The Green Bay Packers aren't pressuring Brett Favre to make a retirement decision by Saturday's due date for a $3 million roster bonus. And even if they were, the quarterback doesn't think he owes the team a decision this weekend anyway. In his most recent comments about his murky football future, Favre made one thing clear: If he does return, he told a newspaper in his native Mississippi there is ?no doubt? it will be his last season.

Mike McCarthy thinks his offense will provide the vehicle for Favre to finish his career on a high note. It's a pretty simple plan, too. Go back to what worked best for him and take desperation out of the equation. "We?re going back to the more core base concepts in the earlier years that I truly believe in," McCarthy said Wednesday during a coaches breakfast at the NFL owners meetings. "If you have a guy like Brett Favre, he has more reps piled up in the base concepts in this offense probably than anybody in the league because he?s played the longest. That's (something) you need to take advantage of, to put him in a position he's very familiar with and let players make plays instead of always out-scheming the defense.

Charles Woodson, a four-time Pro Bowl selection, is scheduled to arrive in Green Bay sometime this weekend for an official visit. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the only other team that has had Woodson in, so the potential for the Packers to reel in their first big-name free agent certainly exists. ?If we?re talking to him, we?re serious,? coach Mike McCarthy said.

In an interview Tuesday morning, Javon Walker?s stepfather said not money, not the passage of time and not the retirement of Brett Favre could change the wide receiver?s aversion for the team that drafted him in the first round in 2002. ?They could give him a $15 million signing bonus and he would decline it,? Charles Goldsmith said. ?I think everybody is thinking it?s going to blow over and Javon?s going to show up. He?s not showing up. I mean, he is absolutely not showing up. Period. At all.?

Armed with extra draft picks in the first and fourth rounds of the April draft, the Denver Broncos are searching for potential deals. Two sources in the league said Monday that Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has made informal inquiries about Green Bay Packers receiver Javon Walker. Those discussions have included former Packers coach Mike Sherman, who is now on the Houston Texans staff. Shanahan could not be reached for comment. Walker, who publicly has threatened to retire instead of play for the Packers again, is under contract to Green Bay for the 2006 season, during which he is scheduled to count $1,165,000 against the salary cap.

The Green Bay Packers just might be getting a little fed up with waiting for quarterback Brett Favre to make up his mind. Although neither general manager Ted Thompson nor coach Mike McCarthy went so far as to call out Favre for having not yet announced whether he'll retire or return for a 16th NFL season, both sounded like their patience with Favre was wearing thin as they walked through the lobby of the Hyatt Grand Cypress resort Sunday during the first day of the NFL meetings.

Green Bay receiver Javon Walker, who missed last season after undergoing knee surgery, is demanding to be traded and threatening to retire at age 27. He's putting his house on the market and not planning to play the last year of his five-year contract. Walker, who underwent surgery in Houston and has been rehabilitating here, would be an ideal addition for the Texans, who are desperate for a receiver to play opposite Andre Johnson. The Packers insist they aren't going to trade Walker, who fired agent Drew Rosenhaus and replaced him with Kennard McGuire. The problem, of course, is that Walker is coming off major knee surgery. If the Packers end up trading Walker, they'll have to get a conditional pick that escalates based on his performance. His new team wouldn't give him a lot of money until he proved he could return to his form of 2004, when he was terrific.

For a second time the Packers pushed back the date - this time to April 1 - that Favre must be on the team to qualify for a $3 million roster bonus. Much has been made of the deadline, but it is mostly artificial because under the terms of the contract Favre doesn't receive the money until September if he returns and doesn't receive it at all if he retires. Thus, if the Packers let the deadline pass, Favre does not become a free agent. He simply is guaranteed the $3 million if he comes back and plays.

On Sunday night, Craig Nall reached terms with the Buffalo Bills on a free-agent contract, ending his four-year run with the Green Bay Packers. If Nall, who is close friends with Favre and recently went on a hunting trip with him, thought Favre was going to retire he might not have been so eager to find a job somewhere else.

Adam Vinatieri dined with Packers officials Thursday night and spent the next day touring the team's facility and meeting with various team representatives during an official visit. Vinatieri apparently left with a high opinion of the Packers organization but not with the knock-your-socks-off offer that would cause him to cancel his plane reservations home. General manager Ted Thompson is not the kind who spends big money on kickers and there was no indication the Packers offered anything that would blow away Vinatieri.