Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by the one
Speaker 1: and only Wes Hodkuits. Were coming to you here from
Speaker 1: our studios at lambeau Field West. Late last week, we
Speaker 1: got our first look, a first hand look at the
Speaker 1: Packers rookie class for nineteen. The annual Rookie Minicamp took
Speaker 1: place the weekend after the draft. Eight draft picks, eleven
Speaker 1: undrafted free agents, close to a couple of dozen tryout players.
Speaker 1: We're all there. We only got to watch about a
Speaker 1: half hours worth of practice, so there wasn't a whole
Speaker 1: lot we could glean from there, but we did get
Speaker 1: to interview players in the locker room after practice. Just
Speaker 1: curious what you're first impressions were of the Packers twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen rookie class. Well, this is I always enjoy Rookie
Speaker 1: Camp because the locker room session, especially this year where
Speaker 1: there was only one open locker room for the camp.
Speaker 1: It always tests our teamwork, probably more so than any
Speaker 1: other event that we covered throughout the course of the year.
Speaker 1: It's spafored, it's hot Kowitz, It's the one to punch
Speaker 1: you're over there, I'm over here. So we basically it's
Speaker 1: divide and conquered the eight different draft picks the Packers had.
Speaker 1: So I was over at ra Shawn Gary. You went
Speaker 1: over to Darnell Savage, and then we just kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, pieced it out that way. Being at Gary
Speaker 1: and listening to him talk for the first time addressing
Speaker 1: the media in person, it was really impressed with the
Speaker 1: young man. This is a guy that certainly has all
Speaker 1: the measurables, has all the skills, has all the times
Speaker 1: in what you look for out of the top fifteen pick.
Speaker 1: But it was also really interesting and captivating listen to
Speaker 1: him talk about his journey and what it meant for
Speaker 1: him to make it to this level. I know there
Speaker 1: are some questions out there. You and I have received
Speaker 1: those an inbox, and we've seen them on social media,
Speaker 1: people wondering about his stats and his sacks and his
Speaker 1: production at Michigan. But somebody else brought it up in
Speaker 1: the column this week, and I thought it was really
Speaker 1: astute observation. I mean, this is a very similar situation
Speaker 1: to what Ted Thompson encountered with Clay Matthews in sum reguard.
Speaker 1: Now Gary was a higher touted prospect than Matthews was
Speaker 1: when he went to USC was just a walk on,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it was based on projection of
Speaker 1: them going in the first round. For me, Michael, I
Speaker 1: would rather I said this a hundred times already. I
Speaker 1: would rather play or have nine and a half sacks
Speaker 1: and three years in college and have the type of
Speaker 1: measurables and times that Gary had over a guy that
Speaker 1: had thirty but didn't test as well. What you did
Speaker 1: in college is great, it's gonna set you up for
Speaker 1: what you do in the NFL. But ultimately it's about
Speaker 1: what you can be as a player. How big are
Speaker 1: your pause, what can you offer a team in the
Speaker 1: long run. And I think Gary is one of those
Speaker 1: players that really is enticing when you look at the
Speaker 1: total package. Yeah, and Gary is the type of player
Speaker 1: when you talk about the stats from college and all
Speaker 1: of at this is where the scouts earn their money.
Speaker 1: This is why they get paid what they get paid, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of people they love the stats. You all
Speaker 1: the college clips around YouTube these days, you can go
Speaker 1: out there and find the highlights of any draft prospect,
Speaker 1: almost any player in college out there. But the scouts
Speaker 1: know the guy across from who he beats to get
Speaker 1: that sack. Now, you know, is that really going to
Speaker 1: be worth it in the NFL? Is that guy going
Speaker 1: to the NFL as well? Or is that guy the
Speaker 1: backup right tackle because somebody was injured and he just
Speaker 1: got smoked by an NFL prospect. Now those are extreme examples,
Speaker 1: so to speak, you know, But that's why the scouts
Speaker 1: look at everything. They parse. They parse over every ounce
Speaker 1: of the film, so to speak, every frame of the
Speaker 1: film to get the complete picture of the player and
Speaker 1: make that projection as to what they will be in
Speaker 1: the NFL. And and yeah, multiple readers have pointed it out.
