Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by my
Speaker 1: partner in crime, Wes Hodkowitz, were coming to you here
Speaker 1: from our studios at lambeau Field West. Over the weekend,
Speaker 1: the Packers got their pre season underway to seven loss
Speaker 1: to the Houston Texans. But it wasn't about the final
Speaker 1: score necessarily, as it never really is in the preseason.
Speaker 1: First and foremost, this game was well, yeah, the Baltimore Ravens,
Speaker 1: who are now on a five or six year winning
Speaker 1: streak in the in the preseason, but that aside. This game,
Speaker 1: first and foremost was about quarterback Jordan's love. Um. We
Speaker 1: talked about it all last week, a lot of anticipation,
Speaker 1: a big spotlight on the young man. Saturday night at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field. What do you think, Yeah, I thought it
Speaker 1: was a good performance, not a great performance. Jordan's it.
Speaker 1: I think there were some moments there as as Matt
Speaker 1: Laflour talked about letting it rip a little bit more.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a couple of times and we've seen
Speaker 1: that in practice too. Somebody asked me this inside of inbox,
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of answering it. You know about
Speaker 1: how much surprise is you from what you see in
Speaker 1: the preseason games as opposed to what you see in practice,
Speaker 1: And certainly that does it does happen, but a lot
Speaker 1: of times I think the preseason is a continuation of
Speaker 1: what you've been seeing for the past few weeks. And
Speaker 1: really that's been the story for Jordan's Loves so far.
Speaker 1: It's an extremely talented twenty two year old man that
Speaker 1: can really throw a football, and it's just been a
Speaker 1: matter of finding those moments when he's in a rhythm
Speaker 1: and building on those because I'll tell you what, when
Speaker 1: he gets into that run and he can, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of string together some passes, it looks the way
Speaker 1: it's supposed to look, but it's making sure that you
Speaker 1: can stay on that trend. It's the hardest position to
Speaker 1: play in all of sports. I will say that forever,
Speaker 1: just because of all the variables, the fact that there's
Speaker 1: eleven players on the other side of the field. Any
Speaker 1: movement that they make changes those variables. So for Love,
Speaker 1: it's it's about trying to make sure that he can
Speaker 1: stay up on that playing within himself. As Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: kept saying, trusting his footwork, trusting what he's seeing, playing instinctively,
Speaker 1: but all things considered, it's still or excuse me, twelve
Speaker 1: of seventeen yards and a touchdown a hundred ten pass
Speaker 1: rating a good first step for Jordan's love. Yeah, absolutely
Speaker 1: he It took a little bit to get going. The
Speaker 1: first two possessions were three and outs. The Packers were
Speaker 1: not running the ball with any effectiveness, which we'll get
Speaker 1: to a little bit later on here as well. But
Speaker 1: then drive number three, third and nine, a really nice pass,
Speaker 1: good route, good catch all that over the middle to
Speaker 1: j Sternberger, and that kind of jump started Jordan's love.
Speaker 1: It got him going. Then all of a sudden it
Speaker 1: was boom, boom, boom, hitting some passes um you know,
Speaker 1: in succession there and then after the quarter quarter break,
Speaker 1: excuse me, flipping directions going the other way. The screen
Speaker 1: passed to kyl and Hill, the rookie seventh round pick
Speaker 1: out of Mississippi State, and gets a couple of good
Speaker 1: blocks from his linement out there and takes it in
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. So the Packers get on the board
Speaker 1: there at that moment, I think, obviously there are a
Speaker 1: couple of plays that Jordan's Love would like to have back,
Speaker 1: probably more than any other. The fourth and two where
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur says, Okay, you're staying out there, We're going
Speaker 1: for it, and then whatever the play action keeper that
Speaker 1: was called Love turned the wrong way when he took
Speaker 1: the snap, so the whole play action, whatever it was
Speaker 1: supposed to be, didn't develop, and he kind of ended
Speaker 1: up just having to, you know, throw it up there
Speaker 1: and hope, hope that Devin Funcius could come down with it.
Speaker 1: Those are the kind of things like, yeah, it's a mental,
Speaker 1: mental mistake and it's unfortunate, but again that's that's just
Speaker 1: another thing for him to learn from because that's happened
Speaker 1: to every quarterback who's ever been out there, and hey,
Speaker 1: if it's going to happen, it might as well happen
Speaker 1: in a preseason game. Absolutely, And those are just the
Speaker 1: reps that you have to take the moment, you have
Speaker 1: to learn from and really make sure they don't happen. Again.
