Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford joined alongside my trusted colleague West
Speaker 1: hodkoits were coming to you hear from our studios at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field and West. It is Wednesday, which in the
Speaker 1: NFL world is turned the page day and the Packers
Speaker 1: now looking forward to Sunday afternoon at FedEx Field in
Speaker 1: the nation's capital, Packers Redskins a noon Central one Eastern
Speaker 1: time kickoff. So let's break down that NFC East Washington
Speaker 1: team a little bit, and it starts with their brand
Speaker 1: new quarterback Alex Smith. The Redskins obviously moved on from
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins. He became a free agent signed with the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings, and Alex Smith coming over from the Kansas
Speaker 1: City Chiefs to now run Washington's office. Well, it's just funny, Mike,
Speaker 1: and it just shows you the levels to this thing
Speaker 1: in terms of the NFL, where you have a team
Speaker 1: like Washington, which for so many years could not really
Speaker 1: come to an agreement. I didn't really know what they
Speaker 1: want to do at quarterback, if Kirk Cousins was their
Speaker 1: guy or not. Well, Cousins ends up becoming an unrestricted
Speaker 1: free agent and then becomes at that time like getting
Speaker 1: the highest paid you know free and franchise tagged him twice.
Speaker 1: Ye right, Yeah, so it was it was kind of
Speaker 1: weird the way that that situation played out, be that,
Speaker 1: as it may, you have him go over to the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings and then you have the we have Watchington
Speaker 1: trade for Alex Smith and then give him the extension
Speaker 1: that they never gave to to Kirk Cousins. So certainly
Speaker 1: they feel like Smith is a guy that that can
Speaker 1: lead them to where they want to go. And and
Speaker 1: you know, he's been doing this thing for a long time.
Speaker 1: You kind of know the game with him. He's going
Speaker 1: to protect the football. There's not always gonna be those
Speaker 1: explosive plays, but he's going to be consistent. And Packers
Speaker 1: have had a lot of wars with Alex Smith over
Speaker 1: the years, jading back to his time with San Francisco
Speaker 1: and even with Kansas City, and this is another chapter
Speaker 1: and that that rivalry. Yeah, when there's uh, the descriptions
Speaker 1: that come to mind for me with regards to Alex Smith,
Speaker 1: I always think of efficiency and minimal mistakes. He said,
Speaker 1: he doesn't really turn the ball over. You look at
Speaker 1: his statistics, he's always around completions or at least high sixties,
Speaker 1: as you said, not a whole lot of explosive plays,
Speaker 1: though he started to make a few more of those
Speaker 1: with those weapons in Kansas City last year, some of
Speaker 1: the speed that they had on the perimeter. But with
Speaker 1: Alex Smith, now will this be the this will be
Speaker 1: the third different opponent that as far as Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: versus Alex Smith, and they're they're always going to be tied.
Speaker 1: Because of that two thousand five draft, Smith goes number
Speaker 1: one overall and then Aaron Rodgers waits forever in the
Speaker 1: green room. Well, now Rogers has faced him, you know,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Kansas City. Now it will be Washington. So
Speaker 1: just another little side story to that. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to his weapons here in this Jay Gruden offense
Speaker 1: in Washington. For me, anyway, it starts with that tight
Speaker 1: end Jordan Reid. I think he is going to be
Speaker 1: the toughest matchup for really any defense that faces Washington
Speaker 1: this year. He's big, he's athletic, he can take it
Speaker 1: down the seam, he can break tackles, get yards after
Speaker 1: the catch, all those kinds of things. I think he's
Speaker 1: the guy that that they want to run this passing
Speaker 1: offense through once kind of everybody gets settled into what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Yeah, I think Jordan Read certainly is a
Speaker 1: premier tight end in this league. I think Chris Thompson
Speaker 1: has shown two out of the backfield being a multidimensional
Speaker 1: player that you kind of need in this day and
Speaker 1: age with the game. But but Reid is the guy
Speaker 1: I think that sort of jumps off the page to you. Now,
Speaker 1: he hasn't gotten off to this super crazy start, but
Speaker 1: I mean he has been a guy that appears to
Speaker 1: have developed in early chemistry with Alex Smith. The transition
Speaker 1: Smith's gonna have to make, and he did it to
Speaker 1: some extent when he was in San Francisco. Is He's not.
