Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot com. I am Mike Spaffer, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Wes Hodkoitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our new studio inside the halls of lambeau
Speaker 1: Field and wes it Is. We have a lot of
Speaker 1: topics to cover there, but we will start with last
Speaker 1: weekend's rookie mini camp. We got a chance to meet
Speaker 1: some of these players see them on the practice field
Speaker 1: thoughough it was admittedly just kind of a jog through
Speaker 1: workout with some drills. Nothing too exciting there. But what
Speaker 1: were your first impressions of this small six player draft
Speaker 1: class for Green Bay.
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny, right because yes, small in terms of
Speaker 2: the numbers, but I mean some big people and it's
Speaker 2: no longer I think. One of the big changes that
Speaker 2: I remember. I remember my first few years on the beat.
Speaker 2: You know, you'd get in a fabians of belly in here, right,
Speaker 2: it was like six foot eight tackle. You get some
Speaker 2: of these massive dudes at these various positions. And as
Speaker 2: time has passed on in the NFL, one thing I've
Speaker 2: noticed is it's not so much just about the size
Speaker 2: of the player anymore, it's about the proportionality of him
Speaker 2: and at his respective position. Right when you see Brandon
Speaker 2: cc and Demani Jackson at the cornerback position, they're not
Speaker 2: that much bigger than you and I, but just how
Speaker 2: thick they are, right, just how strong they are in
Speaker 2: that type of you know, body type. These aren't just
Speaker 2: five foot eleven cornerbacks that are one hundred and seventy pounds.
Speaker 2: I mean, these guys are hovering right around the two
Speaker 2: hundred pound mark and still being able to possess that
Speaker 2: type of speed that they have, in that explosiveness that
Speaker 2: they have. And then probably the most fascinating of all
Speaker 2: for me was Chris McClellan because you and I wrote
Speaker 2: all the stories this past week, we had the conversations
Speaker 2: on on scripted about him, but then you see him
Speaker 2: in person and when you think about, you know, low
Speaker 2: man wins, I mean, it's tough just looking at him,
Speaker 2: probably for an interior offensive linemen to anchor get down
Speaker 2: and move that type of body type with his length,
Speaker 2: his physicality, in his size. So it was an eye
Speaker 2: opening experience because as far as the actual practice itself,
Speaker 2: Matt Lafuir touched on. I mean, this thing is not
Speaker 2: the way it was even when I started covering this
Speaker 2: team in twenty twelve. There's no helmets, there's no shells.
Speaker 2: These guys are going out there almost for like a
Speaker 2: jog through type practice while putting a heavy emphasis on
Speaker 2: the mental side of things. So when we get them
Speaker 2: in pads, when we get them in helmets, when we
Speaker 2: get to see a little bit more of them in ota,
Speaker 2: you can draw bigger conclusions as far as the players
Speaker 2: were dealing with. But when you're talking about investing those
Speaker 2: six picks into these type of prospects, you can clearly
Speaker 2: visibly see why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with some of these guys, when you get that,
Speaker 1: you get that first physical impression, when you get to
Speaker 1: see them in person. I mean we've seen, you know,
Speaker 1: all the highlights on the videos and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, but when you actually get to see them
Speaker 1: in person, it's like there's always sort of a one
Speaker 1: word initial reaction for me that comes to mind, the
Speaker 1: word thick with regard to the cornerbacks, being you know,
Speaker 1: the smaller body types, but there's a solidness there. The
Speaker 1: word thick is what came to mind for me with
Speaker 1: Jagger Burton as soon as I saw him. That is
Speaker 1: not a small man. I mean, he he has got
Speaker 1: he has got some size and some stoutness to him.
Speaker 1: With Chris McColl and, the word leverage comes to mind,
Speaker 1: right because of the body type that he has. And
Speaker 1: then when I see denied Dennis Sutton, it's the word
Speaker 1: length because it's not something I really noticed watching his
Speaker 1: highlights from Penn State, but getting to see him in person,
Speaker 1: it's like, Wow, Not only is he so tall that
Speaker 1: he kind you know, his head kind of stands up
Speaker 1: a little bit higher in the defensive huddle, but then
Speaker 1: the length of his arms when you look at like
Speaker 1: the wingspan, and we were talking about, you know, separation
Speaker 1: with you know why they measure arm length and all
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff that goes on at the combine.
Speaker 1: You see like, oh, that's what the scouts like to see,
Speaker 1: That's what they're interested in, right, So you get those
Speaker 1: you get those initial physical impressions at first glance. I
Speaker 1: thought some of the stories that we heard too, just
Speaker 1: in the in the media scrums at their lockers. I
Speaker 1: mean hearing that Tray Smack, who was a lacrosse player, right,
Speaker 1: how he basically became a kicker because of the COVID pandemic,
Speaker 1: Like he's looking for something to do outside, doesn't want
Speaker 1: to be, you know, all cooped up inside all the time.
