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: trusted colleague Weston Hodkoits for coming to you here from
Speaker 1: our studios at lambeau Field and west O t A
Speaker 1: season is underway. The Packers have kicked off the final
Speaker 1: phase of the off season program, which includes a few
Speaker 1: weeks of O T A S and a mandatory minicamp.
Speaker 1: We got our first look at I guess you'd say,
Speaker 1: the first practice of aside from rookie minicamp, which we
Speaker 1: talked about on a previous show. Um, Tuesday's workout at
Speaker 1: Clarke hinkle Field. Fortunately the weather cooperated and as expected,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers not in attendance, Blake Bortles in attendance but
Speaker 1: not yet suited up. Matt Lafleur said, Um, the new
Speaker 1: free agent quarterback would be worked into the mix here
Speaker 1: soon enough. So that really made Tuesday's practice kind of
Speaker 1: the Jordan's Love show. Um, he got all the all
Speaker 1: the reps with the ones when it came to seven
Speaker 1: on sevens and some less than full speed eleven on
Speaker 1: eleven stuff, and this is gonna be some important time.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what happens with Aaron Rodgers, this is important
Speaker 1: time for Jordan's Love. So Mike, I am going to
Speaker 1: venture to guess, and as always as I do with
Speaker 1: our show, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would
Speaker 1: venture to guess. You saw you personally saw Jordan's Love
Speaker 1: throw more yesterday at the time in which we're taking this.
Speaker 1: You saw the most you've seen him throw on Tuesday
Speaker 1: than you did through training camp last year. The reason
Speaker 1: I say that is because Jordan's Love did not get
Speaker 1: many reps during the team periods in camp last year.
Speaker 1: The reps he did get we're during that young guy period,
Speaker 1: which is when you had to go back to set
Speaker 1: up for the mantelfloor press conference. And I actually kind
Speaker 1: of stuck around because I had a little bit more
Speaker 1: leeway to watch those. But for people in media people,
Speaker 1: am I right in that? Do you think? Yeah? Probably?
Speaker 1: I mean, I I do recall, I do recall I
Speaker 1: got to see one of those extra the ten minute
Speaker 1: like young guy periods during training camp last year when
Speaker 1: he was doing all the eleven on eleven stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: other than that, one day, um, certainly, Tuesday of this
Speaker 1: week was was the most I've seen Jordan's Love in
Speaker 1: action since he came to and You're not alone. There
Speaker 1: were a lot of media folks that would leave during
Speaker 1: those practices because they had to get back to set
Speaker 1: up for zoom calls. So what the point I'm trying
Speaker 1: to illustrate with all that is? Last year it was
Speaker 1: the Aaron Rodgers Show. Obviously in whatever two reps were
Speaker 1: there would fall to Tim Boyle, Jordan's Love. Whatever is
Speaker 1: going on outside of sixty Lombardi Avenue right now, this
Speaker 1: is a golden opportunity for this young man to actually
Speaker 1: get some work, to be able to take everything he
Speaker 1: did last season, all the book work, every all that
Speaker 1: side of things, and then the off season training and
Speaker 1: really get it going in some real simulations. So seeing
Speaker 1: him work seven on sevens and some of these other drills.
Speaker 1: Again it's non contact, it's not highly competitive, but being
Speaker 1: able to navigate and appreciate and and sort of operate
Speaker 1: this offense um that was really Jordan's Love's first opportunity
Speaker 1: to do so. And with the fact that Bordles wasn't
Speaker 1: practicing yet Kirk ben Kirk Kirk ben Kurt was the
Speaker 1: other quarterback. It was as you said that Jordan's love show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I mentioned in uh in Insider in box. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to make any grand evaluations of Jordan's love,
Speaker 1: certainly when the players are not necessarily going full speed
Speaker 1: and all that. I know there's going to be a
Speaker 1: lot of attention on him and all that, I get it.
Speaker 1: But I was reminded in seeing him in Tuesday's practice
Speaker 1: that he showed last year, even in the limited work
Speaker 1: we saw him in training camp. He's got an NFL arm.