Speaker 1: I don't really read too much into those. You've seen
Speaker 1: all the young quarterbacks. So you can go back and
Speaker 1: watch Aaron Rodgers film in two thousand five from his
Speaker 1: first preseason. The bigger thing for me is seeing the
Speaker 1: game continually slowed down for Jordan's love and wanting to
Speaker 1: see that continue to happen, because the less that a
Speaker 1: quarterback has to think about what they're doing, the more
Speaker 1: that you're gonna see those results really come to them.
Speaker 1: And you know, some of the throws he did make
Speaker 1: in this game, as we've seen in practice. You know,
Speaker 1: he has a world class arm. It's what made him
Speaker 1: a first round pick. The fact that he has that
Speaker 1: type of ability. You know, I think as time we
Speaker 1: get kind of away from his you know, his last
Speaker 1: season at Utah State, you see the fact that Utah
Speaker 1: State still hasn't really had anyone drafted since Jordan's loved,
Speaker 1: you start to understand maybe why he did certain things
Speaker 1: is last year that some people perceived as a step back.
Speaker 1: He has all the ability of the world. He is
Speaker 1: a guy that I think you can see players rally around.
Speaker 1: It's a different type of confidence in Aaron Rodgers. You know,
Speaker 1: he's not a huge, ext reverted, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: guy in there, you know, kind of boisterous, but he
Speaker 1: still commands the huddle and listening to Kyle and Hill
Speaker 1: talk about that and some of these offensive players. There
Speaker 1: is a steadiness with Jordan's Love that you really like.
Speaker 1: It's just that once that whistle blows and once that
Speaker 1: ball is snapped, seeing things move a little bit faster
Speaker 1: for him. He did suffer the shoulder injury before halftime.
Speaker 1: He was not practicing on Monday. Matt Lafleur left the
Speaker 1: door open for him to potentially still practice this week,
Speaker 1: maybe play against the Jets. If he can get these
Speaker 1: last two preseason games. I think that would be really
Speaker 1: beneficial for him now down the line as he develops. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll be following the health reports on Love with regard
Speaker 1: to these joint practices with New York. The preseason game
Speaker 1: coming up. Really unfortunate because Matt Lafleur was using his
Speaker 1: time outs at the end of the first half trying
Speaker 1: to set everything up so that Jordan's Love could have
Speaker 1: a two minute drill there at the end of the
Speaker 1: first half and ends up with only I think it
Speaker 1: was fifty three seconds on the clock. And then the
Speaker 1: very first play, unfortunately from the blind side, he doesn't
Speaker 1: see the guy gets his arm raked, the ball comes out, um,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a fumble, there. Matt Lafleur initially sort
Speaker 1: of said Love maybe took too deep of a drop there.
Speaker 1: Then after reviewing the film really kind of absolved him
Speaker 1: and said, you know, there really wasn't anything uh differently
Speaker 1: that that Love could have or should have done there,
Speaker 1: but you know, a little bit of a tweak to
Speaker 1: the shoulder. So they held him out. He did not
Speaker 1: play in the second half, and he did not practice
Speaker 1: on Monday. So um but by all accounts optimistic that
Speaker 1: that he's going to be back in fairly short order here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any real long term concerns there
Speaker 1: at all. It's more about how quick these timelines I
Speaker 1: remember thinking back to I think it happened with Brett
Speaker 1: Hunley a little bit too during his time in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: When you get hurt during the preseason and miss those opportunities,
Speaker 1: those are such huge reps for guys to be able
Speaker 1: to take. So certainly the Packers want to get him
Speaker 1: back sooner than later. Kirk ben Kurt was able to
Speaker 1: get the entire second half. The second year quarterback that
Speaker 1: actually spent a number of years on the practice squad
Speaker 1: with the Atlanta he had an opportunity to get out there.
