Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field, back from Denver,
Speaker 1: West and it bottom line, it wasn't pretty on Sunday night.
Speaker 1: Twenty seven to two was the final score of the
Speaker 1: preseason game. And we can talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: what happened, and there certainly were some positives from the game,
Speaker 1: but the bottom line is listening to Matt Lafleur after
Speaker 1: the game and he was talking about the effort, the strain,
Speaker 1: the grit that he's looking for from his team. I
Speaker 1: think he was already trying to send a message on
Speaker 1: Sunday night from Denver that this week, this final week
Speaker 1: of the preseason, leading up to the roster decisions, and
Speaker 1: everything is going to be about effort, strain, and grit.
Speaker 1: It's going to be about what he wants to see
Speaker 1: from his players, regardless of what the results are.
Speaker 2: Yep, I thought that was the biggest thing. It wasn't
Speaker 2: so much about what the reaction was to that loss.
Speaker 2: It's what the response is going to be this week
Speaker 2: olding to Baltimore because now you're the team that's going
Speaker 2: to hold serve here, You're the team that's going to
Speaker 2: be hosting the joint practice against the Ravens, and ultimately
Speaker 2: that is the quote unquote final audition on Saturday for
Speaker 2: starting jobs, for roster spots, for everything in this competition.
Speaker 2: It's a marason, but we are entering that final stretch
Speaker 2: and it's important to have that kick to get you
Speaker 2: to where you want to go. At the end, it
Speaker 2: was a disappointing result. I mean, obviously we talked about
Speaker 2: it with some of our other videos. Friday's practice. You know,
Speaker 2: the Broncos in some ways kind of handed it to
Speaker 2: Green Bay, especially after that maybe that first forty five
Speaker 2: minutes it seemed like everything on Denver's side was sort
Speaker 2: of going its way. Now it is a challenge. I
Speaker 2: know everybody in the locker room will never use this
Speaker 2: as an excuse when you're going up against a first
Speaker 2: team in second you know, defense and offense. But that
Speaker 2: being said, for me, it was more about when the
Speaker 2: Broncos started to cycle out their starters for there was
Speaker 2: the response and the urgency to get that thing turned around.
Speaker 2: Just didn't seem to be quite there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree that that's the way I felt. It's
Speaker 1: what I was saying and the live blogg during the game,
Speaker 1: I said it again an insider inbox when through basically
Speaker 1: through the first quarter, quarter and a half of that game,
Speaker 1: it was the Broncos starters against the Packers two's the
Speaker 1: second unit players, and the Broncos controlled the action. There's
Speaker 1: no doubt about that. They were dominating the action. The
Speaker 1: Packers got knocked back on their heels in that first
Speaker 1: quarter and quarter and a half when the starters were
Speaker 1: in there, but then when the Broncos started substituting, it
Speaker 1: just felt like the Packers never responded. They sort of
Speaker 1: felt it just felt like they were still on their
Speaker 1: heels the whole game, like the tone of the game
Speaker 1: had been set by the Broncos starters in really what
Speaker 1: was kind of an NFL mismatch when you have starters
Speaker 1: against a complete second team unit. But the Packers were
Speaker 1: never able to change that tone. They were never able
Speaker 1: to alter what was going on, even when it became
Speaker 1: more of a quote unquote fair fight with twos against
Speaker 1: twos or threes against threes, particularly on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. I thought after the initial ten to
Speaker 1: nothing spurt by bo Nix and Denver's starting offense, after that,
Speaker 1: I thought the Packers defense actually did okay because really
Speaker 1: the only points they gave up the rest of the
Speaker 1: game were on short fields after turnovers, turnover on downs.
Speaker 1: There was the interception, there was the fumble on the
Speaker 1: strip sack, So I thought the Packers' defense held up
Speaker 1: decently well after Denver starters left the game. There were
Speaker 1: some mistackles, they allowed some third down conversions. I'm sure
Speaker 1: they'd like to have back, But on balance, that are right.
Speaker 1: It was you know, whether it was Sean Clifford at
Speaker 1: quarterback or Michael Pratt, no matter who was in there
Speaker 1: on the offensive line, the running game just never really
Speaker 1: got going. There was never anything consistently established there. You know,
Speaker 1: some misthrows we heard after the game, some some poorly
Speaker 1: run routes, you know. So it wasn't just on one guy.
