Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner at Crime Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you here from our studios at lambeau Field reviewing week
Speaker 1: three of OTA's West. We got another chance to see
Speaker 1: a practice earlier this week Mini Campus next week that
Speaker 1: will be the final week of the off season program.
Speaker 1: But I'm just gonna throw this at you based on
Speaker 1: what we saw on Tuesday, this kicking competition is getting
Speaker 1: a little wild. That was not something that I think
Speaker 1: I've seen as far as the volume of opportunities and
Speaker 1: three guys going at it and just the craziness at
Speaker 1: the end of practice with this kicking competition on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt Lafleur said, this is the second time they've
Speaker 2: done this in terms of the three guys all getting
Speaker 2: opportunities in the same practice that in my time, I
Speaker 2: think maybe they did it once after they signed Zach
Speaker 2: Ramirez to come in with Giorgio Taveki at the end
Speaker 2: of the thirteen camp. I think they might have with
Speaker 2: Mason Crosby. I think they might have all done that
Speaker 2: one day but then they cut Georgio the next day
Speaker 2: or something like that. I've never witnessed anything like this.
Speaker 2: First off, kudos goes to Rich Bisaccia and Byron Storer
Speaker 2: in the special. They made it work like. It was
Speaker 2: a pretty seamless transition in terms of all the guys
Speaker 2: that got ops.
Speaker 1: And it was clearly competitive, too, very competitive. Could you
Speaker 1: could sense it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah. And at the end of the practice, then what
Speaker 2: happened is they did the two minute drill and if
Speaker 2: and actually I think even if they the offense didn't
Speaker 2: get down the field, they still set it up for
Speaker 2: the field goals. They end with I want to say
Speaker 2: it was fifty seven yarders.
Speaker 1: Yeah they were. They were kicking. They were kicking long ones.
Speaker 1: They were definitely fifty five plus.
Speaker 2: And they all made it. So what they do, They
Speaker 2: come and they rev it up a little bit more.
Speaker 2: And as Greg Joseph said, he hasn't seen anything like
Speaker 2: this since days back in college, where they had the
Speaker 2: entire football team lined up around the offensive line, the snapper,
Speaker 2: and obviously the kicker, and each guy had a shot
Speaker 2: at from fifty one yards. Jack pez Lusni missed the opportunity.
Speaker 2: Joseph also missed it. Final opportunity was Anders Carlson. He
Speaker 2: puts it right through the uprights and was completely mobbed
Speaker 2: by the entire football team. It was for as offseason
Speaker 2: practices go. That was as much of a training camp
Speaker 2: type feel as I think I've experienced.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the guys were having Maybe maybe it wasn't
Speaker 1: so fun for the kickers.
Speaker 2: No, for sure.
Speaker 1: The rest of the guys, we're having a lot of
Speaker 1: fun with it, because when they were creating this big
Speaker 1: distracting thing, you know, getting up right up close to
Speaker 1: the to the holder and the kicker and the snapper,
Speaker 1: and you know they're they're kind of scorting their water.
Speaker 1: They were squirting water bottles, but not just on the kicker,
Speaker 1: but on Daniel Wheel and the holder and on you
Speaker 1: know whoever.
Speaker 2: The Daniel he's just learned his.
Speaker 1: Job, Yeah, exactly, well, and on the snappers as well.
Speaker 1: They were trying to distract those guys too. Obviously not
Speaker 1: a not a realistic situation, but something where you're just
Speaker 1: you're trying to create, You're trying to create a circumstance
Speaker 1: where concentration is at a premium, right, That's that's what
Speaker 1: they're after there, And and It wasn't just that, but
Speaker 1: it was as you said, it was a fifty plus
Speaker 1: yard field goal, so it wasn't just some kind of
Speaker 1: a chip shot. It was fun to watch. I'm curious
Speaker 1: to see, you know, how this kicking competition plays out
Speaker 1: through the summer and through the preseason games, training camp
Speaker 1: and everything. This has all the makings of something that
Speaker 1: goes right down to as I sort of joked, right
Speaker 1: down to checking in for the Brazil flight. That might
Speaker 1: be right up until that point that the Packers make
Speaker 1: their decision on who their kicker is going to be
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Well, I do you know, we'll see yeah, loong they
Speaker 2: keep the triad going there. But I do think there's
Speaker 2: a benefit to having kickers in there the entire camp.
Speaker 2: You know, I think back to some of these other
Speaker 2: years in which they they kind of created competition, but
Speaker 2: in some ways they didn't because you'd get to the
Speaker 2: end of the off season program and then you know,
Speaker 2: they cut a Ryan Winslow. You get a week in
Speaker 2: the camp and they'd already figure out who their punter was.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest about one thing, Mike, Not to say
Speaker 2: that you can't have somebody come in on August eighth
Speaker 2: and make a roster spot.
