Aaron's Answers: Who lines up where for Packers on Sunday?

Throughout the season, I’ll be answering reader questions in a weekly mailbag here at PackersNews.com. If you’d like to submit a question in the future, just email me at anagler@gannett.com.

The Green Bay Packers head into their showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals banged up on both sides of the ball, which certainly raises several questions as to who will play where and who will be coming off the bench. I tackled that and a few other topics this week. Let’s get to it.

From Matt Fisher:

If Kevin King starts outside at corner, who sees more time in the slot, Damarious Randall or Quinten Rollins?

Aaron’s Answer:

Davon House hasn’t practiced all week and is listed as Doubtful on the injury report, which suggests he won’t play, so my hunch is that we’ll see Kevin King and Quinten Rollins lined up outside with Damarious Randall at the Star, which is their name for the slot position.

Now, if Rollins continues to struggle, which he has, don’t be surprised if Dom Capers turns to Josh Hawkins on the perimeter. Hawkins had a strong second half of camp and played pretty well during the preseason. Rollins, meanwhile, has pretty much allowed a completed pass every time an opposing quarterback has thrown his way through the first two weeks. You can expect the Bengals to go at him early and often on Sunday afternoon.

From Ralph:

I have been puzzled by the Janis quandary of not panning out as a deep 4th WR with his tremendous agility scores ( 3 cone= 4.64 and 4.30 speed, shuttle 3.98) Such rare athletic ability for his size!

I can't figure out if he didn't learn routes fast enough and was then just pigeonholed as a STs player forever and forgotten as a WR? Or if he just simply lacks the intangible talent thing that separates really good WRs from average WRs.

Do you have any opinions?

Aaron’s Answer:

The athleticism you cite here, Ralph, is the very reason Janis was ever able to crack an NFL roster in the first place, despite coming from Division II Saginaw Valley State. Personnel folks and coaches loved his testing numbers and were intrigued by what they saw as big-time upside.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Janis just hasn’t put it all together at the right times to push himself up the depth chart. He had what will undoubtedly be his best opportunity at pushing for more playing time last summer during training camp, when he came back after an offseason filled with memories of his exploits in the playoff game down in Arizona.

Instead of putting together a great training camp, Janis came back displaying the same problems that plagued him when he first got to Green Bay. Inconsistent route running, letting balls get into his body and a lack of awareness at the line of scrimmage where being in sync with Aaron Rodgers is of paramount importance. Then, to top it all off, he broke his hand.

Now, Janis is still a valuable player. He had a good training camp and preseason this summer and seems back to being the special teams demon he was a few years ago. Jarrett Bush stuck around Green Bay and had a very good pro career being a great special teams guy who was able to play from scrimmage when called upon. In fact, he helped the Packers bring home a Lombardi Trophy doing just that. Jeff Janis could very easily follow a similar career path.

From Mike Allen:

Not sure what to make of the early reports on Ricky Jean Francois’ re-signing.  Spotrac is reporting that he signed for just over $794k with no bonuses, which is a smidgen above the $900k minimum salary for a 7-9 year veteran if you prorate it for the 14 weeks remaining on the schedule, which I’m assuming is the case under the CBA. Do you think he gave the Packers a discount of sorts in view of the $1.5MM or so he walked away with from his first contract or has his value dropped that much despite the Packers’ current injury situation and the potential interest from the Saints?

Aaron’s Answer:

I haven’t seen any reporting on the contract yet, but what I find interesting is that Jean Francois could have stayed at home and gotten paid for doing nothing but chose to come back.

Since he was on the Week 1 roster, as a vested veteran his $1.25 million base salary was guaranteed for the year. As you state, he probably is doing the Packers a solid by agreeing to come back for the veterans minimum, if that is indeed the case, but he's still double-dipping regardless.

Could he have made more with the Saints? Probably, but judging from his comments in the locker room this week, he views the Packers as legit Super Bowl contenders. I think that's worth more to him at this point than squeezing a few hundred thousand more out of his latest contract.

You throw in the 25 Dunkin Donuts that he owns, and it sure seems like Jean Francois has things figured out.