Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is the one and only
Speaker 1: West hod Kuitz. We're coming to you here from our
Speaker 1: studios at lambeau Field and West one day closer to
Speaker 1: the Packers Week three matchup in Washington, the nation's capital.
Speaker 1: It is a noon Central time kickoff at FedEx Field,
Speaker 1: and the Packers are going to be getting a player
Speaker 1: back on their active roster this week for this game.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about second year running back Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: one of the three running backs drafted in by Green
Speaker 1: Bay and um, as we've talked about a lot, he's
Speaker 1: a young guy who brings a different explosive to mentioned.
Speaker 1: You might say to the Packers running game Jamal Williams
Speaker 1: time Montgomery, they've done a fantastic job I think the
Speaker 1: first two weeks of the season, particularly in past protection.
Speaker 1: I highlighted some of those in my what you might
Speaker 1: have Missed segment this week on the website, so if
Speaker 1: you missed it, check it out. But um, but Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: this is uh, this is not only another option for
Speaker 1: the Packers in the backfield, but the potential game breaker
Speaker 1: type of guy, don't you think, Yeah, Mike, And and
Speaker 1: there's some incredible statistics about him and in the times
Speaker 1: in which he played last year. And you know, I
Speaker 1: was looking at a couple of things, and I mean
Speaker 1: just the productivity when he was on the field when
Speaker 1: he did get touches um even in a game. I
Speaker 1: think it was what Tampa Bay, correct me if I'm
Speaker 1: wrong there where you only had that one carry for
Speaker 1: yards in overtime. Yeah, the twenty yard touchdown in overtime,
Speaker 1: first time he touched the ball all day long, right,
Speaker 1: And it's things like that where Jamal Williams got going
Speaker 1: in that game as well. I wrote about this an
Speaker 1: inbox for Wednesday and that or for Thursday, excuse me,
Speaker 1: and at all three of those guys when they have
Speaker 1: them all healthy, and that hasn't always happened so far,
Speaker 1: but that's when this backfield has at its best. You're right,
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams time Montgomery have been phenomenal in past protection.
Speaker 1: I asked Aaron Rodgers about that, and he mentioned how
Speaker 1: Williams the game tape that he put together just fantastic
Speaker 1: as far as from a teaching element. In that game
Speaker 1: against the Vikings, but Aaron Jones does bring a different dimension.
Speaker 1: He's an explosive football player. He's a guy that if
Speaker 1: you give him an inch, he's going to take a yard.
Speaker 1: And he the way he really came on at the
Speaker 1: end of midway through last season and seeing him really
Speaker 1: flourish when he did get the opportunities, and then also
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, he dealt with that hamstring
Speaker 1: injury and training camp where he didn't really get a
Speaker 1: lot of shots until the end of it. But I
Speaker 1: thought that Kansas City game in specific really showed you
Speaker 1: that Aaron Jones is still the player that we saw
Speaker 1: last season. Yeah, you mentioned the hamstring injury he dealt
Speaker 1: with in training camp. I think that's the reason in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that Jones is going to have
Speaker 1: to earn his snaps. He's going to have to kind
Speaker 1: of steal that playing time back from Montgomery and Williams,
Speaker 1: just strictly from a preparation standpoint in terms of that
Speaker 1: making that jump from year one to year two, particularly
Speaker 1: in past protection, which is the toughest thing for a
Speaker 1: young running back coming into the NFL from college to learn.
Speaker 1: He missed a lot of valuable preparation time Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: That hamstring injury kept him out of a lot of
Speaker 1: padded practices during training camp. He missed the first two
Speaker 1: preseason games, was just kind of getting back into things
Speaker 1: in the third preseason game. In the fourth one in
Speaker 1: Kansas City, he showed us that same Aaron Jones that
Speaker 1: we saw as a rookie when the ball was in
Speaker 1: his hands. But then now it's also going to be
Speaker 1: picking up those blitzes and doing all those other things
Speaker 1: that go into being a three down back. He's going
Speaker 1: to have to earn it because Time Montgomery and Jamal
Speaker 1: Williams haven't done anything necessary to necessarily to lose the
Speaker 1: playing time that they have earned. Yeah, and it came
Speaker 1: up an inbox too. When I was going through some
Speaker 1: of the questions, somebody mentioned, you know, everyone talks about
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones, what about Time Montgomery getting more opportunit these
Speaker 1: in Montgomery's averaging five point five yards a clip right
Speaker 1: now as a rusher and then obviously what he offers
Speaker 1: as a pass catcher. Um. The downside to having all
Speaker 1: three of those guys available as you can't get all
Speaker 1: three of them on the field at the same time.
