Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and West.
Speaker 1: As we continue to uh host the show here and
Speaker 1: review things that happened in season, we'll be we'll be
Speaker 1: doing this off and on here throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the next several episodes in several weeks. One thing that uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about it as the season one along,
Speaker 1: but we haven't necessarily crystallized it into a definitive list.
Speaker 1: But a lot of guys on this Packers team, as
Speaker 1: disappointing as a seven and nine record was, I think,
Speaker 1: qualify as surprise players in terms of how they jumped
Speaker 1: out made a contribute, and that maybe wasn't expected when
Speaker 1: training camp started with the ninety man roster and then
Speaker 1: we saw it get whittled down after that. Who were
Speaker 1: some guys that that you think would make that list
Speaker 1: of surprise players for the Packers in it would be
Speaker 1: so easy just to start off with Justin mccravi, but
Speaker 1: you and I have talked so much about him or
Speaker 1: during the stretch in which he started eight games in
Speaker 1: an amazing story to come from where he came from.
Speaker 1: We heard the story New Year's Eve. He's sitting there,
Speaker 1: you know, as a bellman at a resort down in Orlando,
Speaker 1: and the next thing you know, he's starting, you know,
Speaker 1: meaningful football games for the Green Bay Packers. He'll have
Speaker 1: a chance to compete for a starting job next year.
Speaker 1: But then you look at a guy like Lucas Patrick,
Speaker 1: and that's the guy I want to start with on
Speaker 1: my accord um. And it comes back to this, Mike.
Speaker 1: This is a guy that had one tryout opportunity coming
Speaker 1: out of Duke one. It was almost a joke, the
Speaker 1: fact that he sat there knowing he probably wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: get drafted. But then the phone doesn't ring after the draft.
Speaker 1: And remember him telling me near the end of the season,
Speaker 1: you know, as soon as that night ended, he went
Speaker 1: down the street, got a burrito, came back to his room,
Speaker 1: sat by himself and ate it and basically, you know,
Speaker 1: just said, well, my football career is over. The next
Speaker 1: day he gets a try out opportunity with the Packers.
Speaker 1: But you and I both know we see that rookie
Speaker 1: orientation camp every year Packers bring in like thirty thirty
Speaker 1: five trial players they might sign to three. Well that year,
Speaker 1: you know, he had such a great mindset he was
Speaker 1: going to go there. He knew Kenny Clark was the
Speaker 1: big rookie. He's gonna go up against him and he's
Speaker 1: gonna block him to the best of his ability. He
Speaker 1: didn't get the contract, but two weeks later the Packers
Speaker 1: call him back and he participates in the offseason program.
Speaker 1: The guy played his whole first first training camp with
Speaker 1: a club on his hand, managed to get on the
Speaker 1: practice squad for the year, came back this year against
Speaker 1: really really long odds to make the roster, but thanks
Speaker 1: to some injuries and some opportunity, he ends up accomplishing that.
Speaker 1: And then Lucas Patrick ends up starting I think two
Speaker 1: games for the Packers this year in a pinch. He
Speaker 1: is a guy that I think surprised me because of
Speaker 1: just how far he's come. You know, those trial players, Mike,
Speaker 1: even if you get a contract, that still means you're
Speaker 1: facing a really uphill battle to get on the roster,
Speaker 1: and Lucas Patrick managed to do it. Yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 1: when you as you just chronicled his journey for the
Speaker 1: last couple of years because you and I both talked
Speaker 1: to him. He's very well spoken, he's an intelligent guy,
Speaker 1: a duke education. He could he could do go do
Speaker 1: whatever he wanted to do. But history teacher. Yeah, the lure,
Speaker 1: the lure of this game, and and and it's not
Speaker 1: just the money. Yes, you can make more money playing
Speaker 1: football than you can't teaching history. It's not just the money, though.
