Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford. He is the
Speaker 1: one and only Wes hod Kowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field. This will be
Speaker 1: our season wrap up episode. We're gonna go on a
Speaker 1: bit of a hiatus from Packers Unscripted after this. West
Speaker 1: has some vacation to take. I have some vacation to take.
Speaker 1: Who knows when we'll be back. We will be back,
Speaker 1: but when when I'm not sure. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: we'll see if Leroy gets in the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: or not. Yeah, and if he doesn't, then probably about
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes after the announcements made, we'll be doing
Speaker 1: an episode West. West is gonna drag me in here
Speaker 1: because we're gonna have to talk about it. Um. But yes,
Speaker 1: offseason episodes between now and the draft might just be
Speaker 1: very much news driven, might be based on when West
Speaker 1: and I are both both happened to be in the
Speaker 1: office at the same time. That aside, though, I do
Speaker 1: want to art this episode with a hearty congratulations and
Speaker 1: a big time shout out to now former Packers Offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. He has landed the head coaching job
Speaker 1: of the Denver Broncos. This is a tremendous career achievement
Speaker 1: for somebody that, um, everyone in this building was rooting
Speaker 1: for him. If this is what he wanted, you wanted,
Speaker 1: you wanted him to get it and get this opportunity. Um.
Speaker 1: Just a great guy. I wish he could have been
Speaker 1: around Green Bay longer than than three years. He's been
Speaker 1: really fun to talk to and get to know. But
Speaker 1: congratulations to coach Hackett. Congratulations to Nathaniel you know, unfortunately
Speaker 1: been behind the zoom wall here for two years for
Speaker 1: most of it. But a guy that when you'd see
Speaker 1: him in the press box, he always have a good
Speaker 1: smile for you, always have a nice hello, Very personable.
Speaker 1: I made the comment Mike at the end of the
Speaker 1: season when I was thinking, originally maybe he'd be a
Speaker 1: candidate for Jacksonville. I had tweeted out something along the
Speaker 1: lines of, if you want to change your culture, if
Speaker 1: you want to, you know, infuse some positive in your
Speaker 1: locker room, Nathaniel Hackett's your guy. Well, and it sounded
Speaker 1: like he was potentially on his way for a second
Speaker 1: interview in Jacksonville, and the Denver Broncos didn't let him
Speaker 1: leave town. They they they dropped a contract in front
Speaker 1: of him and said, uh, and said you're our guy,
Speaker 1: so let's so let's go. There are obviously some implications here, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the this is going to fuel you know,
Speaker 1: rumors and speculation regarding Aaron Rodgers and all that. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get into what we will see what
Speaker 1: happens with regard to the Packers staff. Matt Lafleur had
Speaker 1: mentioned on Monday, Um, you know, he's got a plan
Speaker 1: in place. Obviously, his plan is to promote from within
Speaker 1: for for offensive coordinator. Presumably his top candidates there are
Speaker 1: Luke Getsy and Adam Stenovitch, Getsy being quarterback coach and
Speaker 1: passing game coordinator, Stenovitch being offensive line coach and run
Speaker 1: game coordinator. But then another potential wrinkle here is you
Speaker 1: don't know if coach Hackett might potentially want to take
Speaker 1: one of those guys with him to Denver to be
Speaker 1: his offensive coordinator. So we'll have to see what happens here.
Speaker 1: But but Matt Lafleur's plan is to promote from within
Speaker 1: at offensive coordinator to replace Nathaniel. Yeah. And and here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I want to make this abundantly clear, because
Speaker 1: I made this case an inbox too, in regards of
Speaker 1: Devandre Campbell and Restold Douglas, two guys that the Packers
Speaker 1: would love to have back for two thousand twenty two,
Speaker 1: but have incredibly raised their their stock here over the
Speaker 1: last few just a bit, whether or not the Packers
Speaker 1: can bring back Hamble or Douglas, whether or not, well,
Speaker 1: obviously pack I'll be moving on to a new opportunity
Speaker 1: that has positive implications for the Packers franchise, for this team.
Speaker 1: It's certainly for Matt Lafleur. I think one thing, especially
Speaker 1: as organizations, you fall into this pit where you want
Speaker 1: to continue to be the status quo because you fear
Speaker 1: what it means to lose a player, what it means
Speaker 1: to lose a coach, when in reality, by a Nathaniel
Speaker 1: ha get moving on. It creates opportunities for guys on
Speaker 1: this roster who are also deserving of those opportunities. What
Speaker 1: I love the most about Hackett's story though, Mike, it's
Speaker 1: not like when Matt Lafleur hired him in two thousand nineteen.
Speaker 1: Hackett was this huge, you know stud you know, had
Speaker 1: everyone's just raving about him as offensive coordinator. This is
Speaker 1: a great higher. There are a lot of questions about
Speaker 1: him because of how things ended in Jacksonville. Yeah, he'd
Speaker 1: been run out of town basically, And as I kind
Speaker 1: of said a few weeks ago, I think as time
Speaker 1: has passed, his tenure as the offensive coordinator as the
Speaker 1: Jacksonville Jaguars has really really looked better and better what
Speaker 1: he was able to do, what they were able to accomplish.
