Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spafer, joint as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from the Potawatamie Sportsbook Studio inside the walls of
Speaker 1: lambeau Field and West. We've got a lot of ground
Speaker 1: to cover since our last show because there has been
Speaker 1: Family Night, there's been a couple of other padded practices,
Speaker 1: there's the preseason opener on the way in Pittsburgh. But
Speaker 1: I think the conversation today starts with this. Over the
Speaker 1: last handful of days, we have seen two distinct competitions
Speaker 1: starting competitions developing within this training camp. One at cornerback,
Speaker 1: one at right guard on the offensive line. I'll let
Speaker 1: you start wherever you'd like, but both of those are
Speaker 1: very intriguing, and neither one appears close to being decided. I.
Speaker 2: My heart of hearts, wants to start at the right
Speaker 2: guard position, but you wrote a wonderful story on Jacob
Speaker 2: Monk and I and the main reason I want to
Speaker 2: say this, I'm going to transition over to cornerbacks. But
Speaker 2: I've been so impressed by what Monk has done. This
Speaker 2: is a guy that he reminds me so much of
Speaker 2: that Lane Taylor type where the Packers put a fifth
Speaker 2: round pick into him and they wanted him. This is
Speaker 2: a guy they really were desiring coming out of Duke.
Speaker 2: He played a bunch of ball there. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: over those COVID seasons, I think he was like I
Speaker 2: want to say, like sixty two games or something like that.
Speaker 2: And it's just like every single time it appears like
Speaker 2: he's on the cusp of like maybe contending for a
Speaker 2: starting position. Something happens last year in training camp ended
Speaker 2: up being the hamstring takes him out half the season.
Speaker 2: Then you go to this past offseason, as you wrote
Speaker 2: about the biceps injury that he finished last year with
Speaker 2: that wipes him out of the offseason program. Right, But
Speaker 2: his body, the way he's built and for that guard position,
Speaker 2: I just think there's so many things that translate there. Well,
Speaker 2: maybe I'll just transfer this over to you because you
Speaker 2: did a nice job of surmising that and just kind
Speaker 2: of what why Jacob Monk has suddenly entered the chat
Speaker 2: now in regards to that starting right guard job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for those who want to check out the details
Speaker 1: the story is posted on packers dot com and had
Speaker 1: an interesting conversation with Jacob and a couple of other reporters.
Speaker 1: And you know, he's not getting caught up in all
Speaker 1: of this, like, Oh, he's running with the ones and
Speaker 1: he's got a shot at a starting job. I mean
Speaker 1: he when I asked him about basically, hey, what do
Speaker 1: you think of this opportunity in front of you? Like
Speaker 1: they're running you with the first team offense at right
Speaker 1: guard on a regular basis now so you can see
Speaker 1: what's in front of you. And his answer was just
Speaker 1: a reflection of everything he's gone through with the hamstring
Speaker 1: and the biceps injuries, like I'm just grateful to be
Speaker 1: out on the field. You know, he really just has
Speaker 1: this gratitude for where he is right now because of
Speaker 1: everything he's gone through. Everything we've heard from the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: they absolutely love the way this young man plays. You
Speaker 1: can't get into, you know, one sentence of an answer
Speaker 1: from a coach on this coaching staff without the word
Speaker 1: play style coming up with regard to Monk, he is
Speaker 1: quick off the ball, he is tenacious. He doesn't play
Speaker 1: to the whistle, he plays through the whistle. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's He's the embodiment of what how they'd like everybody
Speaker 1: to play out there on the field, and that's why
Speaker 1: he's made the strides that he has. As of right now,
Speaker 1: I would say he's ahead of Anthony Belton for the
Speaker 1: starting right guard job, but don't write off Anthony Belton.
Speaker 1: This thing is not over. You know, this is a
Speaker 1: young guy, a second year pro, a second round draft
Speaker 1: pick a year ago, who is a mountain of a man,
Speaker 1: and he's going to get his opportunities to play in
Speaker 1: the preseason and shore up some of the things that
Speaker 1: you know, some of the rough days that he's had
Speaker 1: in training camp so far. So this is a long
Speaker 1: way from over. And I'm not ruling out Jagger Burton either,
Speaker 1: the rookie out of Kentucky. Now, he's been taking a
Speaker 1: lot of first team snaps at left guard because Aaron
Speaker 1: Banks is not yet better back into eleven on eleven reps,
Speaker 1: but I think he is kind of in this competition
Speaker 1: as well. He missed a little bit of time early
Speaker 1: in training camp because of the hamstring, but he got
Speaker 1: back out there pretty quickly. And again, the preseason games
Speaker 1: are going to be a big time proving ground for
Speaker 1: a young guy like that.
