Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to an on location edition of Packers Unscripted. We
Speaker 2: are here in Cincinnati, a day ahead of the Packers
Speaker 2: pre season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals. I am Mike
Speaker 2: Spaffer from Packers dot Com, joined as always not really
Speaker 2: you by my trusted colleague Weston Hankowitz. We haven't done
Speaker 2: the show next to each other for quite some time,
Speaker 2: but we were here yesterday as well, West for the
Speaker 2: Packers joint practice with the Bengals, which was just outside
Speaker 2: of pay Corp Stadium where the Bengals have their practice
Speaker 2: facility and practice fields.
Speaker 1: So I'll just.
Speaker 2: Throw it to you open ended at the beginning. What
Speaker 2: were your impressions of that workout?
Speaker 3: Yeah, tough, physical, It was pretty much everything I kind
Speaker 3: of expected it to be with the joint practice, especially
Speaker 3: when you look at the Cincinnati Bengals both offensive and
Speaker 3: defensive lines. They've put a lot of resources into those
Speaker 3: two spots, and I felt like you saw some really
Speaker 3: good competitive work between the two teams. Certainly from Jordan
Speaker 3: Love's perspective, I think that was probably the most beneficial
Speaker 3: of everything he got those reps in with Christian Watson.
Speaker 3: We saw the fifty yard touchdown during one of the
Speaker 3: team periods. Over to Romeo Dobbs, they're looking to build
Speaker 3: up the synergy of this group right now, and every
Speaker 3: rep matters, so we don't know exactly how this is
Speaker 3: gonna work out. On Friday night, there was some overtures
Speaker 3: made that maybe Jordan plays in this game. Maybe we
Speaker 3: do see the starters out there. I think it was
Speaker 3: Pete Doherty if I remember correctly, that asked Matt about
Speaker 3: what does this mean about David BACTERI he was Bill
Speaker 3: or somebody, I forget who it was.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean David's gonna go. He's like, David won't golden, right,
Speaker 1: He's like, well, why would you say that? Right?
Speaker 3: So, I just feel like with this team right now
Speaker 3: and where they're at, I don't think you can go
Speaker 3: wrong either way with how they deploy their preseason starters
Speaker 3: in this thing. But I really felt like that practice
Speaker 3: against the Bengals. It got heated at times, but I
Speaker 3: felt like it really good work for this football team.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing that really stood out to me Wes
Speaker 2: was watching the guys in the trenches because that Cincinnati
Speaker 2: defensive line, that defensive front that is that is a
Speaker 2: as Larry would like to say assaulty bunch, right, I
Speaker 2: mean those guys, Sam Hubbard, Trey hendrickson DJ Reader like
Speaker 2: that is you can see why this Cincinnati defense has
Speaker 2: been one of the best in the AFC and in
Speaker 2: the entire NFL the last couple of years. These guys
Speaker 2: got to a Super Bowl a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: back to an AFC championship last year. I thought it
Speaker 2: was really really good work for the Packers offensive line
Speaker 2: and comment I believe John Runyon made a comment to you, yeah,
Speaker 2: to you after practice because one of the things that
Speaker 2: was so beneficial about this work that the offensive line
Speaker 2: got is this Cincinnati defensive line is built differently than
Speaker 2: the Packers. So the Packers have a lot of, as
Speaker 2: Runyon said, a lot of quick, quick twitch, and you know,
Speaker 2: gap shooting type of guys. This Cincinnati defensive line is
Speaker 2: built on power and they just they play the differently.
Speaker 2: Their bodies are built differently, and it was a great
Speaker 2: change of pace for the Packers' offensive line to get
Speaker 2: them ready for a different opponent, even if those may
Speaker 2: not be the guys who were out there on Friday
Speaker 2: night in the Price Season Open, but this is about
Speaker 2: getting ready for the regular season.
Speaker 3: Well, one of the points John made too after practice,
Speaker 3: I didn't even think about it this way. It's not
Speaker 3: like they were going to go down and break down
Speaker 3: all this film on the defensive front of Cincinnati. Obviously
Speaker 3: you have an idea what Trey Hendrickson can do and
Speaker 3: DJ Reader these guys, but it was mostly about adjusting
Speaker 3: and relying on your technique and your fundamentals. And you're
Speaker 3: gonna need to do that through the course of a season.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna have every single aspect of an opponent scouted.
