Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am like Spafford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime West and Hodkowitz. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you here from different locations at lambeau Field, once
Speaker 1: again still on zoom. But just to explain to everybody,
Speaker 1: wes I'm gonna go off script here, we say this
Speaker 1: is unscripted.
Speaker 2: Anyway, right, Yeah, I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: People are wondering, like, what is the deal? Like the
Speaker 1: football team has this brand new facility, you know, and
Speaker 1: you guys are still doing the show on zoom.
Speaker 2: So what's up?
Speaker 1: Here's here?
Speaker 2: Is what's up?
Speaker 1: You know those new video boards that are being installed
Speaker 1: for the stadium, these huge, like massive things, Well that
Speaker 1: the installed in installation of those, if I can get
Speaker 1: the words out of my right, requires a revamping of
Speaker 1: the control room that runs those video boards. And that
Speaker 1: control room is the same one that runs the remote
Speaker 1: cameras that shoot Packers Unscripted when we are in our
Speaker 1: usual studio setting. So for these several months now and
Speaker 1: unfortunately now still continuing into the beginning of training camp,
Speaker 1: the control room is not available. Therefore, our usual studio
Speaker 1: setup for unscripted is not available, but I promise you,
Speaker 1: because there are football games to be played at Lanmbeufield,
Speaker 1: which means everything needs to be in working order with
Speaker 1: the scoreboards in the control room. We will be back
Speaker 1: to our regular well regularly scheduled setting and programming at
Speaker 1: some point here. So I just wanted to get that
Speaker 1: out of the way for all the fans, so you
Speaker 1: understand why we're doing this the way we are.
Speaker 3: See, and everybody's gonna think I'm a liar now because
Speaker 3: when people have been asking that, I've been actually walking
Speaker 3: around going, hey, guys, the reason we're separated is a
Speaker 3: spof was made editor of packers dot Com and then
Speaker 3: he didn't want to be in the same room as
Speaker 3: me anymore. He didn't want to be in the same studio.
Speaker 3: The studio only big enough for one of us. So
Speaker 3: I got shuffled up to the fifth floor here, right
Speaker 3: next to all the suites.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and they bought and they bought that
Speaker 1: line too. They actually believed you he's a real jerk. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had to come to my own defense there. So anyway,
Speaker 1: all of that aside, I apologize for the for the interlude,
Speaker 1: but the first day of training camp is in the books.
Speaker 1: Shortly after we get done recording this episode, Wes and
Speaker 1: I will be headed back to Nishki Field for practice
Speaker 1: number two, but wanted to get your thoughts Wes on
Speaker 1: the opening practice on Wednesday. Now the players are still
Speaker 1: not in pads. There's a ramp up period here. These
Speaker 1: practices look very much like OTA's and Mini Camp in
Speaker 1: the spring in the early going here. But if you
Speaker 1: want to know, okay, so who won the first practice,
Speaker 1: the defense won the first practice, And honestly, that is
Speaker 1: pretty typical of almost any training camp at this stage.
Speaker 1: The defense is usually ahead of the offense, and I
Speaker 1: think that showed on the field on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: They did, I mean at all three key positions, and
Speaker 3: even for if you want to throw DeVante Campbell in
Speaker 3: there too, I'm sorry, Devandre Campbell.
Speaker 2: I have too many guys on the top of my
Speaker 2: head there. Easy for you to say, easy for me
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 3: But DeVante White actually had like the first pressure practice.
Speaker 3: But you look at Preston Smith coming off the edge.
Speaker 3: You look at Kenny Clark in the middle, and then
Speaker 3: jyr Alexander on the perimeter.
Speaker 2: I thought all three of those guys.
Speaker 3: At some of their better practices I think I've ever
Speaker 3: seen in the Green Bay Packers uniforms. I mean, they
Speaker 3: all were disruptive in their own way. I would probably,
Speaker 3: as I said in our Three Things video, put JayR
Speaker 3: as the MVP of day one. I mean, you just
Speaker 3: could not throw on the kid. And as I joked
Speaker 3: about during Three Things, I mean, if there was any
Speaker 3: question about Okay, well Giry Alexander isn't here for OTAs,
Speaker 3: I mean that kid was totally up on everything that
Speaker 3: he was doing. I mean he looked sharp in mid
Speaker 3: season form. But Mike, as I talked about in our
Speaker 3: first episode, the thing I thought was so critical for
Speaker 3: Green Bay's offense was finally going up against Jayrra. It
Speaker 3: was going up against Rasul Douglas, those two veterans that
Speaker 3: weren't there during OTAs trying to see Okay Romeo Dobbs,
Speaker 3: Jordan Love, Christian Watson, can you get one over on
Speaker 3: these guys? And you know, Larry, you can go back
Speaker 3: and watch Three Things. He did a really good job
Speaker 3: of documenting how close you know Dobbs and Love were
Speaker 3: on a couple of their connections, but the one that
Speaker 3: stood out to me the most was the slant that
Speaker 3: they ran from Love trying to hit Watson. Watson wasn't
Speaker 3: able to bring it in on the first catch, and
Speaker 3: con Ball's kind of hanging up there a little bit.
