WEBVTT - #886 Packers Unscripted: Kicker talk 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:10.000 Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:13.560 Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.360 by the suddenly clean shaven Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.200 you here from our new studio at Lambeufield West. There's 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.400 been a bit of a progression here because over our 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.360 last two episodes we've gone from the full beard to 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.520 the goatee and to now it's all gone. So you 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.120 want to clue us all in on what's going on here? 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:33.960 Would you get your mom from Mother's Day? What was 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.720 the what was the gift at the Spotford Hoshole for mama? 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.680 We got actually, we all, me and the kids went 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:46.000 in together on this whole like coffee and chocolate. Oh 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.040 you know, it's sort of like these these international things 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.040 that are like paired up certain coffees with certain chocolates 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:53.080 and stuff like that. Yeah. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.000 So, so for my mother for Mother's Day, I give 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.080 her a gift every year, and I obviously I don't 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.000 just do this. I gave her, you know, a nice 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:05.120 card and some other things, a candle, but I shave 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.399 for Mother's Day. That's what I do. Now. I had 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.360 a little fun last week because my mom. Here's the thing. 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:13.800 My mom does not like my beard. This is well docked. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:14.399 Shock her. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.160 She's never liked it. It's gotten better. I've gotten more 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.560 compliments than criticism over the years, but she's never been 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:23.679 a big fan of it. So I told her last 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.880 week I'm gonna shave. What I didn't tell her though, initially, 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.960 was I shaved it into a go tea. I technically shaved, 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.920 but it was a go tea. She actually didn't hate that. 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.560 I think she actually kind of I have to survey 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.200 her on this. I think she liked the go tea 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.160 more than she liked the beard. But be that as 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.440 it may. It was my mom's birthday on Saturday. Happy birthday, Mom, 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.800 I love you. And then obviously Mother's Day on Sunday. 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:45.800 Wow, what a weekend. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.600 Yeah, she always gets the kind of gets messed with 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.200 a little bit on having both of those falled in 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.720 the same weekend. But be that as it may. I 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.640 shave for my mother for Mother's Day. The beard will 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.720 be back, though I am too lazy to shave on 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:01.800 a day basis, so we will have the beer back. 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.000 So okay, well we'll see, uh. I guess when when 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.280 we finish up at the end of the off season 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.560 program and then when we returned for the start of 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.679 training camp. 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:12.520 Beer. 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.640 Yeah, then have the whole the whole thing, no holds barred. 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.600 All right, Well, looking for you pulling that out though, 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.360 ye talking about Wes' facial hair. All right, let's there 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:23.600 you go. 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.760 Yes, Because there was a pretty big piece of news 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.840 that happened on Friday as we headed into Mother's Day weekend, 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.800 and that was the Packers deciding to release veteran kicker 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.919 Brandon McManus. So the roster is down to two kickers. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.320 Six round draft pick Tray Smack. Also Lucas have her sick. 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:50.000 So the competition that was talked about when Smack was drafted, 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:56.200 various UH coaches, assistant coaches and whatnot address that not 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.120 gonna be what what was anticipated anymore. 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.240 No, And as I I wrote in our Insider Inbox 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.160 column for This Morning on Tuesday, I was on board 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.320 with the idea of a kicking competition. I liked it. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.600 I felt like the competition was going to bring out 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.160 the best and everybody there. But as it reflected upon 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.600 this and marinated on what Green Bay did over the weekend, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.320 it makes a lot of sense and certainly there was 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.680 a financial component to it. They've already paid out some 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.840 money to Brandon McManus in the form of a roster 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.000 bonus back in March. They did put the post June 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.720 first designation on it with his release, so that means 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.399 they spread out his caphit over this summer and also 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.280 going into next year. So that's another aspect you have 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:40.320 to consider. But the fact of the matter remains before 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.240 because I know what fans reaction can be to these 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.640 sort of things and how they can be about these things. 