Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkuits. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: Hear from our studios at Lambeufield to talk about OTA's wes.
Speaker 1: We got a chance to witness one practice this week.
Speaker 1: It was on Tuesday. Players were out in the field
Speaker 1: for about an hour and a half, maybe a little longer, yeah,
Speaker 1: hour forty five, right in that range. I'll just throw
Speaker 1: it out to you open ended. There's certainly coverage on
Speaker 1: our website. Maybe some of you have already seen the
Speaker 1: stories from Wednesday Thursday off of Tuesday afternoons practice. But
Speaker 1: what was the your number one top ranked observation.
Speaker 2: Everybody gets all fidgety and upset about people saying, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm in the best shape of my life. But I
Speaker 2: will say it's always interesting. Four months is not that
Speaker 2: much time in the grand scheme of things, from when
Speaker 2: the Packers season ended to.
Speaker 3: Where we are right now.
Speaker 2: But I always find it interesting when you look at
Speaker 2: guys like Carrington Valentine, when you look at Colby Wooden,
Speaker 2: you know, even a guy like Christian Watson. Guys do
Speaker 2: look different, Yeah, come back because they are. Most of
Speaker 2: these guys, they are fully dedicating themselves to building up
Speaker 2: their bodies in those three four months that they're away
Speaker 2: from this team.
Speaker 1: And guys like that are also quite young. They're not
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're not fully formed professional athletes. Yet
Speaker 1: we saw the same thing a decade ago with David
Speaker 1: Bachtiar guys like that who changed, not just changed in
Speaker 1: terms of the way they played and how they you know,
Speaker 1: understood the game and all that, but their bodies physically
Speaker 1: change when they're within those first couple of years of
Speaker 1: their pro career.
Speaker 2: I even thought, you weren't in the scrum with me
Speaker 2: and Jordan Love, but I even thought Jordan, you know,
Speaker 2: looked a little bit bigger, more toned, more of.
Speaker 3: A man, so to speak.
Speaker 2: But be that as it may, I was super impressed
Speaker 2: by just the tent into detail with this football team
Speaker 2: coming back. Keishaw Nixon kind of touched down and a
Speaker 2: number of guys were talking about how when you look
Speaker 2: at the perfect attendance that they've pretty much had so far,
Speaker 2: the fact that the Packers got as close as they
Speaker 2: did last year to finally getting over the hump against
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers, I think that's fueling the veterans
Speaker 2: that are coming back, and you have a bunch of young,
Speaker 2: hungry players that are trying to fit into that mold
Speaker 2: as well. So it was one practice. They had many
Speaker 2: more that we were not privy to that that we
Speaker 2: did not see. But for it being the first time
Speaker 2: seeing the entire football team back together in three and
Speaker 2: a half months, I was pretty impressed by what I saw.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think when you talk about that vibe
Speaker 1: that's within the team and the hunger and you know,
Speaker 1: the opportunity that these guys feel that's in front of them.
Speaker 1: In some ways, it's amazing what one year of missing
Speaker 1: the playoffs does for veteran players, because twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: was a tremendous disappointment. You know, the season was rough
Speaker 1: for a long way. Then the Packers got hot, started
Speaker 1: to make a run, than they had that playoff birth
Speaker 1: in their grasp at home chance to win and get in,
Speaker 1: and it got away from him. And for veteran players
Speaker 1: like a Keishaan Nixon, you know, guys like that, then
Speaker 1: when you do get to the playoffs like they did
Speaker 1: last year, you felt you were playing well, playing as
Speaker 1: well as anybody in the league, anybody that was in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and had a shot at this thing, and
Speaker 1: you don't quite get there, and you know, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a tremendous disappointment, there's tremendous regret. Yes, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of optimism and what not looking forward, but those
Speaker 1: opportunities like twenty twenty three, they sting even more when
Speaker 1: you're coming off of a season when you didn't when
Speaker 1: you didn't make the playoffs the year before. So to me,
Speaker 1: what I sense is this is the veteran players in particular,
Speaker 1: these guys are these guys are taking nothing for granted
Speaker 1: in that they know the type of team that they
Speaker 1: have and what they might be able to accomplish, and
Speaker 1: they don't want to go down the road of a
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two again, And they don't want to go
Speaker 1: down the road of the first half to three quarters
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three when they were just trying to
Speaker 1: figure things out. You know, they got things figured out
Speaker 1: at the end of last season. They know what they
Speaker 1: can be, they know what they can accomplish, and so
Speaker 1: it's like it's like, hey, let's go. It's It's as
Speaker 1: though they feel like they could, you know, head down
Speaker 1: to Brazil next week and play that week one game. Now,
Speaker 1: that's not how it works. Obviously, there's a ton of
Speaker 1: work to put in and everything to get ready for
Speaker 1: the season. But these guys, especially the veteran players, they
Speaker 1: know that there's an opportunity this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for this whole practice again. Now, I was
Speaker 2: talking with Sean Ryan about this some other guys. You know,
Speaker 2: you don't have the pads on, you don't have the
Speaker 2: full contact element to this thing. It's still is more
Speaker 2: that getting sort of acclimated, orientated to the new playbook
Speaker 2: and what the exactly the assignments are going to be.