Speaker 1: And his high school took down all the lacrosse goals,
Speaker 1: you know, so he couldn't go out and just practice
Speaker 1: lacrosse on his own with nobody around. But what couldn't
Speaker 1: they take down the goalposts on the football field. So
Speaker 1: he started kicking field goals like on his own, and
Speaker 1: lo and behold, a handful of years later, he's a
Speaker 1: decorated kicker at a major college program like Florida, and
Speaker 1: he gets drafted in the NFL. You know, stories like that,
Speaker 1: and then and then to watch Deny Dennis Sutton introduce
Speaker 1: himself to every member of the media that came over
Speaker 1: to his locker before we all started asking questions and stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, just getting that first taste of the personality
Speaker 1: of these guys in a little bit about their backgrounds
Speaker 1: was fun too.
Speaker 2: And if you looking at smack too, if you want
Speaker 2: to talk about I don't know if you don't call
Speaker 2: it divine intervention or just destiny, but the fact that
Speaker 2: he makes that decision to start kicking right and then
Speaker 2: what ends up happening one of his teammates on the
Speaker 2: lacrosse team. Oh yeah, his dad's Matt Stover. So it's
Speaker 2: like you got a guy that kicked in a league
Speaker 2: for what fifteen years, just happens to be a parent
Speaker 2: on your lacrosse team. And then is a guy that
Speaker 2: Trey was able to use as a resource early on
Speaker 2: as well. The pathway and we talk about it every year,
Speaker 2: but the path that these guys take and how you
Speaker 2: bring together all these guys from all these various colleges,
Speaker 2: from the SEC and one from the Big Ten, it
Speaker 2: allows you to kind of gain an appreciation for just
Speaker 2: how I don't want to say random, because certainly all
Speaker 2: these guys have worked hard to get here, but just
Speaker 2: how fortuitous it is for these guys to land in
Speaker 2: Green Bay, Wisconsin. And every single time we walk in
Speaker 2: there for the rookie orientation camp and after the practice
Speaker 2: when we have the locker room availability, I'm constantly teleported
Speaker 2: back to the first time we talked to Aaron Jones
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen, the first time we talked to Rashan Gary.
Speaker 2: I wasn't there for it, but I'm sure you remember
Speaker 2: when BJ Raji and Clay Matthews both came into town
Speaker 2: for the first time. Absolutely, you don't know who these
Speaker 2: players are going to become. You don't know when you're
Speaker 2: gonna eventually stumble on the next Jordan Love or Aaron
Speaker 2: Rodgers or Jordy Nelson, Right, And for these guys to
Speaker 2: come in now, get their feet wet and understand the
Speaker 2: system and seeing if they can integrate themselves now in
Speaker 2: time for OTA's in mini camp. This is where the
Speaker 2: journey starts. This is the beginning of the board game.
Speaker 2: And I want to close on this as well because
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought up the pointball Burton because when
Speaker 2: I looked at him for the first time when he's
Speaker 2: standing at his locker, his body type and I don't
Speaker 2: know the comparables at all in terms of bench or
Speaker 2: forties or he reminds me so much of Corey Linsley
Speaker 2: in the way that his shoulders are, the way his
Speaker 2: body is, and I think it just goes back to
Speaker 2: just that center sort of prototype, the traditional center prototype.
Speaker 2: And as Adam Stenovich said in the availability we had
Speaker 2: with him afterwards, you know, he looks at Burton as
Speaker 2: a guy that that is his natural position. They'll obviously
Speaker 2: see what else he can do at that interior spot,
Speaker 2: the two guard positions. But the Green Bay Packers, again,
Speaker 2: my whole point has been, we did total Packers yesterday.
Speaker 2: We shot that. I didn't feel like they needed a
Speaker 2: dozen picks in this thing. They found a few good men,
Speaker 2: and I feel like that's going to be exactly what
Speaker 2: they need now to get them across the finish line
Speaker 2: here in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we also heard from on Monday this week
Speaker 1: the Packers coordinators, and we're going to be hearing from
Speaker 1: the other assistant coaches on both sides of the ball
Speaker 1: over the next couple of days, and on our next
Speaker 1: show we'll be able to talk about what we heard
Speaker 1: from them. But as far as the coordinators go, this
Speaker 1: was our first time, our first chance from the media
Speaker 1: to get a chance to talk to new defensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Jonathan Gannon, new special teams coordinator Cam Acord. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because you know, then, like Adam Stenovitch also what
Speaker 1: he walks into the new media auditorium and he's like
Speaker 1: never been in there, right, He's got to like take
Speaker 1: a moment to soak it all in because I mean
Speaker 1: for so long. I mean all you know, the first
Speaker 1: you know, twenty years that I've been here, it was
Speaker 1: that other media Like this is the first time other
Speaker 1: than when you kind of do a one off somewhere
Speaker 1: upstairs on the fourth floor or whatever, like all the
Speaker 1: media stuff has always been in the same place, and
Speaker 1: now there's this whole new room and everybody's getting used
Speaker 1: to it.
Speaker 2: Where was it physically before that? Before in twenty three,
Speaker 2: when they did the renovations for the I never saw
Speaker 2: the original media auditorium, do you remember it? All?
