Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Weston Hodkowits were coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambeau Field West. Yesterday
Speaker 1: we got our second look this spring at a Packers
Speaker 1: organized team activity also known as an O T A.
Speaker 1: And UH, I want to start with we have a
Speaker 1: lot of observations obviously from this uh this practice we
Speaker 1: got to witness, But I want to start with what
Speaker 1: you brought up in our three Things video that we
Speaker 1: did at the end of practice with Larry McCarron, because
Speaker 1: you talked about what you saw from first round draft
Speaker 1: pick Eric Stokes, and UM, I just want you to
Speaker 1: expand on that because he he was he was an
Speaker 1: interesting guy to watch when they went to the eleven
Speaker 1: on eleven work there towards the tail end of the workout,
Speaker 1: and as we found out after practice, he actually also
Speaker 1: signed his first round pick contract. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if he had a little extra juice. You know, there
Speaker 1: was suddenly a bunch more money in his bank account.
Speaker 1: We know that, So I tend to show up a
Speaker 1: little bit better after bonus Day, right, at least I do,
Speaker 1: But no, I mean, here, here's what you look for
Speaker 1: during the off season program, right, because it's non contact,
Speaker 1: it's it's usually big moments. But what stood out to
Speaker 1: me the most about Eric Stokes is he took a
Speaker 1: really good first open practice that we were able to
Speaker 1: be at, and I felt like he followed up on
Speaker 1: it in the second one, stringing those together. We don't
Speaker 1: know what the other practices were liking to. We're not there.
Speaker 1: We're not there every day at this point. We can
Speaker 1: only see what's in front of us. And what I
Speaker 1: saw Mike is a guy that his body awareness and
Speaker 1: positioning is exceptional for a rookie player. The forty time,
Speaker 1: as I said during Three Things Sub four three forty time,
Speaker 1: that's gonna obviously catch your attention. The breaking out with
Speaker 1: the interceptions last year at Georgia, that's going to catch
Speaker 1: your attention because that's something he lacked before his his
Speaker 1: final season there. But it was the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: there was a stat that stood out to me from
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus about how he had like the lowest
Speaker 1: UH passer rating allowed in man coverage in college football
Speaker 1: last year, where I think at least a hundred snaps
Speaker 1: with the like eighteen point five. And when I watched
Speaker 1: him in practice and especially during the team periods that
Speaker 1: we were able to see, you see why this guy
Speaker 1: is so hard to complete a pass against one. He's
Speaker 1: pretty long and lengthy for the position too. He has
Speaker 1: great speed so that if he is out of position,
Speaker 1: the recovery is going to be there, especially waiting for
Speaker 1: that ball to arrive. But three, it's how he positions
Speaker 1: himself to narrow that window that catch radius for the receiver.
Speaker 1: There was one plan. Again, I understand Davante Adams isn't
Speaker 1: here right now, but he's going up against Reggie Bagelton,
Speaker 1: the practice squad receiver from last season that's coming back.
Speaker 1: And I thought Bagelton had a nice little route going
Speaker 1: for himself in the past, which I believe was from
Speaker 1: Jordan's love was pretty much in the vicinity of where
Speaker 1: it needed to be. But when a cornerback with his
Speaker 1: safety help over the top with Adrian Amos, when you
Speaker 1: see those things, those things married together, you know, in
Speaker 1: the way that they did on that specific play, even
Speaker 1: though it wasn't a big pass breakup, even though it
Speaker 1: wasn't an interception. It was the type of play that
Speaker 1: stands out because you can see how it translates to games. Setting. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and we do have to qualify this. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Packers top five receivers essentially on the depth chart are
Speaker 1: not at the voluntary O T A s. But what
Speaker 1: we're seeing from Eric Stokes actually has me even more
Speaker 1: excited to see when he does line up across from
Speaker 1: al Lazard or Marquis Valdes Scaling or Davante Adams when
Speaker 1: training camp rolls around. I go back to what I said,
Speaker 1: what I saw during the rookie mini camp where Stokes
Speaker 1: and defensive backs coach Jay Gray, We're having a conversation
Speaker 1: after certain play and Gray Gray was really harping on
Speaker 1: them about, okay, the receivers were the receivers were split
Speaker 1: this way, this, This was how they were lined up.