Speaker 1: It doesn't appear at least, and there's no disrespect Washington
Speaker 1: doesn't appear. He's going to have the weapons that he
Speaker 1: had in Kansas City the past few years in terms
Speaker 1: of the speed element in the explosiveness out of the backfield,
Speaker 1: going back to Jamal Charles and then transitioning last year
Speaker 1: to to obviously the the season that they had there
Speaker 1: in the running games. So it's gonna be different. There
Speaker 1: are some older weapons in this I mean Jamison Crowder
Speaker 1: is a guy that's been there for a number of
Speaker 1: years now, Josh Dockson, and then them having all of
Speaker 1: these you know, you saw this week Michael Floyd gets signed, uh,
Speaker 1: and then Brichard Breland ends up getting signed as well.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting to see where all these pieces
Speaker 1: fit for them now because you're adding veterans, and you're
Speaker 1: adding them late in the process, imagine you're not going
Speaker 1: to see much of them uh going for and I
Speaker 1: said Shard, Uh, a lot of Bischard's going on. But
Speaker 1: but whatever the case may be, sure there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different people that that Alex Smith is gonna have
Speaker 1: to get comfortable with. Yeah, they're trying to figure out
Speaker 1: exactly what they're receiving. Cores is is going to be.
Speaker 1: They spent some big money on Paul Richardson, a free
Speaker 1: agent from Seattle, and then you mentioned docks and a
Speaker 1: former first round draft pick who really hasn't lived up
Speaker 1: to the expectations. They're still experiencing drop passes in lack
Speaker 1: of consistency and all that. He's he's a you know,
Speaker 1: a long limb guy. He's got the speed, all the
Speaker 1: all the physical you know, the measurable stuff is there,
Speaker 1: but it just hasn't come together for him yet. So
Speaker 1: they're still waiting on on docks. And you mentioned Chris Thompson.
Speaker 1: Always seems like the Redskins have one of these sort
Speaker 1: of I don't I don't like to overuse hybrid player,
Speaker 1: but one of these uh offensive, yeah, offensive gadget type
Speaker 1: of players. And and that's no disrespect to Thompson. It's
Speaker 1: just he's one of these guys that can kind of
Speaker 1: line up anywhere in an offensive formation and you have
Speaker 1: to figure out how you're gonna match up with him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and Thompson, that's his that's his trade. It's
Speaker 1: not even disrespectful that that that's what he brings to
Speaker 1: the table. That's what he offers. I mean, he's five
Speaker 1: ft eight pounds. He's never carried the ball more than
Speaker 1: seventy times in a season, but yet you look the
Speaker 1: last few years. Five ten receiving yards this year almost
Speaker 1: has doubled the other receivers on this team in terms
Speaker 1: of the amount of opportunities he's had as a pass catcher.
Speaker 1: So he's the guy you're gonna have to account for
Speaker 1: and then on the other side of it, there Bell
Speaker 1: cow back here. The first two weeks has been Adrian Peterson.
Speaker 1: The history with the Green Bay Packers is well defined.
Speaker 1: Peterson's different player at this stage of his career, but
Speaker 1: he's still hungry man and and although things were kind
Speaker 1: of up and down last year with Arizona, he still
Speaker 1: had that one game where he can carry the ball,
Speaker 1: what thirty seven times or something like that and was
Speaker 1: able to still be effective. So at this stage of
Speaker 1: his career, I don't know if he's still the same
Speaker 1: type of player he was when the Packers were having
Speaker 1: to go toe to toe with him two times a year,
Speaker 1: but he's still a guy that you can't overlook. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Peterson already kind of being up and down, much like
Speaker 1: this entire Washington team through the first two weeks. Looked
Speaker 1: very impressive in week one in Week one against Arizona,
Speaker 1: and what we saw of Arizona in Week two, it
Speaker 1: makes you wonder just where they're headed in then Washington,
Speaker 1: they have their home opener against the Indianapolis Colts reports
Speaker 1: where they were like twenty thousand empty seats, the fans
Speaker 1: not coming out to support the team, they only scored
Speaker 1: nine points offensively. They lose to the Andrew Luck led
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts to nine and I believe was the final score.