Speaker 2: But I felt overall there was a energy within that
Speaker 2: practice that to me was somewhat different than in the past.
Speaker 2: And the question was asked an insider inbox about Okay, like,
Speaker 2: how how different is the feel around the building this
Speaker 2: year compared to last year around the building? I actually
Speaker 2: don't think it's much different. I think people believed in
Speaker 2: Jordan Love. They certainly believed him as a person. Last year,
Speaker 2: I think there was a lot of guys that respected
Speaker 2: the way he handled himself as the backup to Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2: So when he got his opportunity, everybody wanted to go
Speaker 2: full tilt for him. But now you have the excitement
Speaker 2: beyond this because you have the four hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: nine snaps or whatever or five dred and forty nine
Speaker 2: snaps whatever it was, or passes that Jordan Love threw
Speaker 2: last year. You have the touchdowns, you have the production,
Speaker 2: you have that late season rally, and I think that's
Speaker 2: pulling guys back together. In addition to the fact that
Speaker 2: a lot of these guys Mike that had some injury
Speaker 2: questions at the end of the season. You know, you
Speaker 2: look at Kingsley Ningbari was out there, he didn't need
Speaker 2: a niece sleeve. He was good to go, basically a
Speaker 2: full participant. I guess you would say Christian Watson and
Speaker 2: Eric Stokes will probably talk about that in a second,
Speaker 2: but both of those guys went down to UW. Madison
Speaker 2: with the Packers' training staff, felt like they got some answers,
Speaker 2: maybe not to what will completely solve this thing, but
Speaker 2: at least to what's causing all this Yeah, and now
Speaker 2: come back feeling more confident in their own bodies, and
Speaker 2: then certainly this team I think there was one player
Speaker 2: that wasn't there because of a personal excused absence. But
Speaker 2: to have JayR Alexander working with Xavier McKinney and all
Speaker 2: these different individuals who are in this building and already
Speaker 2: starting to pull the wagon here for the Packers. As
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleura says, at several turns, when your quarterback's there,
Speaker 2: when your veterans are there, everybody follows.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, as far as what we saw on the field
Speaker 1: during the practice on Tuesday, I have to admit I
Speaker 1: was a little surprised, and we were probably a bit
Speaker 1: misleading to our regular viewers and listeners with Tuesday show
Speaker 1: with regard to maybe how how some of these rookies
Speaker 1: were going to be fitting in because the guys like
Speaker 1: Edri and Cooper and Javon Bullard on defense, they were
Speaker 1: not with the ones they the teams were the when
Speaker 1: they went to eleven on eleven, which was not run
Speaker 1: at full speed on Tuesday. It was more what they
Speaker 1: call teaching speed. But in the eleven on elevens there
Speaker 1: was the first units on one side of the field
Speaker 1: and then the backup units on the other side of
Speaker 1: the field, and when it came to the ones versus ones.
Speaker 1: The rookies weren't out there, so so we'll see what
Speaker 1: that means moving forward. And as far as as far
Speaker 1: as where things go in training camp, I don't know
Speaker 1: if if not doing that was because they want the
Speaker 1: rookies to sort of earn their stripes a little bit,
Speaker 1: or if it's because they would like to have the
Speaker 1: rookies actually working on the same unit together as they
Speaker 1: learn the defense together. There could be there could be
Speaker 1: various reasons for it, and we're not really sure and
Speaker 1: honestly what it's going to matter more in training camp
Speaker 1: than an OTAs anyway. But that being said, it was
Speaker 1: a little bit unexpected, at least to me based on
Speaker 1: how the depth chart looked.
Speaker 2: One point One thing to keep in mind because I
Speaker 2: was talking to one of the beat writers already and
Speaker 2: he shall.
Speaker 3: Remain nameless, good friend.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's Pete Doherty, but you know he was
Speaker 2: asking me like some depth chart questions there, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: here's the thing about this, because I understand that's what
Speaker 2: fans think right away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, depth charts.
Speaker 2: One thing that people have to understand is we're writing
Speaker 2: this content.
Speaker 3: This week.
Speaker 2: The packers did two spot in team eleven on eleven.
Speaker 2: That's pretty unconventional for an OTA practice. Yeah, to have
Speaker 2: your ones on one end and your twos on another end.