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to make some in game adjustments. And
Speaker 3: that's where John felt like it was very beneficial for
Speaker 3: him in this group. For me personally, I also thought
Speaker 3: seeing how the Packers stepped up to that, you know,
Speaker 3: we'll just talk about it quickly now. The Elton Jenkins
Speaker 3: little scuffle that he had sure starting with Pratt and
Speaker 3: then going over with Reader later in practice. You know,
Speaker 3: as John said, he's like one of the things, you know,
Speaker 3: Mattleflore's talking about. We're all out here trying to build
Speaker 3: some chemistry, right, trying to build some team camaraderie. Seeing
Speaker 3: the way guys stepped up in those instances, certainly you
Speaker 3: don't want it to get physical. There was the agreement
Speaker 3: beforehand there won't be physicality. There's gonna be no fighting.
Speaker 3: But it is pro football. It's not badminton. I mean,
Speaker 3: these guys think about it. You and your family members, brothers, siblings,
Speaker 3: what have you. You're out playing football in the backyard,
Speaker 3: You're you're rough housing and wrestling in the house. If
Speaker 3: you compete, it's going to bring the fire out, and
Speaker 3: sometimes that fire ignite. So I wasn't really put off
Speaker 3: by that at all. I mean, obviously it made for
Speaker 3: some good headlines and the media and some good interview
Speaker 3: questions and the postgame post practice locker rooms. But Elton Jenkins,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, man, he's a guy since the
Speaker 3: day he got here.
Speaker 1: You want to be in the foxhole with these kind
Speaker 1: of kids.
Speaker 3: I mean, they are the guys that are going to
Speaker 3: step up and they're going to own their situation and
Speaker 3: they're not going to back down. And you know, with
Speaker 3: John mentioning that, I thought all of that was very
Speaker 3: important because you're seeing, both on the field and off
Speaker 3: the field, the way the team has to carry itself.
Speaker 3: And maybe the most important comment that run you and
Speaker 3: made in that little media scrum we had afterwards, was
Speaker 3: you know, we know how good the Cincinnati Bengals are.
Speaker 3: They're going to be again one of the top teams
Speaker 3: in the AFC, especially once Joe Burrow gets back. Sure,
Speaker 3: Packers still feel like they're a pretty darn good football
Speaker 3: team too, even though there might be so many people
Speaker 3: questioning them. You have to rise to those challenges. I
Speaker 3: felt like Green Bay did that during that joint practice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and everybody's asking, of course, you know, how did
Speaker 2: Jordan Love and the number one offense look against a
Speaker 2: defense like Cincinnati. Well, I think predictably, there were a
Speaker 2: lot of ups and downs in the practice. You mentioned
Speaker 2: the long touchdown pastor Romeo Dobbs absolutely perfect on the
Speaker 2: money deep ball from Jordan Love there, but earlier he
Speaker 2: had had an overthrown deep ball. He had another underthrown
Speaker 2: deep ball. He hit a Christian Watson on a great,
Speaker 2: you know, deep crossing route on one play, hit Jayden
Speaker 2: Reid on a really nice underneath crosser where they got
Speaker 2: to the rookie from Michigan State the ball in space.
Speaker 2: But there are also times where he was under pressure,
Speaker 2: had to move in the pocket, had to take the checkdowns.
Speaker 2: Everything was thrown at at Jordan Love. In this practice,
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Bengals were blitzing like they sent a slot
Speaker 2: corner here and there. Aj Dillon had to pick up
Speaker 2: a blitz or or the running back had to help,
Speaker 2: you know, provide the chip, help on the edge rusher
Speaker 2: Trey Hendrickson for example, coming off the edge, and then
Speaker 2: allow Jordan Love to get the ball downfield. Everything was there,
Speaker 2: and a practice like this, there's so much more that
Speaker 2: number one offense is going to see compared to anything
Speaker 2: you're going to get in the preseason games, as important
Speaker 2: as those reps will be. With the Packers having such
Speaker 2: a young offense and trying to figure things out this practice,
Speaker 2: with the Bengals having all of their ones out there,
Speaker 2: that was really good work.