Speaker 1: It's it was basically the same place where the yeah,
Speaker 1: where the one was, and then they just did a
Speaker 1: little bit like of a renovation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thanks for answering that question for me.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, it was it was I would say,
Speaker 1: a little bit smaller though not and didn't have you know,
Speaker 1: didn't have like the kind of the fancy permanent background
Speaker 1: and the nice chairs and all that. It was. Now
Speaker 1: we got a digital a little bit was a little
Speaker 1: bit more primitive. But yeah, now we have this like
Speaker 1: digital screen back there that flips around with the different
Speaker 1: advertisements and and everything else. But but I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, I mean, I guess again, it's another first
Speaker 1: impressions kind of question. But you know, whether you want
Speaker 1: to talk about Gannon or a Chord, which of the
Speaker 1: two new coordinators? What were what were your first thoughts.
Speaker 2: Well, let's start on Gannon because obviously that's been a
Speaker 2: popular topic throughout the offseason. I thought you wrote a
Speaker 2: really nice story on packers dot com. Uh, kind of
Speaker 2: exploring his philosophy as a coach, as a defensive mind,
Speaker 2: and obviously the new chapter that he's starting in his
Speaker 2: career here. He had those three years in Arizona and
Speaker 2: he mentioned, you know, the learning experience that that was
Speaker 2: for him and realistically how much he enjoyed these last
Speaker 2: two and a half months just sitting down and kind
Speaker 2: of talking shop with matt Le the Fluyrd, learning how
Speaker 2: he runs his program, what he looks for in you know,
Speaker 2: building culture and unity, and obviously the success that Green
Speaker 2: Bays had over the last seven years. But beyond that,
Speaker 2: now Gannon inherits this defense that helped catapult Jeff Hafley
Speaker 2: to an NFL head coach opportunity in Miami and seeing
Speaker 2: what his stamp is going to be there. And in
Speaker 2: one of the big takeaways was I know it was
Speaker 2: the center of your story. It's the idea of the personnel.
Speaker 2: Over the playbook. They will have concepts, as he said,
Speaker 2: they'll have their bullets, their staples, the things that they
Speaker 2: want to do defensively. But more than anything, he's going
Speaker 2: to look at the totality of this roster and OTAs
Speaker 2: in mini camp, get through training camp, and then that'll
Speaker 2: be them deciding, Hey, what direction they're going to go,
Speaker 2: what they're going to do well. And you know, I
Speaker 2: saw some fans, you know, I think there's some people
Speaker 2: that want to hear more absolutes. They want to hear
Speaker 2: you know, this is what the playbook is, and this
Speaker 2: is what the players are going to need to do it.
Speaker 2: And if you can't do it, we're going to find
Speaker 2: somebody else. Right, That's the way fans like to think
Speaker 2: a lot of times. Yeah, but in a way it
Speaker 2: was more after the fact. It wasn't foreshadowing. But this
Speaker 2: is what Jeff Haffley did over the last two years.
Speaker 2: Jeff Haffley came in talking about a four to three front,
Speaker 2: talking about it being a vision based defense and whether
Speaker 2: it was injuries or just figuring out what the players
Speaker 2: are doing best, they made those adjustments. The thing I
Speaker 2: get a big kick out of, and then I'll toss
Speaker 2: this back to you, is this idea of the three
Speaker 2: four four three. It's been almost become a cliche about
Speaker 2: how that doesn't really matter anymore. Yeah, but if you
Speaker 2: want the ultimate example of why that doesn't matter, just
Speaker 2: look at what Green Bay did defensively last year. Lucas
Speaker 2: Vaness was standing up at times, Kingsley inning Bari was
Speaker 2: standing up at times, Rashaan Gary was standing up at times.
Speaker 2: It's all about what the vision is to the quarterback.
Speaker 2: That's the only thing between the two and three point
Speaker 2: stance that really matters anymore. And yes, while the base
Speaker 2: front is a big point of interest for the run game,
Speaker 2: we all know what third down pass rushes look like
Speaker 2: now right, it's a four man front. It's two interior
Speaker 2: mostly three tech defensive tackles and two guys coming off
Speaker 2: the edges. Doesn't matter what your base defense is.
Speaker 1: Right, And then are you gonna bluff with a blitzer
Speaker 1: off the slot or bluff in the A gap or
Speaker 1: you know who might be an extra guy that's coming
Speaker 1: and you're trying to keep the offense guessing. Like all that,
Speaker 1: everybody does. Everybody does the same stuff. It's just how
Speaker 1: do they make it look so that they make it
Speaker 1: more challenging for the offense to try to figure it out.
Speaker 1: But everybody's doing the same thing. It's just it's what
Speaker 1: the presentation of it is to try to get that,
Speaker 1: you know, that extra half a step or that extra
Speaker 1: half a second that gives you the edge on a
Speaker 1: particular play. What I find with with regard to Gannon
Speaker 1: and him putting this defense together, and you mentioned obviously
Speaker 1: you just go back a couple of years and the
Speaker 1: Packers are doing this with Halfley, and I said at
Speaker 1: the time on this show, I said it an insider
Speaker 1: inbox that a new coordinator comes in like this, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be an evolution to the defense, right, And we
Speaker 1: saw it in Halfley's first year, and Matt Lafleurs said
Speaker 1: it several times. He thought they were just going to
Speaker 1: be a rush for cover seven, vision to the quarterback
Speaker 1: and all this. Well, the way things turned out, the
Speaker 1: Packers weren't that great at rushing for and getting pressure
Speaker 1: on the quarterback. So then Halflee had to get all
Speaker 1: creative with you know, sending gays from different areas and
Speaker 1: maybe dropping other guys into coverage, and you know, it
Speaker 1: was still a lot of rush for it just wasn't
Speaker 1: always the four guys that you thought were gonna rush
Speaker 1: right like, and so they weren't just a conventional four
Speaker 1: man front. You know, get after the quarterback and drop
Speaker 1: seven into coverage. There was an evolution there with Gannon.