Speaker 2: And I think that kind of impacted it as well,
Speaker 2: because I remember back when we were using the analogy
Speaker 2: of twenty nineteen, well, you had the reserves on offense
Speaker 2: and the reserves on defense on the sideline when they
Speaker 2: were doing the team eleven on eleven when Darnell Savage
Speaker 2: was on the back end with Adrian Amos in this
Speaker 2: particular practice, it was very interesting what Green Bay did
Speaker 2: because you had Edrin Cooper and Tyrone Hopper over there
Speaker 2: with the ones, but then you had, in addition to
Speaker 2: the safeties over with the twos or whatever you want
Speaker 2: to call it, you also had Corey Valentine and Valentine
Speaker 2: Carrington Valentine, my goodness, I'm back to that again over
Speaker 2: there working with the two team too. So they kind
Speaker 2: of mix the personnel a little bit more than what
Speaker 2: you would expect because I think they were just trying
Speaker 2: to get the reps in. And again, what happens today
Speaker 2: has no impact on what's going to happen next week
Speaker 2: or the week after. It's going to be about the
Speaker 2: packers gathering their data, seeing who's healthy when we'll talk
Speaker 2: about that too in a bit here as well. And
Speaker 2: then once you get into training camp, you get through
Speaker 2: those initial weeks and then you start to see the
Speaker 2: shuffling happy you see the guys rising a little bit,
Speaker 2: or the depth chart's kind of shifting. But right now
Speaker 2: it's it's loose leaf paper man. I mean, it's all recyclable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I'm and as I had said on our
Speaker 1: show earlier this week, when we were sort of previewing
Speaker 1: the OTAs as reporters, when we only get to see
Speaker 1: what going on one day a week, you don't know if
Speaker 1: the next day everything is shuffled around in terms of
Speaker 1: who's lining up with whom and what unit and what
Speaker 1: the depth chart looks like. We'll get another day next
Speaker 1: week where we get to watch practice again, but there
Speaker 1: are practice days on either side of that day where
Speaker 1: we don't necessarily know what's going on out there. So
Speaker 1: all we can report on is what we what we observe,
Speaker 1: and and nobody's going to necessarily explain, you know, the
Speaker 1: day to day process and how they're going about it
Speaker 1: at this time of year, which is why you take it.
Speaker 1: You understand, you understand what you can, but yet you
Speaker 1: don't put put too much into it. You've mentioned sort
Speaker 1: of the health update and the reports there. I do
Speaker 1: want to start with kings Leannagbari because to see him
Speaker 1: out there with not a thing on that knee, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is this is may. I mean this is basically
Speaker 1: four months. Yeah, since the injury, which was in the
Speaker 1: wild card game in Dallas to his knee, which was
Speaker 1: initially feared to be a torn acl apparently it was not.
Speaker 1: He has avoided reconstructive surgery. But not only that, he's
Speaker 1: out there in OTAs and considered considered full go. According
Speaker 1: to Matt Lafleur, there's no restrictions, no limitations. He's got
Speaker 1: no kind of sleeve or brace or anything on that knee.
Speaker 1: I'm frankly, I'm kind of blown away by that, because
Speaker 1: even if even if he's able to avoid reconstructive surgery
Speaker 1: and the injury is not as bad as anyone thought,
Speaker 1: you would still think that here in OTAs and non
Speaker 1: contact stuff, that there'd be some limitations on him. And
Speaker 1: there aren't.
Speaker 3: He's good to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Tyler Davis still wasn't participating yet he's
Speaker 2: almost a year out from his ACL. That's nothing against Tyler,
Speaker 2: but just shows you the amount of caution they usually
Speaker 2: show it this time of the year with these guys.
Speaker 2: There wasn't that concern at all with an Igbari and Michael.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you right now, I am not a doctor,
Speaker 2: but that ACL ligament in his knee must be a
Speaker 2: bungee cord, because I mean, you weren't you were the
Speaker 2: way we do our press conferences after the games. As
Speaker 2: you're with the coach, you're with the quarterback, I'm in.
Speaker 3: The locker room.
Speaker 2: I will forever have that image of Kingsley with the
Speaker 2: towel over his head, being extremely emotional around his teammates, which,
Speaker 2: as we found out later on, was after he'd been
Speaker 2: kind of told that, yeah, it's not looking so good here.
Speaker 2: They had to do their MRIs and stuff, but the
Speaker 2: initial tests weren't looking good. Yeah, that there might have
Speaker 2: been a tear there. And then we see him a
Speaker 2: week later, two weeks later, and he's walking around the
Speaker 2: locker room find and I remember saying to you, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'd never seen a guy with an ACL injury.
Speaker 3: Look that good walking around they're on a couple weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there might be in a wheelchair. I mean, like
Speaker 2: there's a different a scooter like and he looked great.
