Speaker 1: Hi everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trusted
Speaker 1: colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our
Speaker 1: studios at lambeau Field. West were another day closer to
Speaker 1: Packers Dolphins Back at home. Packers have a home game
Speaker 1: for the only time in the month of November. Here
Speaker 1: day stretch. By the way, this is the only home game. Wow,
Speaker 1: all right, well, Central Time kickoff on Sunday afternoon at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field. Gonna be a little chilly, sounds like mid
Speaker 1: thirties and uh a Florida team coming up here to
Speaker 1: lambeau Field. So the Packers need to use that to
Speaker 1: their advantage. But where I wanted to start today's show
Speaker 1: is talking about a young defensive player who, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: West has the opportunity of his career in some respects
Speaker 1: right now. And I'm talking about second year safety Josh Jones,
Speaker 1: a second round pick out of North Carolina State a
Speaker 1: year ago. In the last couple of weeks, the Packers
Speaker 1: have traded ha Clinton Dix, they have released Germaine Whitehead.
Speaker 1: Josh Jones is going to be getting a lot of
Speaker 1: snaps and if he wants to prove that he can
Speaker 1: be a regular, a fixture in this Mike Petton defense
Speaker 1: for the rest of this season and perhaps going forward,
Speaker 1: now's his chance. This is all he wanted, Mike. It
Speaker 1: was really interesting listen to him talk at his locker
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, actually spoke for aboute fifteen minutes with reporters,
Speaker 1: just kind of overlaying what this last you know, two
Speaker 1: months has been like for him. You gotta remember, Mike,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that came in as a second
Speaker 1: round pick, ran a four four, had you know, just
Speaker 1: sky high expectations, and then played a lot as a rookie,
Speaker 1: played over seven d defensive snaps, started seven games, played
Speaker 1: in all sixteen. Then he ends up having an ankle
Speaker 1: injury at the end of training camp, miss is the
Speaker 1: first three games of this season, and when he gets back,
Speaker 1: he's on special teams. Actually it only played six defensive
Speaker 1: snaps in his first four games prior to the Patriots.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to portrayed as like a fomo,
Speaker 1: like a feeling of missing out thing with all these
Speaker 1: young defensive backs, but to a certain extent, he was
Speaker 1: really champing at the bit to get that opportunity to
Speaker 1: get out there and show again why the Packers drafted
Speaker 1: him in the element he can add to his defense.
Speaker 1: You know, he really wasn't going to get into, you know,
Speaker 1: all the personnel stuff and what's led to get him
Speaker 1: to this point. But he said there was a lot
Speaker 1: of anticipation. There was a lot of excitement going into
Speaker 1: that game Sunday because he knew he was gonna have
Speaker 1: some kind of role. I think the unexpected aspect of
Speaker 1: it is is how big that role ended up being.
Speaker 1: He played the fifth most snaps on defense. After the
Speaker 1: injury to Kentroll Bryce and the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: Jermaine white had also got ejected. Yeah, and Kentroll Bryce
Speaker 1: was back on the practice field on Wednesday on a
Speaker 1: limited basis, so signs pointing to potentially that that injury
Speaker 1: not um being all too serious. But getting back to
Speaker 1: Josh Jones for a second, this is just my observations
Speaker 1: from what I've seen. He know, and I think he
Speaker 1: knows this, but he needs to be a more disciplined
Speaker 1: football player. And what I mean by that, I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about discipline in the Germaine Whitehead extracurricular after the
Speaker 1: play since. But we've seen in the first season and
Speaker 1: a half of his career, with a lot of snaps
Speaker 1: that he's had on special teams, he's had a lot
Speaker 1: of penalties called, and some of the penalties, you know,
Speaker 1: frankly being somewhat inexcusable because it is just a lack
Speaker 1: of focus or a lack of discipline that's led to
Speaker 1: those penalties, and those kinds of things can make it
Speaker 1: hard for a coaching staff to trust you necessarily. So
Speaker 1: with everything that's gone on this season, now he has
Speaker 1: to just it's almost as though he's starting fresh right now,
Speaker 1: doesn't it seem like, Yeah, it does seem like this
Speaker 1: is a chance to kind of turn the page a
Speaker 1: little bit. He did address that at his locker on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: the fact that he got a full start penalty on
Speaker 1: the opening kickoff off side of yeah uh, and he
Speaker 1: actually said he's like, yeah, it was my bad. It's inexcusable.
