Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the
Speaker 1: one and only Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here
Speaker 1: from our studios at Lambeufield, Wes. The draft is in
Speaker 1: the books, The Rookie Mini Camp is in the books.
Speaker 1: This week we have been hearing from It's sort of
Speaker 1: the one off season opportunity to hear from the Packers
Speaker 1: assistant coaches, the coordinators, and the position coaches. We heard
Speaker 1: from offensive defensive coordinator Adam Stenovich Jeff Hafley on Monday.
Speaker 1: We heard from the offensive assistance on Wednesday. Later today,
Speaker 1: after we are done taping this show, we will hear
Speaker 1: from the defensive assistance, and we may have more to
Speaker 1: talk about them next week because there are several new
Speaker 1: faces in that box that we haven't gotten to know yet.
Speaker 1: But I'll just toss that toss this out to you
Speaker 1: as an open ended thing from the first couple of
Speaker 1: days of assistant coach availability, any particular coach or message
Speaker 1: or thought thread that stands out to you in terms
Speaker 1: of what we've heard from those who are working with
Speaker 1: the players here during offseason workouts.
Speaker 2: Tom clements his address of the media, and I I
Speaker 2: mean Tom is always a total professional and one of
Speaker 2: the very best that there is when it comes to
Speaker 2: coaching quarterbacks. But there's been something about this second run
Speaker 2: he's had with Green Bay. I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: just we're back to him coaching quarterbacks again. I didn't
Speaker 2: cover him when he was Rogers quarterbacks coach. He was
Speaker 2: already offensive coordinator at that point. But the way he
Speaker 2: dives into it and makes it really digestible in what,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of identifying not just the some open
Speaker 2: ended platitudes about Jordan Love, but really going into why
Speaker 2: he improved through the course of last season. And he
Speaker 2: brought up that statistic Mike about you know, they go
Speaker 2: back and look at this film in these cutups, and
Speaker 2: they can bring break down the percentages of how many
Speaker 2: times he rolls out, how many times he extends a play,
Speaker 2: is he running, is he passing? Whears his eyes And
Speaker 2: he said, you know, he used the ninety five percent
Speaker 2: analogy that when he was breaking the pocket the first
Speaker 2: half of the season, ninety five percent of the time
Speaker 2: he was using his legs. But as the season went on,
Speaker 2: they worked through some of the fundamentals of that he's
Speaker 2: looking downfield more and creating more big plays for his receivers.
Speaker 2: It's always going to be a balance, Certainly, somebody with
Speaker 2: Love's athleticism and four to seven speed, you're going to
Speaker 2: want to be able to use your legs. But when
Speaker 2: you and I have broken down and looked at all
Speaker 2: these things and talked so many times about the run
Speaker 2: that Jordan Love got on in the second half of
Speaker 2: the season, I think sometimes me personally, I won't speak
Speaker 2: for you, but you lose sight of well, this is
Speaker 2: a twenty five, twenty four into twenty five year old
Speaker 2: quarterback who's also making week to week progress as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I thought, and we heard this from coach
Speaker 1: Clements last year as well, when he was being asked
Speaker 1: about Jordan Love and how are things going with how
Speaker 1: he's running the offense and stuff. And Tom is always
Speaker 1: very very intentional, very deliberate about talking about not just
Speaker 1: the quarterback, even though that's the position he coaches, but
Speaker 1: it's about the entire offense. And we heard from him
Speaker 1: a lot last year and then again this week about
Speaker 1: how it wasn't just about Jordan's progress that made the
Speaker 1: offense go It was all of these young receivers and
Speaker 1: tight ends, and there was the shuffling going on on
Speaker 1: the offensive line and young players playing key spots on
Speaker 1: the offensive line that needed to sort of get their
Speaker 1: legs under them, and as you know, the route running
Speaker 1: got crispered, the decisions on choice routes, the reading of coverages.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not just Jordan Love who's reading the coverages.
Speaker 1: It's the guys running the routes who are reading the
Speaker 1: coverages too. And that's you know, the cliches of you know,
Speaker 1: guys getting on the same page, et cetera, et cetera. Yes,
Speaker 1: we hear those phrases a lot, and they are cliches,
Speaker 1: but as I like to say, they're cliches because they're true.
Speaker 1: They they really, they really do reflect what has to
Speaker 1: go on out there for things to click. And I'm
Speaker 1: with you. I enjoy listening to h I enjoy listening
Speaker 1: to Tom Clements talk about how an entire offense works together.