Speaker 3: And that door swings both ways, right because when you
Speaker 3: were watching some of the offensive stuff, I went over
Speaker 3: to the other field watching the defense. Green Bay was
Speaker 3: throwing the same type of looks at Trevor Simmon and
Speaker 3: Jake Browning. Over on Cincinnati's side of things. We saw
Speaker 3: corner blitz as we saw guys coming on stunts. This
Speaker 3: is the type of stuff you're not going to say,
Speaker 3: see in a preseason game, right, Sean Clifford after it saying,
Speaker 3: you know there's gonna be a lot of vanilla ice
Speaker 3: stream out there. I love that line because in these settings,
Speaker 3: that's where you got to let it all loose. And
Speaker 3: when you go back to the original first practice we
Speaker 3: saw against the Houston Texans now four years ago, when
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers and people talked about not really liking these things,
Speaker 3: it was because it was almost like an extension of
Speaker 3: the preseason, except you're also getting guys like Jake uh
Speaker 3: whatever his name was, the uh Jake Sternberg, Sternberger, Stenberger Stormberger,
Speaker 3: the other tight end we have.
Speaker 1: But but situations like that where guys are getting hurt, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want that.
Speaker 3: As Runyan said after practice, nobody got hurt. Everything was professional,
Speaker 3: And I think that is the key right now in
Speaker 3: these type of practices is getting in that type of
Speaker 3: stuff and making sure that you get back to the
Speaker 3: huddle afterwards fine and okay and moving forward. This was
Speaker 3: the type of practice, as David Baktiari said afterwards, when
Speaker 3: you were a part of that scrum, it kind of
Speaker 3: if you had some questions about joint practices and the
Speaker 3: value of them. At first, I think these are the
Speaker 3: type of situations I kind of show you the true
Speaker 3: benefit of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And as far as the Packers defense is concerned,
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask because you mentioned it on our
Speaker 2: three Things segment that we did with Larry after practice.
Speaker 2: Jay R Alexander was not participating in the eleven on eleven.
Speaker 2: He was just doing individual drills yesterday. So the rookie
Speaker 2: seventh round pick, Carrington Valentine out of Kentucky, he was
Speaker 2: the one running with the ones, you know, for the
Speaker 2: Packers against Cincinnati's number one offense, granted without Joe Burrow,
Speaker 2: but Carrington Valentine continues to show that A he belongs
Speaker 2: in the NFL, and B He's going to have a
Speaker 2: role somewhere somehow on this defense.
Speaker 3: I really think so in Mike, what's funny to me
Speaker 3: is that, you know, I'm no type of soothsayer at all,
Speaker 3: but I remember just in the OTA's telling you, like
Speaker 3: when he was going up against when JayR wasn't there
Speaker 3: and Rasulle Douglass wasn't there, and these young corners had
Speaker 3: to go in with the one defense against Jordan Love
Speaker 3: and that offensive group and the weapons and the speed
Speaker 3: and everything that the Green Bay possesses.
Speaker 1: Valentine was out there.
Speaker 3: They gave him a chance to go out there and
Speaker 3: go up against Romeo Dobbs, and that kid did not
Speaker 3: back down. This guy, I believe is the youngest player
Speaker 3: on this football team. Talking to him, I feel like
Speaker 3: I'm one hundred and fifty years old. I mean, he
Speaker 3: legitimately looks like, you know, a kid, but he also
Speaker 3: plays with such an enthusiasm, in a humbleness and a
Speaker 3: confidence that I think is critical at that position. I've
Speaker 3: said it so many times, Mike, and at some point
Speaker 3: I'll stop doing it. But that mel kiper assessment it
Speaker 3: stood in my head ever since Draft night. How how
Speaker 3: is this kid still there in the seventh round. I
Speaker 3: get it he had one pick or whatever at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: But the fact of the matter is there's certain guys
Speaker 3: that go out there and are not scared of the spotlight.
Speaker 1: Valentine is one of them.
