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 Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you hear
Speaker 1: from our studios at lambeau Field.
Speaker 2: Wes.
Speaker 1: It's Mini Camp week. It is the final week of
Speaker 1: the off season program before the players and coaches take
Speaker 1: their summer break, and then we come back for training
Speaker 1: camp and the writers will try to take a break
Speaker 1: in there somewhere, right. That's sort of the idea at
Speaker 1: some point along the way. Before we get to previewing
Speaker 1: Mini Camp, though, just need to touch on the bit
Speaker 1: of news from Monday at twelve sixty five, which is
Speaker 1: that the Packers ultimately released seven year veteran cornerback and
Speaker 1: two time second team All Pro JayR Alexander. It had
Speaker 1: been sort of an uncertain situation all off season long
Speaker 1: as to whether Alexander would be back or not, or
Speaker 1: traded or what would happen. Ultimately, it sounds like they weren't.
Speaker 1: Packers and Alexander's camp were not able to agree on
Speaker 1: a restructured contract. Finding a trade partner didn't exactly work out,
Speaker 1: and with this being a mandatory mini camp week. It
Speaker 1: was time for a decision to be made, and that
Speaker 1: decision was made and the Packers have moved on.
Speaker 2: Yeah. In credit to the Packers and honestly credit to
Speaker 2: Jah too. I don't think this thing played out that
Speaker 2: much in the media. I think there was a lot
Speaker 2: of conjecture, but not a lot of bickering back and
Speaker 2: forth or anything like that. It's two professionals, two sides
Speaker 2: that I think at the end of the day, it
Speaker 2: probably wasn't everybody's best interest for a fresh start. I'll
Speaker 2: be honest with you, Michael. I made this very clear
Speaker 2: on social media. I mean, this hurts my heart. I
Speaker 2: love Jaw. I've really enjoyed covering him the last six
Speaker 2: seven years and I will continue to say this and
Speaker 2: you had to edit my insider inbox, but I just
Speaker 2: feel like there's in all our time, in my time
Speaker 2: covering the team, there's ever been a player that's probably
Speaker 2: been more misunderstood than jay R Alexander. He's a good,
Speaker 2: kind hearted individual. I mean, there's a reason why you
Speaker 2: saw so many players on this team reposting the Packers
Speaker 2: thank you graphic to Jaw on their stories on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Seeing people reach out. You heard Xavier McKinney and Jordan
Speaker 2: Love and Josh Jacobs, all these guys talk about him
Speaker 2: this offseason and what he means to this locker room.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing, and this is the fact of
Speaker 2: the matter. I mean, jo'sman banged up the last few years,
Speaker 2: and he's played I believe it's thirty four games since
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty season. The Packers had to make changes
Speaker 2: last year, losing him the second half of the year,
Speaker 2: and a lot of those changes, you know, really worked
Speaker 2: out well for this defense. When you saw what Keyshawn
Speaker 2: Nixon can do on the perimeter, when you saw Carrington
Speaker 2: Valentine getting opportunities again outside, and obviously the depth that
Speaker 2: they have at the safety position, and now bringing in
Speaker 2: Nate Hobbs. I mean, the Packers have made the necessary adjustments.
Speaker 2: You hope, for Jayr's sake, you can catch on somewhere
Speaker 2: get back to the type of player I think everybody
Speaker 2: knows he can be. But this is obviously the direction
Speaker 2: of the Packers have chosen to go. And I think
Speaker 2: as you move forward down to training camp here in
Speaker 2: the next six seven weeks, probably the best thing just
Speaker 2: to be able to have this kind of new chapter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of those situations where where the business
Speaker 1: of football, you know, sort of gets in the way
Speaker 1: of of you know what, everybody would just like it
Speaker 1: to be all simple and and and the business of
Speaker 1: football isn't simple when you're talking about injuries and high
Speaker 1: priced contracts and and you know, the the commitments and
Speaker 1: and all the all the stuff in the CBA and
Speaker 1: and uh. And it's two sides, a team and an
Speaker 1: individual player looking out for you know, their own best interests,
Speaker 1: and sometimes, uh, sometimes those things just don't connect and
Speaker 1: the and that can be the business of the game.
Speaker 1: I personally, I'm I really enjoyed covering JayR Alexander as well.