Speaker 1: You can see the ball come out of his hand,
Speaker 1: with the velocity, with the with the purpose, with the speed.
Speaker 1: That's what you want to see from an NFL quarterback.
Speaker 1: And he's got that. He he has it. It's a matter,
Speaker 1: it's a matter of putting all the other stuff together.
Speaker 1: And that's what these next several weeks are going to
Speaker 1: before to lead him into his second NFL training camp
Speaker 1: with all this spring work that he did not get
Speaker 1: as a rookie because there was no rookie mining camp,
Speaker 1: there were no O T A s, there was no
Speaker 1: full squad mandatory, meaning all that was gone last year.
Speaker 1: Training camp was his first, you know, real opportunity to
Speaker 1: put on a helmet and go out there and practice
Speaker 1: as a Green Bay Packer. He's getting the spring work
Speaker 1: now that that's going to be really important for him
Speaker 1: heading into late summer and with the ramp up period.
Speaker 1: Last year, training camp was pretty much two and a
Speaker 1: half weeks when you really boil it down in terms
Speaker 1: of being able to prepare for that week one game
Speaker 1: and and start getting your mentality going from a summertime
Speaker 1: competition and training to legitimately preparing for an opponent. So
Speaker 1: that that was a big shift there too. That's when
Speaker 1: it's not so much on Jordan's love. And you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't had a chance to talk the offensive coaches yet.
Speaker 1: I'll be really interesting to see what Luke Um you know,
Speaker 1: Getsy has to say, the Packers quarterbacks coach. He's the
Speaker 1: one that would often stay behind with him after practice
Speaker 1: and work with them, you know. Aaron Jones, as he
Speaker 1: was talking with the media, mentioned that him and aj
Speaker 1: Dillon would you know, they'd stick around on Saturdays and
Speaker 1: go through some stuff with them just to make sure
Speaker 1: that he was ready, you know. And and I give
Speaker 1: Jordan a lot of credit to much like Tim Boyle
Speaker 1: did during his first two years in the league. When
Speaker 1: he was inactive or he wasn't playing, he would come
Speaker 1: out and he would go through the drills and the
Speaker 1: warm ups and the walkthrough before the team came out.
Speaker 1: Just go and do you know he corral a practice
Speaker 1: squad receiver and go and do you know those type
Speaker 1: of things that get the throws in. Jordan's love followed
Speaker 1: that template, and you know you heard Aaron Rodgers even
Speaker 1: talk about it. I mean, this kid has come in
Speaker 1: and he's done everything right. He's a twenty two year old,
Speaker 1: He's a guy with a first round pedigree. There's still
Speaker 1: a lot of kinks to be worked out, but but
Speaker 1: certainly he's capable. He belongs in and for a guy
Speaker 1: that it soaks in as much information is from what
Speaker 1: we've heard from his coaches and at Utah State, I
Speaker 1: think that this is gonna be really beneficial for him
Speaker 1: in the long run. Yeah. I want to get to
Speaker 1: a couple of other key thoughts with regard to the
Speaker 1: offense here. But first, serious x M NFL Radio delivers
Speaker 1: hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news
Speaker 1: that true football fanatics need. Seven three al right, West, Well,
Speaker 1: if we were to say there was a legitimate piece
Speaker 1: of news that came out of this first O T
Speaker 1: A practice. It would have to do with, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mentioned in our Three Things I Couldn't resist. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: well you want something from this practice. A J. Dillon
Speaker 1: Stys did not get into smaller in the off season,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I had to throw that into our three
Speaker 1: Themes video. But um no, the we're getting a sense
Speaker 1: of what the Packers, I don't know if you want
Speaker 1: to call it the plan or the preference. At this point,
Speaker 1: you know you can parse the words there. But the
Speaker 1: way they seem to be proceeding right now with the
Speaker 1: offensive line in David Bakti's absence and not knowing exactly
Speaker 1: what bok Tis timeline is going to be. What we
Speaker 1: saw with the number one unit on Tuesday is at
Speaker 1: Elton Jenkins is lining up at left tackle, Billy Turner
Speaker 1: is over at right tackle, the rookie Josh Myers is
Speaker 1: with the first unit at center, and then you have
Speaker 1: Lucas Patrick and John Runyon Jr. As the first up
Speaker 1: at guards. And we'll see as things go through O
Speaker 1: T S and then obviously it will matter even more
Speaker 1: with how we see them line up at the start
Speaker 1: of training camp. But this is kind of our first
Speaker 1: taste of of what it looks like the Packers want
Speaker 1: to do, which is to have Elton Jenkins fill that
Speaker 1: stead at left tackle until box tr can come back.