Speaker 1: We've seen it happen before.
Speaker 2: But generally speaking, your team is mostly set. I don't
Speaker 2: know what kind of benefit there is to to shuffling
Speaker 2: out a specialist to bring it in somebody else at
Speaker 2: that juncture, assuming there's not an issue, a persistent issue
Speaker 2: in practice with the guys that you have. So I
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, pressure makes diamonds. And the one
Speaker 2: thing I hope people can take a step back on
Speaker 2: in relation to Charlson, just specifically, please understand that, yes,
Speaker 2: there were too many missed extra points last year. Last
Speaker 2: year the postseason, we saw what happened. It is not
Speaker 2: easy to be a rookie kicker in the National Football League.
Speaker 2: And the one difficult thing with drafting a kicker is
Speaker 2: you are immediately put into the predicament of having to
Speaker 2: decide how much latitude you give that individual, because, as
Speaker 2: I've said umpteen times already, you don't want to find
Speaker 2: yourself in a situation like the Vikings did where they
Speaker 2: give up too early on Daniel Carlson. The guy goes
Speaker 2: on to become an All Pro, it looks like he's
Speaker 2: probably just gonna end up being the Raiders kicker for
Speaker 2: the next ten years. When you have a guy that
Speaker 2: you felt strongly about developmentally, you want to give him
Speaker 2: the opportunity to compete for that job and give him
Speaker 2: an honest, honest opportunity at that. They brought in Greg Joseph.
Speaker 2: That's legitimate competition for him. Two guys that both kicked
Speaker 2: in the NFC North last year. Made the best man win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I totally agree with what you
Speaker 1: said about Carlson. And obviously there's the lesson the vikings
Speaker 1: learned with regard to his older brother and all that.
Speaker 1: The interesting spot that the Packers are in here is
Speaker 1: because of the run they made at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. You were playing as well as anybody. You're
Speaker 1: you know, an eyelash away from making it to the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship Game, and a missed field goal late in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter was a big part of that. The
Speaker 1: Packers are going to have an interesting decision to make
Speaker 1: because I think they want to develop Anders Carlson and
Speaker 1: they want to see him be the kicker here for
Speaker 1: the next ten or twelve years and be the next
Speaker 1: Mason Crosby for this organization. I think that's the that's
Speaker 1: the goal, and that's the desire. But you can only
Speaker 1: have so much patience when you're a contender, and when
Speaker 1: you're playing, you believe you're a contender for a super
Speaker 1: Bowl and you're playing for it. That's why Greg Joseph
Speaker 1: was brought in. This is a guy he doesn't have
Speaker 1: a huge pedigree in the NFL, but he's kicked in
Speaker 1: a conference championship game with the Tennessee Titans earlier in
Speaker 1: his career. He's been the guy for the Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: for the last three years. Some interesting statistical quirks when
Speaker 1: you look when you look at his career, I was
Speaker 1: putting together a story that's actually going to appear on
Speaker 1: our website on Friday. In Greg Joseph's career, he's only
Speaker 1: missed one field goal inside of forty yards in his career,
Speaker 1: but he's missed like sixteen extra points, which of course
Speaker 1: there are thirty three yards. Now, maybe a couple of
Speaker 1: those might have been after penalties and might have I
Speaker 1: didn't do all the research, but it's just kind of strange,
Speaker 1: you know, because he's been he's been really really solid
Speaker 1: on anything inside forty yards, and he's been pretty darn
Speaker 1: good from forty plus as well. But then you look
Speaker 1: at the number of extra points he's missed and you
Speaker 1: kind of scratch your head a little bit. So I
Speaker 1: agree with you. It's absolutely you know, may the best
Speaker 1: man win. From what we have seen, and again it's
Speaker 1: only been one day a week in Ota, is from
Speaker 1: what we have seen. I haven't seen anything from Anders
Speaker 1: Carlson that tells me the Packers are just ready to
Speaker 1: move on, you know. I haven't seen anything that tells
Speaker 1: tells me that. But we have an entire training camp,
Speaker 1: multiple preseason games and everything to go through to to
Speaker 1: sort this thing out. And nobody's making any decisions right
Speaker 1: now because nobody has to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is when you want to make those decisions, honestly,
Speaker 2: Like you know, I know there was some talk at
Speaker 2: the end of last season like, Okay, well you're going
Speaker 2: into the playoffs. If you're looking for a kicker in December,
Speaker 2: you're in a bad spot because it's going to be
Speaker 2: very rare. You're going to find somebody that's out on
Speaker 2: the market, especially in the day and age where there's
Speaker 2: practice squads available, where you're just going to be able
Speaker 2: to put that guy in and count.
