Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted Social
Speaker 1: Distancing Style from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford,
Speaker 1: joined by my trusted colleague West had kuwits West. We
Speaker 1: are just a couple of days away from training camp
Speaker 1: officially being over and the roster cuts, roster decisions and
Speaker 1: all that will be made over the weekend. But before
Speaker 1: we get into some of those rules and ramifications, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Aaron Rodgers media session over Zoom yesterday,
Speaker 1: which was after Wednesday's practice, because he uh, he was
Speaker 1: full of positive thoughts, full of positive attitude, and you know,
Speaker 1: it turns out it wasn't just a piece of two
Speaker 1: thousand ten practice film that he took out to the
Speaker 1: field with him when things started to click in for
Speaker 1: him for camp this year. It sounds like he spent
Speaker 1: a good part of the off season reviewing a lot
Speaker 1: of his own film to get ready for this, as
Speaker 1: we like to call it, a season unlike any other.
Speaker 1: He showed up for camp with a whole different mental
Speaker 1: preparation that he went through, uh during the months of
Speaker 1: the pandemic and the quarantine period. Yeah, he really did, Mike,
Speaker 1: and it was interesting listening to speak. He talked to
Speaker 1: the media for about twenty minutes and and too Roger's credit.
Speaker 1: Correct me if I'm wrong here. I don't remember him
Speaker 1: speaking this often in previous training camps. It would typically
Speaker 1: be a lot of Tim Boyle, a lot of the
Speaker 1: backup quarterbacks. But I would say he, I would say,
Speaker 1: he still usually would talk during training camp. Yeah, but um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I couldn't remember. But this probably feeds into
Speaker 1: what I want to say, and that's it's this year
Speaker 1: really left an impression on me. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's the fact that he was able to be more
Speaker 1: reflective this offseason in what was going on and in
Speaker 1: his life and and how he wanted to approach football,
Speaker 1: but he's just had this different or about him. Jason
Speaker 1: Willdy had to ask the question, uh the way he did,
Speaker 1: which was, you know, guys are saying you're a lot more,
Speaker 1: you know, seemed to be having a good time, not
Speaker 1: that you necessarily were in a bad mood before, but
Speaker 1: you're in a pretty good place right now. And honestly, Mike,
Speaker 1: I think we could kind of sense that too, just
Speaker 1: based on the three availabilities we've had with him this summer.
Speaker 1: He just seems very at peace and very at easy.
Speaker 1: Had his Mark Freaking Eating shirt on when he did
Speaker 1: his conference call. I mean, just was really chill. And
Speaker 1: the thing I keep thinking back to when he mentioned
Speaker 1: the two thousand ten things we did. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the film and what he potentially saw in
Speaker 1: that practice tape or whatever tape it was that he
Speaker 1: picked up on. But I think if you go back
Speaker 1: and look at it ten years ago too, he was
Speaker 1: in an entirely different place. He wasn't the two time
Speaker 1: m v P. Yet, he wasn't the franchise quarterback. He
Speaker 1: was a really talented young guy who ended up leading
Speaker 1: a team to a super Bowl at twenty seven years old.
Speaker 1: You wonder how much of that he wanted to be
Speaker 1: able to get back, and it just kind of get
Speaker 1: back to the loving nature of the game. I've sensed
Speaker 1: that I've noticed it and the way he actually is
Speaker 1: out there on the practice field, and he talked about
Speaker 1: Mark quisbelt is scantling in the way that he's impressed
Speaker 1: him coming back this year. He's interacting with guys. The
Speaker 1: video that Olivia Reiner tweeted out from the press Casette
Speaker 1: and him, you know, throwing, the kind of joshing around
Speaker 1: a little bit with Boyle kicking the ball away from him.
Speaker 1: He just really seems to be having a good time.
