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 my partner in crime West and Hodkowitz. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and Wes.
Speaker 1: The mandatory Mini camp is here, which means this is
Speaker 1: the final week of the off season program. And actually,
Speaker 1: shortly after we are done recording this episode, we'll be
Speaker 1: heading out to the practice field for the first of
Speaker 1: two mini camp days. So here's what we're going to Dossell.
Speaker 2: No no.
Speaker 1: On our next show, which will be Thursday, we will
Speaker 1: review Mini Camp and share our observations and our coverage,
Speaker 1: press conferences, locker room interviews, everything that we get. But
Speaker 1: right now, and this will be our final week of
Speaker 1: shows for the off season. Then we'll be back during
Speaker 1: training camp. So right now what I want to do.
Speaker 1: And I didn't give you a heads up on this,
Speaker 1: This show truly is unscrewed.
Speaker 2: I showed up like five minutes before the show and
Speaker 2: you and you are.
Speaker 1: At my mercy quite often in this setting. But we
Speaker 1: are just going to use this show as an overview
Speaker 1: of the Packers off season and how we got here,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna just throw some different questions at you.
Speaker 1: Some of them we might dive into some discussion. Others
Speaker 1: could be quick hitters. We will see where this goes.
Speaker 1: First one, for you, what was the in a very
Speaker 1: busy off season in Green Bay? What was the biggest
Speaker 1: piece of news that came out of twelve sixty five
Speaker 1: Lombardi Avenue?
Speaker 2: First off, when was the last time you and I,
Speaker 2: in eight years of working together, have been like quick
Speaker 2: hitting about anything that's true. We could talk for fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes about kicking competition, that's no issues whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Things don't get so rapid fire on this show unless
Speaker 1: we intentionally say this is a rapid fire sentiment.
Speaker 2: For me, I'm gonna I don't want to It's something
Speaker 2: we've talked at nauseum about, so I don't want to
Speaker 2: be labor it. But it was the answers that Christian
Speaker 2: Watson and Eric Stokes got regarding their hamstring injuries, because
Speaker 2: I felt, like Mike, a lot of times we do
Speaker 2: feel somewhat in the dark about injuries and exactly what
Speaker 2: guys are going through. Tip of the Cap two to
Speaker 2: Tucker Craft and Zach Tom They also were very forthcoming
Speaker 2: about the shoulder injuries that they sustained, the peck injuries,
Speaker 2: I should say sure throughout the off season program, and
Speaker 2: I think that helps the clarity of the situation, understanding
Speaker 2: what these guys are doing and understanding where their bodies are.
Speaker 2: But let's be honest about it, Mike, probably you probably
Speaker 2: wrote the most salient, poignant, important story of the off
Speaker 2: season last week when you looked at this whole thing
Speaker 2: about receiver A one, A, one, B, whatever you want
Speaker 2: to call it. Right the fact the Packers don't have
Speaker 2: that traditional number one guy. But the reality is when
Speaker 2: you look at Christian Watson's makeup, if he's on the field,
Speaker 2: he is the guy that everybody has to take into
Speaker 2: account for. It doesn't matter if you're a cornerback, doesn't
Speaker 2: matter if you're a safety, maybe even a linebacker with
Speaker 2: the way he sometimes will be in the slot. Christian
Speaker 2: Watson is the ultimate chess piece if you can get
Speaker 2: him on the field. And it feels like the Packers
Speaker 2: were able to do that with going down to Madison,
Speaker 2: getting the answers at Badger Athletic Performance Understanding that is
Speaker 2: a resource the NFL invested into and something they could
Speaker 2: tap Into. Was there anything in there that the training
Speaker 2: staff didn't already know? Probably not, But understanding one's body
Speaker 2: I think has become a really important thing because for
Speaker 2: so long it might it was just NFL players. They
Speaker 2: hurt in a hamstring injury, you stay off it for
Speaker 2: a little bit, and you go back out there. There's
Speaker 2: so much more to this thing. Watson, Reed, Dobbs, Melton, Wicks.
