Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trust
Speaker 2: in colleague West Hodkowitz. We're coming to you hear from
Speaker 2: our studios at lambeau Field, Wes with a little bit
Speaker 2: more to talk about regarding Green Bay's draft class, and
Speaker 2: specifically one draft pick whom whose story you dove into
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper. He was a great story that
Speaker 2: we already talked about, the fourth round pick, Baron Surrell,
Speaker 2: defensive lineman out of Texas. But you talk to some
Speaker 2: other folks behind the scenes part of his background. There's
Speaker 2: a really well written profile piece that is now posted
Speaker 2: on packers dot com. Congratulations on all the hard work
Speaker 2: you put into it. But tell us about some of
Speaker 2: these folks you talk to and what you learned about
Speaker 2: a young man whom Packers fans are already kind of
Speaker 2: starting to fall in love with a little bit.
Speaker 3: No, thank you, Michael, that's very kind of you to say,
Speaker 3: And obviously a lot of the credit goes to Baron.
Speaker 3: His mom, Selena Gibbons, was very accommodating with the amount
Speaker 3: of time she gave me. Obviously, the number of photos
Speaker 3: she had. I think in all my years doing this,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've had more options as far
Speaker 3: as illustrating a story with outside photos than what Selena
Speaker 3: gave me. And then talking to Mike Brandle's econ professor
Speaker 3: at Texas. It just gives you a really strong idea
Speaker 3: of who this guy is. Because I think my number
Speaker 3: one thought when we came out of draft weekend is
Speaker 3: who is this human being that decided to come up
Speaker 3: to Green Bay, Wisconsin and spend the week here when
Speaker 3: he was probably going to be a day two, day
Speaker 3: three selection and then suddenly gets selected by the team
Speaker 3: that the draft is being held at. And when you
Speaker 3: start to understand the way that Baron is wired and
Speaker 3: where he comes from down in Louisiana, New Orleans, and
Speaker 3: why he's always been so motivated. Again, this is a
Speaker 3: kid that was asking for speed ladders for Christmas. He
Speaker 3: was asking for concussion helmets with the latest technology to
Speaker 3: protect himself. He was a dude who, no matter what
Speaker 3: it took in the classroom, he wanted to make sure
Speaker 3: that he was going to be able to tie the
Speaker 3: academics to the athletics with it. And at the end
Speaker 3: of the day. I mean, what an incredible life he's
Speaker 3: already led in twenty two years. I mean, he had
Speaker 3: offers to Northwestern to duke, he ends up settling on Texas.
Speaker 3: He always wanted to play in the SEC. His senior
Speaker 3: year of college, he's able to play in the SEC,
Speaker 3: makes it to the College Football Playoff back to back years.
Speaker 3: But more than anything, understanding his wiring and what motivates
Speaker 3: him and Selena had a tremendous anecdote about when he
Speaker 3: was little, saying to his mom, you know, I want
Speaker 3: to make you a millionaire someday. And this guy is
Speaker 3: willing to do whatever it takes to excel in his
Speaker 3: chosen profession, and it just so happens to be that
Speaker 3: he's a football player. So I also want to give
Speaker 3: a quick shout out to Mike Brandle, who was the
Speaker 3: professor that very generously went on Twitter after the draft
Speaker 3: and really expounded on how special this guy is. Three
Speaker 3: and a half years he graduates from Texas, He's in
Speaker 3: an introduction to macroeconomics class spring of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: doesn't do well on the first exam. His brother, Avery's
Speaker 3: the one that's kind of telling him, hey, maybe check
Speaker 3: in with the professor. Brandle Off opens up his office
Speaker 3: to him. They end up having weekly meetings and next
Speaker 3: thing you know, a few years later, Brandal, who was
Speaker 3: born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, UW grad got his master's from Milwaukee,
Speaker 3: goes down to Texas and he's sitting there scrolling through
Speaker 3: the internet and he finds out that Baron Serrell not
Speaker 3: only got drafted, not only showed up in Green Bay,
Speaker 3: but then also got taken and selected by Brandell's childhood team.
