Speaker 1: M Hi. Everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined today by a special guest,
Speaker 1: the newest member of our Packers digital team, John Coon
Speaker 1: is here to recap the two thousand nineteen NFL Draft
Speaker 1: with me. While West is out of town for a
Speaker 1: couple of days. He'll be back on our next show.
Speaker 1: But John, we survived the three day frenzy of the
Speaker 1: NFL Draft, hopefully got a day of rest on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and we're back. Anything from this eight player class for
Speaker 1: the Packers that stands out to you as kind of
Speaker 1: the the the over overwhelming trade or trend as far
Speaker 1: as these players that Brian Gains brought in, I think
Speaker 1: the entire draft class as a whole. You could use
Speaker 1: the theme big guys that I mean, it's it's truly amazing.
Speaker 1: You can just run down the list of each guy there.
Speaker 1: Forty time is exceptional, their explosion is exceptional, and they're big,
Speaker 1: they are taught, they are long, they can run. The
Speaker 1: linebacker Tye Summers, wow, I mean I had to do
Speaker 1: a little research of him after the draft, but he
Speaker 1: is four or five one with twenty seven reps on
Speaker 1: the bench press. He's a stat sideline to sideline speed
Speaker 1: with some pops, So I mean top to bottom, they
Speaker 1: are some explosive uh some players. Yeah, a lot of
Speaker 1: athletic traits certainly that that applied to this class. I
Speaker 1: want to go through. We'll just go through in chronological
Speaker 1: order here, Day one, Day two, Day three, and what
Speaker 1: Brian Gudacunsen his personnel staff did here. You look at
Speaker 1: day one, John, and I tell you if anything speaks
Speaker 1: to the mantra of best player available drafting, it was
Speaker 1: this day one for the Packers because two edge rushers
Speaker 1: and a safety were end in free agency. And then
Speaker 1: on Day one, with two first round picks, Gudacon's drafted
Speaker 1: an edge rusher in a safe exactly. He had players
Speaker 1: he really liked as he thought the best players in
Speaker 1: those spots. Obviously made a trade up for Darnell Savage,
Speaker 1: the safety from Maryland at twenty one. But these are
Speaker 1: these are two guys who are definitely going to have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to step in and perform early and often
Speaker 1: for Mike Petton's defense. Yeah, and I don't think there's
Speaker 1: a real secret behind what they're trying to do here.
Speaker 1: When you look at Mike Patton's defense. You can think
Speaker 1: of one word savage, A bunch of guys with relentless
Speaker 1: attack towards the ball. And that's what they're building here. Uh.
Speaker 1: When you sign three out of four free agents in
Speaker 1: the off season to your defense, and then five out
Speaker 1: of eight draft picks again go to your defense, that's
Speaker 1: showing a dedication and one that we're getting guys who
Speaker 1: are gonna come downhill at you play after play after play,
Speaker 1: and you see that. You see that with Gary, they
Speaker 1: have the edges covered with the Smiths, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: how easy is it to say just the Smith's in
Speaker 1: referring to the edge, Like we don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about remembering three different we could just say And then
Speaker 1: you add Gary and and you have three guys here
Speaker 1: that that are all kinds of versatile, can jump inside,
Speaker 1: can jump outside. Third down is going to be an
Speaker 1: incredible down to watch this defense. And I think also
Speaker 1: you go to the middle, the interior defensive line, and
Speaker 1: that was probably the most solid part of our roster.
Speaker 1: When you look at Tyler Lancaster, Mike Daniels, Ma, Trevius Adams,
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark, and then you you're throw in the mix
Speaker 1: that Gary can do that too, and King's Lee Kiki
Speaker 1: later in the draft. I mean all kinds of options
Speaker 1: at the defensive line front. Yeah, you said it with
Speaker 1: the word versatility, because it looks like what's being built
Speaker 1: here with this defensive front. And you also said it
Speaker 1: on third down, it's about mixing and matching different packages,
Speaker 1: different alignments. You know, you could see Zadarius Smith, Preston Smith.
Speaker 1: They on a third down, they might be on the edge,
Speaker 1: they might be on the interior. Rashaan Are he gives
Speaker 1: you those same options, they'll be What I see developing
Speaker 1: here on the defensive front is on a week to
Speaker 1: week a game plan to game plan basis, Mike Patton
Speaker 1: looking for specific matchups on certain downs. He wants this
Speaker 1: guy against that blocker to get after the quarterback. And
Speaker 1: they're trying to build this defensive front to give him
Speaker 1: as many options as possible in that game planning sense.
