It's that time of the year when players gush over the additions to their rosters, seeing only rose petals and none of the thorns.
While Ben Roethlisberger is glowing over the speed-infused Pittsburgh Steelers defense, over in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers is effusive about the added size on the Packers' roster this offseason.
"I think we're a bigger, more physically intimidating team," Rodgers told ESPN.com. "We haven't had the kind of physical talent as far as size here in a while. I think there's been times -- I think back to playing Jacksonville in '08 in Jacksonville (a 20-16 Packers' loss), some of the battles we've had with our division teams at times -- where you walk on the field and feel like you're kind of a JV team.
"We've still won a lot of games looking like that, but it's fun when you walk around the locker room and you've got guys like (Julius) Peppers, (Adrian) Hubbard, Datone Jones and then with Derek (Sherrod) back with his size, adding size at receiver, tight end with Richard Rodgers. We just haven't had guys in some of these positions with those body types, and that's exciting."
Rodgers noted that teams are following the Seattle Seahawks' trend of stacking size upon size, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
With the addition of Peppers and a plethora of players returning from injury, the Packers' bulk on defense could help level the offense-heavy lean Green Bay has experienced. Now, hopefully, Rodgers will have no more of those JV feelings.
In the latest episode of the "Around The League Podcast," the guys discuss Rob Gronkowski's expected return to action and Cordarrelle Patterson's potential rise this season.