Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome back to Packers unscripted. I am Mike
Speaker 1: Spoffor joined alongside my trusted colleague Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you hear from our studios at lambeau Field. We've
Speaker 1: been away from these desks for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: West some different things going on. Our producer Marvin was gone,
Speaker 1: than I was gone. Now we are back. It's in
Speaker 1: the midst of O t A Season here for the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, and actually this is Mini camp week,
Speaker 1: the mandatory mini camp. So we'll do another show later
Speaker 1: this week after a couple of the mini camp practices
Speaker 1: and give our impressions of what we see out there
Speaker 1: on the practice field. But to this point, two weeks
Speaker 1: of O t a s are in the books. What
Speaker 1: are your impressions of these spring practices to this point. Well,
Speaker 1: first and foremost, I love when you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: Marv was gone. He got to go to Jamaica. Yes,
Speaker 1: your time, your time off is coming, You're time go
Speaker 1: to Florida. And then I've just been here the entire time,
Speaker 1: joined this wonderful spring we've been having in Wisconsin. Uh No,
Speaker 1: but you know it was interesting. O t A s
Speaker 1: are always uh, you know, there's there's little narratives you
Speaker 1: can draw from, there's little nuggets of information that you
Speaker 1: can glean. But this year is a little bit different
Speaker 1: than maybe any o t I have ever covered, Mike
Speaker 1: because of the amount of veterans that weren't here during
Speaker 1: the first two that were open to the media. Historically,
Speaker 1: I think that's been something where a lot there was
Speaker 1: a lot of veteran turnout. The workout bonuses obviously are
Speaker 1: predicated on that. But we're kind of in that space
Speaker 1: right now after not after because I understand I don't
Speaker 1: want to get people upset, you know, the COVID pandemic
Speaker 1: all that still ongoing. But in terms of being able
Speaker 1: to have a physical offseason program again, uh, there's certain
Speaker 1: guys that have just wanted to train on their own
Speaker 1: and will be in this town this week for mini camp.
Speaker 1: So we've got to see a lot more younger players
Speaker 1: and I think we've seen in the past. We've got
Speaker 1: to see Jordan's love leading this offense once again and
Speaker 1: really seeing how these rookies have been integrated a lot
Speaker 1: faster into some of the first teamwork than what we've
Speaker 1: seen in the past. So in that way, it's been
Speaker 1: very interesting to see a lot of those young players
Speaker 1: get opportunities that traditionally we might not have seen here
Speaker 1: during the offseason program. Yeah, the thing that stood out
Speaker 1: to me that that strikes me as a little bit
Speaker 1: different from I guess you'd call it the pre covid
Speaker 1: O t A S that that we used to cover
Speaker 1: um in prior years. Is that so far, And we'll
Speaker 1: see if it changes this week during minicamp, But so
Speaker 1: far we haven't seen really seen much eleven on eleven
Speaker 1: that is at full speed. Now, granted there are no
Speaker 1: pads right now. Everybody is just in you know, shorts,
Speaker 1: jerseys and helmets. There is no pads, so there's no
Speaker 1: full contact. But they also aren't doing doing a whole
Speaker 1: lot of the eleven on eleven at full speed. And
Speaker 1: what I take away from that is is that Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur and the coaching staff have decided that these these
Speaker 1: O t as this part of the off season has
Speaker 1: been for learning, not so much about competing, but it's
Speaker 1: about learning. It's it's it's learning the playbook, learning the offense,
Speaker 1: trying to learn some of the nuances and whatnot. At
Speaker 1: a slower speed, so that when you do get potentially
Speaker 1: this week for a couple of days in mini camp,
Speaker 1: but then even more importantly in training camp starting in
Speaker 1: late July, when things are going full speed, the learning
Speaker 1: the learning stages have gone at a little bit slower pace,
Speaker 1: so that hopefully there's there's there's better retention, better understanding
Speaker 1: of things for when they really want to move forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a really sharp observation too, because I don't really
Speaker 1: recall in the past, it almost seemed like the seven
Speaker 1: on seven period was more competitive than the eleven on eleven. Uh.
