Although Raji was taken ninth overall out of Boston College to be their starting nose tackle of the future and possibly the present in the new 3-4 scheme, the Packers had him take reps at end during the rookie orientation camp May 1-3.

"We want flexibility in the rotation with those defensive linemen," head coach Mike McCarthy said. "That's why B.J. will work the nose guard and the left end position."

--Pro Bowl safety Nick Collins finally surfaced at the team's voluntary offseason program.

Head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed during the May 1-3 rookie orientation camp that Collins was on hand for workouts earlier that week.

McCarthy alluded to Collins' absence for the first six weeks of the program as being a business situation. Collins, coming off a breakthrough season that earned him his first Pro Bowl appearance, is believed to be upset with a lack of movement by the organization to extend his contract, which will expire after next season.

"My responsibility clearly with our players is we need to progress forward as a football team in the football aspects of developing in the offseason program," McCarthy said. "We all have business, there's a business side of it, and that's always the difficult part of it. Sometimes, people want to blend the business and the football part of it together. In my opinion, that's not the benefit for the football team.

"We respect everybody's business situations. He's going through one right now. But, we do have a new defense (3-4), and Nick is a main communicator in that defense, and for him to come in here and to work with (safeties coach) Darren Perry and try to catch up on what's been going on here is important."

McCarthy, however, indicated that Collins didn't stick around for long in Green Bay. His appearance at the voluntary organized team activities later this month and the mandatory minicamp in late June is up in the air.

"I could see him coming back in the near future, yeah," McCarthy said. "You keep trying to make it about the contract, but it's about football. Everybody is accounted for."

--The Packers released a pair of defensive players: defensive end/linebacker Jason Hunter and nose tackle Fred Bledsoe.

Hunter, a backup and key special-teams player the past three seasons, was an odd man out in the Packers' transition from a 4-3 to a 3-4 scheme this year. Undersized at 6-feet-4, 271 pounds to remain at end, Hunter was moved to linebacker in the offseason program.

Green Bay, though, fortified the depth at linebacker in the draft by taking Southern Cal's Clay Matthews with its second first-round pick and Colorado's Brad Jones in the seventh round.

Bledsoe was on the Packers' practice squad on two different occasions last year.

--The Packers signed four players they had in for tryouts during the rookie camp. Of those, punter Adam Graessle drew rave reviews.

"He's a stronger leg. He's been impressive," McCarthy said.

The 6-4, 232-pound Graessle has been out of football since his final year of college at Pittsburgh in 2006. He had tryouts as an undrafted player with the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions in 2007.

The extended look given to Graessle by the Packers this offseason puts him in an open competition for the punting job with holdover Jeremy Kapinos and Durant Brooks, who fizzled the first part of last season as a drafted rookie with the Washington Redskins.

The other tryout players the Packers signed are offensive tackle Dane Randolph (Maryland), defensive lineman Dean Muhtadi (Maryland) and cornerback Trevor Ford (Troy). All three were undrafted this year.

--Green Bay signed 11 undrafted free agents before the rookie camp: running back Tyrell Sutton (Northwestern); receivers JaRon Harris (South Dakota St.), Kole Heckendorf (North Dakota St.), Jamarko Simmons (Western Michigan) and Patrick Williams (Colorado); tight ends Carson Butler (Michigan) and Travis Dekker (Air Force); offensive linemen Evan Dietrich-Smith (Idaho St.) and Andrew Hartline (Central Michigan); defensive end Ronald Talley (Delaware); and linebacker Cyril Obiozor (Texas A&M).

--The rookies were given two weeks off after the post-draft camp and will report back to Green Bay on May 17.

The OTAs for the full squad will be May 26 to June 18, followed by the minicamp June 22-24.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "(It would be) a wonderful little salt to rub in the eyes of some of our Green Bay Packer friends. Can you imagine Brett Favre going into Lambeau Field in Viking purple and maybe even wearing number 4? There would be audible gasps. There would be 60,000 audible gasps as he came out of the (visitors') tunnel." -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on the Minnesota Vikings' possible interest in signing Favre, the legendary former Packers quarterback who is retired but a free agent.