Speaker 1: And then also that Josh Meyers, the second round draft
Speaker 1: pick from Ohio State, is no, he's not going to
Speaker 1: be handed the center job, but he is going to
Speaker 1: be given every opportunity to win that job and to
Speaker 1: and to potentially start in Week one as a rookie
Speaker 1: for Green Bay. It kind of reminds you of Darnell
Speaker 1: Savage a little bit. Right came in two years and
Speaker 1: that's a good point. He was back there with the secondary.
Speaker 1: He was in the starting safety spot. You go back
Speaker 1: historically into the Mike mccarthur era, and a lot of
Speaker 1: coaches did it this way. Eddie Lacy gets drafted, Eddie
Speaker 1: Lacey is still the fourth guy taking reps back in
Speaker 1: that training or that offseason program in two thousand Packers
Speaker 1: last year or two years ago. They knew Savage was
Speaker 1: the guy, they put him there. I'm not saying Myers
Speaker 1: is the guy, but they actually do have options at
Speaker 1: center depending on what they wanted to do. Lucas Patrick
Speaker 1: has played a lot of center at this point, so
Speaker 1: the fact that Jenks could play center to you can play,
Speaker 1: you know, they can put him fret receiver if they
Speaker 1: needed him to. But my main takeaway from that is
Speaker 1: you want to talk about a guy getting reps and
Speaker 1: being able to just get comfortable in a spot. That's
Speaker 1: what they did last year with John Runny, and that's
Speaker 1: the way they started to train guys. So I think
Speaker 1: it speaks volumes that that's the starting point for Josh Myers.
Speaker 1: As far as Elton Jenkins is concerned. Adam Stanovich might
Speaker 1: disagree with me on this, the scouts may say, the
Speaker 1: coaches might say I'm wrong on this. I honestly think
Speaker 1: he could take every snap at left tackle during the
Speaker 1: off season program, during training camp, and I still think
Speaker 1: he can be a Pro Bowl left guard whenever they
Speaker 1: want him to go back to that spot. I think
Speaker 1: we've learned enough about this young man in terms of
Speaker 1: his muscle memory, his intelligence, and honest to God, just
Speaker 1: how talented this dude is that he can he can
Speaker 1: make that Mike last year that that should have been
Speaker 1: a disaster when they lost Corey Linsley. They didn't have
Speaker 1: a handpicked successor at at center when he was out
Speaker 1: for those three games, Elton Jenkins made that look as
Speaker 1: easy as it could have been. I covered the Packers
Speaker 1: when they had Jeff Saturday there for thirteen weeks. It's
Speaker 1: not supposed to be that seamless for a guy to
Speaker 1: step in, and that's what happened, And I just I
Speaker 1: have a lot of respect for him in that In
Speaker 1: that regard, but as far as left tackle is concerned,
Speaker 1: that's a different spot. You need to get your reps
Speaker 1: in there, and he's the most qualified of anybody that
Speaker 1: to take him if that's the direction you want to go.
Speaker 1: And as I'll keep saying, I was really, really really
Speaker 1: impressed with Billy Turner last year at right tackle. I
Speaker 1: know he's versatile, I know he can play a number
Speaker 1: of different spots, but boy, when he just was at
Speaker 1: right tackle, I thought he was pretty dang good. So
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I don't think there
Speaker 1: was any massive surprises with how the offensive line looked.