Speaker 3: Yes it's not Joe Burrow, but that's still Jamar Chase,
Speaker 3: that's still t Higgins. These are one of the best
Speaker 3: receiving contingents in the National Football League, and they're trying
Speaker 3: to make you look bad.
Speaker 1: They're trying to win their routes.
Speaker 3: Valentine didn't let it happen, especially when they did some
Speaker 3: stuff down in the red zone. The Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 3: I think one of the things is you look at
Speaker 3: how good they are at the top of their cornerback room,
Speaker 3: right especially once Eric Stokes comes back. But how quickly
Speaker 3: that that can get really and be able to get
Speaker 3: the injuries and stuff.
Speaker 1: You need six seven guys to navigate a season.
Speaker 3: Carrenton Valentine, I don't know if it's week one, I
Speaker 3: don't know when it'll be, maybe not even the season,
Speaker 3: but I think he showed enough that the Greenmit Packers
Speaker 3: have to feel really good about that pick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's gonna he's a local kid, right, you know,
Speaker 2: went to high school here in the Cincinnati area, went
Speaker 2: to went to college just across the border in Kentucky.
Speaker 2: And he'll be making his NFL preseason debut against the
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Bengals. And the same goes for the Packers number
Speaker 2: two quarterback Sean Clifford. Big star here at quarterback in
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati area, and now he'll be making his his
Speaker 2: NFL preseason debut in the stadium where he I believe
Speaker 2: he had told you he had season six his senior
Speaker 2: year of high school. Parents has season tickets for the
Speaker 2: for the Bengals. He and his brother, his younger brother
Speaker 2: who's also now at Penn State where Sean Clifford was
Speaker 2: a star quarterback. So this is uh uh, it's it's
Speaker 2: a really neat opportunity for both for both of those
Speaker 2: young men to be back here, you know, spending even
Speaker 2: a couple of extra days with the joint practice and
Speaker 2: everything else.
Speaker 4: It's starting to sprinkle west.
Speaker 3: So it doesn't bother It doesn't bother you, that gamer,
Speaker 3: as long as this isn't thundering, I'm really tough.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we'll we'll keep plowing through and I'll
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Speaker 1: All right, this is the cool thing. We'll be right
Speaker 1: next to a hospital, by the way, I guess, so,
Speaker 1: I guess so.
Speaker 2: Well, before this rain picks up too much, we'll do
Speaker 2: one other thing here on the show today. I have
Speaker 2: a story to write for Friday that I do for
Speaker 2: the preseason game. It's called what to Watch For? So
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ask you to help me write the story.
Speaker 2: All right, So what is there to watch for in
Speaker 2: this preseason opener at pay Course Stadium?
Speaker 3: As I alluded to earlier, it sounds like Jordan Love
Speaker 3: is going to play in this game.
Speaker 1: Now. I'll believe it when everything's out there and we
Speaker 1: see it.
Speaker 3: I never like to draw false conclusions, but the fact
Speaker 3: of the matter is matt Lefluor talked about before practice,
Speaker 3: and Jordan also kind of alluded to it after practice.
Speaker 3: The Greenmit Packers are taking a little bit of a
Speaker 3: different prochare and I honestly don't. As I said, I
Speaker 3: don't think you can go wrong either way. You have
Speaker 3: a thirty nine year old quarterback like Aaron Rodgers who's
Speaker 3: seen and done everything.
Speaker 1: No problem.
Speaker 3: Let's get the you know, let's get the young guys
Speaker 3: in there. Let him take a break, get to week one.
Speaker 3: Jordan Love needs every rep he can get, Mike. I
Speaker 3: think it was something like, what was it, a one
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty snaps he's played to this point in
Speaker 3: the regular season during his NFL career, Right, you want to.
Speaker 1: Be able to actually get him work. It's a great
Speaker 1: way to do it. Now.
Speaker 3: Gotta keep the pocket clean, gotta keep these guys healthy.
Speaker 3: But I feel like that's probably the thing to look
Speaker 3: for is just seeing what that first team offense looks like.
Speaker 3: Who gets deployed, how long are they out there, and
Speaker 3: then when they're not out there, who's coming in there next.