Speaker 1: Clay Matthews is a great example. Five and a half
Speaker 1: sacks in college. By the end of his rookie year
Speaker 1: in the NFL he had more than that, I think,
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, And obviously went on too multiple
Speaker 1: double digit sacks seasons and Pro Bowls and everything else.
Speaker 1: So it's why the scouts do what they do. It's
Speaker 1: why they're charged with the duties that they're charged with.
Speaker 1: It's too uh, it's to make those decisions. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: not all of them work out, but but Rashaan. Gary
Speaker 1: is a guy that the Packers did their homework on them,
Speaker 1: and they really believe in them. I'm glad you brought
Speaker 1: up the highlight thing because the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is is I could take you right now down to
Speaker 1: the Rainichky Field and I could bring a Super eight
Speaker 1: camera and I could create a highlight tape of Mike
Speaker 1: spot For running around the field and you know, throwing
Speaker 1: footballs and catching footballs and everything. It still wouldn't look
Speaker 1: very good. If you edited up enough, though, if we
Speaker 1: get mad Arvan on that, it might not look too bad.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is what you see beyond the film,
Speaker 1: what you see beyond the highlights, and that's where Gary
Speaker 1: what's what made him a first round draft pick. So
Speaker 1: and then it was at that, Yeah, it was great
Speaker 1: to hear him talk about his decision process too. He
Speaker 1: understands what he was doing when he took number fifty two.
Speaker 1: He understands the expectations that go along with having that
Speaker 1: number a year after Clay Matthews slaves, but he wanted it.
Speaker 1: He even throughout the little bit of an anecdote that
Speaker 1: five minus two is three. That was his number at Michigan.
Speaker 1: But he's not shying away from that. Overall, we only
Speaker 1: had about seven eight minutes with the young man, but
Speaker 1: I was impressed with my first interaction with him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I would say in general, the draft picks that
Speaker 1: that that I was involved in, you know, the group interviews,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about, just a really well spoken bunch.
Speaker 1: You know, whether it was Darnell Savage talking about you
Speaker 1: know another guy who wore a single digit number in college,
Speaker 1: he did that, taking up the number of Will Likely,
Speaker 1: who was a fellow defensive back at his kind of
Speaker 1: took him under his wing when he first got to Maryland,
Speaker 1: and then when Likely tore in a c L his
Speaker 1: senior year and then was moving on, um, Savage took
Speaker 1: his number four. Now he's back to wearing number twenty six,
Speaker 1: which is what he wore his first couple, Gonna wear four. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: I I kind of dropped the hint to him that,
Speaker 1: you know, he said, well, yeah, defensive backs can't wear
Speaker 1: four or in the NFL. I said, well, no one
Speaker 1: can wear number four. Years. I'm not quite sure if
Speaker 1: he totally heard me when I said that, but anyway,
Speaker 1: but even talking to j Sternberger, another really well spoken guy,
Speaker 1: very self aware in terms of his journey going from
Speaker 1: he made a tremendous transition from junior college to the SEC.
Speaker 1: But he also comes across to me as somebody who's
Speaker 1: not taking anything for granted in terms of just because
Speaker 1: I did that, that I'm just gonna walk onto an
Speaker 1: NFL field and own the place, you know, And the
Speaker 1: self awareness there I think was encouraging. And then talking
Speaker 1: to the Packers final draft pick, Ty Summers, the linebacker
Speaker 1: out of TCU. This is a former quarterback in high school.
Speaker 1: When he talks about football, he talks like a quarterback.
