Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot com. I am Mike Spofford. He is my
Speaker 1: partner in Crime West and Hodkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: from different locations at lambeau Field and West. Speaking of
Speaker 1: different locations, you are in a brand new spot. My friend,
Speaker 1: tell me, tell me what sent you from whence you
Speaker 1: are now coming?
Speaker 2: Well, Duke Bobber is the one that sent me from
Speaker 2: whence I'm now coming. When you use your boss's office
Speaker 2: too much, eventually he just kicks you out. So I
Speaker 2: think actually the format of the show now moving forward
Speaker 2: should be I just end up in random parts of
Speaker 2: the building for Packers Unscripted today, we are coming to
Speaker 2: you live from the fifth floor suites or the hallways
Speaker 2: right outside of it. I'll be honest with you, Mike,
Speaker 2: this is pretty nice. It's my first time seven years
Speaker 2: is a Green Bay Packers employee, my first time ever
Speaker 2: being on the fifth floor, and uh huh.
Speaker 3: I could get used to this, okay.
Speaker 1: I like the I like the nice, nice new look.
Speaker 1: I like the background looks shark well at.
Speaker 2: The feel I think is what Tyler Gayeski calls it
Speaker 2: depth Okael.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, that would yes, that would be Tyler. Tyler,
Speaker 1: our meticulous photographer in our in our uh video department. Well,
Speaker 1: we're here to talk about the happenings of this past
Speaker 1: weekend at lambeau Field, and specifically I'm talking about the
Speaker 1: annual Rookie Mini Camp, the introduction of the draft class,
Speaker 1: the undrafted rookies, also several tryout players who were taking
Speaker 1: a crack at making the ninety man offseason roster, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that a little more later on in
Speaker 1: the show as well. But Rookie Mini Camp has come
Speaker 1: and gone now for twenty twenty three. And what were
Speaker 1: your impressions, Wes? What what sticks with you? As as now?
Speaker 1: The next time we're going to see these players on
Speaker 1: the field will be during OTA's got our first look
Speaker 1: at him this past weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as always, Mike, I mean, you take the Rookie
Speaker 2: Mini Camp with the grain of salt, because on these
Speaker 2: guys are just trying to understand the process here in
Speaker 2: Green Bay. They're trying to teach him how to practice,
Speaker 2: what the expectations are. In two it's really our first
Speaker 2: time getting in front of these players in the locker room.
Speaker 2: So those are always the biggest two takeaways from this weekend.
Speaker 2: But I'll be honest with you, in my now ten
Speaker 2: years twelve years covering rookie mini camps, I don't know
Speaker 2: if I've ever seen anybody more physically impressive than Lucasfanas.
Speaker 3: Uh he. It's one thing.
Speaker 2: When you and I are sitting here writing these bulletin
Speaker 2: reports and during the draft and doing the stories and
Speaker 2: asking the questions afterwards. It's one thing to look at
Speaker 2: six foot five, two hundred and seventy two pounds, eighty
Speaker 2: one inch wingspan, seventeen size shoe, as he told us
Speaker 2: in the locker room on Friday, But when you actually
Speaker 2: see him out on the field, and even look at
Speaker 2: some of Evan Siegel's photos, Lucas fan asked for a
Speaker 2: twenty one year old man, is a pretty impressive physical specimen.