Speaker 1: The seven on sevens is where we've probably seen the
Speaker 1: most uh the fastest, you know, play speed between the
Speaker 1: receivers and the defensive backs, with the offensive lineman going
Speaker 1: off and doing drills on their own, where the eleven
Speaker 1: eleven eleven on eleven has been more and more of
Speaker 1: a walk through type tempo or job tempo. So again,
Speaker 1: Matt la Fleur will be the first one to say it.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is only so much you can learn
Speaker 1: from in terms of the competitive nature of this thing
Speaker 1: by you know, making guys go out there without pads
Speaker 1: and and just going through some of those emotions. But
Speaker 1: that being said, it is about the retention of this
Speaker 1: playbook and the fleur last week when he was talking
Speaker 1: with the media. The thing that was interesting about that
Speaker 1: second o t A is that was the first time
Speaker 1: they were putting in installs that these guys had never
Speaker 1: seen before the week before during that first o t
Speaker 1: A open to the media. Well, that one was some
Speaker 1: that something that they had already run through for the
Speaker 1: majority of the rookies during the rookie minicamp, and then
Speaker 1: you're getting used to lining up in the formations and
Speaker 1: and really like the first chapter in any kind of
Speaker 1: history book or any type of textbook that you might
Speaker 1: have in school. So it'll be interesting when we talked
Speaker 1: to Matt Lafleur at the time in which we're taping
Speaker 1: this tomorrow, uh and and hearing what he's going to
Speaker 1: say exactly about how these guys took that information and
Speaker 1: they ran with it, because it is there's a lot
Speaker 1: of young guys on this football team. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of new draft picks, there's a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: undrafted free agents trying to make their mark, and it's
Speaker 1: up to them to pick up that playbook as fast
Speaker 1: as they can develop their own process for absorbing all
Speaker 1: the information and putting it to practice. Yeah, it seems that, uh,
Speaker 1: from what we've been hearing from Matt Lafleura and from
Speaker 1: the coaches and whatnot, there's, uh, there's definitely an onus
Speaker 1: on the players at this time of year, especially the
Speaker 1: young players that it's it's not just being there for
Speaker 1: the meeting and doing what you can on the practice field,
Speaker 1: but you do have to, you know, take that playbook home,
Speaker 1: do some homework, whether you're at the apartment or at
Speaker 1: at the hotel or wherever some of these guys are staying.
Speaker 1: You know, there there's some homework assignments that go to
Speaker 1: this if you want to if you want to keep
Speaker 1: up on things and not not have the head swimming
Speaker 1: every day when you get into a new meeting, and
Speaker 1: then okay, here's a brand new offensive concept. All right,
Speaker 1: you know, let's go. Well, if you don't have the
Speaker 1: if you don't have the other stuff down, or at
Speaker 1: least down to the to the point where where you
Speaker 1: don't have a whole bunch of questions floating around in
Speaker 1: your mind, then adding new stuff, um becomes all the
Speaker 1: more difficult. And and every every guy learns that his
Speaker 1: learns at his own pace, right, So so that's the
Speaker 1: coaches are trying to get a feel for these young
Speaker 1: guys what they can handle. And eventually those are the
Speaker 1: types of things observations that that decide, Okay, what are
Speaker 1: the reps we're gonna give this guy in training camp,
Speaker 1: what packages? What personnel formations is he going to be
Speaker 1: in because of what he's absorbed in, what he understands.
Speaker 1: The incentive is there to try to absorb as much
Speaker 1: as you can because that's going to lead to the
Speaker 1: reps and the opportunities that you get later this summer.
Speaker 1: And what was really the biggest question that people wanted
Speaker 1: to ask during this offseason program, Well, Aaron Rodgers isn't
Speaker 1: here right now? How is that affecting the young players?
Speaker 1: And then obviously Jordan loved getting a chance to run
Speaker 1: this offense with the starters once again as he did
Speaker 1: last year. Rodgers wasn't present. So the one thing that
Speaker 1: you brought up and we've talked a lot about, is
Speaker 1: I personally, now that we've gotten a mini camp week,
Speaker 1: now that Rogers is back in the building, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: absent just a couple appearances here there, I actually think
Speaker 1: this has been a great way for these young guys
Speaker 1: to go about absorbing this thing, and not just the rookies, Mike.