Speaker 1: Like he's only gonna run you know this route or
Speaker 1: this route. You need to be able to anticipate, you
Speaker 1: know the one or the other. And you know it's
Speaker 1: to see to see a rookie in one of his
Speaker 1: first practices in the NFL already getting that from the
Speaker 1: defensive backs coach. That tells you, there are already so
Speaker 1: many other tools that are in place here. When it
Speaker 1: when right away Jerry Gray is trying to say, hey,
Speaker 1: this isn't just about technique. It's not just about the
Speaker 1: physical skills. We want to get you to anticipate the
Speaker 1: routes um and try to be a step ahead of
Speaker 1: the offense as much as you can. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff that most of the time young players will
Speaker 1: get from a Charles Woodson or Truman Williams as they
Speaker 1: get into the league for a year or two. And
Speaker 1: Eric Stokes is getting this, you know, push into him.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say pounded into him, but but
Speaker 1: pushed on him by Jerry Gray right from the get go,
Speaker 1: which I think tells you how much potential the Packers
Speaker 1: feel this young man has. Yeah, And as you mentioned, Mike,
Speaker 1: when you Packers eventually do have their whole receiving corps
Speaker 1: back in training camp or mini camp, however, this shuffles out.
Speaker 1: The reason I want to see that is the same
Speaker 1: reason from back in two thousand and eight teen when
Speaker 1: JayR Alexander got to Green Baby. Because it's not about Oh,
Speaker 1: Eric Stokes is just gonna go out there and he's
Speaker 1: just gonna dominate. They won't be able to complete a
Speaker 1: pass on two Adams or Lazarre or nvs. It's not
Speaker 1: about that. It's about the individual reps and seeing that
Speaker 1: level of competition, not only anticipating what the road is
Speaker 1: going to be, but how those guys pivot off those routes,
Speaker 1: especially in this type of offense. That's the that's the
Speaker 1: dimension that I can't wait to see now. And because
Speaker 1: Alexander isn't here right now, that's meant more reps in
Speaker 1: the bigger team defenses with Stokes, Josh Jackson has gotten
Speaker 1: some of those. Channon Sullivan, this is a big opportunity, Mike,
Speaker 1: because you know you have Kevin King, you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna have Alexander, and on the back end it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Savage and Amos. That's four six, two thirds of
Speaker 1: the big secondary. When you look at the money down,
Speaker 1: it's those other two spots in understanding where guys are
Speaker 1: going to play in that position. That that's what's got
Speaker 1: to get shuffled out here. And I feel like Stokes
Speaker 1: has put his best foot forward here in his first
Speaker 1: month in Green Bay. Yeah, I would agree. Sticking with
Speaker 1: the defensive side, of things. Another interesting development we saw
Speaker 1: yesterday you had written a story that was from kind
Speaker 1: of off of last week's O t A that we
Speaker 1: posted on Monday about, you know, the Packers inside linebacker room.
Speaker 1: There's obviously a lot of attention on Chris Barnes and
Speaker 1: Kamal Martin being the two rookies from last year who
Speaker 1: kind of made a name for themselves in different ways.
Speaker 1: But then we saw at practice yesterday suddenly Chris Barnes
Speaker 1: is lined up with Ty Summers with the number one defense,
Speaker 1: and there were other pairings and other matchups with those
Speaker 1: inside linebackers as they went through the eleven on eleven reps.
