Green Bay wants a decision from Favre this weekend

	The Packers hope they will get a decision from Brett Favre by Saturday as to whether he's going to play next year. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Will he stay or will he go? The Green Bay Packers think it's about time they know.

But if you ask rookie Packers head coach Mike McCarthy -- and we did on Wednesday morning during the final day of the NFL's annual meeting  -- he still thinks he's going to have quarterback Brett Favre at his disposal this season.

"I always have been [optimistic that he'll return]," McCarthy said. "I think it's important when you talk to people you have a chance to look in their eyes. I could be dead wrong, but I've always felt that he still wanted to play."

That said, the Packers have asked Favre to pretty please, if he wouldn't mind, inform them of his intentions for 2006 by this weekend, when his twice-delayed $3 million roster bonus is due. Does Green Bay have any indication that such finality is forthcoming by the Saturday, April 1 deadline?

"I hope so," McCarthy said. "I should probably talk to him in the next couple days. [New Packers general manager] Ted [Thompson] talked to him earlier in the week."

While pointing out that it's "still March," McCarthy acknowledges that Favre's decision must come soon, so the Packers can begin preparing second-year quarterback Aaron Rodgers to be the starter if Number 4 walks away.

"That's pretty much been the indicator, the goal we're trying to set," said McCarthy of Favre's roster bonus, something that was originally supposed to be paid 10 days after the start of the new salary-cap year, which began on March 11. "Obviously we keep moving back to a new date, and there's a reason behind the date.

"We definitely would like to know as soon as possible. He'd like to know as soon as possible too, but he just doesn't feel like he wants to jump in until he's 100 percent. That's what he's voiced to me throughout this whole process."

But isn't Favre's continued deliberation in essence his answer? If he can't make up his mind whether he still wants to play or not, doesn't he already have a foot out of the door?

"I don't think he's trying to convince himself that he can play one more year, because I think physically, it's clearly evident on film he has a lot of football left," McCarthy said. "I don't think it's a matter of if he wants to play. I think it's more of the commitment, the mental commitment, to what a full season feels [like for] a player, and particularly one of his stature, to play at the level he's set for himself and the football team."

Bottom line? Nobody, probably Favre included, has much of a handle on what Favre will decide. But I think the Packers best get Rodgers ready as soon as possible. If nothing else, this long, drawn-out saga appears to be almost at its denouement.