Speaker 1: I had a really nice, I'll never forget this, a
Speaker 1: really nice sit down interview with him. It was actually
Speaker 1: after his rookie season. I was doing a feature story
Speaker 1: in the Packers' yearbook heading into twenty nineteen, after he
Speaker 1: was the first dround pick in twenty eighteen, and obviously
Speaker 1: impressed as a rookie and just sitting down and talking
Speaker 1: football with the guy. But then once you start talking
Speaker 1: football with him, the conversation always ends up kind of
Speaker 1: going somewhere else right, and you it's like you get
Speaker 1: to know somebody a little bit. And I'll always remember
Speaker 1: that conversation because I learned very early on that Jay R.
Speaker 1: Alexander he's wired a little bit differently than just your
Speaker 1: average NFL player, for lack of a better phrase. But
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily a bad thing. We've seen guys wired
Speaker 1: differently come in and out of locker rooms like all
Speaker 1: the time. It's part of how things go here. And
Speaker 1: when the guy was healthy, he was a heck of
Speaker 1: a player for this team. And I I hope he
Speaker 1: can get back to that level again. I hope he
Speaker 1: can find good health in his career and UH and
Speaker 1: get back to UH to the all pro level player
Speaker 1: that he's been in the past. Will UH. We'll see
Speaker 1: what happens in that regard. The Packers of UH Packers
Speaker 1: have been planning for this. This is not this is
Speaker 1: not something that was a last minute, whimsical decision bringing
Speaker 1: in Nate Hobbs and in UH in the offseason. Obviously
Speaker 1: they learned, as we've talked a lot on the show
Speaker 1: about Keishawn Nixon and what he proved that he could
Speaker 1: do last year. There's a there will be a lot
Speaker 1: of eyes on Carrington Valentine now moving forward, and I
Speaker 1: think even though Valentine, you know, wasn't a big part
Speaker 1: of this defense for the first half of last season
Speaker 1: as he was dealing with a lot of injuries and stuff,
Speaker 1: we started to see some of Carrington Valentine's best football
Speaker 1: towards the end of last season, and I think that's
Speaker 1: where he's hoping to be able to to pick up
Speaker 1: where he left off as Jeff Haflee and the secondary
Speaker 1: coaches pieced together exactly what the secondary is going to
Speaker 1: look like in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Now. Yeah, and you know how it goes within cider inbox.
Speaker 2: You know how it goes with social media. The moment
Speaker 2: you move on from a player, people are always looking
Speaker 2: at one of the big veteran names of free agents
Speaker 2: that are available, and I understand why fans go down
Speaker 2: that route. But at the same time, when those questions
Speaker 2: were posed to me, the first thing I said was,
Speaker 2: I think Carrenton Valentine. I know, Carenton Valentine deserves the
Speaker 2: right to compete for a starting position, a permanent role
Speaker 2: on this defense. He's been a tremendous, tremendous soldier for
Speaker 2: Green Bay the last two seasons. Starts twelve games his
Speaker 2: rookie years in a pinch. Last year he ends up,
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, has the hamstring injuries, the soft tissue injuries.
Speaker 2: At the beginning of the season, kind of falls out
Speaker 2: of the rotation a little bit, was mostly just doing
Speaker 2: special teams, and then when the gay air stuff happens
Speaker 2: again after Jacksonville, he's thrown back in the lineup. And
Speaker 2: for as much as people have talked about jazz situation
Speaker 2: in Nate Hobbs and obviously Keishawn Nixon in his comments
Speaker 2: about kickoff returns and him wanting to play outside cornerback's,
Speaker 2: it's mind boggling to me that a bigger topic hasn't
Speaker 2: been this offseason. How Karens and Valentine really peaked at
Speaker 2: the end of last season. The interceptions that had eluded
Speaker 2: him at times during his college career at Kentucky and
Speaker 2: also early on with this time with Green Bay, he
Speaker 2: started pulling those passes down. Now he is a legit playmaker.