Speaker 2: The list goes on and on of receivers the Packers have,
Speaker 2: but when Christian Watson is on the field, the defense
Speaker 2: has to take notice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for me, the biggest news of this off season,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it necessarily qualifies as news, but
Speaker 1: it's related to what was really the biggest news story
Speaker 1: of the entire offseason, which was the change at defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: which if Hafley coming in. But in terms of the
Speaker 1: off season program and the news to come out of it,
Speaker 1: it's that there really is an attitude shift on the
Speaker 1: defensive side of the ball. It's not just what the
Speaker 1: coaches are saying. We're hearing it from the players in
Speaker 1: the locker room in terms of the aggressive mentality, in
Speaker 1: terms of the different things that they're being asked to
Speaker 1: do and the enthusiasm and the excitement for it. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's still going to come down to results once that
Speaker 1: ball kicks off in Brazil against the Philadelphia Eagles. It's
Speaker 1: all about what you do on the field, whether you
Speaker 1: win or lose, and the results that you get. But
Speaker 1: there is no mistaking the attitude shift that has happened,
Speaker 1: I think on the defensive side of the ball, and
Speaker 1: I think the fact that that was confirmed by the
Speaker 1: players that we talked to in the locker room over
Speaker 1: the last several weeks. It's not just the coaches, it's
Speaker 1: the players are feeling it as well. My next question
Speaker 1: for you, now, this this doesn't just include like from
Speaker 1: when the offseason program started. I'm talking about the offseason
Speaker 1: in general. The most important player acquisition, whether you're talking
Speaker 1: free agency, draft, whatever, the most important player acquisition the
Speaker 1: Packers made this offseason.
Speaker 2: Xavier McKinney. Josh Jacobs was important, especially when it became
Speaker 2: known that Aaron Jones is not going to be back.
Speaker 2: But Mike, when the season ends, you always have a
Speaker 2: feeling of where the Packers need to improve. It could
Speaker 2: be a defensive coordinator, it could be in a different
Speaker 2: phase of the game or an aspect of the game
Speaker 2: red zone, but player for player, it became pretty clear
Speaker 2: throughout the course of last year they need a long
Speaker 2: term solution at safety, and they put a lot of
Speaker 2: resource through the draft into that position. But it all
Speaker 2: started with twenty four year old Xavier McKinney coming on board.
Speaker 2: And actually, it's funny yesterday one of the big topics
Speaker 2: in a video I was doing with Tom Grossi during
Speaker 2: his little telethon to not Little. It was a huge
Speaker 2: telethon to raised over eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Congrats to Congrats to Tom.
Speaker 2: For that because it pushes him over a million lifetime
Speaker 2: for a little over three years of all this charitable life.
Speaker 1: Incredible work.
Speaker 2: But one of the things I told him about was
Speaker 2: it is so rare in the National Football League to
Speaker 2: see a safety of McKinney's caliber who started as many
Speaker 2: games as he did, basically a starter since he walked
Speaker 2: in the door of New York and he hit unrestricted
Speaker 2: for agency at twenty four years old, and Brian Gudikuin
Speaker 2: sort of talked about that this offseason. It was the
Speaker 2: perfect storm with McKinny. It's the reason why they really
Speaker 2: highlighted him as a must in a top you know,
Speaker 2: free agent target, and now that he's in the building, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens in training camp. We'll see what happens. Well,
Speaker 2: he looks on the pads, come on. But the leadership
Speaker 2: role he's taken with a very young secondary and the
Speaker 2: way he's kind of jibed so far and meshed with
Speaker 2: Jay R Alexander, I think it's really exciting and I
Speaker 2: don't think there's any other way you can say then
Speaker 2: that was the marquee signing they needed it to be.
Speaker 2: And when you talk about a captain, when you talk
Speaker 2: about a guy that's still on the come up, I
Speaker 2: think McKinney is everything you could hope for in a
Speaker 2: free agent edition.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's the classic. It's the classic Brian gutakunt signing, right,
Speaker 1: because when you go back to the other year in
Speaker 1: his tenure is GM when Gutakuntz made the big splash
Speaker 1: in free agency. Of course, that was twenty nineteen, and
Speaker 1: you know, on that first day he goes out and
Speaker 1: gets Zadarius Smith and Preston Smith and Adrian Amos and
Speaker 1: these were guys that they had they had completed their
Speaker 1: rookie contracts. They were not guys who were you know,
Speaker 1: pro bowlers are all pros. But they were targeted. They
Speaker 1: were at the top of the market, and they were
Speaker 1: targeted because the Packers felt their best football was in
Speaker 1: front of them. And for all three of those guys
Speaker 1: on the defensive side of the ball in nineteen proved
Speaker 1: to be right. Obviously, Preston Smith is still here and
Speaker 1: still playing pretty good football, but all of those guys
Speaker 1: played better football in Green Bay then they played anywhere
Speaker 1: else in their careers, quite frankly, And that's what the
Speaker 1: Packers are counting on with Xavier McKinney as well. But
Speaker 1: he's that he's a player, a player whose arrow is
Speaker 1: pointing up and the best is yet to come.