Speaker 1: With the receivers.
Speaker 3: Bo Melton I think has had a phenomenal camp. A
Speaker 3: guy that doesn't get talked about nearly enough, right, I
Speaker 3: think you look at guys like Malik Heath who was
Speaker 3: sort of this undrafted guy that did some good things
Speaker 3: down in Mississippi, but for whatever reason, doesn't get picked
Speaker 3: and as he told us last week after family and Night,
Speaker 3: he has a list of everybody that was picked before.
Speaker 3: I mean he knows all of them in, knowing exactly
Speaker 3: what all their situations were, in him believing that he
Speaker 3: should have been picked too. There are three really good
Speaker 3: receivers at the top of this step chart right now,
Speaker 3: right three guys I think are probably gonna be your
Speaker 3: Week one starters in Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, and Jayden Reid.
Speaker 3: But Samori two Rays stepped up, Melton Heath. These young receivers,
Speaker 3: the quarterback that they're in there with, they've put some
Speaker 3: good film on tape for these Packers coaches. Now it's
Speaker 3: going to be about putting that forward against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And I think the other things to watch too is
Speaker 2: we've been seeing the safety competition take shape for a
Speaker 2: while through training camp. Rudy Ford was running with the
Speaker 2: ones alongside Darnell Savage. Now it seems to have shifted
Speaker 2: to Jonathan Owens. But you know how this goes. Somebody
Speaker 2: makes a big play, has a really good preseason game,
Speaker 2: then we go to the practice field next week. In
Speaker 2: the depth chart is shifted around a little bit, so
Speaker 2: you never know what can happen there. And then also
Speaker 2: with regard to special teams, there's a lot going on
Speaker 2: on special teams with this group. You've got a rookie kicker,
Speaker 2: You've got a punting competition, you have a long snapper competition.
Speaker 2: You got all kinds of young guys trying to state
Speaker 2: their case to Rich Basaci that they should be on
Speaker 2: the field on kickoffs and punts and whatnot. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot to watch here. And this is just the
Speaker 2: first of three preseason games. But since your classes are
Speaker 2: starting to get covered in rain.
Speaker 3: Drops, can I say one thing before we leave? Yeah,
Speaker 3: I feel terrible about that Jake Sternberger thing. I mean
Speaker 3: that kidd I honestly, goodness forgot his name.
Speaker 1: That's gonna bother me.
Speaker 3: If they were back home, we would tell them to
Speaker 3: cut it or we're not going to be able to
Speaker 3: do that. But again, it just that's me one of
Speaker 3: the things that's gonna hat a little bit. When I
Speaker 3: look at the tape and look at the mas from
Speaker 3: this appearance of Unscripted, that's gonna be high on that list.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Well, well, when we do another episode
Speaker 2: like this, we'll get it cleaned up.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go take a shower and then maybe just
Speaker 3: throw a towel on.
Speaker 1: This ended up raining a lot more than I thought
Speaker 1: it was going to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you were the one who said let's just
Speaker 2: stay out here instead of going the hotel.
Speaker 3: Fine, all right, Well, dude, back in the day when
Speaker 3: I have to use to shoot some of my stuff
Speaker 3: for Packers News and the Green Bay Press casette, we
Speaker 3: did this thing in like four degree weather, in freezing
Speaker 3: rain off the shore of Lake Michigan and Chicago. Pete
Speaker 3: Doherty and Mike Vandermoss both got sick. They actually had
Speaker 3: to miss work the next day after that game, and
Speaker 3: I was the only one that was left standing.
Speaker 1: These bones are tough, all right.
Speaker 3: This has been the best episode to date, by the way,
Speaker 3: take us home with another agreed that.
Speaker 4: No, actually, I don't know, maybe another ambulance will go
Speaker 4: by while I'm trying to sign off, because we are
Speaker 4: gonna call it a wrap on this edition of Packers
Speaker 4: Unscripted's from Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 2: preseason opener from pay Course Stadium. We've got it all
Speaker 2: for you on Packers dot Com. For Wes I am Mike,
Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in everybody, and we will in
Speaker 2: drier settings.
Speaker 1: See you next time.