
"He’s a junior to come out of college and sometimes it takes those guys a little longer to adjust. But we’re going in another direction. We’re giving our young guys an opportunity. We appreciate his time here and we wish him luck as he moves on."
McCarthy said the Packers intend to give practice-squad cornerback Patrick Dendy and rookie Jarrett Bush a chance to compete for the nickel corner spot Carroll held down. The Packers signed free agent Charles Woodson to replace Carroll as a starter, but the former Arkansas corner played a significant amount of time as the fifth defensive back.
McCarthy said he wasn’t necessarily intending to send his team a message with the release of Carroll, but rather that he was trying to make sure he had the right pieces in place to turn the team into a winner.
"Whether it’s a message or however they want to perceive it, we have a vision of what this football team needs to look like, how they prepare and how they play," McCarthy said. "We’re keeping our eye on the target to make sure it looks that way."
The maddening part of Carroll’s game was that he could play like a starter, as he did in the first half of the Eagles game when he broke up three passes and sacked quarterback Donovan McNabb with an outstanding low tackle. Before hitting the skids, he played solid coverage on five of the six balls that were thrown his way.
But he also gave up a 31-yard pass to receiver Reggie Brown in which got turned around on a post-corner move, which was emblematic of his weaknesses in coverage. Too often he bit on fakes and either lost the receiver or felt it necessary to put his hands on him, most of the times drawing a penalty.
In the second half, his play went south in a hurry. He gave up a 45-yard touchdown reception to receiver Greg Lewis on Philadelphia’s second series of the third quarter and then committed a pass interference penalty on the next series that set up another touchdown. The penalty was a questionable call, but Carroll has been penalized so many times in his career that officials generally watched him like a hawk to see if he was putting his hands on a receiver.
Carroll got beat deep once more, this time in the fourth quarter, on a 23-yard pass to receiver Reggie Brown. He was beaten despite the fact the officials saw him holding Brown and called him for the penalty.
At his best, Carroll was a hard-nosed, quick accelerating workhorse who rarely missed practice or a game because of injury. At his worst, he was a petulant, undisciplined, immature underachiever.
For most of his first two years he was slow to take coaching and reluctant to take responsibility for his mistakes. He was prone to wild acts of celebration and trash-talking that usually made older teammates roll their eyes.
During his rookie season, he had a season-long rivalry with fellow cornerback Joey Thomas, who was selected two rounds after him. Thomas felt Carroll was starting only because of his first-round status and Carroll attacked Thomas outside of a meeting room after teasing from Thomas finally got to him.
In his two-plus years with the Packers, Carroll started 28 of 34 games and had 104 tackles, three interceptions, three sacks, 26 passes broken up, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.