Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted Social
Speaker 1: distancing Style from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford,
Speaker 1: joined as always by my trusted colleague West had Ko.
Speaker 1: It's coming to you from our humble abodes and West.
Speaker 1: Late last week we heard from quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He
Speaker 1: spoke publicly on a conference call with Wisconsin media for
Speaker 1: the first time since the Packers drafted Jordan's Love and
Speaker 1: changed the whole dynamic at quarterback, and all of the
Speaker 1: speculation about Aaron Rodgers future and the Packers future was
Speaker 1: thrown up in the air. What was your initial reaction
Speaker 1: to what the quarterback had to say. Well, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: I did a radio interview with Jason will They right afterwards. Uh,
Speaker 1: And the thing I told him was that I felt
Speaker 1: like Rogers hit it out of the park. I thought
Speaker 1: he hit all of the notes he needed to hit.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers obviously knows he has to be accepting of
Speaker 1: Jordan's Love because, as he said, Jordan's Love didn't ask
Speaker 1: to come to Green Bay, he didn't ask to be drafted.
Speaker 1: And as I wrote an insider inbox on Saturday, all
Speaker 1: the young man is asking for is an opportunity to
Speaker 1: learn and he has that now. With Aaron Rodgers. This
Speaker 1: is an ego game. I get it. There are there
Speaker 1: are big personalities there. You know, when you're playing at
Speaker 1: this level and there's this amount of athleticism and elite competition,
Speaker 1: it only makes sense that there's gonna be chips on
Speaker 1: shoulders and you know, you feel wrong, do you feel
Speaker 1: right at whatever? But the thing is is that Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers is still very much the man. Matt Lafleur, speaking
Speaker 1: after Aaron Rodgers, talked about how much they need him
Speaker 1: right now if they're going to be able to win
Speaker 1: the championships. They feel like this team can still achieve.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I thought it was important
Speaker 1: that Rogers also pointed out that his goals have not changed.
Speaker 1: He still wants to play into his forties. He still
Speaker 1: believes as long as his love of playing, his health
Speaker 1: is where it needs to be, that he can be
Speaker 1: one of the top quarterbacks in this league. And he's
Speaker 1: looking forward to having the opportunity to prove that. What
Speaker 1: happens in these next four or five years, certainly they're
Speaker 1: gonna have huge implications for the future of the franchise.
Speaker 1: Whether it's Rogers Love or anyone else who's going to
Speaker 1: be quarterback of this team going into the next decade.
Speaker 1: But the fact remains that right now it's Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: and it's Jordan's Love, and they need those two pieces
Speaker 1: to work together if they're gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: this team in the immediate to where it needs to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like the main things that I took out of what
Speaker 1: he said, I mean, one, I think he's very excited
Speaker 1: and very fired up about the two thousand twenty Packers
Speaker 1: and where this team can go. He knows where he
Speaker 1: is in Matt Lafleur system coming off of the first year,
Speaker 1: moving into the second year. He did mention he has
Speaker 1: a lot of confidence in the receivers. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: would have liked to have seen another high draft pick
Speaker 1: brought in at receiver. I mean a lot of people did,
Speaker 1: but Okay, it didn't happen. He's gonna work with what
Speaker 1: he has. He's excited about Devin Functious, the free agent
Speaker 1: signing in terms of Roger's own long term future playing
Speaker 1: and simple I thought he was just being a realist.