Speaker 2: And I keep mentioning this to you, Michael, the guy's
Speaker 2: twenty three years old. The Packers have players I think
Speaker 2: in this rookie draft class that are older than Carrington
Speaker 2: Valentine because he went out so early for the draft
Speaker 2: as a true junior. Well, now you're seeing him come
Speaker 2: into his own And the other thing I will also
Speaker 2: mention what I love about the way the Packers have
Speaker 2: situated this secondary. You have a guy Nate Hobbs who
Speaker 2: right now, at this point in time, looks like potentially
Speaker 2: that Star Nickel position. Well, if an injury happens on
Speaker 2: the outside, people ask, what happens, who do you go to? Well,
Speaker 2: Hobbs can go outside, and you got Bullard that can
Speaker 2: play inside. You have the other these safeties that can
Speaker 2: get involved in that. It's not just about perimeter, cornerback, inside, cornerback, slot, dime,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it. It's about having a
Speaker 2: multitude of players that can play those positions. And I
Speaker 2: think that's ultimately going to be a huge strength of
Speaker 2: this defense this season.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what we're going to be continuing
Speaker 1: to watch this week during mini camp and then obviously
Speaker 1: during training camp as well. But just how the pieces
Speaker 1: are coming together in the secondary. I think when you
Speaker 1: look at the cornerback position for the Packers right now,
Speaker 1: when you look at both outside and in the slot.
Speaker 1: It seems to me the top four guys, not in
Speaker 1: any particular order, are Nixon, Hobbs, Valentine, and Bullard. Bullard
Speaker 1: being a guy who plays the slot, Valentine being a
Speaker 1: guy who plays outside, Nixon and Hobbs being guys that
Speaker 1: will play beat either one. So in a sense, those
Speaker 1: are your top four cornerbacks, even though I know officially
Speaker 1: Bullard is a safety, but those are your top four
Speaker 1: cornerbacks for your nickel package. And I think where this
Speaker 1: goes from here is, Okay, how does the depth line
Speaker 1: up behind that? Are the Packers going to make another acquisition? Potentially?
Speaker 1: Where do things go with young guys like Kyln King
Speaker 1: and Kamal Haddn't and a new recent signee who's got
Speaker 1: some NFL game experience in Gregory Junior who has just
Speaker 1: brought in recently, all of that stuff, the depth behind
Speaker 1: those four guys is what needs to be sorted out.
Speaker 1: Because you know as well as I do that we
Speaker 1: can talk all we want about those four guys. The
Speaker 1: chances of those four guys at cornerback being available for
Speaker 1: all seventeen games, plus hopefully the playoffs for the Packers
Speaker 1: are pretty slim. So you're gonna need You're gonna need
Speaker 1: the next guys to be stepping up behind them, and
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be It's not only going
Speaker 1: to be an ongoing conversation this week through mini camp
Speaker 1: and also in training camp, but as the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five season develops, because some of those guys, like a
Speaker 1: Gregory Junior for example, just got here and what impression
Speaker 1: is he going to make, say during training camp to
Speaker 1: make a bid for the fifth three as this cornerback
Speaker 1: depth sorts itself out, for.
Speaker 2: Sure, Mike, And that's one thing I think is also exciting.
Speaker 2: It's a part of the uncertainty too, right, but I
Speaker 2: mean for as much and kaylen King, we've heard rave
Speaker 2: reviews from him so far this off season. Derek Ainsley,
Speaker 2: the Packers passing him quarter, had talked a couple weeks
Speaker 2: ago about he felt that he's had a really strong
Speaker 2: offseason program. But Hadden is such an interesting one too
Speaker 2: in that conversation because he was actually a higher draft
Speaker 2: pick than King in the two thousand He was a
Speaker 2: six twenty four draft, but the Packers brought him in
Speaker 2: late at the beginning of the regular season on the
Speaker 2: practice squad, so you kind of forget these things that
Speaker 2: you know, Gregory Junior was a former draft pick. These
Speaker 2: guys have credentials. These aren't just random dudes that the
Speaker 2: Packers signed. But at the same time, you know, we
Speaker 2: know player acquisition is a three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 2: day yep thing. And there's been times where we've seen
Speaker 2: Dennis Kelly come in the week before training camp, right,
Speaker 2: I mean that they do make those signings too. So
Speaker 2: seeing what the next move is for green Bay and
Speaker 2: how you go about handling is gonna be really fascinating.
Speaker 2: And also the fact of, you know, the salary cap
Speaker 2: room that you've now cleared with JayR Alexander. The Packers
Speaker 2: have a multitude of players from that twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: draft class that'll be coming up for contracts here after
Speaker 2: this season, you'll be able to extend work on extensions.
