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 trusted colleague West Hodkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field West. Two major
Speaker 1: topics today, both related, of course. One is that we
Speaker 1: will look back at the two joint practices with the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints and share some of our observations, and
Speaker 1: then we will look ahead to the preseason game against
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Saints, which which is slated for Friday night,
Speaker 1: seven pm kickoff at lambeau Field, the only home preseason
Speaker 1: game for the Packers. In turning the clock back to
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, the two joint practices at
Speaker 1: NIKI Field Packers and Saints, what's the I guess the
Speaker 1: first thing that comes to your mind when you think
Speaker 1: back at those two workouts. No, no, no, it was
Speaker 1: it was really it was only one minor little only
Speaker 1: one scuffle. Scuffle, yes, scuffle would be the correct would
Speaker 1: be would be an appropriate a Stokes and you know,
Speaker 1: Jarvis Landry just getting into it a little bit. But no,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. Nobody was throwing punches at helmets or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Uh, No, really competitive two days and obviously,
Speaker 1: and I talked with our our friends over with the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints dot com website, it really was a
Speaker 1: matter of defense, sort of controlling the tempo on both
Speaker 1: sides of the field. And some of that is to
Speaker 1: be expected. Both of these offenses are going through transitions,
Speaker 1: and and you know, right now the Saints don't have
Speaker 1: Jameis Winston, he's still been held out. And then obviously
Speaker 1: on the Packers side of things, they're trying to find
Speaker 1: their way here offensively with these new receivers and a
Speaker 1: different structure. So what I was most encouraged by over
Speaker 1: these two practices is everything we've seen from the Packers
Speaker 1: defense and the dominance and in moments of really uh
Speaker 1: just being able to control the tempo that that translated
Speaker 1: against Saints. Yeah. Uh. And Mike, I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is the third time, right, we've had joint practices
Speaker 1: during my time here, third time in four years. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I recalled a moment where the Packers
Speaker 1: consistently down after down or pressuring the quarterback the way
Speaker 1: they did in this practice, I don't think it really
Speaker 1: would have mattered if Jamis Winston was back there or not.
Speaker 1: The Packers were getting home and it wasn't just Rashaan
Speaker 1: Gary or Preston Smith or Kenny Clark. You saw Kobe Jones,
Speaker 1: you saw Kingsley and Nigba A. You saw everybody being
Speaker 1: able to pressure that The Saints had a real difficult
Speaker 1: time with some of the double A gap blitz is
Speaker 1: and some of the looks that they gave with the cornerbacks.
Speaker 1: This was really the type of performance you wanted to
Speaker 1: see from Green Bay's defense after having a lot of
Speaker 1: success to the first two and a half weeks of camp. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I had mentioned with regard to the defense when
Speaker 1: we were previewing the joint practices that I was interested
Speaker 1: to see that cornerback trio that we didn't really see
Speaker 1: on the field at all last year. Of course talking
Speaker 1: about Alexander Douglas and Stokes and uh. And Yes, the
Speaker 1: what the defense was doing up front was impressive, There's
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. But this defense in the back end,
Speaker 1: as far as covering uh, Michael Thomas, Jarvis, Landry Cristal
Speaker 1: Lave the rookie out of Ohio State, Now, I mean
Speaker 1: they made some catches here and there. Let's let's not
Speaker 1: you know that this was not literally complete and total
Speaker 1: shut down like inability to move the ball. But there's
Speaker 1: a hundred yard football field and defenses get a lot
Speaker 1: of territory to defend, and offenses need to put something together,
Speaker 1: sustained some kind of rhythm and some consistency with moving
Speaker 1: the ball, and the Saints really weren't able to do
Speaker 1: that against the Packers number one defense. And it was
Speaker 1: the combination of what those guys were doing up front
Speaker 1: with with the pressure on the quarterback. Um I only
Speaker 1: saw maybe over the course of the couple of days
Speaker 1: one or two runs leak out. Otherwise it seemed that
Speaker 1: the run defense was was holding up pretty well. And
Speaker 1: then those guys in the back in even without Darnell Savage,
Speaker 1: with the ones with with Vernon Scott, that that secondary
Speaker 1: just doesn't give receivers a whole heck of a lot
Speaker 1: of space and and uh yeah, there are gonna be
Speaker 1: quarterbacks who can hit those pinpoint throws. But the windows
Speaker 1: to me, when I was watching the defense, the throwing
Speaker 1: windows for Andy Dalton were awfully tight. They really were.