Speaker 3: It's those type of things that sort of show you
Speaker 3: how small the world can be sometimes and also just
Speaker 3: the power of motivation. And I think there's so many
Speaker 3: of us that at nineteen twenty years old, we didn't
Speaker 3: have it all figured out. And this is a kid
Speaker 3: in Baron Cerell, who since basically he could play football,
Speaker 3: since he could play sports, he's had a very clear
Speaker 3: vision of what he wants to accomplish.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was really drawn into a lot of the academic
Speaker 2: details that you had in the story. First the piece
Speaker 2: about his folks ponying up the money to put him
Speaker 2: into a private school for high school. But with the
Speaker 2: caveat that, you know, mom and dad aren't paying for c's.
Speaker 1: This is it.
Speaker 2: You got to get your a's and b's here, if
Speaker 2: we're going to do this, if we're going to make
Speaker 2: the sacrifice and put you on this path. And then
Speaker 2: you follow that up with Professor Brandle, the econ professor
Speaker 2: at the University of Texas, where Sorell doesn't do well
Speaker 2: in the first exam, as you said, so he's looking
Speaker 2: for some extra help. And then he's starting to have
Speaker 2: these weekly zoom meetings with his professor to get you know,
Speaker 2: to get better explanation, to try to get the material
Speaker 2: down better so he can succeed in the class. And
Speaker 2: it's a handful of sessions into this thing before Professor
Speaker 2: Brandle even knows this is a football player on the
Speaker 2: other side of the screen, because you think normally in
Speaker 2: those situations, a student athlete is going to go to
Speaker 2: the professor and say, hey, let you know, it's like
Speaker 2: I've got my sports practice and my schedule is super
Speaker 2: busy and I'm not doing well in this class and
Speaker 2: I need you to, you know, do you have some
Speaker 2: time to help me. However that might go, cREL just
Speaker 2: went to him as any other student who needs help.
Speaker 2: This wasn't about him being a football player. This wasn't
Speaker 2: about seeking any special treatment because he was on scholarship
Speaker 2: for with the Texas Longhorns, and he got the grades
Speaker 2: turned around and he was successful in the class with
Speaker 2: the extra help from the professor. So it's things like
Speaker 2: that when you find out those when you find out
Speaker 2: those other pieces to a player's background that aren't necessarily
Speaker 2: about sports. They're about the other things that they need
Speaker 2: to dedicate their lives to in order to create that
Speaker 2: successful path into sports. Those are the types of background stories,
Speaker 2: the background details that draw me in and quite frankly,
Speaker 2: I can't wait to get to know Baron Currell even
Speaker 2: better here as he begins his NFL career with the Packers.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I appreciate that, mikel I will say too. I
Speaker 3: said this to him on the phone. I will extend
Speaker 3: the invitation to him. Now, Mike Brandle, next time you
Speaker 3: come up to Green Bay, I mean, thenner on me
Speaker 3: come over to lambeau Field anytime you want. Like, I
Speaker 3: really enjoyed my conversation with this guy because he's an
Speaker 3: incredibly intelligent academic, I mean, a PhD in his field,
Speaker 3: worked at the University of Texas, Austin went to Ohio State.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's done a lot in his profession and
Speaker 3: still has that Midwestern nice sort of like sure reality,
Speaker 3: just like you could sit down and have a an
Speaker 3: Arnold Palmer with him. But one thing I really enjoyed
Speaker 3: about his story he talked about how he's kind of
Speaker 3: an old school minded professor. Nice guy. You look at
Speaker 3: his rate for my professor page, which I did when
Speaker 3: I was doing my research. People talked about just how
Speaker 3: one of the best professors they've ever had. But he's
Speaker 3: tough minded, like he's not just going to hand out
Speaker 3: a's and bes. He even said like he would love it.