Speaker 1: I think that's one other thing people talked a lot about,
Speaker 1: is this okay getting the rookies understand the playbook. It's
Speaker 1: for a Marii Rodgers too. It's for you know, even
Speaker 1: an aj Dillon, guys that are still new to this
Speaker 1: thing in the grand scheme of things, being able to
Speaker 1: really pick up not only the core principle of this,
Speaker 1: you know, this academia that Matt Laflour is throwing at
Speaker 1: these players, but also the changes that are going to
Speaker 1: be implemented now that you don't have Vante Adams. Now
Speaker 1: that you are going to have it's a new season
Speaker 1: with new concepts and new take on things. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see, you know, getting potentially Rogers
Speaker 1: back in the fold this week, seeing how he he
Speaker 1: mingles now with this offense where you've had young guys
Speaker 1: now that I've had a month two months in this
Speaker 1: playbook to really absorb what they're what they're trying to
Speaker 1: put out on the field. Yeah, well Mini camp is
Speaker 1: this week, so uh, what are you what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts heading into this week. What are you gonna be
Speaker 1: looking for out in the field. Obviously Aaron Rodgers is here,
Speaker 1: other some other veteran players. I think we're gonna see
Speaker 1: as far as what we've been able to see because
Speaker 1: because the media has not had access to all of
Speaker 1: the O t A practices, So I don't like to
Speaker 1: declare who's been here and who hasn't because we don't
Speaker 1: exactly know that in terms of every day of the week.
Speaker 1: But I think we're going to get our first look
Speaker 1: at Sammy Watkins potentially um out on out on the
Speaker 1: practice field here in in the Packers unial reform, some
Speaker 1: other veterans perhaps that that we haven't seen to this
Speaker 1: point because this is the one mandatory week um of
Speaker 1: of the off season. And uh and presumably we'll hear
Speaker 1: from Aaron Rodgers after practice as well and see what
Speaker 1: he has to and this is gonna be the funniest thing. Well,
Speaker 1: it will be great to hear what Rogers has to say.
Speaker 1: You know, we haven't actually sat down with him formally
Speaker 1: and talk since anything has really happened this offseason, so
Speaker 1: it'll be good to get his thoughts on, you know,
Speaker 1: the the grand, big scheme of what the Packers are
Speaker 1: going through. But the real story here is the Sammy
Speaker 1: Watkins of the world that we haven't talked to yet,
Speaker 1: him coming in in year nine, trying to show that
Speaker 1: he still has a lot left to offer. A Packers
Speaker 1: offense in in perimeter receiving game that has really nobody
Speaker 1: set in a certain position. They could go a number
Speaker 1: of different ways with you know, the first guy in
Speaker 1: the depth charts for the eighth guy in the depth chart.
Speaker 1: Then you look at the defense, Mike Gyro Alexander is
Speaker 1: going to be here, Where is he lining up with
Speaker 1: this group? How are they deploying that Nickel package? As
Speaker 1: much as Rogers drives, you know, so many headlines and
Speaker 1: so much of the news around the Packers. We knew
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers was going to be here this year. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like last year where there's so many questions. So
Speaker 1: it's more about these veterans that we haven't seen before,
Speaker 1: these guys potentially stepping into a new role. What do
Speaker 1: they look like when you get out there for this
Speaker 1: mini camp, because realistically, this is the closest you're gonna
Speaker 1: get to training camp and not necessarily the padded stuff.
Speaker 1: But in terms of getting into the playbook, being able
Speaker 1: to get into the early installs, that that's personally what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna probably be looking at the most. You mentioned Alexander,
Speaker 1: and I want to get back to him in just
Speaker 1: a second, but I will take care of some sponsor
Speaker 1: business here. First West Serious x M NFL Radio delivers
Speaker 1: hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news
Speaker 1: that true football fanatics need seven three six and had
Speaker 1: cousin subs. We have something for everyone like our Wisconsin
Speaker 1: cheese kurds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes,
Speaker 1: all paired with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl.