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be some juggling the packers are going
Speaker 1: to have to do. But I just like the home
Speaker 1: run threat that that Aaron Jones provides, especially in early
Speaker 1: down situations. He's the kind of guy that can take
Speaker 1: those third and sevens and make him third and fives
Speaker 1: or third and fours. Uh, and you know, shorten things
Speaker 1: up for an offense. So uh. The the other aspect
Speaker 1: of this too. You make some great points in terms
Speaker 1: of the time you missed in training camp. But for
Speaker 1: my liking, if there's any position and I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it's good to miss time and training camp, but if
Speaker 1: there's any position where I think it's a little bit
Speaker 1: more forgiving, it is running back because a lot of
Speaker 1: this thing is mental. Is you said it is the
Speaker 1: pass pro It is being able to get those fundamentals down.
Speaker 1: But how many times might have we seen guys around
Speaker 1: the league? I mean, I think lady On Bell last
Speaker 1: year is probably the best example of it. Not have
Speaker 1: any reps during training camp and then really hit the
Speaker 1: ground running wins once week one comes around. Now, Bells
Speaker 1: at a different stage in his career than Aaron Jones is,
Speaker 1: but I think it's an opportunity for him like when
Speaker 1: he does get in there to really be able to
Speaker 1: get back on that bicycle and keep that momentum going
Speaker 1: that he was able to develop last season. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think the only reason I'm being somewhat cautious in terms
Speaker 1: of maybe what the expectation should be for him playing
Speaker 1: time wise coming right back is that past protection is
Speaker 1: always such an important part of it. But Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: is also not the fully mobile Aaron Rodgers that we've seen,
Speaker 1: so that also has to factor into the coach's decisions
Speaker 1: in terms of, you know, certain play packages and the
Speaker 1: playing time and who needs to be on the field
Speaker 1: in certain instances. So we'll just have to see how
Speaker 1: it unfolds. But I like the fact that Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: is coming back. I felt, you know, once we saw
Speaker 1: him quite frankly in the Dallas game last year, which
Speaker 1: was Aaron Rodgers you know, last really memorable game obviously
Speaker 1: of and what he did in that game. I've been
Speaker 1: waiting to see Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones and you
Speaker 1: know the impact that he can have in terms of
Speaker 1: how defenses have to react to him along with everything
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers can do, and quite frankly, we just haven't
Speaker 1: seen that yet, No exactly. And it is interesting though,
Speaker 1: because you know, we always talk about a bit being
Speaker 1: a numbers game, and we can focus on those three
Speaker 1: running backs. The Packers also did keep Darius Jackson here too.
Speaker 1: He was the guy that they claimed off. I should
Speaker 1: say they end up signing from the practice squad of
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys during Week one. Uh And I think
Speaker 1: there were some people thinking, Okay, well, Aaron's when Aaron
Speaker 1: Jones is back, we'll see what happens with Jackson. Packers
Speaker 1: thought enough of him to have him involved as well.
Speaker 1: I thought he did some good things on special teams.
Speaker 1: So it's a deep group. There's a lot of options
Speaker 1: there in the fortunate thing as far as the Packers
Speaker 1: and in taking this next step with Jones, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of flexibility and how they want to approach it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, before we get to a couple of
Speaker 1: other topics, West a little sponsored business, It's time to
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Speaker 1: Sticking on the topic of young players and development, the
Speaker 1: Packers two rookie cornerbacks Jiar Alexander Josh Jackson. We've talked
Speaker 1: a lot Abottom already. They're certainly off to a great
Speaker 1: start in their NFL careers, but their responsibilities might crank
Speaker 1: up just a bit this week because it sounds like
Speaker 1: second year cornerback Kevin King is not going to be
Speaker 1: available with that groin injury. So they've gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of playing time already and they may be getting even more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then the other thing too. At the time which
Speaker 1: we're taking this, Packers said yet to practice on Thursday,
Speaker 1: but Devon House also popped up on the injury part
Speaker 1: with a biceps injury. He was estimated as a limited Wednesday,
Speaker 1: so he was actually the first guy up originally when
Speaker 1: King went out, and then as the game went on,
Speaker 1: they started to use Alexander out there as well. The
Speaker 1: nice thing for the packers here is I mean, if
Speaker 1: there is a silver lining to it, because I don't
Speaker 1: think you can just replace King and what he provide
Speaker 1: ds as a shutdown guy outside. But Alexander and Josh
Speaker 1: Jackson both have had experience. Joe wo Jr. Did a
Speaker 1: phenomenal job throughout training camp of rotating those guys inside
Speaker 1: and outside to give them some looks. And Alexander feels
Speaker 1: just as comfortable outside as as I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people who project him as a nickel slot cornerback.
