Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always by my partner
Speaker 2: in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from
Speaker 2: our studios at lambeau Field and Wes. If there's a
Speaker 2: theme to this show, this random off season mid May
Speaker 2: episode of Packers Unscripted, it's going to be small world,
Speaker 2: because what I want you to talk to.
Speaker 3: Us about is my trip to Disney last month? What
Speaker 3: my trip to Disney last month?
Speaker 2: Actually, no, that was not where I was going. Although
Speaker 2: I'm sure Killian would love a discussion though, Oh, it's
Speaker 2: a small world.
Speaker 4: He would fill up all thirty minutes of this show
Speaker 4: discuss I'm sorry, continue.
Speaker 1: To know what I want.
Speaker 2: What I want you to talk about is the story
Speaker 2: that you posted on Packers dot com on Monday morning,
Speaker 2: which was a really good and interesting and entertaining illustration
Speaker 2: of the small world that is that is NFL coaching circles.
Speaker 2: Because we found out from talking to assistant coaches last
Speaker 2: week that Ryan Downard, the Packers defensive backs coach, and
Speaker 2: Jeff Hafley, the new Packers defensive coordinator, they go back
Speaker 2: like a decade.
Speaker 3: YEA.
Speaker 2: And well, I'll just let you take it from there,
Speaker 2: because because I thought your story outlined the connections and
Speaker 2: how and how long it is that that Downard has
Speaker 2: looked up to a coach like Hafley and is really
Speaker 2: looking forward now to working with him as essentially his boss,
Speaker 2: the defensive coordinator over the position coaches.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you go back and look, and I
Speaker 4: wrote this in here, you know it was kind of
Speaker 4: a stacked coaching staff that Mike Petton put together at
Speaker 4: the Cleveland Browns. I mean, they didn't win a lot
Speaker 4: of football games that second year. The first year they
Speaker 4: did pretty good. Yeah, but you know when you look
Speaker 4: at the offensive the side of the ball, Kyle Shanahan.
Speaker 4: Defensive side of the ball, you had Anthony Weaver, Aaron Glenn,
Speaker 4: Bobby Bazich, babbitch excuse me, who's now the defensive coordinator
Speaker 4: of the Buffalo Bills. And as Ryan explained, who's now
Speaker 4: the defensive backs coach the Packers has been here for
Speaker 4: the last five years. He was the fourth guy in
Speaker 4: that dB room with Jeff Hafley being the one that
Speaker 4: was leading those guys. And the one thing I think
Speaker 4: is so interesting about the coaching world is the amount
Speaker 4: of intersection that goes on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not just coaches the coaches.
Speaker 4: Sometimes it's a coach and then a player that played
Speaker 4: for that coach and then they end up kind of
Speaker 4: rising up the ranks. You know, a number of years
Speaker 4: ago when you look at Mike Petten came off of
Speaker 4: the Rex Ryan coaching tree. Well, then you look at
Speaker 4: Jimmy Leonard also came off of that tree, sure, and
Speaker 4: then was the safety for both of those guys and
Speaker 4: then ended up becoming a coordinator at the college level.
Speaker 4: So to listen to Halfley explain it was one thing,
Speaker 4: and he talked a lot about those connections when he
Speaker 4: first got the job. But both Downard and Anthony Campanelli,
Speaker 4: the Packers linebackers coach, explaining their past history with him.
Speaker 4: Downward from the perspective of just getting to learn from
Speaker 4: him being in that dB room, going home and telling
Speaker 4: his wife, Hey, this is what I got to do.
Speaker 4: This is the kind of coach I need to be
Speaker 4: if I want to be at the front of the room,
Speaker 4: much like Halfley. And then you listen to Campinelli, Well,
Speaker 4: him and Halfley never worked together, but it kind of
Speaker 4: goes back to just building relationships, building friendships, and it
Speaker 4: isn't always just about well, you're the editor at packers
Speaker 4: dot com and I'm the senior writer, so we got
Speaker 4: to be friends and you know that's our tree. No,
Speaker 4: sometimes it's getting to know people from other media outlets,
Speaker 4: and in Campanelli's case, not I don't know, I'm maybe
Speaker 4: jumping ahead on the script here a little bit, but
Speaker 4: you know, this is a guy that was a really successful,
Speaker 4: really successful high school coach in the New Jersey area. Yeah,
Speaker 4: Halfley's coaching over at Rutgers. He's going out, He's he's
Speaker 4: leaving with that Chiano staff that's going from Rutgers to
Speaker 4: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, right right, But before he does so,
Speaker 4: he puts in a good word with the remaining staff
Speaker 4: at Rutgers that's taken over that program for Campinelly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, check out that.
