Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by my
Speaker 1: trusted colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from
Speaker 1: our studios at lambeau Field West here today to talk
Speaker 1: about Rookie Minicamp, which took place last weekend. It was
Speaker 1: our first chance, the Packers coaches, first chance to see
Speaker 1: this rookie class, particularly the nine draft picks um in
Speaker 1: uniform going through some drills out there on Clarke Hinkle Field.
Speaker 1: What were your first impressions, anything that you walked away
Speaker 1: from those two days of practice thinking about t J.
Speaker 1: Slayton is a massive human being the first thing. Uh
Speaker 1: Amari Rodgers Man, I saw it. I again, we have
Speaker 1: a long way to go see what kind of pro
Speaker 1: Marie Rogers is going to be. But it's funny you
Speaker 1: go through this too when you do these stories on guys.
Speaker 1: Is after the draft, he talked to some of their
Speaker 1: position coaches or a parent or a sibling. You get
Speaker 1: a feel for who they are as a person, but
Speaker 1: you also got a feel for who they are as
Speaker 1: a player. And it's one thing to look at a
Speaker 1: biography or to look at an NFL dot Com scouting
Speaker 1: report for a draft pick and see five ft nine
Speaker 1: pounds and and try to make sense of all these
Speaker 1: different measurables and times and backgrounds. But when you watch
Speaker 1: him on the practice field, you understand why he's a
Speaker 1: third round pick. You understand why this is a guy
Speaker 1: the Packers traded up to secure. It's you know, the
Speaker 1: forty time four point five one or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: Tyler Grisham swears he's a four or four guy. You
Speaker 1: saw the explosiveness. You saw how when you're that, when
Speaker 1: you're that size, Mike, you got to be able to
Speaker 1: to catch the ball natural with your hands. You gotta
Speaker 1: keep it away from your body. He did all that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't without flaw. I mean, there was a drop
Speaker 1: ter in one of the asking drills from the receivers
Speaker 1: to the quarterbacks. But I just I was really intrigued
Speaker 1: by Maybe it's because we haven't seen a rookie draft
Speaker 1: pick in one of these things in three years, but
Speaker 1: I I just for me, that was the guy had
Speaker 1: my eye on. I don't think he disappointed. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think there were definitely a few of the guys that
Speaker 1: came in as as advertised. I guess I would say,
Speaker 1: because when we first got to look at Eric Stokes
Speaker 1: going through drills and whatnot, Um, his speed, his foot
Speaker 1: speed is obvious. Like it it's it shows up immediately,
Speaker 1: and uh sure it's not going to show up maybe
Speaker 1: quite as much when he's on the same field as
Speaker 1: Jayar Alexander and Darnell Savage and these other really fast
Speaker 1: guys the Packers have on defense, but in a rookie
Speaker 1: mini camp setting. That's why this guy was a first
Speaker 1: round pick, because because his speed, um, you know, jumps
Speaker 1: off the field at you. Um. Amari Rodgers, I would
Speaker 1: also say, very much as advertised, we heard a lot
Speaker 1: about his build. I didn't watch a lot of the
Speaker 1: college film on Amari Rodgers. I wasn't really that familiar
Speaker 1: with him. But then to see him live and impersonate,
Speaker 1: you know, the build is exactly what he was described as.
Speaker 1: And then when you see the fluidity of the moves
Speaker 1: of how he how he uses that frame and the
Speaker 1: the shift nous combined with you know, some legitimate quickness
Speaker 1: and speed there and then as you said right from
Speaker 1: the top, T. J. Slayton, my goodness, is that a
Speaker 1: large man. I mean Wow. You know we're around we're
Speaker 1: around big guys all the time, right, But it's it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where when when these are rookies
Speaker 1: and these are young guys and you know that they
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily I mean, we've we've seen what David Baktari
Speaker 1: has become from when he was here in as a
Speaker 1: fourth round rookie to the to the man, the human,
Speaker 1: the player that he is. Now we've seen Kenny Clark,
Speaker 1: you know, the same way when you see a rookie
Speaker 1: that looks like t. J. Slayton looks uh, it kind
Speaker 1: of takes your breath away in a sense because you're
Speaker 1: just like wow, like you wonder like what you know,
Speaker 1: is there more room for growth or what exactly is
Speaker 1: his body gonna look like two or three or four
Speaker 1: years down the road. So those are the kinds of
Speaker 1: those are the kinds of things that certainly jump out
Speaker 1: at me. And getting back to Amari Rogers for a second,
Speaker 1: you talked about, you know, the natural hands and whatnot.