Speaker 1: There's going to be an evolution as well, both from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of Okay, him figuring out, Okay, what do
Speaker 1: the guys do best? And then you know the new rookies,
Speaker 1: the draft picks, is there a place for them in
Speaker 1: the rotation, et cetera. But then you also have, okay,
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season, is Davante Wyatt gonna
Speaker 1: be full go or there gonna be some ramp up
Speaker 1: with him coming back from the broken leg? Micah Parsons,
Speaker 1: we know he's most likely not gonna be ready for
Speaker 1: week one, but when does he get back, and then
Speaker 1: what does the ramp up look like for him? And
Speaker 1: then when you get into October and November, this could
Speaker 1: be a totally different looking defense than the one that's
Speaker 1: gonna start the season in Week one. So not only
Speaker 1: is that sort of Gannon's approach, in general in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not planning to walk into week one with, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's our playbook for the season, and this is what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. He's gonna see what the guys do,
Speaker 1: what they do well, and you're sort of building on
Speaker 1: a playbook as the season goes along. Then you add
Speaker 1: in the personnel stuff with guys coming back from injury.
Speaker 1: We may not really know exactly what this defense is
Speaker 1: going to hang its hat on, so to speak, until
Speaker 1: we get halfway, two thirds, three quarters of the way
Speaker 1: through the season, but it feels like this defense when
Speaker 1: you look at Jonathan Gannon's track record what he did
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia as a defensive coordinator, he certainly didn't have
Speaker 1: the success in Arizona as a head coach, but hearing
Speaker 1: from Matt Lafleuur having gone against him a couple times,
Speaker 1: it was not an Arizona defense that was ever a
Speaker 1: pushover by any means. There were a lot of challenges
Speaker 1: in preparing for that unit, and that's partly what attracted
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur to hire Gannon. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: fascinating to see just the process and the progress and
Speaker 1: where this thing ends up in November in December with
Speaker 1: Gannon at the controls of the defense compared to just
Speaker 1: this starting phase right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the two other things I really liked that
Speaker 2: Jonathan talked about. One was the idea of that you
Speaker 2: don't want to get check made it before the snap,
Speaker 2: and that's where all the guy. You know, when you
Speaker 2: look at the disguise of what defenses are doing, not
Speaker 2: allowing offenses to catch wind of things before the play happens,
Speaker 2: that's going to be critical. It was critical with Jeff Hafley,
Speaker 2: It's going to be critical with Gannon. But you know,
Speaker 2: when it comes to individual players, you know, he was
Speaker 2: asked about Javon Hargrove and Hargrave excuse me, and the
Speaker 2: time that they had together in Philadelphia, and he talked about,
Speaker 2: you know that Hargrave was the one that made the plays. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I think that's a very humble, well done approach.
Speaker 2: And Hargrave was a very good player even before Gannon
Speaker 2: got there, but he took his game to another level
Speaker 2: in Gannon's defense. He became a pro bowler. He had
Speaker 2: an eleven and a half sax season. He made those
Speaker 2: steps that you want to see from a guy entering
Speaker 2: the prime of his career. Then you go back to
Speaker 2: last season in Arizona, Kalayas Campbell's thirty nine years old, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, like, are these last few years like what
Speaker 2: these guys have been able to do in his scheme?
Speaker 2: He has found ways to make guys better. And when
Speaker 2: you're looking at the transition here from Halfley to Gannon,
Speaker 2: I think that's the parallel. It's gonna be different defenses,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be different philosophies, They're gonna win in different ways.
Speaker 2: But it's how do you take the guys that you have?
Speaker 2: How do you take an Drin Cooper in his skill
Speaker 2: set and elevate him? And I think that's gonna be
Speaker 2: the most intriguing thing. The weird part is going to be,
Speaker 2: like you said, this defense by year's end is likely
Speaker 2: going to look vastly different than it will those first
Speaker 2: few weeks, especially if Micah Parsis isn't back on the
Speaker 2: field yet. But what does a Baron Surrell do, What
Speaker 2: does a Lucas van Esk do? How do the guys
Speaker 2: that get those opportunities early in the season maximize them?
Speaker 2: And it's the biggest question mark but I think it's
Speaker 2: also what allows this defense to have the highest ceiling.
Speaker 2: Now going into twenty twenty six, Well, I want to
Speaker 2: get your thoughts on new Special teams coordinator Cam Acord
Speaker 2: as well. But take a quick break to pay a
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Speaker 2: Twenty four seven, three sixty five. Welcome back to Packers unscripted.
