Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trusted
Speaker 1: colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our
Speaker 1: studios at lambeau Field and West. We are back from Baltimore,
Speaker 1: where the Packers played their second preseason game, and we'll
Speaker 1: certainly get into more specifics from that game in a minute,
Speaker 1: but the big news from last Thursday night in Baltimore
Speaker 1: was that quarterback Aaron Rodgers was a late scratch due
Speaker 1: to some tightness in his back, a precautionary measure. He
Speaker 1: was held out of the game. He did not play.
Speaker 1: He also was held out of practice on Sunday when
Speaker 1: the Packers got back on the practice field. Again, they're
Speaker 1: talking precautionary. His back still just isn't quite a percent
Speaker 1: and they're not taking any chances. But give us the
Speaker 1: rundown on where things are with Aaron Rodgers. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: the most salient thing that Matt Lafleur said is if
Speaker 1: this was a regular season week, if if everything was normal,
Speaker 1: the games mattered, Aaron Rodgers probably be out there with
Speaker 1: everybody else. Would be something he would just deal with.
Speaker 1: But this time of the year, you don't want to
Speaker 1: take any chances with it. So they found out last
Speaker 1: Thursday morning that you know, he he woke up be
Speaker 1: what have you a little bit of back tightness. Deshaun
Speaker 1: Kaiser gets told, Okay, you're in with the ones for
Speaker 1: the first two series. They proceed from there. Sunday's practice
Speaker 1: comes around. It's again Kaiser working with the Ones, with
Speaker 1: a little bit of tim Boil mixed in there as well.
Speaker 1: And the main reason for Rogers getting an extra day
Speaker 1: here to come back from that. Now, the question is
Speaker 1: gonna be the way I had it schemed up and
Speaker 1: how I thought it was gonna lay out, is that
Speaker 1: probably might have been the only game that Rogers played
Speaker 1: in this preseason. That's going off the last year. He
Speaker 1: played in the second game and set out the third
Speaker 1: and fourth. Now you kind of throw those things up
Speaker 1: in the air a little bit. Do they want to
Speaker 1: run them out there in Canada given all the different
Speaker 1: circumstances the game being, you know, abroad, being a CFL stadium.
Speaker 1: Those are all things that the Packers are going to
Speaker 1: have to determine. Uh, Matt Lafore did basically wipe out
Speaker 1: any possibility of him playing in the finale though, especially
Speaker 1: since they have the opener against the Bears on a
Speaker 1: Thursday night, So the short turnaround there is gonna make
Speaker 1: it work. So it's gonna be determined on how his
Speaker 1: back's feeling and if it feels okay, if they want
Speaker 1: to take a shot at it up North. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: just to be clear, we are taping this episode on
Speaker 1: Monday morning before Monday afternoon's practice, so we don't know
Speaker 1: at this point as we're talking whether Rogers is going
Speaker 1: to be practicing at all this week prior to the
Speaker 1: trip to Winnipeg. But if there was a significant piece
Speaker 1: of news that came out of Sunday's practice, it was
Speaker 1: the return of running back Jamal Williams from a hamstring injury.
Speaker 1: He had not practiced at all through training camp. Um
Speaker 1: not being thrown in eleven on eleven right away by
Speaker 1: any means, but number thirty back on the practice field. Well,
Speaker 1: and like I said, I've wrote in a story on
Speaker 1: Packers Dot Come, he wasn't in eleven on eleven's But
Speaker 1: I wish you could a saucepot these these wind sprints
Speaker 1: he was running off to the side. I mean, it
Speaker 1: looks like his hamstrings. Okay, the way he was kind
Speaker 1: of exploding off of that thing he said he did
Speaker 1: eighteen of them. Wasn't even supposed to do that many.
Speaker 1: But he wants to be great, so here, But I mean,
Speaker 1: you break it down, the Packers have been off to
Speaker 1: a slow start with their ground game so far without
Speaker 1: him and Aaron Jones. Jones actually advanced to the team
Speaker 1: portion of practice after last week coming back on a
Speaker 1: limited basis and then not playing against the Ravens. So
Speaker 1: if the Packers could get Aaron Jones out there against
Speaker 1: Oakland this week, I think that could be really big
Speaker 1: for them, getting some more momentum built up there. In
Speaker 1: terms of just Jamal Williams, though he's excited to get
Speaker 1: back at it. He feels like he's in tremendous shape.