Speaker 1: He understands the situation, and I thought he laid out
Speaker 1: in in very clear terms that he just feels the
Speaker 1: main thing is he's lost whatever control he might have
Speaker 1: had over his desire, his his very long stated desire
Speaker 1: to start and finish his career with the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: That's not really entirely in his hands anymore. I think
Speaker 1: what when unset a little bit is that he, as
Speaker 1: he has openly said many times, he plans to play
Speaker 1: into his forties. He'd like to play his entire career
Speaker 1: with one team. I think because of what Brett Farve
Speaker 1: went through and Aaron Rodgers was right in the middle
Speaker 1: of that, I think Rogers was trying to keep as
Speaker 1: much control of that narrative as he could by being
Speaker 1: open about his plans and how long he intends to
Speaker 1: play and how long he wants to play, because he
Speaker 1: saw far going back and forth on retirement and that
Speaker 1: very much played into the Packers decision to draft Rogers
Speaker 1: in the first place. So, yeah, so he lost some
Speaker 1: of that control um in what happened here. But okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's like, all right, I'll get over it and
Speaker 1: it's time to move on with the team. And right
Speaker 1: now the focus iss he's not as much focused on
Speaker 1: his long term future anymore because that much more of
Speaker 1: it is out of his hands. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: that was an important point you raised there when you
Speaker 1: look at the long term outlook and where he's been
Speaker 1: he has. It is one of the reasons why I
Speaker 1: said all along, I thought the Packers would wait, you know,
Speaker 1: with the quarterback situation, because it is an apples to
Speaker 1: apples as far as Rogers and far. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I think the game is changing a little bit. I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna start seeing more teams being you know,
Speaker 1: down with the idea that we might take a quarterback
Speaker 1: in the first round, we might take one in the
Speaker 1: top ten. But we gotta let this young man develop.
Speaker 1: He can't just be a week one starter. We can't
Speaker 1: expect him to be a week one starter. And it
Speaker 1: goes back to you look at what's happening with two
Speaker 1: right now with Miami. I don't think the doll has
Speaker 1: had any plan. You know, if everything stays healthy with
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick, they want to give him the year to
Speaker 1: be able to develop. The Green Bay Packers are gonna
Speaker 1: want to give Jordan's love time to develop because as
Speaker 1: much as sometimes that sink or swim mentality. It does
Speaker 1: pay off, sometimes it doesn't, and then you start looking
Speaker 1: at guys. You know, obviously the last few years there's
Speaker 1: been some good examples of it where if you would
Speaker 1: have just given this young man a little bit more time,
Speaker 1: could you have gotten a different quarterback in the long run.
Speaker 1: I think that's something that needs to be considered. And
Speaker 1: then the other thing too, Uh you mentioned talking about
Speaker 1: the receivers when I said Rogers hit it out of
Speaker 1: the park. It goes along with what he said about
Speaker 1: this year's roster as well. He still feels like this
Speaker 1: is a team that can compete for championships in two
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty. You look at Alan Lazard. He talked
Speaker 1: about this guy being an up and coming playmaker in
Speaker 1: this league. He made it a point, Honestly, Mike, I
Speaker 1: felt like probably the most salient point he made in
Speaker 1: the entire news conference forty minutes long, was saying that
Speaker 1: he has all the confidence in the world and Marquisveld
Speaker 1: is scantling. The Packers need to get MBS back to
Speaker 1: where he was playing in two thousand and eighteen when
Speaker 1: he had that confidence, that swagger, because he's a home
Speaker 1: run threat that you weren't gonna be able to just
Speaker 1: find in the draft. I mean, guys that run a
Speaker 1: four three seven and have that down field ability, they
Speaker 1: just aren't just sitting out there waiting to be taken.
Speaker 1: You need to be able to develop that. Those guys
Speaker 1: need to have those natural traits. E q st. Brown,
Speaker 1: you can go on and on. Obviously, Mr consistency. Jake
Speaker 1: Kumro probably just needing a few more opportunities to show
Speaker 1: what he can do. And then you throw in the
Speaker 1: running backs and the tight ends. The Packers do have weapons.
Speaker 1: I thought there was a point on Twitter I saw
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. You know this isn't like
Speaker 1: this is like the Jake Plumber Cardinals where it's just
Speaker 1: there's no weapons for Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, Aaron Jones.
Speaker 1: The list goes on and on of guys that they
Speaker 1: can move the football with. But making sure that those
Speaker 1: young guys on this roster understand that there's a huge
Speaker 1: opportunity for you guys to be able to not only
Speaker 1: grab roles, but really become stars in this league. With
Speaker 1: the quarterback that the Packers have, if you can grab
Speaker 1: that brass rank yeah, absolutely, and one other point I
Speaker 1: want to make before we move on, just with regard
Speaker 1: to Rogers acknowledging he's lost a little bit of maybe
Speaker 1: the control of his long term future. He was not
Speaker 1: looking for any sympathy or anything like that in terms
Speaker 1: of in terms of those thoughts, He's very well aware
Speaker 1: that you know, Joe Montana and now Tom Brady and
Speaker 1: other you know Peyton Manning, other quarterbacks like that Hall
Speaker 1: of Famers did not play their entire careers with one team.
