Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spafford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by the one and only Wes Hodkotz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you here inside the halls of Lambeau Field from our
Speaker 1: brand new studio and Wes lots more to talk about
Speaker 1: with regard to the Packers twenty twenty six draft class.
Speaker 1: The players. Those draft picks as well as undrafted rookies
Speaker 1: tryout guys are going to be arriving today throughout the
Speaker 1: day here in Green Bay for the two day mini
Speaker 1: camp Friday and Saturday, so we'll get our first glimpse
Speaker 1: of guys on the practice field, some interviews in the
Speaker 1: locker room and whatnot on Friday. But for now, I
Speaker 1: mentioned on our last show, I had some questions I want.
Speaker 2: To know, all right, I've been thinking about this for
Speaker 2: the last forty eight hours. What is my God for?
Speaker 1: Start exactly like brain.
Speaker 2: Busters or anything, but.
Speaker 1: Just to toss some things back and forth, and some
Speaker 1: of this will be I'm sure we'll be repeating some
Speaker 1: of our thoughts from our last show as well, but
Speaker 1: I'll just start with asking you straight out, six guys
Speaker 1: who is your favorite pick in this draft for the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2: Oh see, this is where I want to do the
Speaker 2: thing where I'm like, well, this, that and the other thing. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, so let's do this because I'll leave some
Speaker 2: meat on the bone there for you. With the Day
Speaker 2: two guys, my favorite pick is probably Deny Dennis Sutton.
Speaker 2: The main reason for that is that is the perfect example,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, of value meeting need meeting a really
Speaker 2: intriguing football player. This guy was funny. There was a
Speaker 2: lot of comparables. I don't know how much. I don't
Speaker 2: think you're as active on the social media as I am.
Speaker 2: That's probably a very good thing, but.
Speaker 1: There was also an understatement.
Speaker 2: But there was a lot of charts that people have
Speaker 2: been bringing out here the last few days about how
Speaker 2: him Dennis Sutton matches up in terms of the RAZ scores,
Speaker 2: some of the various categories to some of these draft
Speaker 2: picks that we've seen, top draft picks we've seen over
Speaker 2: the last five ten years. There was one that I
Speaker 2: wish I could source the right person who had put
Speaker 2: this out there on x but his measurables almost line
Speaker 2: up the same way with Leonard Floyd, like they're almost
Speaker 2: to a tee the way. I think there was a
Speaker 2: little bit of divergence maybe in the weight, but otherwise,
Speaker 2: like they kind of line up everything forties, bench press,
Speaker 2: all those type of measurables. Packers got themselves a really
Speaker 2: good athletic edge rusher who, as we talked about after
Speaker 2: the draft, I think is going to give them something
Speaker 2: on special teams too. We talk about the three blocked kicks,
Speaker 2: but the fact that this guy was a core player
Speaker 2: in those units too. I mean, I think when you
Speaker 2: lose a guy like jj A Ningbari, who could not
Speaker 2: only be a really good hand against the run and
Speaker 2: give you something in the pass rotation, pass rush rotation,
Speaker 2: but he was a core special teams guy for all
Speaker 2: four years that he was here. Now you're using that
Speaker 2: and you would hope for the Packer's sake that Lucas
Speaker 2: Vaness is going to graduate off of the punt coverage unit.
Speaker 2: You're hoping that he's going to be able to focus
Speaker 2: solely on defense now as he takes a step up
Speaker 2: the depth chart. So they're going to need guys like
Speaker 2: Dennis Sutton to come in. Meanwhile, when you look at
Speaker 2: some of the areas of improvement for him. Like Lance
Speaker 2: Zerline had pointed out others, it's about developing his array
Speaker 2: of pass rushing tools. And I think he's going to
Speaker 2: have the time in the patients and the development process
Speaker 2: here in Green Bay to do that. When you have
Speaker 2: a Baron Surrell there, Colin Oliver, Brenton Cox Junior, the
Speaker 2: Packers have a number of guys that are going to
Speaker 2: be able to handle the pass rushing stuff really on,
Speaker 2: while Dennis Sutton takes all those tools that he has
Speaker 2: and starts to harness them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And for me in this one, I was going
Speaker 1: back and forth between whether which of the two defensive
Speaker 1: linemen was my favorite pick in this draft, and I
Speaker 1: was leaning toward Dennis Sutton. I saw some of those
Speaker 1: same comparables that you were talking about, and another one
Speaker 1: is with Daniel Hunter. Yeah, a lot of Ye, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things just athletically and when you're
Speaker 1: talking about the measurables, and obviously Dennis Sutton hasn't played
Speaker 1: it down in the NFL yet, but just you know,
Speaker 1: looking at those measurables in those statistics, there's some intriguing
Speaker 1: comparables there, and just the fact that you could find
Speaker 1: at the one hundred and twentieth pick in the draft,
Speaker 1: you could find a pass rusher with twenty five tackles
Speaker 1: for loss in seventeen sacks in the Big Ten Conference
Speaker 1: over the past two seasons. That says a lot. I
Speaker 1: think there's I think there's the potential for the Packers
Speaker 1: to have gotten some really good value there at a
Speaker 1: position where as we've been talking about, opportunity is knocking
Speaker 1: based on the current state of the roster.