Speaker 1: And obviously he's been an offensive coordinator in this league
Speaker 1: as well. He hasn't just been a quarterbacks coach, but
Speaker 1: he's a darn good quarterbacks coach. And you get the
Speaker 1: sense even though Tom has you know, he's got a
Speaker 1: very dry sense of humor. He's always very business like
Speaker 1: up there at the podium. But you get the sense
Speaker 1: that even though as long as he has been in
Speaker 1: this business, and he's sort of retired a couple of
Speaker 1: times and come back, but with Jordan Love and these
Speaker 1: young guys on offense, he seems to be having a
Speaker 1: lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I don't want to ever put words into
Speaker 2: Tom's well, but to me, if I was in his shoes,
Speaker 2: you got to remember it. When he talks about what
Speaker 2: happened at Arizona when he left, He's like, it wasn't
Speaker 2: that I just told everybody I'm done. He's like, the
Speaker 2: phone wasn't ringing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I mean.
Speaker 2: I think the guy still got it. I think is
Speaker 2: sort of the message that I that I get with him.
Speaker 2: And I mentioned this to Mike Heller in a radio
Speaker 2: interview I did earlier this week. I mean, people focus
Speaker 2: so much on Aaron Rodgers in Jordan Love now, but
Speaker 2: you got to remember, I mean, he was the first
Speaker 2: quarterbacks coach to get his hands on Kyler Murray during
Speaker 2: an offensive Rookie of the Year season, right with the Cardinals.
Speaker 2: I mean, this guy's resume goes back so far. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter if it's Aaron Rodgers or a Matt Flynn
Speaker 2: or an offensive rookie of the year, just the guy
Speaker 2: that's trying to make his way in the National Football
Speaker 2: League and earn some paychecks as a backup quarterback. Clements's
Speaker 2: job is to make sure that he prepares all these dudes.
Speaker 2: So not only just having Jordan Love now, but now
Speaker 2: he gets to work with Sean Clifford. Now they added
Speaker 2: a rookie seventh round pick and Michael Pratt, and now
Speaker 2: with Sean Mannon going into that room of you know,
Speaker 2: a veteran quarterback that just recently hung up his cleats
Speaker 2: and is now looking to get into the coaching realm.
Speaker 2: These are all people that Clements can touch and can
Speaker 2: help kind of pass along some of his wisdom. The
Speaker 2: funniest moment Matt Schneidman from the Athletic mentioning to him,
Speaker 2: you know you're seven years old. You could be on
Speaker 2: a beach so with your feet up, and then Clements,
Speaker 2: as you mentioned his dry sense of humor, right equipping back, well,
Speaker 2: I can still have my feet up here too. I
Speaker 2: don't know, it is a dry sense of humor. I
Speaker 2: don't know if there's anyone funnier maybe in this building
Speaker 2: pound for pound in Tom clements. He was an excellent lawyer.
Speaker 2: He's a brilliant quarterbacks coach. I think the guy could
Speaker 2: have been one heck of a comedian too, if you
Speaker 2: wanted to go down that route, probably like a Mitch
Speaker 2: Hedberg type.
Speaker 1: But yeah, pretty much. And the thing is, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've enjoyed getting to know him over the years.
Speaker 1: I was I was, you know, I got here in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, which is the same year that
Speaker 1: he did as as Mike McCarthy's quarterbacks coach. And I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed getting to know him. And in looking looking back
Speaker 1: and looking at his background, it's easy to forget, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy isn't just a coach. He was a heck
Speaker 1: of a quarterback in his own right. No, he did
Speaker 1: not make it big in the NFL, but you're talking
Speaker 1: about a former Notre Dame quarterback who nearly won a
Speaker 1: Heisman Trophy and then one, multiple championships in the Canadian
Speaker 1: Football League, multiple great Canada. He was a league he
Speaker 1: was a league MVP in the CFL, this guy. He
Speaker 1: knew how to play the game when he was playing it,
Speaker 1: and he sure as heck knows how to coach it,
Speaker 1: especially at that position.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind too, if I may add, yeah, yes,
Speaker 2: he had a really brief cup of coffee with Kansas
Speaker 2: City in the National Football League, But when he was
Speaker 2: kind of balling out in the CFL too, it wasn't
Speaker 2: like what it is today with the NFL and the CFL.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Packers had a first round pick that
Speaker 2: I think went and played in the CFL, right, Clark, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So like it wasn't like, oh he wanted to sit.