Speaker 1: And when you used to watch the old Baltimore Ravens
Speaker 1: or the old Pittsburgh Steelers, they used to run this
Speaker 1: defense that was really difficult for people to pick it up.
Speaker 1: The forty Niners ran it to a certain extent, later
Speaker 1: on too, and we would just give it the name
Speaker 1: Summer defense because some guys are here and some guys
Speaker 1: are there, and they're all just standing up on the
Speaker 1: prout ready to pounce on the offense when they snapped
Speaker 1: the ball. I see all kinds of options for the
Speaker 1: defense to go in this direction this year. Mike Petton
Speaker 1: is gonna have a grand old time standing at the
Speaker 1: board right next is and knows finding ways for guys
Speaker 1: to come and and an attack. But uh, but I
Speaker 1: also think that second pick in the first round with
Speaker 1: Darnell Savage also adds quite a bit of versatility to
Speaker 1: this defense because he's a guy who in center field.
Speaker 1: He has an innate characteristic for being able to find
Speaker 1: the ball hunted down, play that center field and hold
Speaker 1: the middle of the field down. But what he's also
Speaker 1: good at doing, and we've seen this at Maryland, he
Speaker 1: drops down, he can cover the slot, and he can
Speaker 1: come in the box and fit on runs. That's a
Speaker 1: huge asset to have on the back end, to be
Speaker 1: that versatile play all three of those different angles that
Speaker 1: safety sometimes find niches for now he can do all three. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well with certainly with Savage, this was a guy that
Speaker 1: that Brian Goudacuns targeted and he really liked. He gave
Speaker 1: up two fourth round picks to the Seattle Seahawks in
Speaker 1: a trade in order to move up from the thirty
Speaker 1: spot up to twenty one to get the safety he
Speaker 1: wanted on paper. This is the guy who has the
Speaker 1: biggest opportunity in front of him in terms of potentially
Speaker 1: being a full time starter right from day on, from
Speaker 1: the day that he walks in here and uh, boy,
Speaker 1: Rashawn Gary fot seventy seven pounds, you kind of scratch
Speaker 1: your head at that. And then this guy Savage four
Speaker 1: three six in the forty You know, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think the Packers have had this kind of speed
Speaker 1: with a pure center field or safety since probably Nick
Speaker 1: Collins was the guy back there. Wouldn't you agree? I
Speaker 1: would agree, And that to me is what makes him
Speaker 1: so special. That speed is why he can drop down
Speaker 1: and cover the slot and uh and make plays on
Speaker 1: the ball. Impress man. But let's sit him out in
Speaker 1: center field and he could cover all fifty three yards
Speaker 1: from sideline to side. Right, It's gonna it's gonna be
Speaker 1: an incredible thing to watch this defense and how it
Speaker 1: grows in year two. Yeah, all right, Well, before we
Speaker 1: move on to day two, a little bit of sponsor
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Speaker 1: of the Green Bay Packers. Okay, John, Moving on to
Speaker 1: day two. Here in the draft, early on in the
Speaker 1: second round, there was kind of a run on offensive tackles.
Speaker 1: The Packers were the twelfth pick up in the second round.
Speaker 1: There were four offensive tackles that were taken before the
Speaker 1: Packers were on the clock, and the Packers did decide
Speaker 1: to go offensive lineman. But but they went with an
Speaker 1: interior offensive lineman Elton Jenkins from Mississippi State, a two
Speaker 1: year starter at center his final two years in the SEC,
Speaker 1: but a guy who started at pretty much every position
Speaker 1: at some point on the offensive line. The Packers are
Speaker 1: going to first look at as a guard potentially to
Speaker 1: uh to compete for time there. Yeah, and when you look,
Speaker 1: when you're six five and you have the arms as
Speaker 1: long as his, you are not pegged in a spot.
Speaker 1: You're not a center, a guard or a tackle, you
Speaker 1: can play all five. And we saw that he did.
Speaker 1: He did just that back in college. And and and
Speaker 1: that versatility again, We're gonna go through every single guy.