Speaker 3: And it's not about athletes, it's just about any student
Speaker 3: in general, the people that don't attend class, that don't
Speaker 3: do well in the class, and at the end of
Speaker 3: the semester, like what can I do to get a
Speaker 3: BEE or what can I do to get an A?
Speaker 3: And he's like, the level of this is you know,
Speaker 3: d's end at sixty, you're in the forties. There's not
Speaker 3: a whole lot I can do to get you up
Speaker 3: into the BES. And then here's a guy in Sorel
Speaker 3: who's literally his first exam of the course where he
Speaker 3: takes the time and says, hey, this isn't clicking for me.
Speaker 3: You got to understand Baron had a four point six
Speaker 3: GPA in high school. And if you heard what I
Speaker 3: said earlier in the show, I mean he was getting
Speaker 3: recruited by major Division one colleges with huge academic you
Speaker 3: know backgrounds there, including the University of Northwestern University, which
Speaker 3: may or may not be in you know, a school
Speaker 3: that Mike Spofford went to be that as it may,
Speaker 3: it shows you the determination this young guy has. And
Speaker 3: if I may, I just want to throw this out
Speaker 3: there as well. Looking at the draft day experience, there
Speaker 3: were two elements of this that I really enjoyed learning
Speaker 3: more about. Kudos to the Commissioner, Roger Goodell. The NFL
Speaker 3: could not have been more welcoming to Sorell. Once Chris Cabot,
Speaker 3: his agent, had said, you know, my client would really
Speaker 3: like to attend the draft. This has been a lifelong
Speaker 3: dream of his. The NFL made it happen. They made
Speaker 3: him feel like any other top prospect. Roger Goodell's commitments
Speaker 3: After that first day, it goes a lot of different directions.
Speaker 3: There's relations enjoy he doesn't go up there. This isn't
Speaker 3: COVID anymore. He's not reading every single draft pick. But
Speaker 3: he made it a point at the end of day
Speaker 3: two to go back into the green room when Baron Serell,
Speaker 3: a wonderful three piece suit he had on, is sitting
Speaker 3: there with his family. Waited hours with his family to
Speaker 3: see will I get drafted? Will I get drafted? The
Speaker 3: call never comes. Goodell goes back there and tells him,
Speaker 3: if you want to stay, I will be there for you.
Speaker 3: I will announce you on Saturday. Because Sorel and his
Speaker 3: family weren't sure. They were like, should we stay, can
Speaker 3: we stay? Do we need to leave? And they could
Speaker 3: not have been more welcome in that regard. And then
Speaker 3: once it does happen, he has this Cinderella fairy tale
Speaker 3: type story that happens where he gets picked by the packers,
Speaker 3: he gets embraced by the fans, he does a Lambeau
Speaker 3: leap Mark Murphy is pushing the button down at the
Speaker 3: tunnel to bring him down.
Speaker 1: Onto the field.
Speaker 3: I mean, like just so much excitement that was going
Speaker 3: that was happening there, and Selena says to him, like,
Speaker 3: you know, make sure you stop and smell the Roses
Speaker 3: and as much as he appreciated all of that, baron
Speaker 3: telling her mom, I have it's time to work. Yeah,
Speaker 3: this young man gets it. It wasn't just about the
Speaker 3: NFL Draft. It's not about making his mom a millionaire.