Speaker 1: We made a lot this offseason, myself included Mike about
Speaker 1: the condition that Aaron Jones came back in uh, you know,
Speaker 1: following his office season. Jamal Jamal Williams also made a
Speaker 1: lot of changes as well. He came back as lean
Speaker 1: as ever. So those two guys trying to be the
Speaker 1: face of this run game now it's gonna be, you know,
Speaker 1: a work in progress. You need to get them back
Speaker 1: assimilated into this scheme. But we've been talking about it
Speaker 1: since April. There's a lot of optimism with both Aaron
Speaker 1: Jones and Jamal Williams at this scheme of Matt Laflour's
Speaker 1: is going to compliment them very well. Yeah, Well, looking
Speaker 1: back to the Baltimore game, there were a couple of
Speaker 1: things that stood out, as I guess you call them
Speaker 1: sticking points or disappointments as far as Matt Lafleur was concerned.
Speaker 1: One was the running game, the other was the tackling
Speaker 1: on defense. But since we're talking about the running backs
Speaker 1: the running game, how much of a difference is it
Speaker 1: going to make for the Packers to get Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: and Jamal Williams back There is running backs. Taking nothing
Speaker 1: away from Trey Carson Dexter Williams, They've gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of work. They've had some nice runs, but overall, the
Speaker 1: production in the run game in the two preseason games
Speaker 1: hasn't been where the Packers wanted to. But they haven't
Speaker 1: handed off in a preseason game to either of the
Speaker 1: top two running backs yet exactly. Yeah, they're averaging three
Speaker 1: point four yards per carry among their four running backs
Speaker 1: in these games. That number actually dwindles to two point
Speaker 1: eight if you take away Darren Hall's yard, the one,
Speaker 1: the one explosive one from the baltimoreket Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: been it's been tough for them trying to get things going.
Speaker 1: Dexter Williams actually was pulled out of the first child
Speaker 1: the Packers open practice on Tuesday. With the competitive period
Speaker 1: that they've been using at the end of practice, Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur wanted to put it right away to kind of
Speaker 1: get the competitive juices flowing on Sunday. Sorry, uh, And
Speaker 1: you know, because of that situation, Dexter Williams was out
Speaker 1: there right off the bat. Lafleur wasn't completely happy with
Speaker 1: something happened on the play, pulled him out, and then
Speaker 1: Trey Carson goes in. So the point I'm trying to
Speaker 1: illustrate with it there is you have Aaron Jones and
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams. Yes, this is their first offseason the scheme,
Speaker 1: but is their third NFL season and they've been working
Speaker 1: with the majority of that offensive line for those past
Speaker 1: two seasons. There's going to be certain things that they
Speaker 1: just understand that the younger guys are the guys that
Speaker 1: have coming off the street over the last few weeks
Speaker 1: aren't going to pick up on right away. So when
Speaker 1: you ask me what the difference is going to be,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be significant. I think they
Speaker 1: are the identity of this run game. That's not to
Speaker 1: understate the fact that you need to establish a number three,
Speaker 1: number three threat, whether that's Trey Carson, who appears to
Speaker 1: probably the most well rounded of the group when you
Speaker 1: look at his pass protection and also his blocking and
Speaker 1: in some of the things he can do as a
Speaker 1: pass catcher, or a guy like Dexter Williams, who is
Speaker 1: incredibly shifting and dynamic when he's running between the tackles.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be the two things I think Matt
Speaker 1: la Floor, Nathaniel Hackett, Ben Sermons are gonna have to
Speaker 1: look at here the last two weeks. Is getting their
Speaker 1: run game where it needs to be for Week one
Speaker 1: against the Bears, but also being confident in whoever that
Speaker 1: option is going to be behind Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams,
Speaker 1: because there's the last few seasons have shown you need
Speaker 1: to have a player there just in case. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we've been talking all offseason about really the way this
Speaker 1: offense sets up for a guy like Aaron Jones, and
Speaker 1: as much as he's worked on his pass catching and
Speaker 1: the route running and all that out of the backfield
Speaker 1: and the dimension that he as a singular weapon in
Speaker 1: this offense can bring to it. And the bottom line
Speaker 1: is as far as the eleven on eleven against another opponent,
Speaker 1: we haven't seen it yet this preseason. And we also
Speaker 1: haven't seen Aaron Rodgers take a snap in the preseason,
Speaker 1: so there there's still a lot of unknown here with
Speaker 1: the Packers offense. That being said, some of the disappointments
Speaker 1: from the Baltimore game also carried over to the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball, because the tackling from the Houston
Speaker 1: game in the preseason opener wasn't really any better. The numbers,
Speaker 1: if you want to go by Matt Lafleur's film review,
Speaker 1: twenty four miss tackles against Houston, nineteen in Baltimore. However
Speaker 1: you want to count it up, it's not good enough.