Speaker 1: Lucas Patrick is one of these guys that it's you know,
Speaker 1: there is the lure of the game. It's it's how
Speaker 1: far can I go with these athletic skills that not
Speaker 1: everybody has? And you talk about a guy that really
Speaker 1: has has absolutely maxed out in in that regard to
Speaker 1: to be where he is right now. He'll be a
Speaker 1: legitimate candidate to make the fifty three man roster again
Speaker 1: next year. But there is also going to be potentially
Speaker 1: more draft picks brought in. You know, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: these guys coming back from injuries, the guys that whose
Speaker 1: injuries created opportunity for him, they'll be back. There'll be
Speaker 1: all kinds of competition there. But now Lucas Patrick has
Speaker 1: been there, He's gotten the job done. He knows so
Speaker 1: much more about what it takes and it's it's tough
Speaker 1: to bet against him really, And Mike, think about it,
Speaker 1: you've covered this team for ten years now with with
Speaker 1: this you know the site. Who are the guys When
Speaker 1: you think of guys, undrafted free agents, unsung heroes that
Speaker 1: have made it in the NFL, it's guys that make
Speaker 1: a good positive first impression when you get thrown out there,
Speaker 1: can you swim? And I think Lucas Patrick showed this year,
Speaker 1: despite again having that club on his hand, that he
Speaker 1: can swim. And it's something that he mentioned does motivate
Speaker 1: him a lot. The fact that nobody wanted him, including
Speaker 1: to some extent the Green Bay Packers, even though they
Speaker 1: brought him in for a tryout, he wasn't one of
Speaker 1: the twenty guys they signed as an restricted or an
Speaker 1: undrafted college free agent. So that's one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why that really stands out to me as a guy
Speaker 1: to to look at. Yeah, another guy that I would
Speaker 1: add to the list is uh the rookie punter Justin Vogel.
Speaker 1: Now a completely different story than a guy like Lucas Patrick,
Speaker 1: but this is a guy you bring him in, he's
Speaker 1: he's undrafted, he's from Miami. You have no idea when
Speaker 1: the weather gets cold, how he's going to react, how
Speaker 1: he's going to perform. And I'm not saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: Justin Vogel had an all rookie campaign or anything like that,
Speaker 1: that he should be getting a bunch of postseason accolades.
Speaker 1: But this kid held his own in in a tough,
Speaker 1: pressure cooker type of spot. And uh, when you look
Speaker 1: at you know, I've been here long enough to know
Speaker 1: what you know. The Packers brought in Derek Frost at partner,
Speaker 1: he flopped. They brought in Jeremy Capanos the following year
Speaker 1: at punter. After one year he was gone. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not saying the Packers are just gonna hand Justin Vogel
Speaker 1: the job for eighteen. They may bring in some competition
Speaker 1: and see, but again, this is a guy. Based on
Speaker 1: everything he did his rookie year, I know they'd like
Speaker 1: more consistency, they'd like maybe a little better placement, not
Speaker 1: so much in the middle of the field, that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. But when you look at the whole body
Speaker 1: of work and what he did, and you know that
Speaker 1: net average being, you know that that franchise record and everything. Um,
Speaker 1: this is another guy that I wouldn't necessarily bet against him. No,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't, Mike. And again, you go back to that
Speaker 1: point that you made in terms of the trajectory where
Speaker 1: you're punting the ball, you need to have the leg
Speaker 1: strength justin Vogel certainly has that. That's the part you
Speaker 1: can't teach. You can't teach him. I mean, Jason Simmons
Speaker 1: run so they worked with them so much on those
Speaker 1: areas this year. And and even Mason Crosby talking to
Speaker 1: him after the season, the Packers kicker, he said, you
Speaker 1: know where he improved from where he was at and
Speaker 1: the inconsistency during mini camp, in the off season program
Speaker 1: to where he ended up the season was really impressive.
Speaker 1: And also throw in one more thing, like, you're right, accolades,
Speaker 1: not piling up. It's very difficult to do that. But
Speaker 1: the fact that Vogel was selected as a Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: alternate as a rookie, I forgot about that. Actually, there
Speaker 1: is only one punter from the NFC that goes to
Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl. The fact that he got that kind
Speaker 1: of recognition, he's on the list somewhere, he's on there.
Speaker 1: So and and you know, this as well as I do.
Speaker 1: That's not a big fan balloting thing. I mean, people
Speaker 1: just don't get really excited about voting for the punter.
Speaker 1: So I mean the fact that the NFL, evidently the players,
Speaker 1: the coaches people took notice of them. I think that
Speaker 1: bodes well for his future in this league. Ye, it does.
Speaker 1: With that, we're going to toss it to a breakback
Speaker 1: with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford sitting here, Wes hod Kuwitz
Speaker 1: is perched all the way over there, um West. Last
Speaker 1: week we had the final locker room availability to talk
Speaker 1: to the players at the conclusion of the season, and
Speaker 1: amidst all the news last week with Ted Thompson and
Speaker 1: the search for a new defensive coordinator and everything that
Speaker 1: has been going on, there were some comments from players
Speaker 1: that we heard from the last time we'll hear from
Speaker 1: them really until the off season program in April. Um.