Speaker 3: It's about fulfilling his potential. Now he's with the Green
Speaker 3: Bay Packers, he has an excellent opportunity to contribute to
Speaker 3: this Jeff Athley defense and he wants to make sure
Speaker 3: he does it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and his story will be followed closely every step
Speaker 2: of the way. Another piece of news with regarding the
Speaker 2: draft class also University of Texas. The first round pick
Speaker 2: Matthew Golden has signed his contract with the Packers. That is,
Speaker 2: that is signed, sealed, delivered, official. We are long past,
Speaker 2: you know, the era of extended draft pick holdouts and
Speaker 2: things like that the way things go. But the Packers
Speaker 2: at this point now just have one more draft pick
Speaker 2: who has yet to sign. That his second round pick,
Speaker 2: Anthony Belton. Some interesting things going on with second round
Speaker 2: picks where there are a couple guys in that round
Speaker 2: who have already signed, who got one hundred percent guaranteed contracts,
Speaker 2: Which is kind of a new thing because because the
Speaker 2: one hundred percent guaranteed contracts were pretty much just for
Speaker 2: the first rounders. The way things have been going the
Speaker 2: last couple of years, it's yeah, it's it's something that
Speaker 2: has been progressing. It's progressed through the first rounders, and
Speaker 2: now the one hundred percent guarantee is is creeping into
Speaker 2: the second round draft picks. So I think that's holding
Speaker 2: up some of the negotiations, you know, because really the
Speaker 2: vast majority of the draft pick across the league who
Speaker 2: have yet to sign our second round picks, that's what
Speaker 2: everybody is waiting on. But congratulations to Matthew Golden. He
Speaker 2: got his deal. And this is a young man who
Speaker 2: obviously talked about his desire to buy back the family home,
Speaker 2: his grandmother's house, and now that he's gonna have some
Speaker 2: money in the bank, he'll probably start the process at
Speaker 2: whatever it takes to get that property back in his family.
Speaker 3: It's one of the coolest things that happened a lot
Speaker 3: of times in the NFL draft. Super sad like you
Speaker 3: hate that, you know, for families, a lot of times
Speaker 3: this happens, but also it's emotional. I remember I think
Speaker 3: Eric Stokes when he got drafted in twenty one. I
Speaker 3: want to say it was Eddie bought a house for
Speaker 3: his grandmother. Yeah, I know Eddie Lacey did it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: in twenty thirteen he bought a house for his mom
Speaker 3: and down in Louisiana. I believe it was. You could
Speaker 3: tell listening to Golden talk about this and what it
Speaker 3: means to him and growing up in that household and
Speaker 3: at times heaven to live in hotels with his mom
Speaker 3: having to you know, live in the back, you know,
Speaker 3: in the car of a Walmart parking lot in the
Speaker 3: area because they didn't have some place to go. And
Speaker 3: then he's living with different people as you know, his
Speaker 3: mom's trying to get back up on her feet. Life
Speaker 3: can be really hard on people. But you know, as
Speaker 3: as Matt Lafleur and Brian Goodcuns Bull talked about, you
Speaker 3: do not want that to happen. You don't want young
Speaker 3: children to have to go through that. But there is
Speaker 3: a mental toughness that gets forged there that when you
Speaker 3: end up on an NFL team or you end up
Speaker 3: in a professional sport, you've been tested in a lot
Speaker 3: of ways. This doesn't even compare to it the pressure
Speaker 3: that you feel when you and I might look at
Speaker 3: an eighty thousand seat stadium, or if you're looking at
Speaker 3: the you know, the SEC one hundred thousand seat stadiums,
Speaker 3: these venues where there's just people and noise and distractions.
Speaker 3: How guys are able to rise above that because a
Speaker 3: lot of what happened in their their formative years. Golden
Speaker 3: is a testament to that, in addition to the fact
Speaker 3: that the guy has elite traits for an NFL receiver.
Speaker 3: And you know, I've been doing some interviews the last
Speaker 3: couple of weeks and people asking about, you know, how
Speaker 3: are the Packers going to incorporate all these guys, How
Speaker 3: are they going to be able to figure out what
Speaker 3: their path forward is and giving guys opportunities and targets
Speaker 3: and touches and snaps, And the way I look at
Speaker 3: it is, Yeah, it is going to be up to
Speaker 3: matt Lafleur in the coaching staff to figure out how
Speaker 3: they want to divvy that up. But it's also going
Speaker 3: to be about that group earning it. And the more
Speaker 3: opportunities you're in, the more opportunities you're given. And I
Speaker 3: feel like Matthew Golden is coming in much like Baron
Speaker 3: Sorel different type of backgrounds, different types of upbringings. But
Speaker 3: this is a guy that is going to get that
Speaker 3: first chance to be in the NFL. Yeah, it's great
Speaker 3: to have that contract fully guaranteed. It's great to have
Speaker 3: that money in the bank. But there's so much yet
Speaker 3: they're out for you and getting through that rookie contract
Speaker 3: and getting the unrestricted free agency and getting the possibilities
Speaker 3: of extensions. This is just the beginning. It's just the
Speaker 3: beginning of a much larger story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think coming up over the next few
Speaker 2: weeks here as the Packers get into OTAs in mini camp,
Speaker 2: we're just going to get a taste of what this
Speaker 2: rookie draft class is going to do on the field.
