Speaker 1: M Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined by my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz,
Speaker 1: were coming to you here from our studios at lambeau
Speaker 1: Field and West. The Packers have begun their preparations for
Speaker 1: the big NFC showdown coming up Sunday night football in
Speaker 1: San Francisco or Santa Clara. I guess is where the
Speaker 1: game is going to be played, but against the San
Speaker 1: Francisco forty Niners and Matt Lafleur. Packers were back on
Speaker 1: the practice field for a brief workout on Monday, as
Speaker 1: everybody came back from the break over the bye. Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur spoke to reporters, spoke to the media after practice,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't going to get into a lot of
Speaker 1: specifics as to what did the self scout reveal, Like,
Speaker 1: what did you guys find out? How are you going
Speaker 1: to go about fixing things? Of course, he's not going
Speaker 1: to share all the nitty gritty details, but he did
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about each of the three phases
Speaker 1: of the game for the Packers. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: any major revelations here, but the Packers. The bottom line
Speaker 1: is the Packers know what they have to work on
Speaker 1: heading into this home stretch of the final six regular
Speaker 1: season games. They do, and I mean the nice thing
Speaker 1: for them is they finally have some time to sit
Speaker 1: back and rest. A lot was made of the fact
Speaker 1: that they aren't that banged up going into the buy
Speaker 1: and that's true from a perspective of guys not actually
Speaker 1: you know, missing practice time, but they were still so
Speaker 1: to get some bodies a little bit healthier. Get that,
Speaker 1: you know, week week and a half of rest and
Speaker 1: recuperation going into San Francisco game. This is where I
Speaker 1: look for Green Bay to put their best foot forward
Speaker 1: on Sunday. And you know, even more so, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to Kenny Clark and some of these guys in
Speaker 1: the locker room these last two weeks and when we've
Speaker 1: had availability, they understand where they fit in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things. The defense No's Trumon Williams talked about
Speaker 1: it again on money. They mean, they have work to do.
Speaker 1: They are by far, you know, not a finished product
Speaker 1: yet at this point in the season. They feel like
Speaker 1: their best ball is still ahead of them. Offensively, you've
Speaker 1: seen intervals of dominance, and you've seen intervals of lulls.
Speaker 1: They're trying to smooth that out, and special teams certainly
Speaker 1: has made some changes even going into the by. But
Speaker 1: where I stand on this right now is that you know,
Speaker 1: all these years, Mike, you go back and these are
Speaker 1: the prime years of Mike McCarthy's tenure too. The way
Speaker 1: the Packers have come out of the by and a
Speaker 1: lot of seasons has really been an indication of where
Speaker 1: this team is going to go in the long run.
Speaker 1: I think there's a stat somewhere around maybe seven and
Speaker 1: three over the last ten years coming out of the
Speaker 1: bye week. They need to make those adjustments. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be some mounth scouted looks, I'm sure of it on
Speaker 1: Sunday against San Francisco, and they need to find, you know,
Speaker 1: some of those galvanizing moments that really make a good
Speaker 1: team championship caliber. Yeah. Well, when you look at things
Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball, I think the
Speaker 1: thing that that continues to stick in the craw of
Speaker 1: Matt la Fleur. I guess, if if I'm allowed to
Speaker 1: use that phrase, is is the penalties. The I saw
Speaker 1: a stat this morning actually unfortunately didn't have it for
Speaker 1: the story that I posted on the website last night,
Speaker 1: But I believe the Packers have a total of twenty
Speaker 1: five either false start or delay of game penalties through
Speaker 1: the first ten games of the season two and and
Speaker 1: now those are only five yard penalties, but those five
Speaker 1: yard penalties that changes second and three to second and
Speaker 1: eight and and you know, and gets you in those
Speaker 1: behind the chains types of situations. And to be averaging
Speaker 1: two and a half false start or delay of game
Speaker 1: penalties on offense through the first ten games of the season,
Speaker 1: you can see the the opportunity there to become much
Speaker 1: more efficient offensively, to put yourself in better third down
Speaker 1: situations if you can just you know, you're not going
Speaker 1: to eliminate them completely. They're part of the game, but
Speaker 1: if you can reduce those because two and a half
Speaker 1: per game through ten weeks, that's a lot. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: in the delay games, that's always a little bit of
Speaker 1: an altered statute because there's two instances in the last
Speaker 1: couple of games when the Packers have actually taken them.