Speaker 1: I thought you saw him throw the ball and definitely
Speaker 1: fearless back there. Had a couple of hours though that
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to try to clean up. But uh,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers isn't gonna play in the preseason for the
Speaker 1: most part. That's what Matt Lafore started hinted at. So
Speaker 1: if it's not love on Saturday, it'll be a lot
Speaker 1: of Ben Kurt and potentially, as they said, they'll work
Speaker 1: out some quarterbacks this week and see if there's another
Speaker 1: guy they need to add. Yeah, it'll be a situation
Speaker 1: to follow as the week goes along. We'll get to
Speaker 1: some other positions here as well. West but first series
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Speaker 1: not tried the sub in the bowl yet. That might
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Speaker 1: I just don't want to Let's see, I learned something
Speaker 1: new about you every day. Um. Well, we mentioned Kyle
Speaker 1: and Hill. He gets the Packers touchdown on the screen pass.
Speaker 1: Not a whole lot to really be able to see
Speaker 1: other than that. With regard to the three running backs,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about that battle for the number
Speaker 1: three running back job. Hill, Patrick Taylor, Dexter Williams. Dexter
Speaker 1: Williams with some nice carries late in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: when he got in there. But but on balance, Um,
Speaker 1: the coaching staff from Matt Lafleur to Nathaniel Hackett to
Speaker 1: Adam Stanovich offensive line coach and run game coordinator, not
Speaker 1: happy with, uh, with the Packers inability to run the football.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know really they talked about it not
Speaker 1: not being mental errors and whatnot up front, just a
Speaker 1: little bit of a lack of density, not carrying over
Speaker 1: the techniques and the things that they're being taught they
Speaker 1: you know, Matt Fleur said it after Saturday night's game,
Speaker 1: the Texans won the battle in the trenches. And one
Speaker 1: reaction to that now, nobody's blaming any specific individual, but
Speaker 1: one reaction to that now is the three headed competition
Speaker 1: for the two guard spots now has become a foreheaded
Speaker 1: competition because in Monday's practice, rookie fourth round draft pick
Speaker 1: from Old Miss Royce Newman was worked into that rotation
Speaker 1: that also includes Ben Braden, Lucas Patrick, and John Runyon.
Speaker 1: So another guy, another young guy in the mix here
Speaker 1: west for a for a starting guard spot. With Elton
Speaker 1: Jenkins filling in for David Botry at left tackle, Packers
Speaker 1: are going to see what they what they have in
Speaker 1: this young man. Take a little bit of a story
Speaker 1: trip down memory lane, if you will. Packers of their
Speaker 1: offensive line position, it tends to be an older position
Speaker 1: position where the experience kind of of times ways out.
Speaker 1: And there's two episodes that kind of always ring true
Speaker 1: to my mind. Obviously, we always talked about the Corey
Speaker 1: Linsley story, the fact that this is a guy that
Speaker 1: took the two reps, the entire training camp, all the preseason.
Speaker 1: J C. Treader ends up suffering. I believe it was
Speaker 1: the knee injury. Corey is suddenly the starter. Boom, here
Speaker 1: you go, Welcome to the NFL. The other one, and
Speaker 1: we talked so much about David Baktr going to left
Speaker 1: tackle when Brian Bulaga got injured at the Family Night
Speaker 1: scrimmage back in two thousand thirteen. But what we very
Speaker 1: rarely talked about was in that game or in that scrimmage.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, that practice at Lambou Field was the first
Speaker 1: time box Tr was actually starting to take starting reps.
Speaker 1: They actually started working them at right tackle. My point
Speaker 1: being with the stories, there comes a time during every
Speaker 1: training camp where the rookies sometimes you do take the
Speaker 1: wheels off a little bit and see how they function.
Speaker 1: Can they go out and swim a little bit in
Speaker 1: some deeper water. That was this day for Newman. The
Speaker 1: fact that the Packers threw them in there right guard.
Speaker 1: They used Branden at left guard. They did that, I
Speaker 1: believe for two or three plays and then with the ones.
Speaker 1: Yet it wasn't like they switched over to the twos
Speaker 1: with the ones then taking a look at running and
Speaker 1: left guard and back to Lucas Patrick, who was the
Speaker 1: start of their last season. Yes, and and running and
Speaker 1: Patrick were the starters on Saturday night in preseason game.
Speaker 1: So they are casting a wide net here and listening
Speaker 1: to Matt la floor talk about this and into credit.
Speaker 1: You know, Adam Stanovich was right out in front of
Speaker 1: it to bench sermons. Everybody wants to run the ball better.