Speaker 1: We saw him, um not in a full punt return drill,
Speaker 1: but we saw him catching punts in in a couple
Speaker 1: of different periods, and um, that certainly looks natural. He
Speaker 1: looks like he's been catching wobbly, funny looking you know, spheroids,
Speaker 1: you know, hurtling through the air. Looks like he's been
Speaker 1: doing that since he was about six years old. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: because it just it it looked easy for him. And
Speaker 1: we've seen plenty of situations with punt returners back there
Speaker 1: where it doesn't always look so easy, and and that
Speaker 1: definitely stood out to me as you kind of held
Speaker 1: your breath at times. And there's a difference between watching
Speaker 1: a series of players, receivers, running backs, defensive backs try
Speaker 1: to go back and field punts, and there is a
Speaker 1: difference between seeing a guy who has done it at
Speaker 1: the highest level of college football for three years has
Speaker 1: done it going back to high school. I just it
Speaker 1: was it's like it's like being in no disrespect teachers,
Speaker 1: but like it's like being in like a middle school room,
Speaker 1: right and watching a history teacher explain to students, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: George Washington and John Adams and then going and being
Speaker 1: in you know, a graduate school level college course, and
Speaker 1: it's just you just felt like you're in a different
Speaker 1: room when you're watching him play the ball, and and
Speaker 1: the other thing about him too. He has a low
Speaker 1: center of gravity and it's just again five ft nine.
Speaker 1: That might be something. You know, it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: to be a first round pick at five ft nine
Speaker 1: in his position, But if you watch the way he
Speaker 1: moves and just how deceptive he is with his speed
Speaker 1: and his burst, and you can understand this guy is
Speaker 1: gonna be effective on jet motions because he has the
Speaker 1: Tyler Irvin type body with thirty more pounds of muscle
Speaker 1: on it. You can understand why he's going to be
Speaker 1: effective in the slot. There's just so many different aspects
Speaker 1: of him to like. But the one thing I wrote
Speaker 1: it insider in boxes. I'm not saying you have to
Speaker 1: chalk him down for a thousand all purpose yards or
Speaker 1: you know, ten touchdowns as a rookie. But Mike, you've
Speaker 1: saw Randall Cobb in two thousand eleven. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: he has to be Randall Cobb out of the gate.
Speaker 1: But you've seen how guys with his skill set in
Speaker 1: his pensiont for being able to handle special teams. How
Speaker 1: that guy could come in year one and make an
Speaker 1: impact with this roster. Yeah, absolutely, Um quickly, here, what's
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Speaker 1: NFL news that true football fanatics need. Seven three All right, Well,
Speaker 1: one third of the Packers draft class three of the
Speaker 1: nine selections were on the offensive line. Now, I will admit,
Speaker 1: because most of the time the offensive linemen were doing
Speaker 1: drills all the way across the field from where we
Speaker 1: were standing, I'm not going to sit here and say
Speaker 1: I saw all kinds of things. Go, I have a
Speaker 1: scouting report on every guy. I can tell you that
Speaker 1: what I was, what I was going to what I
Speaker 1: was going to say is that even though I didn't
Speaker 1: didn't don't really have a whole lot to say here
Speaker 1: with regard to Josh Meyers, Cole Van Landon, and Royce Newman,
Speaker 1: I did see Royce Newman's hair from all the way
Speaker 1: across the field. Um. Sorry, I just had to throw
Speaker 1: that in there. But uh, but no, the Packers drafted
Speaker 1: drafted three offensive linemen. Um, certainly, uh certainly, size wise,
Speaker 1: they all look like they belong. And as you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about this before, we're gonna see these guys
Speaker 1: through O, T, A s and everything like that. But
Speaker 1: until those pads go on in training camp, and you
Speaker 1: start seeing these young offensive linemen, you know, banging it
Speaker 1: around with veteran defensive linemen handling their one on ones. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the one on one pass rush, pass protection drill,
Speaker 1: those kinds of things. We won't really get much of
Speaker 1: a sense of of the offensive lineman, but certainly from
Speaker 1: a size perspective, you can see how they fit the
Speaker 1: type of lineman that Green Bay likes to bring in here.