Speaker 1: To give J K. Scott a little extra room, true enough,
Speaker 1: but that being said, you know the specific instances that
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers talks about that he needs to be better
Speaker 1: in in Matt Laflora is discussed and trying to get
Speaker 1: those calls, and they had some communication helmet, you know, issues,
Speaker 1: and that's been prevalent, I think throughout the league trying
Speaker 1: to deal with some of those things at times. But
Speaker 1: the one I go back to is the false starts,
Speaker 1: because that's the one I felt like going back to
Speaker 1: lambeau Field, David smooth some of those things out. It's
Speaker 1: a tough environment to be in Los Angeles and I
Speaker 1: know it was a very pro heavy Packers crowd, but
Speaker 1: there were still a lot of Chargers fans to making
Speaker 1: their voice heard and that's difficult to work through those changes,
Speaker 1: but you've got to be able to shore that up
Speaker 1: at home. It's unacceptable to have those at home. You
Speaker 1: need to be able to find answers there and that
Speaker 1: was a big point of emphasis, and I'm sure as
Speaker 1: they went through some of the self scouting and trying
Speaker 1: to find ways to you know, maximize their offensive opportunities,
Speaker 1: that's something they go back to. There was a play
Speaker 1: against Carolina and I don't know exact measurables of it,
Speaker 1: but I believe it was something along the lines where
Speaker 1: they had, like I want to say, a nine yard
Speaker 1: run by Aaron Jones and there was a false start.
Speaker 1: That takes it from being second and one back to
Speaker 1: second and second and six, third and one back to
Speaker 1: third and six. The percentage change every yard you go
Speaker 1: back is is huge in this league. In credit to
Speaker 1: Green Bay, one of the reasons they are eight and
Speaker 1: two is they've worked through some of those things. You
Speaker 1: had the Davante Adams thirty four yard catch on second
Speaker 1: and you know, twenty six or whatever it was. You know,
Speaker 1: you can find ways with your playmakers to do that,
Speaker 1: but you can't live that way and they need to
Speaker 1: find those answers. Yeah. I mean, right now, offensively, the
Speaker 1: Packers are converting. I believe they're at thirty seven point
Speaker 1: two on third down. It's in the bottom half of
Speaker 1: the league. It's it's below the midway point. That's not
Speaker 1: a horrible number. Thirty is not horrible, but you'd like
Speaker 1: to be you know, once you're in the forties on
Speaker 1: your third down conversions, you're you're in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 1: I mean what Matt Lafleur found out as he looked
Speaker 1: at all the numbers, and this is sort of self fulfilling.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's kind of obvious that, you know,
Speaker 1: third down in seven or less versus third down and
Speaker 1: eight or more. But he found a really large discrepancy there.
Speaker 1: I think, I think maybe a larger discrepancy than than
Speaker 1: you would normally find because when it's been when it's
Speaker 1: I believe the number is when it's been third and
Speaker 1: seven or less or third and six or less one
Speaker 1: or the other. The Packers are actually above fifty. That's
Speaker 1: pretty darn good. But the problem and the reason they're
Speaker 1: at thirty seven percent overall in their third downs is
Speaker 1: because they've had way too many of the third and
Speaker 1: fifteens and the third and twelves, and the really really
Speaker 1: tough spots which have been a result of either those
Speaker 1: false start penalties or holding penalty or a sack on
Speaker 1: first or second down that that really puts you behind
Speaker 1: the chains. Those are the things that you know it.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur. Yes, there are going to be some unscouted looks.