Speaker 1: And to be honest with you, my going into the
Speaker 1: start of the regular season here and now ten days,
Speaker 1: I think that's a really good sign. I just think
Speaker 1: he's loose, he's comfortable, and during a time with so
Speaker 1: much uncertainty, Aaron Rodgers just really seems to be himself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And he he was talking a lot about where he is,
Speaker 1: both personally and professionally, and he talked about sort of
Speaker 1: in the offseason from a personal standpoint, finding his center
Speaker 1: a little bit, getting comfortable with just who he is,
Speaker 1: where he is in his life. That's all. That's all
Speaker 1: fine and good. I was frankly fascinated in some ways
Speaker 1: by what he was talking about with the on the
Speaker 1: field stuff, and not that it was so much a
Speaker 1: groundbreaking um discussion, but a reminder in a sense of
Speaker 1: of how everything at the quarterback position works together and
Speaker 1: how there's a chain reaction with everything. And he kind
Speaker 1: of went through it where it's like, Okay, his comfort
Speaker 1: level in the offense, he feels like he's got some
Speaker 1: better footwork and then the better footwork leads to being
Speaker 1: a little bit quicker through his progressions on the past plays,
Speaker 1: and being quicker through the progressions leads to better balance
Speaker 1: when he's dropping back in the pocket and and setting
Speaker 1: his feet, and then the better balance leads to better
Speaker 1: accuracy with the throws. And it's like you can see,
Speaker 1: it's like everything is connected. There's there's this chain reaction.
Speaker 1: It's like you know that old schoolhouse rock you know
Speaker 1: song video that I used to watch as a kid.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a reminder of how complex the quarterback
Speaker 1: position is and yet how easy somebody like Rogers, who
Speaker 1: was so experienced and so accomplished um can make it
Speaker 1: look at times. And yet it sounds like he really
Speaker 1: went back and did a lot of studying of himself
Speaker 1: in the offseason, say, oh kay, how do I really
Speaker 1: get back to where I was when I was playing
Speaker 1: at my best? Even though I'm not as young as
Speaker 1: I used to be obviously, But how do I get
Speaker 1: back there? What's it going to take? And he's been
Speaker 1: he's been putting that chain reaction together and it showed
Speaker 1: on the practice field for sure these last few weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. I most of glad
Speaker 1: you brought up a schoolhouse rock. I'm on the I'm
Speaker 1: on the northern end of that eighteen to thirty four
Speaker 1: demo now, So there might be more kids out there
Speaker 1: that don't know exactly what you're referring to, but I
Speaker 1: did and I appreciated it. No, But the thing about
Speaker 1: the quarterback position, like, there's only two maybe three positions
Speaker 1: where I think you are able to actually four, and
Speaker 1: when you look at Larry Fitzgerald, probably four positions where
Speaker 1: you're able to kind of reinvent yourself throughout the course
Speaker 1: of career. A lot of times NFL careers don't last
Speaker 1: long enough for you to evolve. Quarterback is one of
Speaker 1: those spots, though, And that's what kind of hit home
Speaker 1: with me with Rogers is that, yeah, there are certain
Speaker 1: things he's going to be able to do ten years
Speaker 1: ago that he wasn't able to do that he's not
Speaker 1: able to do now. But that goes vice versa. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's things that he's picked up on the last ten years.
Speaker 1: It's bringing back maybe some of those ideas. And again
Speaker 1: this is all speculation on my part. He's not going
Speaker 1: to go into it right now, what he's seen or
Speaker 1: what he thinks. But I just think that when you
Speaker 1: have a fifteen year career like that, there's so much
Speaker 1: you can learn from not only knowing what you know now,
Speaker 1: but seeing what you did then and how that potentially
Speaker 1: equated to games. One. The thing that really does stand
Speaker 1: out to me, Thoway, is the second year in Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur's offense. And you've talked about it a lot this summer.
Speaker 1: I even wrote about this an Insider inbox. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you agreed with me or not, but you know,
Speaker 1: someone had asked if if he just you know where
Speaker 1: the offense is and and and are they you know,
Speaker 1: are they clicking and all those sort of things, And
Speaker 1: the way I looked at it was relative to the competition.