Speaker 2: All right, Wes, New Special teams Coordinator Cam Acord. I
Speaker 2: don't know if I, in all my years of doing this,
Speaker 2: if I have ever seen somebody's you know, coaching history
Speaker 2: and we look, you know, whether you're looking at guys
Speaker 2: like rich Basaccia or even Adam Stenovich for that matter,
Speaker 2: like you always see, oh, he, you know, worked at
Speaker 2: this college in this college and then you know, goes
Speaker 2: to the NFL, maybe goes back to college like Jeff
Speaker 2: Haffley did, and then you get back into the NFL.
Speaker 2: All these guys have all these different histories. I don't
Speaker 2: know if I've ever seen somebody like cam Accord who
Speaker 2: went straight from working at the junior college level to
Speaker 2: the NFL, and he talked about that it was his
Speaker 2: connection with Joe Judge and getting an opportunity to h
Speaker 2: to be hired by him and work alongside him in
Speaker 2: the NFL. And he's, uh, he's made it work because
Speaker 2: he's been in the NFL quite a while now. He's
Speaker 2: been a special teams coordinator in the past as well
Speaker 2: as a special team's assistant, worked with some different programs.
Speaker 2: I mean, he you know, he worked his way up
Speaker 2: under Bill Belichick, so there's something to be said for
Speaker 2: that as well.
Speaker 1: I just don't know if I've ever quite seen somebody
Speaker 1: with with his background in terms of making that jump
Speaker 1: all the way from junior college to the NFL. It's
Speaker 1: like he skipped Division III and Division one and the
Speaker 1: Power Conference to you know, to get to the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's like he skipped all of that. But man, he
Speaker 1: sure made it work.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what, man, when you when you're
Speaker 2: talking about paying dues in the coaching realm and obviously
Speaker 2: now last chance you those type of programs have kind
Speaker 2: of shined a bigger light in junior college football. But
Speaker 2: I remember even my first few years, the Packers had
Speaker 2: a number of players that had gone the JUCO route
Speaker 2: at the event, they ended up drafting and talking to
Speaker 2: those coaches about what those trials and tribulations can be like,
Speaker 2: not just from the player standpoint, but recruiting, getting kids
Speaker 2: to your program, not having a lot of resources. As
Speaker 2: he even mentioned in his situation, I think there was
Speaker 2: three assistant coaches. So you're wearing multiple hats, you're recruiting,
Speaker 2: you're doing everything you can.
Speaker 1: And you're the grounds crew for the field too wild.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, you got it. It's it's as close.
Speaker 2: It's almost like coaching high school football, but without the resources, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, in some ways you're so stretched, you're so strained,
Speaker 2: and yet by the way, at best you're gonna have
Speaker 2: these kids for a year or two before they're going
Speaker 2: on to new opportunities. So it takes a lot, and
Speaker 2: you have to network, you have to know people, and
Speaker 2: I definitely respected that. That was the first thing that
Speaker 2: jumped out to me about Acorn when we saw his
Speaker 2: resume and where he came from. In addition to the
Speaker 2: fact that Bill Belichick, maybe more than any other head
Speaker 2: coach that I can recall in the NFL, has paid
Speaker 2: placed a heavy, heavy emphasis on special teams. It was
Speaker 2: his staple. Matthew Slater right eighteen years whatever ended up
Speaker 2: be in the NFL, him drafting Joe Cardona out of
Speaker 2: Navy as a long snapper, I think in the sixth round.
Speaker 2: I mean, they worked so hard and emphasized that phase
Speaker 2: so much that in addition to Tom Brady, in addition
Speaker 2: to some of the things they did defensively with multiple
Speaker 2: schemes and whatnot, he almost sometimes forgot about just how
Speaker 2: brilliant they were on special teams in the prime years
Speaker 2: of the Patriots dynasty.
Speaker 1: And they had top of the line kickers like Adam
Speaker 1: Vinettieri and Stephen Guskowski, who are both longtime guys who
Speaker 1: got it done for them as well.
Speaker 2: And now you have a guy in Acord that learned
Speaker 2: from Judge, he learned from Belichick and has been able
Speaker 2: to put his own spin on it as a special
Speaker 2: teams coordinator in the NFL for multiple years. Him getting
Speaker 2: this opportunity, he said, you know, he was kind of
Speaker 2: waiting to see exactly where things were gonna fall after
Speaker 2: his two years in New York. Obviously, you know, John
Speaker 2: Harbaugh goes there. He has his own philosophies He's also
Speaker 2: a special teams coach by trade, so Acord is kind
Speaker 2: of on the outside looking in, working the phones, trying
Speaker 2: to see what's going to happen. And then here you
Speaker 2: go in Green Bay with Rich Pisacci kind of stepping
Speaker 2: away in the eleventh hour, and he gets this chance
Speaker 2: to come in and taking all of those fundamentals, everything
Speaker 2: he's learned, still only thirty nine years old right now,
Speaker 2: and bringing that to Green Bay, a place that has
Speaker 2: struggled in that phase for better part of a decade.
Speaker 2: That is, he is the new guy that's going to
Speaker 2: be sort of trying to push this thing for it.