Speaker 1: And while he was sort of unceremoniously you know, let
Speaker 1: go during a time in which you know that happens
Speaker 1: to coaches where they have to make these decisions. For
Speaker 1: him to get this opportunity and to become such a
Speaker 1: beloved coach, you know, get the Packers with the gold zone,
Speaker 1: you know, setting franchise record productivity last year, being able
Speaker 1: to kind of rebound here the second half of this season.
Speaker 1: He had a lot to do with what Green Bay
Speaker 1: was able to build offensively. So, yes, you hate to
Speaker 1: see coaches go, you hate to see talented players go,
Speaker 1: but people around the league are going to notice that Mike.
Speaker 1: When Matt Laflour inevitably starts hiring guys again. After all
Speaker 1: the dust settles, coaches are gonna want to come to
Speaker 1: Green Bay. When free agents that maybe are looking for
Speaker 1: an opportunity because they felt like they got the raw
Speaker 1: into the stick, like Campbell, like Douglas, like Dennis Kelly,
Speaker 1: They're gonna notice what those players did in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: The overall byproduct of that is really important because you're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to pay everybody ten million
Speaker 1: dollars a year. But if people understand that there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity to grow and enhance and improve in this environment,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to be able to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, the other thing that I
Speaker 1: want to focus this show on before at the end,
Speaker 1: we will talk about the upcoming conference championship games and
Speaker 1: get some thoughts there. I came up with. I came
Speaker 1: up with a few categories, uh sort of to uh
Speaker 1: to recap this season for the Packers. Now, in the
Speaker 1: spirit of unscripted, I haven't told Wes what the categories are.
Speaker 1: I've had the advantage to do a little bit of
Speaker 1: thinking to make my choices here. But he gets the
Speaker 1: advantage of going first. So if he picks what I
Speaker 1: want I have to come up with something else, but um,
Speaker 1: we'll start with this West. The best moment of season
Speaker 1: for the Packers is he gonna is Marv gonna play
Speaker 1: like the Jeopardy music. I don't know. That's that's up
Speaker 1: to him in the in the when he when he
Speaker 1: gets gets uh doing the final production. Ten seconds for
Speaker 1: me to write on my monitor, and then we show
Speaker 1: everybody what I picked the best moment of the two
Speaker 1: thousand one season. There's a few of them, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to give you one to me. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of it is that win over the Minnesota Vikings,
Speaker 1: because that was what got them to buy. That's what
Speaker 1: got them they clinched the division and look and Rogers
Speaker 1: given that speech to the guys about enjoying this moment.
Speaker 1: That's something I've kind of talked to people about a
Speaker 1: lot this season. The other answer I kind of wanted
Speaker 1: to use there was Rogers just reporting for training camp.
Speaker 1: I felt like that was a big moment, but it
Speaker 1: was the appreciation of what you're accomplishing in the moment
Speaker 1: of what you're accomplishing it. I understand this is a
Speaker 1: disappointing week. You heard me talk on Tuesday. It's a disappointing,
Speaker 1: you know, to fall short of the ultimate goal. But
Speaker 1: this ride is so long, there's so many days in
Speaker 1: a year. There's so much legacy involved in these things
Speaker 1: that if you boil it down to just winning or
Speaker 1: losing a Super Bowl, it's gonna be difficult to put
Speaker 1: all your chips in that basket, even if you win
Speaker 1: the darn thing. I appreciate that Rogers said that to
Speaker 1: the team that day. I appreciated what it meant for
Speaker 1: him to come back, for him to have the success
Speaker 1: he did. He was a p f W a U
Speaker 1: m v P of the Year m v P. You know,
Speaker 1: likely will be the AP one as well. We'll find
Speaker 1: out shortly. But what Rogers brought to this team and
Speaker 1: being able to have that moment with the roster, the
Speaker 1: huddle before they knelt down, I felt like that was
Speaker 1: a pretty big catalyst to what they did. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: like that. That's that's a good show. I was looking
Speaker 1: for capstone, not catalyst. Um My pick is is the
Speaker 1: Russel Douglas interception in Arison. Um that was for me.
Speaker 1: That was a and and you know, wheat for the
Speaker 1: second straight year because of COVID protocols, restrictions on the
Speaker 1: team charter and whatnot. You and I did not travel
Speaker 1: to the road games. That Russel Douglas interception in the
Speaker 1: end zone to win the game against Arizona when the
Speaker 1: Cardinals were undefeated. It was a Thursday night game on
Speaker 1: the road, traveling multiple time zones. The Packers were devastated
Speaker 1: by injury. They were they were down several players on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball. That was a jump out
Speaker 1: of your chair moment um, you know, as as far
Speaker 1: as this season went um, not only to win that game,
Speaker 1: but the player that was Russel Douglas having been on
Speaker 1: the practice squad for Arizona, the fact that the Packers
Speaker 1: had played such an incredible game shorthanded and it had
Speaker 1: a chance to put it away in a goal to
Speaker 1: ghost situation on the one yard line, failed to get
Speaker 1: the clinching points. And then as Kyler Murray was taking
Speaker 1: the Cardinals the other way down the field, you just
Speaker 1: felt like, oh my gosh, this one's gonna slip away.