Speaker 1: And Matt Lafleur made sure to say that the offensive
Speaker 1: struggles were not entirely on the quarterbacks. He wasn't excusing
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks, but to say that it was all because
Speaker 1: of those guys would not be accurate. That being said,
Speaker 1: it's on It's on everybody, the guys up front, the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: the guys on defense who missed some tackles, whatever the
Speaker 1: case might be. It's on everybody to rebound, to bounce
Speaker 1: back this week, to learn something from what happened in Denver,
Speaker 1: and and to really kind of look in the mirror
Speaker 1: and just say, hey, that's not us, right, that's not
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers. I think that's the message the
Speaker 1: coaches are going to try to send this week. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I found it funny to you know, some people at
Speaker 2: incenter inbox were asking about like, well, what is this
Speaker 2: really show? I mean, that is that big of a
Speaker 2: gap between starting lever players in the NFL and like,
Speaker 2: you know, the back win guys. I thought it was
Speaker 2: interesting because I was like, well, yeah, look at the
Speaker 2: contract difference between Mike mclinchy and Patrick Certan and what
Speaker 2: the base minimum is for in NFL first or second
Speaker 2: year player. That tells you the discrepancy between those level
Speaker 2: of players in the NFL, right, And.
Speaker 1: I think what people have to understand too. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously we're not trying to make excuses for the Packers here,
Speaker 1: and it really was about the effort and and the
Speaker 1: grit and all that. The Packers just didn't display that
Speaker 1: in the game. So I'm not going to say that
Speaker 1: it was there. But when everybody's getting kind of getting
Speaker 1: all worked up and crazy about just where the Packers'
Speaker 1: depth is, if you know, starters go down and what now,
Speaker 1: you have to understand it was an entire unit of
Speaker 1: backups that was on the field, not just like one
Speaker 1: player here or there that needs to be substituted for.
Speaker 1: It was an entire unit of backups against an entire
Speaker 1: unit of starters for a quarter to a quarter and
Speaker 1: a half. That's going to be a mismatch in this league,
Speaker 1: no matter who you're up against. I'm sorry, you know.
Speaker 1: And the Packers decided they that they were more interested
Speaker 1: in protecting their starters from the risk of injury and
Speaker 1: using this game regardless of how the Broncos wanted to
Speaker 1: play it, using this game as an evaluation tool to
Speaker 1: decide who's going to make this team, Who do they
Speaker 1: feel can help them, can contribute somewhere down the road,
Speaker 1: who individually will be ready to step in for somebody
Speaker 1: else if the need arises down the road, which it will, so.
Speaker 2: Very different situations too, where the Denver Broncos are at home.
Speaker 2: I think I think there's a big difference between if
Speaker 2: you're hosting those joint practices.
Speaker 1: I totally agree. We were talking about that when we
Speaker 1: were out in Denver. We've seen it. You and I
Speaker 1: have been on the road for joint practices. We've been
Speaker 1: at home for joint practices. It is a very different
Speaker 1: feel when you are the road team at somebody else's
Speaker 1: practice facility.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, and that was the way it worked out,
Speaker 2: and yeah, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, with that, I do think there were there
Speaker 1: were a few guys that are worth talking about who
Speaker 1: who did show up and showed something I think to
Speaker 1: the coaching staff in this game. And where I start
Speaker 1: with that is at the linebacker position, the off ball
Speaker 1: linebacker spot, and two guys in particular, the rookie third
Speaker 1: round pick for Missouri, Tyron Hopper, and the Veterans special
Speaker 1: team or Christian Welch. I thought both of those guys
Speaker 1: really showed up in this game and showed that. I
Speaker 1: don't expect either guy to be a starter for the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers. That is not the way things appear
Speaker 1: to be. Unfolding. But I think both of those guys
Speaker 1: showed that if they get called upon, they're going to
Speaker 1: step in and play well.