Speaker 1: They're gonna do some new things I think against San Francisco,
Speaker 1: and as we move forward here into December that maybe
Speaker 1: we haven't seen yet. But Matt Lafleur's goal offensively is
Speaker 1: just to improve the efficiency, and it's not about drawing
Speaker 1: up a whole bunch of new XS and O stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like, what do you do to sharpen things up
Speaker 1: and become more efficient down the stretch. And that's what
Speaker 1: they're focused on. Yeah, and it's interesting too because when
Speaker 1: you go back into those third and eight pluses or
Speaker 1: third and twelves, that's where you're seeing the Packers having
Speaker 1: to empty it out a little bit more. In credit
Speaker 1: to Aaron Rodgers, they have found ways to be successful
Speaker 1: in those intervals, but there's so much more predictability to that.
Speaker 1: When you have those type of looks, you know more
Speaker 1: what you're getting. When this offense is at its best,
Speaker 1: and we've seen it, especially on some of these first
Speaker 1: series of games this season, it's when they can be multiple,
Speaker 1: when they can go with bunch formations, when they're able
Speaker 1: to shift their personnel on any given play on any
Speaker 1: given you know possession, that's where they're going to make
Speaker 1: their money and that's where this offense is. Ultimately, if
Speaker 1: they get on a deep run here into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: that's where they have to be successful. As as great
Speaker 1: as it is to put the ball in Aaron Rodgers hands,
Speaker 1: and he's one of the best in the league when
Speaker 1: it ms to being able to dictate those situations. You
Speaker 1: see the Aaron Jones is you have the Davonte Adams.
Speaker 1: You need to win those early down situations to make
Speaker 1: them their most dangerous, and that's when this offense is
Speaker 1: at its peak. Yeah. Well, on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball, We've been talking about it for several weeks
Speaker 1: so of the Packers, so as defensive coordinator Mike Petton,
Speaker 1: it really has been the explosive plays allowed that that
Speaker 1: that's really hurt this defense. I'm not an XS and
Speaker 1: OS expert. I don't know exactly how you go about
Speaker 1: fixing this thing. Matt Lafleur has made comments about communication
Speaker 1: a little bit in terms of not only getting the
Speaker 1: right defensive personnel in the field, but then all the
Speaker 1: pre snap stuff, making sure everybody has the call, maybe
Speaker 1: not trying to change the call at the last minute
Speaker 1: quite so often, which is how certain guys can get
Speaker 1: out of position. I also think there's maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit of a balance that Mike Petton is trying to
Speaker 1: find in terms of the the aggressiveness to go for
Speaker 1: the ball because the turnovers are such a big part
Speaker 1: of the game and have been such a big part
Speaker 1: of what this defense has done, but not at the
Speaker 1: expense of, you know, risking giving up those twenty and
Speaker 1: twenty five yard pass plays that have really hurt this defense.
Speaker 1: So I'm just curious your thoughts on kind of where
Speaker 1: things stand with this defense now and and what needs
Speaker 1: to be done to to cut down on some of
Speaker 1: those explosive games. Yeah, it's it's something that I think
Speaker 1: is probably the biggest thing that had to be a
Speaker 1: point of emphasis in the scouts scout self scouting process.
Speaker 1: Easy for me to say, yeah, that's the one to
Speaker 1: where there's so many different things that stitched together that
Speaker 1: not only can result in being able to play cohesive,
Speaker 1: you know, lockdown defense or having those breakdowns that it's
Speaker 1: always difficult to pinpoint one specific thing because I get
Speaker 1: it from Mike Patton's perspective. You've got a lot of
Speaker 1: ball hawking players in the secondary. They have a really
Speaker 1: productive pass rushing combo upfront in of the league's best
Speaker 1: young nose tackles, and Kenny Clark in the middle. So
Speaker 1: all intensive purposes, this should be a dynamic, an impactful
Speaker 1: defensive unit, but there's been too many of those situations
Speaker 1: where guys come free for not even just the seventy
Speaker 1: five yard touchdown type of I'm talking about the thirty
Speaker 1: forty yard passes in the middle of the field, fifty
Speaker 1: yards here and there. That is the chunk plays that
Speaker 1: it's difficult to come back from. Fortunately, Green Bay might
Speaker 1: have one of the top run you know, red zone
Speaker 1: defenses in the league right now that they've been able
Speaker 1: to survive that. But if offenses start to chip away
Speaker 1: at you there and you don't find answers, that's when
Speaker 1: you start to see the damn breaks to live. So
Speaker 1: that's where it's it's tough to put a finger on it.
