Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and West.
Speaker 1: The Baltimore Ravens are in town. Shortly after we are
Speaker 1: done recording this episode, we will be heading to the
Speaker 1: practice field to watch the joint practice against the Ravens
Speaker 1: and the bottom line er I guess the big picture
Speaker 1: is this. This is a team coming into Green Bay
Speaker 1: that is going to present an interesting challenge on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball for the Packers here, because if
Speaker 1: you look at what Jordan Love and the offense will
Speaker 1: be up against, that's the defense that led the league
Speaker 1: last year in points allowed or allowed the fewest points
Speaker 1: in the league and ranked sixth. I believe it was
Speaker 1: in yards allowed on the flip side of things. The
Speaker 1: quarterback on the other side, when the Packers' number one
Speaker 1: defense is on the field getting their work this afternoon,
Speaker 1: will be two time MVP and Raining League MVP Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 1: In some ways, you couldn't ask for a better challenge,
Speaker 1: a better tune up regardless of whether the starters play
Speaker 1: on Saturday in the preseason game or not. For either team,
Speaker 1: This joint practice is about as intense and exciting a
Speaker 1: way to wrap up training camp as you could ask for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure that was part of the alchemy too,
Speaker 2: and they were figuring out exactly this training camp schedule
Speaker 2: and what they were going to do as far as
Speaker 2: joint practices and how that's going to be concerned. I mean,
Speaker 2: I go back to twenty nineteen and I know it
Speaker 2: was something we all kind of remember, was the Packers
Speaker 2: played a lot of their defensive starters against Labar and
Speaker 2: the starting offense from the Ravens in the first half,
Speaker 2: and Jackson really took it to him in that matchup.
Speaker 2: I mean it was he was pretty flawless. I don't
Speaker 2: maybe there was like two or three incompletions. I mean,
Speaker 2: he was very efficient. And when you have somebody that
Speaker 2: is his mix of size, athleticism, speed, there's just so
Speaker 2: much to like about that. And there's a reason why
Speaker 2: he's a multiple time MVP now because of what he
Speaker 2: brings to the table in that capacity. So, yeah, that's
Speaker 2: going to change. That's going to change, you know how
Speaker 2: these guys rush him. It's going to change how you
Speaker 2: defend him. It's going to change all these different attributes
Speaker 2: that you have to account for in the quarterback position,
Speaker 2: in addition to the fact they have a lot of
Speaker 2: really talented weapons around them too. And you look at
Speaker 2: Mark Andrews and you know the receiving corps, certainly Dereck
Speaker 2: Henry now being in that backfield.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another that's a new look for a Baltimore backfield.
Speaker 1: Suddenly Derrick Henry, the old Tennessee Titan is is back there,
Speaker 1: ready to carry the rock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it'll be uh, you know, it's the challenge
Speaker 2: you look for in these matchups and seeing exactly what
Speaker 2: you can get out of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And on the defensive side, I was looking up some
Speaker 1: of the statistics the the Ravens bring back two of
Speaker 1: their top three pass rushers in terms of sacks from
Speaker 1: last year, justin Mattabueke if I'm pronouncing that, Correll done,
Speaker 1: and also Kyle van Noy. Those two guys combined for
Speaker 1: about twenty two sacks last season. And then in the secondary,
Speaker 1: their leading interceptor last year was Gino Stone, who is
Speaker 1: no longer with them, But you still have a cornerback
Speaker 1: like Marlon Humphrey. You have and a safety, a guy
Speaker 1: who's really rising to become one of the more well
Speaker 1: known and more dynamic safeties in the league. And Kyle Hamilton,
Speaker 1: the Notre Dame product who they was a first first
Speaker 1: round pick. On Hamilton, I can't remember for sure now
Speaker 1: if it was, if he was a late first round pick.
Speaker 2: He was a first rounder, I was a second Okay,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, dude, he was. He was fourteenth over.
Speaker 1: Oh he was fourteenth overall, so he's a mid first
Speaker 1: round Okay, okay, But anyway, Kyle Hamilton a very dynamic
Speaker 1: player and a guy who's really start to get a
Speaker 1: lot more national recognition. This is gonna be an interesting
Speaker 1: test for Jordan Love for this receiving corps. You know, obviously,
Speaker 1: with the running game and Josh Jacobs, I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: gonna get work like he did in the joint practice
Speaker 1: with the Broncos where Jacob's got the ball quite a bit.