Speaker 1: That versatility again is what makes him so appealing. And
Speaker 1: now I look at this offensive line and I think, wow,
Speaker 1: we go across the front. We got David Bucktier, we
Speaker 1: got Lane Taylor, we got Corey Linsley. Um, we got
Speaker 1: Billy Turner, we got Brian Bulaga. But we didn't even
Speaker 1: mention yet Cole Madison coming back last year's fourth round pick.
Speaker 1: And now you got out and Jakets. This line looks
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be stout. This line looks really really good. Now,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got to be excited about going in
Speaker 1: running the zone run offense with this with these guys,
Speaker 1: and they're all really good pass protectors. It's I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about what they did with the offensive
Speaker 1: line and how that's gonna progress here moving forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Corey Linsley is a guy who's played every snap
Speaker 1: at center for the last two years. But if he
Speaker 1: were to need a backup, the Packers haven't really had
Speaker 1: a pure experienced center as a as a potential backup
Speaker 1: to Lindsley. So if Jenkins is not in that starting
Speaker 1: lineup as a rookie, certainly it looks like he could
Speaker 1: be a backup obviously at multiple spots down on the interior.
Speaker 1: And people don't understand how difficult it is to actually
Speaker 1: field the roster on game day, and with his versatility
Speaker 1: the ability. I mean, normally on game day you only
Speaker 1: dress seven maybe eight lineman, so that means you can't
Speaker 1: even back up every single position. Sure if you get
Speaker 1: three guys or god forbid, a fourth guy hurt your
Speaker 1: line in tight ends or d lineman. I mean we've
Speaker 1: seen that happen in the past. Yea. And to have
Speaker 1: a guy who can literally go in and fill any
Speaker 1: single spot that that that let you rest easy at
Speaker 1: night as head coach Matt the floor knowing you have
Speaker 1: that guy who is a plug in play guy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: With the third round, then at pick number seventy five,
Speaker 1: the Packers took a tight end j Sternberger out of
Speaker 1: Texas A and M. Now, this is a guy he
Speaker 1: started out at Kansas, things didn't work out there. He
Speaker 1: went to a junior college, then gets an opportunity to
Speaker 1: play at Texas A and M in the SEC and
Speaker 1: as a one year player there seventeen point three yards
Speaker 1: per catch and ten touchdowns in the Southeastern Conference. Those
Speaker 1: are numbers that that jump out at you. Now with
Speaker 1: only one really year as a full time starter as
Speaker 1: a college player, there's a lot of development here to
Speaker 1: go with Sternberger, but you can't ignore those numbers that confidence. No,
Speaker 1: absolutely not. Uh. He I'm so excited and and he
Speaker 1: is probably the most out of all the draft picks
Speaker 1: to one, I'm most excited about because there is so
Speaker 1: much unknown and yet the ceiling is so high with
Speaker 1: this guy. He just said, one year of Division one
Speaker 1: football is really alwa played. But he had great numbers
Speaker 1: in a great conference. That conference, by the Way had
Speaker 1: forty nine guys drafted this weekend, which is I think
Speaker 1: they said the highest. I think that was a record
Speaker 1: for one and so what he was able to do
Speaker 1: in that one year was quite exceptional. And and then
Speaker 1: you go and you think, man, he gets to come
Speaker 1: in and learn how to run routes behind Jimmy Graham,
Speaker 1: and he gets to learn how to block with technique
Speaker 1: from Mercedes Lewis. He has everything right at his fingertips
Speaker 1: to become a great player. And in Matt Lafour's offense,
Speaker 1: the key is getting separation for the tight end. You
Speaker 1: can run them on over routes, you can run them
Speaker 1: on stick routes. There's all kinds of combinations that they run.
Speaker 1: And this guy showed he's able to create separation at
Speaker 1: the highest level in Division one, and that's why he's here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the biggest investment the Packers have made in the
Speaker 1: draft in a tight end in five years, having used
Speaker 1: a third round pick on Richard Rogers, so Um and Sternberger.
Speaker 1: I think, in my opinion, West and I had talked
Speaker 1: about this in shows leading up to the draft. If
Speaker 1: you don't have those two Iowa tight ends, which was
Speaker 1: very unusual to have those guys rated as high as
Speaker 1: they were in both coming from the same school. These
Speaker 1: other tight ends that were taken in the second, third,
Speaker 1: and fourth rounds would have potentially been much higher picks
Speaker 1: in other years, so I find that interesting as well.