Speaker 2: And quite frankly, I think the coaches are going to
Speaker 2: be feeling out like, you know, okay, where are these
Speaker 2: guys comfortable?
Speaker 1: What does it look like they can do best right away?
Speaker 2: And then the coaches are going to sort of take
Speaker 2: that experimental information from OTAs and then figure out how
Speaker 2: to work them into certain reps and whatnot into training
Speaker 2: camp to build them up because you know, whichever side
Speaker 2: of the ball it is, they're just they're learning a
Speaker 2: playbook from scratch in the NFL, which is which is
Speaker 2: no easy task for anybody. That's actually a topic I
Speaker 2: want to get to as well in a minute, but
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Speaker 2: years of better. All right, on the topic of the playbook,
Speaker 2: an interesting comment made last week when the media met
Speaker 2: with the offensive and defensive assistant coaches. I want to
Speaker 2: focus on some comments from the offensive coaches right now.
Speaker 2: Jason Brabel, the Packers passing game coordinator, previously wide receivers
Speaker 2: coach a couple of years ago, was promoted to passing
Speaker 2: game coordinator under Matt Lafleur. He actually referenced he was
Speaker 2: asked about a young rookie like Matthew Golden Saveon Williams.
Speaker 2: These wide receivers that come in and they need to learn,
Speaker 2: they need to learn an NFL playbook, and how challenging
Speaker 2: is that versus, you know, what they learned in college.
Speaker 2: And and Vrabel estimated that that a college playbook is
Speaker 2: probably only about one fourth or maybe one third the
Speaker 2: size of an NFL playbook. And that's one of those
Speaker 2: things you just have to you have to stop and
Speaker 2: remember that when it comes to these young players and
Speaker 2: when they're starting their their NFL journeys, the game, the
Speaker 2: game is played at a significantly more complex level at
Speaker 2: the NFL than it is at college, even at the
Speaker 2: even at the height of Division one, because you're dealing
Speaker 2: with absolutely the best athletes at every position, the best
Speaker 2: coaches at every position, the best coordinators in the sport.
Speaker 2: And so the challenge for these guys learning an NFL playbook,
Speaker 2: it's it's a phrase that we use all the time,
Speaker 2: but you have to understand just how challenging it is
Speaker 2: because of how different it is from the college game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I love Jason Vrabel. I've said this numerous times.
Speaker 3: And the guy, he's going to be a coordinator, an
Speaker 3: offensive coordinator some day. I really hope he gets opportun
Speaker 3: to be a head coach.
Speaker 1: Because I think I think he's on his way.
Speaker 3: From the media perspective already got it down. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean the way that he can talk, like where you know,
Speaker 3: he doesn't create questions for his receivers, but he addresses
Speaker 3: things earnestly and honestly. And then also the way he
Speaker 3: expands on stuff. Again, much like Jeff Hafley, There's just
Speaker 3: so much you learn from him in conversations like that.
Speaker 3: And I think you and I to some degree would
Speaker 3: understand and know that the complex the complexity of an
Speaker 3: NFL playbook is going to be more than a college playbook.
Speaker 1: In most cases, it's just the way the.