Speaker 1: It's gonna slip away, and Russell Douglas makes the interception
Speaker 1: on the past to a j. Green. So that was
Speaker 1: that was my top moment of the season, the Cardinals
Speaker 1: never recovered that was basically it absolutely was the turning
Speaker 1: point of their season. There's no question about it. And
Speaker 1: I think it's important to kind of note those at
Speaker 1: times because while it was such a high moment for
Speaker 1: Green Bay, it shows you a way this league goes
Speaker 1: and how teams go up, teams go down, and is
Speaker 1: about that consistency in between. Yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 1: Favorite touchdown, favorite touchdown, Oh man, there are so many.
Speaker 1: The Lazard one, the leaping Lazard one was one I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna remember for a while. Um, shoot, the opponents
Speaker 1: escaping me now though? Was that was that the Minnesota game? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the one where he goes up and came down with
Speaker 1: it sort of on the side of the end zone there.
Speaker 1: He looked like Megatron on that play. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many different ones you could pick, though, Mike,
Speaker 1: I mean, shoot, I mean Davante had a handful of
Speaker 1: on the second half of the season. The Lazard one
Speaker 1: is the one that stands out to me though, because
Speaker 1: that was at a time in which the Packers really
Speaker 1: needed somebody else to step up. They were still trying
Speaker 1: to find themselves without Randall Cobb. You knew it was
Speaker 1: Davante Adams, but who's gonna be that secondary playmaker and
Speaker 1: Lazard to have whatever was five touchdowns in the last
Speaker 1: x amount of games. I mean he really came on
Speaker 1: strong for that roster. Yeah. Absolutely, and I I have
Speaker 1: a different choice. I don't want to discount um. You
Speaker 1: know the Aaron Rodgers breaking Brett Farve's record, you know
Speaker 1: that touchdown pass to Lazard, But that is actually not
Speaker 1: my pick for me. I actually go all the way
Speaker 1: back to Week two. If you remember the home game
Speaker 1: against the Detroit Lion and the threaded ball down the
Speaker 1: middle seemed to Tony in that town at the goal
Speaker 1: line Alex ANZALONEI I believe is how you pronounced the name.
Speaker 1: He was the linebacker and coverage on Tonnan had had
Speaker 1: his back to the to the play. Rogers fired it
Speaker 1: as you said, as you just said, right past his
Speaker 1: ear hole for the touchdown. And this is this is
Speaker 1: in week two, coming off of when you know all
Speaker 1: of whatever was getting thrown wherever. With regard to that
Speaker 1: Packers Week one performance against the Saints and Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: through that touchdown pass, um, I thought it was maybe
Speaker 1: his most impressive throws certainly one of his most impressive
Speaker 1: throws of the season. That's one that just the visual
Speaker 1: of that from the lambeau Field press box and how
Speaker 1: we saw the visual of that just sticks in my mind.
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that play. You got that one right,
Speaker 1: that is out, that is absolutely there are any right
Speaker 1: and wrong answers here, No, because it was the most
Speaker 1: I've had the advantage of thinking about. Yeah, it was funny.
Speaker 1: I kind of forgotten about this as soon as you
Speaker 1: said week two. I'm like, oh, I know where he's
Speaker 1: going with this. Uh, And I'll tell you what. No,
Speaker 1: I'm putting I'm putting you on the spot. You I
Speaker 1: didn't even give you the categories in advance, so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm putting you on this. But Tony in man
Speaker 1: losing him the second half of the season, they did
Speaker 1: a good job of sort of stems, you know, stemming
Speaker 1: the tide for the most part. But Man on life,
Speaker 1: you saw replacing replacing a guy who had double digit
Speaker 1: touchdowns the previous season, and he wasn't having that type
Speaker 1: of statistical year. But there was still plenty of time
Speaker 1: left in the season that you felt and I felt
Speaker 1: like that that he could catch fire. At any time,
Speaker 1: and then unfortunately the injury and he didn't have that opportunity.
Speaker 1: Just look at what Lazard did. Lazard was off to
Speaker 1: a pretty quiet start the first couple of months, and
Speaker 1: he ended up being their second biggest playmaker down the stretch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a tough one, all right, number three, biggest
Speaker 1: surprise player. Oh man, I see. I was kind of figuring,
Speaker 1: you're gonna say this, and then I was figuring out, Okay,
Speaker 1: do I say Douglas or do I say, can really
Speaker 1: put you on the spot here today for the sake
Speaker 1: of not being overly long win did I'm actually gonna
Speaker 1: look towards the players that were here already. Um, if
Speaker 1: you want to talk about either of those guys, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna welcome you to doing that. We obviously already discussed
Speaker 1: that huge play that Douglas had in Arizona. The biggest
Speaker 1: surprise player for me though this season, I'm actually going
Speaker 1: to give that credit to Eric Stokes because this is
Speaker 1: a guy I wish we could go back to training camp,
Speaker 1: but we never. You know, these are the things like
Speaker 1: you wish when we had the locker room access, you
Speaker 1: could just like ask DeVante about Stokes, like just one
Speaker 1: on one, not just one quick quote, Like actually, like
Speaker 1: get some some detail there, because Mike, there's no cameras
Speaker 1: at training camp. We don't see these team periods that
Speaker 1: that film does not live in the public domain. But
Speaker 1: Rogers and Adams were targeting that young man a lot.
Speaker 1: They went after him and and that, and that was
Speaker 1: intentional on the part of the coaching status to test,
Speaker 1: to test Eric Stokes, this young first round draft pick,
Speaker 1: right out of the box in training camp. Alright, best quarterback,
Speaker 1: best receiver, you gotta go and stop him on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. And he took his lumps, but he he battled.