Speaker 2: And as important and as as deep as this draft
Speaker 2: I feel was for Green Bay in terms of finding
Speaker 2: the guy that getting off the bus is going to
Speaker 2: strike fear into opponents. I think the Packers hit the
Speaker 2: target with Lucas Fanas. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It is interesting, how because we spend so much time
Speaker 1: both pre draft, during the draft, the you know, the
Speaker 1: heights and weights and all the measurables, and you know,
Speaker 1: the numbers are just the numbers, right, And then suddenly
Speaker 1: you see you see these these young men in person,
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, the numbers, the numbers actually mean something,
Speaker 1: They represent something, and they do make a physical impression
Speaker 1: on you.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I was also impressed, not not in the same way
Speaker 1: in terms of just overall stature, but in watching the
Speaker 1: two tight ends, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Craft. Now granted
Speaker 1: this is just you know, running around in shorts and helmets,
Speaker 1: you know, no no pads or anything like that, but
Speaker 1: you can see why the packers are so high on
Speaker 1: the athleticism of these tight ends and the potential different
Speaker 1: dimension that they could bring to the offense. Obviously, there's, uh,
Speaker 1: there's a long way to go in terms of them,
Speaker 1: you know, learning the playbook and and you know, the
Speaker 1: coaches figuring out exactly what their roles are going to
Speaker 1: be and and and what they do best. But when
Speaker 1: you see a couple of tight ends that are six
Speaker 1: five sixty six and look like you know, they're maybe
Speaker 1: a half step slower than the wide receivers so to speak,
Speaker 1: you know, not not that much difference in terms of
Speaker 1: that off the off the line of scrimmage speed and
Speaker 1: and breaking into routes and and whatnot. It does, Uh,
Speaker 1: it does make an impression on you. And it'll just
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting just to watch these players develop now
Speaker 1: through OTAs and then into training camp and put the
Speaker 1: pads on for the first time. It's a h I
Speaker 1: don't care whether you're Tucker Craft coming from South Dakota
Speaker 1: State or whether you're Lucas van Ness coming from you know,
Speaker 1: Iowa and the Big Ten to the NFL. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a big it's a big step physically and mentally
Speaker 1: and uh and quite frankly, these young men don't have
Speaker 1: a whole lot of time, especially if you're going to
Speaker 1: be counted on to play and contribute early. They don't
Speaker 1: have a whole lot of time to get ready for
Speaker 1: it and prepare for it. But you know, but they're
Speaker 1: going to be asked to They're gonna be asked to
Speaker 1: do everything they can to be ready for week one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Especially you know, if if Mercedes Lewis isn't back, you
Speaker 2: have two guys at six foot five, six foot six
Speaker 2: in that ballpark of two hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 3: That are the I don't want to.
Speaker 2: Say only inline traditional tight ends on the roster, but
Speaker 2: Josiah Deguara obviously more that Swiss army knife, that h
Speaker 2: back type of role. Tyler Davis is still you know,
Speaker 2: has the frame to be a really solid tight end,
Speaker 2: but you know was a former college quarterback, had had
Speaker 2: to make that transition to tight end. Luke muskrat in
Speaker 2: Tucker Kraft, I mean, these guys have been tight end
Speaker 2: since birth basically. I mean when you look at the
Speaker 2: way they're built and the way in which they can accelerate.
Speaker 2: I forget who was saying this to me after the
Speaker 2: rookie mini camp got done, I believe on Saturday, looking
Speaker 2: at them running just some of the routes on air,
Speaker 2: and there was a period where there you know, it's
Speaker 2: the quarterbacks, and then some of the assistant coaches are
Speaker 2: throwing passes. They're doing like five wide type sets, and
Speaker 2: both Craft and Musgrave took passes underneath and the way
Speaker 2: in which they not only caught the ball in rhythm
Speaker 2: but then accelerated upfield. Again, there's no pads, there's no defense.
Speaker 2: You always want to add these caveats, but Yeah, you
Speaker 2: can just tell that these guys are different type of
Speaker 2: athletes and in that same vein you know, Jaden Reid
Speaker 2: I thought very much came as advertised. The conversation I
Speaker 2: had with Larry mcchaern about this was he's just a smooth,
Speaker 2: smooth football player. He gets in and out of his brakes.
Speaker 2: And it's one thing to be successful when you're cutting
Speaker 2: and you're you're doing change of direction stuff, but when
Speaker 2: you can do it with fluidity, I think that's where
Speaker 2: you see these Tyreek Hills of the world sort of
Speaker 2: separate themselves. And in that regard, I think Jayden Reid
Speaker 2: has a lot of intangibles that you look for and
Speaker 2: this next generation of receivers. So as far as those
Speaker 2: first two days of the NFL Draft were concerned, I
Speaker 2: felt like watching those four players perform on Friday and Saturday,
Speaker 2: they are what they are supposed to be. From an
Speaker 2: athletic standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would totally agree. We also get our first chance,
Speaker 1: obviously to meet these players, to talk to them, you know,
Speaker 1: try to try to get a sense of their personalities
Speaker 1: and whatnot a little bit. And over the next you know,
Speaker 1: week and a half, two weeks Wes and I'll have
Speaker 1: some some follow up stories on these draft picks based
Speaker 1: on some of those interviews and other things that we
Speaker 1: dig into. But in terms of those impressions, I just
Speaker 1: I have to say I have to give Penn State
Speaker 1: quarterback Sean Clifford a heck of a lot of credit
Speaker 1: because the media, you know, the media comes in for
Speaker 1: the open locker room session to do interviews, and what's
Speaker 1: immediately noticed by everybody, of course, is that Sean Clifford
Speaker 1: is sitting in Aaron Rodgers old locker and you know
Speaker 1: it's it's his name played up there, Clifford number eight,
Speaker 1: but it's where Rogers has been forever, right. And as
Speaker 1: the media in waves, you know, come up to Clifford
Speaker 1: to to talk to him, he's you know, asked by
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe at least a dozen different reporters, Hey,
Speaker 1: did you know that this is Aaron rodgerss like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think somebody informed me of that along the way.