Speaker 1: And this is the most unique thing I was. I
Speaker 1: was thinking about this last week and I looked it
Speaker 1: up just now. Packers are right around that ranked uh
Speaker 1: spot right now for scoring defense you know, points point all,
Speaker 1: which at the end of the day, you can make
Speaker 1: an argument that's the most important one of all, but
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's not always the same, but
Speaker 1: it's sometimes equate storre you rank in total yards. In
Speaker 1: this case, it does it. The Packers are twenty eight
Speaker 1: right now in totally yards per game. The defenses above
Speaker 1: them in scoring points per game. New England at one,
Speaker 1: San Francisco had two, Buffalo is three. They're leading both categories.
Speaker 1: Then it's eight fifteen, fourteen, eighteen, four, seven, five, ten, six, twelve.
Speaker 1: That's where teams rank in total yards, and then you
Speaker 1: have Green Bay with twenty eight. It's such a strange anomaly,
Speaker 1: and that's why I brought it up on the show before.
Speaker 1: I get kind of punchy when people talk about this
Speaker 1: being like the twelve or you know, eleven defense. I
Speaker 1: still don't see it like that, because while there were breakdowns,
Speaker 1: teams were also scoring quite a bit too, a lot
Speaker 1: of shootouts the Packers had to win that season. This
Speaker 1: hasn't been that case. So it's it's in this in between.
Speaker 1: But unless you get it corrected the last six weeks
Speaker 1: of the season, your record, your stats are what you
Speaker 1: say you are in some regarden. That's why the Packers
Speaker 1: have to get it cleaned up. Yeah, I mean there
Speaker 1: have been certainly been offenses that have put up the
Speaker 1: four US yards. You know, the defense that we saw
Speaker 1: from the Packers in September, Now, granted that was a
Speaker 1: Bears offense that's been struggling all year, a Broncos offense
Speaker 1: that's been struggling all year. So some of that was
Speaker 1: was the result of the opponents, but you can also
Speaker 1: just you know, you go by the eye test, the
Speaker 1: defense doesn't look the same as it did earlier, and uh, um,
Speaker 1: you know, those big plays they kind of started in
Speaker 1: Week two against Minnesota. Then they came back in Week
Speaker 1: five against Dallas when Dallas was way behind, and you know,
Speaker 1: they started taking these big chunks of the field, and
Speaker 1: then it's kind of been a problem since then. It's it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's not something that they've been able to curb. Now,
Speaker 1: looking at the stats against Carolina, they only allowed I
Speaker 1: believe it was only three plays in that game of
Speaker 1: twenty plus yards, but there were a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: past completions that were in that fifteen to nineteen yard
Speaker 1: range that Carolina still racked up four hundred yards by
Speaker 1: the end of the game. Yes, the defense obviously made
Speaker 1: the big stand at the end, and at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, Carolina only had what sixteen points on
Speaker 1: the board, So you take that anytime you can. But
Speaker 1: the Packers know they're they're in this they're in this
Speaker 1: uh you call it kind of you know, kind of
Speaker 1: the middle ground. It's kind of a precarious place to
Speaker 1: be because of because of the yards that you've surrendered,
Speaker 1: because you know, you get up against teams that are
Speaker 1: more efficient in the red zone and uh and are
Speaker 1: going to punch things in more often for touchdowns, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly that points allowed number starts to climb. This
Speaker 1: is where we're gonna learn about a lot about this
Speaker 1: defense here in the last couple of weeks. Because yeah,
Speaker 1: you mentioned Dallas. Dallas is leading the league right now
Speaker 1: in total yards of offense. Kansas City is three. I
Speaker 1: don't want to hear about Matt Moore. They still have
Speaker 1: explosive playmakers there that can make life difficult. You know.
