Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
Speaker 1: by the suddenly clean shaven Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you here from our new studio at Lambeufield West. There's
Speaker 1: been a bit of a progression here because over our
Speaker 1: last two episodes we've gone from the full beard to
Speaker 1: the goatee and to now it's all gone. So you
Speaker 1: want to clue us all in on what's going on here?
Speaker 2: Would you get your mom from Mother's Day? What was
Speaker 2: the what was the gift at the Spotford Hoshole for mama?
Speaker 1: We got actually, we all, me and the kids went
Speaker 1: in together on this whole like coffee and chocolate. Oh
Speaker 1: you know, it's sort of like these these international things
Speaker 1: that are like paired up certain coffees with certain chocolates
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, so for my mother for Mother's Day, I give
Speaker 2: her a gift every year, and I obviously I don't
Speaker 2: just do this. I gave her, you know, a nice
Speaker 2: card and some other things, a candle, but I shave
Speaker 2: for Mother's Day. That's what I do. Now. I had
Speaker 2: a little fun last week because my mom. Here's the thing.
Speaker 2: My mom does not like my beard. This is well docked.
Speaker 1: Shock her.
Speaker 2: She's never liked it. It's gotten better. I've gotten more
Speaker 2: compliments than criticism over the years, but she's never been
Speaker 2: a big fan of it. So I told her last
Speaker 2: week I'm gonna shave. What I didn't tell her though, initially,
Speaker 2: was I shaved it into a go tea. I technically shaved,
Speaker 2: but it was a go tea. She actually didn't hate that.
Speaker 2: I think she actually kind of I have to survey
Speaker 2: her on this. I think she liked the go tea
Speaker 2: more than she liked the beard. But be that as
Speaker 2: it may. It was my mom's birthday on Saturday. Happy birthday, Mom,
Speaker 2: I love you. And then obviously Mother's Day on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Wow, what a weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she always gets the kind of gets messed with
Speaker 2: a little bit on having both of those falled in
Speaker 2: the same weekend. But be that as it may. I
Speaker 2: shave for my mother for Mother's Day. The beard will
Speaker 2: be back, though I am too lazy to shave on
Speaker 2: a day basis, so we will have the beer back.
Speaker 1: So okay, well we'll see, uh. I guess when when
Speaker 1: we finish up at the end of the off season
Speaker 1: program and then when we returned for the start of
Speaker 1: training camp.
Speaker 2: Beer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, then have the whole the whole thing, no holds barred.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, looking for you pulling that out though,
Speaker 2: ye talking about Wes' facial hair. All right, let's there
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 1: Yes, Because there was a pretty big piece of news
Speaker 1: that happened on Friday as we headed into Mother's Day weekend,
Speaker 1: and that was the Packers deciding to release veteran kicker
Speaker 1: Brandon McManus. So the roster is down to two kickers.
Speaker 1: Six round draft pick Tray Smack. Also Lucas have her sick.
Speaker 1: So the competition that was talked about when Smack was drafted,
Speaker 1: various UH coaches, assistant coaches and whatnot address that not
Speaker 1: gonna be what what was anticipated anymore.
Speaker 2: No, And as I I wrote in our Insider Inbox
Speaker 2: column for This Morning on Tuesday, I was on board
Speaker 2: with the idea of a kicking competition. I liked it.
Speaker 2: I felt like the competition was going to bring out
Speaker 2: the best and everybody there. But as it reflected upon
Speaker 2: this and marinated on what Green Bay did over the weekend,
Speaker 2: it makes a lot of sense and certainly there was
Speaker 2: a financial component to it. They've already paid out some
Speaker 2: money to Brandon McManus in the form of a roster
Speaker 2: bonus back in March. They did put the post June
Speaker 2: first designation on it with his release, so that means
Speaker 2: they spread out his caphit over this summer and also
Speaker 2: going into next year. So that's another aspect you have
Speaker 2: to consider. But the fact of the matter remains before
Speaker 2: because I know what fans reaction can be to these
Speaker 2: sort of things and how they can be about these things.