Speaker 1: And it was funny too, because well, one the gire
Speaker 1: Alexander Michael Thomas matchup that we talked so much about.
Speaker 1: We got a chance to see some of that, but
Speaker 1: ultimately the way that the Saints moved Thomas around, he
Speaker 1: saw a lot of Russell Douglas too, I mean, Eric Stokes,
Speaker 1: I mean there was It wasn't just specific players matching
Speaker 1: up against specific guys and man demand coverage there. It
Speaker 1: was a really I don't want to say exotic because
Speaker 1: it wasn't that far, but both of these teams were
Speaker 1: pretty much open things up a little bit. They showed
Speaker 1: more looks. You remember, one of the big criticisms Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers had with the first joint practice against the Texans
Speaker 1: a few years ago was it was basically a glorified
Speaker 1: preseason game. The Texans weren't really given them their play
Speaker 1: if they were doing things that you really wouldn't do, uh,
Speaker 1: if you're actually trying to practice and refine some stuff.
Speaker 1: I felt like the Saints and the Packers both did that,
Speaker 1: and that's a credit to Matt Lafleur and Dennis Allen
Speaker 1: and in seeing a lot of these guys step up
Speaker 1: and you know, even you know, you talked about the
Speaker 1: cornerbacks but even look at a guy like Vernon Scott,
Speaker 1: like how valuable these last two days have been. A
Speaker 1: guy that question didn't play really at all last season
Speaker 1: and then suddenly he's the every down safety with the
Speaker 1: number one defense, lining up next to Adrian Amos. So
Speaker 1: you know, kuay Walker's getting his first big run being
Speaker 1: inside with Devondre Campbell, guy that he probably won't play
Speaker 1: with in the preseason at all. So again, by and large,
Speaker 1: was really happy with the defensive work. Offensively, there were
Speaker 1: some things to clean up, but but certainly I felt
Speaker 1: like coming out of this thing, this was probably the
Speaker 1: most productive joint practice session they've had so far. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would agree in terms of the three different years
Speaker 1: we've seen this, the Texans, the Jets last year, and
Speaker 1: the Saints, I I thought, I thought this was this
Speaker 1: was the the best. It was the most competitive work
Speaker 1: where you know, guys were playing clean. There wasn't there
Speaker 1: wasn't you know, the extracurricular you know activity that that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. And God bless the Jets, but I
Speaker 1: mean those are two teams going in very different directions
Speaker 1: in terms of their seasons. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: the Jets were any under any disillusions that they were
Speaker 1: gonna be a super Bowl team. The Saints have those
Speaker 1: kind of aspirations, so watching those units work has really
Speaker 1: been impressive. Yeah. Well, the big story on the offensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball, of course for the Packers was
Speaker 1: UM Aaron Rodgers when he spoke at his locker following
Speaker 1: the first of the two joint practices on Tuesday. Um,
Speaker 1: he sort of let his offensive unit have it a
Speaker 1: little bit in terms of the sloppiness, the pre snap penalties,
Speaker 1: mental mistakes and things and and uh Um. It was
Speaker 1: in part directed at the whole unit, but there were
Speaker 1: also parts of his comments directed specifically at the young
Speaker 1: receivers in which he was talking about you know, wrong routes.
Speaker 1: Obviously there were you know, some drop passes in there.
Speaker 1: It was a very uneven two days really for the
Speaker 1: Packers offensively against the Saints defense. But I think we
Speaker 1: saw after Rogers comments following the first practice, we saw
Speaker 1: a little bit more sharpness. We saw some more plays
Speaker 1: from those young guys in the second practice. They We
Speaker 1: then also found out there was a meeting that morning, um,
Speaker 1: that was conducted with the quarterbacks and the receivers, UM
Speaker 1: veterans and young guys all alike, you know, all getting together, Um,
Speaker 1: a sign of just how dissatisfied everybody was with how
Speaker 1: things went offensively on Tuesday. And then we saw on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: we saw Romeo Dobbs, Samori toure um Amari Rodgers. We
Speaker 1: saw the young guys who you know not we're not
Speaker 1: necessarily mentioned by name by Aaron Rodgers, but we saw
Speaker 1: those young guys respond. Now, of course you want to
Speaker 1: see them carry that over now and respond also in
Speaker 1: the game on Friday night. But but it's just another
Speaker 1: um reminder I guess of how how much of a
Speaker 1: work in progress things are with this receiving corps because
Speaker 1: because Aaron Rodgers nos, he's got al Lazard and Randall
Speaker 1: Cobb and he's doing everything he can to get Sammy
Speaker 1: Watkins up to speed. And I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about Watkins in a minute. Um, But
Speaker 1: Roger said, the time is running out on the young
Speaker 1: guys in terms of the regular season is right around
Speaker 1: the corner here. We've got to get things cleaned up,
Speaker 1: you know, from Roger's point of view there, Um, things
Speaker 1: need to get sharpened up. And uh, and we saw
Speaker 1: a response, and now we'll see how they respond through
Speaker 1: the rest of training camp. From here, Mike, it transport.