Speaker 2: It's such a great point, Mike. I think there were
Speaker 2: so many people that want to pencil in a starting
Speaker 2: five at the starting training camp, and this is what
Speaker 2: I was guilty of it too.
Speaker 1: I'll say it. I was guilty of it as well.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it doesn't necessarily go that way. And you're
Speaker 1: reminded the way this played out that if Jacob Monk
Speaker 1: had not had the hamstring injury that kept him out
Speaker 1: almost like into October last year when they needed a
Speaker 1: new right guard when Sean Ryan had to play center
Speaker 1: for Elton Jenkins, Monk might have gotten that shot, but
Speaker 1: they gave it to Belton because he had been there
Speaker 1: all along and he wasn't coming off of an injury.
Speaker 1: So it's just the way these things fall sometimes, and
Speaker 1: now maybe things might be taken a different direction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and credit to Anthony too, because I mean he's
Speaker 2: taken on this tab of trying to play right guard
Speaker 2: head on, as is a guy that did not do it.
Speaker 2: At NC State. He was a right tackle. That was
Speaker 2: his spot. He played against really good competition, but that
Speaker 2: was his home. So now he's kind of been in
Speaker 2: a little bit of this limbo spot where obviously still
Speaker 2: factoring into the right guard thing. But now that Zach
Speaker 2: Baku Boele I almost said Tom Baku Boele is back
Speaker 2: in the lineup and taking team reps again, as we've
Speaker 2: seen this past week. Now you have Belton sort of
Speaker 2: rotating in for him with the first team unit in
Speaker 2: that spot after Zach takes usually the first first two snaps.
Speaker 2: I think it's been a team and then transitions out,
Speaker 2: so everybody's still in this competition. But I thought you
Speaker 2: raised a salient point too about Jacob Burton, because this
Speaker 2: guy would not be in the conversation for a starting
Speaker 2: spot with all of these various people competing for these
Speaker 2: positions if he wasn't showing the pack or something right
Speaker 2: away as a rookie. I think he maximized those reps
Speaker 2: that he took in the off season program. He's having
Speaker 2: a chance right now to work at left guard with
Speaker 2: Aaron Banks still sort of getting worked back into team periods.
Speaker 2: He's been obviously on a little bit of a maintenance
Speaker 2: program with his knee. But Burton's a guy man. I've
Speaker 2: said it time and time again. When you look at
Speaker 2: the starting five, you need the chemistry, you need the
Speaker 2: camaraderie Matt Lafuer said to himself, there's a time that
Speaker 2: comes that you need to have that locked down, but
Speaker 2: you also have to have guys that are ready for
Speaker 2: those moments too, And I think Burton and Monk collectively
Speaker 2: what they've been able to do on the interior has
Speaker 2: been very valuable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this we'll have to just see how this
Speaker 1: competition plays out over the next few weeks. The other one,
Speaker 1: of course, is at cornerback. Jonathan Gannon's new defense Carrington
Speaker 1: Valentine is currently sidelined by a hamstring injury, and now
Speaker 1: over the last few practices, we have seen a steady,
Speaker 1: essentially a constant rotation as far as who the two
Speaker 1: starting cornerbacks are. With the first team defense, they paired
Speaker 1: Nixon and Brandon Sisay, then it's Brandon Sisa with Benjamin
Speaker 1: Saint Jus, and then it just keeps flipping back and
Speaker 1: forth as they go from from team period to team period.
Speaker 1: The one thing that seems constant, Brandon Ceesay continues to
Speaker 1: take first team reps. He's not getting relegated to the
Speaker 1: second team. The rookie, We've talked about him a lot already,
Speaker 1: the rookie second round pick out of South Carolina has
Speaker 1: done nothing but impress. And I mean he from what
Speaker 1: we've seen on the practice field. I hate to say
Speaker 1: this about a rookie in the middle of August, but
Speaker 1: he looks like he's ready to go. He looks like
Speaker 1: he's ready to play in the NFL right now.