Speaker 1: And he was even asked a little bit. Actually he
Speaker 1: wasn't even asked about it. He brought it up on
Speaker 1: his own accord on Wednesday, saying that people say I'm short,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I'm average sized. Uh. And and you
Speaker 1: know he has that chip on his shoulder. He admits
Speaker 1: he carries that chip on his shoulder and he wants
Speaker 1: to go up against those six three six four receivers
Speaker 1: to show that with his athleticism and the way he
Speaker 1: attacks the game, he can cover those type of players.
Speaker 1: He has that kind of swagger and that confidence. In
Speaker 1: Josh Jackson, I mean, he made a living off of
Speaker 1: that in the Big Ten with eight interceptions a year ago.
Speaker 1: So depending on what the availability is for House and
Speaker 1: if if, if King truly isn't able to go in
Speaker 1: this game, they're gonna be leaning on those two young cornerbacks,
Speaker 1: and especially even more so now that they ended up
Speaker 1: letting go of Deonte Burton. So they have five corners
Speaker 1: on the roster and potentially one if not too might
Speaker 1: not be in the playbook for Sunday. Yeah. Well, as
Speaker 1: I had mentioned earlier in the week, I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that was that was lost somewhat in
Speaker 1: all the controversy over Clay Matthews the roughing the pastor
Speaker 1: that wiped out Alexander's interception was just how difficult to
Speaker 1: play that was that he made to catch that ball.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, it was kind of an over the
Speaker 1: shoulder Willie Mays type of catch, and he made it
Speaker 1: look awfully easy. I mean, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: times cornerbacks are in that situation and you know they
Speaker 1: haven't necessarily been you know, that center fielder type tracking
Speaker 1: a fly ball, and it's not easy to do, and
Speaker 1: he made it look pretty easy. Um. I thought that
Speaker 1: was a really impressive play on his part and then
Speaker 1: he's a pretty entertaining guy with reporters around his locker.
Speaker 1: He was actually asked towards the end of his group
Speaker 1: interview on Wednesday about the touchdown pass at the end
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter where he was guarding Adam thieland
Speaker 1: kentro o' bryce was the safety trying to come over
Speaker 1: the top kind of a convergent. So three guys and
Speaker 1: feeling makes this diving catch right by the pylon for
Speaker 1: a touchdown, and he's kind of looking, yeah, that play
Speaker 1: doesn't ring a bell. I don't really remember it. And
Speaker 1: then obviously he's joking about cornerbacks needing to have a
Speaker 1: short term memory in this league. So but trust me,
Speaker 1: he's looked at the film. If there's anything that he
Speaker 1: feels he could ever should have done differently, he's filed
Speaker 1: that away in in his memory. Bad. This is why
Speaker 1: I've said this before, Mike. I think there's two types
Speaker 1: of confidence. There's the stuff that just builds you up
Speaker 1: for the sake of building you up, and then there's
Speaker 1: the true I have of confidence that if you run
Speaker 1: that play back, I'm gonna make it, you know, nine
Speaker 1: times out of ten. And maybe that's the one that
Speaker 1: they got me on your Alexander has that And I
Speaker 1: wrote an inbox Thursday. I don't know if I can
Speaker 1: think of anybody, and maybe if you can, please jump
Speaker 1: right in. But I don't know if I can think
Speaker 1: of anyone, at least during my time on the beat,
Speaker 1: a rookie that's coming and been more comfortable in his
Speaker 1: own skin than Alexander. I think if I were to
Speaker 1: say one, and I'll just jump in here for a second,
Speaker 1: if I were to say one might be Greg Jennings
Speaker 1: in two thousand We had when when when he came
Speaker 1: in as a rookie in two thousand six, and the
Speaker 1: way he was running routes on the practice field, catching
Speaker 1: passes from Brett fav and Aaron Rodgers for that matter.
Speaker 1: At that time, you just looked at and go, boy,
Speaker 1: this guy really belongs. And then he stood at his
Speaker 1: locker and answered questions in front of the media like
Speaker 1: he was a five six year veteran. It was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: How he came on the scene, obviously had a very
Speaker 1: productive and he was coming from Western Michigan to you know.