Speaker 2: First off, looking at Christian Welch, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: a guy that has been in the National Football League
Speaker 2: for four years now. He has cut his teeth mostly
Speaker 2: on special teams, but he knows better than anybody with
Speaker 2: the route that he took and kind of coming the
Speaker 2: long way. You need to be able to maximize your
Speaker 2: minutes in the preseason. You have to have big plays
Speaker 2: on defense to kind of, you know, show yourself. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's a reason why he went so hard to that
Speaker 2: loose fumble against Cleven There's a reason why he jumped
Speaker 2: as high as anybody on the field to get after
Speaker 2: that interception in the second half, both plays getting off
Speaker 2: to a better start, I thought really helped propel the Packers'
Speaker 2: defense to our better performance in the second half with
Speaker 2: the way that they performed. But then on the other
Speaker 2: side of it, you have Tyron Hopper, who unfortunately had
Speaker 2: the ankle injured crop up on him, has not been
Speaker 2: out there, and even when he was, you had Edrin Cooper,
Speaker 2: so he was kind of like the Tucker Craft to
Speaker 2: the Luke Musgrave a little bit where he's not getting
Speaker 2: all those number one reps and all that type of stuff. Well,
Speaker 2: this game, Mike, he was able to be the mic
Speaker 2: for it for most of the second half and being
Speaker 2: able to get those reps and not come up with
Speaker 2: eleven tackles. Was it flawless? No? Are the things to
Speaker 2: learn from, yes, but you have to be able to
Speaker 2: learn those things. And the Green Bay Packers is they
Speaker 2: if you remember this, when they first drafted Hopper, they said,
Speaker 2: this is a guy we really like his upside, like
Speaker 2: his explosiveness. We think he's going to be a good
Speaker 2: football player. But they also talked about how he could
Speaker 2: be a contributor to on special teams. Yeah. Well, now
Speaker 2: he's lined up both offensively or excuse me, defensively and
Speaker 2: on special teams against a guy that has quite literally
Speaker 2: carved out a career for himself in that phase as well.
Speaker 2: So talking to Hopper a little bit about that afterwards
Speaker 2: and just the working with Welch and what that's done
Speaker 2: for him. You know, Hopper obviously is a third round pick.
Speaker 2: Ninety nine point nine percent is on this fifty three
Speaker 2: man roster. Welch just doesn't have that type of security
Speaker 2: right now. Yeah, but he's proving once again why he's
Speaker 2: been able to stay in the league as long as
Speaker 2: he has and just exactly the type of value he
Speaker 2: provides to the Packers as one of those depth linebackers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when Hopper was drafted in the third round that
Speaker 1: second night of the draft, the phrase that stuck out
Speaker 1: to me when we heard from buying Guda Kunst and
Speaker 1: talking about him is in reviewing his film and why
Speaker 1: they liked him, they referred to his stopping power. And
Speaker 1: so a guy like that comes into your program. But
Speaker 1: all through you know, OTA's mini camp, there's no pads.
Speaker 1: You know, it's you know, there isn't. There isn't the
Speaker 1: level of physical contact. We were going to have to
Speaker 1: wait until we saw him. And even in training camp
Speaker 1: there isn't. You don't really get to see that because
Speaker 1: it's all it's all thud and tagging off and and whatnot.
Speaker 1: We were gonna have to wait to a preseason game
Speaker 1: to see the actual stopping power of Tyron Hopper in action.
Speaker 1: And he missed the first preseason game in Cleveland. Well,
Speaker 1: in this game against Denver, he was out there and
Speaker 1: you saw what Brian Gouda Kunz was talking about when
Speaker 1: he said stopping power, because when Tyron Hopper hit the
Speaker 1: running back in the hole, the momentum of the ballcarrier
Speaker 1: was stopped and and there you can't you can't coach
Speaker 1: that kind of thing in a football player. It's just
Speaker 1: it's his style of play. It's it's the body type,
Speaker 1: it's how he uses his body and his leverage. And
Speaker 1: I thought it was I thought it was pretty impressive,
Speaker 1: like you, like you just said, was it a perfect performance?
Speaker 1: By no means there are going to be things that
Speaker 1: he's going to look at on the film and go, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do this, but I can do that better.
Speaker 1: The coaches are going to work with him on that.
Speaker 1: But Tyron Hopper in his first preseason game as a
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packer, he came as advertised that he that's
Speaker 1: what we were told the type of player that he was,
Speaker 1: and I thought he showed up in that fashion.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And now has that opportunity going into Baltimore, probably
Speaker 2: will play quite a bit, you'd imagine as well.
Speaker 1: I would imagine so.