Speaker 1: So he knows that if this does happen down the
Speaker 1: road and he moves on from the Packers, but he
Speaker 1: still wants to play, and the Packers have decided to
Speaker 1: turn the reins over to Jordan's love whenever that might be,
Speaker 1: he knows he's not going to be the first, So
Speaker 1: he's not looking for any sympathy in that regard. He's
Speaker 1: simply acknowledging that it's that much more of a reality
Speaker 1: now because of the decision the Packers made. Well, and
Speaker 1: the thing I said, and it was two thousand fourteen,
Speaker 1: and I made this point on unscripted. I've certainly made
Speaker 1: it an inbox before, but it was two thousand and
Speaker 1: fourteen that proved to me that Aaron Rodgers, barring any
Speaker 1: type of injury, is going to be able to play
Speaker 1: into the to his forties because of how he evolved
Speaker 1: into a pocket pastor when he did have the calf
Speaker 1: injury and he wasn't able to extend plays the way
Speaker 1: he did in the past, I thought that was a
Speaker 1: bright spot for his future in this league and his
Speaker 1: ability to play into his late thirties and into his forties.
Speaker 1: The thing we have to acknowledge and understand because there's
Speaker 1: some people that pointed out too well, it's no certainty
Speaker 1: if you take a quarterback in the first round if
Speaker 1: they're going to develop into a Pro Bowl or an
Speaker 1: All Pro. But that's every position. It isn't just exclusive
Speaker 1: to quarterback. Packers could have taken anybody at twenty six.
Speaker 1: They could have taken anybody at thirty. It doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean that that guy was going to become the be
Speaker 1: all end all in this offense or defense. So for
Speaker 1: the Packers, what you have to do, if you're Brian
Speaker 1: Goodin's you have to trust your eye. You have to
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, I like what I see on film
Speaker 1: with Jordan's loved this guy is the best prospect for
Speaker 1: us where we're drafting, We're gonna take that route with
Speaker 1: the understanding that Aaron Rodgers is our quarterback. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: could be the quarterback for the next six years. We
Speaker 1: don't know. Jordan's Love is an investment in the few, Sure,
Speaker 1: he's an investment in the present and more than anything else.
Speaker 1: For the first time in Aaron Rodgers tenure as a
Speaker 1: starting quarterback, the Packers have a bona fide and credential
Speaker 1: first round draft pick behind him. Now that's the most
Speaker 1: decorated backup they've had since a guy named Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: All things that you have to consider, Yeah, absolutely and
Speaker 1: uh and talk about what I think is going to
Speaker 1: be a great situation for Jordan's Love to be walking into. Well, um,
Speaker 1: moving on to excuse me. We've been continuing to post
Speaker 1: some follow up stories on the Packers draft picks, catching
Speaker 1: up with their college coaches and other contacts in their past.
Speaker 1: You have a story that is now up on our
Speaker 1: website on the seventh round selection, the first of the
Speaker 1: two seventh round selections. That's TCU safety Vernon Scott. So
Speaker 1: I will toss you the question that I threw at
Speaker 1: you last week. What was your favorite little story, little
Speaker 1: anecdote that you heard when you were looking into Mr
Speaker 1: Scott's past. So I had a chance to talk with
Speaker 1: Paul Gonzalez from TCU, the safety's coach, but he also
Speaker 1: is the guy that recruited Vernon Scott to TCU out
Speaker 1: of high school. His high school is about a half
Speaker 1: an hour away from campus, so this was kind of
Speaker 1: a no brainer for them. He was mostly a basketball player,
Speaker 1: that was his first sport. Came to football late. Really,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until his senior year that he dedicated him
Speaker 1: not really dedicated himself, but established himself as Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be a college football player. That's where my
Speaker 1: future lies. When he was in high school, they used
Speaker 1: them strictly as basically a shutdown cornerback. They tried that
Speaker 1: when he got to TCU, but they did Certaday determined
Speaker 1: that his best option as far as playing on defense,
Speaker 1: is going to be if he moves to safety. This guy,
Speaker 1: first and foremost was a tremendous special teams player. Mike.