Speaker 1: On Brian gudokunsett After the season, they they were looking.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, with with the struggles that Carlson
Speaker 1: was having, the Packers were making this run at a
Speaker 1: playoff spot. They were looking and they felt personnel wise,
Speaker 1: there wasn't a better option out there, or they would
Speaker 1: have brought somebody else in. He said that after the season.
Speaker 1: I have to take him at his word.
Speaker 2: And I think the Packers did the best possible thing
Speaker 2: in that. You know, it's gonna be very difficult to
Speaker 2: go out and sign a guy like Matthew Gay a
Speaker 2: year earlier. Where it's gonna be this is the top
Speaker 2: of the line. You're gonna have to pay him free
Speaker 2: agent while also still having honors there to compete for
Speaker 2: that job. Yeah, Greg Joseph was a good middle ground
Speaker 2: because he was allowed to walk as an unrestricted free
Speaker 2: agent from Minnesota. But he's been around for a long time.
Speaker 2: As he told you in the locker room on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: You know, he's competed four jobs before. He learned a
Speaker 2: lot from that experience. That's what kind of forged his mentality.
Speaker 1: When he's won jobs and he's lost jobs, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a guy who's been through this kicking competition
Speaker 1: thing before.
Speaker 2: When you talked about the weird quirk with his the
Speaker 2: field goals the other thing. I remember doing the five
Speaker 2: things on him. I was actually in Florida at the
Speaker 2: time when they signed him, and he's had a really
Speaker 2: interesting career because he talked about the challenges of kicking
Speaker 2: in Cleveland and obviously being there one year. He had
Speaker 2: a very unique thing where he went to Tennessee at
Speaker 2: the end of I believe was the nineteen season.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was towards It was the tail end of
Speaker 1: the twenty nineteen season because Ryan suck Up hurt. Suck
Speaker 1: Up got hurt for the Titans, and they they needed
Speaker 1: a kicker and they brought him in and he ended
Speaker 1: up being the guy that that carried them through that
Speaker 1: held the position through the AFC Championship game.
Speaker 2: And he only kicked extra points.
Speaker 1: It was just until the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Until the playoffs point, but he was I think he
Speaker 2: had fifteen extra points or something like that.
Speaker 1: He didn't yeah, for all the games toward the end
Speaker 1: of the season. He didn't actually get a field goal
Speaker 1: attempt until the postseason because all of his regular season
Speaker 1: stats were just pat.
Speaker 2: Find me, a guy that just hasn't even attempted one
Speaker 2: in five crazy let alone make them. But I feel
Speaker 2: like this is the great a great setup for them.
Speaker 2: Pod Lesnie, I'm very interested to see what the approaches
Speaker 2: with Green Bay takes with him. He was a guy
Speaker 2: they signed back in January. That was the first sign
Speaker 2: of a competition there. They decided to keep him around
Speaker 2: even after signing Joseph. So it's gonna be very interesting
Speaker 2: how it works out. But I feel like to get
Speaker 2: back to my core argument here. You know, however many
Speaker 2: it is the multiples, the plural keeping those guys around,
Speaker 2: having a competition two or three getting into training camp,
Speaker 2: I think is gonna beneficial for both Carlson and the
Speaker 2: other kickers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll just have to see how it plays out.
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Speaker 1: All right, Well, we know when we're standing there watching practice,
Speaker 1: we get, we anticipate, we're waiting for the eleven on
Speaker 1: eleven to start. Those are the plays we like to watch.
Speaker 1: When they're going full.
Speaker 2: Speed, when they're going full speed.
Speaker 1: When they're going full speed. Yes, we've seen in we've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of eleven on eleven at half speed,
Speaker 1: which is which is not something from a reporter standpoint
Speaker 1: that does a whole lot for us visually. But you
Speaker 1: never know what you're gonna You never know what you're
Speaker 1: gonna see with this Packers offense, as we've talked about,
Speaker 1: with all these different receivers that are available, and where
Speaker 1: the ball is going to go and lo and behold.
Speaker 1: Right at the beginning of eleven on eleven on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Jordan Love lets one rip deep and who's the guy
Speaker 1: running underneath it? Not Jayden Reed, not Christian Watson, not
Speaker 1: Romeo Dobbs, not Don Davian Wicks, but Bo Melton seventy
Speaker 1: five yard touchdown to kick off the eleven on eleven
Speaker 1: and quite Frankly, I think it caught the defense's attention
Speaker 1: because we saw the defense, you know, ratchet up their
Speaker 1: play the rest of the eleven on eleven of practice
Speaker 1: after that. But but man, I tell you, Bo Melton,
Speaker 1: he's he's uh, he's still going to be in a
Speaker 1: fight for a roster spot once again. But man, having
Speaker 1: a guy like that on the depth chart where he
Speaker 1: is for the Green Bay Packers says something about what
Speaker 1: the Packers have at that position.