Speaker 2: You might want to check out this this high school
Speaker 2: coach here in the Jersey areas doing some really good things.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, first off, how many guys would
Speaker 2: actually do that? I mean, I mean amazing It says.
Speaker 2: It says a lot about Jeff Haffley, because.
Speaker 4: It's not like they're bringing him in to be coordinator.
Speaker 4: It was like for a defensive assistant, basically quality control
Speaker 4: type of.
Speaker 2: Yes, but it also tells you as a high school
Speaker 2: coach the type of impression that Campinelli made on Jeff Halfley,
Speaker 2: that he that he would go so far to do
Speaker 2: that when the Rutgers staff that you know, there's this
Speaker 2: mass exodus of all these guys going from Rutgers to
Speaker 2: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As you said, it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: by the way, there's there's this high school coach doing
Speaker 2: some good things. You might want to check him out
Speaker 2: and lo and behold. Roughly a decade later or wherever
Speaker 2: we are now, maybe maybe it's longer than that.
Speaker 3: Literally a decade it was for two Yeah.
Speaker 1: A decade later.
Speaker 2: Now you have you have Anthony Campinelli and and Jeff
Speaker 2: Haffley coaching together.
Speaker 1: The story no go ahead.
Speaker 4: I was just gon the other funny thing I didn't
Speaker 4: put in the story, but it's interesting. Campinelly coached at
Speaker 4: Boston College too then, but he was there before Halfley
Speaker 4: got there, right, and then when Halfley thought about maybe
Speaker 4: being able to keep him, Campinelly was already going to Michigan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, two ships passing in the night like that, but
Speaker 2: eventually exactly well the other I mean, the other thing
Speaker 2: I was fascinated. I was fascinated by by a Downard story. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because because here he's he's just you know, just breaking
Speaker 2: into the NFL absolutely at you know, the the bottom
Speaker 2: spot on the totem pole on a coaching staff. But
Speaker 2: he ends up he ends up in a defensive backs room.
Speaker 2: And this is just this is just essentially one position
Speaker 2: group where I guess too, you know, cornerbacks and safeties
Speaker 2: kind of all together, but essentially one one position group
Speaker 2: room that has four guys in there who all eventually
Speaker 2: become an are currently NFL defensive coordinators. When you're talking
Speaker 2: about Halfley, Weaver, Babbage and Glenn I mean.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: I mean there there's obviously been a lot made of
Speaker 2: that Washington coaching staff about a dozen years ago that
Speaker 2: had you know, Matt Lafleur and Sean McVay and Kyle
Speaker 2: Shanahan and you know, and and and that whole Mike McDaniel.
Speaker 3: Cleveland had Mike McDaniel too.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: He was, he was, he was on the offensive Washington ball.
Speaker 2: He was on the offensive side of the ball by
Speaker 2: that time. But there's been a lot made, obviously of
Speaker 2: that Washington staff because of the head coaches that have
Speaker 2: been produced.
Speaker 1: Well here's here's.
Speaker 2: Just one one position room. Guys who you know coaching
Speaker 2: cornerbacks and safeties of the Cleveland Browns when Mike Petton
Speaker 2: takes over, and four of the coaches in that room
Speaker 2: become NFL defensive coordinators. And Ryan Downard is a guy
Speaker 2: who certainly.
Speaker 1: Could be on his way as well.
Speaker 2: He's uh, he's worked his way up over the last
Speaker 2: ten years, and it can take a while. It takes,
Speaker 2: it takes a lot of pays, it takes a lot
Speaker 2: of hard work and dedication and the willingness to move
Speaker 2: around and jump around to different cities and different clubs
Speaker 2: when the opportunities arise. But he's another guy who certainly
Speaker 2: could become a defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: Sometimes.
Speaker 2: I was kind of floored by that story because you
Speaker 2: know about you know about how there are a lot
Speaker 2: of connections and everything is about relationships and word of
Speaker 2: mouth and stuff. But then when certain stories actually crystallize
Speaker 2: to where you see where a certain group of guys
Speaker 2: was at one particular time, and then where they've all
Speaker 2: advanced to now it's absolutely fascinating.