Speaker 1: He still don't really know how to totally evaluate the
Speaker 1: running game when guys aren't tackling all the way to
Speaker 1: the ground and whatnot. But from what we've heard from
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur. It sounds like how this practice goes, and
Speaker 1: how Matt Lafleur feels about the work that his first
Speaker 1: units get and how they perform both offensively and defensively
Speaker 1: against the Ravens in this practice will determine whether or
Speaker 1: not the starters are going to play in Saturday afternoon's
Speaker 1: preseason finale or if they're going to sit like the
Speaker 1: Denver game. And then it all gets turned over to
Speaker 1: the second and third units for the full sixty minutes
Speaker 1: on Saturday. So that's the big TBD of the week,
Speaker 1: so to speak. But I think this should be a
Speaker 1: fun practice to watch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and also from the standpoint of you know, you
Speaker 2: look at what Baltimore accomplished last year defensively, there's a
Speaker 2: reason why their coaching staff got completely pilfered in terms of,
Speaker 2: you know, head coaching opportunities, defensive coordinator opportunity. There's so
Speaker 2: much talent there on that side of the ball as well.
Speaker 2: And now as far as the team side of it goes,
Speaker 2: most of it is still on this squad. So I'm
Speaker 2: very interested to see. You know, when you look at
Speaker 2: a guy like Kyle Hamilton, for example, I think it's
Speaker 2: it's one of those guys that when we do our
Speaker 2: draft prep every year, you see these names and you
Speaker 2: see them become stars and in all pros in this
Speaker 2: league and guys that have really been able to separate themselves.
Speaker 2: Hamilton has been one of those guys and one of
Speaker 2: the things I have the ultimate respect for, whether it's
Speaker 2: bringing in a guy like Rokwan Smith or is it
Speaker 2: just finding guys to the draft. The Baltimore Ravens always
Speaker 2: develop defensive talent. Well, so when you're talking about a
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers offensive line that's still trying to answer
Speaker 2: some questions here about what that starting five is going
Speaker 2: to look like, who's going to be swing tackle, who's
Speaker 2: going to be your next guy up at center. These
Speaker 2: are the type of matchups, just even in just two
Speaker 2: hour practice, that are going to be able to challenge
Speaker 2: you schematically a little bit in that way. And then
Speaker 2: also for the Packers' safeties and maybe even Keyshawn Nixon
Speaker 2: seeing a guy like Mark Andrews lining up against you
Speaker 2: as well. When the Packers this is you know, for
Speaker 2: as much as has been made about them traveling for
Speaker 2: these joint practices for as long as I can remember,
Speaker 2: there's been opportunities for teams to come into Green Bay,
Speaker 2: and yeah, you look think back to the Houston Texas practice.
Speaker 2: It's not always perfect. Sometimes it's a little too vanilla.
Speaker 2: Maybe nothing really happens other than you know, a player
Speaker 2: unfortunately getting injured. But I think when you've seen the
Speaker 2: practice against the New England Patriots, against the New Orleans Saints,
Speaker 2: some of these ones we've had in recent years, Robert
Speaker 2: Salain the Jets because there was that friendship factor and
Speaker 2: that respect factor between the two head coaches. There's been
Speaker 2: some really good work done on lambeau Field and with
Speaker 2: somebody like John Harbow, one of the longest tenured, if
Speaker 2: not the longest tenured coach now in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: but him are or actually would probably Mike tom.
Speaker 1: Think I think it's Mike Tomlin, but John Arbaugh is
Speaker 1: not far behind.