Speaker 1: He battled his butt off. In the first two weeks
Speaker 1: of the season. Remember we did some unscripted I remember
Speaker 1: I wrote some inboxes. I said, listen, whether it was
Speaker 1: Casey Hayward, whether it was Micah Hyde, whether it was
Speaker 1: Jay are these young rookies, man, they play right away.
Speaker 1: When you have six defensive backs on the field most
Speaker 1: of the time, at least for half the game, these
Speaker 1: young guys are going to get out there. Stokes had
Speaker 1: to get thrown into the fire against San Francisco when
Speaker 1: Kevin King was a scratch during warmups right, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was whatever week that was for that guy to
Speaker 1: play as many snaps as he did and look as
Speaker 1: good as he did and not be a liability at
Speaker 1: any point this season. I just think that speaks so
Speaker 1: well of him. He has so many natural, God given
Speaker 1: talents that his speed, his ranginus, is his his his
Speaker 1: athletic ability is just off the charts that you can
Speaker 1: see why he was picked in the first round. And
Speaker 1: the guy didn't even have to lean on it that
Speaker 1: much this year. He was able to actually play like
Speaker 1: so many times on Sam Shields was younger, he had
Speaker 1: to really lean on those skills while the rest of
Speaker 1: his game caught up. But there's the difference between an
Speaker 1: undrafted guy to Sam Shields. In a first round pick,
Speaker 1: ericson a guy that was playing receiver at Miami and
Speaker 1: a guy that was playing I like that. I like
Speaker 1: that pick. I was fully prepared for you to say
Speaker 1: either Devondre Campbell or Douglas and I was just going
Speaker 1: to pick the other one. But no, Definitely Campbell and
Speaker 1: Douglas are the two guys that jump out the most
Speaker 1: to me. Campbell because he didn't show up until June,
Speaker 1: when the offseason program was almost over and then essentially
Speaker 1: became the signal caller, the leader, the guy in the
Speaker 1: middle of everything in Joe Barry's defense for you know,
Speaker 1: his first year as a coordinator here and as we
Speaker 1: talked about just he changed the look, the feel, the
Speaker 1: way this defense played. You can't you can't give him
Speaker 1: enough credit. And then to do what he did and
Speaker 1: earned first team All Pro on on top of it. UM.
Speaker 1: Very impressive. UM. I would have probably say Blast was
Speaker 1: an even bigger surprise, UM because because of coming off
Speaker 1: of another team's practice squad. When Jay hear Alexander went down.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you know how I like to
Speaker 1: talk about things West. You know, your premier positions are
Speaker 1: are passer, pass protector as in left tackle, pass rusher,
Speaker 1: edge rusher, and pass defender. Your cornerbacks. When Jay you're
Speaker 1: Alexander went down, the Packers didn't have a ton of
Speaker 1: depth at cornerback. You were looking at that as a
Speaker 1: potentially huge loss. They plucked Douglas off of Arizona's practice squad.
Speaker 1: He's here for a week or so. He's thrown in
Speaker 1: in Chicago. After the opening series of the game, when
Speaker 1: Justin Fields took the Bears right down the field for
Speaker 1: a touchdown, Douglas comes off the bench and gets thrown
Speaker 1: in there and basically didn't come off the field the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. And then, of course you all
Speaker 1: know the pick in Arizona, a couple of picks six
Speaker 1: is uh in in back to back games at lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: The two interceptions on Christmas Day, including the clincher against
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield there to win the game against the Browns.
Speaker 1: Um this is as much and he ends up getting
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl alternate status based on all of that. When
Speaker 1: when this is a guy who started the season and
Speaker 1: wasn't even on an active roster and had bounced around
Speaker 1: between three or four other teams just trying to to
Speaker 1: land a job. His story this year was was absolutely remarkable.
Speaker 1: I remember Washington, the first Packers home game where this
Speaker 1: guy is active, and I remember watching that game and
Speaker 1: watching how he collapsed on the ball and how hard
Speaker 1: he played, and I said, this guy is different. It
Speaker 1: was even about the interceptions. It wasn't about you know,
Speaker 1: making big plays or touchdowns or anything like that. Just
Speaker 1: the way he had a relentless pursuit to the football.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this guy's six ft two. He's two uter
Speaker 1: and eight pounds. He was a third round pick three
Speaker 1: years ago. Why was he on the practice squad for
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals? And and I and last time I
Speaker 1: want to say this because who knows. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: This might be the last time we talked about Douglas
Speaker 1: until free agency. The Cardinals keep getting ripped for Douglas.
Speaker 1: The Cardinals deserve no there's you can't shame them at
Speaker 1: all for what they did. The Packers had a bunch
Speaker 1: of veterans that they had signed to to their practice squad.
Speaker 1: It's what you do in this league. It was week
Speaker 1: one of the regular season. The Houston Texans are the
Speaker 1: ones that cut this guy loose after a week. They
Speaker 1: didn't eve give him a chance to really prove himself.
Speaker 1: Arizona pro him on the practice squad. Maybe he stayed
Speaker 1: there too long, but I give them credit for giving
Speaker 1: him an opportunity. But this guy to pick up this
Speaker 1: playbook as quickly as he did and to make himself
Speaker 1: a contributor by the end of the month October. That
Speaker 1: is why he's the biggest surprise. I've never seen anything
Speaker 1: like that. And the stories of Campbell and Douglas both
Speaker 1: go to show in this league how you know, the
Speaker 1: old adage of of opportunity and environment and timing and
Speaker 1: all of that, how it can make such a difference.