Speaker 2: Which I cannot believe at twenty one years old. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for being a true junior coming out. I'll tell you what, Mike,
Speaker 2: all these years that I've covered Packer training camp practices
Speaker 2: in terms of the non takeaway because we always so
Speaker 2: we perseverate so much on interceptions. By the way, Jalen
Speaker 2: Simpson had a nice one to end practice on Monday,
Speaker 2: but it's always about hey, who has these big picks.
Speaker 2: The coverage that Brandon Ceesay had on that corner route,
Speaker 2: I want to say, near the end of practice working
Speaker 2: against the ones, Jordan Love trying to hit Christian Watson,
Speaker 2: one of the toughest receivers to match up again in
Speaker 2: terms of the speed and the size, and Love forced
Speaker 2: the ball in there and Cisa plastered the coverage. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there was not a window to get that ball into
Speaker 2: Christian Watson. I haven't seen a lot of that in
Speaker 2: terms of rookie ballplayers coming in here and showing that
Speaker 2: type of ability straight away, especially being as young as Brandon.
Speaker 2: Cisa is so for a guy again, kind of like
Speaker 2: we were talking about with Burton in the offense, this
Speaker 2: is a guy that played a lot of ball, took
Speaker 2: a lot of first team reps in the spring, a
Speaker 2: lot of the because of how things sort of shaped out.
Speaker 2: Now he's putting that all to work and it creates
Speaker 2: a lot of competition. I think that's a positive. That's
Speaker 2: a net positive for Green Bay, especially considering some of
Speaker 2: the injuries they're dealing with in the secondary. But it
Speaker 2: now leads to this question of Okay, well you got
Speaker 2: Keyshan there, you got Benjamin Saint Jus who the more
Speaker 2: I watch him, the more I understand how the Packers
Speaker 2: back in March, we're looking at his skill set, his
Speaker 2: size and being like, yep, this guy is prototypical for
Speaker 2: what we want in a Jonathan Gannon defense. Brandon two
Speaker 2: weeks ago was saying that to me and some of
Speaker 2: the other reporters. He felt like this was the perfect
Speaker 2: fit for him defensively, it's looking like it and then
Speaker 2: karenon Valentine working through that hamstringer is kind of in
Speaker 2: the back shadows too, So a lot for Green Bay
Speaker 2: to consider at a very very important position for them
Speaker 2: entering the twenty twenty sixth season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's really interesting. This is where this competition
Speaker 1: feels so different from the right guard one because, aside
Speaker 1: from CSA being a rookie, when you're talking about Keishawn Nixon,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Saint, Jus Carrington Valentine when he gets healthy, you're
Speaker 1: talking about veteran guys who have been there and done that, right,
Speaker 1: And because of that, I think, however this shakes out
Speaker 1: and whoever the starting cornerbacks are come Week one, that's
Speaker 1: not the end of the competition, right, because we know
Speaker 1: Jonathan Gannon is going to use different guys, He's going
Speaker 1: to use different packages, and the guys who are playing well.
Speaker 1: When you're a veteran player who's proven yourself, if somebody
Speaker 1: isn't up to the task, they'll make the switch. And
Speaker 1: then you know, if you go out there and show
Speaker 1: that you can do it, you have a chance to
Speaker 1: hang on to the job. So this is one of
Speaker 1: those things that could go well into the regular season
Speaker 1: before we really know who's at the top of the
Speaker 1: depth chart, but there will have to be decisions made
Speaker 1: at the end of camp when Week one rolls around.
Speaker 2: I'm very interested to see how this plays out because
Speaker 2: you know, Keishawn Nixon has been playing on the perimeter
Speaker 2: now for two seasons. Yeah, he broke his way into
Speaker 2: the starting lineup three years ago as a nickel cornerback,
Speaker 2: as a dime cornerback in the slot, so he does
Speaker 2: have that versatility. But you also have you know, Javon
Speaker 2: Bullard is locking down the nickel spot, although there's an injury.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll be talking about here with him right now.