Speaker 2: Because so many times Mike teams will lock down a
Speaker 2: guy after that first rookie contract, you know, and you
Speaker 2: don't see them hit the market after four years. And
Speaker 2: McKinney was a former second round pick, so there wasn't
Speaker 2: a fifty year option type of deal right with the Giants,
Speaker 2: And obviously they'd already messed around with the franchise tag
Speaker 2: a little bit before that. But these are the type
Speaker 2: of signings that when you look at the free agents
Speaker 2: that come to market. You could do it for two
Speaker 2: or three years. You're not going to see a player
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Next question, most surprising news of the
Speaker 1: off season, it's.
Speaker 2: Kings Lanning baris practicing. I mean that one most surprising news.
Speaker 2: It's a good one. I I was sitting I've told
Speaker 2: you this story. I probably have said it down on
Speaker 2: scripted too, but you know, sometimes people don't listen to
Speaker 2: every one of them. We got done in Dallas and
Speaker 2: it was a joyous moment that locker room. The vibe
Speaker 2: in there, it was. It was right up there with
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen at the end to run the table the
Speaker 2: regular season. In Detroit, guys were just over the moon.
Speaker 2: And then you see Kingsley kind of behind a pillar,
Speaker 2: numbered Packers, defensive coaches condoling, consoling him. He has a
Speaker 2: towel over his head. They're fearing for the worst here
Speaker 2: that he tore his acl And probably the reason why
Speaker 2: maybe it shouldn't be as big of a surprise as
Speaker 2: I'm making it out to be is the fact that
Speaker 2: a week later, when the season does end, after Santa Clara,
Speaker 2: he's standing in his locker doing interviews no crutches, no wheelchair.
Speaker 1: But confirming that he apparently tore his ACL. So that
Speaker 1: left us all. We all headed into the off season
Speaker 1: like what exactly is going He's walking around like everything
Speaker 1: is totally normal, but yet he confirmed the injury that
Speaker 1: we all had feared. So but a few months later,
Speaker 1: here we are.
Speaker 2: But it gets even weirder because the first week of
Speaker 2: the off season program, we're not in there yet, but
Speaker 2: you know, Evan Siegel's down there taking photos and eddig
Speaker 2: Bari's running around hoops and he's doing all these athletic
Speaker 2: exercises and I'm like, man, that doesn't look like a
Speaker 2: guy that had reconstructive knee surgery, right. People are asking
Speaker 2: about that inbox. I'm like, well, you know, sometimes guys
Speaker 2: bounce back from these things quicker than others because I'm
Speaker 2: just predisposed to thinking that he had the surgery right exactly,
Speaker 2: And no, he did not have the surgery. He had
Speaker 2: an ACL related injury. And I've said this last week
Speaker 2: in three things. I mean, he's been playing and looking
Speaker 2: really good in practice. He blew up the two minute
Speaker 2: drill for the number one offense last week, had forced
Speaker 2: them to start kicking after kind of. I guess you'd
Speaker 2: call it a sack or a disruption at the end
Speaker 2: of the third downplay in the two minute that set
Speaker 2: up the field goal kicking competition. Yeah, Packers are super
Speaker 2: deep there, Mike. I mean, that's the thing that's really
Speaker 2: exciting about this thing. And Kenny Clark made that joke
Speaker 2: earlier this offseason about our entire group. It's like this
Speaker 2: big position now between the interior guys you know, now
Speaker 2: married up with the the edge guys, but with as
Speaker 2: you mentioned, Preston Smith, Orshan, Gary King, Xiannigbari, Lucas van S.
Speaker 2: I thought Brenton Cox had some really nice work this offseason.
Speaker 2: Got to keep them all in the field. But that
Speaker 2: is shaping up to be one heck of a rotation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna turn back the clock a little further.