Speaker 3: And that was one of the things.
Speaker 4: I only had so much room to write for our
Speaker 4: little subhead that we put with the story, so I
Speaker 4: went with you know, the construction of Jeff Hafley staff
Speaker 4: has been a decade in the making. When I did
Speaker 4: my little Instagram post for it, though, you have a
Speaker 4: little bit more room to work with words wise, and
Speaker 4: I thought, really the summation of the story was his
Speaker 4: construction of his staff was a decade in the making
Speaker 4: because it's been more about the people than the profession. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and with finding guy and bringing in a Campinale being
Speaker 4: able to bring him back.
Speaker 3: Now that this guy has been widely successful, it was.
Speaker 4: Praise unanimously for the job he did down in Miami
Speaker 4: the last four years, working with multiple coordinators. Now he
Speaker 4: makes that move up here and then looking at how
Speaker 4: they did it Downard stayed, you know, Jason Rebovich stayed
Speaker 4: Wendell Davis State. He brought over two assistants from Boston
Speaker 4: College as well. He's been able to kind of mesh
Speaker 4: all these different areas of his own life and his
Speaker 4: own coaching career together now to hopefully figure out this plan,
Speaker 4: and last thing I will leave on that story. What
Speaker 4: I think speaks the best two halfway as a coach
Speaker 4: is we talked so much, We've spilt so much ink
Speaker 4: over the four to three and that's what Green Bay
Speaker 4: is going to run this year. But this system of
Speaker 4: offense or excuse me, defense that they use, it works
Speaker 4: in a four to three, it works in a three
Speaker 4: to four. All those guys have different philosophies and how
Speaker 4: they want to run things, but you know it shows
Speaker 4: you when you have a certain aggressive mindset the way
Speaker 4: you play your coverages. Yes, the four to three three
Speaker 4: four is something that I think the layman can easily
Speaker 4: talk about, discuss and debate, but realistically, it's how you
Speaker 4: use those principles in the defense that you put together.
Speaker 2: That's the sense I get. The more the more we
Speaker 2: have heard from Jeff Haffley and now the assistance on
Speaker 2: the defensive staff and hearing them talk about what they
Speaker 2: are relaying to the players in terms of in terms
Speaker 2: of teaching the system and teaching what they're going to
Speaker 2: play and how they're going to play it. This is
Speaker 2: the first time because because to me, this feels, this
Speaker 2: feels completely different from back in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: fifteen years ago when when Mike McCarthy hired Dom Capers
Speaker 2: and the Packers were making this wholesale shift from the
Speaker 2: four to three to the three four Because to me,
Speaker 2: what this one feels like is the is the schematics
Speaker 2: the three four to four to three and how the
Speaker 2: fronts are gonna align, et cetera, and the x's and
Speaker 2: o's part of it is entirely secondary or on the
Speaker 2: back burner in a sense compared to the style of play.
Speaker 2: It's it's going to be about the play style of
Speaker 2: the guys on the field, wherever they're lined up. That's
Speaker 2: really what the bigger emphasis is. It's not so much
Speaker 2: being so concerned about switching from like three four to
Speaker 2: four to three. This is a this is a play
Speaker 2: style defense and as you said, you can play this
Speaker 2: way in any kind of scheme. They're just choosing this
Speaker 2: particular format is how they're gonna do it and how
Speaker 2: they're going to utilize the players. But this is not
Speaker 2: as big a dramatic schematic shift as we saw fifteen
Speaker 2: years ago under McCarthy.
Speaker 4: And that's why you heard when Jason Ribovich was talking
Speaker 4: to the media, he mentioned San Francisco, he mentioned the
Speaker 4: New York Jets, he mentioned Houston and Demico. Ryan's what
Speaker 4: they're doing there. It's that mentality of the way you
Speaker 4: play defense, and at the end of the day, you
Speaker 4: have to be good at something. You know, you often
Speaker 4: use that phrase, it's when you are defense, you have
Speaker 4: to find something that you can hang your hat on
Speaker 4: because there's going to be holes. Is an offensive driven league.
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur says that all the time he feels as
Speaker 2: an offensive coach that you can poke holes in any
Speaker 2: defensive scheme. Whatever x's and o's somebody wants to lay
Speaker 2: out there, you can poke holes in it. And so
Speaker 2: for Matt Lafleur, what he's what he wants to do,
Speaker 2: The change that he wants to make defensively is the
Speaker 2: style of play. So what are you going to emphasize.