Speaker 2: This the Melton family is one that fascinates me. And
Speaker 2: I think, you know, assuming everything works out, Bo's on
Speaker 2: the roster again this year, I think it'll be a
Speaker 2: really interesting story to do going into his game against Max,
Speaker 2: his younger brother, who was the second round pick of
Speaker 2: Arizona when those two teams play in Week six. But
Speaker 2: the high character of that group, both Max and Bow
Speaker 2: they had other offers. They both decided to go to Rutgers. Now,
Speaker 2: in Bo's case, that was definitely a big decision because
Speaker 2: Rutgers has kind of turned a corner now that Schiano's
Speaker 2: coming back there. They're a little bit more competitive they
Speaker 2: were when Chris ash was there, and there were some
Speaker 2: lean years where Bo was the guy and there wasn't
Speaker 2: a whole lot of winning always happening. Now. I don't
Speaker 2: know how much that affected his draft stock or not,
Speaker 2: but he goes in the seventh round. John Schneider drafts
Speaker 2: him into Seattle. He doesn't make the He's there the
Speaker 2: entire season. The Green Bay Packers come calling at the
Speaker 2: end of really the end of Aaron Rodgers era at
Speaker 2: twenty two. Then the Packers, for the second straight year,
Speaker 2: draft three straight three receivers in the draft. Yeah, competition
Speaker 2: of plenty bodies, of plenty investments a plenty for the Packers.
Speaker 2: Bo doesn't make the roster. I went back and looked
Speaker 2: Mike preseason last year, Bo had one catch for three yards.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be hard to make the roster with that
Speaker 2: type of production in the preseason, yep. But what happens.
Speaker 2: He sticks it out, He stays in Green Bay, and
Speaker 2: he was an absolute electric piece for this defense or
Speaker 2: for this offense in that final stretch of the season.
Speaker 2: As Matt Leffuor said, the first receiver to have a
Speaker 2: hundred yard game for the Packers, and after that, Dantavian
Speaker 2: Wicks I think came right after it. I think maybe
Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs.
Speaker 1: Dobbs had the one in the playoffs in Dallas.
Speaker 2: The domino effects started. Yeah, So bringing this all back
Speaker 2: to practice on Tuesday, in so many cases, it would
Speaker 2: have been almost a surprise to see someone like Melton
Speaker 2: who is running with the ones. This is Jordan Love
Speaker 2: throwing the ball right, But as he was taught talking
Speaker 2: about afterwards, that's a play they've been trying to hit
Speaker 2: for a couple of these practices now. They wanted to
Speaker 2: get a big moment there, and as it just turns out,
Speaker 2: Xavier McKinney subbed out right before that. So the Packers
Speaker 2: have the young secondary, they have the two young safeties
Speaker 2: back there, and he runs a post route and nobody
Speaker 2: covers him. Yeah, And it was funny listening to him
Speaker 2: describe it because he's like, you know, I look back
Speaker 2: and the ball isn't in the area yet, and at
Speaker 2: that moment he knows exactly what's happening because he's one
Speaker 2: run in the deep route. Jordan Love probably threw his
Speaker 2: best pass of the day. He puts it right on
Speaker 2: his receiver. Would have been a seventy five yard touchdown. Mike,
Speaker 2: this is a guy. Last year twenty plus receptions. I
Speaker 2: think he was right up there with some of the
Speaker 2: best receivers in the league during the final month of
Speaker 2: the season in terms of the explosive plays. And it's
Speaker 2: moments like that that show you both the character of
Speaker 2: the individual, the athleticism of the individual, and just his
Speaker 2: ability to execute. Bo Melton is not going away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, he's not. He's going to be. He's going
Speaker 1: to be in this fight for a roster spot, for
Speaker 1: playing time, for opportunities, just as he was last year.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting the the dynamic that the Packers have
Speaker 1: at wide receiver. I wrote us, you wrote a story
Speaker 1: on bow Melton that is on our website. The night
Speaker 1: before that story went up, I wrote about the whole
Speaker 1: question that's that's been discussed a lot. We've discussed it
Speaker 1: on this show, you know about do the Packers have
Speaker 1: a number a true number one wide receiver? Do they
Speaker 1: need to have somebody emerge as a true number one
Speaker 1: wide receiver? And when you look at what Green Bay
Speaker 1: has going on right now, while with an entire receiving
Speaker 1: corps that is that is six seven, eight deep, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: there are gonna be guys that maybe they get a
Speaker 1: look from somebody on the waiver wire, or they're going
Speaker 1: to come back on the practice squad and maybe be
Speaker 1: the next Bow Melton, who you know, hangs around on
Speaker 1: the practice squad and then gets a chance later on.