Speaker 1: It transported me back to two thousand sixteen when I
Speaker 1: started at Packers dot Com and you pulled me into
Speaker 1: an office that neither of us have and and kind
Speaker 1: of laid it into me a little bit and told me, hod,
Speaker 1: it's just not clean enough. This copy is not clean enough. Now.
Speaker 1: But what I enjoyed the most about I hope you
Speaker 1: appreciated that. What I what I like the most about
Speaker 1: what Rogers did was he's talked about the time and
Speaker 1: time again. He even mentioned again this week Al Lazard.
Speaker 1: That's his his wide receiver one right now. You know,
Speaker 1: he mentioned Randall Cobb is like a pre eminent slot
Speaker 1: receiver in this league. One of the most proven slot
Speaker 1: receivers in this league in Sammy Watkins, number four overall
Speaker 1: pick a number of years ago, has seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of football, has won some Super Bowl. These guys get it.
Speaker 1: If he didn't want the young guys to succeed, if
Speaker 1: he didn't want them to be a factor this season,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't care. He wouldn't be pulling these guys together.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't be, you know, saying things he mentioned this
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the camp. If I'm not saying
Speaker 1: anything to you, that's a bad sign, if I'm not
Speaker 1: actually talking to you at all, Because Rogers does get it. Lazard, Cobb,
Speaker 1: and Watkins. Those are the one two three right now.
Speaker 1: Nobody's discounting that they're actually even on the preseason program
Speaker 1: cover if you pick one up on Friday night. But
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is one of those guys
Speaker 1: might get hurt. You're going to need the rookies to
Speaker 1: step up. You might see the rookie in there for
Speaker 1: a handful of plays at the bend of the season,
Speaker 1: and Rogers wants them to be ready and for everything
Speaker 1: that didn't go great on Tuesday, and it was not
Speaker 1: a great offensive performance for the Packers on Tuesday. Wednesday
Speaker 1: was a step in the right direction. They are going
Speaker 1: up against a very tough, very veteran defense in the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints. But they won more in the areas
Speaker 1: that I think Aaron Rodgers wants them to win. There
Speaker 1: was more preciseness with the routes. There were fewer penalties
Speaker 1: at the line of scrimmage procedural penalties. Matt for saying
Speaker 1: that he counted up seven in that first practice and
Speaker 1: then honestly it wasn't Rogers on the field, but when
Speaker 1: they're in the two minutes and Jordan's Love airs it
Speaker 1: out there for Samori to Ray, probably one of the
Speaker 1: best balls that Jordan's Love has thrown yet in a
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers uniform too. Ray caught it in stride
Speaker 1: and not just making the touchdown, but because of the
Speaker 1: game situation them needing to get the two point conversion
Speaker 1: to win, he has to come right back in despite
Speaker 1: kind of having his hands wrapped up by the defensive back,
Speaker 1: he still catches the two point conversion. Those of the
Speaker 1: small things that need to happen because this if you're
Speaker 1: not doing this in these settings, you're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to do them on Sundays in September. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a good sign to see those
Speaker 1: those young guys respond make some more plays on on
Speaker 1: Wednesday and you know, sort of reset the course hopefully
Speaker 1: for for where the group has set it. I thought,
Speaker 1: in terms of um strictly the starters, the number one offense,
Speaker 1: to me, the most encouraging thing that I saw in again,
Speaker 1: what was what was a very up and down couple
Speaker 1: of practices because that is that is a darn goood
Speaker 1: Saints defense, and the Packers weren't entirely sharp. But those
Speaker 1: two days Tuesday and Wednesday, I thought were the best
Speaker 1: days that we've seen from Sammy Watkins since since he
Speaker 1: put on a Packers uniform. Watkins himself said, you know,
Speaker 1: he wasn't so crazy about Wednesday. You know, Tuesday was
Speaker 1: definitely his best day. But in terms of putting together
Speaker 1: those practices backed back against another opponent, Watkins talked at
Speaker 1: his locker, Wait a bit, I have a story up
Speaker 1: on on Packers dot com right now for anyone who
Speaker 1: wants to check it out. He's being very as a
Speaker 1: veteran receiver, being very demanding and exacting of himself to
Speaker 1: try to learn all of the checks and the adjustments
Speaker 1: and the nuances and everything of the way Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: wants to run this offense. Um, Sammy Watkins is being
Speaker 1: is being absolutely meticulous with it. Now he has an
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that because he's not swimming in the
Speaker 1: playbook as much as a rookie is right learning an
Speaker 1: NFL playbook for the first time, and this is a
Speaker 1: transition that Watkins has gone through before he's joined the
Speaker 1: Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Last year it was the Ravens
Speaker 1: and Lamar Jackson. You're talking about other m v P quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: but even Watkins said, you know Aaron Rodgers eighteen season
Speaker 1: fifteenth as a starter four m vps on the shelf.