Speaker 1: And he, I mean, to his credit, he uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he even made a joke about it that that you know,
Speaker 1: he was he came to Green Bay on a pre
Speaker 1: draft visit and saw in the locker room where Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers locker was and then now when he comes back
Speaker 1: as a draft pick like that was his locker, I'd
Speaker 1: imagine that that is something that that feels a little overwhelming.
Speaker 1: But to Clifford's credit, you know, all he's you know,
Speaker 1: all he talked about. All he's focused on is to
Speaker 1: is to learn the playbook, to get the offense down
Speaker 1: to to uh to play whatever role the coaches need
Speaker 1: him to play relative to Jordan Love while also competing,
Speaker 1: you know, with Danny Ettling for the backup quarterback spot,
Speaker 1: and that competition will really get going, you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit in OTAs, but even in a more full
Speaker 1: fledged sense in you know, training camp, in the preseason games.
Speaker 1: But the first impression of Sean Clifford is this is
Speaker 1: this feels like a very grounded young man who has
Speaker 1: has quite the head on his shoulders. And you can
Speaker 1: just tell he's an experienced guy. You know, forty plus
Speaker 1: starts at Penn State, thirty plus victories as a starting
Speaker 1: as a starting quarterback in the Big Ten, and I
Speaker 1: think he's going to be an interesting guy to get
Speaker 1: to know as as his rookie season goes along well.
Speaker 3: And I think the same thing of like a Stetson Bennett, right,
Speaker 3: Like these guys that have played in big moments in
Speaker 3: football hungry cities, in college campuses. They come in as
Speaker 3: Day three picks, but in reality they kind of have
Speaker 3: a Day one mindset in terms of how they approach
Speaker 3: the job. When you look at Clifford situation, and again,
Speaker 3: a kid that beat out Will Levis for Penn State's job,
Speaker 3: he rotated with him the first year there and then
Speaker 3: ultimately Levis decided to transfer and then was the man
Speaker 3: for the next what two and a half years. So
Speaker 3: the other thing too, that I think people have to understand, like, well,
Speaker 3: why would they give away Aaron Rodgers locker with the
Speaker 3: thirteen player draft class. This isn't like the Mike McCarthy
Speaker 3: era ten years ago where seventh round picks were just
Speaker 3: kind of thrown into the Green Mile with all the
Speaker 3: other undrafted guys. The Packers give lockers to all their
Speaker 3: draft picks in the main area. If you don't make
Speaker 3: the team, then they'll transition you back to the practice
Speaker 3: squad or the Green Mile. So with a thirteen player
Speaker 3: draft class and as many returning players they have, I
Speaker 3: think there's like maybe three lockers in the entire main
Speaker 3: area right now that aren't spoken for, and one of
Speaker 3: them is directly next to Jordan Love. And if you
Speaker 3: know anything about the way that we do press conferences
Speaker 3: here in Green Bay, you absolutely do not want to
Speaker 3: have a locker immediately directly next to the starting quarterback.
Speaker 3: So you need to have some room there for that individual.
Speaker 3: But all that being said, I thought Clifford took it
Speaker 3: and stride in. To be honest with you when you're
Speaker 3: talking about this. I had a conversation with Sarah Quick
Speaker 3: Or assistant director of PR on Saturday after Grant two
Speaker 3: Boys got done, and I'm a really interesting conversation between
Speaker 3: my among myself and Grant and Jason Wilding Cassidy Hill,
Speaker 3: and I said, I was like, man, I've just been
Speaker 3: blown away by you know, Grant in a lot of
Speaker 3: these prospects. And Sarah even mentioned she's like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: think all the guys are really good last weekend, and
Speaker 3: I have to agree. I mean, I thought if I
Speaker 3: didn't get to everybody but watching between watching the videos
Speaker 3: and participating in these interviews, I just I mean, you
Speaker 3: could see why these players jumped off the page to
Speaker 3: Green Bay, regardless of whether it's a Lucas van S
Speaker 3: or a kid, you know, like Quarantine Carenton Valentine from Kentucky,
Speaker 3: twenty one years old in the seventh round. You can
Speaker 3: just sense that fire with them and just that professionalism
Speaker 3: and the idea that I, hey, I'm striving for something
Speaker 3: more here in Green Bay. And for that reason, I
Speaker 3: think once training camp comes around in July, this is
Speaker 3: going to be a very exciting year to be covering
Speaker 3: the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, do keep an eye out over the next
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, Wes, and I'll have follow up stories
Speaker 1: based on some of those interviews over Rookie Mini Caamp
Speaker 1: Weekend on the Draft Picks. Some interesting stories to be
Speaker 1: told there and another story and interview I want to
Speaker 1: get to in a moment, Wes, But I will take
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Speaker 3: All right, a.