Speaker 2: I mean the guy, the guy was a pretty darn
Speaker 2: good quarterback on his own.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah. Absolutely. Well the other the other thing that
Speaker 1: stood out to me, and actually I ended up writing
Speaker 1: a story on this that was posted on our website
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, if you want to check it out on
Speaker 1: Packers dot com. It was after hearing from offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Adam Stenovich and some other offensive assistants have followed up
Speaker 1: on it, but just talking about and it's sort of
Speaker 1: stemmed from some comments Matt Lafleur made after the draft
Speaker 1: about where they are in the off season program with
Speaker 1: the veterans and sort of building the offense, building the
Speaker 1: playbook for twenty twenty four and just how different everything
Speaker 1: is this year compared to a year ago, not only
Speaker 1: because Jordan Love has a year under his belt and
Speaker 1: they have, you know, nineteen games including playoffs of all
Speaker 1: of the film of Jordan Love running the offense, seeing
Speaker 1: what he does well, what he doesn't maybe do quite
Speaker 1: so well. But it's about the offensive coaches knowing what
Speaker 1: they have, Whereas a year ago it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: they knew they were going to have Christian Watson and
Speaker 1: Romeo Dobbs, and they were gonna have Aaron Jones and
Speaker 1: aj Dillon in the backfield, but they didn't really know
Speaker 1: much else because they hear, you know, after the draft.
Speaker 1: Suddenly you bring in Jaden Reid and Dontavian Wicks and
Speaker 1: Luke Musgrave and Tucker Craft and so then you're sort of,
Speaker 1: you know, getting a late start in piecing this all together.
Speaker 1: And then of course, even when you get into the games,
Speaker 1: you're still trying to figure out, what do these guys
Speaker 1: do well, what should we be emphasizing to try to
Speaker 1: put the players in the best position to make some
Speaker 1: things happen. Out there, and so that was all part
Speaker 1: of the evolution in twenty twenty three. Well, now they're
Speaker 1: starting at a completely different point in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: in terms of building the offense, you know, the playbook
Speaker 1: and the adjustments because they know Wes that there's going
Speaker 1: to be you know, the cat and mouse game with
Speaker 1: regard to Jordan Love, and this Packers offense is going
Speaker 1: to start in Week one in Brazil against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1: Because all of the Packers' opponents now they're gonna be
Speaker 1: They're gonna be studying the Dallas game, They're gonna be
Speaker 1: studying that late game, late season game at Minnesota. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be studying these games where the Packers offense looked,
Speaker 1: you know, like in a completely different place compared to
Speaker 1: September and October. So you're gonna have to have the
Speaker 1: counters to those punches that defenses are gonna throw at you.
Speaker 1: And that's what the Packers' coaching staff is working on
Speaker 1: now is to okay, what are the variations of the
Speaker 1: different concepts. What can we can line up like this
Speaker 1: and they're gonna think that we're running this, but we
Speaker 1: can run something else out of it. Instead emphasizing our players'
Speaker 1: strengths along the way. That's where this all is now
Speaker 1: compared to a year ago when the offense was was
Speaker 1: such a great unknown.
Speaker 2: Because that's the other aspect of it too, And I
Speaker 2: touched on this an Insider inbox earlier this week too.
Speaker 2: If you recall, you know, how many times how much
Speaker 2: ink did I personally spill on Okay, Well, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of unknowns at receiver and tight end, but they
Speaker 2: got ag Dillon, they got Aaron Jones. Well, the best
Speaker 2: laid plans through the first month of the season, all
Speaker 2: of that goes out of the window, and now suddenly
Speaker 2: you have Christian Watson dealing with the hamstring injury. Romeo
Speaker 2: Dobbs was injured at the beginning of training camp, although
Speaker 2: he ended up getting through that okay, And it ends
Speaker 2: up having to be a lot of young guys that
Speaker 2: you were not expecting. So not only does this allow
Speaker 2: those guys to take this offense in at a more
Speaker 2: comfortable pace, it also opens the door to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 2: now we saw briefly what bo Melton can do. What
Speaker 2: could he potentially add to our offense. Is a more
Speaker 2: consistent piece I don't would never say it's a positive
Speaker 2: that Aaron Jones is not on this roster. But now
Speaker 2: you have Josh Jacobs that's now an unknown for opponents.