Speaker 2: And I thought you made the best kind of analogy
Speaker 2: and sort of analysis of all when we were doing
Speaker 2: the Three Things video after the draft where you mentioned
Speaker 2: I mean, there was some questions about, Okay, well there's
Speaker 2: no Abdual Hodge anymore, there's no you know, you look
Speaker 2: at these pass rushers how that have moved on from
Speaker 2: Penn State, and Dennis Sutton just kept producing. Yeah, regardless
Speaker 2: of what the circumstances were. It wasn't just all about Okay,
Speaker 2: somebody was getting so much attention that it freed him
Speaker 2: up for some one on ones. To some extent, maybe
Speaker 2: that's true, but when those type of pass rushers were
Speaker 2: no longer there, he kept producing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then you throw in the fact that the guy
Speaker 1: blocked three punts last year. He led the nation, led
Speaker 1: the entire FBS in college football in block punts, and
Speaker 1: you know, you wonder, you know, maybe is that is
Speaker 1: that something the Packers can tap into as well? But
Speaker 1: as I said, I was going back and forth, and
Speaker 1: so I will focus on the third round draft pick,
Speaker 1: Chris mccollin, the defensive tackle out of Missouri. And when
Speaker 1: you're talking about the you know, the athleticism and the
Speaker 1: measurables and all that, this is a guy that doesn't
Speaker 1: have that right right. This is a guy where the
Speaker 1: RAZ score isn't up there with where some of the
Speaker 1: other Packers draft picks are, et cetera. But I'll go
Speaker 1: back to what I said on the last show, and
Speaker 1: this partly goes to the research I was doing on
Speaker 1: interior defensive linemen for the Prospect Primer series leading up
Speaker 1: to the draft, where I was looking looking at, you know,
Speaker 1: the day too, the round two, round three guys who
Speaker 1: were projected to go in that area, not talking about
Speaker 1: the round one defensive tackles, but you know who might
Speaker 1: be available there for the Packers, and most of those
Speaker 1: guys when you're doing the research and you're looking them up.
Speaker 1: They're guys that you know, it's like they had one
Speaker 1: sack here or one and a half sacks there. And
Speaker 1: McClellan is a guy who you know has the size
Speaker 1: and the strength and all that is there to stop
Speaker 1: the run. But he also had six sacks last year,
Speaker 1: and that is that's really really impressive for an interior
Speaker 1: defensive linement. And again in a conference like the SEC.
Speaker 1: You know, so I don't know how much McClellan is
Speaker 1: going to play as a rookie. I mean, if the
Speaker 1: Packers get DeVante Wyatt back full strength from that awful
Speaker 1: leg injury and in Detroit last Thanksgiving, and you've brought
Speaker 1: in Javon Hargrave, you still have Carl Brooks, who's now
Speaker 1: going to be a fourth year veteran, you know, on
Speaker 1: this team. They don't need to ask Chris McClellan to
Speaker 1: go in there and get six sacs as a rookie.
Speaker 1: That's not the point. But where he could be down
Speaker 1: the road with what he's bringing to the table right now,
Speaker 1: I'm really really intrigued by that and the fact that
Speaker 1: Brian Goutukunz was very upfront with us saying that McClellan
Speaker 1: was a consideration in the second round at pick number
Speaker 1: fifty two when they took Brandon Seesay, and he was
Speaker 1: still there in the third round, but he wasn't one
Speaker 1: hundred percent convinced he was going to get all the
Speaker 1: way to eighty four, so he made the move, traded
Speaker 1: up seven spots to seventy seven, made sure he got him,
Speaker 1: and then as you pointed out, between seventy seven and
Speaker 1: eighty four, there were two other defensive tackles that won
Speaker 1: off the board. So yes, very likely Chris McClellan may
Speaker 1: not have been there. And I think things really fell
Speaker 1: into place nicely for the Packers with Gutakunz making the
Speaker 1: aggressive move.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so many times we talked Mike about, Okay,
Speaker 2: what can a guy give you right away as a
Speaker 2: year one contributor, And I think the focus is so
Speaker 2: heavily on well, what does it mean for week one
Speaker 2: or week two? But keep in mind when you look
Speaker 2: at Kenny Clark, when you look at DeVante, why when
Speaker 2: you go back and look at the Mike Daniels, their
Speaker 2: production it was there, but it was all during that
Speaker 2: final stretch of the regular season, during their rookie campaigns,
Speaker 2: and in Kenny's case, it ended up taking him over
Speaker 2: a year to get that first NFL sack. It's about
Speaker 2: the progression, it's about getting them in the system. And
Speaker 2: you're right when you look at the defensive front this year,
Speaker 2: this first year under Jonathan Gannon, with this transition that
Speaker 2: they're going to make with this defensive front, it's going
Speaker 2: to be on Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave to be
Speaker 2: the guys that are sort of carrying the torch there
Speaker 2: with the Carl Brooks who now enters that fourth year.