Speaker 3: And we know so much about Jyry, Alexander, Mike. If
Speaker 3: you don't get that thing caught and pulled in immediately,
Speaker 3: Gyr's breaking it up. Oh, that's just that's his game
Speaker 3: and he just doesn't give you that much wiggle room.
Speaker 3: That's the difference, and that's going to be the key
Speaker 3: for these young guys moving forward, is understanding the level
Speaker 3: at which they're going to have to compete to be
Speaker 3: the number one, the number two, the number three receiver
Speaker 3: and be these primary targets for this offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought we saw some nice pass breakups from Alexander,
Speaker 1: as you said. Also Keishawn Nixon and Corey Ballentine had
Speaker 1: a pass breakup against a tight end against Luke Musgrave,
Speaker 1: the rookie tight end down the sideline. But the other
Speaker 1: thing I walked away from that first practice thinking about
Speaker 1: was because when they went to eleven on eleven, the
Speaker 1: offense was going into the wind. It was actually a
Speaker 1: fairly you know stiff breeze for the summer, and that
Speaker 1: wind was having an impact on Jordan Love's throws. And
Speaker 1: I walked away from that practice saying, if that practice
Speaker 1: had been in the Hudson Center, we'd probably be talking
Speaker 1: about how incredible a practice Jordan Love had. Now you
Speaker 1: have to play outside, you have to play in the elements.
Speaker 1: And afterwards, Jordan Love was not making any excuses. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the wind got me on a couple of throws.
Speaker 1: They hung up there a little bit. The defenders were
Speaker 1: able to knock them away instead of you know, connecting
Speaker 1: and making those completions. But but that was one one
Speaker 1: thing that occurred to me is that in a controlled environment,
Speaker 1: you know, Jordan Love was was right on target. And
Speaker 1: you know another thing he's going to learn as he
Speaker 1: goes along that every day you're out there on the field,
Speaker 1: something can be different, and it's about adjustments. And when
Speaker 1: you only have a couple dozen plays to run in
Speaker 1: a practice, sometimes it can be tough to make that
Speaker 1: adjustment right away.
Speaker 3: Mike, I'm gonna say one more thing on that too,
Speaker 3: the Balanine breakup. I got a big kick out. Aaron
Speaker 3: Jones was phenomenal to his locker. He talked for like
Speaker 3: a half an hour on Wednesday. He had a great
Speaker 3: line though, talking about the Musgrave play and how big
Speaker 3: of a moment that was for Luke Musgrave because, as
Speaker 3: he said originally when I watched it first time, like, oh,
Speaker 3: was the ball just slightly underthrown that Balentine was able
Speaker 3: to make the play on it? And Darren Jones is like, no,
Speaker 3: I mean that is late hands to a te Luke
Speaker 3: got his hands out there, Ballantine saw it. And when
Speaker 3: you put that blood in the water, defensive backs are
Speaker 3: always going to jump on it.
Speaker 2: That's what training camp is for.
Speaker 3: That's what these practices are for, having those type of
Speaker 3: moments understanding, Okay, if I do X, this is what
Speaker 3: Why's response is going to be.
Speaker 2: And certainly, I think when you.
Speaker 3: Talk about a young guy with as much potential as
Speaker 3: Musgrave has, and certainly from an x's and o's perspective,
Speaker 3: the other's a lot to learn, but physically a lot
Speaker 3: of talent there.
Speaker 2: Those are the day.
Speaker 3: One things that you tend to look for and you
Speaker 3: hope that they don't show up again on day two
Speaker 3: and three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we certainly expect X the offense to keep
Speaker 1: putting things together and to catch up in some respects
Speaker 1: to where the defense is. But as I said, I
Speaker 1: mean you and I both wes, we've been doing this
Speaker 1: for a long time. I don't know if I've ever
Speaker 1: gone to a first practice of training camp and walked
Speaker 1: away saying, well, the offense had their way today. I mean,
Speaker 1: defense always wins early in training camp, and so you
Speaker 1: can almost almost guarantee it. So a couple other thoughts
Speaker 1: quickly with regard to the depth chart. On our previous episode,
Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, the open competitions at a
Speaker 1: couple of spots, just to give you the update there
Speaker 1: where things started. On day one, Rudy Ford was the
Speaker 1: safety that was lined up alongside Darnell Savage with the
Speaker 1: first unit defense and then with regard to right tackle
Speaker 1: on offense, Zach tom the second year pro out of
Speaker 1: Wake Forest, fourth round draft pick last year, he was
Speaker 1: the first one to get the shot at right tackle,
Speaker 1: and with David Baktiari being on a somewhat modified practice
Speaker 1: schedule right now where he's not taking all of the
Speaker 1: reps with the first unit at left tackle. When Baktiari
Speaker 1: stepped away from the first unit here and there throughout practice.
