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: as always joined by the one and only West had Ku.
Speaker 1: It's Western. You shaved. What happened to your face? You
Speaker 1: looked a little different on yesterday's Packers Daily video. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: first off, mahad so excited that I've shaved again. Um
Speaker 1: here here's the thing, Mike. I wish I could grow
Speaker 1: glorious beard. I can't, and it wasn't gifted with that
Speaker 1: ability like so many of our colleagues here at Packers
Speaker 1: dot com. But the thing was, as I was explained
Speaker 1: to you and some of our other stuff, when you
Speaker 1: have to wear a mask for two and a half hours,
Speaker 1: like we did for the last twelve practices, and you
Speaker 1: have a nose like I have, it is really difficult
Speaker 1: to keep that thing on your face. The facial are
Speaker 1: allowed me to do that, And then the benefit was
Speaker 1: I think you and I only did like two of
Speaker 1: these during that whole duration, so people didn't have to
Speaker 1: see the beer that often. I was kind of protected
Speaker 1: from it, but I got the extra security, the extra
Speaker 1: hold that I was looking for to be able to
Speaker 1: get through those practices with a mask on my face.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, since we last spoke in this setting,
Speaker 1: the uh, the Packers actually skipped today of practice to
Speaker 1: discuss some social justice issues that was certainly a big
Speaker 1: topic around the league and around the sports world last week.
Speaker 1: But then as the Packers resumed getting back to practice Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: Sunday Sunday was a big day. It was uh a
Speaker 1: close to full contact practice inside lambeau Field. The first
Speaker 1: unit's offense and defense ran about fifty plays against one another.
Speaker 1: It was the most eleven on eleven in a single
Speaker 1: practice that the Packers have had. They had the ambient
Speaker 1: crowd noise there in lambeau Field, trying to simulate a
Speaker 1: game situation as much as possible, and in a training
Speaker 1: camp with no preseason games. West Sunday afternoon at lambeau
Speaker 1: Field was was the closest thing to address rehearsal that
Speaker 1: the Packers are going to have before the upcoming Week
Speaker 1: one matchup in Minnesota. Yeah, and it really was. It
Speaker 1: felt like a game day. I mean, even you and
Speaker 1: I walk into the building, the security staff was was
Speaker 1: handling it like it was going to be a game day.
Speaker 1: Just to give everybody those repetitions before we all get
Speaker 1: used to something that's gonna be very different this year
Speaker 1: with these regular season games. The coaches, as you pointed out,
Speaker 1: with some of them more in the press box, Matt Laflora,
Speaker 1: is headset down on the field. I believe you have
Speaker 1: the play sheet out. They did everything unscripted, no pun intended, Uh,
Speaker 1: just because they wanted to make sure that they at
Speaker 1: least get these guys used to it. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: rookies that are going to be involved in this offense
Speaker 1: and defense. There's going to be young players that are
Speaker 1: gonna be getting used to new roles. They need to
Speaker 1: be able to have some semblance of normalcy before going
Speaker 1: into US Bank Stadium for that opener against the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: I think that practice accomplished that. The one thing that
Speaker 1: really hit home with me, Mike. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you really thought about this too often, but just how
Speaker 1: different this training camp looked. And it's not just the
Speaker 1: three practices inside lambeau Field. There were no half line
Speaker 1: drills like you and I have always become, you know,
Speaker 1: grown accustomed to over the years. Uh. They were very
Speaker 1: deliberate in their seven on seven routes on air periods,
Speaker 1: they dedicated more time to eleven on eleven and that
Speaker 1: was never more evident than that practice at lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: To move the ball periods, I believe both Tim Boyle
Speaker 1: and also Jordan's love getting three series of piece in
Speaker 1: addition to all the work that Aaron Rodgers did, they thudded.