Speaker 1: That was certainly his phrase, and this is just something
Speaker 1: that Packers have two preseason games to shore this up
Speaker 1: a little bit. Now, there are a number of those
Speaker 1: miss tackles by players who are not going to make
Speaker 1: the fifty three man roster, so let's just be real
Speaker 1: about that. But there were players, and Lamar Jackson is
Speaker 1: a singular talent in the NFL, and he's a tough
Speaker 1: guy to bring down. But the Packers knew that going in,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately they just weren't as sharp and as clean
Speaker 1: as the head coach really really would have liked to
Speaker 1: have seen. The general sentiment I picked up in the
Speaker 1: locker room after that game was not necessarily disappointment. I
Speaker 1: don't want to label it as that, but I think
Speaker 1: the off the defense have been flying pretty high, and
Speaker 1: to some extent, they got right back on that in
Speaker 1: practice on Sunday. I think there was a little bit
Speaker 1: I'm going to use the word disappointment though, in that
Speaker 1: they just weren't able to carry that over against Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson in against the Ravens offense, because let's be real, Mike,
Speaker 1: more so than any other team in the league, they're
Speaker 1: very multiple and how they run the ball, but they
Speaker 1: are as singular as you're going to face in terms
Speaker 1: of the what construct of an offense? You know, it's
Speaker 1: you're not really worried about the big play down the
Speaker 1: field passing threat, You're worried about the misdirection, You're worried
Speaker 1: about what happens when Lamar Jack's and gets out of
Speaker 1: the pocket. The Packers just didn't do that well enough.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, though, I felt like there
Speaker 1: were some positive signs in Sunday's practice, especially with those starters.
Speaker 1: I thought Preston Smith had his best practice, best training
Speaker 1: camp practice to date. He was physical, he was tough,
Speaker 1: and although David boc Terry wasn't at practice because of
Speaker 1: a personal matter, he was getting some pressure on the
Speaker 1: quarterback off of that what would be you know, his
Speaker 1: right side. So all those things are out there. I
Speaker 1: just think going into this game against Canada, you want
Speaker 1: to see progression. But you know, Mike Petton said, they're
Speaker 1: not going to change anything. They're not gonna start tackling
Speaker 1: to the ground. It's just re emphasizing what they've been
Speaker 1: emphasizing and making sure that they drive that point home. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a couple of guys that
Speaker 1: did certainly did catch our eye from an individual standpoint
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Speaker 1: in better. Okay, Sticking with the defensive side of the
Speaker 1: ball for a moment, the Packers did the highlight defensive
Speaker 1: play was was made by Curtis Bolton, A couple of
Speaker 1: young players. Really. Tony Brown, a good cornerback that we've
Speaker 1: talked about, made the deflection. Curtis Bolton, who has been
Speaker 1: getting the reps with the number one defense next to
Speaker 1: Blake Martinez, an inside linebacker with Orren Burke's currently being sidelined.
Speaker 1: He comes down with the interception. Um. The young man
Speaker 1: was pretty fired up on the sideline after he got
Speaker 1: that one, and rightfully so. I mean, this was a
Speaker 1: big test for him in terms of being thrown in
Speaker 1: there with the ones in the game setting like that,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, I would say, as far as a
Speaker 1: preseason test goes, he passed. Yeah, just don't ask him
Speaker 1: about it, Like I love talking to him after the game.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there trying to write our our locker room report.