Speaker 1: I think they are much farther ahead right now than
Speaker 1: they were last year. I think they look a lot
Speaker 1: better going into the regular season than they did last year,
Speaker 1: keeping in mind grading on a curve with everything that's
Speaker 1: happened with the COVID offseason, And to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: when this thing started a month ago and we started
Speaker 1: watching practices three weeks ago, I was really kind of
Speaker 1: holding my breath. I wasn't sure exactly how this was
Speaker 1: gonna look. You know, when you have a virtual off
Speaker 1: season program, you are going through the installs, you are
Speaker 1: having the classroom sessions. But Mike, you've been on online classes,
Speaker 1: you know what these things are like. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not always easy to keep someone's attention for six hours
Speaker 1: when you're just doing conversations and interactions this way. But
Speaker 1: to Matt Laflore's credit to Nathaniel Hackett, whatever they did
Speaker 1: during the virtual off season, it allowed them to really
Speaker 1: pick up and every organization did it differently. But those
Speaker 1: words that Mark Murphy said right at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this pandemic, I think was probably the first comment out
Speaker 1: of the organization after we were all kind of in
Speaker 1: the holding pattern about how teams that respond the best
Speaker 1: to this are gonna be the ones that get out
Speaker 1: of the gate fastest we can. We will only know
Speaker 1: what we know when we see them get out on
Speaker 1: the field at US Bank Stadium in two weeks. But
Speaker 1: agreement Packers, for my eye for what I thought this
Speaker 1: camp could be, really exceeded my expectations. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think there's no question based on what Rogers said
Speaker 1: based on what we've seen from guys like Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams, Davante Adams, all of the main states on offense. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously the Packers still have to figure out exactly what's
Speaker 1: going on on the right side of the offensive line.
Speaker 1: There are some depth chart decisions and whatnot that need
Speaker 1: to be made. But in terms of the main stays,
Speaker 1: the guys you know are gonna be there. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be counting on them every week. There's no question that
Speaker 1: being in the second year of the system has has
Speaker 1: put everybody just at a greater ease in terms of
Speaker 1: how to go how to go out and execute and
Speaker 1: uh and and get the job done. So obviously the
Speaker 1: proof will be in the pudding, as you say, come
Speaker 1: the game against the Minnesota Vikings and and moving forward
Speaker 1: from there. But the big news that will be happening
Speaker 1: this weekend is by three pm Central Time on Saturday,
Speaker 1: that is the deadline by which the Packers and all
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL have to trim their rosters to
Speaker 1: fifty three. Pretty much everybody has been at an eight
Speaker 1: man roster at this point, which is ten players less
Speaker 1: than the usual ninety man um at this stage of things,
Speaker 1: but the roster will be reduced to fifty three on
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon, and then after a waiver period of slightly
Speaker 1: under twenty four hours, then teams can start to build
Speaker 1: their practice squads. Players that have cleared waivers, they can
Speaker 1: they can sign them with the practice squad. And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of different rules and and whatnot this
Speaker 1: year with regard to the practice squad West. So I'll
Speaker 1: start with you. We can talk about this a little
Speaker 1: bit just to explain to the fans how things are
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit different this year after
Speaker 1: the cutdown to fifty three. There's some different rules and
Speaker 1: regulations that have been put in place because of the
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen pandemic. Yeah. So the thing that's actually
Speaker 1: kind of eye opening with this, I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this coming into work today. This practice squad has doubled
Speaker 1: in size in like four years. Yeah, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: I remember listening to Mike McCarthy talk about this and
Speaker 1: probably must spent two thousand fourteen or fifteen when the
Speaker 1: ideas started coming out of moving it to ten. Well,
Speaker 1: then with the new c b A it was going
Speaker 1: to twelve, and then with the like two thousand two,
Speaker 1: they're gonna go to fourteen. And then this year. One
Speaker 1: of the measures that they it in place, and this
Speaker 1: was put in place when teams weren't even allowed to
Speaker 1: bring guys in for workouts at the time, was a
Speaker 1: six team player practice squad with four of those players
Speaker 1: basically for the simplicity of this and you and I
Speaker 1: not having to read off a piece of paper, basically
Speaker 1: allowing any type of veteran to be on the practice
Speaker 1: squad as well. In the past, there was originally there
Speaker 1: was a rule that if you were on an active
Speaker 1: roster for more than nine games in a season, you
Speaker 1: no longer were practice quade eligible. They threw that out
Speaker 1: a few years ago, which was a good move. The
Speaker 1: one thing I've been stumping for the last few years
Speaker 1: is until a guy reaches veteran vested status, they should
Speaker 1: have the ability to be on a practice squad. I
Speaker 1: don't It doesn't make sense to me why you wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to give them that opportunity because for a veteran,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use the example of jay Ron Elliott. It's
Speaker 1: been very tough for him to get going again here
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have any practice squad traditional availability left.