Speaker 1: The most surprising news for me still is where the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers backfield is for twenty twenty four, because
Speaker 1: I would not have thought in a million years that
Speaker 1: when the off season began that Aaron Jones would be
Speaker 1: a Minnesota Viking and the Packers would have Josh Jacobs,
Speaker 1: aj Dillon a third round draft pick, and Emmanuel Wilson
Speaker 1: that that would be the group that we'd be looking at.
Speaker 1: Still hard for me to see Aaron Jones with you know,
Speaker 1: in these promo shots for the Vikings with their uniforms
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. But to me that
Speaker 1: that's that's one of the most surprising off season roster
Speaker 1: moves I can recall in my time here, which is
Speaker 1: actually approaching. Well, this will be my nineteenth season here
Speaker 1: coming up covering for Packers.
Speaker 2: You and uh Mercedes Lewis there, Yeah, nineteen years. I
Speaker 2: just put that together down. I arrived.
Speaker 1: I arrived at Packers dot com in two thousand and
Speaker 1: six right after Mercedes Lewis was drafted.
Speaker 2: Whose NFL career is gonna last longer?
Speaker 1: See, I think he's I think he's got a lot
Speaker 1: more to be proud of than I do. But that
Speaker 1: being said, I'll move on to the next question. Anybody,
Speaker 1: and this is always a hard one, but who do
Speaker 1: you see making potentially the biggest of the proverbial second
Speaker 1: year jumps amongst the Packers rookie class from last year
Speaker 1: heading into year two?
Speaker 2: Carrington Valentine. Okay, now we have to see what the
Speaker 2: opportunity is going to look like. You know, Eric Stokes
Speaker 2: is back. Carrington is a perimeter cornerback. But again going
Speaker 2: back to our three things video last week and Larry
Speaker 2: beat me to it, I can't believe the strides that
Speaker 2: Valentine has made in five months, a little less than
Speaker 2: five months.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just in terms of just in terms of his physical.
Speaker 2: Statues, his physical makeup is remarkable. Ye. I mean this
Speaker 2: is a guy again that played in the two, the
Speaker 2: one eighties last year, was one of the lighter guys
Speaker 2: on the roster. Looked like a twenty one year old
Speaker 2: rookie physically, and he came back and he looks like
Speaker 2: a grown man. And Larry I think had mentioned he's
Speaker 2: right around the two hundred pound mark. Now you got
Speaker 2: to make that weight work for you. You know there's
Speaker 2: a lot involved with that. But Valentine, man, this guy,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, dude, for a seventh round pick.
Speaker 2: Who again, I'll say it over and over again because
Speaker 2: a lot of people will crap on mel Kiper, But
Speaker 2: mel Kiper was begging people to take this guy in
Speaker 2: the draft. He kept falling the fifth and he was
Speaker 2: an early entry, early entry, could he still had some.
Speaker 1: College eligibility left, and he's he's hanging out there on
Speaker 1: the board. My point is he came to Green Bay
Speaker 1: not just as a seventh round pick, but as a
Speaker 1: really young guy. Yes, and and and that sort of
Speaker 1: even led to, you know, even a greater tendency to
Speaker 1: just dismiss him, to say he's just a developmental player.
Speaker 1: We won't see much of him for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: Well that's not how it turned out.
Speaker 2: And it's weird too, is I would put him up
Speaker 2: there against anybody in terms of guys that were the
Speaker 2: off season program, training camp MVPs. Uh. He was a
Speaker 2: guy that made himself undeniable even when the Packers were
Speaker 2: so deep at cornerback and there were some practices that
Speaker 2: Jaiere wasn't participating in. There were some injuries that had
Speaker 2: happened obviously with Eric Stokes, but he just kept climbing
Speaker 2: the depth chart, and to the point where when it
Speaker 2: became clear that you know, Jaiere was going to miss
Speaker 2: some time, Eric was going to be out for a while,
Speaker 2: Russell Douglas gets traded, it became a no brainer that
Speaker 2: he was a starter for the team. Twelve starts in
Speaker 2: the regular season, was out there in the postseason. I mean,
Speaker 2: the workload that he built up in the resume that
Speaker 2: he built in year one, and then the presence of
Speaker 2: mind to the determination to then work towards already improving
Speaker 2: himself physically for the next year. You never know how
Speaker 2: it's gonna work out until you see it on the field.