Speaker 2: And the other thing too, You've had a chance to
Speaker 2: talk to him before as well. It's so weird to
Speaker 2: me when people would look at these numbers with these
Speaker 2: guys like him and Cooper both coming out of college,
Speaker 2: and it's like, oh, they're right around the two thirty mark. Boy, Michael,
Speaker 2: I don't know what it was like covered in NFL
Speaker 2: locker room in nineteen ninety five, you know, or when
Speaker 2: you had the Winston Moss type, you know, linebackers out there.
Speaker 2: But I do not think Tyron Hopper is small, like
Speaker 2: just just his length, his size, the way he carries
Speaker 2: his weight. I mean, these are real supreme premier athletes
Speaker 2: that we're dealing with. And if you can stand up
Speaker 2: to a hunter or excuse me, a two hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty pound running back in the hole with that frame, boy,
Speaker 2: I think you really got a chance because it all
Speaker 2: so is going to be what helps you on the
Speaker 2: coverage aspect of it as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, we saw the Packers continue to try to
Speaker 1: figure some things out on the offensive line, working different
Speaker 1: guys at tackle. We saw again Sean Ryan, Jacob Munk,
Speaker 1: guys like that working at the at the interior spots.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a good performance by the Packers offensive line.
Speaker 1: And and I'm no expert by any means I haven't
Speaker 1: gone over all the film, you know, frame by frame
Speaker 1: or play by play or anything like that. But I'm
Speaker 1: sure with what happened out there, especially against Denver's starting defense,
Speaker 1: that the Packers have have some film to evaluate to
Speaker 1: sort things out here in terms of and there's still
Speaker 1: a week to go there. You know, nothing has been
Speaker 1: one hundred percent set in stone yet, but I have
Speaker 1: to believe that they they got some pretty good evaluation
Speaker 1: as to the players that that on the offensive line
Speaker 1: in terms of those backups and how they want to
Speaker 1: how they want to arrange that room for the start
Speaker 1: of the regular season, the direction that they're going to go.
Speaker 2: They mix it up. In this game, we saw Travis Glover,
Speaker 2: the rookie sixth round pick out of Georgia State. He
Speaker 2: ended up going in with the number twos at right tackle.
Speaker 2: He traditionally has been working as a number three right tackle.
Speaker 2: That allowed Kadeem Telford then to go over to the
Speaker 2: left side after Andrey Diller had started at left tackle.
Speaker 2: Later on in the game, Caleb Jones comes in, so
Speaker 2: they were working and matching the guys a little bit.
Speaker 2: Glover ended up with forty eight the offensive snaps eighty
Speaker 2: one percent of the total. The fifty nine total Jacob
Speaker 2: Munk but was working between two different spots forty two
Speaker 2: snaps seventy one percent of the total. Telford had thirty
Speaker 2: nine snaps in this game. That's what you want to do.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Packers still have a lot of figuring
Speaker 2: out to do, and the fact that Sean Ryan started
Speaker 2: at center as they've kind of tried to do. Even
Speaker 2: though he is right now I think in that right
Speaker 2: guard role because of the injury to Jordan Morgan, they
Speaker 2: still are looking at him as potentially the movable chess
Speaker 2: piece there as well in this offensive line. Everybody had
Speaker 2: something to learn from this. Everybody had something they could
Speaker 2: take away from it. They did get the running game
Speaker 2: going a little bit better in the second half. You
Speaker 2: saw the one explosive play they had with Emmanuel Wilson.
Speaker 2: Again another reminder that if you just give Wilson a
Speaker 2: little bit of wiggle room there, the guy is going
Speaker 2: to be able to create with it. I know, I
Speaker 2: saw Manuel's tweet. I know he wasn't happy with his performance.
Speaker 2: I know the pressure that was there with him going
Speaker 2: back to Denver. But again, this is a guy that continues.
Speaker 2: I feel like to be the Belkow for this team
Speaker 2: in this preseason and did the best with what he could.