Speaker 1: So what I'm interested to see what the Packers do
Speaker 1: here is you always hate this process. Guys didn't get
Speaker 1: preseason games to prove themselves. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: there are only eighty guys on the roster right now.
Speaker 1: They do have to get down to fifty three, but
Speaker 1: as soon as they're done with that the next day,
Speaker 1: they're gonna add sixteen more guys. They're gonna have sixty
Speaker 1: nine guys in practice on Monday at least eligible to practice.
Speaker 1: So in compared to what traditionally was the cutdowns, there
Speaker 1: isn't as many guys that are necessarily gonna not have
Speaker 1: jobs come a week from now. But it's going to
Speaker 1: be seeing what the Packers decided to do with those
Speaker 1: four veteran spots. Do they use them? Do they just
Speaker 1: keep it with young guys. That's what I'm really fascinated by,
Speaker 1: because I have to be honest with you, I don't
Speaker 1: even know if those contracts have to be different than
Speaker 1: the than the traditional uh you know, practice squad salary,
Speaker 1: which has a base but really not a ceiling like
Speaker 1: our guys gonna be trying to get bigger deals out
Speaker 1: of that. I don't know, but the fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is, without having these weekly workouts, are being able
Speaker 1: to have as much freedom to bring guys in or
Speaker 1: claim a guy like maybe you know Tyler Irvin and
Speaker 1: just have them play the next Sunday like they did
Speaker 1: last year. They're gonna have to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more creative the last thing with the practice squad this
Speaker 1: year and actually moving forward now, I believe you have
Speaker 1: the ability to bring up guys on a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: two players from your practice squad to put on the
Speaker 1: game day roster, and they will get a game check
Speaker 1: and you can bring them back down without having to
Speaker 1: have this big waiver process and signing guys and cutting
Speaker 1: them like they had to do with Evan Bayliss last
Speaker 1: year when they were working through some injuries at tight end.
Speaker 1: It's going to be fascinating. There has nothing, but never
Speaker 1: been anything like it before. It's the closest thing I
Speaker 1: think you're seeing too, like a Triple A minor league
Speaker 1: system in the NFL. And I'm personally as a nerd
Speaker 1: with this kind of stuff, I'm just captivated to see
Speaker 1: how teams go about utilizing this because I think there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of movement. Yeah, there's a couple
Speaker 1: of things that work here that is going to be
Speaker 1: uh you know, part of this process throughout the weekend.
Speaker 1: One is that without any preseason games, there isn't anything
Speaker 1: really for teams to study recent film of players on
Speaker 1: other teams who might get released and then be available
Speaker 1: on waivers. So I think now not to say that
Speaker 1: there won't be any waiver claims across the league, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that, but I think there's a there's a
Speaker 1: good chance that there will be fewer because you're just
Speaker 1: not gonna know as much about those players all you all,
Speaker 1: you still have to go on on somebody else's player,
Speaker 1: is their college film and where you had them ranked
Speaker 1: going into the draft, so to speak, as opposed to
Speaker 1: getting to see three or four games of preseason film
Speaker 1: and go okay, yeah, that guy is actually better than
Speaker 1: a guy that we have here, so let's make a
Speaker 1: claim on him and put him on the roster. So
Speaker 1: with there being less of that going on, and as
Speaker 1: you said, West, there are a lot more restrictions this
Speaker 1: year as we get into the regular season in terms
Speaker 1: of bringing guys in for workouts, being able to sign
Speaker 1: a guy off the street, and then suit him up.