Speaker 1: This is a guy who who is very demanding and
Speaker 1: exacting of himself and his teammates, and wa Kins wants
Speaker 1: to match that in terms of in terms of how
Speaker 1: he goes about it to get on the same page
Speaker 1: with his quarterback. What we saw the last two days,
Speaker 1: it's coming right. We can see, we can see the progress.
Speaker 1: We can see Watkins getting there, but he was also
Speaker 1: very careful to say I'm not there yet. I'm I
Speaker 1: still need to push. I still need to tell myself
Speaker 1: that I'm not all the way there mentally, because when
Speaker 1: it comes down to a crucial situation in a two
Speaker 1: minute drill and a third down and whatever, I have
Speaker 1: to be out there not thinking about what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I have to know exactly what to do and exactly
Speaker 1: what Aaron Rodgers wants me to do. That's where Sammy
Speaker 1: Watkins wants to get to Mike. And when I think
Speaker 1: about everything Watkins said. It was funny to me because
Speaker 1: people just we do all these press conferences, right, we
Speaker 1: do these interviews, and you see these media huddles on
Speaker 1: packers dot Com and everywhere else, and guys talk and
Speaker 1: they'll talk for ten fifteen minutes, and you never neally
Speaker 1: know you know what topics are going to come up.
Speaker 1: But I saw a direct parallel between Watkins was saying
Speaker 1: on Wednesday to what he said a few months ago
Speaker 1: when he discussed how important this opportunity was to him,
Speaker 1: and when he talked about this his back being up
Speaker 1: against the wall. He doesn't want to waste time here.
Speaker 1: He knows that opportunity is not available to him. He's
Speaker 1: been with Baltimore, he you know, had the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: run with Kansas City. But ultimately, individually, he still has
Speaker 1: a lot to prove to himself. And if he's not
Speaker 1: ready for this thing off the bat, it's gonna put
Speaker 1: him behind because the Packers do have a lot of
Speaker 1: young guys that they're excited about. He wants to go
Speaker 1: out there and show that there's a reason why you
Speaker 1: brought Sammy Watkins in here, and I'm going to be
Speaker 1: able to be a veteran that not only comes in
Speaker 1: and contributes, but immediately earns that trust of Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: Because as much as we talk about the rookies, the
Speaker 1: veterans coming in, well, they have seen a lot of football.
Speaker 1: He's played with a lot of great quarterbacks. This is
Speaker 1: a different new quarterback that has to get familiar with him.
Speaker 1: So the accountability side of it, and I heard this
Speaker 1: about Watkins before he even got here, and the way
Speaker 1: he carries himself, it's there. This guy is a professional
Speaker 1: and he's not going to back down from that. And
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, when I was watching him
Speaker 1: and that Tuesday practice, especially when I was seeing the
Speaker 1: offense a little bit more, he was one of the
Speaker 1: better players on the field that day. He was making
Speaker 1: the plays that you want to see Sammy Watkins, the
Speaker 1: ninth year veteran, the former fourth overall pick make, And
Speaker 1: I think that's the most exciting thing. Nobody is asking
Speaker 1: Sammy Watkins to be a two thousand yard receiver this year.