Speaker 1: No question, didn't mean to step on your voice either
Speaker 1: with that punch line. That's a good one. Uh. Here's
Speaker 1: the one thing I did notice you and I covered
Speaker 1: Scott Wells, Jeff Saturday, Evan Smith, Corey Lindsley was an
Speaker 1: upgrade in terms of size of those centers. Was a
Speaker 1: bigger guy. Then you see Josh Myers, and while I'm
Speaker 1: guessing him and Corey are probably right around the same weight,
Speaker 1: Josh is you know, two inches taller. Uh. Now, again,
Speaker 1: nobody's annointing him the starting center. He's gonna have to
Speaker 1: work for the Packers. The thing about how versatile and
Speaker 1: how deep they are, that starting offensive line could basically
Speaker 1: take any form they wanted to. I don't know if
Speaker 1: going into training camp absent of David baxt R, who's
Speaker 1: still coming back from the e c L. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you can pencil anybody in at a specific spot.
Speaker 1: That being said, if Josh Myers does win the center job,
Speaker 1: it's going to give them their biggest asset they've really
Speaker 1: had at that position in decades. When you look at
Speaker 1: where he was drafted, the size of that position, and
Speaker 1: just his kind of legacy and pedigree, and what I
Speaker 1: like about it is that's kind of the way the
Speaker 1: league is trended. You know. I even asked him that
Speaker 1: on Friday. You know, when you look at your size
Speaker 1: and your makeup, what allows you to sort of succeed
Speaker 1: at that level? Because six ft five you would think,
Speaker 1: you know, smaller, powerful defensive tackles are gonna be able
Speaker 1: to get up over the shoulders on him. And as
Speaker 1: Meyer said, He's like, you know, I've just my athleticism,
Speaker 1: my footwork, and my ability to get low. That is
Speaker 1: what is what enabled him to stay at that spot.
Speaker 1: He likes center, he embraces center, and Mike if that's
Speaker 1: the way that this whole deck would shuffle out, that
Speaker 1: is a body type that they've never had at that position,
Speaker 1: at least as long as I can remember. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: certainly seeing a bit of a change in that direction.
Speaker 1: And it's and as we talked about on a previous show,
Speaker 1: not just with the Packers drafting Josh Meyers, but we've
Speaker 1: seen it around the league that that, you know, these
Speaker 1: guys who are six ft four, six ft five playing center,
Speaker 1: it's not as rare as it used to be. At
Speaker 1: starting to become a little more calm. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: just remember how like crazy people thought Seattle was when
Speaker 1: they moved justin britt there. That was a big storyline
Speaker 1: when you had a six ft five center, And now, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the way these things go. If you have
Speaker 1: a quarterback that meets some of those those you know,
Speaker 1: things of either being over that six two range or
Speaker 1: being able to escape the pocket, it opens up some
Speaker 1: options for you there. And that's probably why you've seen
Speaker 1: over the last twenty five years those rules and regulations
Speaker 1: kind of change a little bit. On the offensive line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: another interesting element we got kind of a close up
Speaker 1: look at because the running backs were doing their drills
Speaker 1: on our side of the field, you know, where where
Speaker 1: we were stationed with the rest of the media Kylan Hill,
Speaker 1: the seventh round pick from Mississippi State in the mix.
Speaker 1: But also because rookie mini camps will allow for certain
Speaker 1: players if you if you don't have enough service time
Speaker 1: on on a fifty three man roster, etcetera, you can
Speaker 1: still participate in a rookie mini camp even though you're
Speaker 1: not technically a rookie anymore. And that actually allowed both
Speaker 1: Mike Webber and Patrick Taylor, two running backs the pack
Speaker 1: Packers are bringing back from last year to participate in
Speaker 1: the rookie mini camps. So suddenly there, as far as
Speaker 1: the running backs were concerned, you had you have three
Speaker 1: of the four guys Dexter Williams was the one who
Speaker 1: is not there, but three of the four guys who
Speaker 1: are going to be competing for the number three running
Speaker 1: back job behind Aaron Jones and a J. Dillon Um
Speaker 1: And it's interesting, I guess I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: no two running backs are ever exactly alike, right there
Speaker 1: definitely definitely some some different body types, and I think
Speaker 1: as we get in a training camp will see what
Speaker 1: some of the strengths and weaknesses are with regard to
Speaker 1: these players. But one thing that stood out to me
Speaker 1: from the two practices over the weekend is all three
Speaker 1: of those guys, Taylor, Webber, and Hill all showed some
Speaker 1: hands in terms of catching passes out of the backfield,
Speaker 1: and not just not just making the routine one, but
Speaker 1: making some tough catches on some throws that maybe we're
Speaker 1: a little bit you know, to the sideline this way
Speaker 1: or maybe a little high. They were snagging those and
Speaker 1: and and bringing those in. It was actually, it was
Speaker 1: actually a pretty pretty impressive set of drills for a
Speaker 1: while there. Yeah, you're absolutely right on that. This time
Speaker 1: of the year, rookie minicamp, a lot of it is
Speaker 1: just trying to get acclimated, trying to get these guys
Speaker 1: up to speeds so when they bring the vets back in,
Speaker 1: they don't have to skip a beat. They don't have
Speaker 1: to take you know, time to show these guys what's expected.