Speaker 2: They've had so much perimeter depth now that you go
Speaker 2: back fifteen years ago, ten fifteen years ago, a lot
Speaker 2: of times those competitions, well, if it didn't work out
Speaker 2: for somebody on the perimeter, they would be in the
Speaker 2: nickel spot. That isn't necessarily the case. So I mean,
Speaker 2: it's extremely high stakes right now. But I'll say this,
Speaker 2: when you were going back to April, after the moves
Speaker 2: that the Packers made in the offseason program, these are
Speaker 2: the problems that you'd want to have. You want to
Speaker 2: have a problem where Brandon sees is pushing that entire
Speaker 2: room straight away. Yeah, you want to have an issue
Speaker 2: there where you know BSJ has come in and is impressing.
Speaker 2: That's what the Packers wanted to do, That's what Brian
Speaker 2: Gudikuntzk was going out to accomplish when he acquired those players.
Speaker 2: And certainly in the long term that depth is going
Speaker 2: to be necessary as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. And that that's what I like best,
Speaker 1: is that I think you and I would both agree
Speaker 1: the depth at cornerback is in a better spot right
Speaker 1: now than it was a year ago.
Speaker 2: And you know, the best example that Michael, the fact
Speaker 2: that Kamal had and who just can't got back from
Speaker 2: his ankle injury. This is a guy that was on
Speaker 2: the starting perimeter. Conversation with the assid he's now learning
Speaker 2: how to play nickel at the NFL level because of
Speaker 2: all the bodies that they have on the outside. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that just tells you right away that the Green Bay
Speaker 2: not only are they that deep now on the perimeter,
Speaker 2: but now they want to figure out, Okay, which of
Speaker 2: these guys can now push inside if we need them there?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The land Yeah, the landscape. The landscape has certainly changed. Well,
Speaker 1: let's go through the health update. As far as where
Speaker 1: things stand right now, you mentioned Zach Bacoboweli. He's been
Speaker 1: working his way into team reps. He's now taking some
Speaker 1: eleven on eleven at right tackle. So is DeVante Wyatt,
Speaker 1: coming off of another season ending injury from last year.
Speaker 1: Wyatt has been working into the eleven on eleven. Both
Speaker 1: of them also doing so in pads, not just in
Speaker 1: the shells practice, but in pads as well. Tucker Craft
Speaker 1: we have not seen him in eleven on eleven yet.
Speaker 1: Aaron Banks dealing with some knee soreness. We have not
Speaker 1: seen him in eleven on eleven yet. New injury since
Speaker 1: our last show. You mentioned Javon Bullard now has a
Speaker 1: foot injury he's dealing with. We've seen Katan Oladappo take
Speaker 1: his spot. As far as the nickel corner with the
Speaker 1: number one defense, Josh Jacobs is currently out with a
Speaker 1: groin injury. It's not considered long term. They're being super
Speaker 1: cautious with Jacob's He missed Family Night because of that
Speaker 1: injury and almost certainly is not going to play in
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh because he hasn't back on the practice field yet.
Speaker 1: And then at wide receiver, Matthew Golden toe injury, Jaden
Speaker 1: Reid ankle injury. Their absences the past couple of practices
Speaker 1: has created a lot of opportunities with the number one
Speaker 1: offense for Saveon Williams, for bou Melton, for sky Moore
Speaker 1: at the receiver position, and to a certain extent Wes.
Speaker 1: All three of those guys have delivered they over the
Speaker 1: last couple of practices. They have all made their share
Speaker 1: of plays with Jordan Love and that's something that's good
Speaker 1: to see because you feel like there's a level of
Speaker 1: reliability there if something were to happen, and if those
Speaker 1: guys were to be counted on, maybe more than expected
Speaker 1: if something like this happens in the regular So.
Speaker 2: You know what bo Melton can do. He's been in
Speaker 2: the league for three years. Sky Moore was a former
Speaker 2: second round pick that has played a lot of football.
Speaker 2: I think he has fit over fifty games under his
Speaker 2: belt now at this point, Yep, Savion Williams is the
Speaker 2: ultimate kind of wild card right now for Green Bay
Speaker 2: and I would maintain maybe you disagree with me, I
Speaker 2: don't know that we this past week we've seen the
Speaker 2: best version of Savion Williams totally in his time with
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers, totally, because we've seen the end rounds,
Speaker 2: we've seen some of the gadget playwork. Because of these
Speaker 2: injury injuries, We've seen Savion Williams running more routes. We've
Speaker 2: seen him, you know, being part of more longer developing plays.