Speaker 2: Well established coach, well established program, and the Packers are
Speaker 2: gonna get a real let miss tests there for where
Speaker 2: they're at here during this final week camp.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you look at the defense having to deal
Speaker 1: with Lamar Jackson, obviously you look ahead to week one,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, now
Speaker 1: not the same type of mobile, dualt dual threat quarterback,
Speaker 1: but a very mobile dual threat quarterback. And at least
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of preparation in that regard getting
Speaker 1: the real deal, so to speak, as opposed to just
Speaker 1: somebody running the scout team and whatnot in practice leading
Speaker 1: up to Week one. When you talk about matchups, the
Speaker 1: interesting one and it's not necessarily like a head to
Speaker 1: head kind of thing or a one on one kind
Speaker 1: of thing. But Lamar Jackson JayR Alexander. We don't know
Speaker 1: if we will see it on Saturday in the preseason game,
Speaker 1: but these two guys Louisville products, they go back quite
Speaker 1: a way, as they've known each other for a long time,
Speaker 1: and it's it'll be under to see, you know is
Speaker 1: I would imagine we're going to get the rather vociferous
Speaker 1: JayR Alexander on the practice field today. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: hold back with the jawing and the talking and the
Speaker 1: yelling and what not to just to see if he
Speaker 1: can get under his old Louisville teammate skin just a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 2: Of yeah, and the love that those two guys have
Speaker 2: for each other. I always go back to that twenty
Speaker 2: eighteen draft where you know, Jaws and the Middle getting
Speaker 2: interviewed about getting selected by the Packers. It's the end
Speaker 2: of the first round and he's literally on camera as
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson is being taken thirty second overall by the
Speaker 2: Baltimore Ravens, and JayR just completely stops everything he's doing
Speaker 2: and just celebrates. Because one, there's a natural respect there,
Speaker 2: there's a friendship there. But I think it's also the
Speaker 2: fact that these are two guys that have had chips
Speaker 2: on their shoulders. Now, Lamar Jackson has long been considered
Speaker 2: an elite NFL talent, elite college prospect, but you go
Speaker 2: back to those questions at the NFL Scout and Combine
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember that interview like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1: That was That was where I learned a little something
Speaker 1: about Lamar Jackson because he kept getting asked by all
Speaker 1: these national reporters who are there about about moving to
Speaker 1: receiver and you know, are you gonna try this? Are
Speaker 1: you going to try that? He just he got to
Speaker 1: where he was almost laughing because he just kept saying,
Speaker 1: I'm a quarterback, I'm gonna play quarterback, and that wasn't
Speaker 1: the consensus necessarily at the time, and maybe it was
Speaker 1: more of a media narrative than it was an actual
Speaker 1: NFL personnel narrative. I don't really know. I wasn't I
Speaker 1: wasn't privy to all that, but he was absolutely one
Speaker 1: hundred percent certain he was a quarterback in this league.
Speaker 1: He was not going to be moved around to play
Speaker 1: other positions. The guys won two MVPs and done a
Speaker 1: heck of a lot. And what's left for him now,
Speaker 1: which of course is the pressure that's on his shoulders now,
Speaker 1: is to get the Ravens to a Super Bowl someday.
Speaker 2: And from Jaiyere's standpoint, the story's well documented, the fact
Speaker 2: that you know, he was kind of an overlooked prospect
Speaker 2: coming out of Charlotte. He eventually goes to Louisville, becomes
Speaker 2: a first round plus, you know, first round draft pick.
Speaker 2: The amount of success that he had there, not only
Speaker 2: as a cornerback but as a punt returner. I mean,
Speaker 2: those those two guys were just the cornerstones of that
Speaker 2: program and the time that they were there. And now
Speaker 2: to be on the other end of it, it's one
Speaker 2: thing I'm really hoping to hear from JayR about this
Speaker 2: on Thursday, where he took his himself and how he
Speaker 2: made himself into this and just how far those two
Speaker 2: guys have come now where you know, Lamar Jackson just
Speaker 2: isn't an MVP. He's an MVP quarterback, right and Jai
Speaker 2: Air is a two time All Pro cornerback. So you know,
Speaker 2: but you know, by the time his post practice will
Speaker 2: already be over. But it will be interesting to see
Speaker 2: those two guys kind of joust a little bit. I'm
Speaker 2: sure there's gonna be a couple times where Lamar is
Speaker 2: gonna he's gonna test his old friend a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know, he's going to go after him
Speaker 1: at some point. I think that's I think that's inevitable.
Speaker 1: And you know that JayR is going to try to
Speaker 1: bait his old friend into into throwing something you might
Speaker 1: be able to get his hands on. So there's gonna
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a little bit of a cat and
Speaker 1: mouse game going on out there.
Speaker 2: And that was one little interaction I had with JayR
Speaker 2: in the locker room earlier this week, because I had
Speaker 2: actually forgotten that they had played, that they both were
Speaker 2: on the field during that twenty nineteen preseason game. I'd
Speaker 2: forgotten all about that, and it was pretty interesting hearing
Speaker 2: him talk about how he had not forgotten that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Over one of the points of that matchup, Lamar actually
Speaker 2: jumped over him on a would be tackle, which was
Speaker 2: going into the second season for both of those guys
Speaker 2: at that point. It's special and it'll be cool to see,
Speaker 2: if you know, maybe each shire can get a little
Speaker 2: bit of retribution.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I do want to get your thoughts on
Speaker 1: what we're thinking about what we're watching for in this
Speaker 1: preseason finale coming up on Saturday. But I'll take care
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Speaker 1: All right, one last preseason game to go here. It
Speaker 1: is Saturday afternoon, or I should say noon kickoff at
Speaker 1: Lambeau Field. I love afternoon preseason football. Man. That doesn't
Speaker 1: get much better than that one at Lambo.