Speaker 2: As you pointed out, these are guys now that have
Speaker 2: a lot of reps, a lot of snaps underneath their belt.
Speaker 2: So it's an intriguing thing. There's a lot of question
Speaker 2: marks there as far as okay, who's going to be
Speaker 2: the guy right? How is the four or five man
Speaker 2: rotation going to shake out? But behind those first three
Speaker 2: guys in that spot is a world of opportunity, whether
Speaker 2: it's McClellan, whether it is you know, an Azier Stackhouse
Speaker 2: or Warren Brinson coming back, Jonathan Ford, who gives you
Speaker 2: a different type of body type at that position. That's
Speaker 2: where green May needs to get to and I feel
Speaker 2: like to get there, you have to keep guys coming
Speaker 2: up in the system. And Green Bay made a big
Speaker 2: decision this offseason when they traded Colby Wooden was one
Speaker 2: part of it, but then also trying to figure out
Speaker 2: exactly what this next step forward is going to be
Speaker 2: at the defensive tackle position. McClellan is built for that
Speaker 2: for the future. And then also keep in mind too,
Speaker 2: when you look at RAZ scores and things like that,
Speaker 2: some of the best defensive interior defensive linemen the Packers
Speaker 2: have had haven't had the best RAZ scores in the world. Yes,
Speaker 2: McClellan runs a really good forty, but it's tough to
Speaker 2: find guys that are going to just blow you away
Speaker 2: on all these different metrics. TJ. Slayton was not one
Speaker 2: of those guys, right, because he's a thirty three hundred
Speaker 2: and forty pounds man. So, I mean, it's just it's
Speaker 2: the way that this thing, this thing goes sometimes, so
Speaker 2: you can't compare them always to edge rushers and that
Speaker 2: sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But even though TJ. Slayton didn't he do that whole
Speaker 1: jump out of the swimming.
Speaker 2: Pool, Yeah he could do this, yeah, yeah, yeah, a
Speaker 2: lot of power in those legs, that's for sure. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be fun to
Speaker 2: watch to see how all these guys take for them.
Speaker 1: All Right, question number two, your surprise pick of.
Speaker 2: This jury's tray smack. It has to be just because
Speaker 2: the context in which it happened as well, right, and
Speaker 2: it's this is I'm not comparing apples to apples here,
Speaker 2: but it almost kind of felt like that Jordan Love
Speaker 2: where they traded up to get Love back in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty when they had Aaron Rodgers. You brought back both
Speaker 2: of your kickers for last year, not only Brandon McManus,
Speaker 2: but Lucas Haversick is also still on this roster, and
Speaker 2: then you trade up into the sixth round to get
Speaker 2: the guy the Packers undeniably felt was the best player,
Speaker 2: the best kicker in this draft. The one thing I
Speaker 2: was I toyed around with using this, and then I
Speaker 2: figured that people an insider inbox would take this the
Speaker 2: wrong way, so I ended up not writing it in
Speaker 2: today's edition. But I kind of explored the idea of
Speaker 2: when you look at the seventh round, yes, you can
Speaker 2: always find contributors and sometimes yes, once in a generation
Speaker 2: you find Donald Driver too. Yeah, but whether it was
Speaker 2: Rashid Walker as a three year starting left tackle or
Speaker 2: a guy like Carrington Allentine who's been in the conversation
Speaker 2: every year he's been in Green Bay. You can always
Speaker 2: find contributors, but it is very difficult to find pro
Speaker 2: bowlers in all pros in the seventh round. Zire Franklin,
Speaker 2: who just got traded to Green Bay is one of
Speaker 2: the very few in the last ten years that has
Speaker 2: done it. Obviously brock Perty is mister Irrelevant, but most
Speaker 2: often you're finding guys that are either going to start
Speaker 2: on the practice squad and maybe develop into something, or
Speaker 2: someone's going to be a special teams contributor. So to
Speaker 2: take those two seventh round picks and find a way
Speaker 2: to get the best kicker in the draft, I actually
Speaker 2: feel like is a really good, proven investment on Green
Speaker 2: Bay's case. And also keep in mind, one last time
Speaker 2: I'll say this, the roster fluidity is so different now
Speaker 2: than it once was. I don't think we're ever going
Speaker 2: to see an arrow where teams are carrying two kickers
Speaker 2: going into a season. I doubt it, but it's not
Speaker 2: as gridlocked as it once was with the fifty three
Speaker 2: man roster, with the forty five man roster, with a
Speaker 2: ten player practice squad, all those numbers have boomed in
Speaker 2: the last well really since COVID, so there's a lot
Speaker 2: more flexibility there. So for Brian to make that investment,
Speaker 2: which I think was a very low risk, high reward