Speaker 2: But you asked me about second year jumps. Physically, the
Speaker 2: guy's already made it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And the other guy, I would say that
Speaker 1: I'm very curious about because of what we've seen from
Speaker 1: just the change in his physical body as physical statures.
Speaker 1: Colby wood in the defensive lineman he appears to have
Speaker 1: put on you know, I think he's told reporters is
Speaker 1: right around twenty pounds or so. Maybe it's in that
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty pound range. And again we have to
Speaker 1: see how it translates to the field. Obviously he's also
Speaker 1: going to be making a switch as all these guys
Speaker 1: are into the new defense with the new coaching staff.
Speaker 1: There very curious in that respect where things go for
Speaker 1: Colby Wooden. I always like to reframe because, as I said,
Speaker 1: it's a tough question, the whole second year jump thing.
Speaker 1: I always like to reframe it from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: who's second year jump could benefit the Packers the most, right,
Speaker 1: And there are two guys that come to mind for me.
Speaker 1: One is Jaden Reid, not because he necessarily has this
Speaker 1: huge jump to make, but when you talk about Christian Watson,
Speaker 1: and as we've talked about in the receiver discussion before,
Speaker 1: about how Watson is the guy that dictates how defenses
Speaker 1: defend you, and they scheme differently when he's on the field.
Speaker 1: If Jaden Reid makes a second year jump, yeah, he has.
Speaker 1: He has the potential to be a guy that dictates
Speaker 1: things to defenses in that same way. And so that
Speaker 1: that's where I'm curious in that respect and what impact
Speaker 1: a second year jump from a guy like Reid could have.
Speaker 1: The other one I would say, in terms of who's
Speaker 1: secondyear jump would benefit the Packers the most, I think
Speaker 1: it's Andras Carlson. Yes, if he can smooth out the
Speaker 1: ups and downs from his rookie season and become the
Speaker 1: kicker that the Packers drafted him to be, which is
Speaker 1: a guy who's going to be reliable and consistent. Obviously,
Speaker 1: no kicker is perfect, but if he's a guy that
Speaker 1: can settle in and establish his pro career in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: for the long term, foreseeable future. I think that would
Speaker 1: be a huge benefit to this team right now, with
Speaker 1: all of these players on the rise and with Jordan
Speaker 1: Love trying to take this team to the next level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you, And that's why we talked
Speaker 2: about last week with Anders. You just hope the competition
Speaker 2: you can get that you know where it's pushing you
Speaker 2: a little bit. You have those type of competitive periods
Speaker 2: like they did at the end of last week's practice
Speaker 2: to be able to really show who's the best. And
Speaker 2: you know, Greg Joseph had a good comment on the
Speaker 2: me vers me thing. That's what all kickers have to do.
Speaker 2: I mean Tim mass Day was really big on that.
Speaker 2: He always said, even when he would want win competitions
Speaker 2: or even when he'd be the only punter on the roster,
Speaker 2: he always said, specialists is the only position where there
Speaker 2: is no playbook. A guy can come in and play
Speaker 2: the following week if they have to. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: think having that healthy fear of your job can be
Speaker 2: a good thing. And for Andres, the one thing I
Speaker 2: always cautioned the fans about. I understand the extra points
Speaker 2: were what they were. He still made his field goals
Speaker 2: last year at an eighty two percent clip. Doesn't always happen
Speaker 2: that way for rookies right out of the gate. That
Speaker 2: was actually a pretty solid number.
Speaker 1: But you have that's that's the thing is and I
Speaker 1: think the thing that it's easy to forget because of
Speaker 1: all the ups and downs that Carlson went through as
Speaker 1: the year went on, but he started his NFL career
Speaker 1: five consecutive games without missing a kick. He made every
Speaker 1: field goal and every extra point for the first five
Speaker 1: games of the season before the roller coaster, you know
Speaker 1: kind of thing started. So that's that's part of his
Speaker 1: body of work. It's something for him to draw and
Speaker 1: he knows that it's there. The Packers know that it's there.
Speaker 1: But again, as I said on last week's show, the
Speaker 1: Packers are contenders. You can't you can't wait forever for
Speaker 1: that position to come around you. You've got to have
Speaker 1: a guy that you can really trust and feel is
Speaker 1: gonna be reliable and consistent, and that's what the Packers
Speaker 1: are hoping to get at the end of this competition.