Speaker 1: They're asking him to be the best version of himself
Speaker 1: to help this offense get through this in your interim
Speaker 1: area where they don't have a Davante Adams, and I
Speaker 1: think Watkins is definitely up to that challenge. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think he is too. I mean Aaron Rodgers has expressed
Speaker 1: his confidence that Watkins is up to the challenge. Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur has said, so we know Jason Vrabel, who worked
Speaker 1: with him in Buffalo, has that has that level of
Speaker 1: confidence in him as well. And I just thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting that that, even after you know, really his
Speaker 1: two best days as far as back to back that
Speaker 1: we've seen on the practice field so far from Sammy Watkins,
Speaker 1: the first thing he was saying at his locker is
Speaker 1: I'm not there yet. This is not that. This is
Speaker 1: not like, hey, I've arrived, I've got this all figured out. Now,
Speaker 1: I've been through this transition before. You know, We're good
Speaker 1: to go. That's not where that That's not where he
Speaker 1: is in terms of how he assesses his own situation.
Speaker 1: He's gonna keep pushing, He's going to keep driving. He
Speaker 1: wants to get to the Randall Cobb level as soon
Speaker 1: as possible. Now that's going to be impossible quite frankly, right,
Speaker 1: It's that that's an impossible task, an impossible standard for
Speaker 1: somebody to meet in their first year with Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: But that's what he's going for. He wants Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: to feel about him the way Rogers feels about Cobb
Speaker 1: and Lazard in this offense. Absolutely, and and for me personally,
Speaker 1: I'll just put it out there, if Sammy Watkins stays healthy,
Speaker 1: you can time stamp this eight two thousand twenty two.
Speaker 1: If if Watkins stays health throughout the course here, he's
Speaker 1: going to win the Packers a game or two by himself.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's done it a couple of times in
Speaker 1: regular season openers over the course of his career already.
Speaker 1: He's that type of receiver. And I really think Mike
Speaker 1: in an offense where they're gonna spread people out and
Speaker 1: they're gonna make these running backs think every time Sammy
Speaker 1: Watkins has been in a situation where he can have
Speaker 1: one on opportunities, the guys thrived in those offenses. I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm just saying, yeah, I know, it's it's exciting
Speaker 1: to see exactly where this can where this can go.
Speaker 1: I wanna turn our attention to Friday night's preseason game,
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Speaker 1: Cousin Subs fifty years of Better. Preseason Game number two,
Speaker 1: Friday night, seven pm Central kickoff at lambeau Field. Now
Speaker 1: we haven't heard anything definitively, but my expectation is that
Speaker 1: the vast majority of the Packers starters are going to
Speaker 1: be sitting much as they were last Friday night out
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. This is going to be the the two,
Speaker 1: the twos, and the threes probably for probably for both teams.
Speaker 1: We'll see what the Saints decided to do. I have
Speaker 1: absolutely no idea what their plans are, but I think
Speaker 1: when when we look at this, and whether you're talking
Speaker 1: about Jordan's love or other guys you look at, you
Speaker 1: look at a second preseason game. Now for the for
Speaker 1: these young players, it's about it's about looking at the
Speaker 1: guys who had their moments right, Um, who made an impression,
Speaker 1: made an impact in that first preseason game, and can
Speaker 1: they do it again? Um, Jordan's Love obviously has some
Speaker 1: things with with the accuracy of his his throws. He'd
Speaker 1: like to clean up. The receiving corps has some things
Speaker 1: that that they need to clean up for Jordan's Love
Speaker 1: and and catch the passes that that uh that are
Speaker 1: catchable and keep the chains moving and keep their young
Speaker 1: quarterback in a rhythm. For me, when it comes to
Speaker 1: looking at those impact guys from San Francisco last Friday
Speaker 1: night who are looking to to you know, proving that
Speaker 1: they can do it again, that they can have that
Speaker 1: kind of impact in the game again, two guys stand
Speaker 1: out to me West and it's one on either side
Speaker 1: of the ball. On offense, it's a Mari Rodgers and
Speaker 1: on defense it's Kingsley Nigbari. And I'll start with Rogers
Speaker 1: because we saw the early in the San Francisco game,
Speaker 1: the fifty yard kickoff return, nice moment for the special
Speaker 1: teams there. Then late in the game, he catches the
Speaker 1: pass in the flat from Danny yet Ling makes a
Speaker 1: nice move up the sideline twenty two yard touchdown. UM
Speaker 1: A couple of big moments there for a Mari Rodgers.
Speaker 1: Can he make that kind of impact again? I think
Speaker 1: That's what we're all waiting to see. I think the
Speaker 1: most exciting thing when I watched that game against the
Speaker 1: forty was it was sort of the precursor to me
Speaker 1: the idea in my head of this is what Mari
Speaker 1: Rodgers could do and when the Packers are at their
Speaker 1: best underneath Matt the floor. As cool as it is
Speaker 1: to have Davante Adams and Aaron Jones, ultimately I think
Speaker 1: a lot of their best successes come from is when
Speaker 1: guys fill a role in thrive in that role. Um.