Speaker 2: proposition for Green Bay, I agree. I just feel like
Speaker 2: this is the type of move you make not only
Speaker 2: for this season, but if Trace Mack ends up being
Speaker 2: your kicker for the next thirteen years, fifteen years, like
Speaker 2: Mason Crosby was. Yeah, I think everybody would agree. Two
Speaker 2: seventh pick, seventh round picks and a draft that wasn't
Speaker 2: considered overly deep, that wasn't a bad move.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, And that is the obvious selection. As
Speaker 1: far as a surprise pick, the other one that I'll
Speaker 1: throw in there to me that was a surprise was
Speaker 1: in the fifth round Jagger Burton, and I wasn't surprised
Speaker 1: that the Packers took an offensive lineman there. When their
Speaker 1: first three picks were cornerback dtackle and then edge rusher,
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, I was expecting that next pick
Speaker 1: to probably be an offensive lineman. There was a pretty
Speaker 1: good chance it was going to be. What surprised me
Speaker 1: is that they drafted an offensive lineman who did not
Speaker 1: play tackle at all in college. I thought they were
Speaker 1: going to go for the for the potential backup offensive tackle.
Speaker 1: I was sort of like, okay, here the next Zach
Speaker 1: Tom or David Bakhtiari or even t J. Lang who
Speaker 1: started his career as a as a backup offensive tackle
Speaker 1: before he moved inside the guard. They drafted Burton out
Speaker 1: of Kentucky, who has been strictly an interior player, and
Speaker 1: it just as we talked about on the last show,
Speaker 1: it made me start to rethink, you know, okay, how
Speaker 1: does Brian gudokunsk view the depth on the offensive line
Speaker 1: right now? And it makes you remember, oh yeah, a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, they spent a sixth round draft
Speaker 1: pick on an offensive tackle named Travis Glover who, yes,
Speaker 1: they were working him at guard and he had to
Speaker 1: go in and play guard in a playoff game as
Speaker 1: a rookie, but then his second season was a total
Speaker 1: washout due to injury. That's a big man who can
Speaker 1: play offensive tackle that they feel, okay, he comes back healthy,
Speaker 1: he can be a guy in the mix, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as the depth. And then you have a
Speaker 1: veteran like Darien Kinnard, whom Brian Gudokun spent a draft
Speaker 1: pick to acquire in a trade from Philadelphia. So it's
Speaker 1: like you see the decisions that are made in the
Speaker 1: draft and then you and then it makes you. It
Speaker 1: makes you sort of look at the roster again and go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what they see or this is what they're thinking.
Speaker 1: And so that's why Burton was was a bit of
Speaker 1: a surprise, and it made me made my wheels start
Speaker 1: to turn a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because when you get a guy like that, even
Speaker 2: if you remember when they drafted Josh Myers, there was
Speaker 2: actually some questions about, hey, could he potentially play a
Speaker 2: tackle position. He did that a little bit at Ohio State.
Speaker 2: You're now getting a guy who truly is a three
Speaker 2: interior offensive lineman who probably should major in center based
Speaker 2: on how his last year win at Kentucky. So I
Speaker 2: think that's a good pick. The other thing I'll throw
Speaker 2: down as an honorable mention, it's not anybody that the
Speaker 2: Packers pick, but it's the fact that they did not
Speaker 2: pick a tight end or a quarterback or a running back, yeah,
Speaker 2: or a receiver. If we would have went into this
Speaker 2: draft even if they said, even if they told us
Speaker 2: on Thursday morning, the Packers are going to only end
Speaker 2: up with four picks. If you'd have told me that
Speaker 2: one offensive, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Six picks, six picks four on Sat.
Speaker 2: Four. Yeah, only one of those players was going to
Speaker 2: be an offensive player, and it was gonna be alignment.
Speaker 2: I would not have I would have probably scoffed at that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I would have thought, based on what I said on
Speaker 2: our preview edition of the Draft unscripted talking about the draft,
Speaker 2: I would have thought a tight end for sure was
Speaker 2: in the cards. If not a tight end, okay, maybe
Speaker 2: there was a quarterback that they end up taking. If
Speaker 2: not a quarterback, well then maybe they do add another
Speaker 2: running back to the room. And then if nothing else,
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens at receiver. Now, the way that
Speaker 2: wide outs went off the board all three days, yeah,
Speaker 2: like it was an ascended Heroes Pokemon etb on a
Speaker 2: books a store shelf. Those things just flew right off, right.