Speaker 2: I think the emphasis is there. Brian Goodikuin's talked about it.
Speaker 2: After the season. They've put so much, you know, focus
Speaker 2: now on identifying special teams talent with their roster, certainly
Speaker 2: Daniel Wheeland becoming a Pro Bowl caliber punter. I think
Speaker 2: you've seen that change. They have stability there with you know,
Speaker 2: Matthew orzik As the long snapper. Now they're just trying
Speaker 2: to find that kicker. They're trying to find that returner.
Speaker 2: Acord's going to take all that stuff. But more than
Speaker 2: anything that he said during that I thought was really
Speaker 2: critical was the idea of he used the baseball analogy,
Speaker 2: which I'm sure you loved, but the idea of just
Speaker 2: hitting singles in waiting for the pitcher to hang one
Speaker 2: out there and finally hit your home run, wait for
Speaker 2: them to make a mistake. I think that's what green
Speaker 2: Bay needs to get back to. It needs to get
Speaker 2: back to a position in which, yes, you're making plays
Speaker 2: consistently and then eventually the explosive plays happened. But at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, the job of special teams
Speaker 2: is to get that ball to the offense. Acord realizes
Speaker 2: that he knows that, and that's going to be the
Speaker 2: big thing that green Bay's focusing on now entering this
Speaker 2: upcoming season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're seeing the commitment there. I mean, for
Speaker 1: the second year in a row, the Packers have made
Speaker 1: an offseason move to try to boost the return game
Speaker 1: and ended up not working out with McCole Hardman, he
Speaker 1: did not make the fifty three man roster coming out
Speaker 1: in training camp this year. The investment is in sky Moore.
Speaker 1: It's a bigger investment. It's a guy who was in
Speaker 1: the top ten in the league in both kickoff and
Speaker 1: pump returns. Last year Packers looking for the boost in
Speaker 1: that area. As you mentioned, they're going to figure out
Speaker 1: who who this kicker will be. And I thought a
Speaker 1: Chord's answer when he was asked about something along along
Speaker 1: the lines of, you know, what do you think about,
Speaker 1: you know, having this three headed kicker competition, he was
Speaker 1: sort of like, well, I've had four before, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it doesn't phase him, right, It's like this is
Speaker 1: to him, this is all just part of the process.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it doesn't matter that one guy is a rookie,
Speaker 1: one guy is sort of a first or second year
Speaker 1: type player with a little bit of experience, and then
Speaker 1: one guy is is an eleven twelve year vet in
Speaker 1: the league. It's all part of the process. It has
Speaker 1: to it has to work itself out to see who
Speaker 1: is going to be the right guy for the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six Green Bay Packers in that spot. And uh
Speaker 1: and the Packers will figure it out and move forward.
Speaker 1: You uh, you like you like obviously a Chords energy
Speaker 1: and the experience and everything he brings. I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to get used to that Mississippi accent at the podium. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that one's that's a little harder for me to
Speaker 1: to tune into. I will get used to it. But
Speaker 1: U but a different you know, he's from a different
Speaker 1: part of the country. Coaches from down in that area
Speaker 1: are and all that frequent up here. And not to
Speaker 1: say that there haven't been, there have certainly been coachesurgh guys. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: we get we get more of the Midwestern the mid
Speaker 1: Western types around here. But no, I think it it's
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be very interesting because the Packers have, as he
Speaker 1: even said it not so much in a comparative sense,
Speaker 1: but we can say it in a comparative sense. The
Speaker 1: Packers seem to have more pieces in place right now
Speaker 1: on special teams than they've had in the past. You
Speaker 1: mentioned wheel, and yes, they have to figure out the kicker.
Speaker 1: You have the long snapper, you've made the investment in
Speaker 1: the returner, and you have you know, these guys like
Speaker 1: Isaiah McDuffie and others who who are the leaders in
Speaker 1: that special team room when when they're going over film
Speaker 1: and all that. So, so let's see what cam Acord
Speaker 1: can do it.
Speaker 2: And I know I got a lot of pushback from
Speaker 2: Packer fans after the season when I kind of gave
Speaker 2: Rich Bisaci as flowers and I understand you can. You
Speaker 2: can throw the Goslin rankings at me and everything else
Speaker 2: in the areas where Green Bay struggled, certainly the Chicago
Speaker 2: game this past year, that was a big blunder, not
Speaker 2: being able to get that on side kick lad It
Speaker 2: cost them the game. But one thing I will always
Speaker 2: reiterate with Pisacchi is they had to start from ground
Speaker 2: zero in twenty twenty two. The only thing they had
Speaker 2: really returning was Mason Crosby. And I'm not talking about specialists.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about really their entire special team's roster. Right
Speaker 2: there was a reason why Zane Anderson was brought in
Speaker 2: at the end of camp. In what it was at
Speaker 2: twenty two or twenty three, they had to find new
Speaker 2: pieces and build out their core specialists. A guy like
Speaker 2: Isaiah McDuffie went from a guy that barely played special
Speaker 2: teams his rookie year in twenty twenty one was almost
Speaker 2: like a clean scratch type player to last year he
Speaker 2: was their special teams captain. Yeah, over those four years.