Speaker 2: With a very promising twenty twenty three draft class, the
Speaker 2: circle of NFL life just continues to go over and
Speaker 2: you know restart. So a very bright future for green Bay.
Speaker 2: But it was wild to me too. I'll close on this.
Speaker 2: When we talked about green Bay, you know, going all
Speaker 2: in or whatever in twenty one and all this thing,
Speaker 2: and now Green Bay's at a position where they have
Speaker 2: so much cap room to play with as well. Again,
Speaker 2: a lot of different things that Brian Goodikuntz in this
Speaker 2: personnel department can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what else are you going to be watching for
Speaker 1: here during the three days of mini camp? Just to
Speaker 1: recap for the fans. Mini camp as of now scheduled
Speaker 1: for Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday this week and this will wrap
Speaker 1: up the off season program after this. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like the last day of school for the players. They
Speaker 1: head out on their summer break and then they will
Speaker 1: report back. I believe it's July twenty two for training camp,
Speaker 1: with the first practice schedule for July twenty three. I know,
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen the cross training going on with
Speaker 1: the offensive line. We've seen, you know, all sorts of
Speaker 1: different guys getting reps at wide receiver with Jordan Love
Speaker 1: with the number one offense. What are the kinds of
Speaker 1: things you'll be looking for on the practice field?
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see. Obviously, most of these guys
Speaker 2: will be in you know, I have already been here,
Speaker 2: so we've seen some of these matchups already. But you know,
Speaker 2: if you watch that I don't know if you got
Speaker 2: a chance to check out or if people have had
Speaker 2: a chance to check out the micd up segment that
Speaker 2: our video department put together. Matt Lafleur from last week.
Speaker 2: You know, he had a speech for the guys at
Speaker 2: the end of practice where he was talking about asking
Speaker 2: the veterans directing this at the young guys, what's it
Speaker 2: going to be like out here? Once training comp comes around,
Speaker 2: It's going to be hotter. The competition is going to
Speaker 2: be fiercer. Everything ramps up. This is the final notch
Speaker 2: here before I mean the final warm up if you will. Yeah,
Speaker 2: before you know, jobs in positions and things are going
Speaker 2: to start to get decided. You're no longer just going
Speaker 2: to be locked into one role. They're going to start
Speaker 2: figuring out, Okay, who fits best where and what is
Speaker 2: that depth shart going to potentially look like. So from
Speaker 2: that perspective, this Receiving Corps is going to continue to
Speaker 2: be probably the biggest I think highlight of watching these practices.
Speaker 2: We saw it again last week and mattel Flour again
Speaker 2: talked about it every offseason. It seems like I mentioned
Speaker 2: how Romeo Dobbs is the most consistent practice performer I
Speaker 2: think I've seen outside of Jordan Nelson during my time
Speaker 2: covering the Packers, he is just I mean, he doesn't
Speaker 2: drop passes. He's wherever he needs to be. If you're
Speaker 2: doing a two minute drive at the number one offense,
Speaker 2: I guarantee you he's getting that ball three times. It's
Speaker 2: just the way it always seems to work out. And
Speaker 2: Dobbs's back to that again. He's put the concussion injury
Speaker 2: and those type of things behind him and now trying
Speaker 2: to play and get ready for again. As we've talked
Speaker 2: about a huge year four for him. You know, Matthew Golden,
Speaker 2: we saw the fast twitch muscle fiber in practice, and yeah,
Speaker 2: he's not going to be the biggest receiver on the field,
Speaker 2: but by golly, this guy finds ways to get open
Speaker 2: and you can just see when he puts his foot
Speaker 2: in the dirt how quickly he can get up field.
Speaker 2: This is going to be a tremendous competition and you've
Speaker 2: written about it, we all talked about it. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is probably gonna be one of the hardest years
Speaker 2: Green Bay's had figuring out what their fifty three man
Speaker 2: roster is going to be like. Based on what this
Speaker 2: off season ninety man roster has been, and I think
Speaker 2: from that aspect of it, it's really exciting. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is your last chance to make a final impression
Speaker 2: here before we get to training camp, and you know,
Speaker 2: everything really truly does shift into that final gear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. I've been I've been asked an insider
Speaker 1: inbox about, you know, is this the deepest Packers team
Speaker 1: that you've ever covered? And I wasn't quite sure how
Speaker 1: to answer that, but I answered it by saying, at
Speaker 1: least in recent memory, this feels like one of the
Speaker 1: deepest ninety man rosters as far as the off season
Speaker 1: roster that I can recall. But I don't like to
Speaker 1: say things like this is the this is the deepest
Speaker 1: Packers team, because, for one, you can't keep every buddy right.