Speaker 1: They didn't go to the ground like a traditional scrimmage,
Speaker 1: but being able to actually go through the process, understand
Speaker 1: what it's like, have the full uniform on. I think
Speaker 1: there was a lot of benefits to that. And then
Speaker 1: obviously the most the biggest thing the fact that there's
Speaker 1: no fans there, and there's going to be no fans
Speaker 1: there for the first month of the season. You have
Speaker 1: to be able to not only get yourself, you know,
Speaker 1: prepared and energized, but also get used to that ambient
Speaker 1: noise at the NFL is piping in which to my
Speaker 1: ear taste was very extreme. Yeah, it was when I
Speaker 1: know later in the practice they toned it down a
Speaker 1: little bit, but when it first started it was kind
Speaker 1: of like, holy cow, like, how can you hear anything
Speaker 1: out there? I mean, it was it was noisy. It
Speaker 1: was definitely loud. I thought it was gonna be the
Speaker 1: longest two hours of my life, Mike, I'm not lying
Speaker 1: that first team period, and it was funny. Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: even mentioned it, like, it was the same decibel level
Speaker 1: is what they had it set to in the previous practice,
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, it was much louder. And unfortunately
Speaker 1: they did tone it down a little bit and I
Speaker 1: was able to hear myself breathe. Yeah. Well, Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: did say after Sunday's practice that this week the Packers
Speaker 1: are transitioning. Even though roster cuts roster reduction is not
Speaker 1: until Saturday, there's still one week here, but they're transitioning
Speaker 1: into more of a regular season mode in terms of
Speaker 1: what practice is going to be. Like. There's still gonna
Speaker 1: be some competitive eleven on eleven, but there's also going
Speaker 1: to be in the practices coming up here Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 1: some scout teamwork. What they all going off of cards
Speaker 1: where you have one side of the ball that is
Speaker 1: mimicking something that the opponent, in this case the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: The Packers will start preparing for them, so practice will
Speaker 1: take on a little bit different field training camp in
Speaker 1: the traditional sense of it, in terms of a lot
Speaker 1: of that competition for roster spots and and all of
Speaker 1: that is for all intents and purposes over here. And
Speaker 1: there are a couple of guys I think that are
Speaker 1: worth talking about here West because when you look at
Speaker 1: the training camp as a whole, look some of these
Speaker 1: main stays for the Packers, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, Davante Adams,
Speaker 1: Christian Kirksey j R. Alexander Adrian am Is, all guys
Speaker 1: in their several I left out. I thought they all
Speaker 1: did what they needed to do in this training camp.
Speaker 1: They look like they're ready to go. They look like
Speaker 1: the frontline players that they are, despite not having an offseason,
Speaker 1: despite not having any preseason games. But there are a
Speaker 1: couple of guys, and we've talked about this throughout the
Speaker 1: course of of the summer leading up to this, which
Speaker 1: guys for the Packers are going to need to take
Speaker 1: their games to another level here in to really help
Speaker 1: out and to contribute in the way that that the
Speaker 1: Packers are hoping they are. And I think there's one
Speaker 1: guy on each side of the ball who had a
Speaker 1: very very strong and impressive training camp, and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about Marquis Velda Scantling on offense and Rashawn Gary on defense.
Speaker 1: In terms of guys that boy, if they take what
Speaker 1: they did in training camp onto the game field starting
Speaker 1: week one in Minnesota, the Packers are going to be
Speaker 1: better for it on both sides of the ball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I know it was you and I have discussed
Speaker 1: that great length of the last two weeks. You know,
Speaker 1: we do the three things video after all these practices,
Speaker 1: and legitimately, Mike, for half of them, you could have
Speaker 1: done MVS and Rashaan Gary. They just stood out every
Speaker 1: single day and they made plays. And it wasn't just
Speaker 1: the fact that, Okay, well here's another deep ball to
Speaker 1: MBS from Rogers. Oh, it would have been a sixty
Speaker 1: yard touchdown. Now he did that the first day with
Speaker 1: that pass from Temple Oil. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: a lot of it was running and doing your routes
Speaker 1: precisely to where the sticks are. That that practice inside
Speaker 1: Lambeau Field, how many situations Mike I would count at
Speaker 1: least three in either third or fourth downs, MBS had
Speaker 1: to run a route to get the first down, and
Speaker 1: he did that, and he was able to break off
Speaker 1: his route the way he needed to and be where
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers expecting to be. He also made some really
Speaker 1: spectacular catches too. I think about that one that he
Speaker 1: hauled in off of his hip. You weren't there for it.
Speaker 1: It was the one when we were in the down
Speaker 1: Hudson Center due to weather, but the ball was slightly
Speaker 1: behind him and he reached his handback his left hand back,
Speaker 1: trapped the ball against his hip and was able with
Speaker 1: his four three seven speed to stay within his stride
Speaker 1: to turn up field. This is what this young man
Speaker 1: offers to this offense when he's going in he's right.
Speaker 1: I thought Jason Braby Rabel last week when he spoke
Speaker 1: to us, made a really interesting salient point about MBS
Speaker 1: and his development. He doesn't question that MBS wasn't that
Speaker 1: he blacked any confidence. He felt like he was still
Speaker 1: confident in the receiver that he was, but it was
Speaker 1: having the confidence in the scheme and being able to
Speaker 1: match up his natural abilities with what was being asked
Speaker 1: of him. Now with Matt Lafleur in this offense, they
Speaker 1: feel like he's made a major stride there. As far
Speaker 1: as Rashaan Gary is concerned, Mike, I don't want to
Speaker 1: get hyperbolic about it. I don't like doing offseason m
Speaker 1: vps because, honestly, two thousand fifteen, when Mike McCarthy said
Speaker 1: that Davante Adams was an offseason MVP, he really was.
