Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted social
Speaker 1: distancing Style from Packers dot com. I am Mike Spofford,
Speaker 1: joined as always by my trusted colleague west hod Koit's
Speaker 1: coming to you from our homes as we have for
Speaker 1: the past couple of months. Weston, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: My friend? I'm good now I'm depressed. And he said
Speaker 1: they we've been here for the last couple of months.
Speaker 1: I mean, technically that's accurate, but doesn't doesn't make it
Speaker 1: any easier to digest. It doesn't. It doesn't. Well, late
Speaker 1: last week we heard from the Packers three coordinators, defense
Speaker 1: coordinator Mike Petton, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, and Special teams
Speaker 1: coordinator Sean Meninga. They did a media session over zoom
Speaker 1: All a chance to for lots of the Green Day
Speaker 1: med Core to ask some questions, get the updates on
Speaker 1: where they're at with things with the verse you, off
Speaker 1: season program and all of that. Um, I'll just throw
Speaker 1: it out to us. I'll leave it wide open for you.
Speaker 1: What was your biggest takeaway, the strongest impression that anyone
Speaker 1: made as far as what they said to you, Well,
Speaker 1: it was Mike Petton and I think everybody wanted to
Speaker 1: hear what pet had to say, not only coming off
Speaker 1: of last year in the NFC Championship game against the
Speaker 1: San Francisco forty Niners, but just in general with where
Speaker 1: he wants this defense to go now in year three
Speaker 1: and the challenges that he's going to face with this
Speaker 1: truncated offseason, starting off with that NFC title game. First
Speaker 1: and foremost, this is the big thing I think I
Speaker 1: was my takeaway from this. We you cannot just plan
Speaker 1: for one specific game, one specific opponent. It has to
Speaker 1: be a full vision of what you want your defense
Speaker 1: to be. And so when people look at the two
Speaker 1: thousand uh you know it's nineteen NFC championship game in
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Yeah, everyone's gonna look at Well, it didn't
Speaker 1: go so hot for the Packers there the run, defense
Speaker 1: and hold up there were challenges that they faced. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, as much as that
Speaker 1: is the truth, you can't focus on that one performance
Speaker 1: when you build for two thousand twenty because the forty
Speaker 1: Niners are not going to be the same, the NFL
Speaker 1: is not going to be the same. And it goes
Speaker 1: back to something that I wrote about this week in
Speaker 1: an Insider inbox. You remember the two thousand thirteen, two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve thirteen playoff game against the forty Niners when
Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick ran for a ton of yards against Green
Speaker 1: Bay Will it came back in the opener in thirteen
Speaker 1: later that year and he threw for four yards. So
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be a check in a balance, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the one thing that Petton is very
Speaker 1: much in tune with. And he also said when you
Speaker 1: look at this run defense, yeah, there are structural changes
Speaker 1: they need to make, but he still feels like this
Speaker 1: personnel and especially now with Christian Kurtsey coming in an
Speaker 1: inside linebacker, that's gonna give the Green Bay Packers what
Speaker 1: they need in order to to take that next step. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I took away from Petton's comments is,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not going to change what the defense is.
Speaker 1: He's it's not going to be some wholesale change just
Speaker 1: based on one performance. I think he obviously said they
Speaker 1: were lacking in the execution, the effort, the energy, all
Speaker 1: of those kinds of things. It wasn't their day and
Speaker 1: it was their worst performance at the worst possible time.
Speaker 1: But Mike Patton is not going to change who the
Speaker 1: Packers are on defense. He's not suddenly going to make
Speaker 1: the run defense a bunch of two gapping laterally moving
Speaker 1: guys up front. He still wants to attack, he still
Speaker 1: wants to control the line of scrimmage. And I think
Speaker 1: as much as it's on the players that obviously things
Speaker 1: went wrong out there on the field, I think he's
Speaker 1: taking his share of the blame himself in terms of
Speaker 1: not emphasizing the run defense principles that got away from
Speaker 1: them at the end of the season there in in
Speaker 1: the championship games. So he said, hey, this is a performance.