Speaker 1: Peterson has a really nice game rushing the ball against
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, but then it was something around ten carries
Speaker 1: for twenty yards against the Colts. So really hard to
Speaker 1: figure out. You know, they're they're still trying to to
Speaker 1: find their way here with their new quarterback and what
Speaker 1: they're doing offensively. The one thing that this is a
Speaker 1: good situation for him, at least it appears to be,
Speaker 1: because you know, I don't know what their plans are
Speaker 1: for how they're going to attack this backfield going forward.
Speaker 1: But you saw last year how effective he was in
Speaker 1: Spurts in Arizona in contrast to how New Orleans was
Speaker 1: using him. I mean, he's not He's just not a
Speaker 1: part time player. He's a guy that you have to
Speaker 1: build up. You have to give him those touches. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it looks like by all accounts right now, Washington's
Speaker 1: gonna give them that opportunity. All right. Well, before we
Speaker 1: get to Washington's defense, a little sponsor business here west
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Speaker 1: the name that jumps out to me when I look
Speaker 1: at Washington's defense is Josh Norman as that number one cornerback. Now,
Speaker 1: we saw a pretty good matchup last week, Xavier Rhodes
Speaker 1: against Davante Adams. They were matched up, I would say
Speaker 1: the vast majority of the game. I didn't necessarily track
Speaker 1: or chart every single snap. I thought Adams did a
Speaker 1: heck of a job. I know a pass or two
Speaker 1: he'd like to have back in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: some passes that I'm sure he felt he should have
Speaker 1: or could have caught um. But Adams won his share
Speaker 1: against Xavier Rhodes, and so this matchup, I would imagine
Speaker 1: Josh Norman is going to be the guy on Davante Adams.
Speaker 1: I think Adams is off to a decent start because
Speaker 1: he's going to see these number one corners from the
Speaker 1: opponent pretty much all season long, don't he thing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean the thing about Josh Norman is he's
Speaker 1: just in this no disrespect to the rest of the
Speaker 1: secondary there for watching, but he's head and shoulders their
Speaker 1: stud and he's a guy that you know, without knowing
Speaker 1: exactly how they do it. You go back to his
Speaker 1: time in Carolina, He's a shutdown corner. He's a guy
Speaker 1: that can travel with guys, can try to shut down
Speaker 1: the top guy and you know, reduce that that threat.
Speaker 1: The nice thing about Adams though, is he's a legitimate
Speaker 1: number one at this point. You can put him up
Speaker 1: against any corner of the league and he's gonna get
Speaker 1: his separation. He's gonna get his opportunities, as you just illustrated.
Speaker 1: I think we saw that to some extent against Minnesota,
Speaker 1: despite the fact he was playing through that shoulder injury.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, from there, I mean, you have Quentin
Speaker 1: Dunbar's the other one. He was a former college free
Speaker 1: agent DJ Swerringer who actually took a visit I think
Speaker 1: with the Packers. I want to say in two thousand,
Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen. He's kind of resurrected his career as
Speaker 1: a safety, uh in Washington the past few seasons. Has
Speaker 1: made some plays this year. I think he hasn't want
Speaker 1: to say, ten interceptions over the last three years. So
Speaker 1: they do have playmakers back there. But but certainly everything
Speaker 1: starts and stops with the coverage aspect of Josh Hi
Speaker 1: And they paid him a lot of money to be
Speaker 1: their number one and he's he's lived up to that
Speaker 1: so far. Yeah, as far as Washington's defensive front, not
Speaker 1: a lot of household names, I guess you would say,
Speaker 1: if there's one guy that stands out from a name perspective,
Speaker 1: it's pass rusher Ryan Carragan. But a group that is
Speaker 1: pretty solid. This is this isn't a defensive front seven
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's a bunch of pushovers by any means.