Speaker 1: Story that you wes have already posted on our website.
Speaker 1: Earlier this week, the pack were allocated a player for
Speaker 1: the first time in what the NFL calls the International
Speaker 1: Pathway Program, and it's a young man named Kenneth Odemegu
Speaker 1: from Nigeria. Has a very interesting story and you've already
Speaker 1: written about it. It's on our site for anybody who
Speaker 1: wants to check it out. I will just say six
Speaker 1: ft six, two hundred and fifty nine pounds. He is
Speaker 1: quite the athlete, and you meant used to use the
Speaker 1: phrase physical specimen earlier. He certainly falls into that category.
Speaker 1: But this is you talk about literally learning the game
Speaker 1: of football from scratch and trying to go from being
Speaker 1: being an athlete and a very impressive looking one, to
Speaker 1: all the way to becoming an NFL player as an adult,
Speaker 1: you know, a as a young man. This is going
Speaker 1: to be a very interesting story here, and he certainly
Speaker 1: has an interesting story to tell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he definitely does, Mike, and it's funny to me too.
Speaker 2: You're mentioned the physical specimen. Well, much like Lucas Vaness,
Speaker 2: who has the nickname Hercules Kenneth Dumagu. He actually also
Speaker 2: has the nickname Hercules, so those two are gonna have
Speaker 2: to kind of banter and battle over this thing. But
Speaker 2: you can see why, I mean the most impressive thing
Speaker 2: about him. In addition to just that, you know, it
Speaker 2: was such a fun interaction he had with the media
Speaker 2: and just kind of telling a little bit of his
Speaker 2: story and where he comes from. When Odemagu actually said
Speaker 2: a year ago, I didn't even know what a line.
Speaker 3: Of scrimmage is.
Speaker 2: To today, I mean now being in a position and
Speaker 2: he's grateful for it. To learn the game at the
Speaker 2: highest level from some of the best coaches and practitioners
Speaker 2: of the sport is going to be very exciting for him.
Speaker 2: For as much as he didn't know, though, I really
Speaker 2: give him a lot of credit for the amount of
Speaker 2: time he spent really diving into the sport first and
Speaker 2: foremost oc Yu Manura. You look at the International Pathway Program,
Speaker 2: everything they've done out in London to try to grow
Speaker 2: the game internationally but also give people opportunity that maybe
Speaker 2: not otherwise would have had them to play this sport.
Speaker 2: Odemegu is a perfect example of that, because this is
Speaker 2: a kid that grew up in Nigeria playing soccer.
Speaker 3: He outgrew the sport. I mean, you don't see a lot.
Speaker 2: Of six foot six, two hundred and sixty pound, you know,
Speaker 2: soccer players, midfielders out on the field. He transitioned to
Speaker 2: basketball and ultimately working through educational basketball program out in Nigeria.
Speaker 2: They felt like, hey, his best spot potentially could be football.
Speaker 2: Oman Eura looked at him, said, hey, you're a defensive end.
Speaker 2: Brought him into his camp at the NFL Africa camp
Speaker 2: in Ghana. He won the Defensive MVP award there. As
Speaker 2: he said, he still has yet to actually play an
Speaker 2: organized football game. All of this has been training and
Speaker 2: combines and all those things. But he's been staying up,
Speaker 2: you know, since coming to the United States in January.
Speaker 2: In addition to his physical training he's been doing, he's
Speaker 2: been reading about this sport. He's been watching videos on YouTube,
Speaker 2: which is something omen Eura kind of suggested to him
Speaker 2: to do. And he talked about the decision he made
Speaker 2: with his parents iding to try to make a run
Speaker 2: at the sport, and there was a really good quote
Speaker 2: in there that I tweeted it afterwards. That was one
Speaker 2: of my favorite bits just one little simple line where
Speaker 2: he said there was something inside of me, something inside
Speaker 2: my heart that made me feel like this is possible.
