GREEN BAY — Having been a tight ends coach himself, Joe Philbin understands the position. The Green Bay Packers' offensive coordinator also understands what Ben McAdoo has been working with — and what he's in for when training camp kicks off on Monday.

"I told Ben, he's earning every nickel of his paycheck," Philbin said of the team's current tight ends coach. "We're counting on him. He's an excellent teacher, a dedicated coach. But we have some work to do."

That they do. The Packers have remade the position in the last two years — goodbye David Martin, Bubba Franks and a long line of little-known No. 3s such as Ben Steele and Ryan Krause — and the only one left standing is Donald Lee, who took the starting job and ran with it in 2007, catching 48 passes for 575 yards and six touchdowns. He should be joined by Tory Humphrey and rookie third-round pick Jermichael Finley.

Then again, Packers entered last season with just two tight ends on the roster (Lee, Franks) before adding Krause for the final nine weeks of the regular season. Franks was released in the offseason and is now with the New York Jets, while Lee was rewarded in November with a four-year, $11.88 million contract extension that keeps him with the Packers through 2011.

"Toward the end of 2006, I got a feeling that he was a tough, scrappy, emotionally and mentally tough guy," McAdoo said of Lee, who spent most of that season as the third tight end behind Franks and Martin. "When he was called on to do the job, he did it. And he was even better last year. I'm not sure if he's going to have numbers like he did last year, but I think he's just scratching the surface right now. Last year was really his first year as far as playing the entire season (as a starter)."

Lee, who "fits what we do pretty well," according to Philbin, isn't the issue. It's the depth behind him that makes the tight end position the most unsettled at the roster as camp opens.

The Packers have liked Humphrey since signing him to the practice squad midway through the '05 season. After seeing action in seven games in 2006 before suffering a season-ending hamstring injury, he was in position for the No. 2 tight end job behind Lee entering camp last year before a broken leg on the first day of practice ended his season.

Yet the Packers kept him around.

"We like him for a lot of reasons," McAdoo said replied when asked why. "The thing is, you like his skill set because he can run. To me, when you've got a guy that can run and is physical and explosive and can create some separation, you've got a little more room to throw him the ball. He can help us."

Both Philbin and McAdoo acknowledged Finley has a long way to go before being a polished player — he left Texas after his redshirt sophomore year but might have been a first-round pick in 2009 had he played another year in college — but he is an impressive athlete and looks sleeker and faster than the previous No. 88, Franks.

"He's definitely raw," Philbin said. "Most rookies are raw, period. Now you throw in him leaving early and you throw in how our tight ends are pretty involved in this offense — more in protection than a lot of people, we play them both off the ball and on the ball quite a bit — and even Dustin Keller (a four-year player at Purdue and the first tight end drafted in April) would be raw (in this offense)."

That said, McAdoo said the 21-year-old Finley has picked up the offense "very well" and hasn't raised any red flags about his maturity level.

"I haven't seen anything that indicates a reason to worry," McAdoo said. "Everything he's done to this point in time, he's handled like a pro. My excitement for this group is very high. I don't know if anyone in this group has reached their potential yet."

After Lee, Humphrey and Finley undrafted rookies Evan Moore, a former basketball player at Stanford, Northwest Missouri State's Mike Peterson and Maryland's Joey Haynos, who McAdoo said "can push some people" for a roster spot, will try to surprise in camp.

"The other guys, they're young players. We have to see how quickly we can bring those guys along," Philbin said. "They're eager, obviously, but they're young."