Speaker 2: So that's the situation that Acord walks into. I think
Speaker 2: it's definitely in a better spot than it was back
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, but unequivocally the Packers have to
Speaker 2: make a big step forward there. And whether it was
Speaker 2: the missfield goals, whether it was some of the blunders,
Speaker 2: you know, fumbles, just not enough production on punt return
Speaker 2: all those things Green Bay needs to improve in. And
Speaker 2: I think when you look at the competition at this
Speaker 2: roster right now, it's going to be in a position
Speaker 2: to improve because from whether it's you're playing guard on
Speaker 2: punt coverage or you're a flyer. I mean, if you're
Speaker 2: a jammer, you're a returner. I don't think there's one
Speaker 2: set spot going into this thing into the training camp
Speaker 2: in the off season. So Packers have a big, long
Speaker 2: way to go there. But acourt is obviously with his energy,
Speaker 2: what he brings to the table in terms of his coaching,
Speaker 2: in his background, this is a guy I think the
Speaker 2: Packers feel really good about.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean what we've seen over the years is
Speaker 1: when when there's a mistake that's made on special teams, right,
Speaker 1: And the one that always sticks out to me last
Speaker 1: year early in the year was the blocked field goal
Speaker 1: in Cleveland that cost the Packers a victory. That's a
Speaker 1: weakness in your unit that then everybody is going to
Speaker 1: try to exploit until you prove that you can fix it.
Speaker 1: And then what happened the following week. Another kick got blocked,
Speaker 1: It was run back for two points. It was a
Speaker 1: three point swing in a game that ended up being
Speaker 1: an overtime. I'm ty those are the kind those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things the Packers need to fix in
Speaker 1: terms of the film. But then it's also the individual performances.
Speaker 1: It's the kicker has to make the kick, it's the
Speaker 1: guy has to recover the on side kick when everything
Speaker 1: is set up for him to do his job. So
Speaker 1: there's always it's always a combination of the preparation and
Speaker 1: the performance right, and so the Packers definitely need to
Speaker 1: get that squared away. Last topic for today, something that
Speaker 1: we didn't necessarily see coming yesterday with all the other
Speaker 1: stuff that was going on and coming off of the
Speaker 1: rookie mini camp weekend. But there's a new backup quarterback
Speaker 1: in town. His name is Tyrod Taylor. The Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers have signed the veteran who has played for I
Speaker 1: believe it's seven different teams in the breed to this
Speaker 1: point and released Desmond Ritter. So the backup quarterbacks now
Speaker 1: behind Jordan Love are Tyrod Taylor, Kyle McCord, and the
Speaker 1: undrafted rookie Kyon Drones. Both Taylor and Drones coming from
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech. Different generation years apart, different generations based on
Speaker 1: the age gap there. But your thoughts on your thoughts
Speaker 1: on the Packers bringing in Tyrod Taylor here in early May.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an incredible signing. I really enjoyed this one.
Speaker 2: I did not see it coming in some ways, I
Speaker 2: guess I should have, because, as I've talked about an
Speaker 2: insider inbox, I think we've discussed a little bit here.
Speaker 2: The window for the unrestricted free agency ended with the
Speaker 2: NFL Draft the Monday after the draft. That's over. So
Speaker 2: anybody that signs now, even if you had an expiring
Speaker 2: contract from last season, you no longer count towards the
Speaker 2: compensatory process. And we know how much Green Bay wanted
Speaker 2: to protect those picks. Because that last compensatory pick right now,
Speaker 2: King Zy and and Bari, that's gonna end up being
Speaker 2: a sixth round pick at least for green Bay. It's
Speaker 2: not like we're talking about some like late seventh round.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's a big asset. So with the
Speaker 2: way the net loss formula works out, they had to
Speaker 2: be very pragmatic about who they signed and when they
Speaker 2: signed them, including sky Moore, who doesn't affect it because
Speaker 2: of where his base salary was at anyway, more details
Speaker 2: than I'm sure most Packer fans want to get. But
Speaker 2: what I like about Taylor coming in now is there's
Speaker 2: a there's a dual effect here. One certainly you get
Speaker 2: a guy that has done it at a high level,
Speaker 2: has seen it all sixty two starts in the league,
Speaker 2: one hundred games, played some really intriguing stats when you
Speaker 2: look at over twelve thousand passing yards, over two thousand
Speaker 2: rushing yards, his touchdowns, the fact he's only thrown thirty
Speaker 2: four interception his career. He's done a really good job
Speaker 2: of protecting the football when he has been out there.
Speaker 2: The only thing that ever really held him back, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, was the injuries, because who even knows what
Speaker 2: happens in twenty eighteen in Cleveland. If he doesn't get
Speaker 2: injured right off the bat, I think it was the
Speaker 2: injury or the rib cartilage issue or something like that.
Speaker 2: If I remember call. This is a guy that had
Speaker 2: an opportunity to start originally in you know, with the Chargers.