Speaker 1: But he just chalked it up to that's how much
Speaker 1: excitement he had that he he just needed to get going.
Speaker 1: He wanted to get going. He was ready to play
Speaker 1: some football, and as it turned out, with playing as
Speaker 1: many snaps as he saw in defensive special teams. It
Speaker 1: ended up being that kind of day. But the thing
Speaker 1: I did like, and you pointed out what you might
Speaker 1: have missed. I mentioned it in the story I wrote
Speaker 1: on packers dot Com that that play he made on
Speaker 1: the goal line. I really liked it for a number
Speaker 1: of reasons. One, it was critical in the game. It
Speaker 1: was the first downplay of the four down stand that
Speaker 1: they had second sorry uh. And the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: he had to dive inside Nick Perry, got inside James
Speaker 1: Devil and I should say with corter All Patterson to
Speaker 1: be able to get into the backfield to make that play.
Speaker 1: Everybody kind of had their man on the offensive line
Speaker 1: for the New England Patriots. He had to be the
Speaker 1: unaccounted defender and he stepped up to that made a nice,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty much textbook leg tackle on Patterson that
Speaker 1: helps set up the four downs. We talked so much
Speaker 1: about his big playability we saw last year some of
Speaker 1: the things he did against Cincinnati and Cleveland, but it's
Speaker 1: plays like that where you're just fulfilling your assignment that
Speaker 1: are really going to help him stay on the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of the things I liked about that play the
Speaker 1: second down the second and goal play. When I went
Speaker 1: back and looked at it, was just seeing how disappointed
Speaker 1: he was when it was initially ruled a touchdown because
Speaker 1: he knew he had made a good play, he had
Speaker 1: done exactly what was supposed to do. He thought he
Speaker 1: got Patterson short of the goal line, and then they
Speaker 1: signaled touchdown. Anyway, as we know, the replay reverse that
Speaker 1: and the ball was still inside the one yard line.
Speaker 1: But when you look at the video of it, his
Speaker 1: dejection almost as he's walking off the field after, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I thought, I just you know, it's like we had
Speaker 1: that and you know, then it didn't go the Packers
Speaker 1: way initially. So a passionate player, I think there's no
Speaker 1: question about that. I think you know, you mentioned it
Speaker 1: with the play on the opening kickoff. It's it's about
Speaker 1: containing that passion and using it in the right way
Speaker 1: and not using it in an undisciplined way that can
Speaker 1: lead to some silly flags. Yeah. No, I mean that's
Speaker 1: what you have to be able to do to avoid
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And the thing that I did,
Speaker 1: we were talking to him about it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting now, is that okay? So, as you said, Bryce
Speaker 1: actually did practice on Wednesday, Tremont Williams is playing Sums
Speaker 1: safety uh Ibraheim Campbell that the Packers actually claimed off waivers. Now,
Speaker 1: he's gonna need time to get up to speed with stuff,
Speaker 1: But he actually does have a connection to Petton. He
Speaker 1: was drafted there during drafted to Cleveland during Petton's second year.
Speaker 1: Is the head coach there, so he has familiarity with
Speaker 1: him as well. Whatever the case may be. Josh Jones
Speaker 1: feels really confident he can find a role in this
Speaker 1: defense and really thriving it. If it needs to be
Speaker 1: a deep safety. Fine if it ends up being the
Speaker 1: in the box rope because there's no more Germaine Whitehead.