Speaker 2: And we heard from Jason Rebovich, we heard from the others,
Speaker 2: We've heard from Halfley.
Speaker 1: This is about it.
Speaker 2: It's about vision to the ball, It's about trying to
Speaker 2: take away the ball. It's about trying to get the
Speaker 2: TFLs and the sacks, making plays in the backfield. If
Speaker 2: that's what you're going to emphasize, then that's what you
Speaker 2: have to get because then if you get, if you
Speaker 2: are getting what you emphasize, then you can find a
Speaker 2: way to win football games that way. And one of
Speaker 2: the things I personally think was the biggest downfall of
Speaker 2: the Joe Barry tenure. It's not that it's it's not
Speaker 2: that it's wrong to play a defense that's designed to
Speaker 2: limit big plays. A lot of defenses play that way.
Speaker 2: The problem is if you don't get what you emphasize.
Speaker 2: If you're playing a style that's just igned to limit
Speaker 2: big plays, but yet you are always ranking in the
Speaker 2: bottom third of the league in terms of big plays allowed,
Speaker 2: that doesn't work because you're not getting what you emphasize.
Speaker 2: So then you're you're kind of lost defensively because you
Speaker 2: don't have that thing to hang your hat on. The
Speaker 2: Packers are going to try to hang their hat on
Speaker 2: something else with this style of defense and with the
Speaker 2: way they're going to go about it, and it's up
Speaker 2: to half Lee in those assistants to get that play
Speaker 2: style implemented with the players.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the trends of the league, Mike, we see
Speaker 4: it all the time. I mean, because it wasn't just
Speaker 4: a Joe Barry issue. You know, Brandon Staley was going
Speaker 4: through it too with the Los Angeles Chargers. That style
Speaker 4: of defense, the Bronco type fronts that got very popular
Speaker 4: for a time and getting a little bit lighter in
Speaker 4: boxes and having five man fronts and that it kind
Speaker 4: of This past year was a very you look at
Speaker 4: the statistics and where teams ranked in that area that
Speaker 4: you know deployed those fronts. I think Vic Fangio did
Speaker 4: it the best that I of anybody, but even then
Speaker 4: there was a switch after the seasons with him. So
Speaker 4: I just feel like moving forward now listening to what
Speaker 4: Jeff Hafley talked about, he wants guys to be confident.
Speaker 4: He wants guys to know what they're doing out there.
Speaker 4: And that's where Xavier McKinney comes in. That's where having
Speaker 4: JayR Alexander here for the offseason program is a really
Speaker 4: big thing for this defense in being able now to
Speaker 4: find this vision for twenty twenty four and hopefully beyond.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to talk a little bit more about
Speaker 2: those defensive backs you just mentioned in a minute, but
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Speaker 2: Fifty plus years of better. All right, you mentioned jay R, Alexander,
Speaker 2: Corey Ballentin, Xavier McKinney. This is part two of the
Speaker 2: Small World Teams. Yeah, okay, and you know where this
Speaker 2: is going.
Speaker 3: I know exactly where this is going.
Speaker 2: Packer's new passing game coordinator on the defensive side, Derek
Speaker 2: ains Lee. When we heard from him, we found out
Speaker 2: that his connections with some of these defensive backs, So
Speaker 2: he's going to be coaching. Yeah, maybe all go back
Speaker 2: to a lot of them. Go back to his recruiting
Speaker 2: days in the SEC. He he recruited Xavier McKinney to Alabama.
Speaker 2: He tried to recruit Jay R, Alexander to Kentucky, lost
Speaker 2: out on him to Louisville. He recruited at one point,
Speaker 2: was involved in Eric Stokes recruiting, was involved in Corey
Speaker 2: Ballentine's recruiting. It's it's again, it's kind of fascinating how
Speaker 2: this small world stuff and things kind of come full circle.
Speaker 2: But the back when when you actually look at the
Speaker 2: details of the background, it makes sense. Derek Ainsley was
Speaker 2: a defensive essentially a defensive backs coach in some form
Speaker 2: or other, different titles, whatever, but for three different SEC
Speaker 2: programs Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee over the course of about
Speaker 2: a decade's time, give or takes some breaks in there.