Speaker 2: So I was stunned. Not necessarily the Packers didn't end
Speaker 2: up taking a receiver, but how quickly all those receivers
Speaker 2: came off the board. That being said, there was still
Speaker 2: a lot of good value on Day three at tight end.
Speaker 2: Brian Goodikins even mentioned it in his post draft press
Speaker 2: conference that they're still kind of looking for that why
Speaker 2: body that blocking in line tight end that they lost
Speaker 2: with John Fitzpatrick going down with the Hill's injury. They
Speaker 2: have some big bodies on the roster. They also have
Speaker 2: the opportunity potentially look at a tackle as a sixth
Speaker 2: offensive lineman again, but.
Speaker 1: As a role Canard was playing a late last season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you and I we've covered this team. You know,
Speaker 2: you've covered forever, you know, a couple of years after
Speaker 2: you we've seen what Matt Lafleur in particular wants to do.
Speaker 2: He wants to have that Mercedes Lewis type tight end
Speaker 2: in there where it opens up your two tight end packages,
Speaker 2: allows you to funnel in different types of personnel. So
Speaker 2: if there was ever a position that I could definitely
Speaker 2: see Green Bay signing this offseason on a veteran front
Speaker 2: is probably is at that white tight end.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, Well, a couple more questions I want
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Speaker 1: to seven, three sixty five. Welcome back to Packers unscripted.
Speaker 1: All right, Wes, another question I'm going to throw at you,
Speaker 1: which draft pick do you see making the biggest impact
Speaker 1: on this team as a rookie.
Speaker 2: I'm going to probably say ce say in the second round.
Speaker 2: There only because we saw what happened last year. I
Speaker 2: think it's very conceivable, very probable even that the Packers
Speaker 2: will go into the season with those top four veterans
Speaker 2: as the guys, right, whether it be you know, Carrington
Speaker 2: Valentine or Benjamin Saint Juice lining up across from Keyshawn Nixon.
Speaker 2: Obviously you know Javon Bullard at the nickel right. But
Speaker 2: we've seen time and time again Michael In last year
Speaker 2: was probably the perfect embodiment of it. How quickly that
Speaker 2: depth can get depleted, how quickly an injury here or
Speaker 2: there can change the entire complexion of a secondary Cisa
Speaker 2: is a very young player. He's twenty years old. But
Speaker 2: the more I've watched his film over the past week,
Speaker 2: the more you understand why Green Bay was so high
Speaker 2: on him, because I think he just brings a physicality
Speaker 2: that position that you look for. He does remind me
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways of that Keishawn Nixon type,
Speaker 2: who is he not afraid to throw his shoulder into
Speaker 2: a ball carrier, He is not afraid to go up
Speaker 2: and get physical. And then when you throw in the
Speaker 2: fact that he's as young as he is, this is
Speaker 2: a guy that I think very easily could slide into
Speaker 2: a rotational role right out of the gate based on
Speaker 2: what his physical traits are as he allows his experience
Speaker 2: to catch up with him. So it's not totally out
Speaker 2: of the realm of the possibilities that both him and
Speaker 2: Demani Jackson could watch most of this season from afar.
Speaker 2: I think the Packers have the depth and the returning
Speaker 2: depth at those positions in the secondary to do it.
Speaker 2: But when you are counting on a base defense practically
Speaker 2: these days that incorporates five defensive backs, when you sometimes
Speaker 2: have to go as deep as six, it just stands
Speaker 2: to reason there's going to be times where you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to count on a young guy to step in
Speaker 2: and the way that this thing lays out with Green
Speaker 2: Bay and what they lost this offseason, CC is right
Speaker 2: there as the next man up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And for me with this one as far as biggest
Speaker 1: impact as a rookie, I've been going back and forth
Speaker 1: between first and last pick. Yeah, right, ce say, I
Speaker 1: think is is a clear choice there, because this is
Speaker 1: a I mean, when you're talking about a guy who's
Speaker 1: twenty years old, gonna turn twenty one, I believe at
Speaker 1: the end of training camp and with with everything that
Speaker 1: we know about him so far, this is a guy
Speaker 1: that you could see that by week nine, week ten,
Speaker 1: week eleven is going to start to work his way
Speaker 1: into the if he doesn't just flat out win a
Speaker 1: job coming out of training camp, which I'm not ruling out,
Speaker 1: but that would that would be kind of rare, I
Speaker 1: think in this instance. But it's a guy that you know,
Speaker 1: come November, come Thanksgiving, you could see a young player
Speaker 1: like this starting to earn more and more snaps and
Speaker 1: get a bigger role in whatever rotation Jonathan Gannon is
Speaker 1: going to be using with those defensive backs, and so
Speaker 1: that's where I think we could be looking at a
Speaker 1: significant rookie impact maybe down the stretch here from CSA.