Speaker 1: He just you know, he's got that He's got that
Speaker 1: broad understanding of everything going on. And it was interesting
Speaker 1: getting his perspective about how having played quarterback really helped
Speaker 1: him when he made the transition to linebacker and Gary
Speaker 1: Patterson's defense at TCU. So we've got a bunch of
Speaker 1: stories going up on the website based on these interviews.
Speaker 1: You posted one on Rashawn Gary on Monday. There's a
Speaker 1: Darnell Savage one for me on Tuesday. Sternberger will be Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We'll hit some of the other draft picks next week
Speaker 1: as well. So for all the fans out there keep
Speaker 1: an eye out. But um, anything else in terms of
Speaker 1: just your first impression of this group that stood out
Speaker 1: to you. I also want to just touch on Kadar Holman,
Speaker 1: who was the sixth round pick that the Packers took
Speaker 1: out of Toledo. Toledo. It was really we had heard
Speaker 1: the stories during his conference call about the odd jobs
Speaker 1: he worked when he was trying to get you know,
Speaker 1: basically eligible to be, you know, go to college academically,
Speaker 1: his S A T scores aren't what they needed to be.
Speaker 1: He goes to a prep school for a year or
Speaker 1: you know, a semester. He's hoping that that might be
Speaker 1: his avenue, his conduit to being able to go and
Speaker 1: you know, get into college. It actually doesn't work out
Speaker 1: that way. Uh scores still weren't what they needed to be.
Speaker 1: So he took that next semester as all of his
Speaker 1: friends are going off to college and he had to
Speaker 1: work common jobs and you know, he mentioned there was
Speaker 1: one that he worked, you know, unloading trucks around the
Speaker 1: tri state area. And the way that job worked was
Speaker 1: you couldn't actually just go home at the end of
Speaker 1: the night. They put you up in hotels You're doing
Speaker 1: these road trips and you just got to keep going
Speaker 1: and going and going. So it wasn't like a nine
Speaker 1: to five, you know, you go, you punch he was tying.
Speaker 1: He only did that for two weeks. Uh, And you know,
Speaker 1: he also worked a couple other odd jobs, worked at
Speaker 1: a bread factory at one point. And what he did
Speaker 1: during that time was it wasn't that he really ever
Speaker 1: needed to kick in the pants per se. He always
Speaker 1: was striving to get to college. He wanted to play
Speaker 1: Division one football, but he just had to overcome some
Speaker 1: hurdles academically to do that. But he would look around
Speaker 1: these places and he'd see people that were in their
Speaker 1: forties and fifties and say to himself, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to do this for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to go get the education
Speaker 1: that my mother was wanting me to, you know, pursue
Speaker 1: I want to be able to show that I can
Speaker 1: play at that level. And then he ends up at Toledo.
Speaker 1: He starts as a walk on the yearns a scholarship.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't hear there's been some options in
Speaker 1: recent years, but you don't hear a whole lot of
Speaker 1: you know, major NFL prospects coming out of the MAC
Speaker 1: and you know, he made it a big point that
Speaker 1: he wanted to do that. He runs a four three six.
Speaker 1: He knows his ticket to this team. He's probably going
Speaker 1: to be on special teams. He wants to show what
Speaker 1: he can do in that capacity. But the road that
Speaker 1: he traveled to get to this point is something that
Speaker 1: I think ultimately makes him appreciative of this opportunity. But
Speaker 1: it's something he said to that also makes him a
Speaker 1: better football player too, because he's seen the other side
Speaker 1: of this thing. Yeah. The the the competitive drive of
Speaker 1: these guys, a lot of these guys just to get
Speaker 1: to this point. It's why you know, you and I
Speaker 1: have been around this long enough and there you know,
Speaker 1: we'll have discussions in O t A s when they
Speaker 1: start later this month and we start to see these
Speaker 1: guys out on the field and even early in training camp.