Speaker 2: And then here we are, last last hurdle, first day
Speaker 2: of the offseason program. Evan Siegul goes down to the
Speaker 2: Hudson Center, takes the photos of the guys throwing the
Speaker 2: medicine ball around, you know, for the phase one with
Speaker 2: the strength of conditioning staff, and Nigbari's out there running
Speaker 2: around circles and stuff, and we're all and I'm trying
Speaker 2: to make sense of it, like, well, you know, you
Speaker 2: never can be too sure. Obviously it's not contact practice.
Speaker 2: And then there he is out there on the practice field.
Speaker 2: You feel so good for him from a personal perspective because, dude,
Speaker 2: he was there when Rashaun Gary towards ACL He knows
Speaker 2: what it looks like when you have to make that
Speaker 2: rally back, not just the time that you missed, but
Speaker 2: everything that goes into actually rebuilding your knee. And here
Speaker 2: he is, He's out there. Hopefully he continues to cross that.
Speaker 2: But the fact that the packers allowed him, the trainers,
Speaker 2: the doctors allowed him to be out there on the field,
Speaker 2: that speaks volumes in terms of just what condition that
Speaker 2: knee is in right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. Well, the injury news wasn't all good, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: and we know that these are the kinds of things
Speaker 1: that we find out about this time of year. One,
Speaker 1: on the very minor side of things, free agent running
Speaker 1: back Josh Jacobs was not participating in the drills and
Speaker 1: the practice and everything on Tuesday. He has a hamstring injury,
Speaker 1: not considered serious by any means, could be back out
Speaker 1: there by the end of OTAs or for the mini
Speaker 1: camp later we'll see. He was all suited up and
Speaker 1: had his helmet and every thing, you know, look like
Speaker 1: all the other players, but was not actually participating in
Speaker 1: the practice, was rehabbing off to the side.
Speaker 2: If there's a hangnail on him right now, I don't
Speaker 2: necessarily you just.
Speaker 1: You protect him as as Ted Thompson, you say, just
Speaker 1: put bubble wrap on him. Get get ready for the season,
Speaker 1: because because you're gonna you're gonna be wanting a lot
Speaker 1: out of Josh Jacobs for seventeen.
Speaker 2: He's still he's a young man, but he's he's already
Speaker 2: an All Pro. He's been a rushing champion the Packers
Speaker 2: know what they have in him. He's smart, he's intelligent,
Speaker 2: He's been here the whole time. That's one that I
Speaker 2: went't lose too much. Yeah, because I trust me. I
Speaker 2: looked in the Insider inbox submissions already, people already are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a six year veteranan. Yes, he needs to
Speaker 1: get acclimated to this offense, et cetera, et cetera. But
Speaker 1: there'll be plenty of practices in training camp to do
Speaker 1: that even if he's even if he can't get out
Speaker 1: their full speed.
Speaker 2: And if you want to know why a year you
Speaker 2: need to pay attention to hamstring injuries and why you
Speaker 2: have to be cautions with them, just replay the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three Packers season.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly one hundred percent. You already mentioned where things
Speaker 1: are with Christian Watson and Eric Stokes. They look great
Speaker 1: out there. They both seem to feel pretty good about
Speaker 1: what they're able to learn on the trip to Madison,
Speaker 1: about their bodies, about things that they can do because
Speaker 1: of the construct of their bodies, some of the extra
Speaker 1: things they need to do that maybe other guys don't
Speaker 1: need to do in terms of protecting those hamstrings, protecting
Speaker 1: some of that some of the soft tissue stuff and
Speaker 1: preparing those parts of their bodies for the rigors of
Speaker 1: an NFL season. So hopefully they can put that information
Speaker 1: to good use and hopefully it's the information that they need.
Speaker 2: I know, Lawrence University had a really high tech sports
Speaker 2: science program when you were there playing baseball, but I
Speaker 2: learned kind of like unfortunately, when all the neck injury
Speaker 2: things were happening in the early twenty tens, I learned
Speaker 2: so much about cervical fusion. Oh yeah, that type of
Speaker 2: stuff and herniated disc I have learned so much about
Speaker 2: hamstrings over the last year from the degrees of the
Speaker 2: tears too. And this is why he was the Stand
Speaker 2: Up Guy Award winner with Aaron Jones last year. Christian Watson,
Speaker 2: he was incredible to the best of his knowledge as
Speaker 2: a guy who's not actually a doctor, of explaining everything
Speaker 2: he went through this offseason and what they were trying
Speaker 2: to get to. The biggest thing trying to make this
Speaker 2: and the easiest digestible terms for fans to understand, is
Speaker 2: it's about symmetry and the strength of the two legs.