Speaker 1: All of that will see how it plays out. The
Speaker 1: Packers have a whole bunch of these guys on their
Speaker 1: rookie contracts, while justin Jefferson's you know, getting a new
Speaker 1: deal for thirty five million a year, and Jaden Watta
Speaker 1: from Miami's getting a new deal, and guys like Brandon
Speaker 1: Aiyuk and others Ceedee Lamb are apparently holding out of
Speaker 1: mandatory mini camp in with their clubs because they're looking
Speaker 1: for new contracts and new extensions and get and getting
Speaker 1: the big money wallets out there for the wide receivers.
Speaker 1: Packers are gonna have plenty of decisions to make over
Speaker 1: the next couple of years in terms of those second
Speaker 1: contracts and where to invest the money. But man, is
Speaker 1: it a nice spot to be in right now, isn't it?
Speaker 1: With with with where the Packers are a wide receiver.
Speaker 2: For two more years? I mean now you can do
Speaker 2: some extensions next year if you want it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, next next year, Romeo Dobs and Christian Watson become
Speaker 1: eligible for extensions because you when on your rookie contract,
Speaker 1: you have to play three years before you can even
Speaker 1: look at that contract and do anything to change it.
Speaker 1: So those guys will get their third years in after
Speaker 1: this season, and then for those draft picks from twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, it'll be another year after that.
Speaker 2: When you are having a nice night out at the
Speaker 2: Spafford residence, you want to take out missus Spofford for
Speaker 2: a dinner, like, like, what are you looking for? Like
Speaker 2: what type of food are you looking for?
Speaker 1: I'm a fish guy.
Speaker 2: You're a fish guy. Telapia?
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, A fancy preparation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fancy preparation. Well, here's what I love about the way,
Speaker 2: because people I keep asking this question left and right,
Speaker 2: and Rob Damofski wrote a really nice piece on Jiden Reid,
Speaker 2: and there's reasons to look at all these guys and
Speaker 2: say that could be a number one receiver. But this
Speaker 2: is the way I look at it. I was thinking
Speaker 2: about this a couple of nights ago. Yours is fish.
Speaker 2: Mine's probably a nice filet. You go and if you
Speaker 2: go to a restaurant and all they have, is that
Speaker 2: really nice? Fish or in my case, a file at
Speaker 2: and around it they have chicken nuggets and you have
Speaker 2: fish sticks and you know, maybe some some reeses or
Speaker 2: ritz crackers with some you know sau what are you
Speaker 2: eating out of that? You're gonna go get your fish.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go get my file at the beautiful. Then
Speaker 2: it's very easy to determine who the guy is, what
Speaker 2: the main course is. Well, in the packers case, I
Speaker 2: mean you got file a, you got you know, free
Speaker 2: range chicken, you got you know, chile and sea bass,
Speaker 2: you got lobster, you got all these different options that
Speaker 2: when you have that, it opens up so many different
Speaker 2: avenues for Jordan Love, it opens up so many avenues
Speaker 2: for Matt Lafleur, And I think that's the beauty of it. Now.
Speaker 2: As some people have been asking in the locker room,
Speaker 2: ego's a big thing in this league. People receivers especially,
Speaker 2: they want their touches, they want their ops. As Jason
Speaker 2: Vrabel likes to talk about, it's difficult to juggle all
Speaker 2: of that. But what's cool about this group is looking
Speaker 2: at Jaden Reid quickly looking at Dontavian Wicks, two rookies
Speaker 2: that in some ways we're kind of competing for snaps
Speaker 2: last year. They get done with last season and both
Speaker 2: of them say, you know what, we want to keep
Speaker 2: this thing going. We want to keep the train on
Speaker 2: the tracks. Weeks after the twenty twenty three season ends,
Speaker 2: they're down in Florida together training for the upcoming season.
Speaker 2: No quarterback. They're just running routes with each other. They're
Speaker 2: looking out with each other, eating you know, grubhub with
Speaker 2: each other because they felt like they have a common
Speaker 2: nut bond there. They have a history, they have a past.
Speaker 2: You look at bow Melton, you look at Christian Watson
Speaker 2: going down to Madison to try to get some answers.
Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs the most consistent guy I think I've seen
Speaker 2: as a young player in Green Bay at that position.
Speaker 2: I wrote about it an inbox earlier this week. But
Speaker 2: the culture of that room is what has allowed all
Speaker 2: these guys to become playmakers. And Mike, if there's one
Speaker 2: thing we've learned, you can look at, you know, Christian Kirk,
Speaker 2: you can look at a lot of these guys. You
Speaker 2: don't need to have one thousand yard season after one
Speaker 2: thousand yard season to go get a big contract and
Speaker 2: free agency if teams look at what you do with
Speaker 2: your opportunities and they realize the type of difference maker
Speaker 2: you are, you're going to get paid. In my credit,
Speaker 2: my hack goes off to all those guys. Because Romeo
Speaker 2: Dobbs last year, when Christian Watson was out and would
Speaker 2: have been perceived to have been the number one receiver
Speaker 2: in so many ways, he was still rooting for bou Melton.