Speaker 1: Because because with Campbell we had talked about how you know,
Speaker 1: he got a chance to be back man instead of
Speaker 1: Robin Right and Joe Barry scheme seemed to be just
Speaker 1: absolutely the perfect fit for him. He he walked right
Speaker 1: into a perfect situation and he seized it. He completely
Speaker 1: took advantage of it. Russell Douglass again, it was opportunity.
Speaker 1: Russell Douglas is never putting on a Packers uniform. If
Speaker 1: JayR Alexander plays the entire season, he would he would
Speaker 1: never have been here. Um, So it was an opportunity.
Speaker 1: But then he comes here, he sort of you know,
Speaker 1: hitches his wagon so to speak to Jerry Gray and
Speaker 1: learns a lot more about how to watch film and
Speaker 1: prepare and he becomes a film junkie. All the stories
Speaker 1: we heard about, you know, seven eight o'clock at night
Speaker 1: in the team cafeteria after everybody's gone home and he's
Speaker 1: got his iPad, they're looking at film. The coaches would
Speaker 1: see that. So environment opportunity. All that those two guys
Speaker 1: are are are great examples. I just want to make
Speaker 1: this point too quickly, Campbell. I hope the NFL has
Speaker 1: taken like free agents have taken notice of what Davanre
Speaker 1: Campbell did, because there's such a emphasis on Okay, I
Speaker 1: either get cut or I get let go. This league
Speaker 1: new year starts on March seventeenth. I gotta sign as
Speaker 1: soon as I can, or I'm gonna look like nobody
Speaker 1: wants me. Campbell wasn't afraid of that. Man. He said,
Speaker 1: you know what, if I got to take this thing
Speaker 1: into June before signing with the team, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: It was he was going to find the right opportunity
Speaker 1: for himself. Because I think I didn't get that. He
Speaker 1: didn't say this directly. I don't want to put words
Speaker 1: in his mouth, but it almost did kind of feel
Speaker 1: like when when he left at Lant it was like, well,
Speaker 1: Arizona was the best opportunity in terms of money, in
Speaker 1: terms everything, I'm gonna go there, and it wasn't the
Speaker 1: right fit for him this situation. He waited it out,
Speaker 1: he was cerebral about it, and now he's going to
Speaker 1: make a pretty good pay day, whether it's here, it's
Speaker 1: somewhere else in the league. Not enough players do that
Speaker 1: type of thing. Yeah, absolutely, Next one unsung hero. You
Speaker 1: can take this any direction you want. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say this, uh, because I don't think he gets
Speaker 1: nearly enough credit for what he did this year is
Speaker 1: Lucas Patrick was one of the names that the top
Speaker 1: of my list too. They used a second round draft
Speaker 1: pick on Josh Meyers and rightfully, so you look at
Speaker 1: this kid, Mike, He's a mack truck like he has
Speaker 1: everything you look for. You draw up a center on
Speaker 1: a on a you know, prototype in this in this
Speaker 1: day and age, as centers keep inning bigger the days
Speaker 1: of the Scott Wells. Is no offense to Scott, but
Speaker 1: he was a much smaller guy, a Pro Bowl center
Speaker 1: in his own right. But that's not what centers look
Speaker 1: like any They look like Josh Meyers, who could be
Speaker 1: a freaking tackle that the kid is so tall. But
Speaker 1: they got put in a real difficult spot because Corey
Speaker 1: Lindsley's gone. He's been the center now for all of
Speaker 1: basically half a season in his last seven years in
Speaker 1: Green Bay. Lucas Patrick had signed that really quietly, had
Speaker 1: signed that extension at the end of the nineteen season
Speaker 1: that took him through his first year of unrestricted free agency,
Speaker 1: and he had learned the center of this position he
Speaker 1: did not play in college, learned it, developed it in
Speaker 1: The Packers had to use him there for ten games.
Speaker 1: The reason Green Bay was able to get on this
Speaker 1: run late in the season, a lot of it had
Speaker 1: to do with how Lucas Patrick had settled in there.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers paid him the ultimate compliments, saying that this
Speaker 1: guy can be a legitimate solid center in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. And when time came for Myers to come back,
Speaker 1: Lucas took his lunch pale and he went back to
Speaker 1: right guard. That's where he finished the season. I don't
Speaker 1: know what happens with Lucas Patrick this offseason. He'll be
Speaker 1: an unrestricted free agent. But what he has given this team,
Speaker 1: it was a great story. Tryout guy didn't get any
Speaker 1: undrafted contracts. He had to earn everything he got in
Speaker 1: Green Bay. The guy's leaving Green Bay as a bona
Speaker 1: fide NFL football player, and I hope he gets compensated accordingly.
Speaker 1: But for them to put that much of an investment
Speaker 1: in center Mike. Again, this is a position. For a
Speaker 1: number of years, the Packers were using undrafted free agents.
Speaker 1: They were using Jeff Saturday, I mean late round picks.