Speaker 1: They they do a solid job against the run, They
Speaker 1: get after quarterbacks pretty well. Again, it's it's not a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of Pro bowlers. And you know, the Packers
Speaker 1: are certainly faced their share of tough defront defensive fronts
Speaker 1: so far with the Bears and the Vikings. But but
Speaker 1: this Washington group is Uh, you know, they're not too bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Karagan was answering some questions with Washington's media this
Speaker 1: week about, you know, just kind of being off to
Speaker 1: a slow start. He has one assisted tackle i think
Speaker 1: in two games and in no sacks. So but yeah,
Speaker 1: he's been so consistent over the course of his career.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's pretty much always good for seven or
Speaker 1: eight sacks this season. They've featured him in this defense
Speaker 1: now for the last six seven years. He's been their
Speaker 1: number one guy, regardless of who the defensive coordinator is
Speaker 1: or what the scheme is. So um, you have to
Speaker 1: imagine that that's a guy they're still gonna have to
Speaker 1: you know, taking an account and in nullify and then uh,
Speaker 1: Parnel McPhee or pount whatever his name is from wah
Speaker 1: Chicago has also landed there as well, also off to
Speaker 1: kind of a slow start, but a guy that at
Speaker 1: times in his career has been in a really effective
Speaker 1: pass rusher. For me, one of my favorite guys in
Speaker 1: their defense is Mason Foster. Um, you know, and he's
Speaker 1: another guy too much like Swearinger h and also coming
Speaker 1: from Tampa Bay, was really able to sort of resurrect
Speaker 1: himself and was a guy that I think a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago at a hundred and twenties some tackles
Speaker 1: in this defense. He's a downhill type guy. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's the first and second down type, you know, tackler.
Speaker 1: But I think what he's done in Washington's defense the
Speaker 1: last three seasons, um, you have to you have to
Speaker 1: respect it because he's he's a dude that is a
Speaker 1: hard nosed football player. And then you also Pyerraim inside
Speaker 1: with Zach Brown, those are those are two guys you
Speaker 1: have to take into account against the run. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: what do you make overall of this Washington team? West?
Speaker 1: I know it's only two weeks in, but it seems
Speaker 1: it seems the narrative in the Jay Gruden regime there
Speaker 1: in Washington has always been a lack of consistency. And
Speaker 1: and it was the same thing with Kirk Cousins at quarterback.
Speaker 1: They could light the world on fire and look like
Speaker 1: they're gonna contend for the NFC's championship with Cowboys and
Speaker 1: the Eagles and the Giants and all that, and then
Speaker 1: the very next week, you know, they kind of fall
Speaker 1: flat on their face. And then everybody says well it's
Speaker 1: not going to be this year, and these first two
Speaker 1: games of the ten season, it's like the narrative hasn't changed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's probably gonna be. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: it's a make or break season for Gruden. I actually
Speaker 1: give the Washington credit for the patients they've had. They've
Speaker 1: tend to be quite reactionary with how they've done things,
Speaker 1: just a dad, But I mean, honestly think about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, outside of what Joe Gibbs coming back, there
Speaker 1: really hasn't been much patience there with coaches. They've given
Speaker 1: Gruden that benefit of the doubt, but at some point too,
Speaker 1: you do want to see the consistency rise. You want
Speaker 1: to see you know, things kind of you know pan out.
Speaker 1: But the one thing they have going for them now
Speaker 1: is one way or another, they know who their quarterback is.