Speaker 1: It was one of the things I talked about with
Speaker 1: Josida Deguire out of the gate. Nobody was asking to
Speaker 1: guard to be a seven yard tight end, but he
Speaker 1: has a role in his body type that he's gonna
Speaker 1: fit that really nobody else on this roster was going
Speaker 1: to be able to replicate. That's a Mari Rodgers to me.
Speaker 1: He had the fifty yard return and Mike, can you
Speaker 1: tell what that meant to the Packers to be able
Speaker 1: to break that return that side that sideline was going crazy? Well,
Speaker 1: first off, you know, Rogers stands up. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can tell that was one year of just weight off
Speaker 1: of his shoulders of I can do this at this level.
Speaker 1: We can do this as a unit. We can break
Speaker 1: a big return here, we can create opportunities for ourselves.
Speaker 1: And then seeing somebody like Rashawn Gary come and completely
Speaker 1: face plant the kid, it was the entire It was
Speaker 1: an uplifting, rejuvenating moment for I think these special teams,
Speaker 1: a special teams unit that is desperately looking for wins
Speaker 1: right now. A lot of these guys that are gonna
Speaker 1: be on this team, there's gonna be some turnover, but
Speaker 1: there's gonna be plenty of guys like Rogers on the
Speaker 1: squad that were part of last season and want to
Speaker 1: walk last season from their brain. That's a good way
Speaker 1: to do it. But even with the twenty two yard touchdown,
Speaker 1: that was an instance where Amari really made the necessary corrections.
Speaker 1: He he saw what was happening, he saw the blitz
Speaker 1: was coming from the slot, and he knew he was
Speaker 1: probably gonna be the hot read in that instance, and
Speaker 1: once he got the ball in his hands, he made
Speaker 1: someone miss. I don't know if a Mari Rodgers a
Speaker 1: two er in sixteen pounds makes that guy miss the
Speaker 1: way that this version of a Mari Rodgers did, And
Speaker 1: how confident he was going down the sidelines. Mary Rogers
Speaker 1: has played football his entire life. He's known Randall Cobs
Speaker 1: since he was nine. His dad is Team Martin. This
Speaker 1: guy wants it. He wants to prove that he was
Speaker 1: a good third round pick and the Packers were justified
Speaker 1: in going up to trade for him. I love everything
Speaker 1: I saw from him, but this is a game of
Speaker 1: consistency and he needs to come out of the gates
Speaker 1: and this matchup against the Saints and continue to build
Speaker 1: on that, like all these young receivers do. Samari too
Speaker 1: Ray talked about it too, that fifty yard catches fantastic.
Speaker 1: That's a good feather in your cap to have right now.
Speaker 1: But if you don't keep doing that or you start
Speaker 1: dropping passes, everybody forgets about that. Yeah, and and that's
Speaker 1: really what I go back to it. These receivers and
Speaker 1: Rogers great start with with what they were able to
Speaker 1: accomplish in Spurts in San Francisco. Can you carry it
Speaker 1: over now here at lambeau Field. Yeah, absolutely. We hear
Speaker 1: it a lot in this league. Anybody can do something once, right,
Speaker 1: then the question is always can you do it again?
Speaker 1: And that that's that's what separates the guys who belong
Speaker 1: in this league from the guys who were just going
Speaker 1: to flash and eventually uh and eventually go on their
Speaker 1: way and disappear on the defensive side. I think we
Speaker 1: mentioned him a little bit on our last show, Kingsley
Speaker 1: nigbari Um we what we've seen, what we've seen over
Speaker 1: the last week. This is a young man, a fifth
Speaker 1: round draft pick out of South Carolina. I don't know
Speaker 1: if we hardly talked about him at all during O
Speaker 1: T A S you know, mini camp during the spring,
Speaker 1: and even in the opening days the opening week week
Speaker 1: and a half a training camp, we didn't really see much.
Speaker 1: He just you know, not to say that he was
Speaker 1: doing anything wrong, but he just wasn't doing anything to
Speaker 1: get noticed. Well the last week, I mean, starting with
Speaker 1: that game in San Francisco Friday night. This this guy
Speaker 1: is he's established himself as a daily presence on the
Speaker 1: practice field now and I should also say the preseason field.
