Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to this season ending edition of Packers
Speaker 1: Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined
Speaker 1: as always by my trusted colleague Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you hear from our studios at lambeau Field, and
Speaker 1: this will be our last episode of the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five season. We're gonna wrap it up here and take
Speaker 1: a break so Wes and I can kind of get
Speaker 1: out of the office here and there over the next
Speaker 1: couple months. I'm sure we'll be back, you know, sometime
Speaker 1: before the Draft, leading into all the excitement that will
Speaker 1: surround that. But Wes, before I get into some kind
Speaker 1: of season ending topics, i'd like to run past you
Speaker 1: just want to ask if there was anything because we
Speaker 1: covered a lot of ground in our last episode, anything
Speaker 1: from the game, from the Final Locker Room interviews on Monday,
Speaker 1: anything that we didn't get to on our last show
Speaker 1: that you want to touch on.
Speaker 2: I loved you ask me this because here's the thing.
Speaker 2: The Final Locker Room is always sort of the epitaph
Speaker 2: right to the season, and a lot of times it
Speaker 2: ends up just being a couple guys that maybe you
Speaker 2: thought you're going to talk to. Maybe you didn't think
Speaker 2: you're going to talk to and I'd only I'm trying
Speaker 2: to not use the word stragglers here in terms of
Speaker 2: the people that are traversing the locker room on that day.
Speaker 2: But it's a hit or misproposition. Yeah, you and I
Speaker 2: have said this to each other, We've said this to
Speaker 2: pretty much every coworker that was willing to listen. I
Speaker 2: was blown away by the Packers' final locker room on
Speaker 2: Monday morning. That was the most people that have ever spoken,
Speaker 2: That is the most amount of players who were injured,
Speaker 2: that provided clarity on their situations and what they're dealing with,
Speaker 2: what they dealt with, what the offseason is going to
Speaker 2: look like for them. There was a time about midway
Speaker 2: through that locker room where I was I was perfectly
Speaker 2: content with Zach Tom speaking, Nate Hobbs speaking, and I thought, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: these will be some of the stories we'll talk about
Speaker 2: this week. But then in came Micah Parsons, In came
Speaker 2: DeVante Wyatt, In came Tucker Craft, and in Wyatt's case
Speaker 2: and in parsons case, both of these guys crutches. You know,
Speaker 2: the bikes that you use to keep how you know,
Speaker 2: you know, wad off your feet.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was really inspired by those guys doing that because
Speaker 2: they didn't have to do that. There's been so many
Speaker 2: times where guys suffer season ending injuries, Mike and we
Speaker 2: won't talk to them again, maybe during the off season program,
Speaker 2: possibly in some cases training camp. Right, none of these
Speaker 2: guys had to speak to the media on Monday, but
Speaker 2: they felt it necessary, and the message that specifically Micah
Speaker 2: Parsons and Tucker Craft drove home, I feel was really
Speaker 2: important because, yeah, you hope everything gets settled. At the
Speaker 2: time in which we're taping this, we still don't know
Speaker 2: what's exactly happening with the head coach position, the rest
Speaker 2: of the coaching staff, what the moves are going to
Speaker 2: be for the paswers here moving forward. But Kraft talked
Speaker 2: about in addition to the importance that Matt Lafleur has
Speaker 2: and the job he's done here in Green Bay, but
Speaker 2: also just the expectations he has for himself in this
Speaker 2: football team. Micah Parson's talking about how he has just
Speaker 2: attacked his rehab here in these opening weeks and the
Speaker 2: motivation that he feels now wanting to be a leader
Speaker 2: for this football team, wanting to be the player that
Speaker 2: the Packers brought him in to be in, the player
Speaker 2: that the city of Green Bay and the surrounding communities
Speaker 2: have embraced him. As that was, I felt like that
Speaker 2: final locker room sent a message. It sent a message
Speaker 2: of hope, It sent a message of potential and also
Speaker 2: a feeling everyone always talks about, Oh, you want to
Speaker 2: move on and you don't want it to be like this,
Speaker 2: and we're going to do better next year, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to use this to feel meat. There was almost
Speaker 2: a little bit more vigor. I feel like within that conversation.
Speaker 1: I think that's why I used the word. I think
Speaker 1: I used it on our last show, and I used
Speaker 1: it in what I wrote. The word that I came
Speaker 1: out of that final locker room with was resolve, because
Speaker 1: it wasn't just the as you said, It wasn't just
Speaker 1: the kind of the the cliched overused lines of you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use this to motivate me. Et Cetera said,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, that was all there. And the guys
Speaker 1: who said that, I mean, are you know, are certainly genuine.
Speaker 1: Everybody has their own personalities, but there was a different
Speaker 1: feel to that in you know, and I'm not really
Speaker 1: finding the right words for it right now, but I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna say it. It was sort of like the
Speaker 1: message from that locker room was, Yeah, this sucks, but
Speaker 1: everything's gonna be okay. That's that's really what it felt like.
Speaker 1: I mean, nobody was happy with how the season ended.
Speaker 1: Nobody was trying to, you know, to make that look
Speaker 1: or feel any better than it was. But as far
Speaker 1: as looking to the future, it's like, every everything's gonna
Speaker 1: be all right like this, you know, things things will
Speaker 1: be okay here and uh and yeah, there's going to
Speaker 1: be there's going to be some some determination, some resolve
Speaker 1: to to not be in that situation again and to
Speaker 1: not be talking about a playoff game that you have
Speaker 1: in your grasp that gets away, and then that's how
Speaker 1: the season ends. So, as you said, at the time
Speaker 1: that we're taping this, there hasn't really been any updates
Speaker 1: as far as the coaching thing. All we know is
Speaker 1: that the Packers are still working on a contract with
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur, Jeff Hafley is out interviewing for jobs. We
Speaker 1: even heard that DeMarcus Covington the defensive line coach has
Speaker 1: been requested by the Cowboys for their defensive coordinator opening
Speaker 1: after they moved on for Matt Eberflus.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot.