Speaker 1: You've got to narrow this down to fifty three at
Speaker 1: the end of August, beginning of September, and between now
Speaker 1: and then, there is going to be stuff that happens.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by stuff is guys are gonna
Speaker 1: get hurt.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 1: You know, if injuries happen in training camp or the
Speaker 1: preseason games, that's going to impact how the fifty three
Speaker 1: shapes up and then and then what you're going into
Speaker 1: Week one with and all that. So yeah, I really
Speaker 1: like the night this ninety man roster that that Brian
Speaker 1: Gudukunsten's personnel department have put together this summer. But ninety
Speaker 1: getting cut down to fifty three. That's thirty seven. That's
Speaker 1: thirty seven guys. You know, now a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: those guys will be brought back on the practice squad.
Speaker 1: And the practice squad is sixteen players now, which is
Speaker 1: double the size of what it was a handful of
Speaker 1: years ago. But still, you know how how that fifty
Speaker 1: three shakes out? And I think I said it on
Speaker 1: one of our shows earlier, I think the Packers are
Speaker 1: going to be potentially releasing a lot more experienced NFL
Speaker 1: players potentially than they have in years past because the
Speaker 1: competition for that fifty three is going to be is
Speaker 1: going to be so tough, and the personnel department has
Speaker 1: done such a good job in recent drafts that even
Speaker 1: if they see a draft pick that maybe isn't going
Speaker 1: to play right away, they don't want to just they
Speaker 1: don't want to just let that guy go. They want
Speaker 1: that guy to be on the fifty three to continue
Speaker 1: to develop and see where he is toward the end
Speaker 1: of his rookie year, see where he is in his
Speaker 1: second year. And if you believe in a player like that,
Speaker 1: you don't want to just release him and cross your
Speaker 1: fingers that you get him back on the practice squad,
Speaker 1: because as soon as you release him, he's available to anybody,
Speaker 1: and you don't know who might who might snatch him up.
Speaker 1: And anybody who is on the practice squad is essentially
Speaker 1: a free agent. They can go sign wherever they want
Speaker 1: to if somebody comes along and offers them. So all
Speaker 1: of those roster machinations have to get sorted out at
Speaker 1: the end of training camp before we really get a
Speaker 1: feel for, Okay, exactly how deep, how deep is this
Speaker 1: Packers team? How did the depth sort itself out when
Speaker 1: you had to when you have to make the tough
Speaker 1: decisions and those are a ways away, and.
Speaker 2: You hit the nail on the head there with when
Speaker 2: you look at the twenty two, twenty three, twenty four
Speaker 2: draft classes, I personally think, you know, we talked so
Speaker 2: much about Ron Wolf and oh he traded for Brett
Speaker 2: Farv and he signed Reggie White and that was so
Speaker 2: exciting people so oftentimes overlook the fact that those early
Speaker 2: nineties drafts, the amount of capable players that built those
Speaker 2: super Bowl teams. How many of those came in ninety two,
Speaker 2: ninety three, ninety four, ninety five. Yep, this is what
Speaker 2: it feels like right now with what Green Bay's done
Speaker 2: with these these recent draft classes. You had twenty two,
Speaker 2: which I think, pound for pound, is going to end
Speaker 2: up being one of the best ones of the twenty
Speaker 2: first century. When you think about the zach Thoms finding
Speaker 2: them on Day three, right, a guy that could potentially
Speaker 2: end up being an All Pro right tackle. When you
Speaker 2: think about the playmakers like you know, Tucker Craft in
Speaker 2: the third round in twenty twenty three, and then twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, the Packers might have gotten the best one
Speaker 2: of all of them with Eddrian Cooper potentially with the
Speaker 2: potential he showed early on and where he could potentially go.