Speaker 2: There's the nordboard, there's different tests you can do that basically,
Speaker 2: will can tell give you tangible, objective data to show
Speaker 2: you the strength and the two, the difference between the two.
Speaker 2: And much like if you have a sprained ankle and
Speaker 2: you're trying to walk around, you're going to put more
Speaker 2: pressure on the healthy one to compensate. The same thing
Speaker 2: with hamstring injuries. And as Christian Watson learned at the
Speaker 2: end of last season, there was some asymmetry going on
Speaker 2: there with his two hamstrings with his two legs, which
Speaker 2: they believe was part of the reason this was causing
Speaker 2: this and you're having some of the setbacks with it.
Speaker 2: He actually had a really interesting comment about with this
Speaker 2: Nord board, which is you basically lock your ankles in,
Speaker 2: you lean forward almost on a pitch up position. It
Speaker 2: strength stretches your hamstrings. It shows you all that data.
Speaker 2: But he said he's actually had a good time with
Speaker 2: it because it shows him every week. I mean sometimes
Speaker 2: remember when Rogers had a collarbone. How does it feel
Speaker 2: this week? Does it look like it's improving? You can
Speaker 2: really see the degrees and percentages of how the hamstring
Speaker 2: is improving and strengthening, and how you're getting the balance
Speaker 2: between the two. That's what he's trying to achieve. Right now,
Speaker 2: we haven't had a chance to talk to Eric Stokes,
Speaker 2: but it sounds like that also worked wonders for him.
Speaker 2: This is a big emphasis for the NFL, Mike. It's
Speaker 2: not just the Packers. The NFL put a lot of
Speaker 2: money and resources. A part of that was into badger
Speaker 2: athletic performance in the UW Wisconsin, and you know Packers
Speaker 2: took advantage of it.
Speaker 3: I take my hats off to him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we'll see where We'll see where things
Speaker 1: go from here. The negative news on the injury front
Speaker 1: was we found out that both right tackle offensive lineman
Speaker 1: Zach tom and second year tight end Tucker Craft they
Speaker 1: tore pectoral muscles during at some point during the strength
Speaker 1: and conditioning like the weightlifting stuff that they were doing
Speaker 1: before the off season program got to this point with
Speaker 1: the OTAs, So both of those guys are out for
Speaker 1: the rest of the offseason. They're targeting to get them
Speaker 1: back in training camp as they recover from the surgery
Speaker 1: and the rehab and everything that they have to go through.
Speaker 1: The hope is that they can be ready for the
Speaker 1: start of training camp. If not the start of training camp,
Speaker 1: then part way through training camp, and with that, what
Speaker 1: we saw on the offensive line with Zach Tom not
Speaker 1: out there and looking at kind of the first unit
Speaker 1: and the depth chart and stuff. We saw initially Andre Dillard,
Speaker 1: the free agent acquisition, was the guy lining up at
Speaker 1: right tackle with the number one unit, which then also
Speaker 1: included left to right was Rashid Walker, Elton Jenkins, Josh Myers,
Speaker 1: Sean Ryan, and then Dillard. But we also saw a
Speaker 1: lot of shuffling and moving around going on because we
Speaker 1: saw Jordan Moore, the first round draft pick, was taking
Speaker 1: snaps at both left tackle and at right tackle. We
Speaker 1: saw Royce Newman stepping in to take some snaps at
Speaker 1: guard in place of Sean Ryan. We saw Elton Jenkins
Speaker 1: moving over and taking some snaps at center. A lot
Speaker 1: of even with Zach Tom not out there right now,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of this figuring out the best five
Speaker 1: kind of thing going on, even at this stage without
Speaker 1: the pads on, and I think this is it's it's
Speaker 1: going to be something to watch even more so, I
Speaker 1: think in training camp and especially when Zach Tom does
Speaker 1: come back from the peck injury, just as to how
Speaker 1: this Packers offensive line is going to shape up.
Speaker 2: This is what I always referred to as the ground
Speaker 2: beef portion of an NFL player's career. You know you
Speaker 2: got something good there, but you don't know if it's
Speaker 2: gonna be a hamburger. You don't know if it's gonna
Speaker 2: be taco meet. You don't know what you're gonna do
Speaker 2: with this. Yet.
Speaker 3: You could have stuff peppers. My dad makes wonderful stuff pets.
Speaker 3: Those are good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, spaghetti and meatballs. There you go, whatever you want
Speaker 2: to do with it. It's there for And that's what
Speaker 2: Green Bay was doing when they drafted Jordan Morgan. He
Speaker 2: wants to play left tackle. He believes he can play
Speaker 2: left pat tackle. The Packers believe he can play left tackle.
Speaker 2: But he's also a rookie entering the National Football League.