Speaker 2: We very rarely have gotten it at Lambo.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, You've got a couple of road ones looming
Speaker 1: after that. After Saturday's game at lambeau Field will be
Speaker 1: the rosters decisions. The cut down two fifty three players
Speaker 1: will take place on Tuesday. The deadline is Tuesday afternoon,
Speaker 1: and then there's actually it's less than a twenty four
Speaker 1: hour period there of the officially of the waiver wire
Speaker 1: than before. Players who clear waivers that can then be
Speaker 1: re signed to practice squads as all the teams around
Speaker 1: the league get to their group of sixty nine, the
Speaker 1: fifty three plus the sixteen that they will take into
Speaker 1: Week one, and then everybody begins their preparations for the
Speaker 1: Week one opponents. So, with the roster decisions looming and
Speaker 1: everything that is on the line for so many of
Speaker 1: these plays on Saturday at Lambellfield, what are you watching for?
Speaker 2: Heart? The grit, the strain that that Matt Lafleur has
Speaker 2: talked about, And obviously Matt kind of changed his tune
Speaker 2: a little bit this week as he reviewed the film
Speaker 2: from Denver. But I mean that is, ultimately the decisions
Speaker 2: will be made on Tuesday based in terms of the
Speaker 2: bubble players, based on a lot of how this stuff goes.
Speaker 2: And I wrote about an insider inbox for Thursday Morning
Speaker 2: in that you know, there's been a handful of guys
Speaker 2: Mike and my twelve years doing this now that have
Speaker 2: made the roster based strictly on how they performed. Obviously,
Speaker 2: you had to have a decent camp. You could just
Speaker 2: come out of completely no when, right, But you know, again,
Speaker 2: I think the best example that was James Crawford, I
Speaker 2: think in twenty eighteen, where this was a guy Mike
Speaker 2: that came in during training camp and we all were
Speaker 2: kind of like, okay, well, I think he was Charles
Speaker 2: Woodson's cousin or there was some familiar relationship there, and
Speaker 2: next thing you know, he ends up making the roster
Speaker 2: as a special teams guy.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: There are those stories every year, and also like the
Speaker 2: Justin McCrae, the guys that end up playing two hundred
Speaker 2: snaps in the preseason, although that's pretty hard to do
Speaker 2: now with only three games, but back in the day, yeah, four,
Speaker 2: and then suddenly they're starting eight, nine, ten games for
Speaker 2: you during the regular season. This is about Jordan Love
Speaker 2: and in the top skill position players and who's going
Speaker 2: to be the starting right guard and who's going to
Speaker 2: be the swing tackle, like those things all are are paramount,
Speaker 2: but this is ultimately the final audition for the guys
Speaker 2: that are trying to live their NFL dreams. Unfortunately, there
Speaker 2: every year there are guys that will play their final
Speaker 2: NFL game this weekend on both sides. For the Green
Speaker 2: Bay Packers, trying to figure out who that that we
Speaker 2: talk so much about the fifty three, they're trying to
Speaker 2: find that seventy and who's going to ultimately be with
Speaker 2: them on the practice squad and be available with them
Speaker 2: throughout the course of the season, because as we saw
Speaker 2: last year, it can be Christian Welch coming up, it
Speaker 2: can be Corey Ballentine playing some major snaps in the
Speaker 2: second half the season after they didn't make the final cuts.
Speaker 1: So almost in another example, guy like Bowl Melton, who
Speaker 1: did you know was that as well? I want to
Speaker 1: backtrack to what because you mentioned Matt Lafleur kind of
Speaker 1: walking back his comments a little bit about the effort
Speaker 1: and whatnot from the preseason game in Denver, because Sunday night.
Speaker 1: He was clearly frustrated with how things had transpired there.