Speaker 1: It was kind of tough finding quotes for Curtis Bolton
Speaker 1: talking positively about his day. He was very critic cool
Speaker 1: of himself. Fortunately, his defensive coordinator stepped up to the
Speaker 1: plate on Saturday and was effusive in his praise for
Speaker 1: how he stepped up in that spot. I'll say this
Speaker 1: right now, the Packers still are not doing any timelines
Speaker 1: with orn Burke's but Patton kind of still left it
Speaker 1: out there like, yeah, Bolton had filled in nicely and
Speaker 1: looks like he could fill in nicely until we get
Speaker 1: Burks back. So one, it makes you think that maybe
Speaker 1: you do have Burks back in the fold at some
Speaker 1: point this season. But two, it also speaks to what
Speaker 1: this young man did with the opportunity when he was
Speaker 1: given it, not only in that game against Baltimore, but
Speaker 1: in that those practices leading up, what he did again
Speaker 1: on Sunday when he was back out there with the ones,
Speaker 1: and what he did on special teams in a couple
Speaker 1: of a couple of tackles on the coverage units where
Speaker 1: he was the first guy down there, he laid the hit,
Speaker 1: got the guy on the ground, and you know, quite
Speaker 1: frankly strutted off the field a little bit because he
Speaker 1: was he was a standout player, there's no question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you actually hit on the Bolton train a little
Speaker 1: bit faster than I did in what he offers and
Speaker 1: what his story is. So it was interesting from my
Speaker 1: perspective talking to about it the first time after the
Speaker 1: game and in listening to him discuss about how, you know,
Speaker 1: to some extent, he's not supposed to be here, especially
Speaker 1: at this point right now, an undrafted free agent that
Speaker 1: was sort of looked over by everybody, only started one
Speaker 1: year at Oklahoma, and now he's working next to Blake
Speaker 1: Martinez and in the value that there is in those
Speaker 1: reps and being able to see the game at this
Speaker 1: fast of a speed, and with with Baltimore having their
Speaker 1: starters out there for pretty much two pier you know
Speaker 1: to you know, strives. So it's it's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: that that competition is by no means over. But as
Speaker 1: I wrote an Insider Inbox this week, I just think
Speaker 1: it's such a different scenario this year than it was
Speaker 1: last year when Burke's had the shoulder injury. I just
Speaker 1: feel like the Packers in the way that they're set
Speaker 1: up right now, not to say they're more prepared for it,
Speaker 1: because it is an undrafted rookie in there, but I
Speaker 1: just feel like Bolton fits this defense maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit better than when they had to go get Antonio
Speaker 1: Morrison in a trade last year. Yeah, and switching to
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball. We've been talking about
Speaker 1: the wide receiver competition a lot, obviously pretty much every
Speaker 1: show when we turn on the cameras here, But when
Speaker 1: you look at the Baltimore game, to me, the two
Speaker 1: guys that made the strongest impression in terms of building
Speaker 1: on what they've been doing throughout training camp. Alan Lazard,
Speaker 1: the young receiver from Iowa State, was undrafted a year ago.
Speaker 1: Um joined the Packers practice squad late last season, and
Speaker 1: uh and is here making a bid for a roster spot.
Speaker 1: And then you've got Darius Shepard, the undrafted rookie from
Speaker 1: North Dakota State. He's been stepping in as the first
Speaker 1: option in the return game with Trevor Davis out with
Speaker 1: a stinger. Davis was back in practice on Sunday, though,
Speaker 1: so we'll see um how Trevor does again here moving forward,
Speaker 1: and and hopefully for him picking up where he left
Speaker 1: off because he was having a really really strong training
Speaker 1: camp when he got hurt. But Shepard took the first
Speaker 1: kickoff against the Baltimore Ravens. Hit the seam. It was
Speaker 1: nicely blocked, but he hit it, got got it all
Speaker 1: the way out to the forty yard line, the equivalent
Speaker 1: of if the kicker had kicked it out of bounds,
Speaker 1: which you always look at as a nice moment. Him shift.