Speaker 2: I hope people can take a minute to appreciate and
Speaker 2: remember what Brandon McManus did for this team in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. I don't know if the Packers make the
Speaker 2: playoffs in twenty twenty four if Brandon McManus doesn't show
Speaker 2: up and really solve what had been a nagging kicking
Speaker 2: competition issue that they had throughout the summer and then
Speaker 2: obviously led to Braden Narvius and being the initial kicker
Speaker 2: going into the season. McManus righted that ship. Last year
Speaker 2: did not go as well. He was six of twelve
Speaker 2: from beyond forty yards and obviously had some more issues
Speaker 2: and things going on in the playoffs, be that as
Speaker 2: it made. The Packers made the move, they went up
Speaker 2: and got Trey Smack. They also have a pretty darn
Speaker 2: good kicker, and Lucas Haversick, who's done it at a
Speaker 2: high level, who's done it in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: also part of that competition. So it's not like, you know,
Speaker 2: Smack's gonna go with no competition. That is something I
Speaker 2: imagine We'll push both of those guys throughout the summer.
Speaker 2: But for McManus now, with this decision being made, it
Speaker 2: allows him to move on with his career, maybe find
Speaker 2: another opportunity, and the Packers to press forward with these
Speaker 2: two young kickers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of I guess how this goes, because I think
Speaker 1: you and I both thought, if McManus is still here
Speaker 1: going into training camp, that this was really going to
Speaker 1: be a coin flip type of competition. Now I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to say, I mean, you know, Tray Smack
Speaker 1: is is the front runner. He's the guy the Packers
Speaker 1: invested a draft pick in. They potentially envision you're right,
Speaker 1: a couple of draft picks. They envision him potentially being
Speaker 1: you know, the next the next long term kicker here
Speaker 1: and we and we don't know, we don't know if
Speaker 1: it'll play out that way or not. But again, it
Speaker 1: kind of kind of goes back to what I said,
Speaker 1: you know, right after the draft, where this is, this
Speaker 1: is the fascinating part about this process. That fifteen picks
Speaker 1: before the Packers took tray Smack, they could have taken
Speaker 1: him then in the middle of the sixth round, and
Speaker 1: they didn't. They had a different priority. They really like
Speaker 1: Demani Jackson. They wanted to add more to the cornerback
Speaker 1: room that was that was where the thoughts were. But
Speaker 1: then as the end of the sixth round rolled around,
Speaker 1: and then the opportunity was there, And it's entirely possible
Speaker 1: that that opportunity wouldn't have been there if another team,
Speaker 1: maybe whatever, five picks after Demani Jackson gets picked, maybe
Speaker 1: tray Smack would have been drafted, and then we're not
Speaker 1: even having this conversation and we're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: Brandon McManus still being the front runner to hold on
Speaker 1: to his job here. So it's it just it falls
Speaker 1: into that category if you just never know what direction
Speaker 1: things are going to go in this league, things can
Speaker 1: change on a dime, and uh, you know, we'll see
Speaker 1: where Brandon McManus ends up. We'll see what happens between
Speaker 1: Tray Smack and Lucas Haversick. We've seen we kind of
Speaker 1: got to see both both the best and the worst
Speaker 1: of Haversick during his when he was subbing for McManus
Speaker 1: last year, he makes the sixty one yard or longest
Speaker 1: field goal in franchise history by three yards. You know,
Speaker 1: Mason Crosby's fifty eight yard or was the longest until
Speaker 1: then makes a sixty one yarder out in Arizona to
Speaker 1: set a franchise record, but then in the windy conditions
Speaker 1: in the meadow lands, you know, couldn't make an extra point.
Speaker 1: So you know the and and Trace Mack is going
Speaker 1: to He's gonna have to navigate, you know, all of
Speaker 1: this stuff with the Green Bay weather and and all
Speaker 1: of that to see where his career goes. But you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I hope. I think it'd be pretty cool
Speaker 1: and it'd be a heck of a story if if
Speaker 1: you know, Tray Smack is sort of the next Mason
Speaker 1: Crosby and is here for ten, twelve, fourteen years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I actually you had talked about it a
Speaker 2: little bit last week, and then I was thinking about
Speaker 2: it over the weekend too, because I go back to
Speaker 2: the two thousand and seven competition between Crosby and Dave Rayner,
Speaker 2: and Rayner was the one year incumbent and it went
Speaker 2: down to the wire. But in some cases, I think
Speaker 2: everybody could kind of agree that that was gonna be
Speaker 2: Mason's job. Ted Thompson had selected him in the sixth round.
Speaker 2: That's a big spot to take a kicker, and Mason
Speaker 2: was coming off a very prodigious college career at Colorado,
Speaker 2: and everybody knew of his leg strength, everybody knew of
Speaker 2: his accuracy. That was going to be an uphill battle
Speaker 2: for Rayner. So in this regard, and I don't want
Speaker 2: to compare one kicker to another. We'll see how Trey does.