Speaker 2: As far as this old line goes, I think it
Speaker 2: is going. It's going to go right down to the
Speaker 2: wire and trying to figure out exactly who that swing
Speaker 2: tackle is going to be. Who's going to be your
Speaker 2: eight to nine on the offensive line. You know, Jacob
Speaker 2: Munk obviously the fifth round pick, has an inside track
Speaker 2: on that. You know. You know, Jordan Morgan, hopefully they
Speaker 2: get him back in here. He could see a preseason
Speaker 2: action this week. We'll wait and see if that is
Speaker 2: something that comes to fruition, right, But there's so many
Speaker 2: guys Michael probably outside of Elton, Josh Myers and Zach
Speaker 2: tom that could really use the work still, So it'll
Speaker 2: be interesting to see how they allocate those reps because
Speaker 2: that has been a rotation that has continued through out
Speaker 2: the spring, in the summer and it continues to fluctuate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a reminder in some ways too for
Speaker 1: me just how just how thin the margins can be
Speaker 1: in some respects, and people are gonna say thin the
Speaker 1: margins twenty seven to two, Like, what are you talking about? Well,
Speaker 1: take a look at the Packers opening series. You have
Speaker 1: a backup offensive unit against a starting defense the first
Speaker 1: third down of the game, and Adam Stenovitch says, let's
Speaker 1: take a shot right single coverage on the outside with
Speaker 1: Malik Heath. And that was a heck of a ball
Speaker 1: by Sean Clifford, and Heath made a heck of an
Speaker 1: effort to try to haul it in, just couldn't quite
Speaker 1: get it on the dive inside the ten yard line,
Speaker 1: or at least in the red zone down there, Malie
Speaker 1: Heath comes up with that catch, We're having a completely
Speaker 1: different conversation about where the Packers are, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: that play was darn close to being a big one
Speaker 1: of backup guys against a starting defensive unit. So I
Speaker 1: just wanted to point that out because I thought in
Speaker 1: this receiver competition, because we had talked about bow Melton,
Speaker 1: Grand Dubo's and whatnot, I thought Malie Heath showed up
Speaker 1: in this game. He made I believe it was three receptions.
Speaker 1: He had other targets his way. That big one early
Speaker 1: in the ballgame would have been huge to come down with,
Speaker 1: but it was that close. And when I talk about
Speaker 1: the Packers getting knocked on their heels. Well, the Packers
Speaker 1: were that close to throwing the first punch in this
Speaker 1: game with their backup players. So something to keep in
Speaker 1: mind here going forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if I may, I mean, that's a great
Speaker 2: point you raise because I wrote this an insight or inbox.
Speaker 2: It goes back to twenty twelve for me with Graham
Speaker 2: Harrell and the second and third team offense back then,
Speaker 2: which was kind of struggling at points during that training
Speaker 2: camp Kansas City. At that point they decided, Hey, I
Speaker 2: think it was when Todd Haley was still the head
Speaker 2: coach that last preseason game against Green Bay, We're going
Speaker 2: to run our starters for the first half. So Graham
Speaker 2: Harrell in the backup offensive line they had to go
Speaker 2: up against that. Harrow was almost perfect in the first half,
Speaker 2: and that's what solidified himself. Right, It's the opportunity, it's
Speaker 2: what presented to you. Everybody understands that's how goes. And
Speaker 2: I talked to Tyler Davis about this after the game, and,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of lamenting how everything went. He said, Listen,
Speaker 2: all of our second team guys, most of these guys
Speaker 2: have played in NFL games. Most of these guys have
Speaker 2: seen this type of competition before. We have to be
Speaker 2: able to reach that challenge. And now, however it shuffles
Speaker 2: out this week. Matt Lefuer said afterwards, he isn't exactly
Speaker 2: sure at the time in which we're taping this how
Speaker 2: he's going to allocate this last preseason game. Who's going
Speaker 2: to be a bit available, who won't be, But whoever's
Speaker 2: out there, this is it. This is your last shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, a little bit of sponsor business here. West
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Speaker 1: subs fifty plus years of better. All right, before we go,
Speaker 1: I'll just throw this out. You throw this out at
Speaker 1: you A little bit open ended, whether it involves the
Speaker 1: Ravens and the joint practice in the game or not.
Speaker 1: The Packers had there are two open practices left for
Speaker 1: the fans for training camp Tuesday afternoon and then also
Speaker 1: on Thursday, the joint practice against Baltimore. What's going to
Speaker 1: be the news this week, what are the storylines? What
Speaker 1: what are the things to watch here during this final
Speaker 1: week of training camp and into the preseason finale on
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2: I'm very curious to see if the they shift the
Speaker 2: gears there with Zach Tom and Tucker Craft. Tucker told
Speaker 2: us right at the beginning of training camp he was
Speaker 2: not expecting to participate in this joint practice. He didn't
Speaker 2: in the team periods he was in Denver. You're saying
Speaker 2: in Denver, yes, yeah, yes, not this week. Uh, he
Speaker 2: didn't want He wasn't expected playing the preseason games. This
Speaker 2: was kind of maybe the time where you start to
Speaker 2: turn the engine up a little.