Speaker 2: You have a veteran in Rashid Walker now that played
Speaker 2: eight hundred and fifty one snaps at left tackle last season.
Speaker 2: You have Zach tom there who's not currently there. You
Speaker 2: have Andre Dillard who's a first former first round pick.
Speaker 2: This is the time of the year where it benefits
Speaker 2: you to be able to get reps at right tackle
Speaker 2: because that may be where you ultimately are needed. Hopefully
Speaker 2: it doesn't come to that. But that may be at
Speaker 2: some point where you have to be played, you might
Speaker 2: have to be at left tackle. The Packers have done this,
Speaker 2: and it was one of the points of biggest points
Speaker 2: of emphasis I made an inbox this morning was they
Speaker 2: have done such a good job of rotating guys around,
Speaker 2: sometimes even in regular season games, even in games themselves.
Speaker 2: But they've done such a good job of cross training guys,
Speaker 2: and it's always been a point emphasis. It's not something
Speaker 2: that just started when matt Lefluor got here. Mike McCarthy
Speaker 2: and James Campen did plenty of it too, but it's
Speaker 2: the way in which they've done it, in the confidence
Speaker 2: in posure that players have shown once they've been put
Speaker 2: in those positions. Zach tom is an excellent talent, Elton
Speaker 2: Jenkins is an excellent talent. As good as they are
Speaker 2: and as well as I believe they'd fit into any
Speaker 2: offense in the National Football League, the way the Packers
Speaker 2: developed them also has something to do with how they
Speaker 2: were able to wear as many hats as they did.
Speaker 2: Jordan Morgan is in that phase right now. I think
Speaker 2: he's embracing it. I think he's looking forward to it,
Speaker 2: and honestly, Michael It doesn't matter if you're at left tackle,
Speaker 2: right tackle, or full back. If you're getting reps with
Speaker 2: the number one offense and you're in there with Jordan Love,
Speaker 2: that is a good thing for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think uh, I think we're going we're going
Speaker 1: to see we're going to see a constant evolution of
Speaker 1: the depth chart, perhaps when we get to training camp.
Speaker 1: It might even be on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: You know, when you've got all this lead up, you know,
Speaker 1: you have this lead up time before the pads go on,
Speaker 1: then the pads go on, then you get to family night,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna get to the preseason games. You know,
Speaker 1: we could we could see we could see this this
Speaker 1: this constant rotation as far as the coaching staff figure
Speaker 1: out just who those best five are going to be
Speaker 1: and what the best unit, what the best group is
Speaker 1: going to be to put out there in front of
Speaker 1: Jordan Love, as well as then lining things up, Okay,
Speaker 1: who's the sixth man, who's the seventh, and who's the eighth,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna have on game day in the regular season,
Speaker 1: you're going to have eight offensive linemen active, and you know,
Speaker 1: so there is going to be a cutoff there between
Speaker 1: the guys who the guys who should be expecting to
Speaker 1: play and other guys who are going to be on
Speaker 1: the fifty three, but they're going to be fighting to
Speaker 1: get on that game day roster as opposed to being
Speaker 1: a game day inactive. So long way to go here
Speaker 1: to figure that out. But it's going to be interesting
Speaker 1: to watch and hopefully Zach Tom gets back out there
Speaker 1: sometime late July early August.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you definitely, you hope that for Tom because he
Speaker 2: was so good last year and he put more muscle
Speaker 2: onto his body, he got a little bit bigger, and
Speaker 2: he played so well at a position I think so
Speaker 2: many people question whether or not that would be his
Speaker 2: real home, and we still really don't know long term
Speaker 2: where he's going to line up, but I am remembered
Speaker 2: of that second week of training camp last year where
Speaker 2: he was working at left tackle, right tackle, and if
Speaker 2: you remember, he even rotated in with center with Josh Myers,
Speaker 2: yeah a little.
Speaker 3: Bit as well.
Speaker 2: The guy really can do everything, so trying to get
Speaker 2: him back in the lineup is going to be huge.
Speaker 2: But ultimately, unfortunately, when someone's not available, much like Ben Simms,
Speaker 2: we saw Ben Simms running deep corner routes during He
Speaker 2: was mostly a blocking tight end last year because it
Speaker 2: was him and Luke Musgrave were basically the two guys
Speaker 2: available because of Craft's injury and because Tyler Davis isn't
Speaker 2: practicing yet. So there's so many different things that happen.