Speaker 1: Nobody's story is written by one great practice or one
Speaker 1: bad practice or anything like that. I mean, the the
Speaker 1: competitive drive of these guys once they really kind of
Speaker 1: get settled in to the NFL and kind of figure
Speaker 1: out what it takes, that's when you really decide, Okay,
Speaker 1: is this guy to make it in the NFL or not,
Speaker 1: and that that moment doesn't happen at the same time
Speaker 1: for all for all these guys, it happens at different times. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And the other thing I want to touch on quickly
Speaker 1: before I know, You've gotta take care of some sponsorship
Speaker 1: business here on Packers Unscripted, Jay Sternberger, you mentioned the
Speaker 1: self awareness that he showed. The thing that impresses me too,
Speaker 1: is he understands the plight of a lot of tight
Speaker 1: ends coming in the league. He knows it's difficult for
Speaker 1: a rookie to come in and just set everything ablaze.
Speaker 1: But he has two good veterans to learn from, and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Graham and Mercedes Lewis, he's gonna take advantage of that.
Speaker 1: I just I really like his temperament. He understands he's
Speaker 1: not a he's not a finished product. It's really only
Speaker 1: been playing major college football for one season in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, being out there extensively. And I said it
Speaker 1: before the draft, Michael, you want to get a tight
Speaker 1: end prospect in the pipeline because the thing is, if
Speaker 1: you keep kicking the can down the road, you're still
Speaker 1: gonna need to develop that guy. He's still gonna need
Speaker 1: a season or two to go. If j Sternberger can
Speaker 1: come in and make a day one impact, fantastic. Nobody's
Speaker 1: going to complain about that. But if it does take
Speaker 1: some time, you want to be able to have patients
Speaker 1: with them, and the Packers have two veterans on this
Speaker 1: roster along with Robert Tonyan that can allow him to
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, no question about it. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: that sponsored business you mentioned West, the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: get ready for game day with the powerful noise canceling
Speaker 1: technology of Bo's Quiet Comfort thirty five headphones. To learn
Speaker 1: more at www dot bos dot com. Slash Packers Bows
Speaker 1: the official headphones of the Green Bay Packers, and at
Speaker 1: home or here in the stands. We all know that
Speaker 1: Green Bay fans give it their all and that takes
Speaker 1: a lot of energy. So grab a warm bowl of
Speaker 1: Campbell's Chunky Soup. It's meaty goodness fuels the greatness of
Speaker 1: Packers fans everywhere. Try the delicious classic chicken noodle soup.
Speaker 1: Just visit your local supermarket and ask for Campbell's Chunky Soup,
Speaker 1: Official sup partner of the Green Bay Packers. Okay, aside
Speaker 1: from the draft picks. The Packers did announce eleven undrafted
Speaker 1: free agent signings last week, and then now that has
Speaker 1: increased too, is it it would technically be twelve twelve
Speaker 1: What they did is I mean, it depends on how
Speaker 1: you look. And they added a receiver I'm trying to
Speaker 1: remember his name off the top of my head, Darius
Speaker 1: Shepherd Shepherd, North Dakota State. I guess technically, um, maybe
Speaker 1: Curtis Bolton falls into that too, although Bolton I think
Speaker 1: was in the camp. They added another guy from Philadelphia
Speaker 1: that was in the league last year, but yeah, not
Speaker 1: a rookie. Yeah, as it stands, the guy's coming into
Speaker 1: this thing. I believe the number is twelve. Okay, undrafted
Speaker 1: undrafted rookies who have now joined the Fray. One of
Speaker 1: those Shepherd you mentioned was here on a tryout basis,
Speaker 1: was the was one of the tryout players who did
Speaker 1: end up getting a contract. At the end of things,
Speaker 1: you and I got an opportunity on the day that
Speaker 1: the rookies arrived, before they had their first meetings and
Speaker 1: first practices and all that, to talk to a couple
Speaker 1: of these undrafted rookies. You took the time to chat
Speaker 1: with Manny Wilkins, the quarterback from Arizona State. Interesting story
Speaker 1: with this kid, because boy, you look at the stats,
Speaker 1: a three year starter in the Pack twelve, and uh
Speaker 1: suffered a knee injury. Unfortunately was was it his last game,
Speaker 1: the Bolts last throw in the bowl game, and that
Speaker 1: may have been the reason that he wasn't drafted. This
Speaker 1: is a quarterback who probably is going to get drafted
Speaker 1: if he finishes his college career completely healthy. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: he has self awareness as well. We were talking about that.