Speaker 1: But Matt Lafleur really laid it down. And even when
Speaker 1: he was talking about the joint practices this week with
Speaker 1: the Jets, Mike, one of the things he said is
Speaker 1: he wants to see how these guards handle a different
Speaker 1: team in these practice settings. So for Roy Snwman, a
Speaker 1: guy that's been so multiple has played all these different positions,
Speaker 1: even joked about, you know, some of the time he's
Speaker 1: spent at tight end, you know, in the past, this
Speaker 1: is a big moment for him and it's a big
Speaker 1: moment for all those guys because there, as I said
Speaker 1: to you all along, Mike, I'm pretty confident throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the year, they're gonna need most of those guards.
Speaker 1: It's most of those offensive linemen to navigate the whole season.
Speaker 1: Whoever ends up at left and right guard, with a
Speaker 1: few exceptions, that's usually not the way it ends by
Speaker 1: the end of the season on the old line. So
Speaker 1: for Newman seeing how are he responds to this. He
Speaker 1: actually was the highest graded offensive lineman the Packers had
Speaker 1: by Pro Football Focus in the preseason game, albeit it
Speaker 1: came late against some reserves. This is the chance that
Speaker 1: he was hoping for, and now he's getting a chat
Speaker 1: to show that, hey, maybe in year one he can
Speaker 1: be that next offensive lineman that plays as a rookie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And we should say as well with regard to the
Speaker 1: offensive line, we found out Saturday night there were thirty
Speaker 1: players on the Packers ninety man roster that did not
Speaker 1: suit up for the game. The vast majority of the
Speaker 1: starters did not suit up. So what you had on
Speaker 1: the offensive line was essentially your number one guys on
Speaker 1: the interior center Josh Meyer's the rookie, and then the
Speaker 1: guards that we've been talking about. But then the reserves
Speaker 1: at tackle in yosh Naiman on the left side and
Speaker 1: veteran Dennis Kelly on the right side. And I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to make excuses for guys, but that is a
Speaker 1: combination essentially that we had not seen during training camp
Speaker 1: because it was a it was a mixture it was
Speaker 1: a mixture of the ones and the two's. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: the coaches didn't talk about that because they're looking individually.
Speaker 1: They still want to see the execution and whatnot. Um,
Speaker 1: there are obviously some issues with regard to combo blocks
Speaker 1: and a lot of things that do take some chemistry
Speaker 1: and some timing and that kind of thing. So those
Speaker 1: are the things they'll be looking to see improve as
Speaker 1: things go along. But the other point, though, is that
Speaker 1: rookies second round pick Josh Meyers at center. UM, folks,
Speaker 1: I encourage you check out Larry mccarren's rock Report that
Speaker 1: that is on Packers dot Com. On Myer's debut there
Speaker 1: in the in the preseason game, really no disappointments, no
Speaker 1: issues as far as as far as wondering if this
Speaker 1: young man is going to be the Week one starter
Speaker 1: at center. He's the guy. Yeah, he can play it.
Speaker 1: You know. Matt Laufer has already said Elton Jenkins and
Speaker 1: Billy Turner probably won't play during the preseason. I'd be
Speaker 1: curious to see how long Myers is out there too.
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, it's not to say he's
Speaker 1: He's not without fault. There was that one play. I
Speaker 1: think he kind of got blown up a little bit
Speaker 1: early on as a guy I was able to get
Speaker 1: into the backfield. But generally speaking for you know, there's
Speaker 1: that line that David Batar said about Okay, you're six
Speaker 1: five or three ten? What what's wrong with you? Why
Speaker 1: are you at center? Are you not a good athlete? No?
Speaker 1: You could really see his athleticism in this game. And
Speaker 1: when you're going up against you know, a lot of reserves.
Speaker 1: What do you always look for in these games, Mike,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if your quarterback, punter, safety, offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: You want to see guys who dominate the competition because
Speaker 1: athletically you just are better. You're cut above. Josh Myers
Speaker 1: looked to cut above to me in this game, just
Speaker 1: the way he moves. Obviously getting down some of the
Speaker 1: Caden stuff with Rogers is going to be huge, But
Speaker 1: you go back to that screen pass to Hill, the
Speaker 1: fact that he's able to get out in space. And
Speaker 1: I love what Larry said in his interview UH with
Speaker 1: with Myers after the game, saying, you know when he
Speaker 1: taught it back in the day, it was you're not
Speaker 1: a dancer, so don't dance, you know, don't go dancing
Speaker 1: with a dancer, right, the fact that those guys are
Speaker 1: a lot quicker, they're a lot faster. Just get your
Speaker 1: body on him. Myers did that and he ultimately kind
Speaker 1: of gave him, gave Kylan Hill the block that got
Speaker 1: him into the end zone. Really talented young man. You
Speaker 1: can see why this guy was a second round pick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely well. Shifting gears to the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1: The the defense only allowed and again it was primarily reserves.