Speaker 1: There isn't this year to year question mark of whether
Speaker 1: or not it's going to be Kirk Cousins. You know
Speaker 1: you're gonna have Alex Smith. He's still at a relatively
Speaker 1: young age for the position, considering how he plays it
Speaker 1: in and really how long these guys are playing into
Speaker 1: their careers. So from that aspect, I think you have
Speaker 1: something to build around. But it is gonna be a
Speaker 1: question of defensively they can really get the group together
Speaker 1: that they need to be able to compliment Smith because
Speaker 1: every every spot Smith has been as consistent as he is,
Speaker 1: he's needed a defensive compliment him for the short time
Speaker 1: he was with San Francisco when they started to become
Speaker 1: real contenders. He had that with Vic Fangio's group from
Speaker 1: Kansas City. You started to get that with Justin Houston
Speaker 1: and company. So it's gonna be on Washington defensively as
Speaker 1: well to be able to rise on the occasion and
Speaker 1: give him the support he needs to to really be
Speaker 1: the type of team that could consistently compete for a
Speaker 1: playoff spot. Yeah. Well, the Packers in the Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: era kind of a mixed bag, I guess. As far
Speaker 1: as going to FedEx Field, I remember being at the
Speaker 1: game in two thousand and end. Mason Crosby had a
Speaker 1: chance to win the game in regulation with a long
Speaker 1: field goal fifty three yards maybe it was, and ends
Speaker 1: up hitting the upright, you know, clank out the top
Speaker 1: of the upright. I mean the kick would have been
Speaker 1: good from sixty five yards. He hit it so well,
Speaker 1: but just nick the top of the upright and was
Speaker 1: no good there. Then you go. You fast forward to
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, the Packers end up going there
Speaker 1: as a road team in the wild card playoffs, fall
Speaker 1: behind the leven to nothing, and the FedEx Field crowd
Speaker 1: is really into it. They're thinking, okay, here, you know,
Speaker 1: here come the Redskins. And then the Packers outscoring thirty
Speaker 1: five to seven. The rest of the way, Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: puts on a show and the Packers defense clamps down.
Speaker 1: That was when J. C. Treader was playing left tackle,
Speaker 1: if I remember right, because box tr wasn't back from
Speaker 1: an ankle injury. Then the following year, sixteen, the Packers
Speaker 1: go to Washington for Sunday Night football, back and forth
Speaker 1: game through three quarters and then suddenly in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Cousins and the big plays just kind of smoked. Green
Speaker 1: Bay pulled a way at the end, and uh, that
Speaker 1: ended up being, if I'm not mistaken, the last loss,
Speaker 1: and that was the Packers until the NFC Championship game
Speaker 1: against Atlanta. So a lot of history here in terms
Speaker 1: of in terms of how the Packers have played there,
Speaker 1: but a lot of ups and downs run the table
Speaker 1: officially started that Wednesday after that Washington game, but but
Speaker 1: I eat in a lot of ways, I think it
Speaker 1: actually began in the second half because that's where you
Speaker 1: saw Jared Cook finally emerge. I still remember writing that
Speaker 1: story about you know, okay, this could be really big
Speaker 1: for the offensive. They keep Cook cohing like this. It
Speaker 1: was finally healthy. There just wasn't. They lost that game,
Speaker 1: but there was just a different swagger and uh, and
Speaker 1: certainly go back to the playoffs too, and in that
Speaker 1: win that they had, Uh, these past whatever was a
Speaker 1: couple of seasons ago, those are the type of to
Speaker 1: go back to original point with the mixed bag. Yes,
Speaker 1: there has been that, but it's also been at times
Speaker 1: I feel like they've also gotten something out of it
Speaker 1: to propel them forward. And you know, coming off the
Speaker 1: tie this week, I think they're looking for the same
Speaker 1: kind of uptick. Uh, you know, going into the latter
Speaker 1: half of September. All right, well, we are halfway through
Speaker 1: the We can We've got more to talk about with
Speaker 1: this matchup on our upcoming shows, but for now we're
Speaker 1: going to call it a wrap on this edition of
Speaker 1: Packers Unscript. To be sure to follow all of our
Speaker 1: coverage of the team on packers dot com. On Twitter,
Speaker 1: He's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers
Speaker 1: for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See
Speaker 1: you next time.