Speaker 1: Everybody has to own it. We can't run from it.
Speaker 1: And he's talking about coaches and players and everybody. But
Speaker 1: as you said, this is not about completely changing the
Speaker 1: defensive identity and changing who you are based on one performance.
Speaker 1: It's about emphasizing things getting buttoned down in certain areas
Speaker 1: that obviously things went wrong at the wrong time. But
Speaker 1: Mike Petton believes in his scheme, he believes in this
Speaker 1: defense and uh and with the players he has coming back,
Speaker 1: and obviously you're swapping out Kirksey for Martinez in the
Speaker 1: middle of it all. But with all the players that
Speaker 1: are coming back, the experience that everybody has gained in
Speaker 1: the system, he has confidence that this defense is going
Speaker 1: to get back to where it was when it was
Speaker 1: peaking in twenty nineteen. Well, he mentioned that too. I mean,
Speaker 1: this defense and this team won fourteen games last year.
Speaker 1: So you don't just throw out the baby with the
Speaker 1: bathwater and just restart. I mean, you got to build
Speaker 1: off of what you did well and improve on where
Speaker 1: you fell short. That's where his main objective is going
Speaker 1: to be, and he laid out some of the preliminary
Speaker 1: plans for that already. He said, you know, you can't
Speaker 1: have Kenny Clark playing of the defensive snaps. You have
Speaker 1: to pick your poison with him. Do you want him
Speaker 1: in there on third downs rushing and going after the passer,
Speaker 1: or do you want him in there every first and
Speaker 1: second down trying to defend the run. When you got
Speaker 1: a guy like Clark that can do so many things, well,
Speaker 1: it's appetizing to just want to put him on the
Speaker 1: field as much as possible. The Packers can't do that.
Speaker 1: They need to be more multiple. He talked about a
Speaker 1: guy like Kingsley Kiki their fifth round pick last year
Speaker 1: out of Texas Tech Texas A and M excuse me.
Speaker 1: He feels like that's a guy that can get into
Speaker 1: that rotation and take some snaps off of Clark and Lowery.
Speaker 1: There is a law of diminishing returns with defensive linemen
Speaker 1: in this league. Clark has still played above that, but
Speaker 1: you need to be able to give those guys rest.
Speaker 1: You have a good transition and a in a rotation
Speaker 1: going right now at outside linebacker, he mentioned, despite the
Speaker 1: fact that they did lose Kyler Facral, he feels like
Speaker 1: this is still the best and the most deep, you know,
Speaker 1: core of outside edge rushers that he's ever had as
Speaker 1: a defensive coordinator in the NFL. He believes Rashawn Gary
Speaker 1: needs to take another step and they want to give
Speaker 1: him the opportunities to do so. And then certainly there's
Speaker 1: a lot to figure out what the secondary yet, who's
Speaker 1: gonna be holding down Nickel corner. But overall, with the
Speaker 1: additions that they made last year and some of the
Speaker 1: improvements that now they want to make this year, that's
Speaker 1: why Patton really does believe that where they stand right
Speaker 1: now can be a championship caliber defense. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: agree with you, I think I think he really wants
Speaker 1: to focus on the fact that he doesn't want Kenny Clark,
Speaker 1: Zadarius Smith, and Preston Smith to all be playing eight
Speaker 1: five roughly percentage of the snaps on defense. He wants
Speaker 1: to share the workload a little bit more. It's a
Speaker 1: long season. Every game itself is a long game, but
Speaker 1: it's a long season, especially if you're trying to make
Speaker 1: a playoff run. So all that factors into the plans
Speaker 1: for and trying to see some young players rise up,
Speaker 1: take on more responsibility, take on larger roles, to lessen
Speaker 1: the burden on some of those veteran guys who really
Speaker 1: carried the load last year. Um Moving on offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Hackett, I think the thing that struck me the most,
Speaker 1: and he's always very entertaining when he talks. He's got,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess, a bubbly personality for for lack
Speaker 1: of a better phrase, off the top of my head,
Speaker 1: but he's very entertaining when he talks. And I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting the question that he answered about the
Speaker 1: Packers being in year two of the offensive system, but
Speaker 1: you know, having to deal with this virtual offseason and
Speaker 1: you could almost see the look on his face as