Speaker 1: The only really projected starter for Week one who was
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup on Saturday night was Chris Barnes. Now.
Speaker 1: The other one who did play at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the game was rookie first round pick Eric Stokes. Were
Speaker 1: expecting him to certainly be in that mix for a
Speaker 1: lot of playing time early on as well, but Packers
Speaker 1: only gave up the one touchdown until a second touchdown
Speaker 1: late in the game. Otherwise it was field goals, the
Speaker 1: Texans taking advantage of some good field position because of
Speaker 1: some good punt returns. Packers had some special teams breakdowns unfortunately,
Speaker 1: and the failed fourth down situations that that gave them
Speaker 1: good field position, but a few guys that stood out
Speaker 1: to me West and I'll get your thoughts here. Um obviously,
Speaker 1: or in Burke's um real solid game at inside linebacker,
Speaker 1: kaban into getting um an interception and seemed to acquit
Speaker 1: himself well at at cornerback. And then also t J. Slayton,
Speaker 1: the rookie fifth round pick on the defensive line. Now,
Speaker 1: i will say with Slayton, I thought early in the game,
Speaker 1: Slayton and Lancaster, Tyler Lancaster, the veteran from Northwestern, they
Speaker 1: were they were kind of anchoring the middle of the
Speaker 1: D line and Houston seemed to have some trouble running
Speaker 1: the ball. Then in the second half, when Slayton and
Speaker 1: Lancaster were still in there, it kind of looked to
Speaker 1: me like they ran out of gas a little bit. Now,
Speaker 1: this is you know, you only get so many reps
Speaker 1: in every practice, and then suddenly they were in a
Speaker 1: they were in a preseason game, playing you know, the
Speaker 1: vast majority of it. So I'm not surprised they got
Speaker 1: a little tired. Um, this was certainly an opportunity for
Speaker 1: them to uh to work on their wind in their
Speaker 1: and their stamina. I don't know how anybody given just
Speaker 1: certain training camp practice could go out and play fifty
Speaker 1: snaps all of a sudden, not get a little bit
Speaker 1: tired out there as a three plus pound individual. But
Speaker 1: I thought Slayton for his for his rookie debut in
Speaker 1: the early going of the game, I thought he really
Speaker 1: looked like he belonged out there. Yeah, they played Slaton snaps.
Speaker 1: I was I thought it was about fourty six. I
Speaker 1: think they played like seventy totally defense. They were in
Speaker 1: a kind of a jam because they didn't have Kingsley
Speaker 1: Kiki in the fold. Yea, he just had got you know,
Speaker 1: just getting working his way back. Dean Lawrie was down,
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark was down. So Lancaster ended up being like
Speaker 1: one of the captains for the game, Mason Crosby and
Speaker 1: and before we get into slat and I just want
Speaker 1: to say, Tyler Lancaster played ten snaps. Most of them
Speaker 1: were early on. Tyler Lancaster played like a beast. And
Speaker 1: that doesn't get said enough because he's just he is.
Speaker 1: He's one of those gritty, just kind of gap fillers
Speaker 1: in the defense. But my god, you need guys like
Speaker 1: that in your scheme because when Kingsley kicks down or
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark is down, you can't just start finding these
Speaker 1: guys off the street and plugging in three twenty pound men.
Speaker 1: You've gotta have guys that can play. Tyler Lancaster can
Speaker 1: play for t J. Slayton, though to go forty six
Speaker 1: snaps at three and thirty pounds, you know, I think
Speaker 1: there probably was that conditioning aspect of it. But when
Speaker 1: he was talking to us last week, he was mentioning
Speaker 1: how he was really inviting that he wanted to play.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be out there. And I also have
Speaker 1: to throw out a quick hat tip too to Jack
Speaker 1: Heflin as well, the rookie out of uh Iowa. So
Speaker 1: another defensive lineman here. Packers need options, and I thought
Speaker 1: he's another guy that that kind of contributed. There had
Speaker 1: forty snaps as well in this game. Um, but Slayton,
Speaker 1: I mean, when you just look at a pure measurable standpoint,
Speaker 1: you dream of defensive linemen that looked like Slayton does.
