We can expect a big season out of B.J. Raji for several reasons. The number one reason is he will be back at the position he feels most comfortable playing, Nose Tackle. Sorry Clay, you won't be playing Nose Guard after all.
Raji was having his best training camp last year when he got injured. He's playing this season on a similar contract, conceptually anyhow. The contract is another one year prove-it deal.

Raji showed how good of a teammate he is when he stayed local during the entire season while on injured reserve.
This says quite a bit about his character and dedication. Detractors will say he was only around to heighten his chances of getting a Super Bowl ring while on injured reserve. He would have regardless.

LeTroy Guion will surely miss two or four games and during this time, Raji will tear it up hoping to keep his snaps when Guion returns.
When Guion returns, he's going to have that much less wear and tear so it'll just make both Guion and Raji better for the long season while the Packers run wild over the NFL en route to #5.

Clay Matthews made it clear he is excited about the return of the Raji. "He's able to stop the run and be a big guy up front who you customarily see in a 3-4 defense, yet, at the same time, he's able to rush the passer. We'll see what that translates to this year as far his presence. It's always great to have a player of his caliber back on the field." said Matthews.

With Raji saying "When I leave here, I want to leave on a great note, and on a great season, not being injured and missing the year. I don't want to leave this great place with that kind of taste." fans can be excited knowing he's going to produce this year and if not, he's already conceded he is leaving.

My first impression is "yeah right, I don't even want to see the big lump on the field", but who knows. Raji is at least saying the right stuff, and maybe he will actually do something on the field. I just hated it when we had two big fat lard balls playing together, but with Raji back at Nose Tackle and more mobile players around him .......

But then again, the big problem, as I saw with Raji was not his lack of mobility; It was his getting pushed around. For all that size, he just didn't seem to have the strength of a NT.

We'll see.

Raji will be the one doing the pushing around. This season anyway.

Zero2Cool;315052Raji will be the one doing the pushing around. This season anyway.

Tex is right, at this point Raji is blabbing all the right things.
We'll see when the pads go on, but at this point I'm not buying in.

He looked really impressive last off-season, if it wasn't for the injury I think he would have had his comeback year. The new defensive schemes favor his skill set imo as he was always a strong rusher from Defensive tackle and him/Pickett are no longer "fat boying" up the middle. Raji seemed to play best when allowed to attack the offensive line I think we'll see more of that and less of Raji being asked to hold the point against double teams outside of obvious rushing downs.

I think there will be some sub-package we'll see often on 2nd down that features Daniels/Raji as the only lineman that could have alot of success. Both guys have shown the ability to rush the interior combined with mathews/peppers off the edge and it could be our best look.

[biggrin]

I'm confused by this title:
Return of Raji dominance?
Would that imply that Raji was a former dominant player?
I recall a stretch in the 2010 super bowl where he had some high quality play.
But I wouldn't use the word dominant.

DakotaT;315081I'm confused by this title:
Return of Raji dominance?
Would that imply that Raji was a former dominant player?
I recall a stretch in the 2010 super bowl where he had some high quality play.
But I wouldn't use the word dominant.

It's not that confusing at all. Raji was once dominant, for about six games and now he is going to return that dominance. ... Admittedly, probably for only six games, lol.
Kidding! He's going to tear it up man!!

We have enough intriguing players on the DL...Daniels is proven, but then with Guion, Raji, DJones, Pennel, Boyd - they all have "ifs" about them, but also a lot of potential and/or periods where we've seen them play well.
You just figure someway, somehow, we've got to be able to get some production from that cluster of people.