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.360 I hope people can take a minute to appreciate and 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.720 remember what Brandon McManus did for this team in twenty 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:52.480 twenty four. I don't know if the Packers make the 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.320 playoffs in twenty twenty four if Brandon McManus doesn't show 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.320 up and really solve what had been a nagging kicking 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.960 competition issue that they had throughout the summer and then 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.320 obviously led to Braden Narvius and being the initial kicker 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.160 going into the season. McManus righted that ship. Last year 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.440 did not go as well. He was six of twelve 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.400 from beyond forty yards and obviously had some more issues 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.960 and things going on in the playoffs, be that as 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:18.680 it made. The Packers made the move, they went up 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:20.880 and got Trey Smack. They also have a pretty darn 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.040 good kicker, and Lucas Haversick, who's done it at a 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.080 high level, who's done it in the National Football League, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.159 also part of that competition. So it's not like, you know, 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.000 Smack's gonna go with no competition. That is something I 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.240 imagine We'll push both of those guys throughout the summer. 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.040 But for McManus now, with this decision being made, it 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.159 allows him to move on with his career, maybe find 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.280 another opportunity, and the Packers to press forward with these 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:42.040 two young kickers. 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.960 Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see, you know, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.159 kind of I guess how this goes, because I think 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.360 you and I both thought, if McManus is still here 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.640 going into training camp, that this was really going to 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.560 be a coin flip type of competition. Now I think 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.360 it's fair to say, I mean, you know, Tray Smack 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.920 is is the front runner. He's the guy the Packers 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.440 invested a draft pick in. They potentially envision you're right, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.560 a couple of draft picks. They envision him potentially being 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.040 you know, the next the next long term kicker here 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.960 and we and we don't know, we don't know if 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.080 it'll play out that way or not. But again, it 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.119 kind of kind of goes back to what I said, 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.800 you know, right after the draft, where this is, this 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:29.200 is the fascinating part about this process. That fifteen picks 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:33.680 before the Packers took tray Smack, they could have taken 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.240 him then in the middle of the sixth round, and 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.719 they didn't. They had a different priority. They really like 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.479 Demani Jackson. They wanted to add more to the cornerback 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.360 room that was that was where the thoughts were. But 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.200 then as the end of the sixth round rolled around, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.520 and then the opportunity was there, And it's entirely possible 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.719 that that opportunity wouldn't have been there if another team, 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.680 maybe whatever, five picks after Demani Jackson gets picked, maybe 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.520 tray Smack would have been drafted, and then we're not 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.560 even having this conversation and we're talking about, you know, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.120 Brandon McManus still being the front runner to hold on 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.719 to his job here. So it's it just it falls 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.800 into that category if you just never know what direction 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:14.760 things are going to go in this league, things can 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:19.400 change on a dime, and uh, you know, we'll see 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.200 where Brandon McManus ends up. We'll see what happens between 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.320 Tray Smack and Lucas Haversick. We've seen we kind of 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.920 got to see both both the best and the worst 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:33.920 of Haversick during his when he was subbing for McManus 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.400 last year, he makes the sixty one yard or longest 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.400 field goal in franchise history by three yards. You know, 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.880 Mason Crosby's fifty eight yard or was the longest until 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.760 then makes a sixty one yarder out in Arizona to 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.120 set a franchise record, but then in the windy conditions 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.560 in the meadow lands, you know, couldn't make an extra point. 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:57.400 So you know the and and Trace Mack is going 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:01.120 to He's gonna have to navigate, you know, all of 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.840 this stuff with the Green Bay weather and and all 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:10.000 of that to see where his career goes. But you know, 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.040 I mean, I hope. I think it'd be pretty cool 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.080 and it'd be a heck of a story if if 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.040 you know, Tray Smack is sort of the next Mason 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.280 Crosby and is here for ten, twelve, fourteen years. 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.520 Yeah, and I actually you had talked about it a 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.960 little bit last week, and then I was thinking about 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:26.760 it over the weekend too, because I go back to 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:30.239 the two thousand and seven competition between Crosby and Dave Rayner, 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.040 and Rayner was the one year incumbent and it went 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.440 down to the wire. But in some cases, I think 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:38.960 everybody could kind of agree that that was gonna be 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.920 Mason's job. Ted Thompson had selected him in the sixth round. 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.600 That's a big spot to take a kicker, and Mason 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.440 was coming off a very prodigious college career at Colorado, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.520 and everybody knew of his leg strength, everybody knew of 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.280 his accuracy. That was going to be an uphill battle 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.160 for Rayner. So in this regard, and I don't want 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.360 to compare one kicker to another. We'll see how Trey does. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.320 We've never even seen the guy kick live yet. But 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.840 be that as it may, I just think sometimes you 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.560 just don't want to overcook the beef. Wellington, right, this 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.080 is the direction Green Bay wanted to go in the draft. 