Speaker 2: That's how you build a championship team. I challenge people
Speaker 2: like with this all the time. I Mean, you see
Speaker 2: the the you know Kansas City, you see Philadelphia get
Speaker 2: to the Super Bowl. How did they do that? It's
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes as Jalen Hurst. Look at those recent draft
Speaker 2: classes for the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean they hit it
Speaker 2: out of the park with their drafts recently. If a
Speaker 2: team makes it that far, if you look at their
Speaker 2: last two or three drafts, chances are there was some
Speaker 2: pretty talented football players that came out of it. And
Speaker 2: I feel like that's where Green Bay's at right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. One other topic I want
Speaker 1: to hit on before we go and hit the practice
Speaker 1: field ourselves for watching mini camp. Here, Serious x MNFL
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Speaker 1: years of better all right. A lot of content up
Speaker 1: on packers dot com. You posted a story yesterday on
Speaker 1: Zach Tom, the right tackle heading into a big year four.
Speaker 1: We talked about Tom a lot on a previous show.
Speaker 1: A story that you posted last week that we didn't
Speaker 1: actually get a chance to address too much. Another offensive Lineman,
Speaker 1: and it's the newcomer at left guard, Aaron Banks, the
Speaker 1: free agent signing from the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 1: Certainly an understated fella is his first meeting with the
Speaker 1: media was nothing gregarious. There were no headlines necessarily coming
Speaker 1: from the comments. But the one thing that you gleaned,
Speaker 1: and certainly I did as well, is this is a
Speaker 1: guy that, yeah, he was had a lot of success
Speaker 1: with the forty nine ers, but that forty nine ers
Speaker 1: team was always just so close and just couldn't quite
Speaker 1: finish the deal. And he feels pretty good about coming
Speaker 1: to this team, which maybe hasn't gotten as close as
Speaker 1: the forty nine ers, but is still a team on
Speaker 1: the rise and is possibly gonna get the same kind
Speaker 1: of shot or shots that the forty nine ers have had.
Speaker 1: His drive, his desire to win a Super Bowl is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest reasons he's here.
Speaker 2: This guy man, It was until he said it that
Speaker 2: I finally went back and looked at what the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers statistics were and what their records looked like
Speaker 2: the last four years. Yeah, I wrote it in the story.
Speaker 2: I mean, Aaron Banks came as close as you can
Speaker 2: get to winning a Super Bowl ring without doing it. Yep,
Speaker 2: two NFC Championship Game appearances right away. You forget about that.
Speaker 2: I forget about that. Maybe you didn't, but I forget
Speaker 2: about you know, because we focus so much on what happened,
Speaker 2: and you know, in the Super Bowl and kind of
Speaker 2: losing that late and then the overtime and everything. You
Speaker 2: forget that the two years before that they had lost
Speaker 2: in the NFC Championship Game, and then last year they're
Speaker 2: hoping to Okay, well we're going to close the door now. Yes,
Speaker 2: we didn't get it done. We got another shot at
Speaker 2: this thing, and you saw how the Christian McCaffrey injury,
Speaker 2: the injuries that followed that sort of knock that train
Speaker 2: off the tracks, and the forty nine ers. That was
Speaker 2: a tough way to do this thing. So yeah, Aaron Banks,
Speaker 2: obviously you're an unrestricted free agent. You want to take
Speaker 2: care of your family, you want to get paid. But
Speaker 2: he also didn't want to get too far away from
Speaker 2: where he had already been. Yeah, in terms of being
Speaker 2: a competitive, winning organization and culture, I think sometimes fans
Speaker 2: get so wrapped up on well, these guys are making
Speaker 2: all this money, these guys do this every single day, Mike,
Speaker 2: You and I see them walk in this building every
Speaker 2: single day. The hours they have to invest here in
Speaker 2: both at home, taking care of themselves, training all that.
Speaker 2: It is a NonStop job. Now, you don't want to
Speaker 2: do that job and then come out with three wins
Speaker 2: a season. You want to compete for that championship. And
Speaker 2: that's where Banks feels like he is. That's where he
Speaker 2: feels like this place has brought him to the fact.
Speaker 2: In addition to the fact six five, three hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty five pounds, the Green Bay Packers is they've started
Speaker 2: to meld their offensive line. This is the direction this
Speaker 2: thing is going. This is a power football team with
Speaker 2: Josh Jacobs behind the controls, right. I mean, they want
Speaker 2: to be able to run the ball directly at your
Speaker 2: face and go through you to the end zone. Banks
Speaker 2: is one of those guys that can help them do that.