Speaker 1: There's still a lot going on, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into all that because by the time this
Speaker 1: actually posts and some people are listening to it watching
Speaker 1: to it, all the news could potentially change. I do
Speaker 1: have a handful of questions for you, though, that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw at you, as far as this being our
Speaker 1: season ending episode, and you can take this first one,
Speaker 1: you can take it in any direction you want to.
Speaker 1: But the question is what was your favorite moment from
Speaker 1: the two season.
Speaker 2: Everything surrounding the Detroit Lions game. It's probably also the
Speaker 2: first time my glasses have ever been off on after
Speaker 2: unscripted in ten seasons. I couldn't handle it anymore. Detroit
Speaker 2: was so much fun. There were so many layers to
Speaker 2: that game. Micah Parsons two and a half sacks, he
Speaker 2: gets over the twelve sack mark on the season, so
Speaker 2: that actually gave him that record of since nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: two when it became an official statistic, the first player
Speaker 2: in NFL history forty years over forty years of statistics.
Speaker 2: First guy to have twelve plus sacks in each of
Speaker 2: his first five seasons kind of laid the foundation for
Speaker 2: that All Pro year.
Speaker 3: But then the way that Jordan.
Speaker 2: Loved Dontavian Wicks, the way that guys played down the stretch.
Speaker 2: You and I felt that energy inside Ford Field. How
Speaker 2: difficult it has become to play in Detroit, specifically on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 2: a day that's always been the Lions holiday. But now
Speaker 2: coming off the fifteen wins, coming off the NFC Championship appearances,
Speaker 2: they're on a different level. Now, those fans are energized
Speaker 2: to a different level.
Speaker 1: And Hell's Bells on third down hits a little different
Speaker 1: in that building than it did a few years ago,
Speaker 1: doesn't It.
Speaker 2: Sure does, especially in the second half of competitive football games.
Speaker 2: So I felt like that was was amazing. You really
Speaker 2: could pick out any moment from Micah Parsons season, even
Speaker 2: the chase down sack of Jared Goff in the opener
Speaker 2: against Detroit was a big moment. But I think when
Speaker 2: we talk about the Packers making the playoffs, that was
Speaker 2: such an important day on Thanksgiving and for green Bay
Speaker 2: to take the power back, and yes, there's going to
Speaker 2: be a major rivalry now with Chicago would not surprise
Speaker 2: me at all if they open against the Bears in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. But I felt like the Packers being
Speaker 2: able to avenge their recent losses to Detroit, being able
Speaker 2: to win there and also win in the opener that
Speaker 2: ultimately was what kind of set the tone for Green Bay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are those are some good choices for me.
Speaker 1: And this is kind of odd, which is why I
Speaker 1: gave maybe the opportunity to take it anyway, any which
Speaker 1: way you wanted to. My favorite moment of the year,
Speaker 1: of the season was turning on my phone after the
Speaker 1: flight I was on landed in Washington, d C. Because
Speaker 1: I was taking my daughter on a grad school perspective visit.
Speaker 1: Turning my phone back on and seeing that the Packers
Speaker 1: are traded for Micah Parsons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's my least favorite moment because.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you were you were left here by your
Speaker 1: lonesome to deal with it because I was gone for
Speaker 1: a few days. But but one, there was so much
Speaker 1: excitement about it, obviously, But the other thing is too
Speaker 1: is it just took me back to and for those
Speaker 1: who don't know the story, there is a in my
Speaker 1: twenty seasons of covering this team. There is a long
Speaker 1: list of major, major things that have happened when I
Speaker 1: have been out of the office, when I've been out
Speaker 1: of town, on vacation, whatever the case might be, and
Speaker 1: all it Actually it goes back to the summer of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight when I was at cub Scout
Speaker 1: camp with my son and a message while I'm out
Speaker 1: in a big field playing Capture the Flag with a
Speaker 1: bunch of cub Scouts and a message comes on my BlackBerry,
Speaker 1: I might add, which is what we had back then,
Speaker 1: that Brett Favre had decided to apply for reinstatement with
Speaker 1: the Commissioner's Office and come out of retirement, which, of
Speaker 1: course then just you know, set off everything. So this
Speaker 1: whole thing of me always being gone when something big happens,
Speaker 1: it started then. And it includes when the Packers signed
Speaker 1: Julius Peppers in twenty fourteen and I was in Florida,
Speaker 1: and when they traded DeVante Adams in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: and I was out of town, and there are a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of other things in between. But anyway, like
Speaker 1: that moment just brought me back to oh yeah, here
Speaker 1: it is Packers are doing something huge and I'm not there.
Speaker 1: I happen to be out of town again.
Speaker 2: The weird thing about the Parsons, and obviously I say
Speaker 2: this in Jess, I hope that doesn't get taken out
Speaker 2: of context in terms of it was very exciting to
Speaker 2: get Micah Parsons, although it was you know, was tough
Speaker 2: that the lost Kenny in that trade.
Speaker 1: But yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: But what was funny about the Parsons One that I dude,
Speaker 2: it's gonna go down as an all timer because Davante
Speaker 2: there were a lot of rumblings to that point that
Speaker 2: there might be a trade. You know, they're tagging them,
Speaker 2: you know, possibly moving them. Maybe he wants to go
Speaker 2: back to the Raiders, maybe he wants to go closer
Speaker 2: to the West Coast. Obviously reunite with Derek Carr. And
Speaker 2: while there were some rumblings about Micah, none of it
Speaker 2: felt real.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember doing an interview with Matt Rammage a week
Speaker 2: before the trade actually happened, and I'm like, it wasn't
Speaker 2: that the Packers didn't want him. They obviously want him.