Speaker 2: And here he is chasing the dream. He already had
Speaker 2: a chance to meet with Shan Gary. He'll be working
Speaker 2: in that outside linebacker room with Preston Smith and Jason Rebrovich.
Speaker 3: And a neat moment.
Speaker 2: Two on Saturday, you know he's going out there, he's stretching,
Speaker 2: and Matt Lafleur, who actually wasn't here on Friday because
Speaker 2: he was down in Madison for Greg Guards cancer charity,
Speaker 2: you know, fundraiser. Just a little bit of a fifth
Speaker 2: step from Matt Lafleur to odemagu at the beginning of practice,
Speaker 2: and it's just like those are the little moments that
Speaker 2: you know, to the onlookers you might not quite understand
Speaker 2: what that means. But for a kid like this that
Speaker 2: is basically dedicated his life to the past year towards
Speaker 2: being one of these eight players that did get allocated
Speaker 2: to an NFL team, eternally grateful for and as he said,
Speaker 2: he wants to be a pioneer for the sport. He
Speaker 2: wants to and not only try to excel in this
Speaker 2: and learn how to play it in the NFL level,
Speaker 2: but also bring it back to his home country and
Speaker 2: give kids the same opportunity he's been afforded now in
Speaker 2: Green Bay.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a story that starts out as you know,
Speaker 1: the longest of long shots, right, So it'll be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see how this unfolds and the Packers will.
Speaker 1: As an International Pathway Program player, he essentially is guaranteed
Speaker 1: a spot on the ninety man offseason roster all the
Speaker 1: way through training camp, and then if he doesn't make
Speaker 1: the fifty three man roster, which is the most likely scenario,
Speaker 1: there is a practice squad exemption for him to be
Speaker 1: able to stick around. So the Packers if they want
Speaker 1: to keep him on the practice squads, he becomes the
Speaker 1: seventeenth practice squad player and you still have your normal
Speaker 1: allocation of sixteen in players in that regard. Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And if I made too Mike, when you were
Speaker 2: talking about the longest of long shots, I want to
Speaker 2: make this point because it's not like, oh, they just
Speaker 2: found Odemega and it's like, yep, you're gonna come to
Speaker 2: the NFL. Well, there was a pretty long process for
Speaker 2: him to make it the camp in Ghana him going
Speaker 2: to the combine. Thirty eight players were invited to the
Speaker 2: combine in London, which was I think five days before
Speaker 2: at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, five days before the Packers played
Speaker 2: the Giants. From that, only eight players were selected to
Speaker 2: be allocated. It's two NFL divisions. I believe it was
Speaker 2: the NFC North and I want to say it was
Speaker 2: the AFC West was the other one. Those are the
Speaker 2: only two divisions this year that have this allocation process.
Speaker 2: It's not like, okay, well they had thirty eight players
Speaker 2: and they just pushed them all around the league.
Speaker 3: Only eight guys got to do this.
Speaker 2: So it tells you exactly how high both the Omenyurra
Speaker 2: is on this but also the NFL to give him
Speaker 2: this opportunity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Packers have already switched him, so to speak.
Speaker 1: He was in the original announcement. He was announced as
Speaker 1: a defensive lineman at six six, two fifty nine. The
Speaker 1: Packers have decided to to try to craft him, mold
Speaker 1: him as an outside linebacker in you know, with that
Speaker 1: that Preston Smith sort of size and frame and uh
Speaker 1: and hey, if oc Umnyura can do something for the Packers,
Speaker 1: aside from break the fans' hearts in those some of
Speaker 1: those uh bosses previously. Yeah, maybe uh maybe something uh
Speaker 1: something good to come out. I kid, of course, oc
Speaker 1: Umnyora is a tremendous, tremendous ambassador for the NFL, even
Speaker 1: though uh he was the the enemy to Packers fans
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of things in some of those postseasons.