Speaker 1: Cousin subs. We believe in better all right. The biggest
Speaker 1: piece of news coming out of this building since we
Speaker 1: signed off a few weeks ago, um from Unscripted for
Speaker 1: a brief hiatus, is that Jayar Alexander has a new contract.
Speaker 1: He will not be playing this season under the fifth
Speaker 1: year option. He has a long term deal. He is
Speaker 1: in the fold multiple years here for the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers and something that it's a great thing for Jayar
Speaker 1: Alexander and his family. Um, we saw some photos and whatnot.
Speaker 1: He's certainly celebrated um with those closest to him. But also,
Speaker 1: you know, creates a little extra cap space foo for
Speaker 1: Green Bay because he his cap number now is not
Speaker 1: that fifth year option number, but really about half of
Speaker 1: that with the way the new contract with structure. But
Speaker 1: and you mentioned it, how are the Packers going to
Speaker 1: line up these uh, these top three cornerbacks when you're
Speaker 1: talking about Jr, Alexander Russell, Douglas, Eric Stokes, the big question, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know who's going to play Who's going to play
Speaker 1: the slot? You know, we know the Packers are going
Speaker 1: to have five defensive backs on the field quite a bit.
Speaker 1: That's just life in the NFL these days. A couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago we heard from I guess is maybe
Speaker 1: almost a month ago now, we heard from Jerry Gray,
Speaker 1: the defensive backs coach, passing game coordinator on the defensive side,
Speaker 1: and he was asked the whole question about who's going
Speaker 1: to play the slot out of these top three cornerbacks
Speaker 1: and whatnot. And he didn't say it in so many words,
Speaker 1: but the impression I got from the answer that he
Speaker 1: gave is the Packers are going to go about this
Speaker 1: more with regard to matchups of which cover guy they
Speaker 1: want to match up against a certain receiver, not who's
Speaker 1: lining up where it's gonna be, like, hey, twenty three,
Speaker 1: you've got him, twenty one, you've got him, and don't
Speaker 1: worry about where they line up. Just worry about guarding
Speaker 1: your guy. That's that's what I took away from how
Speaker 1: Jerry Gray kind of danced around the whole question of
Speaker 1: who's going to play the slot quote unquote, And you
Speaker 1: know why you're right about that because you look last
Speaker 1: year how the Packers utilized Kevin King. Kevin King had
Speaker 1: never played the slot before in any like substantial snaps
Speaker 1: during his time in Green Bay, he played both the
Speaker 1: nickel and the dime. By the end of the season,
Speaker 1: the inside positions. Uh. Jerry Gray even said it too.
Speaker 1: If a guy can learn the outside, he's confident that
Speaker 1: same player can learn the inside. He doesn't make many
Speaker 1: qualms about Okay, well as this guy's situation fit the best,
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily the case. Yes, Chandon Sullivan mostly played
Speaker 1: that role the past few years, but I think when
Speaker 1: you look at the makeup of and Alexander, of a Stokes,
Speaker 1: of a Russeul Douglas, I think all those guys have
Speaker 1: different attributes that lend themselves to play in that position.
Speaker 1: The most intriguing thing to me is the fact that
Speaker 1: the first time there was the thing. For his first
Speaker 1: four seasons in the National Football League, you've figured, Okay,
Speaker 1: Alexander's probably on the left side of this defense. That's
Speaker 1: the position that they they've typically wanted to shut down.
Speaker 1: That's where they're going to keep him. The idea of
Speaker 1: job moving around more is the most intriguing thing. Will
Speaker 1: he spell or shadow the top receiver every single week?