Speaker 2: Everybody wants him, But how the Dallas Cowboys would let
Speaker 2: him go a guy that he's not thirty two, he
Speaker 2: doesn't have his best years beyond. The guy's twenty six
Speaker 2: years old. He hasn't even signed his second contract yet. Right,
Speaker 2: he's on this Hall of Fame trajectory? Are the Dallas
Speaker 2: Cowboys really going to let him out of their grasp?
Speaker 2: And it wasn't like there was a public bidding war.
Speaker 2: It was the Packers might be interested. And the Packers
Speaker 2: have traded for Micah Parsons. Yeah, And while you were
Speaker 2: getting off the plane, I'm sitting there on the club
Speaker 2: level of lambeau Field at a Mark Murphy Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame press conference, and I will never forget that moment
Speaker 2: where Market's done with his just opening statement and John
Speaker 2: Miller from WGBA is behind me and goes, Mark, we
Speaker 2: just received word here that the Packers have traded for
Speaker 2: Micah Parsons. You know basically what your reaction is that?
Speaker 2: And I'm sitting here staring at Mark, and I hear
Speaker 2: John's voice in the back of my head, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, this is not real, this is wild.
Speaker 2: And Mark gave a good answer about, well, you know,
Speaker 2: that's not my decision anymore, that's other people's, But that
Speaker 2: that whole weekend was a fever dream. But I'll bring
Speaker 2: it all around by saying this, Parsons ends up coming out.
Speaker 2: He has an amazing press conference with everybody, and I
Speaker 2: thought that also up until the last.
Speaker 3: One of the season.
Speaker 2: I mean just the the amount of discourse we had
Speaker 2: with him. Yeah, and for him to be the player
Speaker 2: that he ended up being for the Packers the season.
Speaker 2: When you talk about the reasons for a bright spot here,
Speaker 2: I think there are three staples. Honestly, I think there
Speaker 2: are three staples right now with this football team, with
Speaker 2: Jordan Love becoming the player that he's become, Micah Parsons
Speaker 2: looks like one of, if not the best defensive all
Speaker 2: around football player right now. And then, honestly, I really
Speaker 2: do throw Tucker Craft into that. I wrote about an
Speaker 2: insider Inbox today, the treck that he was on. He's
Speaker 2: on pace for a thousand yard season, double digit touchdowns.
Speaker 2: He was bringing a dimension of this Packers offense that
Speaker 2: I'd never seen before. I didn't cover, you know, Paul Kaufman,
Speaker 2: so like to have all these type of things come
Speaker 2: together a very solid foundation for the green Bait Packers.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I enjoyed just getting to know Micah Parsons a
Speaker 1: little bit as a player and a person over the
Speaker 1: course of the twelve plus thirteen games. However many it
Speaker 1: was that he ended up playing, and I look forward
Speaker 1: to more years with him in Green Bay. Question number two,
Speaker 1: play of the year in your mind?
Speaker 3: Oh, there's so many good ones here to pick from.
Speaker 1: I can go first if you want to think a
Speaker 1: little bit, Yeah, why don't you? Okay, had I had
Speaker 1: two options here. One is right out of what you
Speaker 1: said with regard to my last question Detroit on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: Dontavian Wicks catching that fourth down pass with his shoe
Speaker 1: coming off and the whole thing to seal that game
Speaker 1: in Detroit. I know both you and I were sitting
Speaker 1: up there in the press box at Ford Field not
Speaker 1: even thinking the Packers were actually going to snap the
Speaker 1: ball that it was just kind of it was kind
Speaker 1: of a ruse. And and okay, if they don't get
Speaker 1: him to, you know, jump off sides, you take the
Speaker 1: delay game, you punt the ball and and the defense
Speaker 1: is gonna have to close it out. And then they
Speaker 1: snapped the ball, and then Love gave Wix a chance
Speaker 1: to make the play one on one against Brian branch
Speaker 1: and he loses his shoe when he jumps up and
Speaker 1: he makes the catch, and it was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: they just won the game. Like it was boom, like
Speaker 1: there the game was over. So that's one. The other
Speaker 1: one for me is Keishawn Nixon's interception to seal the
Speaker 1: win against the Bears at lambeau Field. I never would
Speaker 1: have thought in a million years that that was the
Speaker 1: last victory we were going to write about and talk
Speaker 1: about on the season, but that was a big moment
Speaker 1: and it put the Packers in first place in the
Speaker 1: NFC North and things were pointed in a certain direction.
Speaker 1: And then the following week is obviously when Michael Parsons
Speaker 1: went down with the injury and then everything changed for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. But those are the ones
Speaker 1: at the top of my list.
Speaker 3: Yeah, those are good picks.
Speaker 2: I think I'm pretty much torn between two, and I'm
Speaker 2: just sticking on offensive side of the football.
Speaker 3: The Tucker Craft fifty.
Speaker 2: Nine yard touchdown is always going to kind of stick
Speaker 2: out to me a little bit, just because he was rumbling, bumbling,
Speaker 2: stumbling to everybody, and I thought it really demonstrated just
Speaker 2: the type of player he is and when he is
Speaker 2: in the open field. How difficult he is the tackle.
Speaker 2: He's almost like a running back out there, right. It's
Speaker 2: not just like he catches the ball and he goes down.
Speaker 2: I mean, this guy's going to make a play happen. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I wish I honestly, I would love to say
Speaker 2: that the Romeo Dobbs one handed catch against Chicago, because
Speaker 2: that was just I don't I still this day, don't
Speaker 2: you know, days later, I don't know how rome caught that.
Speaker 3: But obviously the phenomenal catch game.