Speaker 1: He gave the offense some nice field position there at
Speaker 1: the forty yard line, and then he makes the touchdown catch,
Speaker 1: the only touchdown the Packer's head in Baltimore. A little
Speaker 1: tiptoe job there in the back of the end zone,
Speaker 1: gets his feet down on the throw from Tim Boyle. This. Uh,
Speaker 1: this Darius Shepherd young man we talked about. It was
Speaker 1: unsigned after the draft, was a tryout player during the
Speaker 1: Packers rookie mini camp. He gets that contract after um
Speaker 1: the tryout and after that mini camp and uh, and
Speaker 1: here he is making his state in his case. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's be real, Mike. When a guy signs as a
Speaker 1: tryout player like that, in some regard, and I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to dismiss the process, you sometimes wonder if they're
Speaker 1: even gonna be here once training camp gets around. So
Speaker 1: often some of those guys signed and then they literally
Speaker 1: are in the roster. Something happens. They have to make
Speaker 1: a move when you're gone. Yeah, they don't even survive
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks of O T a S.
Speaker 1: And off they go. But but what what do you
Speaker 1: have to do to survive? You have to show out
Speaker 1: right away. He did from beginning with O. T A S.
Speaker 1: I remember talking to Tim Boyle and some of these
Speaker 1: other guys. They knew that this guy could play immediately,
Speaker 1: and he has a track record. He was incredibly successful
Speaker 1: at North Dakota State. He just doesn't have the size.
Speaker 1: He's a hair taller than I am. Probably a little
Speaker 1: bit faster though. And the other thing that I like
Speaker 1: about his game though, is that it's one thing to
Speaker 1: be a slot receiver and do quick, shifty slants and
Speaker 1: hitches and things of that nature. You know, an end
Speaker 1: around here and there. But there was actually one play
Speaker 1: in that game against the Ravens where he got open
Speaker 1: over the top of the defense. Now the past was
Speaker 1: not there, but if it would have been in that spot,
Speaker 1: if that's Aaron Rodgers, that's six points. That's the dimension
Speaker 1: that he needs to show to make this team, and
Speaker 1: it is very interesting, and I'm glad you brought it up.
Speaker 1: Trevor Davis is back now. Trevor Davis and Darius Shepherd
Speaker 1: have emerged as one A one B in this kickoff
Speaker 1: return punt return equation. Those two guys, and I never
Speaker 1: boiled down to two guys fighting for one roster spot.
Speaker 1: They both can make it for all I know, But
Speaker 1: those two guys over the next two weeks are gonna
Speaker 1: want to put their best forward foot forward in that
Speaker 1: competition because in terms of what the Packers put out
Speaker 1: there against the Ravens, other than I believe it was
Speaker 1: Malik Turner getting some some reps late in that game,
Speaker 1: Darris Shepherd handled all the returns for most of the
Speaker 1: you know, sizeable, meaningful portion of the contest. Yeah, Watching
Speaker 1: him and Davis and how they that competition boils down
Speaker 1: now over the next two weeks is gonna be really captivating. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's interesting you mentioned that deep ball in Baltimore where
Speaker 1: Shepherd was heading down the sideline to the end zone
Speaker 1: and Boil's throw was was to the other side of him,
Speaker 1: so to speak. As I watched that and I looked
Speaker 1: at the replay, I almost wondered if Shepherd didn't quite
Speaker 1: see the ball soon enough, in that if he had
Speaker 1: been able to pick up that ball sooner, he might
Speaker 1: have been able to, you know, do the whole center
Speaker 1: fielder thing where it's like you take your eye off
Speaker 1: the ball and turn around and suddenly it's on your
Speaker 1: other shoulder. Now, it still would have been a difficult
Speaker 1: catch based on the ball and the sideline and getting
Speaker 1: the feeted and whatnot. But it's one of those things
Speaker 1: when I look back at it that I wish maybe
Speaker 1: he had, you know, and maybe it was the lights
Speaker 1: or just the timing or whatever, but if he had
Speaker 1: been able to see that ball just a fraction of
Speaker 1: a second sooner, I wonder if he would have been
Speaker 1: able to make the adjustment and make a better attempt
Speaker 1: at catching it. And uh, And you know, it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that you just wonder about because we've
Speaker 1: certainly seen that he has the ability and the wherewithal
Speaker 1: to potentially make a play like that. Absolutely. And then
Speaker 1: this is the part of the training camp that I
Speaker 1: love as well, because everybody, every media outlet indubitably does
Speaker 1: they're they're picking the fifty three at the beginning of
Speaker 1: training camp, and then here we are ye who would
Speaker 1: have I mean, in this wide receiver competition, you line
Speaker 1: up all the wide receivers by number at the start
Speaker 1: of training camp, who would have said Darius Shephard through
Speaker 1: halfway through the preseason would be getting this much attention
Speaker 1: and be making a legitimate bid to make this team
Speaker 1: with all these receivers on the roster. Nobody. A lot
Speaker 1: of times those are the guys that are filling out
Speaker 1: the end of the fourth quarter and now here he
Speaker 1: is getting reps with Aaron Rodgers in practice. Even a
Speaker 1: guy like Alamos Are who even though he was on
Speaker 1: the fifty three at the end of last season, he
Speaker 1: only was here for a couple of weeks with Green Bay.