Speaker 2: He was still rooting for Dontavian Wicks. The culture of
Speaker 2: that room has allowed this thing to stick together. And
Speaker 2: when you have so many weapons and so many talented guys,
Speaker 2: that's that's not always an easy thing to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this whole question of number one wide receiver,
Speaker 1: yes or no, who's it going to be? Who does
Speaker 1: it need to be? As you said with regard to
Speaker 1: the culture of the room, those guys don't care. That's
Speaker 1: not what they're thinking about. And that's to their credit
Speaker 1: because of what that means for the team. What I
Speaker 1: will say right now is that is that I think schematically,
Speaker 1: And when I say schematically, I mean how defenses game
Speaker 1: plan against you and and scheme to try to stop you. Schematically,
Speaker 1: the Packers number one wide receiver is Christian Watson. He's
Speaker 1: the one who impacts what the defense does the most.
Speaker 1: But production wise, whether the Packers end up with the
Speaker 1: number one receiver is still kind of the open question.
Speaker 1: I think it could end up being Jaden Reid this year.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't surprise me at all. It also wouldn't surprise
Speaker 1: me if the Packers have a different player lead them
Speaker 1: in receptions one hundred yards and a different guy in touchdowns,
Speaker 1: because we've even seen not that long ago that a
Speaker 1: tight end in Matt Lafleur's offense had double digit touchdowns
Speaker 1: talking about Bobby Tunyan, of course, so who knows what
Speaker 1: that means for Luke Musgrave say, if he can stay
Speaker 1: healthy for an entire season. So the various statistical categories,
Speaker 1: the whole number one idea could end up being spread
Speaker 1: all across the board, right, And that's what's going to
Speaker 1: be really fun about this offense. And as Jordan Love said,
Speaker 1: moving forward, now you know they're out there in OTAs
Speaker 1: where he's making checks and adjustments at the line of
Speaker 1: scrimmage and they're running some different stuff, which twelve months
Speaker 1: ago OTA's last year, that kind of stuff wasn't happening
Speaker 1: because it was just about with Love as QB one
Speaker 1: for the first time, with Dobbs and Watson just in
Speaker 1: their second season, and then the rookies that came in
Speaker 1: through the draft. It was all about just just get
Speaker 1: the basics of the offense down. Let's get this figured out.
Speaker 1: And we saw the progression obviously where the offense was,
Speaker 1: especially the passing offense was early in the season versus
Speaker 1: later in the season. One. Now they're just everybody individually,
Speaker 1: whether it's Bo Melton and his strong finish or collectively
Speaker 1: as a group, they're just trying to pick up where
Speaker 1: they left off. And I think that's what makes that's
Speaker 1: what makes this season so exciting offensively. With then the
Speaker 1: added twist of a change at the number one running
Speaker 1: backs with Josh Jacobs coming in for Aaron Jones and
Speaker 1: what that's going to mean moving forward.
Speaker 2: The thing we also need to acknowledge here, You hope
Speaker 2: the Packers can stay healthy at those skill positions, hopefully
Speaker 2: fingers crossed from a personal perspective, hopefully Christian Watson, everything
Speaker 2: he did this offseason, the answers he got.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the interesting thing is part of the reason
Speaker 1: we know so much about these guys and there is
Speaker 1: so much confidence in these guys to make plays. Is
Speaker 1: because of the injuries that happened last year and the
Speaker 1: way the opportunit unities got spread around, the way bow
Speaker 1: Melton was called upon, the way Malik Heath at times
Speaker 1: last season was called upon to step up and make
Speaker 1: some plays because of guys who were out. So, yes,
Speaker 1: you hope for health, but the lack of health so
Speaker 1: to speak, last season is partly why the Packers are
Speaker 1: in the position they're in right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then that that was kind of the point
Speaker 2: I was gonna make the stocked into them alone here
Speaker 2: that I was gonna make.
Speaker 1: Sorry, no I stole, I stole the I stole the
Speaker 1: pass for the slab dog, but we scored if we did. No.
Speaker 2: But that's the point I'm trying to make though. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: injuries in twenty twenty three are and this goes a
Speaker 2: tight end too. By the way, injuries in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three year is why we learned so much about these guys,
Speaker 2: why we saw how many people stood out. Absolutely, and
Speaker 2: it's not just Tuckercraft either. The way Ben Simms played
Speaker 2: last year as an undrafted free agent, a guy that
Speaker 2: by the way, he's huge. He's a big dude. He
Speaker 2: wasn't just seen as like the Mercedes Lewis type. Okay,
Speaker 2: this is gonna be a great blocking ten, and he
Speaker 2: had to learn a lot in his role. Bow Melton
Speaker 2: doesn't get the opportunities he gets last season if it
Speaker 2: wasn't for unfortunately, the injury to Toure. You look at
Speaker 2: Dantavian Wicks, he doesn't get that opportunity if if Christian
Speaker 2: Watson isn't dealing with the hamstring. That was a question
Speaker 2: I even asked Dantavian during our availability with him two
Speaker 2: weeks ago, I mean, did you expect how much of this?