Speaker 1: God bless you know, Scott Wells, but he was a
Speaker 1: seventh rounder. This is pretty much their highest draft pick
Speaker 1: they'd put into that position in years time. And then
Speaker 1: they lose Myers and it has to be Patrick. And
Speaker 1: Patrick did the job fast, you know, an incredible season,
Speaker 1: and I thought, for a guy that doesn't get enough credit, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, Lucas. Patrick was my pick on offense.
Speaker 1: On defense, yeah, you stole you stole one from me there.
Speaker 1: I I knew, I knew it would happen. That's okay. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time picking between two guys on defense,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to talk a little bit about both
Speaker 1: of them. The first one is Adrian Amos. And it
Speaker 1: may sound kind of strange to say, oh, this guy
Speaker 1: was one of the defensive captains. How can he be
Speaker 1: an unsung hero? But he he didn't have some you know,
Speaker 1: monster year. Statistically, he didn't get a whole lot of
Speaker 1: recognition of anything in terms of Pro Bowl or All
Speaker 1: Pro and or any of that kind of stuff, but
Speaker 1: some of the things that we've already talked about here recently,
Speaker 1: a rookie cornerback and Eric Stokes, you're dealing with JayR
Speaker 1: Alexander's injury, Russell Douglas, a new guy coming into the secondary.
Speaker 1: Adrian Amos was kind of the was kind of that
Speaker 1: glue guy in the defensive backfield that that held everything together, right.
Speaker 1: He was a veteran guy. He knows what he's doing,
Speaker 1: he's he's respected. All those guys look up to him.
Speaker 1: He could answer all their questions. I'm sure, you know,
Speaker 1: to be a fly on the wall in a in
Speaker 1: you know, the defensive back meeting room when they're going
Speaker 1: over film and stuff like that, I think would give
Speaker 1: us even more insight into the kind of the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that Adrian Amos is. So he's one of
Speaker 1: the guys I wanted to mention in this category. The
Speaker 1: other one, also on the defensive side, I'm gonna say,
Speaker 1: is Dean Lowry um because for years we've been we've
Speaker 1: been saying, you know, the packers need the packers need
Speaker 1: that that tandem guy, that guy to pair with Kenny Clark, right,
Speaker 1: and Dean Lowry has been a very solid player for
Speaker 1: the Packers since he was drafted in the fourth round
Speaker 1: here in I thought this season, after a little bit
Speaker 1: of a slow start, when Dean Lowry started to come
Speaker 1: on this year, he maintained that level of play like
Speaker 1: the rest of the way. He became a very very
Speaker 1: not not just the guy lined up next to Kenny Clark,
Speaker 1: he became a very strong, complimentary piece there in the
Speaker 1: defensive line, next to uh Um, next to Kenny Clark
Speaker 1: and um. I I really thought Rey's impact on a
Speaker 1: on a steady consistent basis was the best it's been
Speaker 1: in his career to this point. Yeah. And he looked bigger,
Speaker 1: stronger everything. I mean, he he checked all the boxes
Speaker 1: he set career. He's a strong dude, man. I mean,
Speaker 1: Kenny Kenny Clark is strong. Like, don't get me don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong. But Kenny would always say he has
Speaker 1: to remind Dean how strong he is, like, hey, just
Speaker 1: just bull rush the guy, you know, don't you know
Speaker 1: you don't you don't need to to pussy foot around,
Speaker 1: so to speak, like go after him because your strength
Speaker 1: will get the job done. And when you look at
Speaker 1: the film, Dean Lawry was able to use that strength
Speaker 1: in a lot of positive ways. That's sixteen draft, man,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's I think to me it goes
Speaker 1: down as one of the more underrated ones that Ted
Speaker 1: Thompson had because fifteen did not go well. Nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: sit here and say that the fifteen draft was was
Speaker 1: a world beater by any means. But sixteen, I think
Speaker 1: is a big reason why Green Bay was able to
Speaker 1: get this thing back on the tracks in nineteen and
Speaker 1: be able to, you know, start to build something here
Speaker 1: on defense, certainly it was Blake Martinez for a time
Speaker 1: until that torch was passed now to deave Andre Campbell.
Speaker 1: But for a defensive tackle, that's the first round pick,
Speaker 1: like Kenny Clark, who's by the way at the end
Speaker 1: of the first round, there's no gimmes at the end
Speaker 1: of the first round. Kenny could have not worked out
Speaker 1: at that spot, but to hit on him and then
Speaker 1: also find Dean in the fourth round as a comp pick.
Speaker 1: Those two. To have two guys played together for six
Speaker 1: years and they're both under contract for next year. That
Speaker 1: doesn't happen in the National Football League a lot. And
Speaker 1: they're the leaders, they're the longest tenure members of the defense,
Speaker 1: and certainly when you talk about guys that I think
Speaker 1: probably deserve to have more respect put on their name,
Speaker 1: Dean Lowry definitely is on top of that list. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like those picks there, Lucas Patrick, Dean Lowry, Adrian
Speaker 1: Amos getting uh getting some run in the Unsung had
Speaker 1: little awards that we give out. We got it. We
Speaker 1: have to little little trophies or something that will slide
Speaker 1: them slide them forward. Last one, last one, and we're
Speaker 1: going a little bit long today, but but that's okay.
Speaker 1: It's our last show for I'm not doing another one,
Speaker 1: So hang with us. Marv Um Marv's our producers as
Speaker 1: you all. Alright, last one before we get to championship weekend. Here.