Speaker 2: And then the other one is just the leaping Christian
Speaker 2: Watson catch in New York. That Christian Watson, to me,
Speaker 2: that was the I'm.
Speaker 1: Hit one in the yeah, for the go ahead touchdown and.
Speaker 2: He's double covered. He's six foot four and he's using
Speaker 2: every single inch of his body to make that catch.
Speaker 2: I mean, Christian Watson. The ultimate tragedy of the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five Packer season is for the other than what
Speaker 2: two quarters we did not get to see Christian Watson
Speaker 2: and Tucker Craft on the field together. Yep, Tucker was
Speaker 2: there the first eight, Christian was there for the last nine,
Speaker 2: and it just or last ten and it just you
Speaker 2: know you would have loved to see them all together.
Speaker 2: But in New York Wild game, you know, Jordan JAMS's
Speaker 2: shoulder and you know Malik does some crazy stuff, I mean,
Speaker 2: just weird stuff happened all over it and it ends
Speaker 2: up being a down to the wire football game with
Speaker 2: the team that ultimately ended up, you know, being right
Speaker 2: up at the top here for the number one pick.
Speaker 1: And yeah, because Jameis Winston kept throwing the ball to
Speaker 1: the Packers and the defenders couldn't catch it until Evan
Speaker 1: Williams finally caught the one at the end in the
Speaker 1: end zone to get the I N T for the win.
Speaker 2: In Green Bay finally ended up seeing the door. But
Speaker 2: the Christian Watson one. I just think, when I think
Speaker 2: of the most beautiful plays, if that if that's going
Speaker 2: to be like the litmus test I use for my
Speaker 2: favorite play of the year. That was just that's something
Speaker 2: you'd put on a poster, the way that that play unfolding.
Speaker 1: All right, I got two more for you, all right,
Speaker 1: one word to describe this season when you reflect on it.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a good one, Michael.
Speaker 1: And I can go first again because I'm the one
Speaker 1: who got to prepare for this and I'm throwing I'm
Speaker 1: putting you on the spot.
Speaker 2: No, but you gave me, you gave me some breath
Speaker 2: on the last one. I'm trying to think of something
Speaker 2: that's not overly emotional but also somewhat honest, well, definitely honest,
Speaker 2: but somewhat apropos of where things were. I think the
Speaker 2: word I would use is close in both variants of
Speaker 2: the word right, where they were so close in so
Speaker 2: many instances to being I think the team that we
Speaker 2: all were talking about the first two weeks of the
Speaker 2: season right, and even with all the injuries that they
Speaker 2: dealt with, the Packers still didn't. With a few exceptions,
Speaker 2: maybe two exceptions where they really truly just got beat.
Speaker 2: There wasn't those type of performances. Everything was close. And
Speaker 2: obviously the finish piece comes back to that. It's been
Speaker 2: the buzzword all week long, need to finish more. I
Speaker 2: somewhat laugh at it because the conversation down in Chicago
Speaker 2: all week is they need to start faster, and Green
Speaker 2: Bay is talking about need to finish more. But ultimately,
Speaker 2: if you have those two things, it is going to
Speaker 2: come back to how do you finish football games? And
Speaker 2: for the Packers to be as good as they were
Speaker 2: this season, as talented they were, and Mike the trade happens,
Speaker 2: and obviously he goes down, Craft goes down. Why it
Speaker 2: goes down, Elton goes down. All these guys go out
Speaker 2: with some pretty big injuries. It just never quite ended
Speaker 2: up being the season I think all of us thought
Speaker 2: that it could be.
Speaker 3: And this is what happens.
Speaker 2: This is how in the National Football League when there's
Speaker 2: thirty one teams and thirty two teams. Excuse me, there's
Speaker 2: that much parody, but there's thirty one that are going
Speaker 2: to ultimately be dissatisfied at the end of the season.
Speaker 2: It's in those narrow margins. And there's eight teams at
Speaker 2: the time in which we're taping this that still have
Speaker 2: a shot at it, and the Packers are on the
Speaker 2: other side of the twenty four. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And my word is it's similar to yours. But the
Speaker 1: word that keeps coming to mind for me is the
Speaker 1: word tease. And I mean that both there's a negative
Speaker 1: connotation and a positive connotation to it. On the kind
Speaker 1: of the negative side of things, it's that we saw
Speaker 1: so many moments of how good this Packers team could
Speaker 1: be whether you're talking, you know, having a nine point
Speaker 1: lead in the third quarter against the team that is
Speaker 1: sitting as the number one seed in the AFC, and
Speaker 1: how well the pass were playing in that game up
Speaker 1: until that point on the road, tough place to play,
Speaker 1: really good team, one of the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: And you throw in the performance in Detroit on Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: the performance on the road at Pittsburgh under the lights,
Speaker 1: you know, a primetime game, and obviously the way the
Speaker 1: Packers for large stretches of both of those games in
Speaker 1: Chicago played so well and dominated the NFC North Champs.
Speaker 1: But the inability to finish off enough of those games
Speaker 1: and to put themselves in the position where we all
Speaker 1: felt they should have been it just it, you know,
Speaker 1: it just it felt like it felt like a tease. Now,
Speaker 1: the positive connotation of that is, I think it also teases,
Speaker 1: going back to our earlier conversation in this very episode,
Speaker 1: it also teases that there's a lot of pretty good
Speaker 1: stuff in place for this team moving forward and that that, yeah,
Speaker 1: there are gonna be some changes in this and that
Speaker 1: I mean, nothing is ever the same, but everything's going
Speaker 1: to be all right, and uh, and this team is
Speaker 1: going to come back and be in a pretty good
Speaker 1: spot and and you know, some of these things that
Speaker 1: we saw in twenty twenty five, I think we're going
Speaker 1: to see some of the get that again in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six, and can the Packers go from being close
Speaker 1: to being there to being where they want to be.