Speaker 1: It just didn't translate. He didn't he got hurt, it
Speaker 1: didn't work out, and then everybody held that against him.
Speaker 1: So I don't like putting those labels out there on guys.
Speaker 1: But for a twenty two year old player that was
Speaker 1: the twelfth overall pick a year ago, I thought, if
Speaker 1: you're the Green Bay Packers, you saw every single advancement
Speaker 1: in Rashaan Gary's game that you wanted to see in
Speaker 1: this camp. Now we need to see it in games.
Speaker 1: We need him to be a difference maker. He needs
Speaker 1: to be a guy that can step up and take
Speaker 1: some of those reps off of Preston Smith and'sa Arias Smith.
Speaker 1: But in terms of just was what was being asked
Speaker 1: of him in these practices, the one on one periods
Speaker 1: against the offensive lineman, the way he was able to
Speaker 1: rush and disrupt plays and team periods when he got
Speaker 1: reps with you know what would be the starting offense,
Speaker 1: he did it all Mike in this camp, and as
Speaker 1: I wrote an insider inbox, I want to see it
Speaker 1: translate now to games. Not for any personal reasons, but
Speaker 1: so this whole process makes sense to me because we
Speaker 1: saw guys make significant strides and practice. Now can we
Speaker 1: see in two weeks time and then beyond that that
Speaker 1: actually translates. Yeah. I think it's been really interesting to
Speaker 1: watch the evolution of these two players, in particular this summer.
Speaker 1: You said it with MVS that he showed in this
Speaker 1: training camp that he's not just the one dimensional deep
Speaker 1: threat speed guy to take the top off of the defense.
Speaker 1: He was used in on possession routes, in those move
Speaker 1: the chains type of situations, and he came through for
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers. That's rounding out a young players game. And
Speaker 1: I think in the same respect with for Shawn Gary,
Speaker 1: his background as a defensive lineman, essentially a down lineman
Speaker 1: at Michigan. You where Shawn Gary could stop the run,
Speaker 1: and he whether wherever he lines up defensively, he seems
Speaker 1: to be a pretty good run defender. The question is
Speaker 1: can he consistently get after the quarterback when the whistle
Speaker 1: blows in In that aspect of the game, and I
Speaker 1: think we saw we saw a lot more activity in
Speaker 1: terms of him getting into the backfield and getting after
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in this training camp. Again an evolution of a
Speaker 1: young player. And as you said, West, the games are
Speaker 1: where it's gonna matter. I mean, these guys have to
Speaker 1: prove it in the games when it counts, because once
Speaker 1: you know, the ball is kicked off in Minnesota in
Speaker 1: week one, whatever happened in training camp almost doesn't even
Speaker 1: matter anymore. I mean, it's it's it's about what happens
Speaker 1: when it really matters. And um, both of these guys
Speaker 1: have set themselves up for for promising and productive seasons.
Speaker 1: Now they have to come through well. And that was
Speaker 1: the thing too regarding Gary, why I was so impressed
Speaker 1: with him last year, even though there were a lot
Speaker 1: of people on the outside questioning, you know what, why
Speaker 1: did they pick him? Is this guy gonna be bust whatever? Well, one,
Speaker 1: he's twenty one years old too. He's really strong. If
Speaker 1: you've noticed that in these games and in these practices
Speaker 1: over the last year and a half, there's just a
Speaker 1: lot of natural, God given ability in that young man's body.
Speaker 1: And I think you saw this offseason him really take
Speaker 1: it to another level. He's not afraid to work to
Speaker 1: get it, and he definitely did that. But the last
Speaker 1: thing is what you touched on there, and it was
Speaker 1: his run defense. The guy can set an edge and
Speaker 1: that probably has something to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: he goes at about two seventy seven to seventy that's
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger than the traditional outside linebacker that
Speaker 1: you remember hearing about in Dom Keeper's defense when this
Speaker 1: whole thing got implemented. But Gary fits that and I
Speaker 1: really think that when you talk about the pass rush prussures,
Speaker 1: those things will come if you have the ability, you
Speaker 1: have the technique, and a coach like Mike Smith that's
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get it out of you. But
Speaker 1: it's are you willing to actually go the extra mile
Speaker 1: against the run some of those small things, the thing
Speaker 1: that the things that aren't gonna get you a massive
Speaker 1: contract but ultimately decide whether or not your defense is
Speaker 1: gonna play winning football, and Gary most definitely can do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think another guy that's worth talking about in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, this transition from and this is a
Speaker 1: completely different context, but Lane Taylor on the offensive line
Speaker 1: for the package you're coming back from a significant bicep
Speaker 1: injury that knocked him out of the starting lineup and
Speaker 1: ended his season in Week two, essentially after two games
Speaker 1: last year, because I believe the injury happened in practice,
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, lest but yeah, But for
Speaker 1: him to come back from that, and hey, you know,
Speaker 1: he decides to take a pay cut to come back
Speaker 1: to Green Bay to compete for a starting job, there's been,
Speaker 1: you know, essentially a three way competition for two starting spots.