Speaker 1: The craziest thing you saw this the craziest thing I
Speaker 1: saw this year? Uh? Is it? Is it the Packers?
Speaker 1: You can because otherwise it's probably Stefan digs level in
Speaker 1: that fan last ye. That was pretty crazy. Uh. The
Speaker 1: craziest thing I saw this year from the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: While I try to think of a better answer, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say the injuries because we last year. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons why when they lost to the Bucketeers. What
Speaker 1: that it was so difficult is it's like, well, they're
Speaker 1: not gonna have a healthy year like that again, I
Speaker 1: mean they were just nothing went wrong and then this
Speaker 1: missing one key guy there in the playoffs last year
Speaker 1: obviously in baktr but the rest of the team was
Speaker 1: basically healthy. This year, absolutely completely differ year. Nothing went right.
Speaker 1: Every everyone was injured. To lose the Darius, to lose
Speaker 1: Jayarra the first month of the season and basically have
Speaker 1: them missed they missed the rest of the regular season
Speaker 1: and get him back for the playoffs, and then losing
Speaker 1: some guys here and there to COVID positive tests too.
Speaker 1: That that got thrown in on top of all your
Speaker 1: regular injuries that that can happen in the course of
Speaker 1: an NFL sea So the injuries are one thing. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what it was though, now that I got
Speaker 1: a little bit more time to think about it, it
Speaker 1: was Kirk Cousins completing the past to Garrett Bradberry. That
Speaker 1: was the craziest thing. I saw this good one as levels,
Speaker 1: Uh the tight end there, I forget which one that was.
Speaker 1: The ball gets popped up and was there tight end? Yeah,
Speaker 1: good pick though, I like that. Yeah, that was That
Speaker 1: was nuts because everybody's staring at it, like what just happened?
Speaker 1: That was? That was wild. It was it was the
Speaker 1: It was It was the you know, the Immaculate Reception
Speaker 1: Part two, except it wasn't Terry Bradshaw and Frank o' harris.
Speaker 1: It was Kirk Cousins and Garrett Bradberry and I forgot
Speaker 1: which reporter asked Amos about it, But you know, Amos
Speaker 1: lays this big old hit, big big I'm hit. You
Speaker 1: think you clean hit, but you think the play is
Speaker 1: over and then here's this three pound not charge and
Speaker 1: at you with the football. So yeah, that was the
Speaker 1: craziest thing I saw. Yeah. My my pick, my pick
Speaker 1: is the is the ending to the Cincinnati game. All
Speaker 1: of the all of the missed field goals back and
Speaker 1: forth by by both teams and multiple I've never I
Speaker 1: have never watched a game that had that many walk
Speaker 1: off opportunities that were missed before the before a walk
Speaker 1: off opportunity then was good and they actually did walk
Speaker 1: off the field finally like that, I mean. And it
Speaker 1: was something about in terms of the number of go
Speaker 1: ahead or game winning missed field goals within a certain
Speaker 1: amount of time in the fourth quarter, over time whatever,
Speaker 1: it did set a record like it was not the
Speaker 1: type of game that had ever happened before. And and
Speaker 1: I don't think we're ever going to see another one
Speaker 1: like that. That was absolutely insane. No, And actually that
Speaker 1: was also the thing that told me that Evan McPherson
Speaker 1: is probably gonna be a pretty good kicker in this
Speaker 1: because you would have thought that, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: poor kid misses this kick. Yeah, Crosby. Crosby then finally
Speaker 1: makes one, makes the kick at the end, and Evan
Speaker 1: McPherson is not just you know, sitting on the bench,
Speaker 1: you know, like staring staring off into space, you know,
Speaker 1: wondering like, oh my gosh, how did I cost? I mean, he's,
Speaker 1: as you said, he's going out there kind of joking
Speaker 1: around with Crosby like how like what just happened out there?
Speaker 1: That told me that that kids confident and certainly end
Speaker 1: up being the p f w A Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1: And that uh yeah, and he drilled drilled the walk
Speaker 1: off game game winner to get the Bengals into the
Speaker 1: a f C Championship with that win, or the Tennessee Titans,
Speaker 1: which We're gonna get to those championship games in a moment.
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Speaker 1: in a bowl. Cousin Subs, we believe it. Let's give
Speaker 1: some credit to serious cousins. We've been doing these reads
Speaker 1: all year long. That's what keeps us having paychecks. And also,
Speaker 1: I did happen to get a gift card this year
Speaker 1: to cousins that I haven't used yet, So I think
Speaker 1: there's some shakes in my future here once it's not
Speaker 1: negative fifteen degrees outside. And I would say that that
Speaker 1: you should you should take me out for a sandwich,
Speaker 1: except everybody knows that I steal your sandwiches all the time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and then Mark said I should take him
Speaker 1: as well too, But yeah, we're even You're good, all right? Um.
Speaker 1: Championship weekend here wes Cincinnati at Kansas City, San Francisco
Speaker 1: at the l A. Rams, Although what I'm hearing is, uh,
Speaker 1: there are reports based on secondary market ticket activity that
Speaker 1: they're looking at potentially two thirds of SOFI Stadium being
Speaker 1: San Francisco fans on Sunday for the NFC Championship. That's
Speaker 1: sort of what's been leaking out. We'll see if it
Speaker 1: actually happens. But anyway, what was the worst idea of Mike,
Speaker 1: Let's put you on the spot. What was the worst idea?