Speaker 1: And it just as I said in the three Things video,
Speaker 1: it just seems to me like the defensive coaches are
Speaker 1: setting things up here for what's going to be a
Speaker 1: very wide open competition in training camp for those inside
Speaker 1: linebacker spots. Now, I do think Chris Barnes is, you know,
Speaker 1: the leader on the course, so to speak to to
Speaker 1: steal a golf phrase right now, Um, I do think
Speaker 1: he's the number one guy right now. But when you
Speaker 1: talk about I mean, we don't know necessarily with Joe
Speaker 1: Barry's defense, I mean you know, how does how does
Speaker 1: he want to set up the pecking word or how
Speaker 1: often does he want to play two inside linebackers? Does
Speaker 1: he want to train another guy to have a specific
Speaker 1: role in say the dime defense that maybe another guy
Speaker 1: wouldn't have. All those kinds of things. We have to
Speaker 1: see how it plays out. And when you're talking about Barnes, Summers,
Speaker 1: Martin or In Burke's and then a rookie UH sixth
Speaker 1: round draft pick Isaiah mcduffee from Boston College, Um, I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see a lot of rotation, a
Speaker 1: lot of mixing, mixing and matching in terms of the
Speaker 1: pairings as as we get into training camp and the
Speaker 1: coaches are going to be studying that film and seeing
Speaker 1: and and really trying to see what they think what
Speaker 1: they think the best possibilities are in the scheme of
Speaker 1: Joe Barry's Yeah, And that's the feeling out process of
Speaker 1: understanding what your personnel is, the player that you added
Speaker 1: to that group in McDuffie, and trying to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: who's going to be the best position to step into
Speaker 1: those roles when we go into training camp and and
Speaker 1: potentially try to hold onto them. The one thing that
Speaker 1: stands out to me about last season is that, out
Speaker 1: of all my time on the beat, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different maschinations of the inside linebacker combinations, you
Speaker 1: and I have covered all the way from Clay Matthews
Speaker 1: moving inside to Nate Palmer and Jamari Lattimore and Brian
Speaker 1: and Brad Jones moving from outside linebacker to inside linebacker.
Speaker 1: We've seen it all. But last year was unique in
Speaker 1: that I don't remember a scenario in which you saw
Speaker 1: the communication helmet passed as much as it did um
Speaker 1: throughout the course of last season. Now, eventually it did
Speaker 1: sort of settle on Chris Barnes, but then when Barnes
Speaker 1: got hurt, you had Tye Summers, who wasn't in any
Speaker 1: of the defensive packages, well he was the next mike.
Speaker 1: Uh So, when I saw practice this week, you wonder
Speaker 1: how much of that is one making sure that Okay
Speaker 1: Summers is the mic behind Barnes at this time, but
Speaker 1: how much is it him also getting an opportunity to
Speaker 1: potentially be the will now that you don't have Christian
Speaker 1: Kirksey's gone in the nickel, and then competing with Kamal
Speaker 1: Martin for that role in the base. Tye Summers arguably
Speaker 1: maybe has the most experience of anyone at the inside
Speaker 1: linebacker position when you factor in the fact that or
Speaker 1: In Burke's ended up spending time with the outside linebackers.
Speaker 1: So this is a wide open competition. I thought it
Speaker 1: was really telling that when myself and many other reporters
Speaker 1: were asking, you know, both Barry and and Kurt Olivia
Speaker 1: Datti about Barnes and Martin, they were very They made
Speaker 1: it a point to talk about the entire group and
Speaker 1: that that is a position while you have the two
Speaker 1: rookies coming act from last season. That is a position
Speaker 1: where the Packers are looking to put their best two
Speaker 1: on the field and they're gonna cast a really wide
Speaker 1: net to do it. Yeah, well, I want to shift
Speaker 1: gears to the offensive side of the ball. But first
Speaker 1: West Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis
Speaker 1: and up to the minute NFL news that true football
Speaker 1: fanatics need. Seven three sixty five. Alright, Well, one of
Speaker 1: the players that we heard from in the post practice
Speaker 1: zoom calls with the media yesterday was second year running
Speaker 1: back A. J. Dylan, And I'll tell you what, he
Speaker 1: did not mince words at all and Yes, he talked
Speaker 1: a lot about his quads and all of that. Um,
Speaker 1: I the whole quad father Quadzilla. It's it's entertaining. I
Speaker 1: get it. He stole your moniker. Yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: Spofford thing before A J. Dillon got drafted here. All right,
Speaker 1: that's a discussion for another day. But what he did
Speaker 1: say that that really caught my ear is at he
Speaker 1: did not hesitate whatsoever. He was asked about this pairing
Speaker 1: now of him with Aaron Jones, and he said, I
Speaker 1: think we can be the best running back duo in
Speaker 1: the NFL. UM Now, obviously you'd like to hear that
Speaker 1: he this is a workhorse guy from Boston College who
Speaker 1: carried the ball a ton who has already had to
Speaker 1: adjust to, you know, not being the guy, right. He hasn't.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been the feature guy. He's not going to
Speaker 1: be the number one guy in this offense with when
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones is healthy and available and on the field.