Speaker 1: though like, oh my gosh, I can't imagine if we
Speaker 1: were trying to do this in year one, you know,
Speaker 1: which there are some teams in the league who were
Speaker 1: doing that, Mike McCarthy with the Cowboys, other head coaches
Speaker 1: who have gotten new jobs and they've had to work
Speaker 1: on trying to implement their systems without getting their guys
Speaker 1: on the field. But coach Hackett is very very glad
Speaker 1: that that the Packers did what they did in year
Speaker 1: one and now they're dealing with the challenges in year
Speaker 1: two as opposed to having to go through that last year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Nathaniel mentioned, I mean he has some friends in
Speaker 1: the teaching profession and he actually reached out to them
Speaker 1: to get some pointers on how they were going to
Speaker 1: be able to do these exercises over zoom overrecorded meetings,
Speaker 1: because he said, you know, so many times you just
Speaker 1: get up and you give your speech. For better or
Speaker 1: for worse, it lives in it, you know, dies in
Speaker 1: that moment. You just move on with your life. Well,
Speaker 1: in this particular case, in those some of those prerecorded
Speaker 1: team meetings that they have, you have to sit there
Speaker 1: and look at yourself and you gotta judge yourself and
Speaker 1: you gotta learn from those experiences. And he said, you know,
Speaker 1: they've talked about trying to find ways to make it
Speaker 1: more interactive and fun for the players. Based on what
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers said last week, it sounds like they've been
Speaker 1: largely successful with that. Certainly, we're gonna get a chance
Speaker 1: here soon enough to talk to some of these other
Speaker 1: players to get their perception of it. But the thing
Speaker 1: I loved about Hackett's response, in addition to the realization
Speaker 1: that if you're a rookie coach right now, man, you're
Speaker 1: really up the creek trying to institute your scheme in
Speaker 1: this environment, but even more than that, it's just his
Speaker 1: overall enthusiasm for this offense and where things could go
Speaker 1: in year two. I think they laid a blueprint last year.
Speaker 1: They didn't check every box. Matt Lafleur has been open
Speaker 1: and honest about that, but they did lay a blueprint
Speaker 1: of where they believe this group can go. Now they
Speaker 1: have a very deep and very versatile backfield that they've built.
Speaker 1: You have a guy like Josiah Degure coming in who
Speaker 1: knows what he could potentially be in this offense, and then,
Speaker 1: by the way, Davante Adams is still the receiver, David
Speaker 1: Baxtr is still your left tackle, Corey Linsley's still your center,
Speaker 1: and obviously Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams are still in
Speaker 1: that equation as well. There are a lot of returning
Speaker 1: pieces for this Packers offense in addition to QB one,
Speaker 1: So all those things put together, you can just kind
Speaker 1: of get a sense for what he feels like this
Speaker 1: upside is going to be for this group, trying to
Speaker 1: build upon some of those principles that they put in place,
Speaker 1: and also looking probably a little bit more like the
Speaker 1: offense that Matt Lafleur and vision is now moving into. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I almost wondered, just because of the limitations of
Speaker 1: the off season and the fact that everything has been
Speaker 1: been virtual to this point, I'm not sure how much
Speaker 1: they're going to be able to implement in terms of
Speaker 1: their changes and the things they want to tweak and
Speaker 1: adjust and everything along the way right now. But I
Speaker 1: think we might see the Packers offense in the season,
Speaker 1: when the actual season gets going, you might see more
Speaker 1: of those adjustments along the way. It may be just
Speaker 1: a more a matter of of spreading them out, so
Speaker 1: to speak, in the calendar in terms of some of
Speaker 1: the changes and where you want to go with some things.
Speaker 1: Just my own speculation there, just because I can't imagine
Speaker 1: you can you can try to implement all of the
Speaker 1: changes you want to make to the playbook in a
Speaker 1: year two of a system when you're not getting the
Speaker 1: players out there to at least, do you know, get
Speaker 1: him together to do walk through eleven on eleven even
Speaker 1: half three quarter speed? Um, you know when that when
Speaker 1: that's not an option. So but definitely a lot of
Speaker 1: optimism for where this offense can go in year two.