Speaker 1: And he has to put it together. Jerry Montgomery was saying,
Speaker 1: there's there's things that he has to learn and he
Speaker 1: has to translate to the football field. But he he
Speaker 1: is a guy with with some big pause and I
Speaker 1: think he has a big future in front of him
Speaker 1: if he can figure out all those nuances out of
Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, what did you think as far as
Speaker 1: some of these young guys in the defensive backfield, Obviously
Speaker 1: Ento had the pick. I thought Vernon Scott he had
Speaker 1: a big pass breakup on the third down. Um. There,
Speaker 1: you know the Packers are. The Packers know who their
Speaker 1: frontline guys are in the secondary. They really know who
Speaker 1: their front line guys are across the board with this team.
Speaker 1: Other than the guard situation. We've been talking about a
Speaker 1: lot on offense, but there's there's a lot of competition
Speaker 1: here with regard to whether it's going to be roster spots,
Speaker 1: practice squad spots with a lot of these uh, A
Speaker 1: lot of these young guys and defensive the defensive secondary
Speaker 1: is uh. Um is no exception to that and UH
Speaker 1: and guys like Ento and Scott I think got themselves
Speaker 1: off to a good start here. As far as these
Speaker 1: three preseason games, I've been high on Vernon Scott since
Speaker 1: he came out at TCU. I think he's a guy
Speaker 1: that he was only a one year starter there, didn't
Speaker 1: even get a chance to get his pro day. We
Speaker 1: were talking about the scouting comment the kid couldn't even
Speaker 1: do his pro day. Uh, And I really would love
Speaker 1: although you don't want to do it now because you
Speaker 1: don't want anybody tearing their hamstrings. But I really it's
Speaker 1: a shame that we don't have an official forty time
Speaker 1: on Vernon Scott. I think he'd really impress some people
Speaker 1: with that. All that being said, the guy I just
Speaker 1: asked for an opportunity. He was at his press conference
Speaker 1: on Tuesday talking about the seventh round tour and thirty
Speaker 1: six pick overall tattoo he got on his left arm.
Speaker 1: That isn't a chip on his shoulder. That's not a
Speaker 1: motivational technique. He's that proud to be in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. And he comes from a he has a
Speaker 1: really interesting backstory down in Texas, and and I think
Speaker 1: he plays that way. He's one of the guys that
Speaker 1: when you hear him speak and you see the way
Speaker 1: he plays on the field, you can tell how much
Speaker 1: this whole thing means to him. Now that being said,
Speaker 1: that's safety competition is really tight. Henry Black worked his
Speaker 1: way into that midway through last season. He started next
Speaker 1: to Scott. Will Redman is coming back from his injury
Speaker 1: He's basically sort of been that dime guy here, at
Speaker 1: least he was last season after Raven Green was missing
Speaker 1: um in in his gains. Speaking of TCU and his
Speaker 1: former teammate, Scott's teammate at TCU, who had a litany
Speaker 1: of knee injuries and other issues, that kid has made
Speaker 1: more plays than he hasn't in practice on the scout team.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was a really tight competition for the backfield.
Speaker 1: Then you've got guys like you know, Chamargine, John Charles.
Speaker 1: Now he's trying to defend that backup slot position, that
Speaker 1: nickel job to Shannon Sullivan. So I thought, I thought
Speaker 1: John Charles there there were a couple of a couple
Speaker 1: of hesitations, a couple of you know, maybe rough moments. Early,
Speaker 1: I thought the more he played, the more he seemed
Speaker 1: to kind of settle in. And again it's like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm watching from the press box and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: does this guy look like he belongs on an NFL field?
Speaker 1: First couple of snaps, you're kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: you're not quite sure. But once he once he settled in,
Speaker 1: then it's like, yeah, this this guy belongs. Fifth round
Speaker 1: pick from app State and uh, I think he's Uh.
Speaker 1: I think he's another one of these reserve defensive backs
Speaker 1: that that the Packers. Ultimately, if anybody goes down, anybody
Speaker 1: gets hurt, you know, he's gonna he's gonna have to play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he has. You know, again, he's picking up a
Speaker 1: new position. He played mostly on the perimeter at app
Speaker 1: State and made a little bit of an adjustment there
Speaker 1: is last year, and I think they put him in
Speaker 1: more of that showtime kind of star roll a little bit.