Speaker 1: Josh Nimen was the left tackle stepping in there. So
Speaker 1: that's the update on where things are with the depth
Speaker 1: chart in the early going. Anything else depth chart wise
Speaker 1: that you took note of on day one West.
Speaker 3: Well, first things you mentioned Mike Rudy Ford getting that opportunity,
Speaker 3: John Owens and Down Levitt. We with the safeties with
Speaker 3: the number twos to various more obviously all with an
Speaker 3: illness right now. I think it's really interesting that Ennis
Speaker 3: Gains Thump Gains is still he is a safety, but
Speaker 3: it's almost seems like the Packers are running him more
Speaker 3: like a slot and he was one of those next
Speaker 3: guys up after Keishawn Nixon in the slot with some
Speaker 3: of those second teams great size.
Speaker 2: We saw a little bit of a breakup.
Speaker 3: He again doesn't take a lot for Thump to make
Speaker 3: an impact, and it happened. I think I believe it
Speaker 3: was against Christian Wats. I can't remember exactly which, but
Speaker 3: the kid can put on the brakes and he's still
Speaker 3: gonna end up getting home occasionally a few other things
Speaker 3: to keep an eye on. I'm gonna be going into
Speaker 3: this practice. We're shooting this before Thursday's practice. We'll be
Speaker 3: keeping an eye on Jonathan Garvin. He actually was working
Speaker 3: a little bit with the inside defensive line players. So
Speaker 3: I'm curious to see what the plan is for him
Speaker 3: there and where they're going to go moving forward, and
Speaker 3: if he's still if he's gonna play both or he's
Speaker 3: gonna try to work them. You know, sometimes they do
Speaker 3: that cross training because if you look at him, Mike
Speaker 3: outside linebacker got filled up pretty quick. Now with Lucas
Speaker 3: Vans back, they're hoping to have for Shawn gary Beck,
Speaker 3: you know potentially sometime here during training camp. Then you
Speaker 3: have JJ and Ningbari, you have Justin Hollins. I mean
Speaker 3: the Packers position that went from being you know, a
Speaker 3: little shallow last year that they had to bring in
Speaker 3: a guy like Hollins after Gary's injury. Well, now suddenly
Speaker 3: they have a dearth of options, or not a dearth,
Speaker 3: but in an overabundance of options with Lucas Vanes in
Speaker 3: the fold.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was another thing I took note of too,
Speaker 1: because we'll watch as training camp onfolds, not only for
Speaker 1: when Rashaun gary Get gets back in the mix, which
Speaker 1: the hope is that maybe by the end of training
Speaker 1: camp he gets the medical green light to go. But
Speaker 1: also that the way things started with Rashawn Gary out,
Speaker 1: the starting outside linebackers were Preston Smith and Justin Hollins.
Speaker 1: Lucas van Ness, the first round pick out of Iowa
Speaker 1: not working with the first team just yet. That's another
Speaker 1: thing to watch because I think at some point he's
Speaker 1: going to work his way up and at least be
Speaker 1: rotating in with the first team, perhaps sooner than later.
Speaker 1: Another thing we also during the spring, we had talked
Speaker 1: about this, we didn't really get to see a whole lot.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day. I think of Andras Carlson, the rookie
Speaker 1: six round pick, you know, kicking in a live field
Speaker 1: goal period. Well, they went right at it on day
Speaker 1: one of training camp, and I thought Carlson got off
Speaker 1: to a solid start. He made five out of six
Speaker 1: field goals. All the kicks were between forty and forty
Speaker 1: five yards. The only miss was from forty four and
Speaker 1: it didn't look like he missed it by much, just
Speaker 1: a little a little wide to the left.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to mention, if the referees weren't out yesterday, I
Speaker 3: think all the media probably would have given him put
Speaker 3: it for six for six.
Speaker 2: It was that close.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were, I mean, and we were kind of
Speaker 1: looking at each other like, oh, did they say that
Speaker 1: one was no good? And there was one The one
Speaker 1: official underneath the one upright said, you know, was waving
Speaker 1: that it was no good, but.