Speaker 2: How do the Packers plan to utilize Josh Jacobs. They're
Speaker 2: talking about using a more as a pass catcher, maybe
Speaker 2: getting him more involved in the red zone than he
Speaker 2: was during this time with the Raiders in terms of
Speaker 2: his pass catching ability. Those that explosion of offensive options
Speaker 2: I think is gonna be what's ultimately gonna be Jordan
Speaker 2: Love's best friend now in his second year as a starter,
Speaker 2: because it's not just the packages and Okay, well we're
Speaker 2: gonna go two tight ends here and we're gonna go
Speaker 2: eleven personnel here, and no, it's about, okay, what are
Speaker 2: the personnel within those packages? And that's depending on how
Speaker 2: the Packers want to flip it and depending on if
Speaker 2: guys are healthy. That's where things get really interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I go back to a phrase that that
Speaker 1: always has stuck with me that we heard several times
Speaker 1: when Mike Petton was the defensive coordinator here when he
Speaker 1: talked about whether it was whether it was veteran players
Speaker 1: who you know, are learning a new system or whether
Speaker 1: it's rookies coming from the college game to the NFL
Speaker 1: and making that whole adjustment that once you get through
Speaker 1: the first year, then you you start you start getting
Speaker 1: into you know what he what he always called the
Speaker 1: graduate level details of a scheme, right that you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not freshman composition anymore. Like you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're working towards that master's degree in the offense. And
Speaker 1: what I liked about that is not only not only
Speaker 1: was it a description of of the progression in terms
Speaker 1: of in terms of you know, mentally grasping everything, but
Speaker 1: it's still a reference to you know, you're always you're
Speaker 1: always still in school, You're always learning. Nobody, you know,
Speaker 1: nobody ever or ever necessarily gets completely out of that
Speaker 1: except maybe in Aaron Rodgers after fifteen years as a story,
Speaker 1: then he's writing his own course right exactly exactly. But
Speaker 1: but what the Packers got to last year offensively, with
Speaker 1: all of the playing time that these young guys got,
Speaker 1: and not just the draft picks, but the guys like
Speaker 1: Bo Melton that you mentioned, you know, getting in and
Speaker 1: making a big impact late in the season, is they
Speaker 1: got a whole bunch of young guys that progressed really
Speaker 1: quickly through the undergrad stages and now at a young
Speaker 1: age in the NFL, they're getting into some of the
Speaker 1: graduate level details of what Matt le Fleur and this
Speaker 1: offensive staff want to be able to do schematically, along
Speaker 1: with the growth in the quarterback and being able to
Speaker 1: put potentially even more on Jordan Love's plate in year
Speaker 1: two as a starter compared to year one.
Speaker 2: One of the other common themes throughout the offensive assistant
Speaker 2: availability that really stuck out to me, and I believe
Speaker 2: it was Jason Vrabel that was the first one to
Speaker 2: broach this because a lot of questions have been asked about, Okay,
Speaker 2: all these receivers are all in it together, but eventually
Speaker 2: they're going to be competing for snaps, they're gonna be
Speaker 2: competing for footballs, they're gonna be competing for money. But
Speaker 2: as Rabel said, he's like, there is a phrase out
Speaker 2: there about you know, my money touches your money. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I think that is where I look at this
Speaker 2: offense too. Yeah, you want to see a thousand yard
Speaker 2: receiver receiver, you want to see a ten touchdown tight end,
Speaker 2: but it's about how does what Jaden Reid does how
Speaker 2: can that compliment Christian Watson if he's healthy and on
Speaker 2: the field. You know what Romeo Dobbs early in the season,
Speaker 2: as Rabel said, you know, he had seven touchdowns early
Speaker 2: in the season in the red zone. Teams were doubling
Speaker 2: him and that created opportunities for others as well. For
Speaker 2: as much as we saw last year there was points
Speaker 2: where because of injury, Bo Melton needed to be the
Speaker 2: go to option for this offense. Well, now if you
Speaker 2: have more of those guys available, And again, we don't
Speaker 2: live in a perfect world where no one's going to
Speaker 2: be injured, but you would hope from the Packers' perspective,
Speaker 2: it won't get to the dire straits that it did
Speaker 2: at some points last season. And now we can see
Speaker 2: Tucker Craft and Luke Musgrave out there together, We can
Speaker 2: see all these different combinations of players sort of working together.
Speaker 2: If that can be achieved within this offense, and the
Speaker 2: unselfish nature of Jordan Love and the way they built
Speaker 2: things last year, I felt like that was part of
Speaker 2: the secret sauce. I know the leading receiver had seven
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety three yards or whatever it was, but
Speaker 2: it was how many different guys were involved in this thing.