Speaker 1: From a defensive perspective, he probably could have read shirted
Speaker 1: his first year on campus, but as Gonzalez said, we
Speaker 1: needed him on special teams. He played basically the core
Speaker 1: four units from day one, but the problem was with
Speaker 1: some of the depth that they had in the in
Speaker 1: the second area, and also the fact of just his
Speaker 1: own personal development as a young guy adjusting to playing
Speaker 1: defensive back. It took time for him to get into
Speaker 1: the lineup. But the thing you understand with Vernon Scott
Speaker 1: is how beloved this guy is. He was one of
Speaker 1: the most popular guys in TCUs locker room. Just an
Speaker 1: absolute try hard, put everything into what he did, and
Speaker 1: he happens to be six ft two and about two
Speaker 1: five pounds. This is a big safety that can do
Speaker 1: a lot of things for you. A couple of different
Speaker 1: moments stepped out jumped out to Gonzalez. Certainly you look
Speaker 1: at the play sheet, it's that game against Oklahoma, the
Speaker 1: nine yard interception return for a touchdown. But it was
Speaker 1: the little things along the way, just seeing those small
Speaker 1: victories for him. This is a guy that never complained
Speaker 1: about playing time. He never tried to transfer because he
Speaker 1: wasn't on defense. He just followed the process, trusted it,
Speaker 1: and then it ended up leading to him having a starting, full,
Speaker 1: you know, fledged job. His senior year moved a little
Speaker 1: bit between strong and free safety ended up finishing it strong,
Speaker 1: and that's the position Gonzalez feels that's really gonna be
Speaker 1: where his future lies in this league and in what
Speaker 1: his base starting point will be in addition to his
Speaker 1: efforts on spec teams. Yeah, I can't even imagine how
Speaker 1: much fun it would be to intercept a pass and
Speaker 1: return at yards for a touchdown, especially against Oklahoma. And
Speaker 1: you play at when in Norman, when you play at
Speaker 1: TCU in Fort Worth, so that that had to be
Speaker 1: quite a thrill for that young man. Well, I've posted
Speaker 1: a story on the Packers other seventh round pick, edge
Speaker 1: rusher Jonathan Garvin from Miami six ft four fifty seven pounds.
Speaker 1: I believe the really interesting thing with him. I talked
Speaker 1: with Manny Diaz who is now the head coach with
Speaker 1: the Miami Hurricanes. Um he rose to that position last year.
Speaker 1: The previous two years he was Miami's defensive coordinator, so
Speaker 1: he was there for all and very much involved in
Speaker 1: Garvin's three year career with Miami. And the thing that
Speaker 1: Manny Diaz can kept saying, he kept using the word upside,
Speaker 1: and I know that that's that's an overused word it's
Speaker 1: a common word that's used with draft picks. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. West, Jonathan Garvin arrived at Miami as a
Speaker 1: seventeen year old. He's now entering the NFL as a
Speaker 1: twenty year old. He's still had a year left. This
Speaker 1: is this is a young man who still has so
Speaker 1: much in front of him that there's no telling exactly
Speaker 1: where the ceiling is. And I think that's why the
Speaker 1: Packers invested the last of their nine draft picks at
Speaker 1: the end of the seventh round in this young man.
Speaker 1: Diaz talked specifically about Garvin's freshman year now as a
Speaker 1: true freshman, you know, seventeen year old, just turned just
Speaker 1: turning eighteen at the time. He was getting playing time
Speaker 1: on defense as a true freshman for Diaz. And there
Speaker 1: was a three game stretch of that freshman year. And
Speaker 1: this is in the meat of Miami schedule, not the
Speaker 1: early season non conference pushovers, but in the meat of
Speaker 1: their schedule. He had a three game stretch where he
Speaker 1: had a block punt, he had a strip sack, and
Speaker 1: then he had a strip sack the following week. And
Speaker 1: he actually recovered the fumbles on both of the strip
Speaker 1: sacks himself. He's just started to show up very very
Speaker 1: early in his career with this playmaking potential. And that's
Speaker 1: the that's the kind of thing that the Packers are
Speaker 1: latching onto here with this late round draft pick, to
Speaker 1: just see how high does this does this ceiling go.