Speaker 2: But if you're out there and they call your number,
Speaker 2: you have to show them what you can do with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one other piece of news to get to in
Speaker 1: case you didn't hear. Matt Lafleur did confirm in his
Speaker 1: post practice news conference on Tuesday that the Packers are
Speaker 1: going to have joint practices with two different teams upcoming
Speaker 1: here in training camp, the trip to Denver in the preseason,
Speaker 1: the Packers will go out a little bit early, have
Speaker 1: one practice with the Broncos prior to the preseason game,
Speaker 1: and then the Baltimore Ravens come to Green Bay for
Speaker 1: the preseason finale. The Ravens and the Packers will have
Speaker 1: a joint practice prior to that preseason matchup. So that's
Speaker 1: just gonna be that alone is going to be interesting
Speaker 1: because of the Lamar Jackson, JayR Alexander, the whole Louisville
Speaker 1: connection thing it. I think every every not only professional photographer,
Speaker 1: but amateurs like the rest of us, with our camera
Speaker 1: phones on the sideline, We're going to be trying to
Speaker 1: get that shot of Alexander and Jackson, you know, the
Speaker 1: Louisville guys like together on the practice field here in
Speaker 1: Green Bay.
Speaker 2: John thinks so highly of Lamar, and I know I've
Speaker 2: talked on Inbox before and I've also, i think even
Speaker 2: mentioned on the show when they've played the Ravens. I mean,
Speaker 2: you go back and watch when he got drafted, when
Speaker 2: Lamar got drafted in twenty eighteen, and it just so
Speaker 2: happened that jay Ara was in the middle of an
Speaker 2: interview at that time. He stops everything to watch that
Speaker 2: television when Lamar gets picked number thirty two overall and
Speaker 2: goes to Baltimore. The amount of pro that he showed,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to put words into Jyr's mouth,
Speaker 2: but I think a lot of that has to do
Speaker 2: the fact that both of those guys are guys that
Speaker 2: were kind of questioned at every turn. Jay Air, because
Speaker 2: he was lightly recruited, wasn't a five star recruit by
Speaker 2: any means. He goes to Louisville, proved himself to be
Speaker 2: a first round player, Lamar Jackson, Heisman Trophy type player,
Speaker 2: and then everybody's asking if he's going to play receiver
Speaker 2: in the National Football League, and he's certainly proven that
Speaker 2: he's an MVP quarterback in this league. And it's always cool.
Speaker 2: And I like the adjustment they made to Mike going
Speaker 2: to one practice. I don't know how you felt about
Speaker 2: it last year in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: It wasn't so much.
Speaker 2: It wasn't as bad in Green Bay. But that second day,
Speaker 2: since like there was a point in that.
Speaker 3: Practice, it got ugly. I mean, there's no chos about it.
Speaker 1: That second practice in Cincinnati got ugly and there was
Speaker 1: very little that was accomplished because because the girl wasn't practicing,
Speaker 1: guys were just getting getting under each other's skin and
Speaker 1: there were I mean, there was one stretch and I know,
Speaker 1: I think you were on like on the other practice field.
Speaker 1: You know, we had to kind of divide duty when
Speaker 1: we were there in Cincinnati on the two different practice
Speaker 1: fields where everybody was and the side that I was
Speaker 1: on was where was where a lot of the scuffling
Speaker 1: was going on. And I want to say it was
Speaker 1: something like four consecutive eleven on eleven plays where there
Speaker 1: was some kind of extracurricular going on that they had
Speaker 1: to separate guys before they could run the next play.
Speaker 1: I mean it got to the point of ridiculousness quite frankly,
Speaker 1: where where what was getting what was getting accomplished was minimal,
Speaker 1: if anything, from a practice and a workout standpoint. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: the back to back joint practices at least for this year,
Speaker 1: not happening. It's going to just be one against each
Speaker 1: of those teams prior to the preseason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see too how that affects
Speaker 2: the mentality and what the Packers want to do in
Speaker 2: terms of their starters in these games. As it turned out,
Speaker 2: Packers Jordan Love played quite a bit last year. The
Speaker 2: starting offense played quite a bit with him last year.
Speaker 2: Still a young team, I get that, understand why you'd
Speaker 2: want to be you know, getting those reps in Denver
Speaker 2: should be interesting. Uh, you know, it's it's an uncommon
Speaker 2: trip for us. We don't make it that often. Certainly
Speaker 2: a new you know, staff and feel to that team
Speaker 2: right now with Sean Payton taking things over.
Speaker 1: A little longer time for us to get acclimated to
Speaker 1: the altitude. Yeah, all that out there, and and more
Speaker 1: so for the players obviously, with getting to practice once
Speaker 1: out there, especially for the young guys that are going
Speaker 1: to be playing in that game. You know, they they
Speaker 1: get a day on the practice field up there in
Speaker 1: the mountains, in the in that kind of altitude before
Speaker 1: they're they're going all out in game trying to win
Speaker 1: a roster spot.