Speaker 1: But as I said, the other one I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about is the last pick Tray Smack, because if he
Speaker 1: wins this job, if he wins this job, his impact
Speaker 1: will be undeniable. And and it's just it's going to
Speaker 1: be such a it's going to be such a fascinating
Speaker 1: story to watch, and so different from when the Packers
Speaker 1: made the draft investment in Anders Carlson a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, because they had already decided to move on
Speaker 1: from Mason crossby right, and so there was going to
Speaker 1: be a new kicker, and they made, you know, the
Speaker 1: investment in the draft pick, and okay, here we go,
Speaker 1: and he started out great and then things started to
Speaker 1: get sideways and he never quite got back on track.
Speaker 1: This is this is going to be a full fledged
Speaker 1: competition between an accomplished veteran who has been there, done
Speaker 1: that in this league and a young guy who, as
Speaker 1: you've said, clearly was the best kicker in this draft,
Speaker 1: has the leg to make field goals from any distance
Speaker 1: that they would ask him to. And is he going
Speaker 1: to have what it takes to beat out a veteran
Speaker 1: like Brandon mcmanuson Oh yeah, By the way. The other guy,
Speaker 1: Lucas Haversick in the mix, kicked a sixty one yarder
Speaker 1: last year for the Packers as well, So he's no
Speaker 1: slouch in this hole, in this whole idea either. But
Speaker 1: the potential, the potential for major rookie impact from Trey
Speaker 1: Smack is undeniable if he wins the job.
Speaker 2: And it's funny that those are the two guys we
Speaker 2: end up talking about in this segment. It's two positions
Speaker 2: that historically Green Bay you've seen rookies play at. You know,
Speaker 2: whether it was Anders or you want to go back
Speaker 2: to two thousand and seven with Mason Crosby after he
Speaker 2: beat out Dave Rayner, he was the guy right out
Speaker 2: of the gate. Meanwhile at Cisay at cornerback, and you
Speaker 2: even when if you want to expand it to just
Speaker 2: the secondary and defensive backs in general, jyr Alexander came in,
Speaker 2: made himself undeniable. Casey Hayward came in twenty twelve as
Speaker 2: a second round pick, made himself undeniable. Javon Bullard we've
Speaker 2: seen it. We saw Evan Williams out of the fourth
Speaker 2: round two years ago. There's just something about that position
Speaker 2: and maybe it's a credit to the players, the scouts,
Speaker 2: maybe even the coach that have been able to develop them.
Speaker 2: But Green Bay had many times has had to call
Speaker 2: upon those young dbs to make plays and they have.
Speaker 2: And then conversely at the kicker position, especially if you
Speaker 2: only keep one, that's your gig, young man, right, go
Speaker 2: on and be successful. But yeah, I think the one
Speaker 2: salient point too that was raised. I was thinking about
Speaker 2: this after they drafted Smack was Brian at the end
Speaker 2: of the season. I think it was his first presser
Speaker 2: kind of reviewing the season, everyone getting the extensions, and
Speaker 2: he was talking to us up in the Legends club
Speaker 2: at the Lambellfield ah Trium, and he mentioned the patience
Speaker 2: that is sometimes required of an NFL GM and how
Speaker 2: at times he probably hasn't been patient enough, using JK
Speaker 2: Scott and as an example. I still always give Brian
Speaker 2: a little bit of grace in that. I think JK
Speaker 2: is as good as he's become in the league. I
Speaker 2: think it's helped him that he's been out in LA
Speaker 2: as opposed to him punting in Green Bay. It seemed
Speaker 2: like that wasn't an ideal fit.
Speaker 1: We saw with And again to your point, we saw
Speaker 1: with JK. Scott early in the season he was clearly
Speaker 1: an NFL punter who could succeed in this league. When
Speaker 1: it got late in the year and he has to
Speaker 1: kick in Green Bay, has to kick in Chicago, the
Speaker 1: cold weather, it didn't work for him.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: You know that's where we always saw the fall off
Speaker 1: at the end of the season. So I give Brian
Speaker 1: Gudukun some grace there as well.
Speaker 2: But you know what's interesting about this kid in Trey Smack.
Speaker 2: He's from Maryland. He even mentioned during his press conference
Speaker 2: with US. Yes, he kicked at Florida one hundred thousand,
Speaker 2: you know, seed stadiums in the SEC, mostly hot weather.