Speaker 1: Bit, kind of targeting, targeting the tail end here back
Speaker 1: training camp.
Speaker 2: Speaking, you know, in trying to to see if you
Speaker 2: can get where you need to get to Zach Tom
Speaker 2: in the same fashion, Jordan Morgan to bring it all
Speaker 2: around to you. I'm curious to see if we can
Speaker 2: finally start to see this first team offense maybe come
Speaker 2: together jell a little bit more in terms of what
Speaker 2: the pieces are going to be. We know what the
Speaker 2: backfield's going to look like, we know what the top
Speaker 2: four at receiver is going to look like, and to
Speaker 2: some extent, we know how the tight ends are going
Speaker 2: to be. But what is that offensive line going to see?
Speaker 2: How is that those Dominos finally going to just settle?
Speaker 2: What's that going to be? And offensively, can we start
Speaker 2: to feel where this unit is going to go? They
Speaker 2: were so hot at the end of last season, and
Speaker 2: this is a new team, a new year, a new challenge,
Speaker 2: and there has been eight months of film that teams
Speaker 2: have been studying on Jordan Love now trying to have
Speaker 2: their counter to what he's doing. We're not going to
Speaker 2: get all those answers this week, but in terms of
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers trying to have everything settle in
Speaker 2: for what this team's going to look like in Brazil,
Speaker 2: I think this next week is going to be really
Speaker 2: pivotal to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think a lot of eyes all
Speaker 1: week long, both in the regular practices, the joint practice,
Speaker 1: the preseason game. A lot of eyes are going to
Speaker 1: be on the backup quarterbacks here, Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt,
Speaker 1: and we've seen the talent of both of these young
Speaker 1: men on the practice field. We saw it in you know,
Speaker 1: the game in Cleveland. We saw it in preseason games
Speaker 1: last year with Clifford when he was a rookie. So
Speaker 1: the Packers know what they have. I think this this
Speaker 1: week becomes, you know, maybe maybe in terms of the spotlight,
Speaker 1: you know, with with those guys. This week becomes about
Speaker 1: how do they respond to what happened in Denver. Neither
Speaker 1: guy is happy with how things went. I'm sure they
Speaker 1: have a lot of regrets about how they played, and
Speaker 1: it's not fun watching film of that when when you
Speaker 1: see opportunities out there as a quarterback to make plays
Speaker 1: and they weren't made. Whether they were whether they were
Speaker 1: your fault, whether there's somebody else's a combination thereof doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: When you're the quarterback, you feel that those plays have
Speaker 1: to be made. And so I think I in terms
Speaker 1: of that whole rebound bounce back idea, I think Sean
Speaker 1: Clifford and Michael Pratt are they are are guys to
Speaker 1: watch really really closely this week because the Packers need
Speaker 1: to decide who is going to be Jordan Love's backup
Speaker 1: and are they going to keep three cores on the
Speaker 1: fifty three man roster or are they just going to
Speaker 1: go with two. There are a lot of decisions to
Speaker 1: be made here in the next seven to eight days.
Speaker 2: Being in the locker room listening to Sean talk on
Speaker 2: Sunday night, he could not get in the film room
Speaker 2: fast enough. Yeah, he even told the reporters He's like,
Speaker 2: I want to be critiqued. I want to be held
Speaker 2: to the highest standard. That was not good. He's never
Speaker 2: been skunked before. Offensively, He's never been in a game
Speaker 2: where he just his offense has not produced any points
Speaker 2: at any level. So that's something that's sticking in his
Speaker 2: crawl a little bit. And I'm very interested to see.
Speaker 2: Every single time Sean Clifford has been knocked down, sometimes
Speaker 2: in the same exact game, sometimes in back to back series,
Speaker 2: he has bounced back. What is the response from him
Speaker 2: this week. I'm sure he's going to come and highly motivated.
Speaker 2: And a guy like Michael Pratt, who has put together
Speaker 2: really nice practices, has shown in NFL caliber arm YEP
Speaker 2: like Clifford, has played a lot of football. What his
Speaker 2: final statement is going to be this week is going
Speaker 2: to be critical because that ties into this receiving battle.