Speaker 1: He's cool with that slock cornerback whatever. He just wants
Speaker 1: to play, and I think getting those fifty one defensive
Speaker 1: snaps and getting that comfort familiarity with Tremont Williams even
Speaker 1: said it he was a calming presence and helped relax
Speaker 1: him back. They're working with him just based on his
Speaker 1: knowledge in what he knew and just being able to
Speaker 1: assume that control. Yeah, he feels like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of potential despite what they've lost in that back end,
Speaker 1: to be able to build something you're going forward. Alrighty, well,
Speaker 1: I'll remember Packers fans, stop in at your local Quick Trip,
Speaker 1: pick up your Packers cup today and get eighty nine
Speaker 1: cent refills on your Cafe Cruba coffee all season long,
Speaker 1: Cafe Cruba Coffee. That's that's a mouthful that I have
Speaker 1: to work on. That. Have to smooth that one out
Speaker 1: here as we as we move along. But another young guy,
Speaker 1: think West, and we've already talked about him a lot already.
Speaker 1: But I did a little bit of statistical research, you
Speaker 1: might say, on rookie receiver Marquez Valdez scantling. Did you
Speaker 1: got it right? You got it right. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that that was a big thing this week. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was Mark Quez. Yeah, because he hears his name. He
Speaker 1: hears his name pronounced Marquez all the time, and he says, no,
Speaker 1: it's Marquez. Got to hit that heavy cue. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: the cue, it's the queu. Okay, now, I used I
Speaker 1: started to get worried for a second that I messed
Speaker 1: it up, because that's the last thing I want to
Speaker 1: do to this young man. But um, but statistically West,
Speaker 1: he has three fifty eight yards receiving through eight games,
Speaker 1: and since eight games in a sixteen game season makes
Speaker 1: the math easy if you project that out, he's on
Speaker 1: pace for over seven hundred yards receiving. Here's an interesting
Speaker 1: little fact for you. Only three rookie receivers and Packers
Speaker 1: history have had more than seven hundred yards receiving as rookies.
Speaker 1: If you want to try Sterling Sharp. Sterling Sharp is one.
Speaker 1: James Jones, Nope, James Jones was just under seven hundred. No,
Speaker 1: he was also just under seven hundred Nope. Arnett James Lofton.
Speaker 1: James Lofton is too. And the guy at the very
Speaker 1: top of the list has put up a huge number
Speaker 1: that perhaps no rookie will ever touch. No Billy Houghton,
Speaker 1: we would have been here for three more episodes, and
Speaker 1: I was trying to get Holton had over twelve hundred
Speaker 1: yards in nineteen fifty two as a rookie receiver. He's
Speaker 1: the one at the top of that list. James Lofton
Speaker 1: and Sterling Sharp, both with right around eight hundred yards
Speaker 1: give or take. Those are the only three in Packer's
Speaker 1: history to have rookie seasons of more than seven hundred
Speaker 1: yards receiving. And when you look at the fact that
Speaker 1: actually three hundred and fifty five I believe of Valdes Scantling,
Speaker 1: Street and in fifty eight yards have been in the
Speaker 1: last five games. Because he hardly played the first three
Speaker 1: games of the season. He's on pace for for really
Speaker 1: quite a rookie season. Here Geronimo Allison's on injured reserve um. Again,
Speaker 1: the the opportunity will be there. It will be interesting
Speaker 1: to see just where this rookie season for him ranks
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done. So you wrote a story, obviously,
Speaker 1: I'm Packers dot Com. My favorite quote, probably, honestly, Mike,
Speaker 1: my favorite quote from MVS this entire year was the
Speaker 1: fifth round pick. You gotta remember out of South Florida.
Speaker 1: I could are less about where I got drafted. I couldn't,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, Um, I'm in the store.
Speaker 1: That's all that matters. I love that phrase. I love
Speaker 1: that mentality because if you go back, Mike, we talked
Speaker 1: about it right from the get go, and the Packers
Speaker 1: coaches I mentioned this to Valda Scantling looked like the
Speaker 1: rookie that was always kind of there is a number four,
Speaker 1: so to speak, right from the beginning, and I think
Speaker 1: if you would have just lined up all, you know,
Speaker 1: just put all the rookies on the field, not just
Speaker 1: the receivers, and said, okay, tell us where all these guys.