Speaker 2: And then when you take on a team like the
Speaker 2: Dallas Cowboys who want to really send pressure and they
Speaker 2: want to get in your face, well that's opening up
Speaker 2: a lot of one on one opportunities for those type
Speaker 2: of players to make their plays. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then and then in that playoff game in Dallas,
Speaker 1: the big wild Card victory, we saw Romeo Dobbs have
Speaker 1: the best game of his two year career. As productive
Speaker 1: as he had been over the course of his first
Speaker 1: two seasons, Romeo Dobbs had not had a one hundred
Speaker 1: yard individual game as an NFL receiver until the Wildcard
Speaker 1: playoff game over Dallas. And you still you get the
Speaker 1: sense that as much as as much as that can
Speaker 1: obviously help open things up for other guys, but a
Speaker 1: game like that on that big stage could also be
Speaker 1: a big springboard for a guy like Romeo Dobbs to
Speaker 1: take his game to the next level as well. Because
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, and you know Romeo's Romeo
Speaker 1: is a quiet, humble guy. He gets interviewed a lot
Speaker 1: in the locker room, even though he may not necessarily
Speaker 1: enjoy it all the time. But I've always gotten the
Speaker 1: sense in talking to him. He doesn't necessarily like to
Speaker 1: talk about himself, but I've always gotten the sense that
Speaker 1: he's always felt, even when he's been productive, that he
Speaker 1: could always potentially do more, that there's more out there
Speaker 1: for him. Then when he goes out there on the
Speaker 1: playoff stage and has a game like he had in Dallas,
Speaker 1: you just wonder if a performance like that in that
Speaker 1: kind of environment, with those kind of stakes in the
Speaker 1: NFL for a young receiver in his career, what does
Speaker 1: that mean in terms of a springboard later on?
Speaker 2: The last thing I'll close on with this that impresses
Speaker 2: me about this crew considering this isn't twenty fourteen anymore.
Speaker 2: You don't have a dozen guys on the roster with
Speaker 2: Super Bowl rings. The amount of urgency that young guys
Speaker 2: on this team have showed that understand the opportunity before them. Now,
Speaker 2: this was probably more a product of us talking to
Speaker 2: Kenny Clark and some of the guys at the tailgate tour,
Speaker 2: but you know, they understand that Brian Goudikuns kind of
Speaker 2: hit it out of the park the last two drafts.
Speaker 2: They knew that the way Matt Lafleur and this coaching
Speaker 2: staff developed players that they were getting uncommon production from rookies,
Speaker 2: first year, second year players. As that door opens, so
Speaker 2: too does a massive opportunity to chase a championship. The
Speaker 2: Packers are being careful. They don't want they want to
Speaker 2: keep expectations down, you know, they don't want to They
Speaker 2: don't want to make this thing bigger than it is.
Speaker 2: But there is that opportunity there and for young guys
Speaker 2: showing that maturity to understand, Okay, I'm going to play
Speaker 2: ten years in the league. I'm gonna have five cracks
Speaker 2: at a super Bowl. No, it's not like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's about what's.
Speaker 2: In front of you right now, and if you can
Speaker 2: capitalize on that opportunity.
Speaker 1: That's what I was going to say. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: it's an interesting dichotomy in a sense in terms of
Speaker 1: the front offices approach and the players approach, because Brian
Speaker 1: Gudakun's job and his personnel staff's job is to, you know,
Speaker 1: as they say, with regard to a window with a
Speaker 1: quarterback like Jordan Love, it's to keep the competitive window
Speaker 1: open as long as possible. You want to have a
Speaker 1: run of sustained success to get as many cracks at
Speaker 1: the playoffs as you can for that year that maybe
Speaker 1: it finally all comes together and you go and win
Speaker 1: a championship. So there's that's the perspective from the personnel
Speaker 1: side of things. The players themselves look at it as, yeah,
Speaker 1: the opportunity is right in front of us. It's all
Speaker 1: about right now, you know. And and you know, the
Speaker 1: personnel staff that is trying to build the roster, they
Speaker 1: can't go out there and win the games. They can.
Speaker 1: They do the best they can to put the most
Speaker 1: competitive team on the field that they can. It's up
Speaker 1: to the players, the guys to go out there and
Speaker 1: win the games. And as you said, they sense the
Speaker 1: opportunity that's here. As competitive as this this Packers team
Speaker 1: can be, and as far as they got last year,
Speaker 1: and as well as they were playing at the end
Speaker 1: of the season, the opportunity is. The opportunity is definitely there.