Speaker 1: So that's, uh, that's sort of how I look at
Speaker 1: it if I were to, you know, try to encapsulate
Speaker 1: it in one word.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like how you laid that out, Mike, and
Speaker 2: you obviously had to edit my inbox. And one of
Speaker 2: the things I raised in that is, I think one
Speaker 2: of the hardest parts to swallow about the Packers, you know,
Speaker 2: number seven seed knockoff, you know, Dallas, number seven seed
Speaker 2: lose to Philly, Number seven seed lose to Chicago is
Speaker 2: the fact that the reason the Green Bay was even
Speaker 2: in that conversation to begin with was the fact that
Speaker 2: that twenty two draft class, in those in the twenty
Speaker 2: three draft class just completely shot jet fuel into whatever
Speaker 2: you want to call rebuild or whatever, reloading after the
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers era.
Speaker 1: The whole transition, the.
Speaker 2: Whole transition, and you don't get draft classes where you
Speaker 2: find three starting offensive linemen in the same class actually
Speaker 2: last year. This also shows you just how different this
Speaker 2: season was. Last year was the first time since what
Speaker 2: the merger, I believe it was that the Packers had
Speaker 2: an offensive line that consisted of three guys who started
Speaker 2: every game that were all from the same class. That
Speaker 2: had never happened before with Rashid Walker, with Zach tom In,
Speaker 2: with Sean Ryan. This year, different story. Romeo Dobbs after
Speaker 2: the game, we're talking to him and very you know,
Speaker 2: reflecting on what he'd been through and the fact that
Speaker 2: he is an unrestricted free agent. This could be the
Speaker 2: end for him in Green Bay as he gets a
Speaker 2: new opportunity and gets a chance to finally you don't
Speaker 2: get that big paycheck everybody talks about. And he's a
Speaker 2: kid from la that you know, played at Nevada that
Speaker 2: never thought he'd end up in Green Bay and then
Speaker 2: he ended up being a contributor for four seasons. Here
Speaker 2: and Christian Watson reflecting on how the time they spent
Speaker 2: together at the combine, you know, at the Senior and
Speaker 2: that group was so tight and one of the tragedies
Speaker 2: of it is that they weren't able to take that
Speaker 2: the entire group wasn't able to take the next step.
Speaker 2: Watson will get a chance, maybe some other guys will
Speaker 2: get the opportunity z act Tom obviously, but the whole
Speaker 2: group that really contributed to Green Bay being in the conversation,
Speaker 2: being an eleven win team again, not being able to
Speaker 2: get to the NFC Title Game, not being able to
Speaker 2: get to Super Bowl again. So it'd be very interesting
Speaker 2: to see now next year, with this twenty three draft
Speaker 2: class and its final year together, so many great players
Speaker 2: out of that class, seeing if they can finally launch
Speaker 2: it forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Last one for you? Favorite story you
Speaker 1: wrote this year?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Season?
Speaker 2: Oh? Good one. That's a really good one. Is it
Speaker 2: in the regular season, Michael? Or is it twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: Any any at any point? At any point?
Speaker 2: It's the Baron Surrel one then, because I just think
Speaker 2: it doesn't get any better than that in sports. Is
Speaker 2: such a unique story you and I. You could do
Speaker 2: this for another two twenty five years. I'm sure you
Speaker 2: want to. I could do this for another ten. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to write another story like that. I don't
Speaker 2: think there'll be another story like that. The fact that
Speaker 2: this young man from Texas comes up here at the
Speaker 2: draft just decides, Hey, you know what, I want to
Speaker 2: be there, And then that clip of Brian Goodikun's drafting
Speaker 2: him being like, wait, he's here when he comes out
Speaker 2: on the stage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And then getting a chance to get to.
Speaker 2: Know his mom, you know, Selena, and just talking to
Speaker 2: some of these people that know him so well, unbelievable
Speaker 2: to see him. And then at the end of the
Speaker 2: year gets some opportunities and really take advantage of them.
Speaker 2: I think Baron strel is gonna be a real player
Speaker 2: for this defense. So learning his life story and who
Speaker 2: he's all about, it made it so much more clear
Speaker 2: how this guy ended up in Green Bay, not only
Speaker 2: literally but figuratively too, you know, him and his family
Speaker 2: coming up here and being a part of the draft
Speaker 2: process and waiting until day three and the fourth round
Speaker 2: to get taken made a memory for himself. And now
Speaker 2: it looks like for the Packers have an edge rusher
Speaker 2: here to really develop.
Speaker 1: Yeah. For me again, I've got a couple. So I
Speaker 1: cheat because I give multiple answers. As far as as
Speaker 1: far as game coverage, my favorite story as most of
Speaker 1: the regulars to our website, No, after every game I
Speaker 1: write the game recap which is the five takeaways from
Speaker 1: the game, and then I write Rapid Reaction, which is
Speaker 1: sort of like a column or an editorial type of
Speaker 1: thing on just what I'm feeling like and what I'm hearing,
Speaker 1: you know, processing after a game. And the rapid Reaction
Speaker 1: that I wrote after the Thanksgiving game in Detroit was
Speaker 1: my favorite one of the entire season, because not only
Speaker 1: is it okay, We're on the bus and on the
Speaker 1: plane and I'm looking forward to getting a home and
Speaker 1: there's going to be this big Thanksgiving meal that my
Speaker 1: family is prepared and they're waiting for me to get
Speaker 1: home and all that, and that was all really exciting.