Speaker 1: It had been such a struggle, particularly on offense, to
Speaker 1: get things going, and he did kind of call out
Speaker 1: the players a little bit for the effort and the
Speaker 1: grid and whatnot. But then he walked that back after
Speaker 1: he saw the film. But I was reminded then from
Speaker 1: what he said when he did walk that comment back,
Speaker 1: because he said he said it really was an execution issue,
Speaker 1: and the lack of execution was rooted in mental errors
Speaker 1: across the board. You know where players were, whether you're
Speaker 1: talking about running the wrong route or just executing the
Speaker 1: wrong assignment, whatever the case might be. And that's a
Speaker 1: reminder for me, a reminder for us. I think that
Speaker 1: when we try to make our little predictions, you know
Speaker 1: who we think is going to make the team and
Speaker 1: who's not. We don't know who's out there making mental
Speaker 1: air right like we're trying to we're trying to judge performance.
Speaker 1: We see what happens, we see the results of plays.
Speaker 1: We don't know the guys who are who are getting
Speaker 1: you know, who are getting graded by the coaches in
Speaker 1: the grade books with with mental mistakes and when you
Speaker 1: get this far, you've had all of OTAs. Now, granted,
Speaker 1: some players have come in at different times, but for
Speaker 1: the bulk of the players, you've had all of OTAs
Speaker 1: and a mini camp, all of these public practices, plus
Speaker 1: numerous walkthroughs and jog throughs and everything else, and you
Speaker 1: get all the way to the third preseason game. Nobody's
Speaker 1: going to be perfect, but the expectation is that the
Speaker 1: mental errors are going to start going down, and if
Speaker 1: players are still out there making mental errors, they might
Speaker 1: be able to make a splash player two. And everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about, oh, well, that guy looks like he's going
Speaker 1: to make the team. How can they leave him off
Speaker 1: the team? Well, just remember there are things that we
Speaker 1: don't necessarily know in terms of what's going on in
Speaker 1: terms of how these players are graded. So that was
Speaker 1: a reminder for me to hear him say that, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like not every not every guy does everything he's supposed
Speaker 1: to do on a give and play, and that's part
Speaker 1: of how the players are evaluated. For me, two key
Speaker 1: pieces that I'm watching in this last preseason game. One
Speaker 1: is the obvious the backup quarterbacks Sean Clifford, Michael Pratt.
Speaker 1: Neither guy was happy with how the game went in Denver.
Speaker 1: Both guys, I think are very determined to bounce back
Speaker 1: to play much more like they played in the Cleveland
Speaker 1: game as opposed to the Denver game. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot on the line for those guys, and we don't
Speaker 1: know if the Packers are going to keep three quarterbacks
Speaker 1: on the fifty three or if one of those guys
Speaker 1: is going to get exposed to waivers and whatever the
Speaker 1: decisions are there, we'll see what happens. But then the
Speaker 1: other thing is kind of what you were talking about,
Speaker 1: with somebody who can always rise up in that last
Speaker 1: preseason game and get themselves a roster spot. It usually
Speaker 1: would happen on special teams, and the Packers are still
Speaker 1: trying to figure out exactly, you know, what is going
Speaker 1: to be the best combination of guys for special teams.
Speaker 1: Are there certain guys they can keep on special teams
Speaker 1: that they can still rely on as depth on defense?
Speaker 1: Are there some guys that, even if you know they're
Speaker 1: quite always down the depth chart on defense, but they're
Speaker 1: good enough on special teams that Rich Bassacia needs those
Speaker 1: guys for the kickoff and punt return and coverage units
Speaker 1: and all that to be as good as the Packers
Speaker 1: need them to be to get to where they want
Speaker 1: to go. So those are the two biggest areas for me.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are going to talk
Speaker 1: wide receivers and et cetera, but for me, it's about
Speaker 1: the backup quarterbacks and about the special teams units in
Speaker 1: this last game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's funny too, because, like you'll see every year,
Speaker 2: there'll be a receiver, it will be a cornerback that
Speaker 2: have a big game, and in that matters. I mean,
Speaker 2: it certainly matters trying to make a fifty three, but
Speaker 2: a lot of times it comes down to wells, who's
Speaker 2: on those first team special teams units, who's getting those reps,
Speaker 2: who's being able to have that opportunity, who's making a tackle?
Speaker 2: You know, I was last week. I mean, no one's
Speaker 2: going to write about it, but you know, I think
Speaker 2: Zan Anderson's had a really strong in terms of a
Speaker 2: personal protector, sometimes a gunner, a guy that can get downfield.
Speaker 2: We've talked about every single one of these safeties, but
Speaker 2: you think about the special teams aspect of it, it's
Speaker 2: a different game. It's a different phase and all that
Speaker 2: stuff is ultimately, what comes down to how you construct
Speaker 2: to fifty three. And I think Tom Silverstain asked a
Speaker 2: really salient question to Matt Lafleur on Wednesday when he
Speaker 2: was talking about, you know, now that this team's a
Speaker 2: little bit older, you don't have as many young guys anymore.