Speaker 1: But we've talked about it before, the possibilities, the possibilities
Speaker 1: here with your two eight pound Aaron Jones and your
Speaker 1: two seven pound A J. Dillon. It's really intriguing just
Speaker 1: where this might go in with the Packers ground game.
Speaker 1: Here's what I love about A G. Dillon, And first off,
Speaker 1: I gotta mention this, Mike, because I always I think
Speaker 1: that hodds take bar when we do final thoughts, Tyler
Speaker 1: guy skip super gets it in the lower third. This
Speaker 1: is kind of hodds take. You talked about being the
Speaker 1: featured guy, not being the workhorse back. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you something right now, to every young running back out there,
Speaker 1: it's not the worst thing in the world. It worked
Speaker 1: out well for Aaron Jones, and hey, I know everybody
Speaker 1: wants to come in and be a year one starting
Speaker 1: running back, but i'nna be honest with you. He ain't
Speaker 1: making the big money yet. I mean, I I feel
Speaker 1: like there's actually a lot to be said for not
Speaker 1: introducing a running back into the league and just grinding
Speaker 1: them all the way down to the gas take is empty.
Speaker 1: So that's a topic for another day. I'm letna throw
Speaker 1: this back at you. Though I've covered the team full
Speaker 1: time since two thousand twelve, a little bit in two
Speaker 1: thousand eleven we're trying to figure some stuff out with
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Press because that staff. But since two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve, at least during my time I can say
Speaker 1: unequivocally I think A. J. Dillon is the most confident
Speaker 1: running back that has walked in the door in terms
Speaker 1: of being a draft pick to just putting his foot
Speaker 1: down and saying, yeah, I feel the way I speak,
Speaker 1: the words I say, and the way the confidence I
Speaker 1: have in my ability, it jumps off the page to me.
Speaker 1: In terms of just what his or I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think if there's even another guy that even comes close
Speaker 1: to him during the last twenty five years. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think I will I will say this, you
Speaker 1: will say that. But in terms of his extroverted the
Speaker 1: way he speaks, I've not seen anything like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think from from a personality standpoint, obviously
Speaker 1: Eddie Lacey was was very different, but I think, uh
Speaker 1: he he was very different externally, but I think internally,
Speaker 1: Eddie Lacy knew that he belonged in the end from
Speaker 1: you know, from from the get go. So I will
Speaker 1: say that, And those are the two guys that the
Speaker 1: Packers have invested second round draft picks, you know, in
Speaker 1: the running back position. But um, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of the fans are asking questions with with regard to Dylan,
Speaker 1: what about the past catching abilities and and and whatnot,
Speaker 1: because it's not something that was part of Boston College's offense.
Speaker 1: And you know, he had twenty one pass receptions out
Speaker 1: of the back backfield the last two years at Boston
Speaker 1: College didn't have any actually the first year that he
Speaker 1: was the feature back there. So it's not that he
Speaker 1: doesn't have the ability to do it, it's that he
Speaker 1: was never really asked to do it. He knows. I mean,
Speaker 1: all you have to do is look at the stats.
Speaker 1: The last two years, Aaron Jones has caught ninety six passes.
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams. Jamal Williams caught seventy the last two years
Speaker 1: as the number two guy behind Aaron Jones. So A J.