Speaker 1: But but certainly when you factor in all these multitude
Speaker 1: of reserves they have, Mike, there are still a lot
Speaker 1: of options there depending on how this plays out this summer. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: we're going to We're going to see competition throughout the summer,
Speaker 1: and not just with regard to you know, is the
Speaker 1: rookie Josh Meyer is gonna win that starting center job.
Speaker 1: But you look at you look at the guard spots.
Speaker 1: I mean Royce Newman, the fourth round pick from Ole
Speaker 1: Miss might be getting a look at guard Cole van
Speaker 1: Land and you know he could be playing guard or tackle. Um,
Speaker 1: I know, I'm forgetting some other guys who are Ben
Speaker 1: Braden's another guy who's going to be in that mix
Speaker 1: at guard too. So yesh Nidge Man, I mean you
Speaker 1: talk about Cole van Land and not to jump over you,
Speaker 1: but I said this Mike and inbox, and I'll reiterated
Speaker 1: on this show. We'll see what happens with Simon Stepanek
Speaker 1: coming back from coming back from the knee injury, take
Speaker 1: Hanson's back after finishing last year on practice squad injured.
Speaker 1: So a lot of different things that can happen. And
Speaker 1: it's not a proven offensive line like they were so
Speaker 1: many times in the mid two thousand tents where you
Speaker 1: just knew who the starting five was or at least
Speaker 1: what most of those components are. Gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: more questions, But They have so many different ways that
Speaker 1: they can go, depending on, you know, how certain dominoes fall.
Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, at some point, you're getting
Speaker 1: back a five time All proloft tackle. Yeah, absolutely, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be uh and and we will see, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't know exactly when we're going to get the
Speaker 1: update or if anything definitive is going to be said
Speaker 1: on when David Baktari will be back. Um. Obviously the
Speaker 1: Packers want to get him back as soon as possible,
Speaker 1: but but they're they're going to plan obviously, they have
Speaker 1: to plan for for his absence at the start of
Speaker 1: the season, and if he does miraculously, I think it
Speaker 1: would be an incredible feat for him to make it
Speaker 1: back for the start of the regular season. Mattel Fleur
Speaker 1: has said. Brian Gudukuins has said, they're not ruling it out,
Speaker 1: but you have to be prepared two start the season
Speaker 1: without We'll think about what happened, you know what, Brian Bulaga,
Speaker 1: you know, in the Packers, they had a plan. Blaga
Speaker 1: didn't participate in the off season program obvious sleep coming
Speaker 1: off an injury of that scale. He was out for
Speaker 1: all but one week of the training camp. He did
Speaker 1: end up coming back and playing in that preseason finale.
Speaker 1: I think he took maybe two series a right time,
Speaker 1: took a handful of snaps there, but otherwise it was
Speaker 1: different players at right tack. I'm trying to remember if
Speaker 1: it was Jason Spriggs. It might have even been Kyle Murphy.
Speaker 1: I can't exactly remember, but they had the backup plan,
Speaker 1: the plan be ready. That's the same thing here. You
Speaker 1: know you're not going to have David Boxer during the
Speaker 1: offseason program. Okay, who can we give those reps too?
Speaker 1: That it could be beneficial for once you get into
Speaker 1: the fall. Yeah, well, switching gears to the defensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball, and again, we're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to tell a whole lot during O T A
Speaker 1: S and I know everything now, honestly. Well, we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens in the preseason games in August in terms
Speaker 1: of what we see from new defensive coordinator Joe Barry's unit.
Speaker 1: But we got a sense from the media zoom calls
Speaker 1: that we did after practice on Tuesday that there are
Speaker 1: a couple of things is going on here with regard
Speaker 1: to Joe Berry and having all of these position coaches
Speaker 1: who are back from the previous regime and now he's
Speaker 1: the he's the new guy at the head of the defense.