Speaker 1: You have Taylor at guard, you have Rick Wagner at tackle.
Speaker 1: You have Billy Turner who could play guard or tackle
Speaker 1: on the right side. I don't know ultimately what the
Speaker 1: coaches are going to decide. If you ask me for
Speaker 1: my prediction, my prediction is I think Lane Taylor is
Speaker 1: going to be lining up as the starting right guard
Speaker 1: in Week one, but it's not my decision to make that.
Speaker 1: Being said, what Taylor has done, regardless of what the
Speaker 1: final decision is, I think is really impressive because there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who wrote this guy off.
Speaker 1: A lot of fans were not even counting him in
Speaker 1: the equation for the offensive line for the Packers in
Speaker 1: and he he showed up every day in this training camp,
Speaker 1: Weston and his steadiness, um, his consistency, his reliability, It
Speaker 1: showed up on a daily basis, and I think it's
Speaker 1: something the Packers are are potentially going to be counting
Speaker 1: on here in Lane Taylor is such a throwback for me,
Speaker 1: not only in just the way he plays the position,
Speaker 1: but just his mentality. Nowadays, if a guy gets hurt
Speaker 1: or he loses his starting job, the first thing he
Speaker 1: usually wants to do is is look for a new
Speaker 1: opportunity to get out of a contract, to move on. Lane.
Speaker 1: Taylor wanted to be back here, and I asked him
Speaker 1: that one of his recent conference calls, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, it was kind of the roots that his
Speaker 1: family had laid down in Green Bay. The fact this
Speaker 1: is the only place he's ever been, the fact that
Speaker 1: this is the team that took a chance ants on
Speaker 1: him when nobody else wanted to draft him back in
Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen, all those things kind of came to
Speaker 1: the surface for him and he realized that this is
Speaker 1: where his best opportunity was going to be to continue
Speaker 1: his NFL career. And I think one way or another,
Speaker 1: what this training camp has proven is that lane. Taylor
Speaker 1: is still a starting guard in this league. Um, you
Speaker 1: know these next year, everything that follows will find it out.
Speaker 1: But he wants to play football for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I think he's going to be able to do that.
Speaker 1: The guy he's just you talked about his one on
Speaker 1: one drills this year. He was going against Kenny Clark
Speaker 1: pretty much every day, uh, during those padded drills, and
Speaker 1: he was holding his own. It didn't matter if it
Speaker 1: was Kenny, didn't matter if his dean lowerry. He just
Speaker 1: does his job. And he's so strong, he's so good
Speaker 1: in terms of being able to to be a really
Speaker 1: impenetrable and movable force down on the line that it
Speaker 1: was good to see him be able to come back
Speaker 1: because he said that bicep was pretty much zero when
Speaker 1: he got done with practice that day. He had to
Speaker 1: have surgery on it, and he spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time thinking, a lot of time, you know, with his
Speaker 1: family and now being able to continue his NFL career.
Speaker 1: I keep saying it over and over again, but the
Speaker 1: fact is he's the fourth longest tenured player on this team. Now.
Speaker 1: It's incredible when you think about it that way. But
Speaker 1: he's not afraid to still be doing that grunt work
Speaker 1: and those drills that are typically reserved for the young
Speaker 1: guys on this roster, Lane Taylor is still very much
Speaker 1: a part of this. And when you talk about the
Speaker 1: beauty of training camp, even if it was different this year,
Speaker 1: even if it was modified, the story that that Taylor
Speaker 1: told throughout the last three weeks, I think really speaks
Speaker 1: to him both as a person and as a football player,
Speaker 1: and that he's not afraid to to get back out
Speaker 1: there and earn what he's already earned. Yeah, and when
Speaker 1: you think about it too, this is really the first
Speaker 1: time you could argue in three years that Lane Taylor
Speaker 1: probably feels fully healthy. Because you go back, Okay, so
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen he had the bicep injury, you go back
Speaker 1: to he he dealt with a significant offseason ankle injury
Speaker 1: that that you know, slowing him down. And he's not
Speaker 1: a guy to make excuses, you know, in the days
Speaker 1: back when we were talking to these guys at their
Speaker 1: lockers as opposed to over you know, through a computer screen.