Speaker 1: Special teams coordinator Seawan Meninga I wanted to uh touch
Speaker 1: on his comments as well. I think the thing that
Speaker 1: stood out to me about him it is almost the
Speaker 1: relief that he has that he's going into his second
Speaker 1: season as the special teams coordinator knowing who his return
Speaker 1: man is because the Packers did not have a return
Speaker 1: game really on punts or kickoffs until Tyler Irvin showed
Speaker 1: up in December. He became a free agent at the
Speaker 1: end of the season, the Packers re signed him. He
Speaker 1: is back, and I think coach Meninge is very, very
Speaker 1: happy that he's heading into knowing who his return man
Speaker 1: is on punts and kickoffs well, and just the overall
Speaker 1: stability right stuff. I mean, you got Mason Crosby back.
Speaker 1: That would have been a huge hole if the Packers
Speaker 1: were unable to resign him, especially with how excuse me this.
Speaker 1: You look and see how this league has been with
Speaker 1: the kicking position here the last two seasons. When you
Speaker 1: have a good one, you want to keep them. But
Speaker 1: Crosby has been in this position before. They drafted J. K. Scott,
Speaker 1: you drafted Hunter Bradley. You expect those specialists to be
Speaker 1: able to be the players that you want them to be.
Speaker 1: And then you got a guy like Tyler Irvin who
Speaker 1: basically came out of nowhere last year to rescue those
Speaker 1: return units. And Matt Lafleour Brian Goodcuins. They both discussed
Speaker 1: it even before free agency began. The Packers wanted to
Speaker 1: find a way to bring back Irvin and they did.
Speaker 1: And now you've got a dynamic playmaker that could potentially
Speaker 1: help you in that backfield situation, but more than anything,
Speaker 1: gives you a two way kickoff and punt return. I
Speaker 1: think there's something to be said for that. Mike. In
Speaker 1: this league, it's becoming increasingly specialized. You can be a
Speaker 1: kickoff returner, you can be a punt turner, but you
Speaker 1: don't always play both of those units. Mica Hyde was
Speaker 1: a phenomenal punt returner, wasn't really used that much on
Speaker 1: kickoff returns. Jeff Janice solid kickoff returner, didn't really handle
Speaker 1: punts that often. To have a guy like Irvin that
Speaker 1: can do both and be explosive in both different facets
Speaker 1: of a play that is much different on different sides
Speaker 1: of the spectrum, that's a real fine for the green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers. And just to be able to have that confidence,
Speaker 1: you've got to kind of remember what life was like
Speaker 1: for Green Bay in October and just the uncertainty every
Speaker 1: time fourth down came and and not really knowing, Okay,
Speaker 1: one are you gonna be able to get any yards?