Speaker 2: We've seen him work more slants in posts. That's critical,
Speaker 2: I feel like, because realistically, when you think back to
Speaker 2: his rookie season, there's that moment in New York that
Speaker 2: everybody remembers him fifty to fifty in that ball making
Speaker 2: a tremendous catch in a critical situation. But there weren't
Speaker 2: a lot of those moments. It was a lot of
Speaker 2: stuff within five yards or even behind the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2: So for Savion to have a practice like he did,
Speaker 2: a close practice inside the Hudson Center because of weather
Speaker 2: in the area. As Matt Lafleur talked about, they had
Speaker 2: him charted for eight targets. He caught seven of them.
Speaker 2: He had a sixty yard touchdown pass in which there
Speaker 2: was more. There was a blown coverage there, but it
Speaker 2: showed you at six foot six or six foot four,
Speaker 2: excuse me, two hundred and twenty two pounds. How quickly
Speaker 2: that guy can disappear in a secondarya if you give
Speaker 2: him a free rein and that's what he did. So
Speaker 2: I think Savion is in a really interesting spot right now.
Speaker 2: When they made the move to trade Don Tavian Wicks,
Speaker 2: when you made the move to let Romeo Dobbs depart
Speaker 2: in free agency, they were looking to clear opportunities up
Speaker 2: for Williams. They were looking at clear opportunities up for Golden.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately Golden had the toy injury coming out of Family Night,
Speaker 2: but he's capitalized on him and now number eighty three
Speaker 2: is doing the same.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a good point you raise about seeing
Speaker 1: Savion Williams now because of these injuries, seeing him more
Speaker 1: in the conventional part of the of the Packers offense,
Speaker 1: because even his one touchdown as a rookie last year
Speaker 1: was just a wide receiver screen in Pittsburgh. And he
Speaker 1: makes a couple moves, gets a couple of nice blocks. Great,
Speaker 1: he gets into the end zone. But again that it
Speaker 1: has that gadget feel to it, right seeing sort of
Speaker 1: the rest of Savion Williams now, And I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think it's a great sign. It's a great sign
Speaker 1: heading into his second season, what he's been able to
Speaker 1: show in this training camp.
Speaker 2: And they if they want to keep those concepts in
Speaker 2: the playbook, they have somebody in sky Moore who can
Speaker 2: do them. I mean sky Moore the way he's built.
Speaker 2: It's not a conventional receiver, whereas you have a guy
Speaker 2: like Savion that's six foot four, two twenty. Sky goes
Speaker 2: five ten, two hundred like in that range, right, He's
Speaker 2: more of a shifty underneath receiver. We've also seen him
Speaker 2: in a lot of these practices when Jonathan Gannon's been
Speaker 2: sending heat, he's been the hot read for Jordan Love.
Speaker 2: There's been a lot of times where Love is dump
Speaker 2: stuff off to him in the flat and allowed him
Speaker 2: to make some plays are wheeling underneath. That's going to
Speaker 2: be critical. So yeah, I think I just people they
Speaker 2: see injuries and they think it's so dire, and sometimes
Speaker 2: it is. Sometimes bad things do happen, But like I
Speaker 2: just think they looked people were looking for a reason
Speaker 2: to kind of panic about the red and Golden thing.
Speaker 2: Both of those guys are out at practice on you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see what their timeline looks like. But I don't
Speaker 2: get the impression these are significant injuries. They wouldn't be
Speaker 2: out there at practice if there were significant injuries. So again,
Speaker 2: glass half full hod quits here. But yeah, I think
Speaker 2: if anything, it opens up some of these opportunities for
Speaker 2: guys that are going to play deep into preseason games,
Speaker 2: that are going to get a lot of opportunities in
Speaker 2: the next two weeks to show what they can do.
Speaker 1: And it's a reminder to injuries on August tenth are
Speaker 1: treated very differently than injuries on September tenth or October tenth.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we're still more than a month
Speaker 1: away from the actual Week one game. So if somebody's
Speaker 1: just being nagged by a little something they don't feel
Speaker 1: quite right, the last thing they want to do is
Speaker 1: make it worse, and so they just they go on
Speaker 1: the high side of caution with this, with this stuff
Speaker 1: all the time. So hopefully both we'll be back soon.