Speaker 1: They know it. But occasionally in these summer practices you
Speaker 1: see the competition begin, and in this case, I thought
Speaker 1: that was really true. With running back. Uh, we don't
Speaker 1: get to talk to them. We did talk to Kylan
Speaker 1: Hill on Saturday, but you definitely got the field, like,
Speaker 1: you know what those guys are running routes out of
Speaker 1: the backfield. You know, you saw Kylan Hill and Mike
Speaker 1: Webber both really extend to catch passes. Maybe weren't right
Speaker 1: where they were supposed to be because that was what
Speaker 1: the expectation was and they want to show that they
Speaker 1: can handle it. Guy like Patrick Taylor, Mike he's a
Speaker 1: guy whos been very high on since the beginning. Not
Speaker 1: trying to pat myself on the back, but anybody would
Speaker 1: tell you this. I mean, six ft two seventeen pounds
Speaker 1: almost kind of reminds you of a little bit thicker
Speaker 1: James Starks in that way, and a guy that was
Speaker 1: really going to be the bell Cow, at least it
Speaker 1: looked that way from Memphis going into his last year
Speaker 1: there he has I believe it was the List Frank injury,
Speaker 1: the foot injury, and then it kind of wipes him
Speaker 1: out for most of that season and caused them to
Speaker 1: MRS Rookie Season in Green Bay. But the Packers knew
Speaker 1: that when they signed him as an undrafted free agent
Speaker 1: they wanted him in the fold. He was around all
Speaker 1: last year on pup. He practiced a little bit at
Speaker 1: the end of last season. I'm really excited about watching
Speaker 1: this running back battle happened because you have Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: and AJ Dillon, you have the h back types that
Speaker 1: will help with some of the blocking. But Matt Laflora
Speaker 1: said it, he wants three options back there, and then Wells,
Speaker 1: Hill and Taylor, and then also throwing Dexter back into
Speaker 1: that equation. Once they get back to O. T A. S.
Speaker 1: You have four different types of running backs to choose
Speaker 1: from there, and it's kind of up to the Packers
Speaker 1: to pick their own adventure. Yeah, I think this is
Speaker 1: gonna this This number three running back competition is going
Speaker 1: to be really interesting, and I know we mentioned before
Speaker 1: a lot of it will probably come down to the
Speaker 1: preseason games. As these guys get you know, get carries.
Speaker 1: They're not necessarily running scripted plays like they are in practice.
Speaker 1: You get to see, okay, how quickly can they hit
Speaker 1: the whole how how can they can they break tackles,
Speaker 1: you know, make guys miss what do they look like
Speaker 1: in that live action in the preseason games. But the
Speaker 1: one thing that I think is going to be watched
Speaker 1: really really closely in practice, uh this summer, as opposed
Speaker 1: to the preseason games, we may not see as much
Speaker 1: as the past protection because in the preseason games. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe Robert sala as a good friend of Matt Lafleur,
Speaker 1: when his Jets are playing the Packers in the preseason,
Speaker 1: he'll dial up some blitz is there to test the
Speaker 1: young running backs, but doesn't happen very often in preseason games, right,
Speaker 1: So the blitz pick up drills and in the eleven
Speaker 1: on eleven in training camp, that's where these young running
Speaker 1: backs are going to be put to the test in
Speaker 1: terms of in terms of the past protection and will
Speaker 1: and we will see potentially some separation there. You think
Speaker 1: back to with the three running backs the Packers had drafted.