Speaker 2: In addition to the fact, he's pretty darn athletic for
Speaker 2: a guy his size. This is a former second round
Speaker 2: pick in twenty twenty one. I mean, this is a
Speaker 2: guy that came in with major credentials from Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: So now coming into his own twenty seven years old,
Speaker 2: and kind of building himself up into this player that
Speaker 2: he's become. The Packers feel like this guy could be
Speaker 2: the missing piece, and certainly he's motivated to maximize on
Speaker 2: that opportunity. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One really interesting statistic that I found on Aaron Banks
Speaker 1: back when the Packers signed him, and I had kind
Speaker 1: of forgotten about it and then was reminded of it.
Speaker 1: I was just looking it up the other day. He
Speaker 1: basically started the last three seasons, other than missing a
Speaker 1: couple games here and there with minor injuries, started the
Speaker 1: last three full seasons at left guard for the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers. That first year he was a starter at
Speaker 1: left guard, he was flagged for holding five times. The
Speaker 1: last two seasons combined, he was flagged for holding three times.
Speaker 1: This is a guy who he got his opportunity, took
Speaker 1: a few lumps, had to learn some things along the way,
Speaker 1: and has developed into a polished pro whom the Packers believe,
Speaker 1: as they always do when they make this type of
Speaker 1: investment in a guy coming off of a rookie contract,
Speaker 1: the Packers believe that he hasn't played his best well yet,
Speaker 1: that there's still another another step forward for this guy,
Speaker 1: And yeah, that could potentially be be a really big
Speaker 1: step because this guy is an awfully big man and
Speaker 1: he's going to he's going to have a presence in
Speaker 1: the run game, man the pass game as the left
Speaker 1: guard for this team.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought up the penalized thing too, because
Speaker 2: it's the same thing with Nate Hobbs, where Hobbs played
Speaker 2: a physical nickel position in Vegas had one accepted penalty
Speaker 2: I think last season for defensive holding. I mean, this
Speaker 2: is a guy that plays within his fundamentals, and that's
Speaker 2: what this comes down to, particularly when you look at
Speaker 2: the offensive line like that. When somebody has that few penalties,
Speaker 2: it tells you two things. One, he's not getting beaten
Speaker 2: in two, his technique and his fundamentals are where they
Speaker 2: need to be. Because there is that old adage about, hey,
Speaker 2: offensive linemen are holding on every single play, but are
Speaker 2: you staying within the framework of the body. Are you
Speaker 2: making sure that if a player gets a move on you,
Speaker 2: you're not getting to that outside shoulder. Right. That's where
Speaker 2: Banks has excelled. And when you see him physically, it
Speaker 2: makes sense. I mean, this guy is a road grading
Speaker 2: type interior offensive lineman. Now we have to see everything
Speaker 2: that plays out here with Elton Jenkins and potentially him
Speaker 2: at the center position. Obviously we've seen Sean Ryan take
Speaker 2: and snaps there while also being in that competition for
Speaker 2: right guard. Jacob Munk has gotten some important reps inside
Speaker 2: and at the center position during this camp and then
Speaker 2: certainly figuring out how everything's going to shuffle out the
Speaker 2: left tackle position with Jordan Morgan potentially being incorporated into that.
Speaker 2: What is the point I'm trying to make with all
Speaker 2: that green Bay as options and in addition to the
Speaker 2: fact that now you have a lynchpin, a guy that
Speaker 2: you can build around at left guard, there's a lot
Speaker 2: more flexibility that Green Bay can do there. That was
Speaker 2: one of the drawbacks of where they were at with
Speaker 2: Elton Jenkins is that if they had to move them,
Speaker 2: if there was an injury there, who's stepping in for
Speaker 2: him at left guard? Ye. Now you have a guy
Speaker 2: like Banks that has that position, has that experience, has
Speaker 2: done it at a high levels, played in those big games,
Speaker 2: and also still having that versatility with a Jenkins, with
Speaker 2: a Tom with a Sean Ryan, guys that can move
Speaker 2: around a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, we got to head out to the practice
Speaker 1: field catch what we can of Mini camp, so we
Speaker 1: will call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team and this week's mini camp on packers dot com.
Speaker 1: We will have one more unscripted show for you later
Speaker 1: this week before we take a break from these chairs
Speaker 1: and then come back for training camp. So for Wes,
Speaker 1: I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody, we
Speaker 1: will see excit