Speaker 1: I have a couple of more questions for you, but
Speaker 1: we got gonna get paid. I'm gonna take care of
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Speaker 1: years of better. All right, A couple more questions for you,
Speaker 1: Wes One. I think you got this one in Insider
Speaker 1: inbox recently, but I'm gonna throw it at you again.
Speaker 1: Who's return from injury from twenty twenty three would be
Speaker 1: most important to the Packers in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: The answer to this, I answered it in a different
Speaker 2: way because I answered from more of the emotional standpoint
Speaker 2: of Eric Stokes. I think if Stokes is back, I
Speaker 2: think the uplifting kind of presence that's gonna bring to
Speaker 2: the team is gonna be important. Listen to Gyr Alexander
Speaker 2: talk to talk about him and all these guys. You
Speaker 2: could tell the I mean, mattin Flure's comments speak for themselves. Yeah,
Speaker 2: very popular, very just a good human and I think
Speaker 2: everybody kind of rallies around that. I will say this,
Speaker 2: and I already talked about Watson, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: go into that anymore. So basically, I'm taking all these
Speaker 2: answers by the way, okay, unless you want to talk
Speaker 2: about them. Luke Musgrave and Tucker Craft. You saw me
Speaker 2: at practice that one day when Kraft came out with
Speaker 2: the sling, Yeah, and I was so demoralized. Dubovsky even
Speaker 2: asked me, like, are you gonna be okay? Because I
Speaker 2: was the number one person in inbox and on any
Speaker 2: platform just riding the train about Okay, Musgrave and Craft,
Speaker 2: it's time. They're both they're both established, they're both healthy.
Speaker 2: It's all gonna work out now, it still will. I'm
Speaker 2: not worried about that. But then Kraft ends up tearing
Speaker 2: the pack. Right. So but I'll tell you what, Mike,
Speaker 2: those two guys together, when you draft back to back
Speaker 2: at that position, you're hoping one of those guys is
Speaker 2: a year one contributor. They both contributed when they needed
Speaker 2: to contribute, and they contributed in different ways. That was
Speaker 2: the beauty of the way that Brian Goodcun's drafted that position.
Speaker 2: Two tight ends, but two different type of guys. One
Speaker 2: that comes from the West Coast. One that's an FCS
Speaker 2: guy that's kind of the blue collar dude that took
Speaker 2: himself from being you know this, this rough and ready
Speaker 2: just make plays guy at a lower level football to
Speaker 2: a dude that was making plays all over the field. Yeah,
Speaker 2: last season. So Craft and Musgrave together in tandem, if
Speaker 2: you can get the two tight end stuff going with
Speaker 2: those two, I think the possibilities mixed with those receivers,
Speaker 2: it's just absolutely limitless.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My answer, my answers are the same yours on
Speaker 1: the defense, six of them on the On the defensive side,
Speaker 1: you think mostly about Stokes and on the offensive side,
Speaker 1: I think mostly about the tight end situation. Particularly we
Speaker 1: saw Musgrave come back last year and then you know
Speaker 1: he has the big long touchdown in Dallas that was
Speaker 1: part of the blowout win in the wild card game.
Speaker 1: But then now Tucker Craft has an injury to come
Speaker 1: back from. Hopefully we see him back, you know, sooner
Speaker 1: than later in training camp and all that. So those
Speaker 1: are those are definitely the ones that that the eyes
Speaker 1: are on the most as well as, of course Christian
Speaker 1: Watson and what he means to this offense when you
Speaker 1: think about the fact that he had a stretch of
Speaker 1: what was it, eight touchdowns in four or five games
Speaker 1: as a rookie, and then right before he got hurt
Speaker 1: sort of for the final time last year, he had
Speaker 1: just scored four touchdowns in a three game span, and
Speaker 1: then the play on the far sideline against Kansas City
Speaker 1: where the hamstring goes out again and you're and you're
Speaker 1: you know, it's like he's just you know, finding his
Speaker 1: groove again and making the impact that everybody knows he
Speaker 1: can make. And then he goes to the sideline again.
Speaker 1: So those are all of those, collectively the obvious answers
Speaker 1: to this question.