Speaker 2: We've never even seen the guy kick live yet. But
Speaker 2: be that as it may, I just think sometimes you
Speaker 2: just don't want to overcook the beef. Wellington, right, this
Speaker 2: is the direction Green Bay wanted to go in the draft.
Speaker 2: They ultimately did settle on Smack. He's who they ended
Speaker 2: up with after they traded those two seventh round picks,
Speaker 2: and now he proceeds as the Packers kicker, and you
Speaker 2: still have an insurance policy there with Haversick. But you
Speaker 2: hope between that and just what Smack put on tape
Speaker 2: at Florida, the venues that he kicked in in the
Speaker 2: sec that he's going to be able to roll with
Speaker 2: the punches. He certainly has the confidence. And now for
Speaker 2: the Packers, I feel like in so many ways, with
Speaker 2: you know, this transition now from rich Basaci to Camacord,
Speaker 2: the changes they made with the kickoff return team already
Speaker 2: and bringing in a sky more who could potentially help
Speaker 2: you in both areas, this just feels like the turning
Speaker 2: of the page that needed to happen with special teams.
Speaker 2: It's a clean slate, and now Acord is going to
Speaker 2: be able to build this thing up and the way
Speaker 2: he wants to that unit to look.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and in some ways, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean McManus literally had the worst game of his
Speaker 1: career in the playoffs in Chicago last year, and you know,
Speaker 1: regardless of what might have happened in September and October, say,
Speaker 1: if he wins the job and stays here, that a
Speaker 1: performance like that that ends a team season just it's
Speaker 1: never gonna go away in the in the mind of
Speaker 1: the fan base, right, So that's that's a tough that's
Speaker 1: a tough spot for That's a tough spot for anybody
Speaker 1: to be in.
Speaker 2: One other thing too, Mike, this isn't two thousand and
Speaker 2: four anymore. Right, We're seeing fewer and fewer of these
Speaker 2: kickers going into their forties. Teams just aren't willing to
Speaker 2: take that chance anymore. I don't know if we'll ever
Speaker 2: see another Morton Anderson or Gary Anderson or you know,
Speaker 2: John Carney, these guys that played well into their forties.
Speaker 2: McManus is still, by all accounts, if you go back
Speaker 2: and use that metric twenty years ago, a relatively young
Speaker 2: kicker at thirty five. Yeah, But with the direction this
Speaker 2: thing has gone, with few of those guys kicking past forty,
Speaker 2: it's weird that there's been this progression now with more
Speaker 2: teams skewing young. And I don't know if that goes
Speaker 2: back to guys make sixty yard field goals. I think
Speaker 2: they're being called upon to do that now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's really where it is. Is that is
Speaker 1: that the expect the expectation is that from fifty five
Speaker 1: yards and in you know, those those kicks need to
Speaker 1: be made and you need to you need to be
Speaker 1: able or at least have the capability of, you know,
Speaker 1: hitting from between fifty five and sixty on a fairly
Speaker 1: regular basis now because because there are enough kickers out
Speaker 1: there that can do that. So if you don't have
Speaker 1: one that can do that, you're sort of playing uphill
Speaker 1: in the special teams game in the NFL right now,
Speaker 1: right So, I think that's why you know, there there
Speaker 1: are fewer of the of you know, the forty plus
Speaker 1: year old kickers and whatnot, because it's the it's the
Speaker 1: young guys in their twenties who you know, you get
Speaker 1: the ball across midfield to the plus forty yard line,
Speaker 1: that's a fifty eight yard field goal. The expectation is,
Speaker 1: you know, if the you know, if you're indoors, weather
Speaker 1: is good, good surface, all that kind of stuff, the
Speaker 1: expectation is that sixty to seventy percent of the time
Speaker 1: that kicks is going to be made. You know. Whereas
Speaker 1: as as I just said, the longest field goal in
Speaker 1: Packer's history before last year was fifty eight yards by
Speaker 1: Mason Crosby in his long and illustrious tenure here. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's another part of the game that's changing.