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's even going to be the case,
Speaker 1: but the idea that you can't just kind of pigeonhole
Speaker 1: them to one spot, I think is going to make
Speaker 1: this defense really dynamic. You look at why I think
Speaker 1: Joe Barry was so successful in year one, whether it
Speaker 1: was the cornerbacks, defensive line, linebackers, anywhere. He was very
Speaker 1: multiple with how he used his players. He liked using
Speaker 1: two inside backer formations with being able to play off
Speaker 1: potential blitz packages. Off of that, He'd liked being able
Speaker 1: to bring up a Kevin King and a dime package
Speaker 1: late in the season and almost use him as a
Speaker 1: pseudo inside backer. He was very creative with how he
Speaker 1: used the personality his fingertips and with how deep this
Speaker 1: group is this season. That to me is what is
Speaker 1: the most exciting part. They brought back a lot of pieces. Yes,
Speaker 1: they lost to Darius Smith. I'm not saying that that's
Speaker 1: not a huge loss, but the amount of guys they
Speaker 1: brought back, Mike, compared to where I thought things were
Speaker 1: going to be at back in February, I'm blown away
Speaker 1: by the possibilities of the secondary and really this entire defense. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean we talked about this actually when the season,
Speaker 1: when the season wrapped up last year, when we're talking
Speaker 1: about the possibilities you know of can you can you
Speaker 1: bring Rasul Douglas back? Like is he still going to
Speaker 1: be around? And this essentially what will be the Packers
Speaker 1: starting nickel secondary. Of the three corners were talking about
Speaker 1: Alexander Stokes and Douglas put him in whatever order you
Speaker 1: want to put him in, and then the two starting
Speaker 1: safeties Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage. That's a nickel secondary
Speaker 1: that is a top five in that group that that
Speaker 1: rivals what the Packers had when Dom Caper's first came
Speaker 1: in in two thousand nine and took over this defense
Speaker 1: when he had Charles Woodson, Al Harris, Tremont Williams, Nick Collins,
Speaker 1: and then you know the other safety it was supposed
Speaker 1: to be Morgan Burnett, he got hurt as a rookie.
Speaker 1: But then there was Charlie Pepper. There was a Tarry
Speaker 1: big Bi in that mix. But that you you really
Speaker 1: you have to go back that far in terms of
Speaker 1: in terms of that one through five of a Nickel
Speaker 1: secondary and the talent level, the depth of it UM
Speaker 1: now where the Packers go with the depth at corner
Speaker 1: and safety. Beyond that, there's some sorting out to do
Speaker 1: their Keyshawn Nixon from the Raiders UM brought came over
Speaker 1: kind of you know, familiar with with Rich Pisacci and
Speaker 1: what UM and what he's done on special teams and
Speaker 1: and he would appear to be potentially a big piece
Speaker 1: of the special teams here in Green Bay. But he's
Speaker 1: going to be part of the cornerback depth mix. And
Speaker 1: you're and then you're looking at your looking at these
Speaker 1: young safeties like like a Sean Davis or Trek Carpenter
Speaker 1: who was who was just drafted. How the how the
Speaker 1: depth beyond those top five gets sorted out, will definitely
Speaker 1: be something to watch as the summer goes along. But
Speaker 1: that group of five, that group of five is as
Speaker 1: good as talented, as deep as the Packers have had
Speaker 1: in a secondary in quite some time. You can't do
Speaker 1: this thing on paper. Matt Lafleur said that as much
Speaker 1: last week, but he did talk about on paper it
Speaker 1: does look really good, not just the secondary, at all
Speaker 1: three levels of this defense. You talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: this secondary being as deep as it's been since that
Speaker 1: oh nine teams. Same can be said for inside linebacker,
Speaker 1: sam can be said for edge rush, or maybe even
Speaker 1: more so that it isn't just based on you know,
Speaker 1: Clay Matthews, there's another potential guy there with Preston Smith
Speaker 1: and Rashawn Gary. The defensive front, like, this is the
Speaker 1: best defensive line on paper during my ten years covering
Speaker 1: this team, when you factor in that they finally added
Speaker 1: a first round pick and then also being able to
Speaker 1: get Jaron Reid in here too. Um, you have massive
Speaker 1: defensive linemen that that are athletic, I mean, so you
Speaker 1: have to play this thing out. I think really it
Speaker 1: just comes down to what you mentioned. It's this can
Speaker 1: you keep this unit healthy? And that was the problem
Speaker 1: last year. Now, by the good graces of the football gods,
Speaker 1: they were able to find Russell Douglas. If you don't
Speaker 1: have Russeul Douglas, maybe the season goes in a different direction.