Speaker 1: Which round they got taken. I mean, obviously you'd probably
Speaker 1: still think JayR Alexander was first round just based on
Speaker 1: how he carries himself. But Valdis Scantling looks like a
Speaker 1: second or third round. He looks like a guy that
Speaker 1: just came in with expectations and has just been living
Speaker 1: up to them. You don't really understand that this is
Speaker 1: a guy taken sort of during that Siberia of Day
Speaker 1: three where it's just kind of like, oh, come on already,
Speaker 1: let's get to the next round. No. I mean, this
Speaker 1: ended up being a really critical draft pick for the Packers,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think Davante Adams was talking about
Speaker 1: it as locker on Wednesday as well. Nobody really acted
Speaker 1: that these rookies were gonna have to come in and
Speaker 1: play as much as they had. I think everybody knows
Speaker 1: how things happen in Green Bay. At some point you're
Speaker 1: gonna be called upon. But they felt pretty good about
Speaker 1: how things looked with having Randall Cobb, having Jimmy Graham
Speaker 1: and in Geronimo Allison and the heck the middle of
Speaker 1: training camp we were talking about Jake Kumero. Well then
Speaker 1: here comes MVS, here comes Equanimia st Brown, and both
Speaker 1: of those guys have really been rising to the occasion. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna need him, Mike. We talked about it
Speaker 1: earlier this week. Allison is not coming back anytime soon.
Speaker 1: Felt this scantling is off to a really good start,
Speaker 1: had five really good contests. Packers need another five from him,
Speaker 1: now they need another eight. One of the things I
Speaker 1: realized in talking with him with some other reporters at
Speaker 1: his locker on Wednesday after practice is just how confident
Speaker 1: he is. We talked about the confidence of Jaire Alexander
Speaker 1: and how he kind of wears that externally. The thing
Speaker 1: I figured out in a sense talking with MVS is
Speaker 1: that he's just as confident a player, but he kind
Speaker 1: of kept it inside a little bit. He knew he
Speaker 1: was walking into a situation. One of three rookie draft
Speaker 1: picks at his position, Geronimo Allison was the guy starting
Speaker 1: in the offseason program as the number three receiver, and
Speaker 1: a job that Alison did not give up. Did not
Speaker 1: really let anybody challenge him for it. Unfortunately, injuries have
Speaker 1: have derailed his third NFL season, but he absolutely never
Speaker 1: doubted what he could do in this league. And he
Speaker 1: and he he doesn't come across, as you know, crossing
Speaker 1: that line too arrogance, so to speak. He's just really
Speaker 1: confident in what he can do. And I loved his
Speaker 1: answer when he when he was asked, well, when did
Speaker 1: you know you had earned the trust of Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: And he said when he started throwing me the ball.
Speaker 1: I mean, but in a sense that that's really how
Speaker 1: simple it is. And we've seen over the years West
Speaker 1: rookies it can be difficult to make a huge impact
Speaker 1: as a rookie in this offense with Aaron Rodgers as
Speaker 1: a quarterback. Now. Part of that is because the Packers
Speaker 1: have been pretty well stocked at wide receiver over the years,
Speaker 1: so they haven't had to ask a lot of rookies.
Speaker 1: But when you look at it from a statistical standpoint,
Speaker 1: Davante Adams with four dred and forty six yards that's
Speaker 1: the most receiving yards of any rookie in the Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers quarterbacking era. And Valdes Scantling is less than a
Speaker 1: hundred yards from already jumping over that. And it's just
Speaker 1: it's very difficult in this league, not just Green Bay,
Speaker 1: for a for a rookie receiver to come in and
Speaker 1: have those type of seasons. The cornerbacks are too good,
Speaker 1: the schemes are too you know, complicated. It's tough to
Speaker 1: be able to go and do it. What I like
Speaker 1: about Valda Scantling is he has certainly the physical makeup,
Speaker 1: but it's just some of those little things, as I've
Speaker 1: reiterated a few times now, his footwork, some of the
Speaker 1: stuff he does off the line of scrimmage, how he
Speaker 1: gains separation as he gets down the field. It isn't
Speaker 1: just all about his speed. It's not all about the
Speaker 1: four three seven. It's about the other things he does.