Speaker 1: But there's no need to get them back into things
Speaker 1: too soon, because what matters is Week one, not these
Speaker 1: preseason games. That's for those types of players.
Speaker 2: Andrew Cooper was out of practice on Sunday with a foot.
Speaker 2: Everybody's like, oh, and then he's just out there in
Speaker 2: pads on Monday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was back on Monday. This guy take a brother,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, absolutely. Well, a couple other topics to get to,
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Speaker 1: Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 2: All right, Wes.
Speaker 1: We talked on our last show about one of the
Speaker 1: call it a long shot, the roster hopeful, the underdog story,
Speaker 1: Anthony Campbell at defensive tackle. You mentioned his name earlier
Speaker 1: in the show. He's another guy that in my mind
Speaker 1: falls into this category. And his defensive back Jalen Simpson.
Speaker 1: This is a young man, a fifth round pick by
Speaker 1: the Indianapolis Colts two years ago. Spent time with the Colts,
Speaker 1: also spent some time with the Jets. The Packers get
Speaker 1: him last summer, he spends the bulk of last season
Speaker 1: on Green Bays practice squad, ends up playing in that
Speaker 1: Week eighteen game in Minnesota when it was kind of
Speaker 1: all hands on deck with the starters resting. Jalen Simpson
Speaker 1: is making a push for a roster spot here. Now
Speaker 1: it's crowded in that defensive backfield. It's not an easy
Speaker 1: group to crack. But you mentioned the interception that he
Speaker 1: had on the last play of practice on Monday, an
Speaker 1: impressive play at the front pylon where he jumped a
Speaker 1: quick out route there. But it's not just the interception.
Speaker 1: We've seen him over the course of several practices get
Speaker 1: his hands on the ball, make you know, make a play,
Speaker 1: get a deflection, you know, make things difficult for receivers.
Speaker 1: Now he's doing all of that with the twos in
Speaker 1: the threes. You know, he hasn't really gotten the first
Speaker 1: team reps on any sort of consistent basis. We talked
Speaker 1: about how that's all rotating with that competition for the
Speaker 1: starting jobs at cornerback. But Jalen Simpson is a guy
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on here. With this preseason opener
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, in two more preseason games after that, it's
Speaker 1: a guy to keep an eye on as one of
Speaker 1: those you know, call it an underdog story. Who has
Speaker 1: a shot at this fifty three.
Speaker 2: Really interesting guy to talk to. Chatted with them at
Speaker 2: the end of last season, circled back with him in
Speaker 2: locker room on Monday, and he brought up a really
Speaker 2: interesting point. You're right, he has been working with the
Speaker 2: second team units. But one thing about him, again, a
Speaker 2: guy that was drafted in the fifth round by Indianapolis
Speaker 2: two years ago. It's not like this dude just came
Speaker 2: out of nowhere. Yeah, but what has happened is it's
Speaker 2: been a lot of scout team work for him. So
Speaker 2: he's kind of sharpened his iron against Christian Watson, against
Speaker 2: DeVante Adams, as he said when he was in New
Speaker 2: York at the Jets. Yeah, you know, you go back
Speaker 2: to his time in Indianapolis against Michael Pittman junior, and
Speaker 2: like he's gone up and tested alf against some of
Speaker 2: the best that the NFL has offered. You know how
Speaker 2: some of those scout team periods are in the seasons.
Speaker 2: They're not asking them to just go out there and
Speaker 2: go through the motions. They want to give them a look.
Speaker 2: He knows what it's like to compete at that level.
Speaker 2: Now he needs to prove to the Packers that he
Speaker 2: can do it when the film is on, when everybody
Speaker 2: is watching, right, And he said last year he goes
Speaker 2: back to his preseason, he wasn't overly happy with it, obviously.
Speaker 2: He started in Indianapolis, got cut, finished the training camp
Speaker 2: with Green Bay. That is a tough mountain to climb
Speaker 2: when you get here in the the eleventh hour of
Speaker 2: a preseason, and ultimately ended up on the practice squad.