Speaker 1: Detroit is eight, Minnesota's nine. Oakland, for as much has
Speaker 1: been made about their situation, their eleventh right now un
Speaker 1: totial offense. So they've played good offenses, productive offenses. This
Speaker 1: week is going to be a huge test. San Francisco
Speaker 1: is a dynamic and as versatile and multiple as teams get.
Speaker 1: But after that, you got the New York Giants, you
Speaker 1: have Washington, you have Chicago. You need to lock down
Speaker 1: in those games. The thing I liked about that Carolina
Speaker 1: game was that, Okay, Carolina puts up four inner total
Speaker 1: yards of offense. The Packers won that game, though, because
Speaker 1: of their defense. Sometimes the yards aren't what matter most,
Speaker 1: and it sometimes comes down to the points. But when
Speaker 1: you look at those games beyond this week, I don't
Speaker 1: care what the total yards are. I don't care what
Speaker 1: the points are. If the Packers win the game, they
Speaker 1: accomplished the goal. But going up against New York in
Speaker 1: Washington Chicago, you expect them to be able to get
Speaker 1: on a run there in December because of where those
Speaker 1: offenses have ranked this season and some of the issues
Speaker 1: that they've worked through. Yeah, all right, Well, before I
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Speaker 1: All right. Well, you mentioned one of the Packers on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball that I'd like to
Speaker 1: talk about a little bit here and that's defensive tackle
Speaker 1: Kenny Lark. He's in his fourth season. The statistics so
Speaker 1: far through ten games don't really match up as far
Speaker 1: as the tackles, the sacks, that kind of thing, don't
Speaker 1: really match up to where he was last year. But
Speaker 1: we started to see in that Carolina game before the bye,
Speaker 1: it almost felt like the you know, I hate to
Speaker 1: say old because Kenny Clark is not that old, but
Speaker 1: but yeah, but it's sort of like the old Kenny
Speaker 1: Clark started to start to come back. And I've been wondering,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, West, I've been wondering much
Speaker 1: of the season. Kenny Clark is not a guy who's
Speaker 1: going to talk about it. But he was on the
Speaker 1: injury report earlier this year with a calf injury. We
Speaker 1: saw in the one game he got kicked in the
Speaker 1: shin um. That can't feel too good. I think he's
Speaker 1: been playing through some things and at the same time
Speaker 1: having to deal with how offenses are paying a lot
Speaker 1: more attention to him in terms of in terms of
Speaker 1: their scheme and how they want to handle him in
Speaker 1: the middle of the defensive line. But his play really
Speaker 1: stood out against Carolina, and I'm wondering, Okay, maybe is
Speaker 1: is Kenny Clark season about to take off here? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And it was interesting, you know, hearing some of the
Speaker 1: comments from Jerry Montgomery last week because in some ways
Speaker 1: I think there's talking to Tyler Lancaster about this Monday,
Speaker 1: I think there's there's narrative that that Kenny Clark in
Speaker 1: some ways has dropped off. I don't see that. I
Speaker 1: think one. As Montgomery pointed out, he wouldn't go into
Speaker 1: the exact specifics, but he said, I mean he's getting
Speaker 1: double teamed a lot more in the running game, which
Speaker 1: is what you expect. He's the premier nose tackle. That's
Speaker 1: what's going to happen. So there hasn't been as many
Speaker 1: of those one on one situations. The Packers again are
Speaker 1: playing him a lot of the defensive snaps at this
Speaker 1: point in the season. But that game against Carolina, Carolina
Speaker 1: tried to block him one on one a lot more
Speaker 1: than a lot of other teams did. And I would
Speaker 1: imagine going to this game against San Francisco, you're going
Speaker 1: to see that second guy having more attention on it
Speaker 1: because whether it was you know, their center or trade Turner,
Speaker 1: they just weren't able to match up with him, and
Speaker 1: he was able to be disruptive. He came a little
Speaker 1: bit short of being able to get an actual sack
Speaker 1: on the statue sheet, but Pro Football Focus had him