Speaker 1: And these guys, these guys aren't looking at it as oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you know, we'll figure it out one of these years.
Speaker 1: That's how That's not how the players. That's not how
Speaker 1: the players operate. That's not their mindset.
Speaker 2: The one thing too, I want to mention because Brian
Speaker 2: has been so careful about saying. He's like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: numbers a little higher than they usually are this time
Speaker 2: of the year, and that isn't necessarily always a great thing.
Speaker 2: But the way I look at it, too, is it
Speaker 2: tells you two things. That the Packers had seventy one
Speaker 2: players on the roster before they went into the draft.
Speaker 2: It tells you that you felt confident enough in the
Speaker 2: players that were in house to let the players that
Speaker 2: left go. And it also tells you that these guys
Speaker 2: who have been around here have been making the football
Speaker 2: team in more more often than not, have been making
Speaker 2: big contributions. Everybody wants to you know, the Ron Wolf thing.
Speaker 2: You want to go up a few Draft ten players,
Speaker 2: you want three to be starters. You know, the batting
Speaker 2: average idea. But Michael, you know this. Paul Mallidor went
Speaker 2: on a hit streak once. I mean, like, if you
Speaker 2: can bat seven hundred for a stretch, yeah, and the
Speaker 2: long enough timeline, it might work itself back down. But
Speaker 2: when you're hot, you want to stay hot. And I
Speaker 2: just feel like, again, we'll let this new draft class
Speaker 2: come in and perform and see what they can add
Speaker 2: to this thing. But it's such a massive opportunity that
Speaker 2: the Packers have right now, and I think everybody understands that,
Speaker 2: whether you want a verbalizer or not, obviously you want
Speaker 2: to keep this thing chill for players. You want them
Speaker 2: to focus on what's in front of them. What happened
Speaker 2: at the end of last season does not guarantee that
Speaker 2: it will happen again at the beginning of this season.
Speaker 1: You have to manage the expectations. You have to manage
Speaker 1: the outside noise. You have to be realistic about how
Speaker 1: long a seventeen game season is and that no, you
Speaker 1: don't just get to start in week one where you
Speaker 1: left off last January. That's not how this works. Everybody
Speaker 1: is starting over, include you. You have to earn everything
Speaker 1: and every opportunity that you get along the way.
Speaker 2: But what's fun about that, Mike, You're out in this community.
Speaker 2: I'm out in this community. The vibe that is a
Speaker 2: Brown Packers fans right now, oh last year, hopeful optimism,
Speaker 2: Hopeful that Jordan is going to be the guy, Hopeful
Speaker 2: that that one quick appearance against the Philadelphia Eagles is
Speaker 2: going to be enough from that to actual legitimate confidence
Speaker 2: and excitement about this season.
Speaker 1: That training camp is still two and a half months away,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, how many people in inbox have written the
Speaker 2: ball how exciting it was to get back to the draft,
Speaker 2: How exciting it wasn't see teams players back on the
Speaker 2: field for Rookie minni caamp, even if they were the
Speaker 2: first year guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's there. People feel it, Yeah, no doubt. A
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Speaker 1: Mini camp has done. What is the rest of the
Speaker 1: offseason schedule at this point? Because we're talking about the
Speaker 1: players being around, the coaches are around. So this week
Speaker 1: after the Rookie minute, right after the Rookie mini camp,
Speaker 1: the rookies are actually off then the players are players
Speaker 1: are going through their offseason workouts. They're doing you know,
Speaker 1: position work with their coaches, et cetera. Next week the
Speaker 1: rookies then join the veterans for those offseason workouts, and
Speaker 1: then the week after that is the start of OTAs,
Speaker 1: which is really the first time in the off season
Speaker 1: program where you can have eleven on eleven reps. You
Speaker 1: can have you can have the offense and the defense
Speaker 1: out there. It's still pads, you know, non contact and whatnot,
Speaker 1: but you can actually run, you know, run eleven on
Speaker 1: eleven sort of, you know, scrimmage stuff in shorts and helmets.