Speaker 1: He's not a guy who's ever going to make any
Speaker 1: any excuses. You know. His his whole approaches. Hey, if
Speaker 1: I'm healthy enough to play, I'm gonna play, and I've
Speaker 1: I've got to play to a certain standard. But he
Speaker 1: would be the first to admit afterwards there were games
Speaker 1: that he wasn't really playing up to his standard because
Speaker 1: he wasn't fully healthy, but he was doing what he
Speaker 1: had to do to help the team. We could be
Speaker 1: seeing here in Lane Taylor finally, you know, fully healthy
Speaker 1: and and back into that mold, in that form that
Speaker 1: he was back in seventeen when when he first took
Speaker 1: over the starting job and and was the kind of
Speaker 1: guy that you didn't really talk about a whole lot
Speaker 1: on the offensive line because he was just so steady
Speaker 1: and reliable. Well even think about the beginning half of
Speaker 1: last year, Mike. So he does win the left guard job.
Speaker 1: He maintains that he starts the first two games, but
Speaker 1: they were still rotating in Alton Jenkins for a couple
Speaker 1: of series here every now and then. And as we
Speaker 1: found out throughout the course of season, Alton Jenkins is
Speaker 1: the real deal. That wasn't just okay, we're trying to
Speaker 1: find the best fit now. I mean you had two
Speaker 1: guys that could both play, that could both go, and
Speaker 1: Lane was a total professional about that didn't raise a stink,
Speaker 1: just did what was asked about. When he's in there,
Speaker 1: he's in there. When he's not, he's not. And again
Speaker 1: that that's just something I think is becoming increasingly increasingly rare.
Speaker 1: When you talk about a guy that has started three
Speaker 1: four seasons in the league now and being able to
Speaker 1: have that humility to to not make a big fuss
Speaker 1: about it, just to do what's asked of him, I
Speaker 1: think that says a lot. And the fact that he's
Speaker 1: worked his way back from this injury to put himself
Speaker 1: in this conversation again, I think is another testament to
Speaker 1: the player he is and the man that he really
Speaker 1: has developed into over the last seven years. Yeah, no
Speaker 1: question about it. Well, roster decisions are going to be
Speaker 1: made on Saturday. The Packers will have to trim the
Speaker 1: roster to fifty three players by three o'clock Central time
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday you start resigning guys to
Speaker 1: the practice squad, players that clear waivers and whatnot. And
Speaker 1: I know on our next show later this week we
Speaker 1: can get into some some more of those details because
Speaker 1: it is going to be different this year than it
Speaker 1: has been in in other years. But um, but that
Speaker 1: will be a topic for the next show. And if
Speaker 1: someone want to point out too, because you addressed it earlier,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to. I wanted to address and answer
Speaker 1: you're very good and eloquent question about the players that
Speaker 1: stood out. But you made a really interesting point about
Speaker 1: how this week they shifted to an end season schedule.
Speaker 1: That actually really is interesting because the practice squad has
Speaker 1: expanded this year. There's now sixteen players that are gonna
Speaker 1: be eligible to be on the practice squad once the
Speaker 1: Packers set their fifty three. That means there's gonna be
Speaker 1: fifty nine players in practice. Uh this season. I thought
Speaker 1: I said sixty nine. We'll play back that film. But
Speaker 1: either way, Mike, there's eighty guys on the roster right now,
Speaker 1: some of whom aren't playing, aren't participating because of the
Speaker 1: pup list. Yes, they need to cut the roster on Saturday,
Speaker 1: but Matt la Floor and his coaches, they also have
Speaker 1: to be able to go through this process and figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: how are we going to make all these pieces fit
Speaker 1: in a practice. That's why I think this is really
Speaker 1: beneficial for them this week to be able to shift
Speaker 1: to an in season schedule and kind of get used
Speaker 1: to those new moving parts on the Scout team. Matt Arvin,
Speaker 1: our wonderful producer, also correcting me, I did say fifty nine.
Speaker 1: I apologize. That's okay. Well, we will get all the
Speaker 1: numbers and all of that straightened out on our next
Speaker 1: show later this week, but for now, we will call
Speaker 1: it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow all of our coverage of the team
Speaker 1: and this final week of training camp on packers dot com.
Speaker 1: For West, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Everybody.
Speaker 1: We will see you next time.