Speaker 1: You know, with the testing protocols and and other things,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be as as simple and as
Speaker 1: easy as it used to be. So in that respect,
Speaker 1: you have the fifty three man roster four Week one
Speaker 1: against Minnesota, but there's gonna be just as much int
Speaker 1: as to who those six team guys are on the
Speaker 1: practice squad, because if you're going to be making roster
Speaker 1: moves here and there throughout the season, it's it's going
Speaker 1: to be, for the most part, be those guys on
Speaker 1: the practice squad, And looking at it from a math perspective,
Speaker 1: eighty guys in training camp if it's going to be
Speaker 1: reduced to sixty nine, And as I said before, if
Speaker 1: you're not going to be claiming a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: from other teams, you're only really moving on in essence,
Speaker 1: from eleven players potentially from what you've had on the
Speaker 1: practice field so far this year. So you're gonna know
Speaker 1: a lot about these guys you're you're And then, as
Speaker 1: you said, the veteran exemptions and whatnot, how teams use those?
Speaker 1: Are they going to have four and five and six
Speaker 1: year veterans like sort of in reserve ready to go
Speaker 1: if they need, you know, an extra guy for a
Speaker 1: game day, that kind of thing. So there are a
Speaker 1: lot of things that are going to be different this year.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be just as intriguing to
Speaker 1: see who ends up on the practice squad as who
Speaker 1: ends up on the fifty three because in a lot
Speaker 1: of way is that fifty three is just for week one,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of things that could change
Speaker 1: about that active roster, even right away heading into game
Speaker 1: number two, after whatever happens on the first weekend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's funny you mentioned that to about the eleven guys.
Speaker 1: Will in that eleven, you're gonna be counting in the
Speaker 1: I R guys and the pup guys. They all get
Speaker 1: factored into that there might be like four guys that
Speaker 1: are actually not gonna be able to be on this
Speaker 1: year's team. I mean, that's just the way this process
Speaker 1: has gone, the I R thing. I'll bring that up now,
Speaker 1: well will I mentioned it? Now? You have the freedom.
Speaker 1: Now the guys have to be carried through the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster in order to do this, but you
Speaker 1: will have the freedom to designate those players to return
Speaker 1: at any point after three weeks and after three weeks
Speaker 1: usually it's six and then you have to be you know,
Speaker 1: a two week acclamation period. Now it's three weeks they
Speaker 1: can return to practice and then that opens a twenty
Speaker 1: one day window for them to actually get activated. So
Speaker 1: there is gonna be so much flexibility compared to two
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve when this whole designated return things started
Speaker 1: in At the moment that Cedric Benson got the list,
Speaker 1: Frank the Packers had to say, okay, this is our
Speaker 1: player who's designated to return, and when he had to
Speaker 1: have surgery later in the season, that didn't matter. You
Speaker 1: just lost it and that was the only guy you
Speaker 1: could bring back on your fifty three man roster. I
Speaker 1: like that. No longer a team is going to be
Speaker 1: in a position where they have to carry guys that
Speaker 1: are gonna maybe miss four or five six weeks, and
Speaker 1: then you know, you potentially you're putting out other guys
Speaker 1: that are banged up onto the field. They needed to
Speaker 1: eliminate that. I thought this was a good first step.
Speaker 1: And then also to mention this, someone else asked Insider
Speaker 1: in box, well do you think you know, with the
Speaker 1: way they're doing these rules, now could veterans. Do you
Speaker 1: think you're probably gonna keep more veterans on the fifty
Speaker 1: three and you keep more young guys on the practice squad?