Speaker 3: The other almost staring at him saying, bail me out here, buddy.
Speaker 1: The other thing I want to see too moving forward,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure we'll see it at some point in camp.
Speaker 1: We don't have the schedule in front of us in
Speaker 1: terms of what days they're doing what, but knowing the
Speaker 1: leg strength that Carlson has and he was kicking with
Speaker 1: the wind behind him yesterday, so you know, the ball
Speaker 1: was really taking off. But I want to see him
Speaker 1: on kickoffs. I want to I want to see, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to see him with the you know, the
Speaker 1: full run up and wind up and and where that
Speaker 1: ball ends up on a kickoff because because I think
Speaker 1: that's something that the Packers are going to be counting
Speaker 1: on from their new young kicker is to is to
Speaker 1: boom that ball the back of the end zone as
Speaker 1: often as possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in an effortless stroke.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was sort of my biggest takeaway and
Speaker 3: the little bit we got to see him in mini
Speaker 3: camp and then certainly watching him again on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: The guy doesn't have to.
Speaker 3: Over exert his body in order to develop that kinetic
Speaker 3: energy in that football.
Speaker 2: And as we saw last year.
Speaker 3: I mean, I love Mason, will always love Mason, and
Speaker 3: I hope that he still gets a chance to keep playing.
Speaker 3: But you and I had those questions every once in
Speaker 3: a while, Hey, is this You know, if Mason keeps kicking,
Speaker 3: are they gonna eventually have to start going to Adam
Speaker 3: deni Terry route where you have a punter that can
Speaker 3: handle kickoffs. And we saw last year Packers wanted to
Speaker 3: stick with the kicker. They didn't want to go a
Speaker 3: pad O'Donnell on that. So you know it's gonna be
Speaker 3: a big part of the job descript for rounds. Carlson
Speaker 3: probably something none of us have really talked about. But
Speaker 3: the fact of the matter is is that when they
Speaker 3: drafted him, it was about the leg strength and then
Speaker 3: hoping that the mechanical issues that he worked through in
Speaker 3: the after that ACL injury could be smooth out with
Speaker 3: Rich Pasaci and his team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no question about it. We'll get to a few
Speaker 1: more observations from day one of camp in a minute,
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Speaker 1: or sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs fifty years of better. Well,
Speaker 1: we found out some other little tidbits of news. I
Speaker 1: guess you could call him with regard to Jordan Love
Speaker 1: as he makes this transition to QB one here for
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers. The night before his first training
Speaker 1: camp practice, he actually got a text message communicating via
Speaker 1: text with his predecessor, Aaron Rodgers Rogers giving him some
Speaker 1: words of encouragement, wishing him good luck and saying, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: just be yourself out there. And that's what we've heard
Speaker 1: from Jordan Love all the way along. It's like, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: he knows he can't try to be Aaron Rodgers, he
Speaker 1: can't try to be anybody but himself. And as Matt
Speaker 1: Lafer likes to say, be the best version of that self,
Speaker 1: and that's what Jordan Love is out to do. And
Speaker 1: we also found out some more details about these off
Speaker 1: season workouts that people saw snippets of on social media
Speaker 1: over the last several weeks and whatnot, with Jordan Love
Speaker 1: and Aaron Jones and some of the other guys getting
Speaker 1: together out in California and Wes. You talked to some
Speaker 1: of the players in the locker room about those. There
Speaker 1: is a story on packers dot Com detailing all that.
Speaker 1: So what'd you find out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a neat experience, Mike, because you know,
Speaker 3: we saw last winter Aaron Jones went out there for
Speaker 3: one day. Romeo Dobbs lives in La Is right there,
Speaker 3: has trained with Jordan before, so he.
Speaker 2: Ran some routes for him.
Speaker 3: But one of the lasting things they talked about when
Speaker 3: the off season program broke was, Hey, should we get
Speaker 3: some guys together and just see who shows up and
Speaker 3: it'll be whatever we want it to be. But even
Speaker 3: more so than just running routes and you know, being
Speaker 3: able to work out together, it's also about some of
Speaker 3: the team bonding stuff, getting to know these guys a
Speaker 3: little bit better, and I thought, you know, credit first
Speaker 3: and foremost to love, you know, I thought he learned
Speaker 3: that leadership sort of mantra from Rogers, has understood that
Speaker 3: that's his role. Now he's going to be the guy
Speaker 3: that guys are going to turn to and wants to
Speaker 3: step up and be a guy that anyone feels comfortable
Speaker 3: talking with. And one way to do that is bringing
Speaker 3: guys together. So Danny Etling backup quarterback, went out to
Speaker 3: Orange County. Also, that was Dontavian Wicks and Jaden Reid,
Speaker 3: the two rookie draft picks. Christian Watson was able to
Speaker 3: make it out there as well. Jeff Cotton also took
Speaker 3: part in that, although Jeff was let go this week,
Speaker 3: so it was eight guys all together that were able
Speaker 3: to spend a couple of days ago. They got rooms
Speaker 3: at the same hotel, they ate dinners together for a couple.