Speaker 1: He got he got the sack in the game on
Speaker 1: Friday night. Then on Sunday he was single handedly wrecking
Speaker 1: the two minute drill for the number one offense with
Speaker 1: the pressure that he was getting off the edge Um.
Speaker 1: He was a steady presence in these two days of
Speaker 1: joint practices against the Saints. UM had a fair amount
Speaker 1: of reps against the number one draft I shouldn't say
Speaker 1: number one, but first round draft pick in uh in
Speaker 1: Trevor Penning at at offensive tackle for the Saints, and
Speaker 1: uh and quite frankly, no question about it, clearly got
Speaker 1: the better of that of of that matchup on a
Speaker 1: consistent basis, going against a first rounder. And now it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, he's heading out there for for his second
Speaker 1: preseason game. Now it's exciting to think of what the
Speaker 1: Packers might have here if he continues on this trajectory,
Speaker 1: because we've talked about how it is so wide open
Speaker 1: at edge russia outside linebacker. After the two starters for
Speaker 1: Shawn Gary and Preston Smith, what else do the Packers have?
Speaker 1: Who can they put in there to give those starters
Speaker 1: a breather to develop some kind of some kind of
Speaker 1: a rotation. And we saw Randy Ramsey get released earlier
Speaker 1: this week in in the first cut down to eight five,
Speaker 1: So that's another guy at that position now who's gone.
Speaker 1: The door is wide open for an Abari here who's
Speaker 1: known as j J to everybody. That's uh, that's his
Speaker 1: nickname amongst his teammates and and whatnot. If if JJ
Speaker 1: can keep this going what we've seen over the last week,
Speaker 1: the Packers are going to feel a lot better about
Speaker 1: what they have behind their two starters on the edges. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's funny too, because I saw Matt Lafleur brought
Speaker 1: up the JJ thing, and I've always had the same
Speaker 1: maxim since the very beginning I've started covering this team.
Speaker 1: Whatever the guy's name says on the roster page, that's
Speaker 1: what I call him. I don't mix and match it.
Speaker 1: It's Kingsley to me, but kudos. I like the j
Speaker 1: J of the Jet or whatever that was that the
Speaker 1: Kids show. That's where he got his nickname apparently. But
Speaker 1: this is a guy at a position where the Packers
Speaker 1: wanted players to step up. Who really has emerged. And
Speaker 1: if you look at it, Mike Whitney merciless, he's cooking now.
Speaker 1: I mean he's he's not coming back through that door. Uh.
Speaker 1: They've needed a number three guy really in that role
Speaker 1: now with you know, Zadarius Smith is gone. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: saw Kyler Facult did in that role in the ways
Speaker 1: they used him back in two thousand nineteen. They this
Speaker 1: number three outside linebacker will play. They'll have to play.
Speaker 1: You can't play Preston Smith and Rashawn Gary every down
Speaker 1: as much as you want to. And I think seeing
Speaker 1: him Bill Hubert from s I said it, and I
Speaker 1: agree with him. I mean, Kingsley Ning Barrie. Although I
Speaker 1: don't think he was really ever in jeopardy of not
Speaker 1: making the team, he did make the team within like
Speaker 1: four days of practice. I mean he has made it
Speaker 1: undeniable and he is he He has very very quickly
Speaker 1: in a in a short period of time. And with
Speaker 1: with this, this burst of multiple days, multiple practices, has
Speaker 1: shown that he belongs in the NFL. This is it.
Speaker 1: This is a This is a young guy who belongs
Speaker 1: and he's going to be here on this Packers. And
Speaker 1: he hit the trifecta. He practiced well against his own team.
Speaker 1: He carried it into the game against the forty niners
Speaker 1: in whatever momentum, confidence, whatever you wanna call it. He
Speaker 1: just came right back against the Saints and put it
Speaker 1: to work. When I was talking about all the pressure
Speaker 1: that was getting generated, you were right. Ning Bari was
Speaker 1: a big part of that so the other side of
Speaker 1: the two, if I may really quickly before we move on,
Speaker 1: I just want to give a quick mention as well
Speaker 1: to Jack Heflin. I wrote about him this week on
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. Heflin really reminds me of the j
Speaker 1: Rone Elliott's Uh, some of these guys that are the
Speaker 1: the undrafted college free agent types that you know there
Speaker 1: might be more talented people at his position. As he says,
Speaker 1: he understands how high the ceiling is. He's trying to
Speaker 1: raise up the floor. That's his goal when he's on
Speaker 1: the field. But when he's in games, the guy finds
Speaker 1: ways to win consistently. Last year he lead the Packers
Speaker 1: and quarterback knockdowns. This year he comes out of the gate,
Speaker 1: he sets the tone against the run. There's these guys,
Speaker 1: Mike every year. I talked about with Rico Gafford a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier this month too, Guys that just want it,
Speaker 1: not saying they want it more. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: compare anything, but Jack Heflin is putting every single thing
Speaker 1: he has into this camp because he knows nothing is guaranteed.