Speaker 1: When you lose Jayre for literally the remainder of the
Speaker 1: regular season. Isn't that just crazy? Though? I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't mean to interrupt you, but no, we're when we're
Speaker 1: looking at the landscape of things here and we're talking
Speaker 1: about you know, this, this secondary and particularly this this
Speaker 1: top three cornerback group of Alexander Douglas and and Stokes
Speaker 1: and what the Packers are going to take in two
Speaker 1: and you know, if Alexander doesn't get hurt, Russell Douglas
Speaker 1: never puts on a Green Bay Packers uniform. And not
Speaker 1: only that, now Douglas has a long term contract of
Speaker 1: his zone to go with Alexander's new long term contract.
Speaker 1: Now these guys are potentially going to be playing together
Speaker 1: in that in the at that cornerback position for this
Speaker 1: Packers defense for multiple years. And uh and they never
Speaker 1: set foot on a field together until the playoff. And
Speaker 1: it only happened. Yeah, and it was only the eight
Speaker 1: snaps that Alexander played. It's just the way things can go,
Speaker 1: the way things can change week to week, you know,
Speaker 1: month to month, a year to year. It it always,
Speaker 1: it always fascinates me because because last year, at this time,
Speaker 1: we were having a completely different conversation about where the
Speaker 1: Packers were with their cornerback position, who they had, and
Speaker 1: then bringing in a first round draft pick and Eric
Speaker 1: Stokes and you didn't quite know how he was going
Speaker 1: to fit in. Now look where we are twelve months later. Well,
Speaker 1: and I want to bring this step up to before
Speaker 1: we move on when we talk about, you know, Brian
Speaker 1: Goodkins hitting on his draft picks, when you talk about
Speaker 1: him signing draft picks, I think one thing that's really
Speaker 1: gotten overlooked is the quality of free agents he's signed
Speaker 1: within those draft class is that aren't necessarily guys that
Speaker 1: were breaking the bank. In the case I'll make for you,
Speaker 1: as the two thousand sixteen draft, Deveandre Campbell, you add
Speaker 1: him now in with Kenny Clark, with Dean Lowry. You
Speaker 1: look at the seventeen draft for Seul Douglas now paired
Speaker 1: up with Aaron Jonesen, You're you're looking at your Robert
Speaker 1: Tonyans is a fifth year guy. Guy going into his
Speaker 1: fifth year now, Um, you know the year before that,
Speaker 1: Alan Lazard is a fourth year player now. Along with
Speaker 1: Gary and Savage, they've found ways to augment this roster
Speaker 1: with really talented players that haven't committed fortune. So that's
Speaker 1: the key. As much as it's important to have Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers and and to have you know, Pro bowlers and
Speaker 1: all pros and guys making plays all over the field,
Speaker 1: you have to be able to find diamonds in the
Speaker 1: rough to the roster's too big, there's too many players,
Speaker 1: there's too many injuries. And that's one thing since Brian
Speaker 1: Goodkin's took over in eighteen, he has been able to
Speaker 1: identify those players with his personnel staff. Yeah. Absolutely, there's
Speaker 1: no question about it. One other topic to touch on
Speaker 1: before we let before we go today, because when we
Speaker 1: left last time, it hadn't happened yet, and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the schedule release. Um. The schedule is out for
Speaker 1: two week five is the game in London. UM, Packers
Speaker 1: have are scheduled for five primetime games. Um. If I
Speaker 1: were a betting man, I would say they'll be at
Speaker 1: least one more that gets flexed into prime time to
Speaker 1: make it six for us here in Ino. But the schedule, um,
Speaker 1: what what were your what was your initial reaction? What
Speaker 1: were your first impressions when you saw it? Well, my
Speaker 1: first initial reaction was I have a much different reaction
Speaker 1: to this than Mattel Floor and Brian good couns. I
Speaker 1: was thinking, this is not a very good schedule in
Speaker 1: terms of how it lays out for the Packers. But
Speaker 1: as it turns out, it seems like what Floor and
Speaker 1: and Good counts in the organization are actually okay with it.