Speaker 1: His best year at Miami, his sophomore year two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight teen, he had seventeen seventeen and a half
Speaker 1: tackles for lost, five and a half sacks. The sacks
Speaker 1: state about the same his junior years third season with five.
Speaker 1: The tackles for lost dropped in his overall tackle total drop.
Speaker 1: So another example of how development isn't always linear. Things
Speaker 1: don't always go in a straight line. But the potential
Speaker 1: is the potential is there. And yes, he entered the
Speaker 1: draft early. He waited all the way until the seventh
Speaker 1: round to get picked. That would certainly indicate another year
Speaker 1: in college might have helped his game, but he made
Speaker 1: the decision that he wanted to make, and uh, and
Speaker 1: the Packers are gonna see what exactly they can tap
Speaker 1: into as this young man starts his pro career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and into garbage credit to I mean, he didn't want
Speaker 1: to go into specifics and we did talk about this
Speaker 1: little bit, but you know, there were family, there are
Speaker 1: personal considerations in mind when he did make that decision
Speaker 1: to go out. The thing that I keep coming back to, though, Mike,
Speaker 1: is that two thous an eighteen season, because as you said,
Speaker 1: that was kind of his breakout year, his tackles for
Speaker 1: loss or through the roof a lot of pressures and
Speaker 1: certainly trying to develop. Now is is a finisher with
Speaker 1: the sacks. But he did that at nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: and this is a guy that won't turn twenty one
Speaker 1: until July. Uh. We didn't have access to Mike Smithy
Speaker 1: at the Packers outside linebackers coach. You know, Frankly, I
Speaker 1: don't know win that's gonna happen, just based on this
Speaker 1: whole COVID deal. But I wish I could have been
Speaker 1: from a socially acceptable distance. I wish I could have
Speaker 1: been in that room with him when they drafted Garvin
Speaker 1: because you have to imagine with how excited he was
Speaker 1: last year when the Packers claimed Tim Williams. He has
Speaker 1: to turn on the film of Garvin and be really
Speaker 1: energized by what he sees with this young man. And
Speaker 1: the beautiful thing about it much like the whole Jordan
Speaker 1: Love deal with Aaron Rodgers, although certainly the pedigrees are
Speaker 1: a little bit different. You're talking about a first rounder
Speaker 1: versus seventh rounder. But this is a guy that isn't
Speaker 1: gonna have to come in and just be a stud.
Speaker 1: He played right off the bat at Miami. He probably
Speaker 1: is not going to have to do that in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: He's going to have time to develop. You have Preston Smith,
Speaker 1: you have za Darius Smith in Rashaan Gary, who is
Speaker 1: the twelfth overall pick last year. That is gonna be
Speaker 1: the meat and potatoes right now. If this packers pass rush,
Speaker 1: but you put a young man like that in that room.
Speaker 1: Tim Williams is still here, there's a huge opportunity for
Speaker 1: someone to grab onto that last you know, fourth spot
Speaker 1: or fifth spot. However they do it, but typically end
Speaker 1: up at least having four that spot that Tyler Facral vacated.
Speaker 1: You know. Also with Randy Ramsey coming back on the
Speaker 1: practice squad after a full year. I like that competition
Speaker 1: that's brewing, and certainly there are a lot of unknowns
Speaker 1: with Garvin. He needs to be able to show the
Speaker 1: strides to be able to make that move to be
Speaker 1: in a stand up outside rusher. But that being said,
Speaker 1: as a seventh round pick, Mike, this is what you
Speaker 1: look for. You look for flyers, and Garvin certainly has
Speaker 1: a lot of upside and ceiling that he looks to
Speaker 1: fulfill now in Green Bay. Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, Wes,
Speaker 1: you told us before we turn the cameras on you've
Speaker 1: been having some internet trouble and we've gotten this far
Speaker 1: without any issues. So I think we're gonna call it
Speaker 1: a Packers unscripted exactly. Let's just let's get out of
Speaker 1: year and and call it a show. So thank you
Speaker 1: for tuning in, everybody for Wes. I am Mike. Stay
Speaker 1: safe and we will see you next time. Yeah,