Speaker 1: He understood it was gonna be an uphill battle for
Speaker 1: him to get drafted in the first place. But once
Speaker 1: he tore his m c L on literally the last
Speaker 1: throw of that game and of his college career one
Speaker 1: thousand of them, that was it. So then he ends
Speaker 1: up tearing his m c L. He actually requires surgery.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can get away with not having it. He
Speaker 1: needed it, and then he ended up getting cleared. I
Speaker 1: think it was two days before the a s U
Speaker 1: Pro day. And that's a much longer recovery if you
Speaker 1: have surgery on the n c L as opposed to
Speaker 1: if it doesn't require if you're going invasive, and and
Speaker 1: he ends up still running. I think it was somewhere
Speaker 1: in the four sevens. He runs a forty. A very
Speaker 1: interesting prospect and one of the reasons why I picked
Speaker 1: him as sort of the uf A to zone zone
Speaker 1: in on was you know, I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people out in Arizona that have covered him, have been
Speaker 1: associated with that football program, and just they just say
Speaker 1: wonderful things about this guy at natural born leader, a
Speaker 1: guy that really was sort of the glue that held
Speaker 1: that team together during that transition to her Edwards and
Speaker 1: just the guy that steps out front of everything. Has
Speaker 1: an interesting backstory. You know, he lost his father when
Speaker 1: he was ten years old, um and and he ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of getting raised by a combination of
Speaker 1: his mother and his aunt and uncle. He ends up
Speaker 1: becoming a four star recruit out of California and then
Speaker 1: you know, blossoms into this really solid starter for them
Speaker 1: for three seasons. He has a real tall build, you know,
Speaker 1: he's six three, but somewhat slender for the position. He
Speaker 1: only goes about two hundred, but a lot of athleticism
Speaker 1: and a live arm. So the Packers have had success
Speaker 1: the last few years with undrafted quarterbacks and and Wilkins
Speaker 1: was fully aware of that when he decided to sign
Speaker 1: on here and try to, you know, take his shot
Speaker 1: now and make in the NFL. Yeah, and we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens as things proceed through O, T, A S
Speaker 1: and toward training camp, because as we all know, when
Speaker 1: you have four quarterbacks in Matt Fleur even mentioned this,
Speaker 1: when you have four quarterbacks X, it is difficult to
Speaker 1: get those third and fourth guys the reps that you need.
Speaker 1: And and let's face that the Packers are moving forward
Speaker 1: here with what I think is going to be a
Speaker 1: legitimate battle for the number two job between Deshaun Kaiser
Speaker 1: and Tim Boyle with everything that they learned last year
Speaker 1: and and moving forward there that the number two job
Speaker 1: is is not settled. So you definitely want to get
Speaker 1: both of those guys the reps that they need to
Speaker 1: see who should be the top back up to h
Speaker 1: too Rogers. But but yeah, the athletic ability and the
Speaker 1: arm strength looking at him for just the half hour
Speaker 1: we were out there on the field, that's what really
Speaker 1: stood out to me about Wilkins. Yeah, and it was
Speaker 1: interesting too. I mean you obviously talked to Eaton from
Speaker 1: Iowa State, like seeing these guys in that rookie camp.