Speaker 2: You know there there was a potential there for him
Speaker 2: to do it Houston obviously, with a lot of these
Speaker 2: things that were going on there, and for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: mostly injury related, he's just never been able to get
Speaker 2: back off the ground in terms of the starting role
Speaker 2: like he had for three years in Buffalo. But this
Speaker 2: is an amazing story and a guy that came in
Speaker 2: as a six round pick is only one of five
Speaker 2: players I think left from his draft class in twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: the tied for the fifth longest tenured player in the
Speaker 2: league now at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's only one other quarterback from that draft class,
Speaker 1: and that being Andy Dalton, who's kind of bouncing around
Speaker 1: as a backup much like Taylor is doing.
Speaker 2: And it's wild too when you think about, you know,
Speaker 2: Cam Newton was the number one overall pick in that draft. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and Newton's been out of the game now for three
Speaker 2: four years already. So NFL careers, none of them are
Speaker 2: the same, right, everybody has their own path. But going
Speaker 2: into this thirty seven years old, I just think there's
Speaker 2: so much that Taylor can give Jordan Love, who's sitting
Speaker 2: firmly in that QB one spot face of the franchise spot.
Speaker 2: He did it with Aaron Rodgers two years ago with
Speaker 2: the New York Jets seconding him. And at the same time,
Speaker 2: whether it's Drones McCord, any young quarterback that potentially comes
Speaker 2: into that room this year, that is a wily vet
Speaker 2: that has been through it all in the NFL and
Speaker 2: has lived to tell the tale. And I just feel
Speaker 2: like this is the type of guy at this point
Speaker 2: in time when you look for experience on your roster,
Speaker 2: he can bring a lot to that locker room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you look at why did the Packers make
Speaker 1: this move? What attracted them to Tyrod Taylor experience, A
Speaker 1: proven track record, He's got twenty nine victories in the
Speaker 1: NFL as a starting quarterback. And then what you mentioned
Speaker 1: also ball security, sixty two starts, only thirty four interceptions
Speaker 1: for a guy who most of the time through his
Speaker 1: career has either come off the bench or been an
Speaker 1: emergency starter filling in for somebody for injury. Ever since
Speaker 1: he left Buffalo to not have a track record of
Speaker 1: turning the ball over and putting your team in bad spots.
Speaker 1: That matters in those situations as well, and hopefully the
Speaker 1: hopefully Tyrod Taylor doesn't have to play for the Greebia
Speaker 1: Packers in twenty twenty six, right, but the Packers are
Speaker 1: trying to protect themselves and if something were to happen
Speaker 1: to Jordan Love, as it's happened at different times over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, they have somebody that they
Speaker 1: can turn to, that they they can feel they can
Speaker 1: rely on.
Speaker 2: And with respect to Desmond Rider, because obviously he was
Speaker 2: a third round pick in the league. He started games
Speaker 2: for two years in Atlanta. The thing about it was, though,
Speaker 2: as Ridder the last year has been with like four
Speaker 2: five different teams. He got cut. He had a small
Speaker 2: stint there with the Vikings and a few weeks later
Speaker 2: signed with Green Bay. At the end of the season,
Speaker 2: I just felt like, if you weren't going to draft
Speaker 2: a quarterback, ultimately this was the route Green Bay was
Speaker 2: going to have to go, because you need somebody in
Speaker 2: that number two spot that whether it's his makeup and
Speaker 2: in tangibles and upside like it was with Jordan Love
Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty to twenty twenty two, or it's
Speaker 2: somebody like Taylor who has been there, done that, and
Speaker 2: then some you could always count on, potentially the end
Speaker 2: of training camp finding another league Willis, but I think
Speaker 2: it's going to be very difficult to find that guy
Speaker 2: again for a seventh round pick. Yeah, and they got
Speaker 2: really fortunate lucky that it worked out the way it did.
Speaker 2: But you go back to twenty thirteen too, where they
Speaker 2: had to basically get Seneca Wallace out of retirement to
Speaker 2: back up Rogers that season when the quarterback competition didn't
Speaker 2: work out. I just think this was a really prudent,
Speaker 2: salient move for Green Bay given the championship aspirations they
Speaker 2: have for this season.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned too, like about drafting a quarterback. I
Speaker 1: sort of feel like the Packers have put together the
Speaker 1: mix that they want as far as how this backup
Speaker 1: thing is going to shake out. You have the experienced veteran,
Speaker 1: You have a draft pick in Kyle McCord. He just
Speaker 1: wasn't drafted by the Packers. He was drafted in the
Speaker 1: sixth round by the Eagles. But obviously with the Packers
Speaker 1: bringing him in, he was a guy who was on
Speaker 1: their radar as a potential draft pick last year and
Speaker 1: then you have the undrafted prospect in in drones from
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech. So it's it's there. We'll see how it
Speaker 1: shakes out. Yeah, there's there. He's he's a he's an
Speaker 1: athlete playing quarterback, that's for sure, and that that's obviously
Speaker 1: what intrigues green Bay there. But we're out of time,
Speaker 1: my friend. We got to get going, so we will
Speaker 1: call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned on our next show, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: stuff we hear from all the other assistant coaches who
Speaker 1: are going to be meeting with the media over the
Speaker 1: next couple of days here in Green Bay. But for now,
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in, everybody, and we will see
Speaker 1: you next time.