Because of the NFL lockout, the league is delaying the announcement of arguably the two biggest pieces of news affecting the Packers that were expected to come out of the NFL's owners meeting this week––the Kickoff Weekend schedule and the order of compensatory draft choices.

According to Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com, "One change from years past is that the NFL is not expected to announce compensatory draft choices, an area in which the Patriots usually show up on the radar. Also, there are not expected to be any announcements on the schedule for Kickoff Weekend. Those will both have to wait a few weeks, although NFL staffers stressed that everything was 'business as usual' despite the dark labor clouds hovering over the proceedings."

Because the Packers won the Super Bowl, it was anticipated that their participation in the NFL's Kickoff Weekend would become official this week.

The winner of the previous year's Super Bowl has typically played on the NFL's version of Opening Day, a Thursday night football game televised nationally on NBC.

The rest of the schedule is usually announced sometime in April, although all the nationally televised games on opening weekend have usually been announced at the NFL's owners meetings.

The NFL also typically announces the order of compensatory draft choices given to teams for free agent losses this week as well.

Because the Packers lost Aaron Kampman to the Jacksonville Jaguars last year and didn't sign any qualifying free agents, they will most likely get a mid-round draft as compensation, possibly as high as the third round.

When these items will eventually be announced isn't clear.