Speaker 1: Some interesting thoughts always come out of the locker room
Speaker 1: when the season ends. What are some of the things
Speaker 1: that that caught your ear? Well? One of the things
Speaker 1: about the Packers, and I think it's like this with
Speaker 1: a lot of NFL teams. Once a guy goes on
Speaker 1: injured reserve, they're no longer available to the media for
Speaker 1: the remainder that their time that they're on injured reserve.
Speaker 1: So a guy that I really was looking to speak
Speaker 1: to his Herb Waters. And I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people out there going who's Herb Waters? But but he
Speaker 1: was such an interesting case study a year ago because
Speaker 1: this is a guy who was a receiver at Miami
Speaker 1: and we know the history there of Packers and receivers
Speaker 1: and all that stuff of coming out of Miami who
Speaker 1: was converted to cornerback in the middle of the regular
Speaker 1: season of last year while he was on the practice squad,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pet project that Joe Witt Jr.
Speaker 1: Had the Packers cornerbacks coach. Waters makes such a jump.
Speaker 1: He was sort of the Michael Clark of last year
Speaker 1: where he makes such a quantum leap that he actually
Speaker 1: was able to get on the active roster at the
Speaker 1: end of last season, and going into the off season,
Speaker 1: Wit constantly was talking about her Waters and the way
Speaker 1: he was kind of coming on. Well, he ends up
Speaker 1: suffering a shoulder injury. I think it was like in
Speaker 1: the first maybe first couple of practices of training camp
Speaker 1: this year, he goes on Injured Reserve. A lot of guys, Mike,
Speaker 1: once they go on i R, they'll go and train
Speaker 1: other places. They'll leave green Bay. Waters stayed the entire season.
Speaker 1: He was in every single meeting, He did all of
Speaker 1: his rehab and recovery in Green Bay. Really interesting thing.
Speaker 1: And now is going to have the chance to come
Speaker 1: back next year in year three and really show how
Speaker 1: he's improved at cornerback. It's gonna be a guy to watch,
Speaker 1: I think this next offseason. Well. And it's interesting too
Speaker 1: because with all the injuries that did go on in
Speaker 1: the secondary, you wonder if Waters hadn't gotten hurt and
Speaker 1: dealt with you know what he was dealing with, maybe
Speaker 1: he would have gotten a chance this year. And certainly,
Speaker 1: as you said, with Joe Witt being as complimentary and
Speaker 1: as high on him as he was, he might have
Speaker 1: gotten a shot this year. And and then people wouldn't
Speaker 1: necessarily be asking, you know why you're talking about her Waters? Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then the reason I also throw that out there
Speaker 1: with the Miami former receiver converting to cornerback, Sam Shields, right,
Speaker 1: And I don't want to put the bar that high
Speaker 1: for Waters, But yeah, Wit is incredibly high on him
Speaker 1: in terms of what his makeup is. He said, coming
Speaker 1: out of cole or coming out of high school, there
Speaker 1: were some schools that wanted to recruit him as a cornerback,
Speaker 1: but like a lot of eighteen year old kids, he
Speaker 1: wants to play receiver. He wants to be a star,
Speaker 1: and he went to Miami to be a receiver. It
Speaker 1: was afterwards when he got to the league understanding that
Speaker 1: this is the decision that's being made for me now
Speaker 1: to actually have a job in the NFL. I'm fine
Speaker 1: with making the switch. He did mention when I was
Speaker 1: talking to him. He still has some rehab to go through.
Speaker 1: It's not healent yet, but he's hoping to be available
Speaker 1: once they get back for the off season program and
Speaker 1: O t a s Yeah. Well, And also with regards
Speaker 1: to the secondary, we know there were a lot of injuries,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of moving parts all season long.
Speaker 1: We heard some comments I guess you'd classify them as
Speaker 1: rather scathing comments in some respects from veteran safety ha
Speaker 1: Clinton dis also from cornerback to Marius Randall. Some frustrations
Speaker 1: coming out at the end of a seven and nine season,
Speaker 1: young players who had to fill in weren't getting the
Speaker 1: job done. They felt maybe they weren't necessarily being held accountable.