Speaker 2: But green Bay thought enough of him they kept him
Speaker 2: around all season. He worked the nickel all season, started
Speaker 2: to do a little bit more on the perimeter near
Speaker 2: the end of it, played in the game against Minnesota,
Speaker 2: and he's champion at the bit right now to get
Speaker 2: out there in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, he said, I'd
Speaker 2: played one football game, one meaningful football game in the
Speaker 2: last year. Even when you go back to the previous
Speaker 2: season when he ended it in twenty five with the Jets,
Speaker 2: he was inactive for those four games. After he signed
Speaker 2: from the practice squad in Indianapolis to the fifty three
Speaker 2: man roster in New York. So this is a dude
Speaker 2: that's very hungry to prove himself. And I think when
Speaker 2: we talk about Brandon Cisa and some of these guys
Speaker 2: that have been afforded these opportunities, it's also important to
Speaker 2: mention the trickle down effect on the other teams, Guys
Speaker 2: like Jalen Simpson who might have been working on the
Speaker 2: third team units or might not have had opportunities to
Speaker 2: get as many first team or second team snaps. Well,
Speaker 2: now he's running consistently with the second team. He's the
Speaker 2: guy that's been across from either BSJ or Nixon. With
Speaker 2: these twos the last week and when Demani Jackson still
Speaker 2: being out, the Packers' rookie sixth round pick, Simpson has
Speaker 2: given Green Bay a lot to consider. Now, can he
Speaker 2: carry over some of the good things that he's done
Speaker 2: in practice, including how he ended it on Monday, into
Speaker 2: preseason action against the Steelers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's what I want to close on here,
Speaker 1: because whether you're talking about Jalen Simpson carrying it over,
Speaker 1: Anthony Campbell, what he has done on the defensive line,
Speaker 1: like we talked about on our last show, what else
Speaker 1: are you watching for when we go to Pittsburgh. We're
Speaker 1: sitting in the press box at Acchrisure Stadium. I'm always
Speaker 1: gonna call it Heinz Field in my head, but still
Speaker 1: Heinesfield to me, darn it, what are you gonna be
Speaker 1: watching for? Like, what's what's top of mind for you
Speaker 1: here in this preseason opener, knowing that there are still
Speaker 1: two more preseason games to go at.
Speaker 2: Mar Sean Lloyd, I want to see Marshawn Lloyd. And
Speaker 2: you know, we did get Chris Brooks back this week.
Speaker 2: He's back off of NFI. He had a hamstring injury
Speaker 2: that he suffered during his training that kept him out
Speaker 2: the first two weeks of camp. But you know, who
Speaker 2: knows how much he'll play. I'm sure Pierre is strong,
Speaker 2: I'm sure Damian Martinez are gonna get opportunities. But the Packers,
Speaker 2: however many snaps he plays, whatever his action looks like,
Speaker 2: these next three weeks, Green Bay wants to put everything
Speaker 2: to the test. Now. You know, this has been a
Speaker 2: really strong start for Marshawn, not only with his performance,
Speaker 2: but the fact that every single practice he's been out there,
Speaker 2: he's taken a lot of first team reps with Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs being out, and he looks as explosive as he
Speaker 2: was two years ago. Whatever he's gone through at these
Speaker 2: lower bodies injuries, with the hamstring, with all these these
Speaker 2: various things that he's had to deal with, it doesn't
Speaker 2: look like it's zapdam of any of his speed or
Speaker 2: his explosiveness. Right. Uh, Marshall Lloyd's the biggest headline for me,
Speaker 2: and and beyond that, Yeah, it's gonna be Hey, which
Speaker 2: guy in the edge rush rotation is going to impress? Right?
Speaker 2: These these positions where there's so much depth, Uh, who's
Speaker 2: gonna stand out? When you look at the offensive line,
Speaker 2: Whether or not the first team Unich goes out there,
Speaker 2: we're going to see a heck of a lot of
Speaker 2: the second team unit. Do they push the line of scrimmat? Right?
Speaker 2: A bevy of tight ends right now on this roster,
Speaker 2: very few of them with any NFL experience due to injuries.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna take Who's gonna take that moment to show
Speaker 2: what they can do? Tray Smack trying to show that, Okay,
Speaker 2: there's been some ups and downs and kicking game. Am
Speaker 2: I going to be able to go into a state
Speaker 2: NFL stadium like Pittsburgh in a difficult, cult environment somewhat
Speaker 2: similar to green Bay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not the most friendly, not the most friendly kicking
Speaker 1: stadium for Tray Smack to uh to have his preseason opener,
Speaker 1: But maybe that's gonna be a good thing.