Speaker 1: down for ten pressures, which under their metric and their measurements,
Speaker 1: that's the most he's ever had in his career to
Speaker 1: this point. And that's a lot for an interior past
Speaker 1: a guy who never who really never lines up on
Speaker 1: the edge at all. He's always inside. And I made
Speaker 1: this argument at my story to the other thing you
Speaker 1: gotta understand in terms of just the pass rush, he
Speaker 1: has two outside linebackers now that are really shifting the
Speaker 1: hourglass from last season. There are not as many opportunities
Speaker 1: for a three fifteen pound defensive tackle to be the
Speaker 1: first guy to the quarterback. Those guys are in that
Speaker 1: O zone. They are making things difficult and it's getting
Speaker 1: the ball all quick with my with the big thing
Speaker 1: I think for for Clark here down the stretch is
Speaker 1: going to be if they can one find ways to
Speaker 1: give him some breathers here and there, because that's going
Speaker 1: to be important if they want to play an eighteen
Speaker 1: or nineteen games season. And also, you know, figuring out
Speaker 1: a good balance for when you want to have him
Speaker 1: out there early on downs or when you want to
Speaker 1: have him on third downs. I think the last few
Speaker 1: games you started to see them find a little bit
Speaker 1: more of, you know, a balance with all that. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's because Montrevious Adams is back and he seems to
Speaker 1: have put the shoulder behind him. Kingsley Kickley is pay
Speaker 1: playing more the more Kenny Clark is twenty four years old.
Speaker 1: You want to be able to get him out there
Speaker 1: as much as possible. But I think there is sometimes
Speaker 1: that you know, you want to strike something there where
Speaker 1: you're getting the maximum out of that player every single down.
Speaker 1: And I think that's one area that maybe at this
Speaker 1: point in the season, as you get into the month
Speaker 1: of November and December late in the year, where you're
Speaker 1: starting to maybe figure out what that that right number
Speaker 1: is going to be. Yeah, and we'll see as we
Speaker 1: go into this San Francisco game here if they do
Speaker 1: resume the double teaming in the middle on Clark, especially
Speaker 1: with how they're going to want to run the ball.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is whether it's Montrevious Adams, Kingsley, Kiki,
Speaker 1: Dean Lowry, Tyler Lancaster, those guys are one on one
Speaker 1: against the run, they've got to be able to They've
Speaker 1: got to be able to get off the block and
Speaker 1: stay in their gap, or you know, keep Blake Martinez
Speaker 1: and b J Goodson or in Burke's who verse at
Speaker 1: the second level, keep those guys clean to be able
Speaker 1: to make the play. Because yeah, if I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're getting double teamed, then you're helping out a teammate
Speaker 1: and then that teammate has to take advantage of that situation.
Speaker 1: And to his credit, to Clark's credit, at this point
Speaker 1: in the year, now ten pressures are gonna up his
Speaker 1: total pressures for the season, so he's at forty one.
Speaker 1: I mean that puts him in the same conversation with
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox. I mean, those are the high end,
Speaker 1: elite defensive tackles in this league. And you know, there's
Speaker 1: been kind of this narrative that maybe he's had something
Speaker 1: to do with the run defense and the issues you've
Speaker 1: had there. But man, I mean, one that's an entire unit,
Speaker 1: that's not just one specific player. But to look at
Speaker 1: what he did when Christian McCaffrey was running in his
Speaker 1: area and his gaps in that game against Carolina. It's
Speaker 1: tough to point out stats other than the screenplay that
Speaker 1: he broke up when he came off his block and
Speaker 1: ended up chasing him down. It was difficult. It's been
Speaker 1: tough sledding still for them to get through that area,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times when it has been it's
Speaker 1: been the double team. So it's gonna be really intriguing
Speaker 1: to watch and see where the rest of his season goes.