Speaker 1: The Week fourteen, by to me, is a really, really,
Speaker 1: really long time from the start of the regular season.
Speaker 1: But I think the Packers really liked it last year
Speaker 1: having Week thirteen and so um a year after having
Speaker 1: the latest bye they've ever had, they found a way
Speaker 1: to actually make it even longer this year. And they're thinking,
Speaker 1: is is that you know they play the Giants so
Speaker 1: early in the season, they were just very cautious about
Speaker 1: taking a bye that early. Now during an eighteen week season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with the with the London game being in Week five,
Speaker 1: they were they were not in favor of taking the
Speaker 1: bye immediately after the London trip because that would be
Speaker 1: week six and then you have to get all the
Speaker 1: way through week eighteen then without a break. And uh,
Speaker 1: and so they did not request to have a bye
Speaker 1: after London, and uh. What struck me about it not
Speaker 1: only the the full bye week not being until week fourteen,
Speaker 1: but the Thursday night game, which is sort of your
Speaker 1: quote unquote mini by because you play on a Thursday
Speaker 1: night and everybody gets the weekend off. That's not until
Speaker 1: week eleven. So when this regular sea and starts with
Speaker 1: the London trip mixed in, the packers are playing ten
Speaker 1: consecutive weeks, then the eleventh week being a short week
Speaker 1: on a Thursday night, before you get any kind of
Speaker 1: a break. But the plus side on the back end
Speaker 1: of that is that you get the mini buy after
Speaker 1: that Thursday night game, and then a few weeks later
Speaker 1: you get your full by. You have two significant opportunities
Speaker 1: for rest, recovery recuperation in the back half of the schedule.
Speaker 1: As long as you can you know, both healthwise, position wise,
Speaker 1: record wise, you can survive these first ten eleven games
Speaker 1: before you get any kind of a break. If you
Speaker 1: get yourself in a good position there, then the rest,
Speaker 1: the recovery the potential health of the team can be
Speaker 1: there for for the stretch run because because of the rest,
Speaker 1: because of the rest being all pushed until later and
Speaker 1: something else. I think that it's really, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of stood out to me throughout this in higher process
Speaker 1: is we know the injury rate with the NFL. Guys
Speaker 1: get banged up, and if you can't avoid that at least,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to Yeah, you might as well take
Speaker 1: this thing on the back end of it and give
Speaker 1: yourself the best chance as you get into December and
Speaker 1: January to get healthy. I you know, I can't imagine
Speaker 1: a scenario in which the Packers have any worse injury
Speaker 1: luck than what they had in one. I mean that
Speaker 1: season in and of itself was right up there with
Speaker 1: what they've had some bad ones, but I mean when
Speaker 1: they had some awful look. So I mean that that
Speaker 1: aspect of it is something that you hope history doesn't
Speaker 1: repeat itself and it will get better. There A c
Speaker 1: l s were twice the number what the average is
Speaker 1: in in a in a you know, a season. So
Speaker 1: I think it's just that gauntlet to getting to December. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it's going to take a lot of hard work.
Speaker 1: It's going to take a lot of mental toughness, but
Speaker 1: seventeen game regular season is going to be a daunting challenge, Mike.
Speaker 1: We've said it since the day that they added that
Speaker 1: game to the schedule twenty weeks, as Mason Crosby was
Speaker 1: even talking about last week. Even for a kicker there,
Speaker 1: that's taxing. So it's gonna be, you know, a battle
Speaker 1: of attrition, and the teams that are smart about it,
Speaker 1: that can manage those waters the best, ultimately they're gonna
Speaker 1: be the ones at the end of the season standing toll. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another another interesting element and we've seen this in the past,
Speaker 1: although it wasn't the case last year when the Packers
Speaker 1: opened with the game in Jacksonville against New Orleans. But
Speaker 1: this year, you only have the six division games right
Speaker 1: to each against the Bears, Vikings, and Lions. Well, weeks
Speaker 1: one and two our division games, Weeks seventeen and eighteen
Speaker 1: our division games. So four of your six division games
Speaker 1: are you know, right out of the gate and then
Speaker 1: right at the end, and then all those weeks in
Speaker 1: between you only have two division games, um that are
Speaker 1: that are spread out in there. It's just it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting it's interesting to me how that fell. But
Speaker 1: we had talked about it before. With regard to the
Speaker 1: opponents on the schedule. I mean, you're talking about going,
Speaker 1: you know, going to Offalo hosting Tennessee on a Thursday night.