Speaker 2: Seven catches in that game too. He was doing it
Speaker 2: not just as big plays. It was a possession receiving
Speaker 2: kind of game, and the Kansas City really struggled to
Speaker 2: find answers for him, and then unfortunately he ends up
Speaker 2: tweaking the hams from one more time. So you just
Speaker 2: hope from that regard, in addition the fact that again
Speaker 2: another upfront, upstanding dude that has been very open about
Speaker 2: what he's been dealing with. I mean, he won the
Speaker 2: co Stand Up Guy of the Award from the media
Speaker 2: last year for a reason. Doing it in year two
Speaker 2: that's almost unheard of, And I think that's a big
Speaker 2: reason why. I think his teammates have He's for as
Speaker 2: young as he is, with him and Romeo Dobbs, they've
Speaker 2: been able to command respect in that room because of
Speaker 2: the way they go about their business.
Speaker 1: No question about it. Last one for you here, Wes,
Speaker 1: What do you feel right now? Is the biggest question
Speaker 1: mark regarding the twenty twenty four Green Bay.
Speaker 2: Packers probably the offensive line, because I just don't know
Speaker 2: how the dominoes are gonna fall there. I mean, we're
Speaker 2: watching Jordan Morgan sort of lining up everywhere.
Speaker 1: Zach Tom's dealing with the packs That was you know
Speaker 1: when you're wondering is he gonna stay at right tackle?
Speaker 1: Are they gonna move him around? Well, all that sort
Speaker 1: of experimenting and moving around sometimes can happen during OTAs,
Speaker 1: like during this time of year. But then that's not
Speaker 1: happening because he's, you know, dealing with an injury and
Speaker 1: he won't be back till training camp.
Speaker 2: And does that mean when he does get back, you
Speaker 2: let him settle in it right tackle? Then what does
Speaker 2: that mean for left tackle? Then what does that mean
Speaker 2: for Jordan Morgan. It's just this this sort of I
Speaker 2: don't want to call it a domino effect because we
Speaker 2: don't know where the dominoes are falling yet, but I
Speaker 2: mean there's so many different contingencies set up right now.
Speaker 2: And credit to the Packers, they're rotating guys around. This
Speaker 2: is the time you want to get those reps in.
Speaker 2: Morgan is being able to really cut his teeth at
Speaker 2: a lot of different positions. There is some stability there.
Speaker 2: You know, Josh Myers is really locked down center. I
Speaker 2: thought he had his best year by far last season.
Speaker 2: Sean ryan Man has been the right guard the entire
Speaker 2: offseason program. He has not given up on that and
Speaker 2: almost in a lot of ways, kind of reminds me
Speaker 2: when John Runyon finally took that next step yeah, and
Speaker 2: was no longer in a rotation with Lucas Patrick or
Speaker 2: Royce Newman. Sean Ryan's been the guy there at a
Speaker 2: position that could have been rotated around. I love Elton.
Speaker 2: I think Elton is a perennial pro bowler. I just
Speaker 2: think that left guard is his home. That's the position
Speaker 2: where he's done it. I think done it the best
Speaker 2: He's done it the longest, So it just really comes
Speaker 2: up to left tackle, and what do the Packers do there?
Speaker 2: Is it Rashid Walker? Is it Morgan? Andre Dillard is
Speaker 2: on this team now too. A lot to figure out,
Speaker 2: a lot of options, but things if everyone's healthy, you
Speaker 2: do want to get those answers by the time you
Speaker 2: really get far into training camp.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And for me, my answer to this question is
Speaker 1: a little bit in the bigger picture sense. My biggest
Speaker 1: question mark with regard to the twenty twenty four Packers
Speaker 1: is are they going to be better at crunch time?
Speaker 1: Because you look at how last season went ended up
Speaker 1: nine to eight, made the late run, got into the
Speaker 1: playoffs and all that. But but man, when you talk
Speaker 1: about you know, the Vegas game, the Denver game, you
Speaker 1: know the way some of those games ended, the way
Speaker 1: the crunch time performances were not there. Then against the Giants,
Speaker 1: you get a big crunch time drive by the offense,
Speaker 1: but then the defense lets down in crunch time. Then
Speaker 1: you start to turn things around. Whereat Carolina, the defense
Speaker 1: folds in crunch time, but the offense responds and gets
Speaker 1: you the big win that you need. But then when
Speaker 1: it came right down to it. In the divisional playoff
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, the defense had a crunch time let down,
Speaker 1: the offense had a crunch time let down, and your
Speaker 1: season ended being able to perform better on both sides
Speaker 1: of the ball in the final three, four, five minutes
Speaker 1: of ball games. I think is what could could take
Speaker 1: this Packers team from where it was last year and
Speaker 1: where it ended up to where it wants to go.