Speaker 1: But at twenty four years old and the snaps that
Speaker 1: he's had, the way he's played, I just think there's
Speaker 1: a certain amount of respect you gotta put on Kenny
Speaker 1: Clark's name right now despite some of the issues that
Speaker 1: defense has had. Yeah, I would, I would certainly agree
Speaker 1: with you. One other item to clean up, I guess
Speaker 1: we could say from or a leftover item from the
Speaker 1: bye week, and that is that the nominees. League wide,
Speaker 1: every team in the league nominates a player for the
Speaker 1: annual Sportsmanship Award, and for the second year in a row,
Speaker 1: here in green Bay, that nomination has gone to Tremont
Speaker 1: Williams um interesting in a lot of ways that he
Speaker 1: takes a three year, three year break from playing in
Speaker 1: Green Bay and then comes back and now these last
Speaker 1: two years he's been the Sportsmanship Award nominee, something that
Speaker 1: that he certainly appreciates. I know, he's one of your
Speaker 1: favorite players to talk to me certainly one of my
Speaker 1: favorite players over the years to talk to. And he
Speaker 1: can't say enough about just how well he represents himself
Speaker 1: and his team and his defense and his teammates anytime
Speaker 1: that he is on the field. And that's what this
Speaker 1: award is all about. Yeah, it's the media award will
Speaker 1: come later in the season, and certainly he's always in
Speaker 1: the running for that as well. But I mean, in
Speaker 1: my time on the beat, he's one of the guys
Speaker 1: that I think I've learned the most about the game
Speaker 1: of football. Listen to him talk and when you know,
Speaker 1: he's as thoughtful as they get in terms of hearing
Speaker 1: a question and giving appropriate response and not just trying
Speaker 1: to find some quick SoundBite to just move on with
Speaker 1: his day. He takes the time and it's also important
Speaker 1: that that's something that has been reflected in the locker
Speaker 1: room with his players, you know, the guys around him.
Speaker 1: He even mentioned this was unrelated to the Sportsmanship nominee,
Speaker 1: but he was asked from ESPNS robbed Amovski about Marquis
Speaker 1: Velda Scantling. You know, if you can help him out,
Speaker 1: give him some encouragement. A Svelda Scantlings kind of working
Speaker 1: through some stuff right now, Uh, injuries wise and production wise.
Speaker 1: And he goes on to mention one, yes he can too.
Speaker 1: He happens to be Velda Scantling's neighbor. In three, he
Speaker 1: mentioned how the reason he thinks guys like that will
Speaker 1: succeed is the same reason why Gi Alexander has succeed
Speaker 1: in this league, because when there is an issue, when
Speaker 1: something does happen, those guys go out of their way
Speaker 1: to ask tremon questions how he worked through certain things
Speaker 1: in his career, What did he do when he felt
Speaker 1: this way? Because everybody in some regard, even though the
Speaker 1: positions are different, go through a lot of the same
Speaker 1: emotions throughout the course of a long career in tremon
Speaker 1: is a guy that has been a resource for players
Speaker 1: along the way. He joked that, I mean this must
Speaker 1: mean I'm just a nice guy. But he also mentioned
Speaker 1: last year when he went and looked at the nominees
Speaker 1: for all the teams, the class and character that he
Speaker 1: was put up with. Uh, that meant a great deal
Speaker 1: to him and being able to have his peers feel
Speaker 1: that he's on that level. He did joke that when
Speaker 1: he saw that Drew Brees, one of the other guys
Speaker 1: who were finalists, He's like, yeah, I don't know how
Speaker 1: I could compare to them, but it is something that
Speaker 1: I think you saw Julius Peppers when he was here
Speaker 1: to receive it. That nomination. It goes a long way,
Speaker 1: and I think it just speaks to the type of
Speaker 1: player that trumm has been in this place for over
Speaker 1: ten years now, um in the kind of teammate that
Speaker 1: he's always been. Yeah. Ultimately, with this Sportsmanship Award, there
Speaker 1: are thirty two nominees, one from every NFL team. Eventually
Speaker 1: that gets whittled down to eight finalists, four from the
Speaker 1: a f C and four from the NFC. And then
Speaker 1: is it in that like the Super Bowl show that
Speaker 1: the whole NFL honors the night before the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: is when when the league wide winners announced. I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool, though, I will say this, and this
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with sportsmanship per se, but the
Speaker 1: fact that Truman Williams got his first interception of the
Speaker 1: season against Caroline and it's his first interception since he
Speaker 1: came back to the Packers. Last year was the Now
Speaker 1: it remains the only season in his fourteen year career
Speaker 1: that he does not have at least one interception. So
Speaker 1: he got one in twenty nineteen. I know he's looking
Speaker 1: for more. But when you look at you look at
Speaker 1: the year by year stats, you know, when you call
Speaker 1: it up on a computer screen and you look at
Speaker 1: the interception column and you go down and there's a
Speaker 1: number in every single column for every single year except
Speaker 1: for last year. That kind of that kind of impact,
Speaker 1: that kind of longevity, that's that's really impressive in this league.