Speaker 1: So you get three weeks of OTAs. The way things
Speaker 1: have worked media wise in the past, one OTA per
Speaker 1: week is open to the media and then we get
Speaker 1: access to the locker room to do interviews, so as
Speaker 1: we get closer to the end of May, we'll be
Speaker 1: able to reconnect with the veteran players see some of
Speaker 1: these OTA workouts. And then in the middle of June
Speaker 1: you have the mandatory mini camp, which for the packers
Speaker 1: is scheduled from June eleven to June thirteen. And then
Speaker 1: when the mandatory mini camp is over, then that's essentially
Speaker 1: the end of the off season program and then you
Speaker 1: have the big break before everybody comes back for training
Speaker 1: camp and I hit the bar late July, yeah, or
Speaker 1: other places finding places to put our feet up, like
Speaker 1: Tom Clements. The other thing we are hearing, not making
Speaker 1: any declarations by any means, but we are hearing that
Speaker 1: it sounds like the NFL is going to be releasing
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four schedule next week sometime. So maybe
Speaker 1: on one of our shows next week, we'll have a
Speaker 1: chance to talk about the twenty twenty four schedule beyond
Speaker 1: Week one in Brazil and just how this whole, uh,
Speaker 1: this whole slate is going to line up. I know,
Speaker 1: your big ask of the NFL big as before the
Speaker 1: Brazil game was announced, was can Matt Lafleur please open
Speaker 1: a Packer season at home in Week one? Well that
Speaker 1: didn't happen because because we're headed to Brazil in early September.
Speaker 1: So beyond that wild way, yeah, I know, ye're six,
Speaker 1: I know, six, sixth year as a head coach and
Speaker 1: he has yet to have a home game in Week
Speaker 1: one at Lambeau.
Speaker 2: And the Packers requested it in eighteen when Mike McCarthy's
Speaker 2: last season with the last tiame They're Home.
Speaker 1: The Packers requested it, Yeah, requested as the as against
Speaker 1: the Bears as the first game of the one hundred season,
Speaker 1: and that was the last time the Packers had Week
Speaker 1: one at home. So with that out the window, do
Speaker 1: you have any requests for the scheduling deities of the
Speaker 1: NFL that you would like to see when we supposedly
Speaker 1: are going to get our hands on this schedule next
Speaker 1: week sometime.
Speaker 2: Justin I'm going to this camera. Please, I am begging you.
Speaker 2: Week four, no Thursday night football game the National is
Speaker 2: playing in Madison. If there, if I have to go
Speaker 2: to Brazil. And then three weeks later the NFL decides
Speaker 2: to drop a Thursday night football game on the night
Speaker 2: that the National is playing in Madison, I am going
Speaker 2: to lose my mind. Other than that, uh No. I
Speaker 2: was talking to my dad last night. I was like, Hey,
Speaker 2: could we maybe not get a Christmas game either this year?
Speaker 2: Four years in a row, we've either been traveling on
Speaker 2: Christmas or it's been Christmas Eve that we've played. Yeah,
Speaker 2: something like no Christmas game would be good, but but hey.
Speaker 1: That Christmas thing on Wednesday, whatever teams end up getting scheduled,
Speaker 1: that that whole thing is just gonna be weird because
Speaker 1: that because you're gonna get late in the season and
Speaker 1: then you're gonna have a Saturday game followed by a
Speaker 1: Wednesday game on Christmas, followed by then, you know, like
Speaker 1: a week and a half before your next game, when
Speaker 1: you could be right in the midst of you know,
Speaker 1: the playoff chase and wild card and division title implications.
Speaker 1: So whatever whatever teams end up playing on Christmas, with
Speaker 1: Christmas being on a Wednesday this year in the NFL
Speaker 1: saying that that there will be games scheduled on that day,
Speaker 1: that's just gonna be a weird deal. Like, and I'm
Speaker 1: hoping it's not us.
Speaker 2: I'll be serious now for a moment.
Speaker 1: Okay, not that I wasn't serious. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: you're pretty I just said, you're pretty serious about that
Speaker 1: concert you you need to go to in late September.
Speaker 2: I just missed the NF concert last night in Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: My friend Tessa Rue had had tickets for it available.
Speaker 2: I couldn't get down there for it. It's tough to
Speaker 2: be a sports writer sometimes, but no all joking aside,
Speaker 2: I would love, love, love to see Week two Packers
Speaker 2: Detroit Lions at Lambeufield. Okay, the Packers at lambeau Field
Speaker 2: is a must under no circumstances. Can there be a
Speaker 2: schedule out of the nine hundred nine ninety five thousand
Speaker 2: different machinations of these calculations they come up with for
Speaker 2: schedules if they go back to back road games after Brazil.