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.040 They ultimately did settle on Smack. He's who they ended 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.200 up with after they traded those two seventh round picks, 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.960 and now he proceeds as the Packers kicker, and you 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.680 still have an insurance policy there with Haversick. But you 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.880 hope between that and just what Smack put on tape 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.600 at Florida, the venues that he kicked in in the 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.080 sec that he's going to be able to roll with 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.600 the punches. He certainly has the confidence. And now for 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.280 the Packers, I feel like in so many ways, with 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.120 you know, this transition now from rich Basaci to Camacord, 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.480 the changes they made with the kickoff return team already 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:44.960 and bringing in a sky more who could potentially help 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.880 you in both areas, this just feels like the turning 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.320 of the page that needed to happen with special teams. 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.920 It's a clean slate, and now Acord is going to 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:54.640 be able to build this thing up and the way 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.520 he wants to that unit to look. 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.600 Yeah, and in some ways, you know, I don't know. 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.560 I mean McManus literally had the worst game of his 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.960 career in the playoffs in Chicago last year, and you know, 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:12.240 regardless of what might have happened in September and October, say, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.640 if he wins the job and stays here, that a 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.880 performance like that that ends a team season just it's 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.199 never gonna go away in the in the mind of 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.000 the fan base, right, So that's that's a tough that's 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.680 a tough spot for That's a tough spot for anybody 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:28.040 to be in. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.160 One other thing too, Mike, this isn't two thousand and 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.959 four anymore. Right, We're seeing fewer and fewer of these 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.360 kickers going into their forties. Teams just aren't willing to 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:37.880 take that chance anymore. I don't know if we'll ever 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.960 see another Morton Anderson or Gary Anderson or you know, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.199 John Carney, these guys that played well into their forties. 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.439 McManus is still, by all accounts, if you go back 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.760 and use that metric twenty years ago, a relatively young 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.680 kicker at thirty five. Yeah, But with the direction this 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.240 thing has gone, with few of those guys kicking past forty, 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.040 it's weird that there's been this progression now with more 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.720 teams skewing young. And I don't know if that goes 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.400 back to guys make sixty yard field goals. I think 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:02.960 they're being called upon to do that now. Yeah. 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.200 I think that's really where it is. Is that is 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.480 that the expect the expectation is that from fifty five 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.040 yards and in you know, those those kicks need to 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.240 be made and you need to you need to be 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.120 able or at least have the capability of, you know, 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.800 hitting from between fifty five and sixty on a fairly 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.720 regular basis now because because there are enough kickers out 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.040 there that can do that. So if you don't have 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.800 one that can do that, you're sort of playing uphill 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.360 in the special teams game in the NFL right now, 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.520 right So, I think that's why you know, there there 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.000 are fewer of the of you know, the forty plus 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.960 year old kickers and whatnot, because it's the it's the 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.719 young guys in their twenties who you know, you get 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.000 the ball across midfield to the plus forty yard line, 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.480 that's a fifty eight yard field goal. The expectation is, 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.560 you know, if the you know, if you're indoors, weather 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.720 is good, good surface, all that kind of stuff, the 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.000 expectation is that sixty to seventy percent of the time 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.559 that kicks is going to be made. You know. Whereas 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.640 as as I just said, the longest field goal in 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.679 Packer's history before last year was fifty eight yards by 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:14.240 Mason Crosby in his long and illustrious tenure here. So yeah, 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.800 it's another part of the game that's changing. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.079 And you know, with respect to Mays too, I mean, 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.160 it wasn't in accuracy that retired him out of this league, right, 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.439 it was father time. And even though he made that 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.080 fifty eight yarder down the stretch there right that it 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.560 kind of dooinked it in and was able to get it, 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.679 it became a questionab leg strength being able to hold 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.480 up in these conditions. And when you see a guy 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.320 like Smack again, we're only watching film, we're only watching 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.920 his tape from the combine, but this ball just Jettison's 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.400 off his foot. Yeah, I mean it is. It is remarkable. 