Speaker 2: And you know, with respect to Mays too, I mean,
Speaker 2: it wasn't in accuracy that retired him out of this league, right,
Speaker 2: it was father time. And even though he made that
Speaker 2: fifty eight yarder down the stretch there right that it
Speaker 2: kind of dooinked it in and was able to get it,
Speaker 2: it became a questionab leg strength being able to hold
Speaker 2: up in these conditions. And when you see a guy
Speaker 2: like Smack again, we're only watching film, we're only watching
Speaker 2: his tape from the combine, but this ball just Jettison's
Speaker 2: off his foot. Yeah, I mean it is. It is remarkable.
Speaker 2: So when you hear Brian Goodekuns and Matt Lafleur discussed
Speaker 2: how they felt like he was the best kicker in
Speaker 2: this draft, it's not hyperbole. I mean, this guy has
Speaker 2: those type of credentials. Lancer Line had a six round
Speaker 2: grade on him from what I recall, I mean, people
Speaker 2: thought that this dude was going to be a draftable kicker.
Speaker 2: Packers were able to add into the fold.
Speaker 1: Well, a couple other things I want to get to,
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Speaker 1: minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven, three sixty five. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted Wes. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: and by yesterday, I mean Monday, on our website, you
Speaker 1: posted a story, kind of a traditional story you've been
Speaker 1: doing with regard to the Packers draft class. In this case,
Speaker 1: it's six things to know about the Packers draft class
Speaker 1: because there are only six guys in the class. I'll
Speaker 1: let you kind of walk us through some of those,
Speaker 1: but I think the the overarching theme of the story
Speaker 1: is that with every single one of these Packers draft
Speaker 1: class draft picks, excuse me, there's a there's an interesting
Speaker 1: connection to to the Packers franchise in one way or
Speaker 1: another with each of these guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's just the small world of the NFL, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, Trey Smack ultimately is the biggest example that
Speaker 2: the guy's playing lacrosse and it just so happens that
Speaker 2: his one of his teammates, well, his dad's Matt Stover, Right,
Speaker 2: And then Stover takes a look at him, works him
Speaker 2: out six eight times and tells him and his mom
Speaker 2: and everybody associated with him, this guy can kick in
Speaker 2: the league. And he wasn't even a kicker really at
Speaker 2: that point. That's just the way that these things work.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just so serendipitous. But the story that I
Speaker 2: probably enjoyed the most, and it was such a small
Speaker 2: one in terms of the grand scheme of things, but
Speaker 2: the fact that Chris McClellan, the Packers' third round pick
Speaker 2: defensive tackle out of Missoo, he hails from Tulsa, just
Speaker 2: like Josh Jacobs. And when you think of you know
Speaker 2: these areas, and certainly there's there's bigger hotbeds than others.
Speaker 2: Wisconsin typically, other than maybe some offensive lineman, hasn't been
Speaker 2: known as a big NFL hotbed. But when you have
Speaker 2: someone like McClellan, as he said and talked about with
Speaker 2: the reporters during rookie minni Caamp weekend, to have someone
Speaker 2: like Josh Jacobs to look up to their high schools.
Speaker 2: He went to two high schools, both of them McClellan did.
Speaker 2: Both of them were still about twenty minutes away from
Speaker 2: where where Jacobs went to high school. At McLaurin.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the fact that he had someone like that to
Speaker 2: point to when you're thinking about playing in the National
Speaker 2: Football League playing college, you know, Division one football, that
Speaker 2: is one thing. And then for that same individual to
Speaker 2: be a teammate and someone is one of the first
Speaker 2: dudes to reach out to you after your NFL team
Speaker 2: drafts you. You could just tell in his voice and
Speaker 2: his demeanor just what that meant to him, you know.
Speaker 2: And obviously they're going to get a chance to know
Speaker 2: each other a little bit better, obviously now being teammates
Speaker 2: and whatnot. But I just always enjoy those stories of
Speaker 2: when the young up and comer high school kid with
Speaker 2: aspirations was able to follow in the footsteps of one
Speaker 2: of the guys that he looked up to. Another story
Speaker 2: I always go back. I went to Bayport High School
Speaker 2: here in Swamaco, and alec Ingold, who now is with
Speaker 2: the Los Angeles Chargers, has played many years now in
Speaker 2: the NFL. He eventually went to Wisconsin. You know, it
Speaker 2: was kind of this diamond in the rough up here
Speaker 2: playing a position at fullback that you know, typically is
Speaker 2: not known for its longevity in the professional world, and
Speaker 2: one of the guys he looked up to as a
Speaker 2: kid coming up at Bayport was Dan Benning. And Dan
Speaker 2: Benning was a guy that was drafted, I believe played
Speaker 2: at Wisconsin, but definitely was drafted in the mid rounds
Speaker 2: by Tampa Bay and played a couple of years in
Speaker 2: the league. But what that meant to Aleck and how
Speaker 2: that kind of catapulted him in his own career, those
Speaker 2: are the fun stories you always talk about, especially this
Speaker 2: time of year. And yeah, there's in the six things.
