GREEN BAY – Greg Jennings didn’t get a vote.

The Eagles use their star wide receiver DeSean Jackson, on punt returns because of Jackson’s playmaking abilities, and now the Packers are taking a page out of the Eagles’ playbook and plan on using Jennings and starting cornerback Tramon Williams on punt returns following the injury settlement with return specialist Will Blackmon.

“It’ll be situational, based on how the game’s going, where we are, what we need, what we’re doing offensively and defensively. That all plays into it,” special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum said of how Jennings will be used. “(Jennings is) very natural catching the ball and he’s an excellent runner with the ball. This is an organizational decision that Mike and (GM) Ted (Thompson) and myself have discussed, and it’s something that we keep in mind, the number of plays and where we are offensive and defensively with two starters as a returner. That decision can be highly impactful in the ballgame. We want to be all-in with our units.”

A more cautious soul might not want to use the team’s leading receiver – or a starting cornerback given the young, unproven backups at the position – as a returner, but McCarthy made it clear that he believes it’s worth the risk.

“’Safe’ is (a matter of opinion if) you have a returner that’s not a starter,” McCarthy said Friday. “We feel strongly that we’re putting our best players out there for the return game – Jordy Nelson and Brandon Jackson in the kickoff, and Tramon and Greg Jennings on the punts. I understand fully – just like you do because you asked the question – their responsibilities as starters. But we made a commitment to special teams. I felt in the past I probably didn’t spend enough time, as far as meeting time. Practice time, we’ve increased that. We increased the competition throughout training camp, which maybe held us back a little bit getting continuity in certain phases, but we’ve put a lot of effort into getting the best players on our football team that can contribute on special teams, and that’s no different at the returner position.”

Of course, truth be told, Jennings would rather beg off the job if he could.

“It’s team first. How do I feel about it? I’ve done it in college. It’s been awhile since I’ve done it,” Jennings said. “Am I comfortable doing it? Yeah, I’m comfortable doing it. If I had a vote, would I put Greg back there right now? Eh, probably not. But I’m not opposed to doing it at all.”

GREEN BAY – When Packers general manager Ron Wolf was looking for a new head coach after Mike Holmgren got the dual-role of coach-GM with the Seattle Seahawks, he ended up hiring ex-Eagles coach Ray Rhodes – even though he had the right guy, Andy Reid, sitting down the hall from him.

Reid, of course, went from being the Packers’ quarterbacks coach under Holmgren to getting the Eagles job, despite not having any NFL coordinator experience. Now in his 12^th season as the Eagles coach, he’s gone 108-67-1 in the regular season and 10-7 in the playoffs, getting Philadelphia to the NFC Championship Game five times and reached Super Bowl XXXIX after the 2004 season.

“Listen, that’s a tough job, man,” Reid replied this week when asked if he wished he’d have gotten the Packers’ job. “Mike Holmgren, when they start naming streets after you, those guys are tough to take over for. I love Green Bay. Those were phenomenal years there. The people in Green Bay and the organization, unbelievable. Just phenomenal, phenomenal people. My experience there was great. I haven’t gone back and thought about that but I can tell you that every brat that was offered to me, I ate.

In an interview I did with him a few years ago, Wolf lamented not simply promoting Reid to the job after Holmgren’s departure.

"I wanted someone who had been a head coach before. And I needed someone who I thought could fill those shoes, because they were enormous shoes. In retrospect, Andy Reid would have been a great hire," Wolf admitted. "I put blinders on myself and made the parameters too difficult. Ideally, yeah, I should have hired Andy Reid and moved right along."

GREEN BAY – The Packers could be without fourth defensive end Mike Neal and backup linebacker Desmond Bishop but should have all their starters for Sunday’s season opener at Philadelphia.

Here’s the full injury report from Friday:

OUT -- CB Brandon Underwood (shoulder).

QUESTIONABLE -- LB Desmond Bishop (hamstring) and DE Mike Neal (side).

PROBABLE -- T/G Bryan Bulaga (hip), DE Cullen Jenkins (calf), LB Brad Jones (shoulder), LB Clay Matthews (hamstring), LB Brady Poppinga (knee), LT Chad Clifton (knee), CB Charles Woodson (toe) and S Derrick Martin (ankle).

The Eagles, for the third straight day, listed no one on the injury report.

Woodson left practice Friday and was added to the injury report after jamming the toe that has bothered him off and on throughout his time in Green Bay, while Clifton and Martin were added after resting previous injuries, which they’ll likely do all season long on Fridays.

McCarthy said Neal will be a “game-time decision,” and that the medical staff and coaches are going to give him “every opportunity up until game time to get ready.” If Neal can’t go, Justin Harrell would be the fourth defensive lineman behind starters Cullen Jenkins, Ryan Pickett and B.J. Raji.

