B.J. Raji leaner:
Returning nose tackle hopes to reestablish himself.
Green Bay — B.J. Raji is playing at the lightest weight he has been since college in an attempt to reestablish himself as a top-flight nose tackle and lengthen his career.
Raji reported to Green Bay Packers training camp at 327 pounds, 7 less than at this time a year ago and about 10 under his usual playing weight of 337 from 2009-’13.
“I swear to God,” Raji said Saturday. “I’m 327. Haven’t been this low since college.”
Raji, who stands 6 feet 1½ inches, saw his weight fluctuate during a four-year career at Boston College and during his early years in Green Bay.
Nose tackle Ryan Pickett, his teammate and mentor from 2009-’13, counseled Raji about the perils of weight gain.
“Even when I would fluctuate he’d come talk to me,” said Raji. “‘Pick’ was a great influence on me. He taught me a lot.”
Pickett (6-2) fought his waistline for years. He weighed 354 at the start of training camp in 2008, when he was 28, and 353 the next year. Each time, the coaches made him spend extra time on conditioning until his stamina reached a presentable level.
Preparing for a move to left defensive end in 2010 so Raji could play nose, Pickett made significant diet and offseason workout changes and reported at 338. At the time, Pickett said he “stayed away from fried foods and a lot of red meat, and ate a lot of salads.”
Pickett’s weight and conditioning weren’t issues in his final four seasons for the Packers.
Raji still remembers the warning he received from defensive coordinator Dom Capers and defensive line coach Mike Trgovac not long after being the ninth pick in the 2009 draft.
“They used to always tell me, ‘You’re a rookie now, but eventually you won’t be,’ ” said Raji. “They said with my physiology and genetics, if you’re not more disciplined a little bit more as you get older, it can get out of control.”
The message, of course, was to make sure Raji didn’t eat himself out of the league at a young age like other 300-pounders have.
Back from a season-ending torn biceps, Raji is starting at nose tackle in a 3-4 front that also includes Letroy Guion at left end (5-technique) and Mike Daniels at right end (3-technique).
Raji isn’t worried that the lost pounds might hurt him taking on between 600 and 650 pounds of double teams.
“To me, it’s more about technique in the middle,” he said. “Every nose isn’t humongous. There are small guys that play with good technique.”
Perhaps the best example of an undersized nose tackle playing effectively because of leverage and technique is Seattle’s Brandon Mebane (6-1, 315).
Raji can expect a heavy workload early with Guion reportedly suspended for up to three games and Datone Jones suspended for one. His high-water mark of 55.5 snaps per game came in 2011 before his snap average was a more reasonable 46.8 in 2012 and 38.5 in ’13.