Speaker 3: Game is played. It's the developmental system for the NFL
Speaker 3: at some level. It's going to get more complicated as
Speaker 3: you rise throughout that course. That said, when you put
Speaker 3: tangible numbers to that, you put comparisons to it, it
Speaker 3: really does drive home the idea that there is so
Speaker 3: much these guys have to learn coming into the National
Speaker 3: Football League. Yes, occasionally you're going to have dudes that
Speaker 3: come in and just blow the hinges off the door
Speaker 3: right from day one. The Clay Matthews of the world
Speaker 3: exist right also first round picks, but at the same time,
Speaker 3: you're going to have to be able to learn to
Speaker 3: take all the tools that made you successful at the
Speaker 3: college level and figure out what translates and what works
Speaker 3: well at the NFL. The scouts project that can you
Speaker 3: fulfill those projections? Can you turn that potential into production?
Speaker 3: And I feel like that's where as much as we
Speaker 3: want to perseverate on where those receivers are and what
Speaker 3: Matthew Golden's going to do and what's say E Williams
Speaker 3: is going to do right off the bat, you have
Speaker 3: to remember that these are investments in the future. Anthony
Speaker 3: Belton is going to be in an investment into the
Speaker 3: future regardless he's on the starting five this year, and
Speaker 3: occasionally it's going to take a year or two. It's
Speaker 3: going to be the Sean Ryans that break into the
Speaker 3: lineup in year three and then become starters finally in
Speaker 3: a full fledged fashion. That's just the way development goes,
Speaker 3: and that's the way the game is played. The exciting
Speaker 3: thing for me, though, as we talked about previously, the
Speaker 3: fact that Green Bay took a position where you and
Speaker 3: I talked about all the different skill sets and all
Speaker 3: the different types of playmakers they have, and they somehow
Speaker 3: found a way to make that even more dynamic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they created even greater variety to the types of
Speaker 2: players and the types of weapons that they have. I'm
Speaker 2: going to run down some other comments from the offensive
Speaker 2: coaches that that sort of caught my ear, and then
Speaker 2: I'll just I'll throw it to you if you have
Speaker 2: a reaction to any or all of them. Another comment
Speaker 2: that Jason Vrabel made is with regard to Luke Getzi,
Speaker 2: who is now back on the Packers coaching staff after
Speaker 2: a few years away. He's he's a senior offensive assistant.
Speaker 2: He was back towards the end of last season in
Speaker 2: you know, a different type of capacity, not necessarily officially,
Speaker 2: you know, under contract on the coaching staff kind of thing.
Speaker 2: But Vrabel said towards the end of last season that
Speaker 2: when Getsy was watching practices, a guy that really jumped
Speaker 2: out at him was Dantavian Wicks. Yes, and I think
Speaker 2: with the season that Wicks had last year and some
Speaker 2: of the frustrations with the job, the drops and and
Speaker 2: you know, him putting a lot of pressure on himself
Speaker 2: to succeed. Just the fact that that comment was made
Speaker 2: by Luke Getsy towards the end of last season, I
Speaker 2: think is something to keep in mind. With Dontavian Wicks.
Speaker 2: Luke Butkis the offensive line coach. He actually made the
Speaker 2: comment with regard to Zach Tom, the Packers right tackle,
Speaker 2: who is potentially headed for a long term contract extension
Speaker 2: here coming up, you know, maybe in the near future
Speaker 2: or not so long term future. He made a comment
Speaker 2: that that Zach Tom was actually not all that happy
Speaker 2: about his season last year, and you're reminded when you
Speaker 2: hear that, you're reminded that as much as you know,
Speaker 2: it was sort of like, oh, Zach Tom's got right
Speaker 2: tackle lockdown, nobody's worried about over there. But he did
Speaker 2: have to come back from a torn pectorals a last spring,
Speaker 2: and he wasn't really back to full strength probably for
Speaker 2: quite a while even though he was back on the field.