“Justin has been a part of the rotation all week, so he is ready to go. I fully anticipated Justin would be up (on the 45-man game-day roster) when we met Monday,” McCarthy said. “

Neal said he was “fine” and “just taking precautions.”

“Sunday comes around, I’ll be ready to play,” Neal said.

GREEN BAY – Desmond Bishop and Brady Poppinga still expect to play Sunday in the Packers’ regular-season opener at Philadelphia, but neither player did anything in practice Thursday. Here’s the Packers’ official injury report:

LB Desmond Bishop (hamstring) -- Did Not Participate

T/G Bryan Bulaga (hip) -- Full Participation

DE Cullen Jenkins (calf) -- Full Participation

LB Brad Jones (shoulder) -- Full Participation

LB Clay Matthews (hamstring) -- Full Participation

DE Mike Neal (side) -- Did Not Participate

LB Brady Poppinga (knee) -- Did Not Participate

CB Brandon Underwood (shoulder) -- Did Not Participate

Neal was added to the injury report after straining an abdominal muscle in practice Wednesday.

“He went through treatment, and we’ll see where he is in the morning,” coach Mike McCarthy said.

Bishop practiced in full on Wednesday but sat out Thursday. Underwood was limited in practice Wednesday before doing nothing Thursday. Poppinga sat out for the second straight day.

McCarthy said Bishop “just felt something” in practice Wednesday, McCarthy said, “so we put him back in the rehab group, and we’ll see where Desmond stands tomorrow.”

Bishop said he doesn’t “think there’s reason for concern. We’re just being smart more than anything.”

The Eagles, for the second straight day, listed no one on the injury report.

GREEN BAY – The Packers enter Sunday’s regular-season opener at Philadelphia about as healthy as they could be – just not as healthy as the Eagles.

The Packers listed seven players on their initial injury report of 2010, and all but two of them took part in all phases of practice:

LB Brad Jones (shoulder) – full participation

LB Clay Matthews (hamstring) – full participation

DE Cullen Jenkins (calf) – full participation

LB Desmond Bishop (hamstring) -- full participation

LT/LG Bryan Bulaga (hip) – full participation

LB Brady Poppinga (knee) – did not participate

CB Brandon Underwood (shoulder) – limited participation

Then, there was the Eagles’ list:

That’s right, coach Andy Reid’s team didn’t list a single player on the injury report.

Poppinga said his knee problem went back to being spiked by fullback John Kuhn while in coverage during a practice late in training camp. He is expected to practice Thursday.

“It's purely a skin issue,” Poppinga said.

Underwood, meanwhile, sat out Monday as well and appears unlikely to play against the Eagles. Coach Mike McCarthy said that while Underwood is wearing a shoulder harness similar to the one Jones is wearing, the nature of the cornerback positions makes it less likely that Underwood will be able to play with it.

“The harness has a lot to do with the type of injury that you have to the shoulder, (and) also the position that you play,” McCarthy said. “Playing cornerback in this league, it would be difficult to play with one. I think it is important for Brandon to get pretty far down the road before we feel comfortable and he feels comfortable that he would be able to do the things that are necessary, particularly at that position.”

McCarthy, meanwhile, was encouraged by how Matthews, who hadn’t practiced in pads since the Aug. 7 Family Night Scrimmage, looked during Wednesday’s padded practice.

“Clay Matthews demonstrated fresh legs out there today. I thought he looked very good, particularly in the third-down pressure periods, just bouncing around,” McCarthy said. “I think Clay is back 100 percent and we’ve just got to the reps in the base defense. He had a lot of work there Monday and early today. He looks good.”

GREEN BAY –  Jason Spitz winked and laughed right after he said it.

“Obviously we don’t hear that stuff,” the Packers backup center/guard said Monday, three days after the team kept him on the 53-man roster despite receiving trade offers for him – offers Spitz was only pretending not to know about.

Spitz, who at this time last year was being touted by the coaching staff as a Pro Bowl-caliber center, stuck on the roster when the team turned down trade proposals because he’s an established player (45 career regular-season starts) who can back up all three interior offensive line positions.

“Am I glad to still be a Packer? Absolutely. I love it here, I want to play here,” Spitz said. “Obviously I’d still like to be a starter, but I think I have some honest work to do until I get back to where I was last year.”

Spitz played just four games last season and ended up having season-ending back surgery on a herniated disc in November. He missed all of OTAs and minicamp and never seriously challenged left guard Daryn Colledge for the starting job before missing a week of practice with a calf strain.

“I missed that second week of camp there, and I think that was a critical week. We obviously had that funny schedule (after that) and obviously had a couple non-padded practices between the games – and there’s another week gone without hitting,” Spitz said. “I’m still in that training-camp mode. I’m needed to play multiple positions, so to get back to playing and get my pad level down and getting my pop back.”