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.600 So when you hear Brian Goodekuns and Matt Lafleur discussed 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.240 how they felt like he was the best kicker in 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.200 this draft, it's not hyperbole. I mean, this guy has 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.160 those type of credentials. Lancer Line had a six round 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.280 grade on him from what I recall, I mean, people 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.480 thought that this dude was going to be a draftable kicker. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:01.400 Packers were able to add into the fold. 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:03.720 Well, a couple other things I want to get to, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.400 but we do need to pay some bills. So first 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.640 we'll hear a quick word from our sponsor, Serious XM. 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.920 NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.400 minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty four 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:23.839 to seven, three sixty five. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted Wes. Yesterday, 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.600 and by yesterday, I mean Monday, on our website, you 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.400 posted a story, kind of a traditional story you've been 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.720 doing with regard to the Packers draft class. In this case, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.839 it's six things to know about the Packers draft class 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.559 because there are only six guys in the class. I'll 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.040 let you kind of walk us through some of those, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.920 but I think the the overarching theme of the story 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.240 is that with every single one of these Packers draft 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:57.199 class draft picks, excuse me, there's a there's an interesting 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:02.760 connection to to the Packers franchise in one way or 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:04.480 another with each of these guys. 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.080 Yeah, and it's just the small world of the NFL, right, 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.400 I mean, Trey Smack ultimately is the biggest example that 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.440 the guy's playing lacrosse and it just so happens that 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.560 his one of his teammates, well, his dad's Matt Stover, Right, 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.600 And then Stover takes a look at him, works him 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:22.320 out six eight times and tells him and his mom 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.199 and everybody associated with him, this guy can kick in 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.160 the league. And he wasn't even a kicker really at 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.360 that point. That's just the way that these things work. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.360 Sometimes it's just so serendipitous. But the story that I 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.960 probably enjoyed the most, and it was such a small 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:37.840 one in terms of the grand scheme of things, but 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.839 the fact that Chris McClellan, the Packers' third round pick 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:45.000 defensive tackle out of Missoo, he hails from Tulsa, just 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.440 like Josh Jacobs. And when you think of you know 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.400 these areas, and certainly there's there's bigger hotbeds than others. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.840 Wisconsin typically, other than maybe some offensive lineman, hasn't been 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.760 known as a big NFL hotbed. But when you have 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.120 someone like McClellan, as he said and talked about with 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.120 the reporters during rookie minni Caamp weekend, to have someone 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.160 like Josh Jacobs to look up to their high schools. 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.680 He went to two high schools, both of them McClellan did. 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.920 Both of them were still about twenty minutes away from 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.920 where where Jacobs went to high school. At McLaurin. 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:16.520 Yeah. 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.400 So the fact that he had someone like that to 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.160 point to when you're thinking about playing in the National 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.960 Football League playing college, you know, Division one football, that 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.560 is one thing. And then for that same individual to 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.080 be a teammate and someone is one of the first 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.400 dudes to reach out to you after your NFL team 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.480 drafts you. You could just tell in his voice and 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.840 his demeanor just what that meant to him, you know. 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:42.600 And obviously they're going to get a chance to know 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:44.840 each other a little bit better, obviously now being teammates 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:49.040 and whatnot. But I just always enjoy those stories of 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.760 when the young up and comer high school kid with 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.440 aspirations was able to follow in the footsteps of one 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.400 of the guys that he looked up to. Another story 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:01.720 I always go back. I went to Bayport High School 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:06.160 here in Swamaco, and alec Ingold, who now is with 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.960 the Los Angeles Chargers, has played many years now in 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.840 the NFL. He eventually went to Wisconsin. You know, it 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.680 was kind of this diamond in the rough up here 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.040 playing a position at fullback that you know, typically is 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.160 not known for its longevity in the professional world, and 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.000 one of the guys he looked up to as a 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.800 kid coming up at Bayport was Dan Benning. And Dan 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.000 Benning was a guy that was drafted, I believe played 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.920 at Wisconsin, but definitely was drafted in the mid rounds 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.120 by Tampa Bay and played a couple of years in 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.480 the league. But what that meant to Aleck and how 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.400 that kind of catapulted him in his own career, those 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.880 are the fun stories you always talk about, especially this 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.440 time of year. And yeah, there's in the six things. 