Speaker 1: With Day three, Packers had four picks ended up sitting
Speaker 1: and picking at all, all four spots for all the
Speaker 1: trading that was going on, and I believe that was
Speaker 1: another record in this draft overall, was the number of
Speaker 1: trades that were executed. No trades from the Packers. Gouda
Speaker 1: Kuns ends up taking three defensive players, Kingsley Kiki, defensive
Speaker 1: lineman from Texas A and m Kadar Holman, a cornerback
Speaker 1: from Toledo and Ty Summers, inside linebacker from TCU. With Holman,
Speaker 1: I tell you, I don't know what exactly your path
Speaker 1: was to get to Shippensburg University, but what Holman had
Speaker 1: to do just to get an opportunity to play in
Speaker 1: college football, to to to get a chance at Toledo,
Speaker 1: and then now for him to be drafted, it's quite
Speaker 1: a story, it really is. And people forget to play
Speaker 1: college football it's scholastic athlete. You still have the scholastic first,
Speaker 1: and his struggles were trying to make sure his S
Speaker 1: A T scores were good enough to get in. And
Speaker 1: he grinded for a year until he got him at
Speaker 1: a level where he could get in it. I mean,
Speaker 1: now he has his college degree, he's working on a masters.
Speaker 1: It's just the biggest three sixty story that you could imagine.
Speaker 1: And then he gets drafted. And he not only gets drafted,
Speaker 1: he gets drafted to the Green Bay Packers, where he
Speaker 1: can come in, he can develop, he can flourish. The
Speaker 1: guy's tall, he's six ft tall, he runs a four three.
Speaker 1: I'm all kinds of excited about a guy with those
Speaker 1: measurables on the outside, and he's a three year starter.
Speaker 1: You can't take anything away from a guy a three
Speaker 1: year starter in Division one. You have it. You have toughness,
Speaker 1: you have leadership, you have those in eight characteristics that
Speaker 1: were gonna lead you to excel. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: not at this point. It's not quite the you know,
Speaker 1: bagging groceries and ending up in the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: like kurb Horner. But a guy who's unloading trucks for
Speaker 1: Dunkin Donuts and then, uh, suddenly then becomes a sixth
Speaker 1: round draft pick of the Green Baby's email in his
Speaker 1: game film to college, somebody give me a chance and
Speaker 1: he bring him in as a walk one and he
Speaker 1: makes the team, and yeah, yeah, it's a it's an
Speaker 1: incredible it's an incredible story. Can't wait to meet this
Speaker 1: guy when when he arrives later this week. Um, you
Speaker 1: talked about Kingsley Kiki earlier. He kind of falls into
Speaker 1: that same versatile defensive lineman thing. And then with Ty
Speaker 1: Summers now an inside linebacker. But you know this is
Speaker 1: this is a guy, another one with a lot of
Speaker 1: the measurables, tested really well and strikes me as one
Speaker 1: of these guys that if he can make the fifty three,
Speaker 1: is one of these guys that you that you plug
Speaker 1: in on special teams, on almost all those units and say,
Speaker 1: use those athletic traits, go get it. Yeah. You know
Speaker 1: the first thing with with Kingsley kick is I saw
Speaker 1: two and and I saw or right. I thought this
Speaker 1: guy's an interi your linement, he's an interior alignment. But
Speaker 1: they said he played some defensive end and made a
Speaker 1: transition in college, and but I still thought interiorlignement until
Speaker 1: I went back and watched his forty at the combine.
Speaker 1: He is an athlete. He is a speedster. I mean
Speaker 1: he was trucking on the forty yard dash, and he's
Speaker 1: he can show that versatility. He will be able to
Speaker 1: do that with that type of speed. He'll be able
Speaker 1: to bounce around at three or four different defensive line techniques.
Speaker 1: And that again is a manage from Mike Petton. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he made a transformation with his body because he started
Speaker 1: out as a nose tackle at A and m then
Speaker 1: drop somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty pounds. They move
Speaker 1: him out to defensive end for his final year, and
Speaker 1: he gets seven sacks in the SEC. That you know,
Speaker 1: when you jump out and play that position for the
Speaker 1: first time and you get seven sacks again in that
Speaker 1: type of conference, that's a guy that looks like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's an arrow that's pointing up and you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily know how high it might go. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: and let's be let's face it, most starting tackles in
Speaker 1: the SEC end up playing in the NFL at some
Speaker 1: point in time. It's just that's how good that conference is.