Speaker 2: Did you surprise you to be able to come out
Speaker 2: of the gates, right out of the way and produce
Speaker 2: the way he did? He said, the only thing that
Speaker 2: surprised me is how soon the opportunities came. He thought
Speaker 2: he was gonna have to wait for him more so,
Speaker 2: the best scenario in all this is Matt Lafleur, Jason Vrabel,
Speaker 2: Ryan Mahaffey, all these guys, Adam Stenovich. The best scenario
Speaker 2: is that they have difficult decisions to make with how
Speaker 2: they want to build their game plans. You don't want
Speaker 2: injuries to happen, but the fortification of this offense has
Speaker 2: been built because of that, and I think that's what
Speaker 2: makes this twenty twenty four Packers offense extremely exciting. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, One other thing I want to touch on before
Speaker 1: we go, and I'm kind of working on this a
Speaker 1: little bit with regard to the inside or inbox column
Speaker 1: for tomorrow morning. But I mentioned kind of where things
Speaker 1: are going with the white receiver market and the money
Speaker 1: that is getting thrown around. Right the top cornerbacks in
Speaker 1: the NFL right now, jyr Alexander being one of them.
Speaker 1: You know, the top guy is you know, twenty million,
Speaker 1: twenty one to twenty two million dollars a year, while
Speaker 1: these receivers are now pushing the upper twenties and now
Speaker 1: justin Jefferson's up to thirty five million a year. There's
Speaker 1: got to be a cycle coming where the cornerbacks are
Speaker 1: going to get their money, right, Yeah, if you're gonna pay,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be paying these receivers all this money,
Speaker 1: the guys that you're asking that have proven that they
Speaker 1: can limit these guys and in some cases stop these guys,
Speaker 1: those guys are going to get their money too, there's
Speaker 1: just a contract cycle that has to happen at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's called it's over in East Rutherford, New Jerseys,
Speaker 2: where it is with Sauce Gardner. That's that's when this
Speaker 2: whole is going to change. But it was interesting look
Speaker 2: at Antoine Winfield Junior right the contract that he got,
Speaker 2: because now we're not even just talking about perimeter shutdown
Speaker 2: cornerbacks on the side, We're talking about nickel guys. We're
Speaker 2: talking about guys that are more in the versatile mode. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're getting paid now, and I think that's the way
Speaker 2: the NFL is going to look at it more. It's
Speaker 2: where these guys are making their impact and how that
Speaker 2: affects the overall construct of the defense. The Tampa Bay
Speaker 2: Buccaneers need win Field in order to be the defense
Speaker 2: that they want to be there, and same thing is
Speaker 2: going to go for Sauce Gardner whenever his time finally comes.
Speaker 2: But I think the one area that's going to be
Speaker 2: very interesting to track now is because the question was
Speaker 2: brought up in my inbox and maybe that's why it's
Speaker 2: coming up in yours now. A little bit is like
Speaker 2: where do you go light? Where do you not spend
Speaker 2: a bunch of money. Yeah, And honestly, it's getting more
Speaker 2: and more difficult to put tabs on that because somebody
Speaker 2: had asked me the question about well, inside linebacker, that
Speaker 2: could conceivably be a spot where you go light on. Well, dude,
Speaker 2: you and I we covered the Packers for ten years.
Speaker 2: How many times do we hear about, Okay, well, they
Speaker 2: just don't have enough inside linebackers. Where's the athleticism, where's
Speaker 2: the speed the sideline of sideline? Why don't we have
Speaker 2: a levante David? You know?
Speaker 1: And in this day and age, there are because of
Speaker 1: so much nickel, there are fewer off the ball linebackers
Speaker 1: on the field, but those off the ball linebackers are
Speaker 1: required to do a lot more things. You've got to
Speaker 1: be able to have not only the sideline to sideline,
Speaker 1: but the pass coverage and the blitzing ability and all
Speaker 1: of this kind of stuff needs to be needs to
Speaker 1: be in that one package. And when you talk about
Speaker 1: where do you allocate your cap resources, just when you think,
Speaker 1: just when you think you know, things are cranking back
Speaker 1: and there's all the stories about what's going on at
Speaker 1: the running back position. The San Francisco forty nine ers
Speaker 1: give Christian McCaffrey an extension at nineteen million dollars a
Speaker 1: year for two more years. Now, that nineteen million looks
Speaker 1: paltry compared to the thirty five million that Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: is getting. But again, you know, every team that's where
Speaker 1: to me, when I look at the salary cap and
Speaker 1: the allocation and stuff like that, there isn't one. There
Speaker 1: isn't a tried and true formula or everybody would follow.