Speaker 1: Seventeen regular season games or putting two teams in l A.
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say putting one team
Speaker 1: in l A or putting two teams in l A. Like,
Speaker 1: what was the what was the worst idea? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Sean McVeigh pleading pleading with the Rams fans
Speaker 1: not to sell their tickets because he knows that the
Speaker 1: fans are going to overrun. That is, it's really not
Speaker 1: going to be a home game for the l A Rams,
Speaker 1: with the exception of really being in their home locker
Speaker 1: room probably and not having to get on not having
Speaker 1: to get on an airplane. But um, what was the question,
Speaker 1: how do you see these games playing? Who do you
Speaker 1: think who do you think will be playing in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Out of those four teams, I think Kansas
Speaker 1: City's winning it. So that so that makes it so
Speaker 1: that I believe that they're going to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Um,
Speaker 1: do I have a coin you're gonna flip that NFC
Speaker 1: the third meeting in the in the NFC West between
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to Rams just because
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's gonna because of the fans. But
Speaker 1: it's really difficult to be good teams three times in
Speaker 1: the same season as a tall task for San Francisco
Speaker 1: to actually be able to do that. I saw that
Speaker 1: stead already that they're the first team in NFL history
Speaker 1: now to close the season with three straight wins over
Speaker 1: teams with at least twelve victories. I learned that from
Speaker 1: the internet. Uh so to make that the fourth you know,
Speaker 1: to go Rams, Dallas Packers Rams again, that's a that's
Speaker 1: something else. If they do it there there nobody's underdog
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl. But I just feel like the
Speaker 1: Rams caught onto something. Man. I feel like Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: is in one of those rhythms right now. They got
Speaker 1: to clean up the run game. They have to minimize
Speaker 1: the mistakes. But defensively they can stop San Francisco, So
Speaker 1: can they get the points that they need? I agree
Speaker 1: with you, I think it's uh. I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be Kansas City against Los Angeles. We're gonna at
Speaker 1: a rematch of that highest scoring Monday night football game
Speaker 1: ever from a few years ago. Obviously it will be
Speaker 1: with a different Rams quarterback now that Matthew Stafford is
Speaker 1: there instead of Jared Goff. But it seems like that's uh,
Speaker 1: that's where this uh, that's where this is headed. But
Speaker 1: who the heck knows? Right? I mean, um, but what
Speaker 1: is exciting? I'm interested to see. I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: how Stafford does because, as I mentioned before, he finished
Speaker 1: the regular season on a in a bad rut of
Speaker 1: turning the ball over and obviously he enters the postseason
Speaker 1: with a ton of pressure on him as a quarterback
Speaker 1: who's never a veteran quarterback and very accomplished quarterback who's
Speaker 1: never won a postseason game. Before. He gets that monkey
Speaker 1: off his back against Arizona, the Cardinals did not play well.
Speaker 1: He wins that. Then he puts together a really, really
Speaker 1: tremendous performance against Tampa Bay on the road last week
Speaker 1: and then survives and and makes the big plays at
Speaker 1: the end to make up for all of his teammates
Speaker 1: fumbling the ball over the place. And now suddenly it's
Speaker 1: just it's it seems like all of you know, the
Speaker 1: whole narrative about Matthew Stafford and the pressure on him
Speaker 1: and everything. He's he's in a he's in a different
Speaker 1: place now heading into this game. It just feels like
Speaker 1: and I'm very curious to see if he can take
Speaker 1: this to the finish line, which is which is what
Speaker 1: the Rams, which is what the Rams got him for.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned the Rams defense too. Von Miller. When
Speaker 1: the Rams played here at Lambeau, von Miller had fairly
Speaker 1: recently joined their roster and I believe was kind of
Speaker 1: dealing with an ankle injury. Watching the Packers offensive film
Speaker 1: Rams defensive film from that game, von Miller was a
Speaker 1: complete non factor really in that game against the Packers.
Speaker 1: Von Miller is a big time factor. Um, He's back
Speaker 1: to being looking like the old von Miller now and
Speaker 1: him being added to what was already a pretty good
Speaker 1: Rams defense. I think the Rams are in uh. I
Speaker 1: think the Rams are in pretty good position to h
Speaker 1: to pull this off if Aaron Donald keeps his hands
Speaker 1: off of the opposing offensive lineman's head and neck area.
Speaker 1: I like this. The Los Angeles Rams chances here down
Speaker 1: the stretch. They listen. Man, we talked about being all in.
Speaker 1: I don't believe in it, but the Rams are all in,
Speaker 1: Like this is it. They're on there like they didn't
Speaker 1: take out a second moregin. They took out like a
Speaker 1: third one this thing. So they gotta win. Yeah, absolutely, well.
Speaker 1: We just set the record, I believe, for the longest
Speaker 1: unscripted episode in the long six years of was it
Speaker 1: five years or six years we've been We've done this
Speaker 1: for six years, six years. Let's say. I can't even
Speaker 1: I can't even keep track anymore. But with that, we
Speaker 1: are going to call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. We will be back at some point
Speaker 1: during the off season on a whim who knows. Just
Speaker 1: stay tuned to Packers dot com, where we have all
Speaker 1: the coverage of your favorite team, the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: It's all there for you for West. I'm Mike. Thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in, everybody, and for tuning in all
Speaker 1: season long. We will see you next time.