Speaker 2: But he's from Maryland. He remembers being a kid going
Speaker 2: out and kicking in the snow, and you know Christmas
Speaker 2: Eve you mentioned eight years ago, being outside kicking the
Speaker 2: ball around. He's familiar with those conditions. It's gonna get
Speaker 2: tested a little bit by how extreme sometimes it can
Speaker 2: get in Green Bay. Definitely, But all that being said,
Speaker 2: I just I watched the videos of him and his
Speaker 2: leg talent. It is evident, man, And I know, if
Speaker 2: you're gonna kick in the NFL, you gotta have a
Speaker 2: decent leg. Brandon McManus has a good one too, But
Speaker 2: the way that the ball explodes off Smack's foot. When
Speaker 2: you talk about why the Packers made this move and
Speaker 2: what they're hoping to get out of it, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's everything you look for. Now. It comes down to
Speaker 2: the number one thing, as Brian goodikins, the scout has
Speaker 2: to look for, and that's it going through the upgrade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, no doubt. Well, there's one other thing that
Speaker 1: we need to talk about from draft weekend that was
Speaker 1: not necessarily draft related, but we haven't had a chance
Speaker 1: to discuss it yet, and that is that a matter
Speaker 1: of hours before the Packers made their first pick in
Speaker 1: this draft on Friday night, they extended wide receiver Jaden
Speaker 1: Reid multi year contract extension, the first of what. I
Speaker 1: think the Packers are planning on several contract extensions here
Speaker 1: of guys that they're looking at, and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: them over the next several months or whatever the case
Speaker 1: might be. But Jaden Reid coming off of a disappointing
Speaker 1: season because of the injury issues with the foot and
Speaker 1: the broken collarbone in Week two, and you know, he
Speaker 1: missed essentially like three quarters of the season or whatever
Speaker 1: it was, and quite frankly didn't really ever looked like
Speaker 1: he was all the way back to me. But a young, dynamic,
Speaker 1: explosive receiver who is going to be in Green Bay
Speaker 1: long term.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's funny. You got to remember what this
Speaker 2: guy has done and how quickly he's done it here, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, he was the leading receiver in his first
Speaker 2: two seasons for the Packers, broke Sterling Sharp's single season
Speaker 2: record for catches as a rookie. I think it was
Speaker 2: sixty four. I think he ended up with.
Speaker 1: And Sharp's rookie franchise record was fifty five, so he
Speaker 1: kind of blew it out of the water.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean he was just such a focal point
Speaker 2: of the offense. I remember being in philip I should
Speaker 2: say we were actually in South Paulo, Brazil, but I
Speaker 2: remember watching that game against Philadelphia and I just thought
Speaker 2: to myself, I mean, the Packers have a superstar. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the way he was affecting that game, the catches he
Speaker 2: was making in the Eagles secondary didn't really have an
Speaker 2: answer for him, especially in that first half, to have
Speaker 2: him locked up and then you see the numbers and
Speaker 2: you can go find all those on the internet. But
Speaker 2: they made sense for the player, they made sense for
Speaker 2: the organization. It's a different version kind of the they
Speaker 2: did with Christian Watson last year, right where for Reid
Speaker 2: it puts money in his pocket, it gets them some security,
Speaker 2: also gives him a chance for another contract in a
Speaker 2: few years. Meanwhile, Green Bay with how these contracts are
Speaker 2: absolutely skyrocking at the receiver position, and we're probably gonna
Speaker 2: be talking about it again here in the next six
Speaker 2: to ten months. With Christian Watson, the Packers got somebody
Speaker 2: locked up now for the future. That isn't just their
Speaker 2: rookie draft picks from last year. So Red, that's a
Speaker 2: big one. I had a fun with this because when
Speaker 2: it all went down, it reminded me so much of
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, when I'll never forget. It was myself, Rob
Speaker 2: Damofski and Mike Vandermoss. We were doing our live stream
Speaker 2: before the first day of the NFL Draft, and in
Speaker 2: the middle of it, we caught word that Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: had signed his extension, and Rob and I ended up
Speaker 2: getting into a big argument on camera about the scale
Speaker 2: of it, because I said it was the most important
Speaker 2: thing that's going to happen all draft weekend. Rob pushed
Speaker 2: back on me on that because he's like, we all
Speaker 2: knew this was gonna happen. We all knew this is
Speaker 2: gonna happen. Well, the Packers drafted Aton Jones, and then
Speaker 2: you know, Aaron Rodgers did a press conference the same day.