Speaker 2: But Zach Tom was working through a heck of a
Speaker 2: lot last year and yet was still a pretty darn
Speaker 2: solid right tackle over there. But it's a reminder of
Speaker 2: maybe just how much better Zach Tom could be in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five if he is at full strength. And
Speaker 2: then another comment that caught my year coming from Ben Sermons,
Speaker 2: the running backs coach, and Ben Sermons is the last
Speaker 2: coach to stand up at a podium and try to
Speaker 2: create headlines of any kind whatsoever. But he actually said
Speaker 2: that Josh. He thought Josh Jacobs looks better right now
Speaker 2: just in the offseason work and the training and whatnot
Speaker 2: that they're doing then he did last year at this time.
Speaker 2: That's another thing that just it kind of opens your eyes.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, Okay, a guy with three hundred some
Speaker 2: carries and thirteen hundred rushing yard last year is actually
Speaker 2: looking even better. Not that I'm necessarily surprised by that,
Speaker 2: but anyway, those were some comments that caught.
Speaker 1: My ear, just wondering your reaction to any of them.
Speaker 3: Two things here, One with Josh Shacobs. Does it come
Speaker 3: as a surprise, No, I get that. But also when
Speaker 3: you hear the way he talked at the end of
Speaker 3: last season, have you ever heard of another player that
Speaker 3: probably sounded as motivated just to play Week one of
Speaker 3: the following season as Josh Jacobs was coming out of Philadelphia,
Speaker 3: No kidding, whether it was his comments in the postgame
Speaker 3: locker room or even in the weeks after, you know,
Speaker 3: at the super Bowl and everything else that came this
Speaker 3: guy clearly's champing at the bit to get back at
Speaker 3: this thing. And if you think about NFL running backs
Speaker 3: and where he came from, it took him five years,
Speaker 3: I don't want to say escape, but to find a
Speaker 3: culture in a team and basically be able to pick
Speaker 3: where he wanted to be. And now he's there, and
Speaker 3: I think this is a guy that doesn't want to
Speaker 3: waste that opportunity understanding what the clock looks like for
Speaker 3: him and making sure that he makes hey while the
Speaker 3: sun is still shining, as my grandfather would say.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 3: Secondly, the Luke Getsy comment might have been the most
Speaker 3: telling of anything that came out of the coordinator or
Speaker 3: coach's comments.
Speaker 2: And just to be clear, Luke Getsy was not act
Speaker 2: out there at the podium. This is Jason Rabel talking
Speaker 2: about a conversation that he had with Luke Getsy toward
Speaker 2: the end of last season. Correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because Luke and the senior assistant role is not speaking.
Speaker 3: But when you're saying what relaying what Jason Rabel was
Speaker 3: saying that Luke Getsy said, one thing that I immediately
Speaker 3: thought of is we focus so much on his background
Speaker 3: as a quarterback and as the quarterbacks coach for Aaron
Speaker 3: Rodgers and then a two time offensive coordinator. You sometimes
Speaker 3: can easily forget that this is the guy that was
Speaker 3: the Packers' receiving coach when not only Jordy Nelson was
Speaker 3: the NFL Comeback Player of the Year, but also when
Speaker 3: DeVante Adams really broke out as a legitimate, bonafide, top shelf,
Speaker 3: potential Hall of Fame receiver. Yeah, he's seen those traits
Speaker 3: up close and personal, both when you have an established
Speaker 3: wide out like Jordy that's doing well into his later career,
Speaker 3: or a guy like Davante who was a second round
Speaker 3: pick with everything in front of him. So when he
Speaker 3: says that about Dundwan Tavian Wicks, it again doesn't necessarily
Speaker 3: surprise me because of everything he showed his rookie season,
Speaker 3: but it does give you an idea that these guys
Speaker 3: are all human. Things happen, but the potential is still
Speaker 3: very much there. Wix is gonna obviously have to work
Speaker 3: for it this summer. He's going to be in this
Speaker 3: competition again. As we just talked about, finding those snaps
Speaker 3: is not going to be easy. Finding those targets is
Speaker 3: not going to be easy. But this guy's clearly shown
Speaker 3: game breaking tendencies that can put you in a win column.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm and we'll be talking about it a lot
Speaker 2: as the spring and summer goes along, go along the
Speaker 2: competition that is going to be developing here at wide receiver,
Speaker 2: and I guess I just wanted to point out that
Speaker 2: for all the excitement there is about Matthew Golden's Avion
Speaker 2: Williams and how the Packers are going to use them,
Speaker 2: and everybody knows Romeo Dobbs and Christian Watson who's coming
Speaker 2: back from the injury. They're both in a contract year
Speaker 2: and everything, and then you have Jaden Reid and don
Speaker 2: Tavian Wicks from that next draft class. Don't be writing
Speaker 2: off any of those other guys. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: the theseus. There is not a single one of those
Speaker 2: guys that is a finished product in the NFL. Their
Speaker 2: their their story, their book has not yet been written.