Speaker 2: So when you're coaching defensive backs in the SEC for
Speaker 2: about a decade at a bunch of different schools within
Speaker 2: that conference, as he said, you're going to cross paths
Speaker 2: with a lot of the best defensive backs coming out
Speaker 2: of high school because you're getting you're trying to get
Speaker 2: those guys to come to your program and to play
Speaker 2: in the SEC. So you know, So he's known Xavier
Speaker 2: McKinney since he was seventeen years old. He's known Jay
Speaker 2: R Alexander since he was about seventeen eighteen years old.
Speaker 2: So there's it's it's interesting and we'll I'm sure when
Speaker 2: we get a chance to talk to the players during
Speaker 2: open locker room during OTAs and whatnot. We'll get to
Speaker 2: we'll get to ask a little bit more about just
Speaker 2: maybe what they remember about some of those interactions during
Speaker 2: their teenage years with this guy who's now up in
Speaker 2: front of them, you know, in the in the defensive
Speaker 2: meeting room and all that. But again, my point is
Speaker 2: another sample of the small world that is sort of
Speaker 2: NFL circles and uh and how uh and how Paz
Speaker 2: can sometimes not cross but then ultimately cross and end
Speaker 2: up in the same place.
Speaker 4: You could write me a blank check, Mike. I would
Speaker 4: never want to be a recruiter, a position coach in
Speaker 4: the SEC not built for it. I wouldn't a single
Speaker 4: night because as fertile as that, you know, recruiting ground
Speaker 4: is for NFL programs, Man, I just there's a reason
Speaker 4: why Derek said that it was because they were chasing
Speaker 4: some of the best players in the country.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And I actually the one I thought actually was
Speaker 4: most interesting to me was Jay Air because I don't
Speaker 4: We've talked about it over time, but I think sometimes
Speaker 4: people forget about this. Gyro was really lightly recruited. Uh,
Speaker 4: South Carolina I think was in on him. But I
Speaker 4: think I remember Kentucky. I remember him talking about Kentucky,
Speaker 4: but then ultimately, you know, Louisville was the one that
Speaker 4: he ended.
Speaker 3: Up settling on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but he was a kid that got completely overlooked
Speaker 4: out of Charlotte for some reason I've still never quite
Speaker 4: figured out. Still would love to write that story at
Speaker 4: some point. But that being said, for Ainsley, now it
Speaker 4: shows you in NFL circles again, not only the small
Speaker 4: world of it, but just how all these guys run
Speaker 4: on a very similar track. And you know, I think
Speaker 4: back to even the draft night when Michael Prewett. I
Speaker 4: was doing the conference call with Michael Prewett and he
Speaker 4: was talking about his relationship with.
Speaker 1: Sean Sorry, Michael Pratt.
Speaker 4: Michael Pratt, not Jeremy Prewett from Alabama who took Dereck
Speaker 4: Ainsley to Tennessee.
Speaker 3: That's why he's on the back of my.
Speaker 1: Head, is where we all.
Speaker 2: We all get confused the more we try to talk Mike.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I appreciate that I have Jeremy Pruitt's bio
Speaker 4: up right now, but two a days, great show in
Speaker 4: the night in the two thousands. But the point I
Speaker 4: was going to make there was just Michael Pratt. He
Speaker 4: ended up meeting Sean Clifford at a Manning camp, just
Speaker 4: a Manning quarterback camp. That's how they've been on a
Speaker 4: text chain ever since, have built a friendship. They knew
Speaker 4: each other well before he ever got drafted to Green Bay.
Speaker 4: In these worlds, much like if you're in you know,
Speaker 4: doing AAU basketball or any of this stuff, people tend
Speaker 4: to know each other. The exciting thing for Ainsley and
Speaker 4: when I think it is going to be most interesting
Speaker 4: for this secondary is he brings back that Jerry Gray element.
Speaker 4: A guy that's been a defensive coordinator in the league,
Speaker 4: a guy that has had a lot of success as
Speaker 4: a defensive back and a defensive backs coach throughout the
Speaker 4: course of his career, and now getting a chance to
Speaker 4: work with JayR and Xavier McKinney, trying to bring all
Speaker 4: these components together because so for so long, Mike, we
Speaker 4: have talked about how talented these dbs are and how
Speaker 4: much resources the Packers have invested in that position. Ainsley
Speaker 4: is now tasked with trying to get it back up
Speaker 4: to that level again after a very difficult our US
Speaker 4: season last year, a lot of which was brought on
Speaker 4: by injuries, but trying to still find that synergy they
Speaker 4: were looking for. Because Mike, a year ago when you
Speaker 4: and I were doing these talks and we knew JayR
Speaker 4: wasn't at the volunteer stuff, but we still were like, Okay,
Speaker 4: well jyr Alexander, Eric Stokes, you know is coming back,
Speaker 4: Keishawn Nixon, Rasul Douglas. He had all these names. I
Speaker 4: remember thinking like, where is Carenton Valentine going to fit
Speaker 4: into all this?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And then lo and behold, that's what ends up happening.