Speaker 2: It ties into what happens on the offensive line. There's
Speaker 2: so many domino effects that go with the quarterback, so
Speaker 2: many guys. You think about Malik Heath last year, well,
Speaker 2: Malik Heath's case for a roster spot was somewhat booyed
Speaker 2: by what Sean Clifford was doing in those games. So
Speaker 2: that's going to be really critical. And defensively, this joint
Speaker 2: practice will be very interesting once we get to it,
Speaker 2: because it's going to be a Lamar Jackson. It's going
Speaker 2: to be a very untraditional, unconventional offense compared to what
Speaker 2: Green Bay usually sees in the NFC North And how
Speaker 2: Jeff Haffley's system is going to be tested by that.
Speaker 2: How the defensive fronts responsibilities and roles, how that's going
Speaker 2: to be tested in this I think we're going to
Speaker 2: learn a lot and it'll be fun to actually have
Speaker 2: this thing back in green Bay. By the time we
Speaker 2: got done in Denver, Michael, I felt like I'd been
Speaker 2: there for a month, So like, I'm excited to be
Speaker 2: in green Bay.
Speaker 1: We spent Yeah, we spent a long time in Denver
Speaker 1: to do that. In August the other the other one,
Speaker 1: and yes, there are backup positions roster spots to get
Speaker 1: sorted out. But the other high profile competition of course
Speaker 1: going on to which there has not been an answer
Speaker 1: delivered yet, is that kicker and unform. Because the offense
Speaker 1: was struggling throughout the Denver game, there's only one opportunity
Speaker 1: to put points on the board offensively, Greg Joseph missed
Speaker 1: a forty seven yard field goal, but that's all we
Speaker 1: got to see. And even in the joint practice on Friday,
Speaker 1: there were just a few reps you know, from each
Speaker 1: of the kickers or it wasn't the level of the
Speaker 1: kicking competition that we've seen throughout practices. So that's another
Speaker 1: thing I think gets you know, gets a pretty big
Speaker 1: spotlight here in this final week is what are the
Speaker 1: Packers going to do at kicker?
Speaker 2: Packers had one field goal opportunity in there and they
Speaker 2: called number two's number to go out there to do it.
Speaker 2: This has been a back and forth battle. There's been
Speaker 2: times where I felt like Joseph had the lead and
Speaker 2: there's been times where Carlson's pulled himself back out front. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Alex Hale is still on the roster as well. The
Speaker 2: kicker they signed a couple weeks ago. So the Packers
Speaker 2: are in a position right now where they've seen how
Speaker 2: critical it is to have that position locked down and
Speaker 2: to feel confident in who your guy is going to be.
Speaker 2: Much like a lot of these battles, it's been going
Speaker 2: on since April. I mean, it just has been a
Speaker 2: continuous daily grind. Who's going to be the one that
Speaker 2: responds to that? These practices probably are going to be very,
Speaker 2: very interesting to watch. You got one more week here
Speaker 2: to make your statement, and also who gets the opportunities
Speaker 2: in that game against Baltimore. This is the position battle
Speaker 2: that I think everybody has had at the top of
Speaker 2: their list, honestly because of how things ended last season,
Speaker 2: because of the question having you know, Mason Crosby for
Speaker 2: sixteen years, and just even during Mason's downspots, there never
Speaker 2: was a thing where it was like, Okay, well he's
Speaker 2: competing against the Greg Joseph. It never came to that.
Speaker 2: They'd never had a fifth or six year guy in
Speaker 2: here going up against him. It's always was Mason against
Speaker 2: you know, an undrafted guy or somebody that could be
Speaker 2: a potential long term person, developmental prospect. Yeah, now it
Speaker 2: is a real legitimate competition between guys that have kicked
Speaker 2: in the National Football League. And again we're entering that
Speaker 2: final turn and the horses are still pretty close.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. The answer has not been delivered, but with that,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: On our next show, will Ye, we will look ahead
Speaker 1: even more to that joint practice with the Ravens the
Speaker 1: preseason finale against the Ravens. So continue to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of Packers' training camp. We will have
Speaker 1: it all for you on Packers dot com. For Wes,
Speaker 1: I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We
Speaker 1: will see you next time.