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:48.120 The reason I started doing that is because there were 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.600 so many like interesting anecdotes associated with the draft picks 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.200 that maybe won't work into a Packer's yearbook story or 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.520 a feature round packers dot com, but you want to 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.440 make sure that we bring some light to it because 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.320 all these guys at the end of the they were 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.440 chasing dreams and now suddenly they still have a long 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:05.480 way to go, but you know they're right on the 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:06.280 precipice of that. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.560 Yeah, And just to throw a little small world item 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.760 into this whole thing. Back in my newspaper days that 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.960 the Green Bay Presca's at I covered Dan Benning in 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.960 the heavyweight high school wrestling state finals in Division one 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.920 down in Madison at the Cole Center. 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.760 So here's another question for you. So Alex's dad Pat 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:27.800 would have been the coach then on? 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:29.080 Yeses, yep. 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.760 The world is so small, yes, so small, unbelievably so. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.080 All right, Well, here's another thing I want to throw 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.600 at you. First. I'm going to toss out a programming 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.960 note here because this week on Thursday, will be the 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:49.040 release of the NFL schedule, So we need to spend 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.920 the bulk of our Thursday working on getting all this 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.160 stuff ready to announce put all of our content on 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.680 the website on Thursday night, so we won't be able 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.600 to have an episode of Ackers unscripted this Thursday. We 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.960 will come back next Tuesday and talk all about the schedule, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.639 probably have you know, maybe even a little bit longer 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.000 episode than normal to make up for it, because there 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.199 will be lots to talk about with the schedule. But 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.280 we are we are waiting for waiting to get all 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.639 that information on Thursday and get it out to everybody. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.600 But I'll toss this to you as just a little 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:29.479 bit of a preview. Is there anything with regard to 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.000 the schedule. I mean, we know who the Packers' opponents 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.000 are right home, and away. We've known that since the 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.520 end of last season. Is there anything with the schedule 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:38.720 that is sort of like a like a preference in 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.000 your mind that you're when when we get our first 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.520 look at the schedule, you're gonna hope to see this. 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:46.680 It's it's really interesting you say that, because I've been 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:48.639 thinking a lot about this in terms of what you 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:50.560 want that first month of the season to look like 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.040 when hey, maybe Micah Parsons and Tucker Craft are back, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.080 maybe not. Maybe you know, you don't know what their 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.240 rep counts could look like, that sort of thing. Sure 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.120 they are, so in a lot of worlds, you would 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.720 hope that you see those divisional rivals a little bit 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.439 later on. The only thing I don't want to see 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:09.920 because I could see the NFL doing this just based 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.720 on the rivalry, this budding rivalry between the Packers the Bears, 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:18.080 the rhetoric with Ben Johnson. I just don't want to 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.840 see them send Green Bay back to Chicago right away. 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.120 And the main reason for that is, you guys waited 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.920 until Week fourteen last year to have any Packers Bears games, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.600 So if they then front load Packers Bears early on, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.520 that would annoy me a little bit. If they want 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.640 to bring that game to Lambeau, even if Michael Parsons 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:39.680 isn't back or isn't one hundred percent yet, they want 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:41.240 to do that in Week one or two, I'm good 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.679 with it. But if because of how things ended in 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:46.720 the wild card round, they decide, hey, we're going to 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.040 send green Bay back to Chicago immediately, that would be 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:51.440 the one thing that kind of ticks me off a 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.080 little bit. What I think could be a really cool 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:54.960 idea that I've been talking about with some people about this. 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:57.720 We heard at the combine, I say, the owners meetings 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.600 about Jeff Haffley saying, you know, it'd be great if 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.160 Miami played green Bay right out of the gate, because 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.800 he's obviously like, yeah, you know, maybe there's a chance. 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:07.880 You'd rather not have to deal with Parsons. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:09.520 But I actually think that'd be a really cool way 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:11.400 to to begin the season. The Packers have not had 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.879 a lot of uncommon opponents to start the year. They 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:15.879 did it with Jacksonville a number of years ago. But 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.760 starting the season against an AFC opponent, in particularly Miami, 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:21.560 I think the storylines would be there. I think it'd 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:23.920 be really cool to hear Jeff Hafley and and mattle 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:25.480 Flure kind of rap about each other. 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:28.879 And the whole Elik Willis Willis, I think it'd be. 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.280 Really fun out quarterback. I don't think the NFL thinks 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.239 that deep about these things. I think they just I mean, 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.560 we're getting Dallas and the New York Giants in an 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.520