Speaker 1: Dillon knows that that's that's the one big part of
Speaker 1: his game that he has to work on in order
Speaker 1: to try to maximize his opportunities to to get on
Speaker 1: the field. And we've seen it already in the O
Speaker 1: T a s now when it's not necessarily full speed,
Speaker 1: when it's not uh, you know, padded up and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. You know, you you take everything
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt, so to speak. But the
Speaker 1: more of those reps that he can get now in
Speaker 1: the springtime, then when it is eleven on eleven in
Speaker 1: August in full pads and he's got to run, he's
Speaker 1: running that wheel. We're out out of the back field,
Speaker 1: and that ball is going to be coming his way
Speaker 1: with whether it be Chris Barnes or Adrian Amos or
Speaker 1: whoever might be, you know, closing in and try to
Speaker 1: break that pass up. The more reps that he gets
Speaker 1: right now in that situation, the more comfortable he's going
Speaker 1: to feel come come this summer. And I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big thing to watch through August here
Speaker 1: in training camp with this young man. And this is
Speaker 1: a big time for the running backs in that regard.
Speaker 1: I remember, even you go back to two thousand and fifteen,
Speaker 1: maybe I mean Mike McCarthy kind of even scaled back
Speaker 1: the amount of reps that they took handing off the
Speaker 1: ball to put more of an emphasis on guys catching
Speaker 1: the ball, running backs catching the ball. Some would say
Speaker 1: maybe they skewed a little too far in that direction,
Speaker 1: but that showed you the emphasis that was there, and
Speaker 1: just kind of how the league was evolving. To tie
Speaker 1: back to my previous point about Dylan, as you said,
Speaker 1: there's a number of different ways you can go about
Speaker 1: having confidence, but the swagger that Dylan carries himself with,
Speaker 1: there's certain expectations that kind of come with that, and
Speaker 1: the young man doesn't shy away from those he enjoys
Speaker 1: have that spotlight on him, and I feel like that's
Speaker 1: a really important characteristic and the running back profession in
Speaker 1: that game, because I'll tell you what, Mike, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff they still need to work on. The
Speaker 1: pass catching is one of them. Run blocking all right now,
Speaker 1: I should say pass blocking, We're gonna have to learn
Speaker 1: more about that. Can you be a third down and
Speaker 1: reliable third down back? But from a structural standpoint building
Speaker 1: a running back up from the base. I mean, the
Speaker 1: guy checks all the boxes. And I think when you
Speaker 1: hear him say things like I feel like myself and
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones can be the best running back due on
Speaker 1: the league, that's a really high goal to set for yourself.
Speaker 1: But you can tell with the way he says it.
Speaker 1: One it's not brigadoso or anything like that. The brigadocio.
Speaker 1: It's not like he's trying to just say, well, I'm
Speaker 1: the best. He's saying that's where we think we can
Speaker 1: take this thing. And that's why that message really resonated
Speaker 1: with me when he said it, because it wasn't just that, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: sure I'm the best. It's no, I mean this is
Speaker 1: I saw what I could do in a really small
Speaker 1: sampling last year, and I feel like I can do
Speaker 1: it again. Yeah. He talked about, yes, that he understands
Speaker 1: the whole thunder and lightning, you know type of thing
Speaker 1: with with him and Aaron Jones, but he said, you know,
Speaker 1: if Aaron Jones is the lightning, this is this is
Speaker 1: a pretty tough dude who can grind out some yards
Speaker 1: when you need to. And he says, if I'm the
Speaker 1: if I'm the thunder, I got some speed and I
Speaker 1: can run away from guys, which we saw a third
Speaker 1: yard touchdown run when he had that that carry, you know,
Speaker 1: hundred yard to touchdown game against Tennessee, you know, which
Speaker 1: helped the Packers clinch the division titles. So you know
Speaker 1: you're talking about um as you said, small sample size,
Speaker 1: but but we've seen you know, Aaron, Aaron Jones is
Speaker 1: not just a scat back and he's proven that and
Speaker 1: A J. Dillon is out to prove he's not just
Speaker 1: a power back that he's got more to his game,
Speaker 1: and I think he's going to get that opportunity this
Speaker 1: year and his when he hits that that fourth gear,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's getting out of the way. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was my takeaway from the Tennessee game because even
Speaker 1: you and I'm Mike, we didn't see a lot of
Speaker 1: a j Allen. I mean, when you had to get
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams ready for the season during
Speaker 1: a shortened training camp, that's where all those reps went.