Speaker 1: And two are you gonna be able to maintain possession
Speaker 1: of the ball? Tyler? Irvin alleviated all of that. So
Speaker 1: to to get him back in the fold. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be nationally a huge thing that's going to register
Speaker 1: on everybody's radar, but especially with an offseason where you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to learn a lot about what
Speaker 1: these returns, you know, these receivers and running backs can
Speaker 1: do a returners. There's a real benefit to having a
Speaker 1: guy like Tyler Irvan back in the fold and giving
Speaker 1: Sean Menninger after last year having so many question smarks,
Speaker 1: getting to know his special teams unit for the first time,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a security blanket there, and knowing
Speaker 1: what Irvin is capable of. Yeah, and just to recap
Speaker 1: the statistics quickly. When Irvin stepped in as the Packers
Speaker 1: pump returner in December for the season, the Packers had
Speaker 1: negative pump return yards, and then over the final month
Speaker 1: he averaged nine point six yards per pump return on
Speaker 1: eleven returns, which was really really impressive. And then on
Speaker 1: kickoffs he had a forty five yard kickoff return in
Speaker 1: one game, which was the Packers longest kickoff return since
Speaker 1: Jeff Janis had a forty seven yard in twenty So
Speaker 1: it's not overstating it to say that he really sparked
Speaker 1: and saved the Packers return units in twenty nineteen. All Right,
Speaker 1: we's a couple of other things we want to touch
Speaker 1: on today. Story that uh I posted yesterday on the website.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while, you and I get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to tell the story of an undrafted rookie that
Speaker 1: the packers bring in and sort of tell his long
Speaker 1: shots story of how he, you know, is taking this
Speaker 1: this tough road to try to land a roster spot
Speaker 1: with the Green Bay Packers and Mark Antoine decoy. Hopefully
Speaker 1: I'm saying that correctly. I've had to spel it while
Speaker 1: I've been writing it. But um, he is a twenty
Speaker 1: five year old Canadian rookie. And I tell you, Wes,
Speaker 1: you and I have both been doing this for a
Speaker 1: long time. Every once in a while, you dig into
Speaker 1: a story a little bit, you get to you, you
Speaker 1: find out about somebody, you get a chance to talk
Speaker 1: to him. And this is a story that just that
Speaker 1: just captivates me from so many angles because it's such
Speaker 1: an improbable, unlikely story that and I don't even know
Speaker 1: if I can recap it all here. But three of
Speaker 1: his first four years out of high school he didn't
Speaker 1: play any football. Then when he does return to the
Speaker 1: game of football, he ends up becoming one of the
Speaker 1: more decorated players in the Canadian college game. He gets
Speaker 1: a very prestigious for the on the Canadian side, gets
Speaker 1: a prestigious invite to a college All Star game in
Speaker 1: the US. They only hand out two of those two
Speaker 1: Canadian players. He goes to the East West Shrine game.
Speaker 1: He's practicing all week with a cast on a broken
Speaker 1: forearm because he had broken his forearm in the Canadian
Speaker 1: National Championship game playing for his his Montreal University of
Speaker 1: Montreal team, So he practices all week with a cast
Speaker 1: on his broken forearm. They don't let him play in
Speaker 1: the actual East West Shrine game. He goes back to
Speaker 1: Canada and ends up having a pro day to try
Speaker 1: to get some more attention from NFL scouts. He's only
Speaker 1: the second player in the history of his school to
Speaker 1: even have a pro day. He actually he has like
Speaker 1: not coronavirus, but some sort of bronchitis or respiratory flu
Speaker 1: type of thing, and he runs a four three five
Speaker 1: on his pro day. So suddenly this generates, you know,
Speaker 1: a certain amount of entryist and the Packers end up
Speaker 1: landing him as an undrafted rookie um following the draft,
Speaker 1: and now he's part of the virtual offseason program. He's
Speaker 1: in Canada. He's still working out, communicating by a computer,
Speaker 1: just like you and I are doing with his teammates
Speaker 1: and coaches and all that. And this guy is gonna
Speaker 1: try twenty five year old rookie from Canada is gonna
Speaker 1: try to make the Green Bay Packers roster. I just
Speaker 1: think it's fascinating. Yeah, it was a phenomenal story that
Speaker 1: he has personally. I thought you told it exceptionally well
Speaker 1: in the story, the written story of the thing. I
Speaker 1: love about it too, And I told you about this
Speaker 1: the moment I read the story. His line about on
Speaker 1: the underdog of underdogs, it really spoke to me because
Speaker 1: we do tell a lot of these stories. His reminded
Speaker 1: me the most of Taysom Hill, if I can use
Speaker 1: that expression. You know, out of these last five years
Speaker 1: that we've been doing these, I've been doing these with you.