Speaker 1: It's kind of using from what we can understand, he's
Speaker 1: kind of using these assistant coaches both as evaluators in
Speaker 1: terms of, Okay, tell me what your guys that your positions,
Speaker 1: tell me what they do best. You know, here, here's
Speaker 1: the scheme, this is the stuff I want to do,
Speaker 1: Like who are the guys that you know that can
Speaker 1: do this? And Joe berry Is, I'm sure has looked
Speaker 1: at film and has developed some of his own opinions,
Speaker 1: but he's going to rely on those views of the
Speaker 1: position coaches who have been around these guys for at
Speaker 1: least a year or two or in some cases longer.
Speaker 1: But then also we kind of got a sense from
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark that there's a little bit of translating going on.
Speaker 1: Anytime you have a new system, a new playbook, there's
Speaker 1: different terminology, the language is different. And Kenny Clark was
Speaker 1: talking about how he's kind of using Jerry Montgomer, his
Speaker 1: position coach, to explain to him, Okay, when when we
Speaker 1: say this, like last year, that's what like here was
Speaker 1: the word for it. You know, like there's this translation
Speaker 1: that the players are using their position coaches to help,
Speaker 1: you know, complete that circle, to make the transition to
Speaker 1: to the new scheme, and to learn the new language,
Speaker 1: so that by the time you get to the regular season,
Speaker 1: it's it's become ingrained and it gets to be second nature.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting dynamic, I think, because you don't often
Speaker 1: see a new defensive coordinator come in, but all of
Speaker 1: the position coaches on his staff are the same guys
Speaker 1: you know who are here previously. That doesn't happen all
Speaker 1: the time, and I think it could be something that
Speaker 1: works out really well for Green Bay here. Yeah, honestly
Speaker 1: they might. It might be someone on precedented to have
Speaker 1: a defensive where other than a few quality control coaches,
Speaker 1: everybody's back u other than who the defensive coordinator is now,
Speaker 1: certainly a lot played into those decisions. But I think
Speaker 1: what the ding thing is, and I structured this question
Speaker 1: of both Kenny and Adrian Amoss on Tuesday, is that
Speaker 1: you have you have a new system, you have a
Speaker 1: new philosophy, but you have the same coaches being able
Speaker 1: to relay that information, and also you have a bulk
Speaker 1: of the same defense that's still together, um and if
Speaker 1: nothing else, they've only added to it. Certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: Raven Green moved on, he's in Tampa Bay. But otherwise
Speaker 1: it pretty much looks like the same personnel that they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to pull from, which was a young group
Speaker 1: to begin with. So you're looking for your you know,
Speaker 1: who's gonna be the next Gi or Alexander. You're looking
Speaker 1: for who could potentially be a guy that steps up
Speaker 1: and surprises you like Chris Barnes did last year. All
Speaker 1: of those cards are on the table for them right now.
Speaker 1: But at this point in time, I think being able
Speaker 1: to understand what the vision is for Barry is going
Speaker 1: to be the best thing that's going to happen throughout
Speaker 1: this offseason program for this defense because it's a top
Speaker 1: tend defense. Now they were category categorically, that's where they
Speaker 1: fit less season. The question is now, can you go
Speaker 1: from being a really good defense that had moments of
Speaker 1: greatness to being dominant because there is a shift there.
Speaker 1: We saw it last year with Tampa Bay, We've seen
Speaker 1: it in past years with the San Francisco's. Once if
Speaker 1: you can be a suffocating unit, that's when you dictate
Speaker 1: the terms of the game and how it's played. And
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of confidence inside that locker
Speaker 1: room that they were close last year and they hope
Speaker 1: that this might be the thing that helps them reach
Speaker 1: that next level. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, the other new coordinator
Speaker 1: the Packers have obviously a special teams coordinator, Maury Straiton.
