"Ted Thompson deserves the credit for side-stepping a major problem and negotiating a four-year contract with halfback Ryan Grant this year.

But the Green Bay Packers' general manager also bears responsibility for dragging out those talks, which probably has contributed to the Green Bay Packers' running-game woes.

The Packers have lost the last two weeks against two of the better teams in the NFC, Dallas and Tampa Bay, in part because of major shortcomings in the running game. They ran for only 84 yards in 21 carries in the loss to the Cowboys, a back-breaking 28 yards in 18 carries last week against the Bucs and for the season rank No. 23 in the NFL in rushing yards, and No. 20 in average yards per rush.

The blocking was poor in both games - last week at Tamp Bay it was abysmal - but the bigger problem is Grant, who hasn't been the same player as in 2007 because of the hamstring injury he suffered early in training camp.

Last year Grant won the starting job in Week 7, when the offensive line still was struggling, because he made yards where the other backs didn't, and big runs where others gained small.

This year, Grant hasn't been as fast or explosive. He's averaging 3.4 yards a carry as opposed to 5.1 last season. He's had only two runs of more than nine yards (19 yards and 57 yards against Minnesota, and his longest run in each of the last three weeks is shocking: a five-yarder at Detroit, a nine-yarder against Dallas and an eight-yarder against Tampa Bay. Last year, he had at least one run of 23 yards or more in nine of the 10 games he was the primary back.

Grant is in a running back's prime at 25 years old, and the offensive line is the same players from last year. Is there reason to think Grant's hamstring isn't the difference?

That brings us back to Grant's contract talks. Inexplicably, as we'll get into momentarily, the deal wasn't finished until a week into training camp. Is it coincidence he injured his hamstring his second day back? Maybe. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe he would have hurt it a week earlier if he'd been in. We'll never know. But there are reasons NFL teams want players in camp on time, and one is to get them in football shape with everyone else on the team. Over the last 15 years, coaches and scouts repeatedly have lamented to me the seemingly disproportionate number of times a player misses some or all of camp and gets hurt shortly after coming back.

Thompson this week expressed no regrets about the handling of Grant's deal, at least not publicly.

"It's a little different practicing football than running and doing things on your own," he said this week. "But I don't know that the two had anything to do with (each other). So we'll just leave it at that."

Grant by all accounts is one of the Packers' most conscientious workers and was in excellent shape when he reported for his first practice, Tuesday, Aug. 5. He'd spent the offseason in the team's workout pr