Speaker 2: The reason I started doing that is because there were
Speaker 2: so many like interesting anecdotes associated with the draft picks
Speaker 2: that maybe won't work into a Packer's yearbook story or
Speaker 2: a feature round packers dot com, but you want to
Speaker 2: make sure that we bring some light to it because
Speaker 2: all these guys at the end of the they were
Speaker 2: chasing dreams and now suddenly they still have a long
Speaker 2: way to go, but you know they're right on the
Speaker 2: precipice of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And just to throw a little small world item
Speaker 1: into this whole thing. Back in my newspaper days that
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Presca's at I covered Dan Benning in
Speaker 1: the heavyweight high school wrestling state finals in Division one
Speaker 1: down in Madison at the Cole Center.
Speaker 2: So here's another question for you. So Alex's dad Pat
Speaker 2: would have been the coach then on?
Speaker 1: Yeses, yep.
Speaker 2: The world is so small, yes, so small, unbelievably so.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here's another thing I want to throw
Speaker 1: at you. First. I'm going to toss out a programming
Speaker 1: note here because this week on Thursday, will be the
Speaker 1: release of the NFL schedule, So we need to spend
Speaker 1: the bulk of our Thursday working on getting all this
Speaker 1: stuff ready to announce put all of our content on
Speaker 1: the website on Thursday night, so we won't be able
Speaker 1: to have an episode of Ackers unscripted this Thursday. We
Speaker 1: will come back next Tuesday and talk all about the schedule,
Speaker 1: probably have you know, maybe even a little bit longer
Speaker 1: episode than normal to make up for it, because there
Speaker 1: will be lots to talk about with the schedule. But
Speaker 1: we are we are waiting for waiting to get all
Speaker 1: that information on Thursday and get it out to everybody.
Speaker 1: But I'll toss this to you as just a little
Speaker 1: bit of a preview. Is there anything with regard to
Speaker 1: the schedule. I mean, we know who the Packers' opponents
Speaker 1: are right home, and away. We've known that since the
Speaker 1: end of last season. Is there anything with the schedule
Speaker 1: that is sort of like a like a preference in
Speaker 1: your mind that you're when when we get our first
Speaker 1: look at the schedule, you're gonna hope to see this.
Speaker 2: It's it's really interesting you say that, because I've been
Speaker 2: thinking a lot about this in terms of what you
Speaker 2: want that first month of the season to look like
Speaker 2: when hey, maybe Micah Parsons and Tucker Craft are back,
Speaker 2: maybe not. Maybe you know, you don't know what their
Speaker 2: rep counts could look like, that sort of thing. Sure
Speaker 2: they are, so in a lot of worlds, you would
Speaker 2: hope that you see those divisional rivals a little bit
Speaker 2: later on. The only thing I don't want to see
Speaker 2: because I could see the NFL doing this just based
Speaker 2: on the rivalry, this budding rivalry between the Packers the Bears,
Speaker 2: the rhetoric with Ben Johnson. I just don't want to
Speaker 2: see them send Green Bay back to Chicago right away.
Speaker 2: And the main reason for that is, you guys waited
Speaker 2: until Week fourteen last year to have any Packers Bears games,
Speaker 2: So if they then front load Packers Bears early on,
Speaker 2: that would annoy me a little bit. If they want
Speaker 2: to bring that game to Lambeau, even if Michael Parsons
Speaker 2: isn't back or isn't one hundred percent yet, they want
Speaker 2: to do that in Week one or two, I'm good
Speaker 2: with it. But if because of how things ended in
Speaker 2: the wild card round, they decide, hey, we're going to
Speaker 2: send green Bay back to Chicago immediately, that would be
Speaker 2: the one thing that kind of ticks me off a
Speaker 2: little bit. What I think could be a really cool
Speaker 2: idea that I've been talking about with some people about this.