Speaker 2: So my answer to you, Michael, in a very long
Speaker 2: winded fashion, is that there there's probably more to look
Speaker 2: at in this preseason opener than I can ever imagine.
Speaker 2: And that's not even talking about the fact that Matt
Speaker 2: Lafuur hasn't really said whether or not the starters are
Speaker 2: going to play. Jordan Love's first three years as the
Speaker 2: Packers starting quarterback, he has played in the preseason finale
Speaker 2: or preseason opener. Excuse me. Unfortunately last year he gets
Speaker 2: the ligament issue in his non throwing hand, has minor surgery,
Speaker 2: kind of keeps him out for a week. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot to consider from that regard. But you ask
Speaker 2: me what my headline is, Number thirty two is my headline.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And with regard to the starters, we're expecting them
Speaker 1: to play at some point, whether it's in Pittsburgh or
Speaker 1: whether it's in Denver, or maybe it's a little bit
Speaker 1: of both. We don't know. Matt Lafleur is not tipping
Speaker 1: his hand there and it's he basically said, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a feel thing for where he feels the
Speaker 1: team is. Most likely, the starters are not going to
Speaker 1: play in the third preseason game. He did say that
Speaker 1: because they're gonna get all their reps in the joint
Speaker 1: practice against the Cardinals two days before that preseason finale.
Speaker 1: So in terms of seeing maybe the starters in some
Speaker 1: preseason action, it'll probably be either Pittsburgh or Denver, maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit of both, and we'll see. But I
Speaker 1: am one with you that that Marshawn Lloyd is the
Speaker 1: headline here. We thought he was on his way to
Speaker 1: showing us what he could do in the preseason. Last year,
Speaker 1: he had a really good joint practice in Indianapolis, makes
Speaker 1: that great play down the sideline, but suffers another injury,
Speaker 1: you know, another in the long list, and then that
Speaker 1: injury ends up keeping him out for an extended period
Speaker 1: of time. So he is absolutely the guy to watch.
Speaker 1: And quite frankly, we'll have this discussion again next week,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to this first preseason game, you know,
Speaker 1: on our next show, we're gonna be talking about, Okay,
Speaker 1: who you know who did this and who did that
Speaker 1: and who caught everybody's notice. But then it's going to
Speaker 1: be can they do it again in Denver? Right, because
Speaker 1: you don't make a roster in the NFL, You don't
Speaker 1: make a fifty three in the NFL with one good
Speaker 1: pre season showing it's you have to be able to
Speaker 1: stack it. You have to be able to show you
Speaker 1: can do it on a consistent basis.
Speaker 2: So this is the.
Speaker 1: Starting ground of the proving ground with this preseason opener,
Speaker 1: But it's going.
Speaker 2: To be just the beginning, and I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2: I'm just so pumped for it. There's just when you
Speaker 2: get to the preseason, Family Knights like that first checkpoint.
Speaker 2: Preseason is when the game really starts, though, and it's
Speaker 2: when guys make their moment. It's it's when Emmanuel Wilson
Speaker 2: came out of nowhere, made himself undeniable, ends up carving
Speaker 2: out NFL career for himself in Green Bay after being
Speaker 2: an undrafted free agent, a guy that was a late
Speaker 2: addition to this.
Speaker 1: Roster at the Division two level two level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and certainly there's a bunch of quarterbacks that have
Speaker 2: shined here in camp. I thought Tyrod Taylor had his
Speaker 2: best practice of camp on Monday. I think you look
Speaker 2: at Kyle McCord and Kyron Drones, both of those guys
Speaker 2: have had moments, have had throws, very different quarterbacks, but
Speaker 2: have had success. I think it's going to be an
Speaker 2: exciting watch and seeing who can separate themselves over these
Speaker 2: next three weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be fun. But we
Speaker 1: have to get out to our next practice, and because
Speaker 1: the preseason opener is on Thursday, we don't have time
Speaker 1: to do a show another show this week. So when
Speaker 1: we come back for our next show next week, we
Speaker 1: will be reviewing the preseason game against Pittsburgh and then
Speaker 1: previewing the next one coming up against Denver. But for now,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers
Speaker 1: on Script. But be sure to continue following all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team, all of our coverage of
Speaker 1: training camp on Packers dot com for West, I am Mike,
Speaker 1: Thank you to me.
Speaker 2: Will see next time.