Speaker 1: But to be able to focus that entire column on
Speaker 1: the Packers were converting these fourth downs, they were stopping
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell on his fourth downs, and just how you know,
Speaker 1: it was this whole flip of the script the Tide
Speaker 1: compared to the previous games, the previous year's games against Detroit,
Speaker 1: when those things would go the other way. And how
Speaker 1: thinking back to how the clutch fourth down completion to
Speaker 1: Tucker Craft and Arizona kind of set the stage for
Speaker 1: these big fourth downs in Detroit, but he didn't have
Speaker 1: Tucker Craft in Detroit, So it was Romeo Dobbs and
Speaker 1: it was Dontavian Wicks and and so that one was
Speaker 1: just all the circumstances surrounding it and the fact that
Speaker 1: it was Detroit and Dan Campbell and the defense was
Speaker 1: stopping them on fourth downs. That was a really fun
Speaker 1: one to write. And then the other one was actually
Speaker 1: one that I wrote very much towards the end of
Speaker 1: the season, and it was kind of the farewell and
Speaker 1: the tribute to doctor McKenzie, doctor Pat McKenzie, who is
Speaker 1: officially retiring. He had already shifted into kind of a
Speaker 1: consultant role as the Packers are making a transition to
Speaker 1: doctor Michael Ryan. He will be the new full time
Speaker 1: team physician now for the Packers. But I got a
Speaker 1: chance to sit down and I have obviously Doc mackenzie
Speaker 1: has has been here almost twice as long as I have,
Speaker 1: so I I have known him since kind of like
Speaker 1: the day I got here, and he's been here the
Speaker 1: entire time. And for this story that I wrote, I
Speaker 1: got a chance to sit down for about a half
Speaker 1: an hour and talk to him just about his career
Speaker 1: and how, you know, how did he establish trust amongst
Speaker 1: the players and the agents, and and and the coaches,
Speaker 1: and how did he navigate all these relationships and and
Speaker 1: do his job? And I was absolutely just fascinated, blown
Speaker 1: away by everything that went into a guy who's whose
Speaker 1: reputation precedes him, you know, not only just in the
Speaker 1: Green Bay medical community, but the NFL medical community at large.
Speaker 1: And I could have written five thousand words on Doc mackenzie,
Speaker 1: and I condensed it down to about.
Speaker 3: A thousand just it was me.
Speaker 1: I probably would have just so that it would be
Speaker 1: digestible for the readership out there. But that one, that
Speaker 1: one definitely was is a memorable one that I'll take
Speaker 1: with me for a long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, it was a great piece and obviously getting
Speaker 2: a just not even just Doc's perspective on it, but
Speaker 2: also you know with Brian Ingele and some of his comments.
Speaker 2: Obviously Aaron and Rogers and you know what their relationship
Speaker 2: was like, they amount of trust that Aaron had in him.
Speaker 2: They navigated those two collar bones together, Yeah, which was
Speaker 2: not easy. Do you remember remember that conversation thirteen seventeen
Speaker 2: was something different because Packers announced right away Rogers broke
Speaker 2: his collar bone. He may miss the rest of the season.
Speaker 3: We'll see. Yeah, But the.
Speaker 2: First time it was about a two and a half
Speaker 2: month stretch of just like every single week, we're asking.
Speaker 2: I was still at the newspaper at the time, pres Cozette,
Speaker 2: and we're asking, Okay, what's the update and is there
Speaker 2: gonna be another scan We're and I'm learning about ink
Speaker 2: die and how that goes into your bones and shows
Speaker 2: where the stress is or where the fractures are. And
Speaker 2: kudos the mackenzie man. Rogers has talked about this numerous
Speaker 2: times after the fact. He wanted to make sure that
Speaker 2: Aaron was right. First. If they win, they win, and
Speaker 2: if he gets back, he gets back. But he had
Speaker 2: to make sure that there wasn't going to be a
Speaker 2: risk there for him. And obviously airing on the high
Speaker 2: side of caution is not easy. But when you have
Speaker 2: principles that you're guided by, I think it shows that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when when a doctor, when a doctor looks at
Speaker 1: when a team doctor looks at a player as a
Speaker 1: patient and not a player, you know, then you make
Speaker 1: the right decision for the patient. And that's how That's
Speaker 1: how Doc McKenzie went about it. As frustrating as that
Speaker 1: might be sometimes to the player, to the coaches because
Speaker 1: they want the guy wants to get out there. The
Speaker 1: coaches want their guy out there. But to Doc McKenzie,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a player on the team, it was
Speaker 1: a patient. He was going to make sure that that
Speaker 1: patient was taken care of and was not going to
Speaker 1: be at any undue risk. But anyway, a tremendous career
Speaker 1: from Doc McKenzie and attribute an a farewell there. If
Speaker 1: you didn't get a chance to check it out. It
Speaker 1: is on Packers dot com a couple other things. I
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Speaker 1: slash Wonders. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. All right, Wes,
Speaker 1: last thing before we go divisional playoff weekend in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I'll rattle off all four matchups here to you. On Saturday.
Speaker 1: We've got Buffalo at n for San Francisco at Seattle.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, Houston at New England, the La Rams at
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears. You just tell me what you want
Speaker 1: to talk about, what you think with regard to any
Speaker 1: of these matchups, or if you want to throw out
Speaker 1: any predictions. I'm open to those two.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Actually, it's funny. I have a rooting interest. I feel
Speaker 2: like in all, well, three of the games, four of them.
Speaker 2: Kind of sort of a stretch. This is Marcedes Lewis's
Speaker 2: last season twenty years.
Speaker 3: He's out.
Speaker 2: I think still forty one. I think he turns forty two. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think he's forty two in may so. Sadies I
Speaker 2: think presently is on the practice squad for the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 2: But probably more than anybody, I'm pulling for the Broncos
Speaker 2: the rest of the way. Okay, not the easiest thing
Speaker 2: to say, considering some of the things about the Broncos team,
Speaker 2: but I love Sadies. I would love nothing more than
Speaker 2: to see him get a chance to be in a
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, to win a ring. That would be an ultimate,
Speaker 2: ultimate ending to a career that I don't think we'll
Speaker 2: ever see again.