Speaker 1: Um mistakes continued to be made without you know, ready
Speaker 1: made replacements to you know, to uh to try to
Speaker 1: get some things fixed on the defense, and a lot
Speaker 1: of fans asking in our Insider Inbox columnel, does this
Speaker 1: mean there's you know, there's all this dissension and discord
Speaker 1: amongst the defense and everything like that. I'll just say this,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of glad, and I don't the coaches will
Speaker 1: deal with this next season and and you know this
Speaker 1: will all I think be forgotten at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. I'm kind of glad after seven and nine
Speaker 1: season the way the defense played that A couple of
Speaker 1: guys like spoke out and we're kind of ticked off, frankly,
Speaker 1: because if if we see these defensive players, especially a
Speaker 1: guy like Clinton Dix who didn't have the follow up
Speaker 1: season to the Pro Bowl that he was hoping for,
Speaker 1: and he's the first to admit it that that he
Speaker 1: was expecting more, he was expecting better. There were some
Speaker 1: circumstances that definitely didn't work in his favor that were
Speaker 1: out of his control, but also he knows there were
Speaker 1: plays that he missed out there. I'm kind of glad
Speaker 1: that that guys spoke up and just to you know,
Speaker 1: go into the offseason and say, well, yep, it was
Speaker 1: seven and nine. We did whatever we could. Let's move on.
Speaker 1: You know, it shows they care. And I and I
Speaker 1: and I think and I think fans appreciate the fact
Speaker 1: that even if maybe there's a little discord and this
Speaker 1: and that, I mean, who cares. You know, It's like,
Speaker 1: these guys are professional football players. They're paid to do
Speaker 1: a job. They want to succeed, they want to win.
Speaker 1: That's what the fans want to know. I thought the
Speaker 1: biggest thing, one of the biggest headlines that came out
Speaker 1: of that news conference Mike McCarthy had last Thursday was
Speaker 1: him saying about ha ha Clint Dix, at least he's frustrated.
Speaker 1: At least he's voicing that frustration. They do these player
Speaker 1: exit interviews every single year, and as McCarthy says, the
Speaker 1: only time that they don't is if they win a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. So in that essence, if you didn't win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, something went wrong, it didn't work out
Speaker 1: the way you wanted it to, so McCarthy he I mean,
Speaker 1: every player has their own perspective and they're entitled to it.
Speaker 1: But I don't think he just wants everybody just walk
Speaker 1: in there for fifteen minutes and just say, yeah, everything
Speaker 1: worked out fine, I'm gonna go to my off season.
Speaker 1: I'll see in April. He wants to hear what you're thinking,
Speaker 1: what you think went wrong, because everybody has that opinion.
Speaker 1: Everybody is a part of the process. Ha ha. Clinton
Speaker 1: Dix mentioning that I don't think he pointed out anything
Speaker 1: that anybody really didn't know already there. Yeah, and when
Speaker 1: you're not preparing to play a game, it's not as
Speaker 1: though this is suddenly a big distraction. They played the game,
Speaker 1: they did their jobs, but the season's over and some
Speaker 1: frustrations are gonna come out. And I don't have a
Speaker 1: problem with it at all because it's it's not something
Speaker 1: that becomes a distraction and trying to win the next game.
Speaker 1: It was something that came out after the games were played,
Speaker 1: and I think that's how it should be. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think when you look at how Clinton Dix's comments
Speaker 1: and you really do isolate them go back to two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen, which is one of the better defenses
Speaker 1: they had, particular during that second half of the season.
Speaker 1: What worked about that defense, it was guys stepping up.
Speaker 1: It was Clay Matthews moving over to inside backer when
Speaker 1: they were thin there. It was Mike Neil and Nick
Speaker 1: Perry working when concert with Julius Peppers. So many different
Speaker 1: guys who had experienced in that defense stepped up, and
Speaker 1: that was one thing they were missing this year, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately it's when the reasons why the Packers aren't in
Speaker 1: the playoffs this season. Yeah. Absolutely, with that, we'll go
Speaker 1: to a breakback with more on Packers Unscripted right after this.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford in this, yere
Speaker 1: Wes Hodkowits in that one. West another player. I know
Speaker 1: we've talked about him a lot throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the season, but now that the season is over, there
Speaker 1: definitely is a statistical medal. I guess you can say
Speaker 1: that that should be placed around Blake Martinez his neck
Speaker 1: because he did end up According to NFL dot Com statistics,
Speaker 1: every team individual team might have their own statistics as
Speaker 1: far as total tackles but according nfl dot Com st statistics,
Speaker 1: Blake Martinez tied for the league lead in tackles. That's
Speaker 1: saying something a second year player, it really is, and
Speaker 1: I know at the end of the day, Blake Martinez,
Speaker 1: he he mentioned he has two sets of goals going
Speaker 1: into a season. He wants to be able to go
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl, win a Super Bowl from a
Speaker 1: team perspective, but individually, he came into this season one
Speaker 1: to lead the NFL and tackles. Think about that for
Speaker 1: a second. This is a guy who at the end
Speaker 1: of last year wasn't just not an every down player,
Speaker 1: he was actually sort of the backup in many ways
Speaker 1: to Joe Thomas and Jake Ryan. Comes into this year,
Speaker 1: we are all expecting Joe Thomas to be the dime
Speaker 1: linebacker going into the first week of the regular season.