Speaker 4: So interesting listen to to Ainsley and and also gave
Speaker 4: us the best quote. Maybe someone else is taking credit
Speaker 4: for it, maybe it's I've just never heard of it,
Speaker 4: but him talking about the red line being a perimeter
Speaker 4: cornerback in the National Football League.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't, he didn't, he didn't use he didn't
Speaker 2: directly use the words about a boundary corner being out
Speaker 2: on an island. Yeah, but he I'll let you say it.
Speaker 2: He had a great he had a great line.
Speaker 4: There's no Wi Fi service out there, there's there there's
Speaker 4: no help coming your way. You know, you're living out
Speaker 4: there and having to to react and just be your
Speaker 4: own man. So I just felt like the Packers right
Speaker 4: now with where this thing is headed again getting back
Speaker 4: to the original introduction of our entire show today. But
Speaker 4: they just have so many different coaches, so many different philosophies,
Speaker 4: and a lot of which have connections. And by the way, Mike,
Speaker 4: if you want a connection for Derek Ainsley to the staff,
Speaker 4: he worked with rich Passacia with the Oakland Raiders. So
Speaker 4: there is your other connection to Ainsley.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: And that's how and and that's that's how, you know,
Speaker 2: the references happened. You know somebody, you know, somebody is
Speaker 2: interested in the job, you talk to him. You try
Speaker 2: to talk to other people in the coaching business that
Speaker 2: know him, that have worked with him before. You know.
Speaker 2: That's uh, that's how, that's how all this works, especially
Speaker 2: when you know a guy like a guy like Halfley
Speaker 2: is coming in and needing to needing to build a
Speaker 2: defensive staff. And as you said, he brought a couple
Speaker 2: of guys with him from Boston College. But it wasn't
Speaker 2: quite the same thing like Shiano. Did you know when
Speaker 2: Shiano went to Tampa Bay from Rutgers and he was
Speaker 2: and he was the head coach there and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: and sort of took everybody with him. You know, Halflee didn't.
Speaker 2: That wasn't really an option for Halfley. So he's you know,
Speaker 2: he's pieced it together, he's built this staff, and I
Speaker 2: guess the one thing I would.
Speaker 1: Say is that there's a lot of there's a lot of.
Speaker 2: Genuine excitement amongst these coaches as to there's there's energy
Speaker 2: and excitement as to as to what they're teaching, what
Speaker 2: they're showing the players they have to work with. As
Speaker 2: I said, we'll start talking to the players over the
Speaker 2: next couple of weeks when the locker room opens up
Speaker 2: during OTAs a lot of you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: fun and interesting stuff, and of course, none of it
Speaker 2: matters until the games actually start and we see what
Speaker 2: the results look like in September, October and beyond. But
Speaker 2: there's definitely a lot of energy and excitement within this
Speaker 2: coaching staff, which I think they are trying to pass
Speaker 2: along to the players.
Speaker 4: You know, and you know, the battle is ultimately gonna
Speaker 4: happen in September, but man, you have to have that swagger.
Speaker 4: And I just feel like whether it was Halfley's first
Speaker 4: press conference back in February, or even just listen to
Speaker 4: Anthony Campanelli talk about his family's history and you know,
Speaker 4: and his dad as an Italian American loving Vince Lombardi.
Speaker 4: You know, just just those type of things I feel
Speaker 4: like make coaches relatable, Yeah, fine to us, find to players,
Speaker 4: but find it fans, but mostly to players. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: I think that's where this this whole group has sort
Speaker 4: of checked the biggest box. And again you have to
Speaker 4: ultimately do it out on the grass and we'll see
Speaker 4: how OTA's and mini camps go. But Mike, you and
Speaker 4: I talked about on the last show, there's such an
Speaker 4: incredible opportunity in front of this football team right now.