Speaker 1: But then but but that's the thing, though, The confidence
Speaker 1: can go so far, and I think it's big for
Speaker 1: those skill position players or on defense the positions that
Speaker 1: are defending those skill guys. And Alexander, I just I
Speaker 1: love the way. There's a fine line there. I get
Speaker 1: that between confidence, swagger and arrogance, but I just I
Speaker 1: think he really straddles that well. And I think in
Speaker 1: the long term that's gonna make him a better football player.
Speaker 1: That's gonna make him an elite cornerback if his skills
Speaker 1: meet up with the development that the Packers and vision
Speaker 1: he can have at that position. Because you have to
Speaker 1: have a short memory. It is a cliche, but you
Speaker 1: cannot let those things bog you down. You have to
Speaker 1: go out there an attack to play the same way
Speaker 1: you can ask Trumont Williams that you can ask ha
Speaker 1: Clinton Dicks. Any veteran defensive back in this league has
Speaker 1: to be able to wipe the slate clean and take
Speaker 1: that next step forward. Yeah, And I think we saw
Speaker 1: that in what I remember a really impressive sequence in
Speaker 1: the preseason game in Oakland. And I don't like to
Speaker 1: put too much into into preseason action, you know that,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to rookies and guys trying to
Speaker 1: feel their way, these things can matter at that game
Speaker 1: in Oakland, the very first play, Derek Carr chucks it
Speaker 1: deep to Amari Cooper and you know, Cooper out jumps
Speaker 1: Alexander deep down the middle, big play. Alexander just he
Speaker 1: gets up and shakes it off. He's already got the
Speaker 1: mentality of hey, sometimes these guys are gonna make plays.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to stop everything. The next
Speaker 1: is either the next series or the series. After Oakland
Speaker 1: is driving for a touchdown, Car tries to go deep
Speaker 1: over the middle to a different receiver and Alexander just
Speaker 1: jumps up and makes the pick by the goal line,
Speaker 1: and you're kind of like, wow, I mean, you talk
Speaker 1: about being able to shake off a potentially difficult moment
Speaker 1: for a young guy, giving up a big play on
Speaker 1: the first play of the game. It didn't phase him
Speaker 1: at all, and we we continue to see that with him,
Speaker 1: and I think to a certain extent, we've seen it
Speaker 1: with Jackson as well. He just doesn't talk about it
Speaker 1: as much because he's a different personality type. But these
Speaker 1: guys are really starting to understand and feel like they belong.
Speaker 1: They've had that confidence from the beginning, and the more
Speaker 1: they continue to play and do their thing, and learn
Speaker 1: what goes on in this league. I think the more
Speaker 1: confident they become. The thing I love about Jackson is
Speaker 1: he basically has the same mindset, except it's more with
Speaker 1: an introverted yeah sort of personality. Like you can go
Speaker 1: to Josh Jackson and talked about things, and he's uber
Speaker 1: confident about what he can do and and and he
Speaker 1: answers questions. I think, really, well, it's just that he
Speaker 1: isn't as demonstrative or just isn't it quite as charismatic
Speaker 1: as I think Alexander carries himself with. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you see the parallels in their games,
Speaker 1: and I think why they've actually clicked personality wise, uh
Speaker 1: during these first you know, five six months that they've
Speaker 1: been together in Green Bay and why I think the
Speaker 1: Packers in the long term feel really good at about
Speaker 1: that position, especially if they can get Kevin King pass
Speaker 1: some of these injuries that he's been dealing with. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we'll see how that unfolds at at that position, because
Speaker 1: in the coming weeks here the Packers are will certainly
Speaker 1: continue to adjust with whatever gets thrown their way. One
Speaker 1: other topic I want to get to today West before
Speaker 1: we go and that's uh some of the thoughts from
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers at his locker on Wednesday. Now, he talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the toughness aspect of things, both from
Speaker 1: an injury standpoint and with regards to these roughing the
Speaker 1: passer calls. And I don't want to revisit all the
Speaker 1: stuff with Matthews and the roughing the passer if anybody
Speaker 1: wants to go back to our Monday and Tuesday shows,
Speaker 1: I think we exhausted that topic for now. But with
Speaker 1: regards to Rogers and his knee injury, something that's going
Speaker 1: to be interesting to watch here because he didn't exactly say,
Speaker 1: you know, well, I feel much better this Wednesday than
Speaker 1: I did last Wednesday. At this time, he's in some
Speaker 1: ways still waiting to see if if continuing to play
Speaker 1: on this knee, if it's potentially going to get worse
Speaker 1: and he's going to have more to deal with, or
Speaker 1: if it is going to heal up a little bit
Speaker 1: and get better. Now, as we talked about, he had
Speaker 1: way more mobility in the Vikings game than we thought
Speaker 1: that he would going going into it. But then it
Speaker 1: looks like now that's something to watch on a week
Speaker 1: to week basis here because there's really there's no blueprint
Speaker 1: exactly for how this knee injury, whatever strange thing it is,
Speaker 1: is going to react to what Rogers does with it
Speaker 1: on the field. So something to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: once again starting Sunday in Washington. Yeah, and and and
Speaker 1: Rogers didn't want to get too much into the rehab
Speaker 1: and the plan. The one thing that I think everyone's
Speaker 1: sort of on the same page about is they basically
Speaker 1: are keeping the same script as last week Thursday's practice,
Speaker 1: sitting out of that again being in the rehab group,
Speaker 1: will see what his availability is and if you could
Speaker 1: potentially do work again on Saturday like he did last week.