Speaker 1: Oh, there's there's there's no there's no way, there's just
Speaker 1: there's no way. Let's go Week two is okay.
Speaker 2: I think it'd be really fun to have that Lions matchup.
Speaker 2: I said this an Insider inbox this morning, Michael. I mean,
Speaker 2: I thought the NFL got it right last year. They
Speaker 2: put Detroit in Kansas City in Week one as the opener.
Speaker 2: Detroit lived up to those high expectations everybody had for them.
Speaker 1: It was a great game, and they certainly showed that that.
Speaker 1: That big win of Theirs over the Chiefs at Arrowhead
Speaker 1: was no fluke. Yeah, no doubt that Lions team was
Speaker 1: pretty darn good.
Speaker 2: Chris Jones could have maybe worked out that contract a
Speaker 2: week earlier, maybe the different things a little different.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that might have that might have helped the
Speaker 1: Packers in the NFC North Chase.
Speaker 2: But yes, just maybe, but be that as it may.
Speaker 2: I just I really I look for balance with these schedules, Michael.
Speaker 2: I look for mid season bys. I just look for
Speaker 2: some allowance to get into a rhythm. And I feel
Speaker 2: like more often than not, I'm not saying anything's out
Speaker 2: against the Packers. Everybody draws the short straw, but there's
Speaker 2: just been some really interesting Week fourteen byes, Week five bys.
Speaker 2: It just it's been all over the map. If you
Speaker 2: could just get a little bit more parody with it,
Speaker 2: no huge weird swings home games, road games, I feel
Speaker 2: like that could be something that could help this football.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna go the opposite of you with regard
Speaker 1: to your Week two Lions thing. I want the Lions
Speaker 1: game the Lions visit to lambeau Field this year to
Speaker 1: be Week eighteen in the cold. You know, you know
Speaker 1: that Week eighteen is going to be a division game, right,
Speaker 1: That's the way it is across the league. So it's
Speaker 1: going to be Bears, Vikings or Lions with the with
Speaker 1: the with the Packers and Lions presumably being you know,
Speaker 1: the two favorites for the NFC North. If the NFL
Speaker 1: wants to put the Packers and Lions in Week eighteen,
Speaker 1: put it at Lambo not at Ford Field, please, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that'd be really cool. That works for me.
Speaker 2: Any chance we go back to Detroit for Thanksgiving again,
Speaker 2: do you think would they do that back to back years.
Speaker 1: Back to back? It's I said, in my time, I
Speaker 1: have covered I have covered Packers lines on Thanksgiving in Detroit.
Speaker 1: I believe it's at least five times, but it has
Speaker 1: never been in back to back years before. So I
Speaker 1: don't think that's gonna happen, but can't rule it out.
Speaker 1: And you know, with that Thanksgiving night game thing, I
Speaker 1: mean maybe who knows, maybe Lambo's going to get a
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving game again like we had back in twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: for the years. So yeah, it's been nine years. The
Speaker 1: Brett Favre number retirement thing was on that rainy Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: night at Lambo against Chicago. So anyway, it's.
Speaker 2: Like the only game that Bears have won at Lambo too.
Speaker 2: And like my kid's lifetime, your kid wasn't even boring
Speaker 2: boring yet never mind. Yeah, I don't know Killian, I
Speaker 2: don't know if he's seen the Packers lose yet against
Speaker 2: the Bears, has he not?
Speaker 1: Maybe not? Maybe not?
Speaker 2: December of seventeen, off to look that one up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: get our stats and infot apartment on that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we've got just to let everybody know Wes
Speaker 1: and I are working on some of our follow up
Speaker 1: stories with regard to our draft picks. Wes posted a
Speaker 1: Jordan Morgan story this week. I believe that one up
Speaker 1: on the website on Wednesday, correct tomorrow. I've got a
Speaker 1: follow up story on Jacob Month, the fifth round offensive
Speaker 1: lineman from Duke. Early next week, We're going to have
Speaker 1: stories on some of the DB's Javon Bullard, Kaylin King.
Speaker 1: So keep an eye out for for those draft pick
Speaker 1: follow up stories as we head the rest of this
Speaker 1: week and into next week. And then maybe we're going
Speaker 1: to find out about that schedule for twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: And if we don't, I'm gonna lose my mind.
Speaker 1: So with that, we'll call it a rap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted'd be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. For
Speaker 1: Wes'm Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We will
Speaker 1: see you next time
Speaker 2: M HM.