Speaker 4: And when you have a guy like Jeff Haffley who
Speaker 4: steps down from that head seat at Boston College to
Speaker 4: take over this defense and has a clear vision for
Speaker 4: what he wants to achieve with it, I think you
Speaker 4: can't help but get excited.
Speaker 2: I love that part of Campinelli's story too, where he's
Speaker 2: an Italian American coach in high school football in Jersey,
Speaker 2: just down the road, so to speak, from Saint Cecilia's
Speaker 2: where Vince Lombardi coached, and now Anthony Campinelli's at twelve
Speaker 2: sixty five, Lombardi he's coaching coaching with the Green Bay Pack.
Speaker 4: And like he even said, he was, like, I'd be
Speaker 4: nuts not to be over the moon about this. I mean,
Speaker 4: it just in a football family. His brothers coached, his
Speaker 4: dad coached. I mean, and by the way, you don't
Speaker 4: have to be an NFL coach to be a highly
Speaker 4: successful high school, college.
Speaker 3: Little league coach.
Speaker 4: I mean, if it's in your blood, it's in your blood.
Speaker 4: And certainly Campinelli being able to have that door open
Speaker 4: to him a lot of times, that's all it takes.
Speaker 4: And he certainly gives Halfley a lot of credit for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2: One other thing we'll touch on very quickly before we
Speaker 2: go today. It is official. We have been given word
Speaker 2: the NFL has announced that it is going to announce
Speaker 2: the schedule on Wednesday this week. So we will have
Speaker 2: the schedule on Wednesday the fifteenth, which means on our
Speaker 2: next show later this week, we will talk about the schedule,
Speaker 2: will dissect it, turn it upside down, you know, do
Speaker 2: some origami with the paper. I don't know, but we'll
Speaker 2: we'll have every which way to take a look at
Speaker 2: this thing. At the time we're taping this. The one
Speaker 2: thing that we have found out is the league has
Speaker 2: announced that Thursday night kickoff game. Kind of a no brainer,
Speaker 2: it had, you know that. You know, you have the
Speaker 2: Ravens going to Arrowhead a rematch of the AFC Championship
Speaker 2: which was played in Baltimore last January. Now this rematch,
Speaker 2: which obviously the Chiefs won, will be will be at Arrowhead,
Speaker 2: And I guess I would say the the Chiefs, the
Speaker 2: Chiefs are not gonna want to lose that kickoff game
Speaker 2: two years yeah, on that Thursday night because they lost
Speaker 2: it to the Lions. You know, kind of a big
Speaker 2: deflating thing for your for your home crowd. But of course,
Speaker 2: you know, it ended up not mattering. The Chiefs still
Speaker 2: won the whole thing by the end when it was
Speaker 2: all said and done. But kind of a no brainer
Speaker 2: that that it's the Ravens that Arrowhead to open the
Speaker 2: NFL season, the AFC Championship rematch. Mahomes and Jackson and
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you can say that about Kansas City, You're
Speaker 4: one hundred percent right about that. But my goodness, I mean,
Speaker 4: that's a big moment too for Lamar Jackson because again
Speaker 4: and he can't do anything about the playoffs right now,
Speaker 4: he can't do anything about what happened at the end
Speaker 4: of last season. But you know, starting with a big
Speaker 4: statement I think is gonna be huge for that Baltimore team,
Speaker 4: which by the way, got absolutely gutted when it came
Speaker 4: to the coaching staff changes. I mean when it was
Speaker 4: like everybody in the National Football League if they needed
Speaker 4: a defensive coach or whatever, they just.
Speaker 3: They just took everybody.
Speaker 4: So seeing how they adjust to that, obviously that's a
Speaker 4: credit to John Harbaugh, the organization put they've put together,
Speaker 4: but there have been a lot of changes there this offseason.
Speaker 4: So seeing how they respond to that and see how
Speaker 4: Jackson plays is gonna be big.
Speaker 3: I'll be honest with you, Mike.
Speaker 4: I always dread scheduled day, schedule release day, but I
Speaker 4: actually probably like it better than the drafts because there's
Speaker 4: actually I think you can actually.
Speaker 3: Draw more conclusions from with.
Speaker 4: Than you can the draft when everybody tries to jump
Speaker 4: out and you know make proclamations, which, by the way,
Speaker 4: if you haven't read Cliff's story from last Thursday on
Speaker 4: oh yeah, the Draft, Cliff Cliff still everyone he keeps receipts.