Speaker 1: Be honest with you, I'll be very interesting to see
Speaker 1: how the league handles this. I think you're gonna see
Speaker 1: more rookies on the fifty three, and I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see more veterans that could potentially be brought up
Speaker 1: for games around special teams on practice squads. I really
Speaker 1: do think that that's a possibility right now because teams
Speaker 1: wanting to protect investments of other prospects out there that
Speaker 1: other teams might have liked and not want them to
Speaker 1: get away. Mike, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, I will be glued
Speaker 1: to my computer, screen, my iPhone, my television, uh, seeing
Speaker 1: how these rosters take form before the Packers get back
Speaker 1: out on the practice field Monday. It is going to
Speaker 1: be some heck of television to watch well as we
Speaker 1: get to Saturday afternoon and the selection of the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster. I know you and I have some
Speaker 1: different thoughts on maybe what's gonna happen, maybe not. I
Speaker 1: just want to throw this question out your way. An
Speaker 1: undrafted rookie. Inevitably always there's at least one that makes
Speaker 1: the Packers fifty three man roster. I'm curious what you
Speaker 1: what would you set as sort of the over under
Speaker 1: number this year on undrafted rookies? You think one? Do
Speaker 1: you think too? Like? What? What? What are your thoughts
Speaker 1: in terms of how many could h could make it
Speaker 1: in the quest start of the season. Yeah, great question.
Speaker 1: You know, last year there was only one. It was
Speaker 1: Darius Shepard and he was a tryout guy that really
Speaker 1: kind of blew me away. Now, there were some guys
Speaker 1: that stuck around on the practice squad and eventually got opportunities,
Speaker 1: but that was something that was kind of like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: that was sort of eye opening. The one thing that
Speaker 1: has sort of changed with this is the Packers have
Speaker 1: actually been using that practice squad is more of a
Speaker 1: developed developmental system. So you've seen your your Robert Tonyans
Speaker 1: and some of these other guys sort of rise through
Speaker 1: the ranks and then they make the team for the
Speaker 1: first time, but they're not typically like undrafted rookies. So
Speaker 1: to your question, I would probably set the line at
Speaker 1: maybe one point five, maybe two point five. I think
Speaker 1: for sure there's gonna be at least one. There's always one,
Speaker 1: and I think there's some really good candidates on this roster.
Speaker 1: But the great thing about this process is inevitably every
Speaker 1: year there's a couple of guys that make it that
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I didn't see that happening. I didn't
Speaker 1: think like that. Now, that's the difference between West hot
Speaker 1: Coowits the digital reporter that goes home at night and
Speaker 1: place Pokemon versus Brian Goodakunst, who is doing this for
Speaker 1: a living with all of his scouts. There's guys that
Speaker 1: they take a liking to that they want to get
Speaker 1: a deeper look at. But to your original thing, Mike,
Speaker 1: this is where it's gonna get interesting. It's gonna take
Speaker 1: organizations that had real interest in those undrafted rookies to
Speaker 1: bring them on and put them on a fifty three blind.
Speaker 1: I think there's been a lot of you know, nerves
Speaker 1: about that. I saw Mike McCarthy not wanting to put
Speaker 1: the jersey numbers on guys during the practice that they televised.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, all these teams
Speaker 1: have to make really difficult decisions getting down to fifty three.
Speaker 1: There's always gonna be a couple of guys that get claimed.
Speaker 1: But I wonder if league wise, league wide, that number
Speaker 1: is going to be down just because you're you only
Speaker 1: have fifty three spots and you're gonna have to do
Speaker 1: a blind the original question, I'd say one point five
Speaker 1: would be where I would set the line on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And just to clarify for fans on how this works
Speaker 1: when we talk about waiver claims and whatnot, if you
Speaker 1: claim someone on waivers, you have to make a spot
Speaker 1: for that player on your fifty three man roster. It's
Speaker 1: not you can. It's not being able to claim somebody
Speaker 1: on waivers and then say, oh, we're putting them on
Speaker 1: the practice squad. It doesn't work that way. A waiver
Speaker 1: claim means that guy has to be on your fifty three.