Speaker 2: We heard at the combine, I say, the owners meetings
Speaker 2: about Jeff Haffley saying, you know, it'd be great if
Speaker 2: Miami played green Bay right out of the gate, because
Speaker 2: he's obviously like, yeah, you know, maybe there's a chance.
Speaker 1: You'd rather not have to deal with Parsons.
Speaker 2: But I actually think that'd be a really cool way
Speaker 2: to to begin the season. The Packers have not had
Speaker 2: a lot of uncommon opponents to start the year. They
Speaker 2: did it with Jacksonville a number of years ago. But
Speaker 2: starting the season against an AFC opponent, in particularly Miami,
Speaker 2: I think the storylines would be there. I think it'd
Speaker 2: be really cool to hear Jeff Hafley and and mattle
Speaker 2: Flure kind of rap about each other.
Speaker 1: And the whole Elik Willis Willis, I think it'd be.
Speaker 2: Really fun out quarterback. I don't think the NFL thinks
Speaker 2: that deep about these things. I think they just I mean,
Speaker 2: we're getting Dallas and the New York Giants in an
Speaker 2: opraa of whatever opener again for the umpteenth time and
Speaker 2: the umpteenth years, even though the Giants haven't really been
Speaker 2: that competitive recently and Dallas didn't make the playoffs last year.
Speaker 2: So but they like the brands. I'm sure it'll be
Speaker 2: something with the NFC North.
Speaker 1: Right out of the gate, well, it looks like I mean,
Speaker 1: unless I'm missing something because of the because of the
Speaker 1: the sort of intentional leaks of certain primetime games in
Speaker 1: this and that. I mean, we've we've already you heard
Speaker 1: what the first Sunday night football game is going to be.
Speaker 1: We've heard what the first Monday night football game is
Speaker 1: going to be. Obviously, the Packers are not involved in
Speaker 1: the kickoff opener that's in Seattle, and then that also
Speaker 1: there's also the week one there's gonna be the primetime
Speaker 1: game in Australia. Between the Rams and the forty nine Ers.
Speaker 1: So it looks like, as I said, unless I'm missing something,
Speaker 1: it looks like the Packers will have either like a
Speaker 1: noon or a three twenty five game in week one,
Speaker 1: whether it's at my proces, yeah, whether it's at Lambefield
Speaker 1: or elsewhere. Here's here's the one thing. Here's the one thing.
Speaker 1: The first thing I'm going to look at, And this,
Speaker 1: I guess is partly like me getting older in all
Speaker 1: the years I've been doing this, because this is completely
Speaker 1: a selfish thing and has nothing to do with the
Speaker 1: Packers and competitiveness or whatever. But I'm gonna look at
Speaker 1: what time the game at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: is because probably my least favorite games to cover are
Speaker 1: West Coast night games. Because now that game against the
Speaker 1: Rams at Sofi, the difference between that game being at
Speaker 1: three twenty five Central and being at seven thirty pm
Speaker 1: Central at night is the difference between you know, our
Speaker 1: plane getting back and landing at one in the morning
Speaker 1: or getting back and landing at four thirty or five
Speaker 1: in the morning. So that's purely like a selfish thing.
Speaker 1: But that being said, with the Rams having gone to
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship game last year, the Packers obviously perennial
Speaker 1: playoff contender, and the TV draw that they always are.
Speaker 1: It would not surprise me in the slightest if Packers
Speaker 1: against the Rams is in a primetime slot somewhere, whether
Speaker 1: it's a Thursday night game, a Sunday night, a Monday night,
Speaker 1: whatever that might be. So I'm probably not gonna get
Speaker 1: my wish there, but that's the first thing I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look at, because I don't like flights that land at
Speaker 1: four or five in the morning.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, so we will either get on
Speaker 2: a Friday morning, Monday morning, or Tuesday morning, a very
Speaker 2: cranky micro's soffer around the office. Yeah, it's really interesting though,
Speaker 2: because that's the only West coast well we could see
Speaker 2: the preseason. But I mean, that's the West coast trip
Speaker 2: right now for Green Bay. I think otherwise it's what
Speaker 2: I mean, the furthest west they would go would be Minnesota.
Speaker 2: I mean, like it might be yeah, maybe I don't
Speaker 2: know where it falls on the line is New Orleans more,
Speaker 2: But I mean the Packers don't have a ton of
Speaker 2: like lengthy road trips this year, but certainly LA is
Speaker 2: one of the top of the lists regardless.