Speaker 3: He keeps every single receipt.
Speaker 4: Just know that.
Speaker 3: So many times we always.
Speaker 1: And if he didn't keep the receipt, he'll find it.
Speaker 4: So many times we're always like, hey, yeah, you know
Speaker 4: those draft grades. We I wonder what the draft grade
Speaker 4: was last year that so and so gave him. No,
Speaker 4: Cliff has it. Cliff's got it, and he's gonna write
Speaker 4: about Actually that was a really good column by him.
Speaker 4: But uh, swinging it back forward to the schedule release.
Speaker 4: So that is the exciting thing because we'll we'll figure
Speaker 4: out a lot of the you know, the vision for
Speaker 4: how the season is going to lay out, and it
Speaker 4: goes beyond the buys, it goes beyond even just how
Speaker 4: it can be something as small as the gold package games,
Speaker 4: right like things like that stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, figure the first two things. The first two things,
Speaker 2: or I should say three things probably that I look
Speaker 2: at that I look at when I see the schedule.
Speaker 2: One is where's the bye week? Where's the bye week placed?
Speaker 1: Two?
Speaker 2: Where in the schedule are the division games? And then
Speaker 2: and then what is that Week eighteen division game?
Speaker 1: Is at home? Is it away?
Speaker 2: Who's it against? Because then you also know what the
Speaker 2: other NFC North matchup is you know, because if the
Speaker 2: Packers are playing the Lions in week eighteen, then you
Speaker 2: know the Vikings are playing the Bears. Those are the
Speaker 2: Those are the three things that I that I that
Speaker 2: that I gravitate toward figure out as soon as I
Speaker 2: get my first glance at it.
Speaker 4: We're one hundred percent getting the full slate of primetime games,
Speaker 4: aren't we.
Speaker 1: You meet you like the maximum or what? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, one hundred percent. And then there's always and
Speaker 2: then there's always a chance that even even when you're
Speaker 2: scheduled for the maximum, that at some point during the
Speaker 2: year you get flexed into another one. Yeah, and but
Speaker 2: yeah with uh And that's the thing is what do
Speaker 2: they as far as the maximum scheduled primetime games on
Speaker 2: the initial schedule, does the does the Brazil game on
Speaker 2: that Friday night? Does that actually count? Or because that's
Speaker 2: an international game, does that sort of not count? And
Speaker 2: so the Packers might end up even with I don't know,
Speaker 2: there was just like there's.
Speaker 4: An example of that already, and then I was like, no,
Speaker 4: that doesn't actually count. Was it the maybe it was? Oh,
Speaker 4: maybe it was because of the Thanksgiving game? If that
Speaker 4: counts as your Thursday night game or whatever. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, it's gonna be really interesting. Fans
Speaker 4: are excited about it. I know it's gonna be a
Speaker 4: rip roaring time. People are gonna be asking questions throughout it,
Speaker 4: but kind of figuring out again. You're not gonna be
Speaker 4: able to predict how these teams are gonna play, and
Speaker 4: everyone's gonna be like, oh, is it a good schedule
Speaker 4: bad schedule? Like you said, it comes down to the buys,
Speaker 4: It comes down to those division games. We'll be really
Speaker 4: interested to see what works out with those Lions games.
Speaker 4: Though I was saying week two, you were saying week eighteen.
Speaker 4: In terms of what we'd prefer, I'm guessing it's one
Speaker 4: or the other, maybe both.
Speaker 1: But it could be both.
Speaker 4: It was last year, right, well it was Week one
Speaker 4: and Week eighteen with Chicago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, who knows?
Speaker 3: Who knows?
Speaker 4: Not this year we're going to Brazil, buddy.
Speaker 2: We will have our hands on that schedule at some
Speaker 2: point on Wednesday, getting all of our content ready on
Speaker 2: packers dot com, and we will also shoot an unscripted
Speaker 2: episode to talk about the schedule and in all sorts
Speaker 2: of different forms and fashions, but for now we will
Speaker 2: call it a rap. On this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 2: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team,
Speaker 2: the draft pick follow up stories. As I said, the
Speaker 2: schedule released this week, we will have all kinds of stuff, written, stuff,
Speaker 2: video stuff with regard to that coming up later this
Speaker 2: week as well. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you
Speaker 2: for tuning in.
Speaker 1: Everybody, We will see you next time.