Speaker 2: This should feel a little less like the Shining though,
Speaker 2: Like I mean, last year, by the time we were done,
Speaker 2: I was like, all right, I'm ready to go back
Speaker 2: to Green Bay. It was a cool bonding experience. We're
Speaker 2: at the hotel quite a bit, we got a lot
Speaker 2: of work done.
Speaker 3: But yeah, by.
Speaker 2: The end of it, I was like, all right that
Speaker 2: I never experienced that, the traveling to go do. I
Speaker 2: remember back in the day when I first started covering
Speaker 2: the team, I was like, you know, their training camp
Speaker 2: is always going to be in Green Bay, And it
Speaker 2: was a very different flavor going down to Cincinnati for
Speaker 2: those three days or whatever we were there for.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we went there. I mean, yeah, the
Speaker 1: game was on what the game was on like a
Speaker 1: Friday night, and I think we flew to Cincinnati on
Speaker 1: like Monday or something like.
Speaker 2: That Tuesday night and they practice Wednesday Thursday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I forget how.
Speaker 1: I can't remember how, but yeah it was. We were
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati for a long time.
Speaker 3: I had skyline Chile for the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I also saying karaoke with like a sixty five
Speaker 2: year old woman at like two in the morning one
Speaker 2: of those nights too.
Speaker 3: Yeah that happened. Ryan Hartwy can tell you all about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't stay out late with you guys on
Speaker 1: those nights, and now I know why.
Speaker 3: But you want to end the show on that.
Speaker 1: Well, before we go, Before we go, we do have
Speaker 1: to tip our hat and express our gratitude our producer,
Speaker 1: Justin Allen, who has been producing this show. We were
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out for sure. We're thinking it's
Speaker 1: right around eighteen months or so. It was sometime during
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two season. He took over as the
Speaker 1: producer of Packers Unscripted. This is his last show. He
Speaker 1: is moving on to hopefully bigger and better things. And
Speaker 1: just want to say justin thank you. My man. Can't
Speaker 1: tell you how much we appreciate. I mean, people don't know.
Speaker 1: We've gone through different phases of the technology that we
Speaker 1: use in terms of how he communicates with us through
Speaker 1: the headsets. We've had these little remote things, we've had
Speaker 1: our cell phones, we've done it through the computer, you know,
Speaker 1: through the tablet thing. Here. He makes it as seamless
Speaker 1: as possible for us, and so we just have to
Speaker 1: say thank you to him. Hopefully bigger and better is
Speaker 1: ahead and we're gonna miss you, my friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Justin to give the guy the ultimate tip
Speaker 2: of the cap. I mean, you think about when we
Speaker 2: were doing so COVID happens.
Speaker 3: That was fun, It wasn't.
Speaker 2: We do the renovations to the studio, so we have
Speaker 2: to start moving, we have to start going remote. Well,
Speaker 2: then people start coming back in the building. We're still
Speaker 2: I'm not having access to the studio because some of
Speaker 2: the changes. So Justin was the one having to actually
Speaker 2: get the carts out, get our microphones, get everything, get
Speaker 2: us set up on the fifth floor of lambeau Field
Speaker 2: so we could do the show through zoom in basically
Speaker 2: the sweet area. Every once in a while, if you
Speaker 2: guys watch back, then there'd be a person that was
Speaker 2: like doing house cleaning and things after games. Because of
Speaker 2: just our setup and Justin was the one that was
Speaker 2: put in the miles, putting in the legwork on that
Speaker 2: incredibly talented young man. If you could just do the
Speaker 2: transcript of this or attach an audio file or video
Speaker 2: file do resumes going forward. I will speak as highly
Speaker 2: as him as any of our interns that have been here,
Speaker 2: because the thing about our interns and our operation, Mike,
Speaker 2: as you were saying, you can't really remember well, because
Speaker 2: they just get thrown into the fire. Yeah, and they
Speaker 2: just have to deal with it. I can't think of
Speaker 2: one time where you and I have had to like
Speaker 2: restart the show because Justin pushed the wrong button or
Speaker 2: did the wrong thing. He is a one across the board,
Speaker 2: and we are going to desperately, desperately miss him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, in the way possible.
Speaker 1: We love you, Justin, Yes, we love you Justin. With that,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers
Speaker 1: Unscripted because of Justin's departure and some other things that
Speaker 1: are going on with the schedule. Next week, we're actually
Speaker 1: gonna take one week off from the show, So next
Speaker 1: week we won't have any shows, but then we will
Speaker 1: be back for a couple of more weeks. As the
Speaker 1: OTAs and the mandatory mini camp and whatnot finish up
Speaker 1: the off season program. So we're gonna take just a
Speaker 1: little mini short break and then we'll be back with
Speaker 1: more OTA coverage coming up here soon enough. So with
Speaker 1: that for wes, I am Mike, thank you for tuning
Speaker 1: in everybody. We will see you next time.