Speaker 2: Can you afford to keep maybe a couple more special
Speaker 2: teams stalwart type players that aren't going to necessarily give
Speaker 2: you a ton on defense or a defense, but are
Speaker 2: going to be able to really help you in that phase.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking in the back of my head
Speaker 2: as Tom asked that, and Matt agreed, He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean this is you know, it all depends, but
Speaker 2: I mean that's obviously possibility. But I was thinking of
Speaker 2: the back of my head. With as many rule changes
Speaker 2: there are with the kickoffs this year, with as many
Speaker 2: different ways that this league has really stretched and pulled
Speaker 2: at special teams, you need people that are on top
Speaker 2: of it, not just for that one position, but to
Speaker 2: be able to set the tone. I mean, there's a
Speaker 2: reason why you want to have an Eric Wilson on
Speaker 2: your football team. I saw it when I was watching
Speaker 2: some of the special teams periods on Wednesday, and also
Speaker 2: in last the preseason game and some of these other things.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the general out there. That's the one
Speaker 2: that's telling everybody here, here's what we're doing out here.
Speaker 2: Those type of players matter. And now seeing exactly who
Speaker 2: could emerge there and weighing, okay, the proven veterans against
Speaker 2: some of these young guys that might take a little time,
Speaker 2: but you know, who could potentially have some really long
Speaker 2: term value for you. That's the game that Brian Goodkinson
Speaker 2: and scouts have to play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's interesting how there are always difficult decisions
Speaker 1: to be made every year. But as much as that
Speaker 1: becomes kind of a broken record every year, the context
Speaker 1: within these difficult decisions that are made is always changing, right,
Speaker 1: because of the makeup of your team, whether you're talking
Speaker 1: whether you're talking the youth versus the age, whether you're
Speaker 1: talking areas of the team that you want to improve,
Speaker 1: areas of the team that you feel. You have these
Speaker 1: young prospects who are coming along, and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you don't want to expose them to waivers because you
Speaker 1: want to keep them and be able to develop them,
Speaker 1: and you don't want somebody else to claim them all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. The context is always is always
Speaker 1: shifting and always changing based on where your team is,
Speaker 1: and this Packers team twelve months later is in a
Speaker 1: very different place than where last year's was. Where you're
Speaker 1: making the transition at quarterback. You have a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of brand new rookies, young guys on offense that are
Speaker 1: you know, you're building this cast around your new franchise quarterback.
Speaker 1: The Packers got went a long way in that very
Speaker 1: first year to where now the context and these decisions
Speaker 1: being made for twenty twenty four, it feels very different.
Speaker 1: At least it does to me.
Speaker 2: And we saw throughout the course of that season, Michael,
Speaker 2: how every single win, whether it was in Week one
Speaker 2: or Week eighteen, they all matter, they all count. This
Speaker 2: is all critical to the final puzzle, absolutely, and seeing
Speaker 2: who's going to help you get there. I don't know
Speaker 2: how this is going to shuffle out as far as
Speaker 2: the personnel that at this time in which we're taping this,
Speaker 2: Mattleafleur himself might not fully know. But this is the
Speaker 2: last this is the last leapfrog here, This is the
Speaker 2: last chance, this is the last opportunity to sort of
Speaker 2: propel yourself into the regular season and you know, whether
Speaker 2: it's the reserves, whether it's the starters, figuring out if
Speaker 2: we're going to be able to be the team that
Speaker 2: everybody wants us to be. Those expectations they get set
Speaker 2: and now you have to rise to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, well, with that, we will call it a
Speaker 1: rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the joint practice with
Speaker 1: the Ravens, the preseason game with the Ravens, as training
Speaker 1: camp wraps up here. We will have it all for
Speaker 1: you on Packers dot Com. With regard to this show,
Speaker 1: Packers Unscripted with roster cuts next week on Tuesday, we
Speaker 1: need to kind of let the dust settle with regard
Speaker 1: to that, so we will just have one show next
Speaker 1: week instead of two, and we will be waiting until
Speaker 1: the fifty three man roster has been selected and hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll know everything about the practice squad as well, and
Speaker 1: we can discuss all of that when we return to
Speaker 1: these chairs a week from now. So for Wes, I
Speaker 1: am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We will
Speaker 1: see you next time.