Speaker 1: And it speaks volumes about Tremont too. That the reason,
Speaker 1: I mean, he played half the season at cornerback, so
Speaker 1: I can't, you know, just say he didn't have his opportunities,
Speaker 1: but he ended up shifting to safety, a position that
Speaker 1: he hadn't really played down after down ever in his
Speaker 1: NFL career, because that's where the defense was and that's
Speaker 1: the role they needed him to fill, and he did it.
Speaker 1: So Tremon Williams is a great one. And when this
Speaker 1: thing is all said and done, and I know he
Speaker 1: probably wants to play at least fifty, but you know,
Speaker 1: he's going to be a guy that I think in
Speaker 1: terms of media types and I'm sure the players that
Speaker 1: are on this roster now that have been affected by him.
Speaker 1: He's an all timer. I mean, he's one of a kind,
Speaker 1: and he's a guy that he came in as an
Speaker 1: undrafted free agent, and every time you talk with him,
Speaker 1: it's still like you're talking to an undrafted rookie. That's
Speaker 1: just not I don't want to say happy to be there,
Speaker 1: but definitely a down to earth perspective that you don't
Speaker 1: always get with a guy that's been around the league
Speaker 1: this long. Yeah, he's appreciated every opportunity that he's gotten
Speaker 1: in this league, both in Green Baith and when he
Speaker 1: went to Cleveland and Arizona. Now that he's back in
Speaker 1: Green Bay, there's there's an appreciation level that you hear
Speaker 1: in his voice almost any time you talked to him.
Speaker 1: In a fun story, I'll close on this. Rob Demovski
Speaker 1: again from ESPN dot com, my former colleague. He even
Speaker 1: was asking him a separate question about, you know, Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan's coming in. Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for
Speaker 1: a time one season with the Cleveland Browns. He asked, Tremont, hey,
Speaker 1: have you ever you know, did you work with him
Speaker 1: at all? Was he still there when you signed with
Speaker 1: Cleveland after becoming a free agent a number of years ago?
Speaker 1: He said, no, But I'm an old guy, right. Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan was the receiver's coach in Houston when Tremon signed
Speaker 1: as an undrafted free agent back in two thousand six.
Speaker 1: I mean, just the longevity you talk about from him.
Speaker 1: I I joked about on Twitter, the six degrees of
Speaker 1: Tremont Williams. It's like every coach and player has some
Speaker 1: you know, some type of Termon Williams connected to him
Speaker 1: somewhere along the line. Yeah. He started as an undrafted
Speaker 1: as an undrafted rookie with Houston, and then in the
Speaker 1: middle of his rookie season, I believe it was November
Speaker 1: of two thousand six, the Packers Ted Thompson signed him
Speaker 1: to the practice squad in Green Bay and other than
Speaker 1: and then for um basically getting into the lineup in
Speaker 1: two thousand seven through two thousand fourteen, he was a
Speaker 1: fixture here with the Packers and now he's back in
Speaker 1: a career that someday I'll have him in the Packers
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, and about it to have another Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: right all right? With that, we'll call it a wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and
Speaker 1: other podcast services. On Twitter, He's at west Hot I'm
Speaker 1: at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks
Speaker 1: for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time.