Speaker 1: These games, the games in this league. I say it
Speaker 1: all the time, Wes. I know I'm a broken record
Speaker 1: with regard to this, but it comes down to how
Speaker 1: you perform when it really really matters at the end
Speaker 1: of games. There are very few games, percentage wise, there
Speaker 1: are not that many games in this league that are
Speaker 1: undecided with six, seven, eight minutes to go, and you
Speaker 1: have to be able to perform in crunch time. And
Speaker 1: I think if this Packers team on both sides of
Speaker 1: the ball takes a step forward in that regard nine
Speaker 1: to eight improves, your playoff positioning improves, and then who
Speaker 1: knows where things improve from there. So that's my biggest
Speaker 1: question mark.
Speaker 2: I did take that question extremely literal, and I apologize
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: No, no, you don't have to apologize.
Speaker 2: No, because if that was if it was more about
Speaker 2: the big picture side of things, that's a great point.
Speaker 2: You make my point, I'll make it very quick, is
Speaker 2: is Jordan Love what we saw the second half of
Speaker 2: season is sure, guy, And because you remember that first half,
Speaker 2: it was a lot of learning. It was a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff that he and both Mattleflur together were working
Speaker 2: through to figure out this offense and everything. But my goodness, Mike,
Speaker 2: the last ten weeks of the season, he was one
Speaker 2: of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. If
Speaker 2: you come out of the gates like that, He's not
Speaker 2: gonna be perfect. There's gonna be rough stretches, he's gonna
Speaker 2: throw interceptions. It's the way things go for a twenty
Speaker 2: five year old quarterback. But his ability to basically do
Speaker 2: no wrong in the month of December is the reason
Speaker 2: why the Packers got to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah, I mean quite frankly, he had in
Speaker 1: my opinion, basically from Thanksgiving on, Jordan Love only had
Speaker 1: one really down game and that was the Monday night
Speaker 1: game against the Giants, which he almost redeemed with the
Speaker 1: drive to get the late touchdown where the Packers were
Speaker 1: after a rough day, rough night on both sides of
Speaker 1: the ball. Looked like they were maybe gonna pull this
Speaker 1: game out anyway. It didn't happen. But that was really
Speaker 1: the I mean, from Thanksgiving to the end of the season,
Speaker 1: that was really the only game where you felt where
Speaker 1: you felt like there was maybe a step back with
Speaker 1: Jordan Love and h And that's that's where my confidence
Speaker 1: lies in him moving forward. Is that when he when
Speaker 1: he did reach a certain level, I think starting with well,
Speaker 1: really starting with the Pittsburgh game and a lot of respects,
Speaker 1: even though the Packers lost that game and he made
Speaker 1: a couple of mistakes at the end, but from but
Speaker 1: from there on, it wasn't this like roller coaster thing
Speaker 1: where he looked great and then he looked you know,
Speaker 1: he just he just had the one down game against
Speaker 1: the Giants during during that stretch run, and I think
Speaker 1: that bodes well moving forward.
Speaker 2: He made some throws, man, he made some throws that
Speaker 2: people do not make in this football league. Yeah, in Dallas,
Speaker 2: he there was I mean, there was some moments there, dude,
Speaker 2: that are special.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now we know Mike McCarthy's old thing about great players,
Speaker 2: good players and the ones you know, that good players,
Speaker 2: good players at the moments of greatness and great player. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, that's where you got to take it. But
Speaker 2: I ended last season, man, I was thinking to myself
Speaker 2: over and over again, these guys very well might have
Speaker 2: done it again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, and I hope, and I hope for
Speaker 1: years to come. That's what we're talking about here on
Speaker 1: this show and everywhere else. But we got to get
Speaker 1: out to the practice field because it's mini camp week.
Speaker 1: So with that, we'll call it a rap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. We shure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage all week long with regard to Packer's minichamp,
Speaker 1: and we will have another show later this week recapping that.
Speaker 1: So for Wes, I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody.
Speaker 1: We will see you next time.