Speaker 1: And I kind of got a kick out of watching, uh,
Speaker 1: the special teams period in Tuesday's practice, because you remember,
Speaker 1: I know you remember when Sean Slocum was here as
Speaker 1: special teams coordinator, and he he would wear a headset,
Speaker 1: you know, to be over the p A to sort
Speaker 1: of bark constructions in this and and in Shawn's defense,
Speaker 1: it started as something where he was having a little
Speaker 1: bit of laryngitis and so he couldn't yell on the
Speaker 1: practice field, so they gave him a headset so that
Speaker 1: he could just talk at like a normal tone, but
Speaker 1: it would be projected throughout the whole practice field. Well,
Speaker 1: morey straightened and Tuesday's practice during the special teams period,
Speaker 1: he doesn't need a headset, he doesn't need a p A,
Speaker 1: he doesn't need a speaker. You could hear that guy.
Speaker 1: And everything we heard from Matt Lafleur, about the energy,
Speaker 1: about the voice, about the teacher that is in him.
Speaker 1: It was all on display during that whatever it was
Speaker 1: roughly fift twenty minute Special Teams period. In Tuesday's practice,
Speaker 1: Morey Straiton is uh is taking charge and he's he's
Speaker 1: clearly trying to create a new sort of culture with
Speaker 1: regard to how these drills and practices go on Special
Speaker 1: teams on his watch, it was fun. I think that
Speaker 1: was my main take. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Even when the Special Teams period was over. Mo was
Speaker 1: having fun with some of the media members too, who
Speaker 1: were trying to do like the establishing shot. You ever
Speaker 1: watch your your evening news for like he have the
Speaker 1: shot of the football with the player's feet in the background,
Speaker 1: and then they use that as their first shot. It's
Speaker 1: just all rudimentary type stuff. That's what they do. Moe
Speaker 1: comes up and he's like, hey, do you need to
Speaker 1: you know, kind of repositions the ball so you get
Speaker 1: like the NFL logo drunk and something really nice because
Speaker 1: the media can't do that. It just he was having
Speaker 1: fun with it and you could hear the energy in
Speaker 1: his voice. And I'll be honest with you, this is
Speaker 1: not a dig on on Sean Meninger, Ron Zook or
Speaker 1: Seawan anybody. Um. And maybe it's only because I was
Speaker 1: paying more attention to special teams in this practice than
Speaker 1: maybe I've paid attention to in the past. But boy,
Speaker 1: there was there seemed those guys knew what they were
Speaker 1: doing out there. I mean that there was as much
Speaker 1: as it was more of a pace tempo walk through tempo.
Speaker 1: The special teams. They made some changes the way they're
Speaker 1: structuring drills and how doughnuts are using things of that nature,
Speaker 1: and there didn't appear to be a big hold up there.
Speaker 1: And that's an impressive thing when you're dealing with fifty
Speaker 1: to sixty guys and those special teams units, a lot
Speaker 1: of whom are competing for roster spots are not back
Speaker 1: from last season. Uh that that caught eye a little bit.
Speaker 1: And the thing, I'm excited to learn more about him
Speaker 1: and his philosophies and seeing, you know, you had a
Speaker 1: guy like a Mari Rodgers into the conversation. You get
Speaker 1: some exciting players that could potentially spark that unit. It's
Speaker 1: it's an open canvas right now. They're just trying to
Speaker 1: put their best foot forward. After what was a pretty
Speaker 1: down season a year ago. And and I just I
Speaker 1: think that with an infectious energy like that, with what
Speaker 1: Drayton has, and especially in acknowledging some of those past
Speaker 1: coordinators who had success in Green Bay, I really do
Speaker 1: believe that that that could be something that helps that
Speaker 1: special Teams unit turn a corner. Here. Well, we will
Speaker 1: get another look at an O T A practice next week.
Speaker 1: We get to sort of see like one per week
Speaker 1: here as we go along. Exciting and we'll yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: see what We'll see what next week brings and uh
Speaker 1: and perhaps another show to talk about our observations. But
Speaker 1: with that, we're going to call it a wrap on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team through the rest of
Speaker 1: the offseason program. It's all there for you on Packers
Speaker 1: dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. Yeah,