Speaker 1: You're playing um you know on packers knew they were
Speaker 1: going to be going to Miami, but now they know
Speaker 1: it's going to be on Christmas um down in in
Speaker 1: South Florida. So just a lot of really interesting, a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting, you know, maybe borderline quirky things with
Speaker 1: the with the way this schedule is. But now it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: there it is. It's all laid out, and and all
Speaker 1: Matt la Fleur cares about is week one against the Vikings,
Speaker 1: and he's not even going to talk about anything else.
Speaker 1: And and frankly, I don't blame him, no, And and
Speaker 1: that wasn't just a line of bs. And he said,
Speaker 1: he's like, I don't even really know who's on the
Speaker 1: schedule for a week two. It really is to that
Speaker 1: level of specificity. The other thing I'll say too, and
Speaker 1: I understand it. We're still gonna get the questions. There's
Speaker 1: no way to avoid it. But when you have seventeen
Speaker 1: regular season games last year affirmed to me that I
Speaker 1: don't want any valuable, established veteran playing in the preseason.
Speaker 1: To me, Aaron Rodgers has played, you can play ten
Speaker 1: more years. I think he's played his last preseason snaps.
Speaker 1: I agree, they're just valuable. And the people that come
Speaker 1: out and say, well, what happens if New Orleans happens again,
Speaker 1: then New Orleans happens again, Right, you can't And and
Speaker 1: what did that? What did that? What did that blowout
Speaker 1: lost to New Orleans mean? In the end, absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: The Packers got the number one seed in the NFC,
Speaker 1: So if they had won, if they had won that game,
Speaker 1: or if they had lost a close one against New Orleans,
Speaker 1: it ended up having zero, zilch, no impact on the
Speaker 1: season whatsoever. Now, again, it's different this year because you're
Speaker 1: opening with a division opponement, right, so there's a little
Speaker 1: bit there's a little bit different feel in that regard.
Speaker 1: But I am told, but I am totally with you.
Speaker 1: It's a seventeen game season. This thing, this thing is
Speaker 1: an absolute marathon. And and uh, I mean I I
Speaker 1: sort of felt, you know you mentioned earlier. I felt
Speaker 1: from the day that Jordy Nelson tore his a c
Speaker 1: L in Pittsburgh in a preseason game, that that would
Speaker 1: be the last time that would be the last time
Speaker 1: that something that that the Packers would play their starters
Speaker 1: for any sort of significant tie in the preseason. It
Speaker 1: is simply not worth it anymore, Jordy Nelson. Absolutely. You know,
Speaker 1: the other guy doesn't get enough credit for this. Desmond
Speaker 1: Bishop changed the entire complexion of that young man's career
Speaker 1: absolutely twelve. Who knows what Desen Bishop would have accomplished
Speaker 1: for the next three or four years if he doesn't
Speaker 1: tear his hamstring basically off the bone out in San
Speaker 1: Diego in in a in a preseason game. Yeah, to me,
Speaker 1: it's not worth it. Week one, week two, week three, whatever.
Speaker 1: People want to win a super Bowl, Let's win a
Speaker 1: super Bowl. I'm not I'm not very concerned about being
Speaker 1: the champions of the September, you know. So that's just me.
Speaker 1: I hear you, I hear you. Well. We will be
Speaker 1: back in a couple of days to talk about our
Speaker 1: observations from Mini Camp, but for now we'll call it
Speaker 1: a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script and
Speaker 1: be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team all week long. The rest of the off season,
Speaker 1: we got all kinds of stuff for you on packers
Speaker 1: dot com for West, I'm Mike, Thank you for tuning
Speaker 1: in everybody to see you next time.