Speaker 2: And that's what I think is going to be so
Speaker 2: exciting here moving forward into twenty twenty five at that position,
Speaker 2: because the Packers have a ton of young talent, they're
Speaker 2: kind of shoved into one room and they're going to
Speaker 2: be out there fighting for snaps and fighting for targets,
Speaker 2: as you said, and the cream is going to have
Speaker 2: to rise to the top. And that's that's how this
Speaker 2: thing is set up, and we'll have to see how
Speaker 2: it unfolds.
Speaker 3: Conjecture always for whatever reason in the offseason, Trump's context
Speaker 3: and I feel like, you know all the stuff that
Speaker 3: has been written about the receiver position and who's the
Speaker 3: wide receiver one, and how does all this thing shuffle out?
Speaker 3: What you forget is Christian Watson's not going to be there,
Speaker 3: at least at the beginning. How does that affect things.
Speaker 3: That's all hypotheticals if Christian Watson's healthy, and how the
Speaker 3: Packers would approach their offseason. But we can't sit here
Speaker 3: and talk about how important Christian Watson is like we
Speaker 3: did last season and then not acknowledge when he's not
Speaker 3: there that the Packers have to make a move. There
Speaker 3: has to be a response. I mean that has nothing
Speaker 3: to do with the other receivers in the room. It
Speaker 3: has to do with the fact that Christian Watson is
Speaker 3: pretty darn good as a football player, and defenses have
Speaker 3: to handle the Packers differently when he's out there. That threat,
Speaker 3: at least momentarily is on the shelf. So what are
Speaker 3: you going to do? You have to put more jars
Speaker 3: on the shelf. That's what Matthew Golden was, That's what
Speaker 3: Savian William was, and that's what Mkole Hardman was. So
Speaker 3: I've talked to you about this before. We'll continue to
Speaker 3: talk about it, especially once OTA's begin here shortly. This
Speaker 3: is as deep in terms of the way the Packers
Speaker 3: have structured their roster as my time on the beat
Speaker 3: at all these various positions. They may not have as
Speaker 3: many proven assets at those positions, but there are so
Speaker 3: many different ways they can go. Why does that matter?
Speaker 3: Because when there is an injury, that means you have
Speaker 3: another guy that can step up into that. We do
Speaker 3: not set a depth chart. We do not set a
Speaker 3: fifty three man roster and say, okay, well this is
Speaker 3: how it's going to be the entire season. It rarely
Speaker 3: works out like that, right. The Packers at this point
Speaker 3: they wanted options. Fans wanted options. Guess what, people, you
Speaker 3: got options?
Speaker 2: The Packers are going to have plenty of them. We
Speaker 2: also did hear from the defensive assistant coaches last week,
Speaker 2: but we will get into some of their comments on
Speaker 2: our next show. For now, we'll call it a rap
Speaker 2: on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow
Speaker 2: all of our coverage of the team on packers dot com,
Speaker 2: and if you haven't checked it out yet, be sure
Speaker 2: to click on Wes's in depth profile of Baron Surrell.
Speaker 2: You will not be disappointed for Wes, I am Mike.
Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in. Everybody, We will see you
Speaker 2: next time.