Speaker 1: The only part of this that I think kind of
Speaker 1: got blown out of proportion as he was asked if
Speaker 1: he's concerned at all that the knee injuries could get
Speaker 1: worse throughout the course of the season, and he said yeah,
Speaker 1: and that kind of got started being push notifications for
Speaker 1: different media outlets and that I really didn't like that
Speaker 1: because to me, he was just answering the question, Well,
Speaker 1: certainly there's a concern it's gonna get worse. If if
Speaker 1: you were at playing racquetball and you hurt your hand
Speaker 1: like you did last year. Aren't you concerned the next
Speaker 1: day later that hey, maybe something will happen that I'll
Speaker 1: get worse. Yeah, that's a natural thing. I don't think
Speaker 1: Rogers was I think the way it was presented is
Speaker 1: that there's a there's a concern there. I think the
Speaker 1: concern is just what the concern is. It's not anything
Speaker 1: over and above that. But to your original point, you're right,
Speaker 1: this is the Packers are kind of everyone's in the
Speaker 1: same boat here in terms of trying to understand, Okay,
Speaker 1: if he plays on this, what is it going to
Speaker 1: mean for Buffalo? What is it going to mean for Detroit?
Speaker 1: And we just have to wait and see. And the
Speaker 1: biggest thing is Mike McCarthy said on Thursday morning, is
Speaker 1: that it comes down to the communication with Rogers, Dr.
Speaker 1: Pat Mackenzie in the training staff. You can't just have
Speaker 1: one player walk into there with an injury, walk into
Speaker 1: the training room with an injury. The doctors tell him
Speaker 1: what to do and he goes back into the locker room,
Speaker 1: and that's the plan. There has to be a back
Speaker 1: and forth. Rogers has been working with Mackenzie for fourteen
Speaker 1: years now. Those two have such a big report, and
Speaker 1: ultimately that's gonna be what's gonna really tell the Packers
Speaker 1: and tell Rogers what he's gonna be able to do.
Speaker 1: Having that back and forth, Yeah, and I think we
Speaker 1: have to We have to also realize that for the
Speaker 1: sake of Aaron Rodgers left knee, the first full game
Speaker 1: after the injury, playing an overtime and all those extra
Speaker 1: snaps didn't didn't necessarily help things. So um, okay, let's
Speaker 1: just make it a sixty minute game instead of a
Speaker 1: seventy minute one on Sunday. How about that? Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And I think that's gonna be the big thing is
Speaker 1: to see how this plays out. Certainly, we didn't see
Speaker 1: him on practice in the practice element yet because he
Speaker 1: the only time he did was on Saturday, so it's
Speaker 1: so hard to say what he's doing, how he looks.
Speaker 1: But I'll say this, as far as the guys that
Speaker 1: were there, the teammates, the coaches, every and he was
Speaker 1: sold on what Aaron Rodgers did on Saturday, and there
Speaker 1: was a confidence that if he did play, he was
Speaker 1: going to be able to play well in that game Sunday.
Speaker 1: It's week to week, it's day to day, it's not
Speaker 1: a great, amazing headline, but it's the truth right now,
Speaker 1: in the reality for the Packers as they pressed forward
Speaker 1: through September. All right, Well, with that, 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: on Packers dot com on Twitter, He's at west hot
Speaker 1: I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.