Speaker 1: And to get back to a point you made a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes ago that I really like about him,
Speaker 1: and as it relates to confidence and you know, jo
Speaker 1: your Alexander to take you inside the locker room a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean he's walking around, he has the swagger.
Speaker 1: He comes off the practice field, he has his headphones on.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, he's saying hi to everybody. He's just
Speaker 1: he's so extroverted, right, Valdis Scantling just comes in, he
Speaker 1: sits in his locker, the old Jeff Janice locker. I
Speaker 1: probably should have said that right at the end of
Speaker 1: the receiver's row. He's on his phone, he's taken his time,
Speaker 1: he's always there and he's just been that way since
Speaker 1: the beginning. And if he comes up, he's cordial, he'll
Speaker 1: talk to you. But it's just it's not like it's
Speaker 1: it's extravagant or boisterous. It's just who he is. And
Speaker 1: I really respect that. I think that's allowed him to
Speaker 1: have a lot of success. The other underrated part of
Speaker 1: his game is and I remember doing a story on
Speaker 1: him back in the early I think it was towards
Speaker 1: the end of O t A S actually about how
Speaker 1: he was lining up in a lot of different spots,
Speaker 1: you know, on the boundary in the slot and what
Speaker 1: I and the underrated part of his game is his
Speaker 1: intelligence and how quickly he's picked everything up in this offense.
Speaker 1: And Davante Adams said yesterday when he was asked about him,
Speaker 1: said that was one of the things that stood out
Speaker 1: from day one is that this is a smart dude,
Speaker 1: and he's used he's used that intelligence to his advantage
Speaker 1: to to be versatile right from the get go. And
Speaker 1: then you combine six plus pounds four three speed, and then,
Speaker 1: as I said, the confidence that he attributes to kind
Speaker 1: of coming up on the rough side of St. Petersburg, Florida,
Speaker 1: but a market that produces a lot of high caliber
Speaker 1: football talent. He felt coming out of there. You know,
Speaker 1: things didn't go the way he wanted at NC States,
Speaker 1: so then he transferred to South Florida. That might have
Speaker 1: created you know, some of the draft day weight, so
Speaker 1: to speak, for him all the way to the fifth round.
Speaker 1: But as you said, the quote that you pointed out,
Speaker 1: he doesn't care about where he got drafted. Now he's
Speaker 1: in the door and he's making an impact on this team.
Speaker 1: And everybody's players path is different once they get the NFL.
Speaker 1: Some guys, you know, it took Jordy Nelson three years
Speaker 1: to get going. That's just the way it goes sometimes.
Speaker 1: But what I like about Veldi Scandlings, he follows a
Speaker 1: very similar path. When you look at Corey Linsley, when
Speaker 1: you look at Brian Blog at Davante Adams. You know,
Speaker 1: these young guys, Aaron Jones last year, I get thrown
Speaker 1: in early and really can thrive. It's it's tough and
Speaker 1: it's not easy to do, but if you're able to
Speaker 1: do it, there's a really good opportunity for you to
Speaker 1: have success in this offense moving forward and in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, um, well, quickly West, before we run
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Speaker 1: mentioned the injury update with regards to Kentroll, Bryce, Brian
Speaker 1: Bolaga back on the practice field on Wednesday, A good
Speaker 1: sign for the Packers offensive line, and I'm Blake Martinez
Speaker 1: back on the practice field too. I was surprised with that,
Speaker 1: considering they were talking about the swelling I saw him
Speaker 1: walking through the locker room. It's like you wouldn't know
Speaker 1: anything that happened. And you look at the replay of
Speaker 1: that ankle Injurne, it just it kind of makes you cringe.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, Blake seems to be all right. But
Speaker 1: to your point with Bolaga two, he's played through a
Speaker 1: lot through with the course his career. I don't think
Speaker 1: he gets enough credit for his toughness and what he's
Speaker 1: been able to play through and play at a high
Speaker 1: level with. But he'd be a huge addition for them
Speaker 1: go into this game against Miami. If you can have
Speaker 1: the two book end tackles available, yeah, absolutely, Well with that,
Speaker 1: we need to call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. 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, We'll
Speaker 1: see you next time.