Speaker 1: But we'll close close on this one west. As far
Speaker 1: as the news over the weekend from Rookie Mini Camp,
Speaker 1: there were fourteen players who were invited to the Packers
Speaker 1: rookie Mini camp on a tryout basis, and in that respect,
Speaker 1: they're you know, essentially trying to earn a contract as
Speaker 1: an undrafted rookie, as an undrafted free agent onto that
Speaker 1: ninety man offseason roster, and the Packers ended up signing
Speaker 1: three tryout players, Broughton Hatcher, a long snapper from Old Dominion,
Speaker 1: William Hooper, a cornerback from Northwestern State, and Antonio Moultrie,
Speaker 1: a defensive lineman from Alabama Birmingham, u AB. And on
Speaker 1: the news side of things, other than obviously watching these
Speaker 1: players to see if you know who might be the
Speaker 1: next you know, Lucas Patrick the you know, the tryout
Speaker 1: that player nobody had ever heard of, who maybe ends
Speaker 1: up becoming a regular player in the NFL. But Hatcher,
Speaker 1: the long snapper from Old Dominion, has replaced Jack Coco
Speaker 1: on the roster, and Hatcher is now the competition for
Speaker 1: Matt Orzich, the long snapper that the Packers signed, the
Speaker 1: veteran long snapper who was signed as a free agent,
Speaker 1: one of the packers few free agent acquisitions during the offseason. So,
Speaker 1: as we talked about many times, Rich Bassaccia's you know,
Speaker 1: stamp is all over this this Packers roster and and
Speaker 1: everything with regard to special teams and the Packers leaving
Speaker 1: no stone unt earned in that regard. Here already a
Speaker 1: change in terms of the competition that will be setting
Speaker 1: up at long snapper as the Packers move into the
Speaker 1: spring and summer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously for the Green Bay Packers that continues
Speaker 2: that that cycle they've been going through with long snappers
Speaker 2: since making the decision to have Steed and Word will
Speaker 2: replace Hunter Bradley midway through I believe that was the
Speaker 2: twenty season. Listen, this is going to be a situation
Speaker 2: where you know, you knew with Matt Orzik that he
Speaker 2: could be the guy, not only because of the contract,
Speaker 2: not only because they signed him as an unrestricted free agent.
Speaker 2: The Packers had interest in him going back two years ago.
Speaker 2: It just so happened that the Rams when they tried
Speaker 2: to claim when the Packers tried to claim him, the
Speaker 2: Rams had a higher waiver claiming were able to get him.
Speaker 2: And then obviously he went won a Super Bowl there.
Speaker 2: So he is the incumbent. Now, I think you would
Speaker 2: say he is probably the favorite for it. But Hatcher,
Speaker 2: there's a lot to like about him when you look
Speaker 2: at the fact. I believe when I was reading his
Speaker 2: bio he was like the fifth or sixth top recruited,
Speaker 2: top rated long snap when he was coming out of
Speaker 2: high school. Played thirty five games for Old Dominion. Old
Speaker 2: Dominion says that he was never credited with a bad
Speaker 2: snap during that time. Missed the twenty season because of COVID,
Speaker 2: missed all but one game in twenty one because of
Speaker 2: an ankle injury. But you know, br Hatcher is a
Speaker 2: kid that has been doing this at a high level
Speaker 2: for a number of years. Whereas Jack was making that transition,
Speaker 2: he was kind of a tweener between tight end and
Speaker 2: long snapper Hatcher. This has been his preferred position going
Speaker 2: all the way back to high school. So he'll be
Speaker 2: the one that comes in and pushes or chick or
Speaker 2: sick excuse me for the job. And unfortunately for Jack,
Speaker 2: I felt terrible. I sent him a little message after
Speaker 2: the news came out because I really did enjoy the kid.
Speaker 2: I have so much respect for what he did and
Speaker 2: being willing to really put everything he had into becoming
Speaker 2: a long snapper last year. I think it was a success.
Speaker 2: The fact that he went from being a tryout, being
Speaker 2: a guy that hadn't been a long snapper on punts
Speaker 2: since high school as far as an in game setting,
Speaker 2: and he put himself in a position to be a
Speaker 2: long snapper here for an entire season, all seventeen games.
Speaker 2: My hat goes off to him, and obviously the Green
Speaker 2: Bay Packers as they begin these renovations on special teams
Speaker 2: and with the specialists. They have two new candidates here
Speaker 2: for the job in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it'll be interesting to see how that competition unfolds,
Speaker 1: especially when we get to training camp in the preseason games.
Speaker 1: You know where you imagine, you know, both of those
Speaker 1: guys getting a chance to snap in game action with
Speaker 1: their Packers' uniforms, So with that, we will call it
Speaker 1: a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure
Speaker 1: to follow all of our coverage of the team on
Speaker 1: packers dot com for wes. I am Mike. Thank you
Speaker 1: for tuning in, everybody, and we will see you next time.