Speaker 1: Again you mentioned we only had half an hour, but
Speaker 1: it's always interesting when you kind of see these quarterbacks
Speaker 1: arms for the first time, when you see how these
Speaker 1: receivers run roads and starting to build that chemistry. So yeah,
Speaker 1: as far as this process, it's so interesting because you
Speaker 1: have two days to catch up to everything and then
Speaker 1: you're gone for a week, and then you're back and
Speaker 1: now you're in there with Aaron Rodgers and you know
Speaker 1: Davante Adams. It's it's quite a whirlwind. Yeah. And my
Speaker 1: my undrafted player interview, as you said, was with Matthew Eaton,
Speaker 1: a wide receiver from Iowa State, and I chose him
Speaker 1: for a couple of different reasons. One, it was a
Speaker 1: position the Packers did not add a draft pick at
Speaker 1: wide receiver, obviously the three draft picks from a year
Speaker 1: ago all heading into their second year here, but a
Speaker 1: position that a new draft pick was not added. But
Speaker 1: also a guy who now is coming to Green Bay
Speaker 1: where he's going to be competing with a former teammate
Speaker 1: of his and Alan Lazard, who was a late season
Speaker 1: pick up by the Packers last year. He had started
Speaker 1: his rookie year on Jacksonville's practice squad had gone undrafted
Speaker 1: out of Iowa State now is in the Green Bay
Speaker 1: locker room. Turns out he was the guy who kind
Speaker 1: of took eating under his wing in Ames, Iowa when
Speaker 1: Eaton showed up from junior college. He had gone from
Speaker 1: originally playing at Temple to then junior college and then
Speaker 1: getting an opportunity at Iowa State. He said that the
Speaker 1: the coaching staff at Toledo is the staff that kind
Speaker 1: of moved to Iowa State, and they had had their
Speaker 1: eyes on him when he was at Temple and left
Speaker 1: to go to junior college. And so then after he
Speaker 1: got his time in at junior college, that coaching staff
Speaker 1: then from Toledo was in Ames, Iowa with the Cyclones
Speaker 1: and they brought him up there and got him into
Speaker 1: the program. Now this is a guy he's kind of been,
Speaker 1: you know, a number two, number three receiver on a
Speaker 1: pretty explosive offense because you had Lazard a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, you had Hakim Butler as a wide receiver
Speaker 1: who was drafted this past month, and then David Montgomery
Speaker 1: has been the stud running back in that offense. And
Speaker 1: he was drafted high in the third round by the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears who traded up to get him. So he
Speaker 1: just wonder if he's one of these under the radar
Speaker 1: guys who and he takes nothing away from the teammates
Speaker 1: that he played with, and he certainly has a great
Speaker 1: relationship with lazard Um. He said, Hey, you know, the
Speaker 1: ball should have gone to those guys, like, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to take anything away from them. But when a
Speaker 1: guy puts up some pretty decent numbers in an offense
Speaker 1: where the ball more often is going to other people,
Speaker 1: you just wonder if maybe the potential has not been
Speaker 1: maximized yet. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's ultimately that That was my number one takeaway
Speaker 1: when I was reading your story about him, is that
Speaker 1: if you're looking undrafted free agents, these are the type
Speaker 1: of guys you look for, the guys that you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they just didn't quite show everything that they had
Speaker 1: or they didn't have an opportunity to That's right. I've
Speaker 1: drawn the comparison a couple of times, and it's it's
Speaker 1: a high comparison considering the success he's had in the
Speaker 1: league so far. But I thought I see a lot
Speaker 1: of Geronimo Allison and Eaton when you look at it, absolutely,
Speaker 1: to me, he looks he I mean, he's six four
Speaker 1: two ten. He looks exactly like Allison looked when he
Speaker 1: showed up as an undrafted rookie from Illinois a few
Speaker 1: years ago. The similarities in terms of just the physical
Speaker 1: body type and the way they move and everything. Definitely
Speaker 1: very similar in terms of that the first arrival, first impression,
Speaker 1: absolutely and the fact that you know they also went
Speaker 1: that Juco wrote before they finally ended, you know, settling
Speaker 1: on their feet and making an impact. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just it's gonna be a wide open race. I think
Speaker 1: that the receiver competition right now with Randall Cob moving on,
Speaker 1: you have Allison back from the core injury, you have
Speaker 1: the three young receivers. I think. You know, sometimes people
Speaker 1: forget about Trevor Davis is still in that mix as well,
Speaker 1: along with Lazard and all these other guys. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a great competition to see how all these guys fit. J.