Speaker 1: You know, Hill was a twenty seven year old rookie
Speaker 1: or whatever that number was where he has mission and
Speaker 1: then he got hurt and he kept, you know, having
Speaker 1: to get delayed, and it was just that type of
Speaker 1: adversity in the response to it. This is a young
Speaker 1: man's game him, no question about it. You there's a
Speaker 1: reason why we talked about Jonathan Garvin the way we
Speaker 1: do at twenty, and we talked about, you know, Kenny
Speaker 1: Clark the way we did when he entered the league
Speaker 1: at twenty. But every once in a while, you get
Speaker 1: these guys that are in their mid twenties or and
Speaker 1: wasn't Taysom Hill's case, late twenties that become real interesting
Speaker 1: NFL prospects, and Decoy fits all of those measurables. It's
Speaker 1: not that he just was a tall defensive back six
Speaker 1: ft three pounds. No, it's that he ran a three
Speaker 1: four three five forty times. It's that, you know, he
Speaker 1: had ball hawking abilities that he showed at that level.
Speaker 1: And I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times.
Speaker 1: It's something I believe. Elliott Wolfe was the one that
Speaker 1: said this. I know a lot of gms and personnel
Speaker 1: executives go towards this. If you're competing at a level
Speaker 1: of football that is not you know, the SEC or
Speaker 1: the Big ten. What what scouts want to see from
Speaker 1: you is dominance. They want to see, you know, spouts
Speaker 1: of greatness. It's the reason why they went and signed
Speaker 1: Reggie Beagleton. Now that the receiver out of Calgary from
Speaker 1: the CFL, and now he'sn't gonna be in camp with
Speaker 1: them in decoite fits that mantra. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: just stood out amongst his peers. And then, by the way,
Speaker 1: it's not like he was supposed to be this absolute stud.
Speaker 1: He went back to football and he became a really
Speaker 1: good football player. Now we're gonna have to see exactly
Speaker 1: how this summer plays out. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: travel restrictions, if if players do come in where he's
Speaker 1: gonna be at with Canada. But all that being said,
Speaker 1: you can tell the Packers really like this guy, and
Speaker 1: this is someone that they're not just looking at as
Speaker 1: a camp body. This is a guy that really they
Speaker 1: could develop. He might take time, he might be raw,
Speaker 1: but man, when you see the measurables and you see
Speaker 1: his production and how he did it in the circumstances
Speaker 1: under which he performed, my goodness, Mike, he has everything
Speaker 1: you look for in a really good undrafted free agent PROCECT. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's worth pointing out a couple of other numbers.
Speaker 1: To one, he was actually chosen overall in the CFL draft.
Speaker 1: So this is a this is a guy that that
Speaker 1: the Canadian Football League certainly had their eye on. He's
Speaker 1: a very high pick in that draft, but he's focusing
Speaker 1: on trying to make it in the NFL first and foremost.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is, over his last three seasons
Speaker 1: at the University of Montreal West, he intercepted, including playoff games,
Speaker 1: he intercepted twelve passes. He took half of those to
Speaker 1: the house six pick six is out of his twelve interceptions.
Speaker 1: I mean, statistically, it's it's it's almost mind boggling. But
Speaker 1: whichever part of the story of his you want to
Speaker 1: latch onto, there are a lot of different intriguing points
Speaker 1: of entry, so to speak to this story, I just
Speaker 1: think it's a it's a really fun one. You want
Speaker 1: to check outut on the website that I'm sure there
Speaker 1: are some more details in there that that I wasn't
Speaker 1: able to recap it, and please do check it out.
Speaker 1: And one other thing I want to mention too, that's
Speaker 1: gonna work towards Mark Antoine's benefit here. Uh, you wrote
Speaker 1: in there one of my good friends, and I don't
Speaker 1: often say that about pro athletes, but a guy I
Speaker 1: considered a good friend, Andy Milumba, he actually reached out
Speaker 1: to him. Milomba from that area in Montreal where his
Speaker 1: family came from and immigrated to and got a little
Speaker 1: bit of a field for Green Bay and what to
Speaker 1: expect in the NFL. The one advantage that Mark Antoine
Speaker 1: has though that Andy didn't. Andy had to learn English.
Speaker 1: He went to Eastern Michigan having to learn the English language.