Speaker 1: He saw Dylan and some of the young guys periods.
Speaker 1: He only had a handful of reps before the COVID deal,
Speaker 1: and then he came back, and that's what stood out
Speaker 1: to me. When he breaks through that first front of
Speaker 1: the defense and he's able to hit that next gear,
Speaker 1: good luck stopping the tour and forty seven pound body
Speaker 1: because it's not coming down easily. Yeah, no question about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And missing a month and a half or whatever it
Speaker 1: was like he did with the COVID situation last year
Speaker 1: was unfortunate for um, for him as a rookie, but
Speaker 1: fortunately for the Packers they didn't necessarily need him because
Speaker 1: you had Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams, and then when
Speaker 1: they did need him in the big late December game
Speaker 1: against Tennessee, he came through with the young man delivered.
Speaker 1: So UM. One other topic to get to with regard
Speaker 1: to the offense before we go, we also did hear
Speaker 1: from tight end Robert Tonyan, and uh, it was interesting.
Speaker 1: We didn't just hear from him, but we also heard
Speaker 1: from head coach Matt Lafleur, who made, you know, no
Speaker 1: bones about the fact that he feels, you know, even
Speaker 1: with Tony in coming off of what I believe was
Speaker 1: almost six hundred yards receiving double digit touchdowns, um, you know,
Speaker 1: tying for the league lead and touchdown receptions among tight
Speaker 1: ends with All Pro Travis Kelsey, he thinks, even with
Speaker 1: as deep as this tight end group is with the Packers,
Speaker 1: that there's more out there for Robert Touny in that
Speaker 1: there could be some more opportunities to feature him in
Speaker 1: this offense even more. I found that to be a
Speaker 1: very interesting comment. When you've got Marcedes Lewis, you've got
Speaker 1: Josiah Deguire coming back from the knee injury. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: j Sternberger has had some injury issues. His first couple
Speaker 1: of years was still trying to see where that goes.
Speaker 1: And then Dominique Daphne, he was a guy who stepped
Speaker 1: in late last season, caught a big touchdown passing in
Speaker 1: Chicago in Week seventeen and a big victory. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot here going on at the tight end position
Speaker 1: for the Packers. But Robert Tonyan is going to be
Speaker 1: a featured player in this offense. Yeah, it really stands
Speaker 1: out to me because I remember for a number of
Speaker 1: years I'd sit at the locker with Robert and I
Speaker 1: basically would just keep asking the same question over and
Speaker 1: over again. Do you feel like a tight end? Do
Speaker 1: you feel like a tight end? And and we're we're
Speaker 1: worth so far past that now. But now the era
Speaker 1: that we're entering is this guy could be a Travis
Speaker 1: Kelsey and George Kittle, you know type impact player in
Speaker 1: this offense. And to be honest with you, Mike, I
Speaker 1: know everybody will automatically say, well, that's what they had
Speaker 1: with with Jamichael Finley. They did, and they didn't because
Speaker 1: one the Packers were so deep with their receiving corps
Speaker 1: at that time, Finley almost kind of fit in with
Speaker 1: that room, there was a time where he was taken
Speaker 1: off the weight to almost be more like a receiver
Speaker 1: as far as an inline tight end, Robert Tonyan has
Speaker 1: been the perfect project for Green Bay and I made
Speaker 1: a lot about it. I made a lot of it
Speaker 1: for a number of years, about him working with Jimmy
Speaker 1: Graham for two years. However things went in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: Fans have their personal feelings on it. Jimmy Graham's one
Speaker 1: of the best pass catching tight ends that come through
Speaker 1: this league in the last twenty years. And he's still
Speaker 1: playing Mercedes Lewis, Who's gonna make a bona fide run
Speaker 1: here at being the longest tenured NFL tight end ever
Speaker 1: potentially if he can do this for two or three
Speaker 1: more seasons. One of the most block best blockers that