Speaker 1: Of shuffle up, and it's and it's a it's a
Speaker 1: cool stadium out there, and I'm sure and I'm sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been there once. I'm sure it would
Speaker 1: be cool to see it at night. The other time
Speaker 1: we were there, it was a it was a regular
Speaker 1: like late afternoon Central time game. I'm sure it would
Speaker 1: be really cool to see it at night. And uh,
Speaker 1: and I know, regardless of what the kickoff time is
Speaker 1: when the Packers are back at Sofi Stadium, there are
Speaker 1: gonna be plenty of Packers fans there. There certainly were
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when when the Packers won
Speaker 1: that game out there. It's a trip to look forward
Speaker 1: to regardless. I'm just I'm just.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we're doing a pep rally too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Probably, I'd be surprised. Somewhere in downtown l So it's
Speaker 1: usually been Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I need to provide a little context that comment
Speaker 2: I made about the Bears, if I may, Okay, the
Speaker 2: reason I said that for people who don't know the
Speaker 2: Packers schedule and opponents and situation. When Lambellfield inside it out,
Speaker 2: this is the game where Wisconsin's playing Notre Dame this year,
Speaker 2: so I would be surprised if green Bay has a
Speaker 2: Week one home opener the week after the Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Right I'm thinking. I'm thinking that the Packers are going
Speaker 1: to get a road game in a Week one because
Speaker 1: of the Wisconsin Notre Dame game on Labor Day weekend, and.
Speaker 2: Just again through this process of elimination that we're working
Speaker 2: through here, forty eight hours before the schedule gets released,
Speaker 2: I would just surmise that the most likely thing would
Speaker 2: be for green Bay to open against the NFC North.
Speaker 2: I think it would be too easy. I think it'd
Speaker 2: be lazy for the NFL to schedule Chicago right off
Speaker 2: the bat again, because while that's convenient, I would rather see, maybe, hey,
Speaker 2: week two, Chicago wants to come to Lambell, that's awesome,
Speaker 2: or even later in the season. But to do those
Speaker 2: two games like they did where everything was so close
Speaker 2: and bunched up at the end of last season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, then and then and then you ended up having
Speaker 1: the playoff game. So essentially the Packers and Bears played
Speaker 1: each other three times in a span of whatever it was,
Speaker 1: five or six weeks or something like that.
Speaker 2: That's just not that I don't like that at all.
Speaker 2: I get it. You want to have division ring games
Speaker 2: the way the league's been scheduling, you want to have
Speaker 2: them early, you want to have them late. But it
Speaker 2: also leads to some really annoying kind of manifestations and
Speaker 2: this whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you there, I'm with you there. But
Speaker 1: we just got to wait now because at some point
Speaker 1: on Thursday, we're going to get all the schedule information.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get it all prepped for the website, all
Speaker 1: sorts of content as well as some special content that
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to release.
Speaker 2: Oh dude, I'm so pumped. Like again, we can't say
Speaker 2: too much. I don't want to get in trouble at all,
Speaker 2: but I used to dread schedule release week. I don't
Speaker 2: think I've ever been more excited than this year. I
Speaker 2: just I think what our digital and social media department
Speaker 2: cooked up is just brilliant. I think it's creative. I
Speaker 2: love watching the people outside these doors. They put our
Speaker 2: ugly mugs on this show, and our voices and I
Speaker 2: do not have a radio voice. They put us all
Speaker 2: out here on our platforms. There are so many amazing
Speaker 2: human beings that make this operation tick that are so
Speaker 2: much more talented than I am. And to see them
Speaker 2: all spread their wings in just the synergy, the unity,
Speaker 2: the communication, the teamwork between them, that's the best part
Speaker 2: of it. Doesn't matter what you do, right, I could
Speaker 2: be with my parents working at the you know, the
Speaker 2: paper mill, when you have a great team around you
Speaker 2: and being able to see them shine. I just I'm really,
Speaker 2: I'm really geeked for this. I think it's be a
Speaker 2: lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be a fun It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: fun day on Thursday. We hope that what everybody sees
Speaker 1: on Thursday night on the website is going to be
Speaker 1: fun and entertaining for them. But with that, we're gonna
Speaker 1: call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team everything with the schedule release on Thursday. As I said,
Speaker 1: no second episode of Unscripted this week, but we'll be
Speaker 1: back next week to talk all out the schedule and
Speaker 1: we have all of those details. So for Wes, I
Speaker 1: am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We will
Speaker 1: see you next time.