Speaker 1: De Quoi has done that. It's maybe not perfect, but
Speaker 1: as a bilingual speaker, I mean that's gonna make his
Speaker 1: development process so much easier to being able to have
Speaker 1: that level of communication. Yeah, he is a native French speaker,
Speaker 1: but his English, his English is quite good. And I
Speaker 1: having the phone interview, phone conversation with him, you know,
Speaker 1: was certainly wasn't a struggle in that respect. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I think in that in that area he'll he'll get
Speaker 1: along just fine. Okay, Wes one more thing before we go.
Speaker 1: It sounds like and it could be as soon as
Speaker 1: Today's not long after uh this episode. Post to our
Speaker 1: website that the NFL owners are potentially voting on a
Speaker 1: radical change to the on side kick, providing potentially providing
Speaker 1: teams an option of a fourth and fifteen play from
Speaker 1: their own twenty five yard line in lieu of an
Speaker 1: on site kick to try to keep possession of the
Speaker 1: ball after a score. UM, I think you and I
Speaker 1: are both in agreement on this. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I don't think you like it either. UM, we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. I'm not overly confident that it's going to pass,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like it is coming up for vote,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens. Well, and we'll see what
Speaker 1: happens on Thursday with this, um when the league ownership
Speaker 1: in their virtual meeting is going to take a real
Speaker 1: look at this. It did get shot down last year.
Speaker 1: It does sound like it has more momentum now though.
Speaker 1: So there are two things that are playing play with here.
Speaker 1: Because we'll discuss if this gets enacted next week. I'm
Speaker 1: sure we'll be doing a portion of our show actually
Speaker 1: debating the merits of this. But what ultimately is that
Speaker 1: play is the rule changes that they made with the
Speaker 1: kickoffs two years ago, with having even sides not allowing
Speaker 1: teams to overload, it wiped out really the traditional on
Speaker 1: side kick attempt. You saw percentages go from about success
Speaker 1: rate in two thousand seventeen to only about seven and
Speaker 1: a half percent if you take out what Atlantic kicker. Um,
Speaker 1: I believe it's you, you Coup, I forget his name.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but thanks. I tried though, right, I actually
Speaker 1: went for it. But that trick shot kicker that Atlanta
Speaker 1: had that made three in one game last year. If
Speaker 1: you take out that, it was only eight of a
Speaker 1: hundred and six attempts the last two years. It's just
Speaker 1: become so difficult the league ownership and also the competition
Speaker 1: committee of trying to find ways to make that play,
Speaker 1: obviously staying with the idea of player safety, but also
Speaker 1: make it more exciting. I have pretty strong feelings on this.
Speaker 1: My personal thought is it's a special teams play. I
Speaker 1: don't know why you want to pull the offense and
Speaker 1: defense into it. Special teams has had so much ripped
Speaker 1: from it over the last ten years. Give it something.
Speaker 1: Let's innovate on that play. But that being said, what
Speaker 1: would happen is a fourth and fifteen play from the
Speaker 1: team's own twenty five yard line, an option that they
Speaker 1: could enact twice a game. Doesn't matter if they're trailing
Speaker 1: or not. But obviously, if you don't get the first
Speaker 1: down the opposing team picks up at the spot of
Speaker 1: the ball, it percentages wise, the competition can he says,
Speaker 1: it's comparable. I still wonder if they're factoring in the
Speaker 1: chances and probability of a penalty on that play. There's
Speaker 1: a lot bigger chance for a penalty on an offensive
Speaker 1: and defensive possession then there is on an on side kick.
Speaker 1: A lot of times end up swallowing the whistle on
Speaker 1: an on site kick unless it's an off side. So
Speaker 1: we're going to see what the Competition Committee has to
Speaker 1: say about this, but it's a very interesting measure. The
Speaker 1: league is taking a hard look at trying to create
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more of an opening on that
Speaker 1: play for teams to potentially get the ball back late. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think this is going to be interesting to see
Speaker 1: what happens. And we're running up against the clock here today.
Speaker 1: But as you said, if this does become a new
Speaker 1: rule in the NFL, we can certainly continue. Yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: continue the discussion another time, but for now we will
Speaker 1: call it a wrap in this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team here through the virtual offseason program on Packers dot com.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. Tuning in, everybody for West
Speaker 1: I Am Mike, take care, We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: H m hm