Speaker 1: has kept him in this league here the last ten years,
Speaker 1: having those two guys guiding him. I don't think that
Speaker 1: can be overstated just how valuable that was. And and
Speaker 1: now Tongyan is the guy. And for the Packers to
Speaker 1: be able to find a young man like that that
Speaker 1: was a former college quarterback that then transition to receiver
Speaker 1: that went to Detroit and had a you know, tough
Speaker 1: experience there was out of the league completely and then
Speaker 1: he kind of works his way up from the practice
Speaker 1: squad to where he is today. I mean, that's this
Speaker 1: is an emotional thing now for Green Bay, that that
Speaker 1: guy isn't just a great story anymore. And Robert tongue
Speaker 1: in very well could be one of the biggest playmakers
Speaker 1: in the NFC. Yeah, as you called him an insider inbox,
Speaker 1: the uncrowned Pro Bowler. You talk, you talk about a
Speaker 1: guy getting that debate for a Pro Bowl on I
Speaker 1: mean and and his his his teammates. Remember late last season,
Speaker 1: his teammates were, you know, now we're we weren't in
Speaker 1: the locker room obviously we're only talking to players over zoom,
Speaker 1: but they were that that was maybe as flabbergasted as
Speaker 1: I had ever heard multiple teammates talk about a guy
Speaker 1: maybe since you know, the one year that t J.
Speaker 1: Lang like didn't get I remember when he did before
Speaker 1: he got his first Pro Bowl honor, but least subjective
Speaker 1: like it's it's his teammates were. His teammates were absolutely
Speaker 1: blown away that he got that he got as overlooked
Speaker 1: as he was for that honor. So now I mean
Speaker 1: get it. You know, the Pro Bowl is not the
Speaker 1: not the be all end all, and do his credit.
Speaker 1: You know, Tonyan doesn't look at it that way either,
Speaker 1: But he's got a lot of guys in that locker
Speaker 1: room that are behind him and are they're excited about
Speaker 1: what he accomplished and where he's potentially going with his career. Well,
Speaker 1: and God bless Evan Ingram. If Evan's watching this out
Speaker 1: there somewhere, you helped me win a fantasy football title
Speaker 1: like five years ago. The guy does have some name
Speaker 1: notoriety there. Obviously was a credential player coming into the league.
Speaker 1: But I think Kevin Ingram would tell you too, if
Speaker 1: we're all being this with each other, when you factor
Speaker 1: and not just the disparity and in touchdowns between the two,
Speaker 1: but the fact that Ingram had a lot of drops
Speaker 1: last year and then Tony in by every metric that
Speaker 1: I can find, didn't have any. He caught every caught
Speaker 1: every pass that he was asked to catch. It is
Speaker 1: what it is. I mean, thankfully Robert was in his
Speaker 1: going into his restricted free agent here. It'sund like he
Speaker 1: had any like Pro Bowl five bonuses built into his
Speaker 1: contract that he got robbed of. But Holy smokes. Yeah. Well, Um,
Speaker 1: also before we go, it's pretty cool, I would have
Speaker 1: to say, because we don't always get to see this,
Speaker 1: but both of the O t A practices we've seen,
Speaker 1: um the guys rehabbing off the side, and in this
Speaker 1: practice yesterday, Josiah Deguara David Bakti both coming back from
Speaker 1: a c L injuries. Um, we're working off to the
Speaker 1: side now. Obviously Daguire's injury was was early in the season,
Speaker 1: I believe week four or five if I'm if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, Yeah, but I'll tell you, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what seeing what David Baktier looks like right now, just
Speaker 1: as he's doing like these rehab drills. Now, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: no medical expert, and I know everything with with a
Speaker 1: c L, timelines and all that, things continue to change.
Speaker 1: But but man, I mean that was New Year's Eve
Speaker 1: he had that injury, and obviously the surgery shortly thereafter.
Speaker 1: But holy cow, I mean we're in we're in early
Speaker 1: June here, and it doesn't it looks like he is
Speaker 1: much much more than five months removed from from surgery.