Speaker 1: Kumarro in that mix too, of course, right absolutely, and
Speaker 1: Eaton understands the opportunities that's ahead of him. Yeah, no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. Um One other guy I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about because I'm still not sure how to
Speaker 1: say his name, So I'm gonna lay it on you,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna guess you're going with Yash Nichman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that guy, big dude, huge, mean, well tell I mean,
Speaker 1: I know another undrafted guy. Now, not one that we
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to talk to necessarily, but u um,
Speaker 1: but man, you certainly notice him when when you're there,
Speaker 1: just even for a few minutes at practice, a few
Speaker 1: minutes of practice. You when I were standing in the
Speaker 1: locker room waiting to talk to these guys, and you
Speaker 1: see him walk through it. That's the guy you went
Speaker 1: off the bus when you get ready for the preseason game.
Speaker 1: I mean, uh, Nitchman is a is a big dude
Speaker 1: now a three year starter at vo Tech you were
Speaker 1: talking about, You know, you look at some of these
Speaker 1: guys like Wilkins being a three year starter in the
Speaker 1: PAC twelve. Nichman has a lot of experience in the
Speaker 1: A c C taking on some high caliber talent. Played
Speaker 1: tackle left side for two years, played the right side
Speaker 1: last year. The big thing for those big guys, once
Speaker 1: you get above that six five range, you have to
Speaker 1: be really on top of your pad level, but in
Speaker 1: terms of just massive human being and a guy that
Speaker 1: if if you can share up some of the fundamentals,
Speaker 1: just a world, you know, a ton of talent in
Speaker 1: his body, and I think the packers looking at him
Speaker 1: as one of these many guys in this class that
Speaker 1: you know could potentially be one of those hidden gems
Speaker 1: and in diamonds in the rough when you're looking in
Speaker 1: September and two or three, these guys end up making
Speaker 1: the roster every year. Yeah, and when that's what I
Speaker 1: was gonna say to when you you look at the history. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously you're gonna carry usually nine or ten, sometimes even
Speaker 1: eleven offensive lineman on your fifty three man rosters, so
Speaker 1: there is opportunity there for undrafted players to make an
Speaker 1: impression and to stick. And you're also usually going to
Speaker 1: have one or two of your practice squad spots are
Speaker 1: occupied by offensive linemen as well. So, uh, just first impression,
Speaker 1: the sheer size of him, and as you said, then
Speaker 1: the experience coming from a major college conference like the
Speaker 1: A c C playing at Virginia Tech definitely got to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on. Yeah, he's one of those guys
Speaker 1: that I think you know, the spotlight and the stadium
Speaker 1: is not going to be too big for him. He's
Speaker 1: gonna understand where he is and now has to show
Speaker 1: that teams may have passed up on him in the draft,
Speaker 1: but you know there's still a lot of ability there. Yeah. Alright, Well,
Speaker 1: with that, we will call it a wrap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team on Packers dot com and
Speaker 1: subscribe to our podcast if you prefer to listen to
Speaker 1: us rather than watch us, which I guess I wouldn't
Speaker 1: blame you for that, but anyway, um iTunes and other
Speaker 1: podcast services, subscribe us, subscribe to us, like us all
Speaker 1: that good stuff On Twitter, follow him at west Hot
Speaker 1: I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.