Speaker 1: They had the three rookies there, Williams, Jones, and DeVante May's.
Speaker 1: We saw Jamal Williams separate himself immediately because he was
Speaker 1: a step ahead in the past protection part of it
Speaker 1: right from the beginning as a young player. Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: is certainly more than caught up in that respect over
Speaker 1: the last few years. But that's I think something we're
Speaker 1: gonna be watching closely come August as as the past
Speaker 1: protection drills take place out there in training camp. And
Speaker 1: you saw last year, Mike, I mean when the you know,
Speaker 1: injuries hit and then unfortunately the COVID issue flared up
Speaker 1: with both you know A. J. Dillon and Jamal Williams
Speaker 1: being a close contact, had to go on that that
Speaker 1: list and miss a game that that originally meant that
Speaker 1: it was gonna have to be dexter Williams and then
Speaker 1: they had to make some shifts and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: But you never know when your number is going to
Speaker 1: get called, and that's why it matters. But Kylan Hill,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see him try to get his
Speaker 1: career back going here. He obviously had that tremendous season
Speaker 1: two years ago. He opts out after three games after
Speaker 1: Mike Leach takes over, so he's sort of an unknown
Speaker 1: commodity in some regards despite being a former All SEC
Speaker 1: running back. So again, you talk about storylines and training
Speaker 1: camp in preseason games, running backs always one of them
Speaker 1: because it's the most easy to point to, it's the
Speaker 1: most easy to the naked eye to be able to
Speaker 1: look and understand and see who could potentially separate themselves.
Speaker 1: And in this particular case, this is one of the
Speaker 1: more captivating battles that we're probably going to see at
Speaker 1: that position. And sometime, yeah, absolutely anything else from rookie weekend.
Speaker 1: You want to touch on here before we sign off
Speaker 1: for the day. Yeah, I mean, you know, the Packers
Speaker 1: were in an interesting spot. They had up to five
Speaker 1: trial players that they could have brought in. They only
Speaker 1: chose to use three of those. Certainly the COVID things
Speaker 1: changed it. The Packers went from two thousand nineteen having
Speaker 1: forty nine players at that rookie orientation camp. Surprisingly, Alan
Speaker 1: Lazard was one of them. It just shows you how
Speaker 1: fast time moves, considering the role that he's carved out
Speaker 1: for himself to this year, they you know, could only
Speaker 1: use twenty eight. So how did they use those spots?
Speaker 1: But with only having two quarterbacks on the roster, or
Speaker 1: at least that were eligible going into the weekend, that
Speaker 1: meant that they had to bring in some tryout players.
Speaker 1: So Chad Kelly, former seventh round pick, had an opportunity
Speaker 1: and Kirk ben Kurt Kurt ben Kurt, I gotta make
Speaker 1: sure I get that right, was the other tryout guy
Speaker 1: spent three seasons with Atlanta and then also Elvin Jones Jr.
Speaker 1: Eron's twin brother at linebackers also brought in and Ben
Speaker 1: Kurt was the one that ended up getting the job
Speaker 1: the ninety spot on the rosters. So a guy that,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, had been developed for three years with
Speaker 1: the Falcons if Falcons thought enough of them to keep
Speaker 1: him around, played two seasons at u v A. Was
Speaker 1: very successful, They're very productive. So excited to see what
Speaker 1: he brings to this competition. But with Blake portals four
Speaker 1: quarterbacks on the roster, Uh, it's gonna be an interesting
Speaker 1: summer as we get into the height of the off
Speaker 1: season program. Yeah, and we will get our first look
Speaker 1: at Blake Bortles in a Packer uniform next week when
Speaker 1: O t A s begin. I believe we're going to
Speaker 1: get to watch maybe one practice a week and uh,
Speaker 1: and you know, we'll see what see what we see
Speaker 1: at the quarterback position. Any predictions on the numbers yet,
Speaker 1: Bortles has only worn number five, and as we know here,
Speaker 1: it's unofficially retired, so very curious to see which one
Speaker 1: he picks. Can't pick fifteen either. Yeah, I've never been
Speaker 1: a big numbers guy, but in this particular case, especially
Speaker 1: with eight already being taken by Marie Rogers, Marie Rogers
Speaker 1: taking number eight, it's all my eye on that one.
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good. 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 for West, I'm Mike. Thank you
Speaker 1: for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.