Speaker 1: That's the way it looked in training camp. The first
Speaker 1: game against the Seattle Seahawks, there's Martinez and it's set
Speaker 1: the course for a highly productive season for him. You
Speaker 1: mentioned that we talked about Martinez a lot this year.
Speaker 1: Undoubtedly we did. But this has been a position at
Speaker 1: inside backer for probably the better part of five or
Speaker 1: six years that I know a lot of fans have
Speaker 1: kind of had their eyes sort of set to asking
Speaker 1: for an answer at that position. Martinez, He's will has
Speaker 1: some work to do in his game, unquestionably, he's the
Speaker 1: first one to admit that. But the productivity they got
Speaker 1: to that position is one of the reasons why now
Speaker 1: that the season is over for the first time in
Speaker 1: a very long time, Mike inside linebacker, at least at
Speaker 1: this very moment isn't the thing on the tip of
Speaker 1: every fans time. No, it isn't. And and that's that's too.
Speaker 1: Martinez is credit certainly, and and I've admitted it before
Speaker 1: and I'll admit it again. I did not see this
Speaker 1: type of second year jump coming from Blake Martinez. I
Speaker 1: thought going into his second year that he was going
Speaker 1: to be a major standout on special teams and he
Speaker 1: would be a rotational guy amidst you know, Joe Thomas,
Speaker 1: Jake Ryan, maybe another guy gets thrown into that mix somewhere.
Speaker 1: I thought he'd be a rotational guy at inside linebacker
Speaker 1: and a dynamite special teams player. This guy made himself
Speaker 1: over the course of really one off season into an
Speaker 1: every down defender in this Packers defense. And he deserves
Speaker 1: a ton of credit for that. And when I look,
Speaker 1: when I look at the future, and I know we'll
Speaker 1: have a lot of time this offseason to to try
Speaker 1: to do some projections and see how, um, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe what we see down the road. But we've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about Blake Martinez and Kenny Clark being those
Speaker 1: two guys from the twenty six team draft class that
Speaker 1: really took that huge jump in their second seasons in
Speaker 1: Kevin King, Josh Jones, Montrevius Adams, Vince Biegel. Now you
Speaker 1: can't necessarily count on all four of them make the
Speaker 1: second year jump, and a couple of those guys, particularly
Speaker 1: Adams and Beagle, who didn't play a whole lot because
Speaker 1: of injuries. But if you get two of those guys
Speaker 1: to make the same type of jump that Martinez and
Speaker 1: Clark did, things on this defense start to look a
Speaker 1: little different. You know. I know Josh Josh Jones played
Speaker 1: the most I think out of all four of those guys.
Speaker 1: He had his struggles, There's no question about that. They tried.
Speaker 1: They were playing him at nitro linebacker, they played him
Speaker 1: at deep safety. He was given a lot of positions,
Speaker 1: I think too many for a rookie, but it was
Speaker 1: out of necessity because of the injuries. He was never
Speaker 1: really able to settle into one spot and learn one role,
Speaker 1: which is where I think rookies can make their biggest impact.
Speaker 1: And Kevin King had the injury issues. I felt this
Speaker 1: defense was a different unit with Kevin King as a
Speaker 1: starting boundary corner when when he was healthy and playing
Speaker 1: the way he's expected to play. So my point is,
Speaker 1: those four guys, those four top defensive draft picks from
Speaker 1: last year, you get two of those, maybe even three
Speaker 1: out of the four to make the type of jump
Speaker 1: we saw from Martinez and Clark, and things start to
Speaker 1: look a little bit different on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball. Yeah, and look a guy like Josh Jones.