Speaker 3: In the National Football League, the.
Speaker 2: New England Patriots, they're basically their personnels are general manager,
Speaker 2: whatever title you use is Elliott Wolf, the you know,
Speaker 2: the son of Ron Wolf, also a guy that you
Speaker 2: and I worked with here. I love the fact that
Speaker 2: he turned them around, helped turn them around as quickly
Speaker 2: as they did. They obviously knocked the higher out of
Speaker 2: the park this year with Mike vrabel. I have nothing
Speaker 2: against Houston, you know, fine football team, but it'd be
Speaker 2: cool also to see New England with Elliott at the.
Speaker 3: Helm take control.
Speaker 2: DeVante adams comments this week, not only do they reflect
Speaker 2: his feelings on Green Bay. You know, once a packer,
Speaker 2: always a packer, but this is there is a reason
Speaker 2: why DeVante Adams won our Stand Up Guy Award three times,
Speaker 2: something that nobody else has done yet in Green Bay.
Speaker 2: It's the way he carries himself. It's the professional that
Speaker 2: he is on the field, and just the dude as
Speaker 2: a person. And yeah, people are going to talk about
Speaker 2: the Bears and Ben Jonson nerves. I don't care about
Speaker 2: any of that. I just want to see DeVante make
Speaker 2: a Super Bowl yep. And so I think for me personally,
Speaker 2: the team on the NFC side of things I'm rooting
Speaker 2: for this weekend. Rooting for the rest of the way
Speaker 2: is the Los Angeles Rams to see Tay and Mercedes
Speaker 2: over on the AFC side of things, if those two,
Speaker 2: if it could be a Denver LA Super Bowl, I'd
Speaker 2: be pleased. Pie And then lastly, Packer fans will probably
Speaker 2: hate me for this, but I wouldn't mind seeing Kyle
Speaker 2: Shanahan also get over the top here. This is a
Speaker 2: guy that has been an innovator in the National Football League.
Speaker 2: You look at his tree, It's like none other, even
Speaker 2: the teams that have won Super Bowl. So nobody has
Speaker 2: a tree like Kyle Shanahan right now in the NFL
Speaker 2: so basically there's four games. I have four rooting interests
Speaker 2: in all those games. But if you ask me right
Speaker 2: now weeks out, if Denver or Los Angeles walked away
Speaker 2: with the Super Bowl trophy, I'd be Lombardi Trophy.
Speaker 3: I'd be happy.
Speaker 1: I'm all in with you on DeVante Adams, for sure.
Speaker 1: I think that's not I think that's an obvious one,
Speaker 1: and not just because the Rams are playing the Bears
Speaker 1: and I have absolutely no interest in seeing the Bears
Speaker 1: get any further this season. I do think I was
Speaker 1: thinking about this, and this is nothing against Houston, who
Speaker 1: has a tremendous defense and New England, who I couldn't
Speaker 1: be more impressed with Drake May at quarterback as a
Speaker 1: young rising star in this league and what's going on there.
Speaker 1: But I just have a feeling that the winner of
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Denver game is going to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I feel that.
Speaker 1: Because I think if Denver is able to beat if
Speaker 1: Denver is able to win that game, and then they'll
Speaker 1: be hosting the AFC Championship. We had talked about how
Speaker 1: Denver has its flaws, but playing at home, that's going
Speaker 1: to be a very tough place for anybody to come
Speaker 1: in and beat them, and it's going to be tough
Speaker 1: for Buffalo to do it on Saturday. But I also
Speaker 1: feel like with Josh Allen getting his first road playoff
Speaker 1: victory last week in Jacksonville, now he's on the road
Speaker 1: and you would be on the road again if they
Speaker 1: were to beat the Broncos, they'd be going on the
Speaker 1: road in the AFC Championship. But if Josh Allen gets
Speaker 1: past this one on and has back to back road
Speaker 1: wins in the playoffs under his belt, I think he
Speaker 1: goes in. He could go into either Houston or New
Speaker 1: England and and win and get there. And it's interesting because,
Speaker 1: you know, huge opportunity for Alan when Lamar Jackson, Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes and Joe Burrow are all out of the playoffs
Speaker 1: and not in this thing. And some people are going
Speaker 1: to say, you know that, some people are going to
Speaker 1: say that that would that would taint it somehow if
Speaker 1: Alan is able to get there. But just remember in
Speaker 1: the regular season he beat all three of those quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: So the fact that he won all three of those
Speaker 1: games is part of the reason they weren't in the
Speaker 1: playoffs to challenge him. Right now, So I have. I
Speaker 1: have a lot of affinity for Buffalo, not only having
Speaker 1: watched them in my college years lose the four consecutive
Speaker 1: Super Bowls and and you know, and what that fan
Speaker 1: base went through. But then also my son went to
Speaker 1: graduate school out in Buffalo, and so they've sort of
Speaker 1: become my second, like adopted team, and I enjoy I
Speaker 1: enjoy cheering for Josh. He's a fun player to watch
Speaker 1: and I'll definitely be pulling for him in the NFC.
Speaker 1: I think the San Francisco Seattle game is I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be a little more competitive than it
Speaker 1: was a couple of weeks ago. But I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: the Niners kind of got screwed here because they are
Speaker 1: playing on a short week for like the third time
Speaker 1: in their last four games. They ended the regular season
Speaker 1: with back to back short weeks where they had to
Speaker 1: go from the Monday night against Indy to then the
Speaker 1: Sunday game against the Bears, and then they went from
Speaker 1: the Sunday game against the Bears to the Saturday game
Speaker 1: against the Seahawks, and then now here they are in
Speaker 1: the second round of the playoffs, and they got stuck
Speaker 1: with a short week again where Sunday night, they're flying
Speaker 1: back home from Philadelphia, all the way across the country,
Speaker 1: and then they get stuck on Saturday night. So on
Speaker 1: Friday they're hopping on a plane again to go up
Speaker 1: to Seattle and play their division route for a third time.