Speaker 1: It's it's making the decisions based on the personnel that
Speaker 1: you have. And yes, I mean, I think thirty five
Speaker 1: million dollars a year for a wide receiver just sound
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. But as you know, and I follow
Speaker 1: Kevin Seaffert, who we've known for a lot of years
Speaker 1: at ESPN, and he and he's he covered the Vikings
Speaker 1: before that in the Minneapolis market. Now he's he's been
Speaker 1: covering the Vikings for a long time for ESPN. The
Speaker 1: Vikings didn't just sign Justin Jefferson to that kind of
Speaker 1: money because he's the best receiver in the game right now.
Speaker 1: They signed him to that kind of money because he
Speaker 1: has a chance to maybe be the best receiver who's
Speaker 1: ever played. Yeah, that's why they made that investment. This
Speaker 1: is a guy that is being viewed as somebody who
Speaker 1: might be able to challenge the numbers that Jerry Rice
Speaker 1: put up back in his day. That's that's you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're they're betting on it. Obviously, there's no guarantee.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's going to happen, but that's the
Speaker 1: trajectory he's on. So they're not going to let that
Speaker 1: type of Hall of Fame talent walk out the door.
Speaker 1: So they've made that decision. But it doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: everybody out there needs to pay their number one wide
Speaker 1: receiver thirty million dollars a year. Every team is going
Speaker 1: to make their decisions and allocate their money based on
Speaker 1: the personnel they have and the personnel they feel they
Speaker 1: can find, whether it be in free agency or the draft.
Speaker 2: And also, the dirty little secret is with the Vikings
Speaker 2: is they have major questions at quarterback. And one if
Speaker 2: jj McCarthy ends up being the truth, or even if
Speaker 2: Sam Darnold ends up playing pretty well justin Jefferson's gonna
Speaker 2: look pretty good. Yeah, you also don't want to put
Speaker 2: Jefferson in the position of having to break in some
Speaker 2: new quarterbacks after having so much success with Kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: and then creating that potential problem if the numbers aren't
Speaker 2: where they want to be and he's you know, you
Speaker 2: look at the quarterback more than the player. Be that
Speaker 2: as it may. The point I want to bring this
Speaker 2: back to because people ask about this all the time,
Speaker 2: and I raise this point in inbox as well. The
Speaker 2: reason the Packers were able to go so light at
Speaker 2: receiver these past few years as as far as money goes,
Speaker 2: is because they got really young suddenly after DeVante left.
Speaker 2: If Davante's still there, that has a trickle down effect
Speaker 2: on the rest of the roster. You don't know if
Speaker 2: you have Aaron Jones, if DeVante Adams is getting twenty
Speaker 2: five whatever it ended up being, you don't know how
Speaker 2: all that's going to shuffle out. Same thing for San Francisco.
Speaker 2: They have a little bit more breathing room here before
Speaker 2: they got to make a decision on brock Purty to
Speaker 2: take care of him.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 2: You go and again back to what you were saying
Speaker 2: earlier about their receivers. Brock Purty can't even do a
Speaker 2: contract until after year three, So you use the cap
Speaker 2: space that you have available to try to make this run. Now,
Speaker 2: it's the challenge that every team is bouncing. But Mike,
Speaker 2: it goes back to my biggest principle of all and
Speaker 2: that is if you draft well and you take players right.
Speaker 2: There's a reason why Brian Goodikuntz was talking about rookie
Speaker 2: contracts because that's the one absolute nothing you can do
Speaker 2: about it. This is what you play for for the
Speaker 2: at least these three years, if not the four. If
Speaker 2: you don't get those picks right, you got to go shopping.
Speaker 2: If you don't cook well at home, you got to
Speaker 2: go to KFC, you got to go over to a
Speaker 2: different a Burger King. No disrespect Burger King, but I
Speaker 2: mean like you have to go out and get you know,
Speaker 2: the to go orders. The packers have built something special
Speaker 2: in this kitchen so far, and I'm excited to see
Speaker 2: where it goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And as we talk about contracts, at some
Speaker 1: point here we're gonna be talking about a new contract
Speaker 1: for Jordan Love. I believe it may not happen tomorrow,
Speaker 1: it may not happen next week, but it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I think we know that. And sometime this summer on
Speaker 1: a later show, I think We're gonna get to that topic,
Speaker 1: but for now we'll call it a rap. On this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team. We will have coverage of
Speaker 1: Mini camp and a couple more episodes of Unscripted next
Speaker 1: week as the Packers wrap up their off season program
Speaker 1: for WES. I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody,
Speaker 1: and we will see you next time.