Speaker 1: And and again I just go back to his forty time,
Speaker 1: the way he ran, I think he was a train
Speaker 1: coming down. Yeah. Well, the the other pick we haven't
Speaker 1: talked about yet, the one offensive selection that was made
Speaker 1: on Day three in the sixth round. Dexter Williams of
Speaker 1: running back from Notre Dame. Another interesting story in terms
Speaker 1: of his mother and some illnesses that she's dealing with,
Speaker 1: and she moved from Florida up to Notre Dame to
Speaker 1: uh to be with him. A really close, obviously tight
Speaker 1: knit family. He was dealing with a suspension, suspended for
Speaker 1: the first four games of last season. Then he comes
Speaker 1: off that suspension. The first time he touches the ball,
Speaker 1: he runs for like a forty five year old touchdown,
Speaker 1: and then it was I think a week or two
Speaker 1: later he breaks off a ninety seven yard touchdown, which
Speaker 1: is the number two longest touchdown running Notre Dame's record books. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a guy his forty time was in the
Speaker 1: high four fives. But then you look at the film
Speaker 1: and the big playability. This is a guy who runs
Speaker 1: a wave. People does not correlate what Now. I love
Speaker 1: running backs. I love running backs, and and the thing
Speaker 1: that excites me about him is he is perfect for
Speaker 1: this Matt Lafloor zone run game. He has a one
Speaker 1: cut downhill and run away from people type back. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's he's larger, but he's not the biggest guy, but
Speaker 1: he's still fast enough that he can take off. He
Speaker 1: had a ninety yard touchdown in college. And what really
Speaker 1: excites me about him is the fact that when he
Speaker 1: touches the ball, what he's able to do on the
Speaker 1: second level make guys miss. It's not just one cut
Speaker 1: into the traffic. Boom bang bang, we got five yards,
Speaker 1: you got the last two. He's taking it to the house.
Speaker 1: He's a home run hitter in this offense, where if
Speaker 1: you think about it, going back to the days of
Speaker 1: Mike Shaner, Mike Shanahan and Denver when they had trilled
Speaker 1: Davis one cut to the house. He was a late
Speaker 1: round draft pick. I'm not making comparisons other than the
Speaker 1: fact of the offenses, but it's pretty exciting to see. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well with William the thing that's interesting now the one
Speaker 1: year last season was his first opportunity as the as
Speaker 1: the full time number one running back at Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: He rushes as I said, he sat out the first
Speaker 1: four games because of a suspension that was for undisclosed reasons.
Speaker 1: It was a suspension imposed by the school. He gets
Speaker 1: in the lineup, and over nine games he rushes for
Speaker 1: nine yards and twelve touchdowns, I believe. So you wonder
Speaker 1: if he had played all thirteen, you wonder what numbers
Speaker 1: he would have put up. But the other thing that
Speaker 1: jumped out at me, you look at the previous year
Speaker 1: when he was in a part time role, he averaged
Speaker 1: nine point two yards of carry. He only had thirty
Speaker 1: or thirty six carries because he was a part time guy.
Speaker 1: But every time he got the ball, he's getting a
Speaker 1: first down. I mean, you can't ignore that kind of No,
Speaker 1: you can't ignore that. And and his knock was a
Speaker 1: little bit of off the field issues that he had.
Speaker 1: But man, when you talked to him in his interview,
Speaker 1: he seems like he's come full circle. He seems like
Speaker 1: he's really focused. He's addressed these things in the past.
Speaker 1: The fact that he's bringing his mom up here to
Speaker 1: live with me. He calls her his guardian angel. I
Speaker 1: just think his fantom. I mean, my mom did move
Speaker 1: up here into I had kids. I wish I had
Speaker 1: my mom taking care of me, making me dinners and
Speaker 1: I'm launching for me. But that's why I just think
Speaker 1: it's so great. He seems so focused, he's got his
Speaker 1: vision straight, and I see nothing but upside with him.
Speaker 1: All Right, Well, we could talk about this draft class
Speaker 1: probably all day long, but we're running out of time here,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. A big thanks to our newest member
Speaker 1: of the Packers digital team, John Kon, for sitting in
Speaker 1: and rapping with me about the draft. West will be
Speaker 1: back for our next show, and until then, we'll see
Speaker 1: you next time.