Speaker 1: I think this is a just a huge challenge, a
Speaker 1: huge task for the forty nine ers, and the fact
Speaker 1: that now, amongst all their other injuries, they don't have
Speaker 1: George Kittle, So I think things definitely lean towards Seattle.
Speaker 1: But man, if Kyle Shanahan, if they're able to pull
Speaker 1: this one off, there's definitely no stopping them. Like if
Speaker 1: San Francisco wins this game, they're going back to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, and Shanahan's going to get a chance. It
Speaker 1: does going to get a chance to win one.
Speaker 2: It feels kind of like if Green Bay would knock
Speaker 2: off Atlanta here right in twenty ten. Yeah, Like it
Speaker 2: feels like that type of game. If you can find
Speaker 2: an answer for that defense after you struggled against it
Speaker 2: two weeks ago, Yeah, be a be a big difference.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 2: How far it'd be, by the way, not to jump over you,
Speaker 2: but how funny it would be By the way, if
Speaker 2: Denver actually does go to the Super Bowl, like you say,
Speaker 2: ten years after the fact that their defense drove them there. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: And I would say that bo Nicks has been more
Speaker 2: effective than what Peyton Manning and brock Osweiler were in
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. Yeah, but he's the compliment to what they're
Speaker 2: doing defensively, right, what they're doing offensively compliments how like
Speaker 2: much they've had everybody in a stranglehold defensively. Yeah, if
Speaker 2: they would go back with this really high octane pass
Speaker 2: rush and everything they do, that that would be very
Speaker 2: apropos ten years after the fact that they kind of
Speaker 2: rode that.
Speaker 3: To a Super Bowl fifty title.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's a It's some it's some fascinating matchups,
Speaker 1: and we may in both instances in both conferences. And
Speaker 1: it's interesting considering that the Packers season ended in a
Speaker 1: Round three against a division rival. We I mean, we
Speaker 1: could get Buffalo, New England. That would be a Round
Speaker 1: three for the AFC East. And if the Rams the
Speaker 1: Rams beat the Bears, no matter who wins the other game,
Speaker 1: you're getting a Round three of the of the NFC West.
Speaker 1: And I mean, hats off to the NFC West. They
Speaker 1: got three teams in the playoffs and they're three of
Speaker 1: the last four standing in the NFC. That those those
Speaker 1: are some real quality clubs and they've and they've proven
Speaker 1: it regardless of what happens.
Speaker 2: Is Yeah, and Couda's of them too. I mean they
Speaker 2: get beat up. They're beating up on each other, especially
Speaker 2: down the stretch in December. And then you had both,
Speaker 2: you know, the forty nine ers and the Rams come
Speaker 2: out on top on road games in the first round
Speaker 2: of the playoffs and the wildcard round, and see if
Speaker 2: they keep riding that wave of momentum.
Speaker 3: Now it was Super.
Speaker 1: Bowl, absolutely well, it should be a fun weekend of football,
Speaker 1: even though the Packers are not in it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sit back and enjoy watching it. Instead of a laptop
Speaker 1: in front of me, I'm gonna have some beers in
Speaker 1: front of me.
Speaker 3: They go, I might have a brisk iced tea. We'll see. Uh.
Speaker 3: Curtain call for the studio too, BROV.
Speaker 1: That's right, I forgot all about that yet.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable job that our broadcast apartment. Craig Schielbauer, Adam Holbeheinrich,
Speaker 2: their crew, Mike Vanderschnik got a rest his soul. All
Speaker 2: those guys had their fingerprints over this place. This is
Speaker 2: a fun place to do the podcast all those years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it has been a lot of fun. We will
Speaker 1: be moving it's actually geographically not that far from here
Speaker 1: in the building, but we will be moving to a
Speaker 1: new studio for next season. We're gonna have a whole different,
Speaker 1: whole new podcast set up and everything. Kind of excited
Speaker 1: to see what that's going to look like. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this is uh, this is it for this one with
Speaker 1: our two little round tables and the big.
Speaker 2: Remember when we behind us, Remember when we started this
Speaker 2: whole thing with.
Speaker 3: That Yeah, what is this table?
Speaker 1: This is season ten?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Is pas unscripted? We're wrapping up season ten here.
Speaker 2: In our first uh what was it the first four
Speaker 2: seasons we're in the corner with that metal table. You
Speaker 2: and I are basically shoulder to shoulder, breathing a lot
Speaker 2: of the same air. And then they stretched us out
Speaker 2: a little bit here, and slowly but surely we're making progress.
Speaker 2: We're looking more and more professional. It's only taken ten
Speaker 2: years to get us there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now we're gonna have a whole new look for
Speaker 1: for season eleven. But you'll have that to look forward to.
Speaker 1: And for now, we have to call it a wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition and this season of Packers Unscripted. Be
Speaker 1: sure to continue. We continue following all of our coverage
Speaker 1: of the team on Packers dot com. And I would
Speaker 1: just like to send a huge thank you. I know
Speaker 1: I say at the end of every episode, thank you
Speaker 1: for tuning in everybody, but sincerely, thank you for tuning
Speaker 1: in everybody, because we wouldn't do this if we didn't
Speaker 1: have an audience or a paycheck that too, and we
Speaker 1: really do appreciate everybody who tunes in and sends us comments.
Speaker 1: And you know, whether it's the podcast or the video version,
Speaker 1: whatever you prefer, we appreciate your patronage. So with that,
Speaker 1: for Wes, I and Mike, thank you for tuning in everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.