Speaker 1: It blows me away, honestly. I tweeted it, and people
Speaker 1: think I'm being funny, but I was adcent serious why
Speaker 1: I tweeted it. Everybody leaves goes out. The Hudson Center
Speaker 1: of cameras stopped flickering because, okay, we all got the
Speaker 1: shot of all the players coming out. Send it out.
Speaker 1: It's the same video we've seen other times, but be
Speaker 1: that as it may, and then very quietly, out sprints
Speaker 1: David baktr once all the cameras are down. And when
Speaker 1: I say sprints, I mean legitimately sprints. I said, he
Speaker 1: ran like a stallion out out of the field. He did.
Speaker 1: And to see him do the work that he was
Speaker 1: doing on one foot and putting weight on that knee. Again,
Speaker 1: we we saw some of the videos, and you know,
Speaker 1: the work that David puts into this thing and the
Speaker 1: fact that he takes a lot of pride and being
Speaker 1: the best left tackle in the game right now and
Speaker 1: a guy that's on a Hall of Fame trajector, you know,
Speaker 1: that matters to him. But it also matters him to
Speaker 1: be out there for his team. So again, in the
Speaker 1: same thing with Daguia, to see Joside Daguire at a
Speaker 1: position where there's a little bit more violent movement on
Speaker 1: the knee to be able to wake his way back,
Speaker 1: and he was off to such a great start, Mike.
Speaker 1: I mean that game against Minnesota again, you're gonna look
Speaker 1: at it in a box score and you're gonna say
Speaker 1: he had one catch for twelve yards. But if you
Speaker 1: watch the way Green Bay used him against the Vikings
Speaker 1: and the opener, how dynamic he was, the ways that
Speaker 1: they could use him, how well he fit into that
Speaker 1: hybrid h back type role, that was a huge loss.
Speaker 1: And then for him to have the shin injury and
Speaker 1: then obviously end up tearing the a c L at
Speaker 1: the setback. There two big players. I think. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be the ones that are gonna get
Speaker 1: the most clicks, They're not going to get all the
Speaker 1: headlines everything like that. But to have them back in
Speaker 1: the fold and and working and making progress in their rehabs,
Speaker 1: to see that June two, holy crap. Yeah, it's been
Speaker 1: it's it's it's been. It's it's been interesting. And when
Speaker 1: we get to training camp, we the Packers are gonna
Speaker 1: be the Packers have always been conservative with these guys
Speaker 1: coming back from major injuries. So I don't want anybody
Speaker 1: to take our conversation here is saying, well, first day
Speaker 1: of training camp, you know, first day in pads, David
Speaker 1: Bactiero and Josiah to Gard are going to be out
Speaker 1: there full speed. We're not making any promises in that regard,
Speaker 1: but what we are seeing um in terms of getting
Speaker 1: getting a look at their rehab at at this stage,
Speaker 1: it's very promising for what holds for these players when
Speaker 1: you initially get an injury like that, especially David's uh
Speaker 1: late in the season. You know, heading into week seventeen,
Speaker 1: you wonder what really is in store for one. And
Speaker 1: I would just say things are looking pretty promised. And
Speaker 1: you and I were not making proclamations about week one.
Speaker 1: But the point I always try to make. I made
Speaker 1: the same point with Brian Balaga years ago when he
Speaker 1: was coming off his second a c L. You are
Speaker 1: not on the field doing They're not on the field
Speaker 1: doing what they were doing in early June. If everything
Speaker 1: to that point hasn't gone well, and that's the point
Speaker 1: that you have to focus on. If you go on
Speaker 1: you don't see those guys during the off season program,
Speaker 1: that's when the antenna starts to go up a little bit,
Speaker 1: so to see them out there's obviously a good sign. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Well with that, we will call it a wrap on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team here through O t a
Speaker 1: S Mini camp next week. The off season program has
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks to go. Will be all over
Speaker 1: it for you on Packers dot com for Wes, I
Speaker 1: am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody, See you
Speaker 1: next time.