Speaker 1: But that being said, I find it really interesting. Green
Speaker 1: Bay just pointed to him and said, you're you're gonna
Speaker 1: learn slot. You're gonna go learn nicol. That's where we're
Speaker 1: gonna start you. Um. And now the other thing is
Speaker 1: too as we go into this Jets game, we had
Speaker 1: Kevin King's back in the fold now for Green Bay.
Speaker 1: So I really would love to see Eric Stokes play,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's the Jets game or whether it's
Speaker 1: the Bills. I think that's a young man that really
Speaker 1: could use the reps. He's seen Davante Adams in practice
Speaker 1: a lot the last couple of weeks. Be curious to
Speaker 1: see what he looks like when he sees more of
Speaker 1: these guys that are of his similar our age, and
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, you know, not necessarily a four
Speaker 1: time Pro Bowl receiver, because I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of ability there as well. Yeah, well, we mentioned the
Speaker 1: running game. We talked about the run defense in the
Speaker 1: second half. Matt Lafleur talked about that not really being
Speaker 1: up to par and um and the Packers still have
Speaker 1: some issues on special teams. I think it was it
Speaker 1: was certainly disappointing for Mo Drayton. Nobody said this was
Speaker 1: gonna be easy for Mo Drayton. Right, There's there's an
Speaker 1: unfortunately a long history here of of struggles in this
Speaker 1: phase of the game. And you know, there's there's no
Speaker 1: final judgment being made after one preseason game. But Packers
Speaker 1: still have they have their things to work on, they
Speaker 1: have their issues. A couple of punt returns went against them.
Speaker 1: Amari Amari Rodgers had one nice pump return, but then
Speaker 1: you know, muff the one punt by the goal line.
Speaker 1: You certainly cannot do that. So a lot of things
Speaker 1: here for the Packers to work on in you know,
Speaker 1: really a key thing in all three phases for the
Speaker 1: Packers to work on as they go from the first
Speaker 1: preseason game to the second one, and there are some
Speaker 1: really well stable, you know, legitimized special teamers on this
Speaker 1: roster or in Burkes, who again, as we talked about,
Speaker 1: had a big game defensively, Tye Summers, Vernon Scott was
Speaker 1: one of the top leading snap guys. They did lose
Speaker 1: Randy Ramsey, but you know, Will Redmond is back. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of guys that are pretty well regarded
Speaker 1: on these special teams units. So while most of them
Speaker 1: weren't involved in some of these errors on special teams,
Speaker 1: the reason my antenna went up is that's the standard
Speaker 1: if you want to carve out a roster spot, if
Speaker 1: you want to be able to earn a spot on
Speaker 1: those core four, you've got to perform. So whether it's
Speaker 1: the jam ors, whether it's the gunners, whether it's the
Speaker 1: inline guys. As they mentioned one of the blocks kind
Speaker 1: of coming loose on the j K. Scott punt that
Speaker 1: sort of rushed the effort. You guys have to step
Speaker 1: up if you want to earn a roster spot, if
Speaker 1: you want to be on that team when they travel
Speaker 1: to New Orleans, you have to do that because there
Speaker 1: are known quantities on the special teams unit. In addition
Speaker 1: to the changes they're trying to make, they've also made
Speaker 1: a commitment to some of those guys. The Birks is
Speaker 1: the Summers, the guys that they know, Okay, you can
Speaker 1: play them anyway. They know the scheme. They're going to
Speaker 1: be accountable because at the end of the day, is
Speaker 1: as cool as the explosive players are as neat as
Speaker 1: it is to talk about a kickoff return or a
Speaker 1: fake field goal or what have you. You just need
Speaker 1: to be consistent. You can't be gashed. And you know,
Speaker 1: obviously they had the one punt come loose that was corrected.
Speaker 1: Ryan Winslow was also let go, So they got to
Speaker 1: make another step forward, and I think there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a chance to really kind of reset themselves here against
Speaker 1: the Jets and hopefully put a better foot forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Packers are looking for looking for those guys who are
Speaker 1: going to join those core guys on special teams and
Speaker 1: and get things turned around in that phase of the game.
Speaker 1: So with that, we'll call it a wrap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of training camp and continues every single day
Speaker 1: on packers dot Com for West, I'm Mike. Thanks for
Speaker 1: tuning in, everybody, See you next time.