Speaker 2: Of days, even when bowling.
Speaker 3: Although it was funny, Aaron Jones laughed about how they
Speaker 3: originally were supposed to be setting up some kind of
Speaker 3: reservation where they're going to go to a local speedway
Speaker 3: and drive go karts, and somehow the reservations on that
Speaker 3: got messed up. And Jordan was like, well, let's go bowling.
Speaker 3: It was like straight out of the Big Lebowski, Let's
Speaker 3: go bowling. So and as it turns out, Jordan's a
Speaker 3: pretty good bowler. Has everyone found out pretty quickly. So,
Speaker 3: but Mike coming back now the off season program, you know,
Speaker 3: whether it's Jordan and these younger receivers or even a
Speaker 3: guy like Aaron Jones in his seventh season getting to
Speaker 3: know Dontavian Wicks and Jayden Reid a little bit more,
Speaker 3: that's going to be such a big part of this
Speaker 3: thing because in a lot of ways, as Matt le
Speaker 3: Floor's message has been to this team, they are all
Speaker 3: in this together. I mean, it's not gonna be about
Speaker 3: Aaron Jones. It's not gonna be about Jordan Love. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be about who are your primary playmakers and who
Speaker 3: steps up alongside those men, And if the Packers are
Speaker 3: gonna get to where they want to be this year
Speaker 3: and show those signs of growth and improvement, it's gonna
Speaker 3: happen through all those guys that went down to southern
Speaker 3: California with Love, and I just thought that showed a
Speaker 3: lot of maturity on Love's part two. Okay, I'm not
Speaker 3: just gonna go work out run routes for random people.
Speaker 3: I want to get my receivers there. I want to
Speaker 3: get my timing down and also have a little bit
Speaker 3: of fun in the spare time as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the competitiveness apparently was in full force as well,
Speaker 1: because Christian Watson apparently is not willing to concede that
Speaker 1: Jordan Love is the best bowler in the group, even
Speaker 1: though Love rolled a one ninety eight, which is pretty
Speaker 1: good score. But Watson was complaining that the lanes were
Speaker 1: too oily or something because he throws like a big
Speaker 1: hook and his ball wasn't you know, wasn't wasn't turning
Speaker 1: and cranking into the pocket the way.
Speaker 2: He's used to.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, these guys are getting to know each other,
Speaker 1: they're getting to be friends. But trust me, anytime, whether
Speaker 1: it's the football field or the bowling alley, these guys
Speaker 1: are competitive and and they're going at it with one another.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 3: It's like who's the better tennis player on clay or grass,
Speaker 3: you know, like trying to find out who exactly you know,
Speaker 3: holds the dominance there. But no, I think it's been good.
Speaker 3: I mean, we didn't We talked about it a little
Speaker 3: bit during the summer too, but you know, Jordan getting
Speaker 3: together with Christian and Jonathan Owen, Simone Biles up in
Speaker 3: Door County for a couple of days with Aaron with
Speaker 3: AJ Dillon. Those are the type of things you don't
Speaker 3: want to force it. You don't want to be like, oh,
Speaker 3: I got to go out and do all this stuff.
Speaker 3: But when you can build those type of relationships and
Speaker 3: those connections, that matters. And as Aaron Jones said, I
Speaker 3: didn't work this into the story, but a lot of
Speaker 3: those young guys that he hadn't really talked much with
Speaker 3: before he was texting with them afterwards. He was talking
Speaker 3: with him the lead up into this training camp, and yes,
Speaker 3: it was a learning experience for the offense on day one,
Speaker 3: but certainly the roots are there, the seeds have been planted,
Speaker 3: and now you just kind of want to watch it grow.
Speaker 1: Well. With that, we do have to get rolling with
Speaker 1: the second practice right ahead of us here after we
Speaker 1: turn off these cameras, but on our next show next week,
Speaker 1: we will have a few more practices to discuss and
Speaker 1: a few more observations to get to, so we will
Speaker 1: definitely share those with you, but for now for Wes,
Speaker 1: I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We'll
Speaker 1: call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted,
Speaker 1: and we will see you next time.