Speaker 1: He can play out of his mind and maybe still
Speaker 1: not make the team. With how deep that position is.
Speaker 1: But he's not going to leave anything up in the air.
Speaker 1: He's going to leave it out all in the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when when these you're talking about, you know, guys like
Speaker 1: Heflin and what they do over the course of multiple
Speaker 1: preseason games. We saw it last year. That's why he
Speaker 1: made the team. He's trying to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: And for a guy, you know, it's a guy who's
Speaker 1: trying to carve out a role to where you know,
Speaker 1: maybe he gets a handful of snaps a game the
Speaker 1: regular season to spell some of these guys who were
Speaker 1: in front of him. Well, he's gonna play twenty five
Speaker 1: or thirty or thirty five snaps in a preseason game. Um.
Speaker 1: The the the opportunity that he has to show what
Speaker 1: he can do is is not lost on him. And
Speaker 1: and his his relentlessness when quite frankly, he had to
Speaker 1: be dog tired in the fourth quarter of of that
Speaker 1: game last Friday night in San Francisco, and how he
Speaker 1: just he kept coming after San Francisco's offensive front. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that stands out on film to
Speaker 1: the coaches. That's the kind of thing that gets you noticed.
Speaker 1: And uh and Yeah, he's another one of these guys
Speaker 1: that made an impression in that first preseason game. Can
Speaker 1: he do it again? And but his situation is a
Speaker 1: little bit different than that. He's been through this before. Right,
Speaker 1: He's been through this before and he's made the team.
Speaker 1: He's trying to do it again and actually more difficult
Speaker 1: circumstances because of a first round pick at the position
Speaker 1: and a free agent you know, I'm talking about Davante
Speaker 1: Wyatt and then a free agent brought in at his
Speaker 1: position in Jared Reid. He's still trying to fight to uh,
Speaker 1: to make the squad. So yeah, he's definitely another guy
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. Last thing before we go.
Speaker 1: Anybody else that jumps out to you that your eyeballs
Speaker 1: are going to be on from the press box at
Speaker 1: Lambo Friday? Yeah, I said it during the Packers pregraming radio.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep saying it now. It's Jack Coco who
Speaker 1: was the backup long snapper. Really, when you look at it,
Speaker 1: what he was doing in Georgia Tech that transitioned over
Speaker 1: to tight end once he got a you know, a scholarship.
Speaker 1: Jack Coco is the only long snapper on this roster.
Speaker 1: Right now. And I know that's a very small thing.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not you know, a receiver running back,
Speaker 1: but that's a critical position for the special team's unit
Speaker 1: that's trying to get renovated, and he has no competition
Speaker 1: in the building at the moment. This is I can't
Speaker 1: think of a more golden opportunity for a guy that
Speaker 1: never actually was a long snapper in terms of the
Speaker 1: punts in college, was only the short snapper on some
Speaker 1: of the field goals for three years. This guy is
Speaker 1: someone that you know Byron Storer, the Packers assistant special
Speaker 1: teams coach, I kind of found Rich Bisaccia like they
Speaker 1: brought him in on a tryout. He makes the team
Speaker 1: as a tryout player, gets that contract. Stephen Wardle was
Speaker 1: released a week ago. Now he's competing against every long
Speaker 1: snapper in the league right now once you get down
Speaker 1: to the end of camp. But this is for a
Speaker 1: guy that who knows what was going to happen if
Speaker 1: Green Bay doesn't call for him. This is this is
Speaker 1: a golden ticket in the candy bar. So I just
Speaker 1: I thought last week he he had a good, solid
Speaker 1: performance and realistically, I mean these next two weeks are
Speaker 1: probably as critical of anybody on the roster. For him
Speaker 1: to show what he can do in the preseason settings. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: definitely another guy to watch. And once you start talking
Speaker 1: about candy bars, it's time to time and coco. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and cocoa, We're going to call it a rap on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team training camp Friday night's
Speaker 1: preseason game. We're gonna have it all for you on
Speaker 1: Packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody.
Speaker 1: See you next time. Get me