Speaker 2: I mean, you asked the modern fan, you know who
Speaker 2: they're going to know more about at that point, It's
Speaker 2: gonna be Aaron Rodgers. But I digress. Yeah, but it
Speaker 2: brought me back to that moment where getting a deal
Speaker 2: done right in the eleventh hour there before the start
Speaker 2: of the draft. I mean, obviously the Packers didn't have
Speaker 2: a pick that day, but when you factor in being
Speaker 2: able to extend Reid, obviously Micah Parsons and what he's
Speaker 2: brought to this football team in that defense, I'd say
Speaker 2: it was still a good opening round there for Green Bath.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Brian Gudakunsk has made no secret of his
Speaker 1: desire to have guys like Christian Watson, Tucker Craft, DeVante
Speaker 1: Wyatt in the plans long term here as well. And
Speaker 1: obviously there's there are things that need to be worked out,
Speaker 1: both on the financial side and on the health side
Speaker 1: with a couple of those guys and all that. So
Speaker 1: that's that's what's on that's what's on the radar coming up.
Speaker 1: But this was this was sort of the first of
Speaker 1: we we didn't know what order they were going to
Speaker 1: go in necessarily, this was sort of the first one,
Speaker 1: and hopefully it's the it's the first of several, because
Speaker 1: you see these these guy these guys are the foundation, right,
Speaker 1: These are the guys who have who have come in
Speaker 1: within the last four to five years, been brought into
Speaker 1: Green Bay and and they are they are the foundation
Speaker 1: of what the Packers are doing on the field. They're
Speaker 1: also the foundation of the leadership in the locker room
Speaker 1: and all of that that we've seen and and hopefully
Speaker 1: there are more of these extensions to come.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this a couple of days ago too.
Speaker 2: I don't know, and again I offer no predictions, but
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can ever think of a
Speaker 2: more of a shoe in for an extension independent of
Speaker 2: even the knee injury over the last eight years than
Speaker 2: Tucker Craft is. Yeah, I was thinking, I'm like, I
Speaker 2: think DeVante Adams made a lot of sense in eighteen
Speaker 2: when they got they got him and Corey Linsley done
Speaker 2: I think on the same day or close to it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But there's been a lot of these where we weren't sure, right,
Speaker 2: we didn't know what was gonna happen. Christian Watson last year.
Speaker 2: There was times where some of these defensive players that
Speaker 2: they've extended, we weren't sure if they were gonna come
Speaker 2: or they were gonna go. Even Aaron Jones, both of
Speaker 2: Jones's contracts, I didn't really know whether or not he
Speaker 2: was gonna be back in Green Bay. But Kraft just
Speaker 2: he makes sense for the team, He makes sense for
Speaker 2: the for himself. And I'll tell you what, man, if
Speaker 2: Tucker Craft can stay healthy, he is the bona fide
Speaker 2: definition of a tight end. You want to see in
Speaker 2: this offense for ten years, right, just a decade, See
Speaker 2: where he takes the whole thing. See where he just obliterates,
Speaker 2: you know, franchise records and build an offense around him. Packers.
Speaker 2: There was there is years, Mike where you and I
Speaker 2: we would sit in the off season be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: so who's gonna be the tight end next year? Right?
Speaker 2: I mean from the Jared Cook transition to Martell's Bennett
Speaker 2: to Jimmy Graham. The Packers kind of had to keep
Speaker 2: digging and digging and digging, and now I think they
Speaker 2: found one of the topest sending stars in this league
Speaker 2: at that position. Yeah, and it's just too bad about
Speaker 2: the kne injurycause I think if not for the injury,
Speaker 2: we might already be talking about it being done.
Speaker 1: Well he and Yeah, I think we would be talking
Speaker 1: about his extension already being done, and we'd be talking
Speaker 1: about heading into this year. How his twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: season shattered all the Packers single season tight end records
Speaker 1: because he was on pace receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.
Speaker 1: He was on pace in twenty twenty five to have
Speaker 1: the best single season by a Packers tight end in history,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, right around the halfway point, it it ended.
Speaker 1: But we know Tucker. We've were interested, obviously to talk
Speaker 1: to him again when he gets healthy, but he's not
Speaker 1: going to let this stop him.
Speaker 2: This is also why I wanted them to draft a
Speaker 2: tight end so badly, because we're at the point now
Speaker 2: with Tucker going into your fort dude, you just want
Speaker 2: to get as many young tight ends around him as possible. Right,
Speaker 2: he can have his own little tight end you over
Speaker 2: in South Dakota. Yeah, the way that this thing is
Speaker 2: going in, the personality type that he has, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: no doubt. It'd be fun.
Speaker 1: Well, we've got the Rookie Minichamp coming up this weekend,
Speaker 1: so on next week shows we will talk about our
Speaker 1: first impressions actually getting to see these guys up close,
Speaker 1: meet some of them, talk to them and whatnot. But
Speaker 1: for now we'll call it a rap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers on Script. It'd be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team and everything with Rookie
Speaker 1: Minni Camp this weekend. We'll have it all for you
Speaker 1: on Packers dot com for Wesiammike, thank you for tuning
Speaker 1: in everybody. We will see you next time.