Speaker 1: I mean, tell me a safety who came into the
Speaker 1: NFL and didn't have to make a giant jump. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jared's bird led the NFL. I think in interceptions his
Speaker 1: first year coming out and with Buffalo. But a lot
Speaker 1: of times there is some some big, big, you know,
Speaker 1: hits you have to take right off the bat. Morgan
Speaker 1: Burnett his first year as the start of the Packers
Speaker 1: rank thirty second and total defense, I mean that's just
Speaker 1: the way it works sometimes. But getting back to the
Speaker 1: original point with Blake Martinez, I think is interesting. I
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk with him during that final
Speaker 1: locker room one of the big things last year that
Speaker 1: he tried to do once the season was over, and
Speaker 1: we know he's so prolific for sitting in his locker
Speaker 1: and looking at the iPad in the film. Once the
Speaker 1: season was over, he went back and looked at Shawn Lee,
Speaker 1: the linebacker from the Cowboys Pro Bowl linebacker who he
Speaker 1: feels is the best guy in the game. He went
Speaker 1: and went through all his film, checked it out, did
Speaker 1: all that research and try to implement it. That's what
Speaker 1: he's looking for, playmaking and that's something he's gonna try
Speaker 1: to carry over now going into next season. Yeah, no
Speaker 1: question about it. With that, we'll go to another breakback
Speaker 1: with moreen Packers Unscripted right after this Welcome Back to
Speaker 1: Packers Unscripted Mike Spofford alongside West, Hidekwitz and West. Before
Speaker 1: we go, we opened this show by talking about, you
Speaker 1: know some of these surprise players, uh, you know, guys
Speaker 1: like Lucas Patrick, Justin mccraie who really have some some interesting,
Speaker 1: heartwarming back stories to uh, to get where they are
Speaker 1: right now. One we forgot to mention in that mix
Speaker 1: was a late addition to the active roster at the
Speaker 1: end of the season from the practice squad. And that's
Speaker 1: tight end Emmanuel Bird. What do you know about him? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's interesting, Mike, We always talked about the long snappers,
Speaker 1: you know, because you don't end up on a practice
Speaker 1: squad a lot of times you have to pick up
Speaker 1: these odd jobs waiting to get another opportunity. Emmanuel Bird
Speaker 1: the tight end out of Marshall, who was actually a
Speaker 1: college teammate of Michael clark Um. He is kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting story. So he gets He originally signs as
Speaker 1: a UFA with the Kansas City Chiefs, doesn't make the team,
Speaker 1: gets cut during the off season. During the training camp,
Speaker 1: comes to Green Bay late ad and I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember this practice his first practice, he ends
Speaker 1: up making this remarkable catch from Aaron Rodgers and actually
Speaker 1: was really productive throughout the preseason. But he doesn't get
Speaker 1: a spot on the fifty three, doesn't even get a
Speaker 1: spot on the practice squad. So he goes home and
Speaker 1: he actually starts playing to put his physical education degree
Speaker 1: to work. He was in the process of becoming basically
Speaker 1: a teacher, a fied teacher. When the Packers give him
Speaker 1: a call back at the beginning of November. This is
Speaker 1: during that whole situation with Martella's be it. They want
Speaker 1: another body at tight end, So he spends two months
Speaker 1: on the Packers practice squad, gets called up after the
Speaker 1: injury to Richard Rogers, one of the most durable guys
Speaker 1: on the team, and then he ends up having the
Speaker 1: longest catch of the day in that game against Detroit.
Speaker 1: Results didn't go the way you wanted them to, but
Speaker 1: it's sometimes little things like that that can give you
Speaker 1: kind of a feel good story to what this game
Speaker 1: is like beyond the football field. Yeah, imagine those uh
Speaker 1: those kids coming home and they say, hey, Mom, we
Speaker 1: got a new You got a new gym teacher, And
Speaker 1: they're like, why do you have to get a new
Speaker 1: gym teacher? Well, because Mr Bird went to go play
Speaker 1: for the Packers. Just thinking about those conversations around the
Speaker 1: dinner table, it just cracks me up. Yeah, And those
Speaker 1: are the kind of things that are kind of neat
Speaker 1: sometimes the way that these situations work out, and Bird
Speaker 1: now has a chance to come back, you'll have a
Speaker 1: full offseason in Green Bay. Still an uphill battle for
Speaker 1: him to keep that NFL dream you don't true and
Speaker 1: to get it to be true, but a neat way
Speaker 1: to him to end this rather long first rookie season. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely with that. Uh, that's a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our
Speaker 1: coverage of the team on Packers dot Home on Twitter.
Speaker 1: You can still find him at west hod I'm still
Speaker 1: at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks
Speaker 1: for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time. H