Speaker 1: So then if you're at fifty three, you have to
Speaker 1: make a corresponding move and release somebody else in order
Speaker 1: to fit that guy in. And sometimes you know how
Speaker 1: this works west and again this is where this year
Speaker 1: it could be a little different than other years. But
Speaker 1: some of these calculations always come into play some of
Speaker 1: the final spots on Okay, who's gonna be on the
Speaker 1: fifty three, and who do you see if you can
Speaker 1: clear waivers to get him onto the practice squad. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's the personnel staff looking at what is the rest
Speaker 1: of the league's opinion of this guy, because if they're like,
Speaker 1: if nobody knows anything about this guy, but they know
Speaker 1: a lot about this other guy, and this guy has
Speaker 1: a good chance to get claimed and we lose him,
Speaker 1: that's the guy who goes on the fifty three, and
Speaker 1: the other guy that they don't know anything about probably
Speaker 1: isn't going to get claimed. So then they're like, we
Speaker 1: still want to keep him around, so we'll waive him,
Speaker 1: but then bring him back to the practice squad. So
Speaker 1: those sometimes are the calculations is not even necessarily so
Speaker 1: much who's the better player, but who's the player that
Speaker 1: we have the best chance to still keep if we
Speaker 1: have to make him available to the rest of the league.
Speaker 1: So those sorts of machinations and calculations are are brought
Speaker 1: into this two. It's it's one of those things you'd
Speaker 1: love to be a fly on the wall in, you know,
Speaker 1: the in the personnel room when they're they're talking about
Speaker 1: this stuff and making these decisions, But you know, the
Speaker 1: conversations go on. Sometimes you just don't know how extensive
Speaker 1: it is, how hard some decisions are, or how easy
Speaker 1: other decisions are when it comes right down to it. Well,
Speaker 1: and then again talking about how difficult it is sometimes
Speaker 1: for teams of open spots. I mean, Alan Lazard got
Speaker 1: waived at the end of camp last year. That was
Speaker 1: I was surprised by that. I thought he had gotten
Speaker 1: a spot. Now they only had one between him and
Speaker 1: Darius Shephard. They went with Shephard, who was their kickoff
Speaker 1: and punt returner for the first few weeks. But then
Speaker 1: when a roster spot came open later that week, Lizard
Speaker 1: was elevated. But how that's how close you get to
Speaker 1: potentially losing him and just to go back and you know,
Speaker 1: now there were a couple of years down the road
Speaker 1: you can talk about this. Basically, there was no chance
Speaker 1: that Tim Boyle was gonna get cut in two thousand eighteen.
Speaker 1: The packers had seemed too much. They wanted to have
Speaker 1: him in the fold, so they made that decision. This
Speaker 1: is a guy we can't you can't expose him. He
Speaker 1: showed too much. We like his arm too much, so
Speaker 1: he's gonna go in. Even I think that Kansas of
Speaker 1: the game at the end, could have went terrible and
Speaker 1: Tim would have still ended up making the roster. But
Speaker 1: you see what's happened then, I mean, he's become a
Speaker 1: bona fide number two and a guy that they feel
Speaker 1: confident about behind Aaron Rodgers. Those are the decisions you
Speaker 1: have to make. You have to trust your gut. You
Speaker 1: usually have very little info to go off of. I mean,
Speaker 1: as much as you learn from those preseason games, they
Speaker 1: are very vanilla. And again it's I'm sure there's gonna
Speaker 1: be some sleepless nights both in Green Day and across
Speaker 1: the league trying to hope that you get the guys
Speaker 1: you want, not only on your fifty three but also
Speaker 1: when you're building that sixteen man practice sque Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we will have all the news for you on Packers
Speaker 1: dot Com late in the day on Saturday the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster, and then some point late in the
Speaker 1: day on Sunday, we will hear from general manager Brian
Speaker 1: Goodacons to his media session will be streamed live on
Speaker 1: the website and through Sunday and Monday all the practice
Speaker 1: squad decisions will be made and Monday at practice, the
Speaker 1: goal is to have your sixty nine guys at least
Speaker 1: for week one that that's what you uh, you move
Speaker 1: forward with. So it's gonna be a weekend of a
Speaker 1: lot of news and plenty to follow on packers dot com.
Speaker 1: But for now we will sign off caller to wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Thank you for tuning
Speaker 1: in everybody for Wes I am Mike. We will see
Speaker 1: you next time.