Speaker 1: The Packers could have easily just washed him out of
Speaker 1: the competition and moved forward. And he's put himself in
Speaker 1: in the conversation as well too. And it's again, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be fun. The last few years with these receiving
Speaker 1: competitions have been really exciting to watch, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: it'll play out that way here these last two games. Yeah, well, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: West we need to end this show on a sad note,
Speaker 1: and that on Sunday morning, the Sports World found out
Speaker 1: that former NFL Texas Longhorn Chicago Bear Green Bay Packer
Speaker 1: running back Cedric Benson UM was killed in a motorcycle
Speaker 1: accident age thirty six, A very sobering piece of news,
Speaker 1: very very sad news. Benson played one season with the Packers.
Speaker 1: It was in two thousand and twelve. Um. I got
Speaker 1: a chance to talk to him, only a couple of times,
Speaker 1: but what I will say is I found him very engaging,
Speaker 1: and I mentioned this in our Insider Inbox column. I
Speaker 1: thought he was a guy for a guy who had
Speaker 1: gone through his share of ups and downs in a
Speaker 1: in a rather brief NFL career, he was truly appreciative
Speaker 1: of the opportunity that was presented to him to to
Speaker 1: come to Green Bay and try to make a difference.
Speaker 1: And I really think he would have made a difference
Speaker 1: on that two thousand and twelve team had it not
Speaker 1: been for an injury that cut his season short. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when you and I were doing our you know,
Speaker 1: scripting for the show that is unscripted, and we were
Speaker 1: talking about what we wanted to do, I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about Cedric Benson for two reasons. I remember one
Speaker 1: of the things we always did, especially when I was
Speaker 1: at the newspaper. Is a new guy signs of veteran signs.
Speaker 1: You sometimes ask your buddies around the league of what
Speaker 1: to expect with him. What's this guy like in the
Speaker 1: locker room, how he has to deal with That's how
Speaker 1: I knew that Ricky Jeane Francois was going to be awesome.
Speaker 1: But the thing with Benson is he had such a
Speaker 1: I don't want to say checkered past, but he had
Speaker 1: a complicated past, and he had his ups and downs.
Speaker 1: He was kind of known as a mercurial individual in
Speaker 1: some ways. But when he got in that locker room,
Speaker 1: and I know you were a part of some of
Speaker 1: those scrums too, I just he seemed to me like
Speaker 1: a guy I don't want to see he had figured
Speaker 1: it all out. I don't think anyone ever really figures
Speaker 1: everything out, but it just seems like a guy who
Speaker 1: at that point of his life was at peace with
Speaker 1: who he was as a human being, as an individual.
Speaker 1: I thought Aaron Rodgers Instagram post about him talking about
Speaker 1: some of the conversations that they had in the cafeteria
Speaker 1: and how he actually would want to go home and
Speaker 1: kind of study up. So he could keep on the
Speaker 1: same level with Benson in those conversations. He just was
Speaker 1: very thoughtful and introspective I found at that point in
Speaker 1: his career. The other thing I wanted to mention too
Speaker 1: about Benson, I think I only had one or two
Speaker 1: conversations with him, like just post media scrumbs. And I
Speaker 1: remember there was one time, I believe it was Robb
Speaker 1: Dumovsky and I were just asking him about what did
Speaker 1: you think of Green Bay? What's it been like living here?
Speaker 1: He's like, well, actually I don't live here. I think
Speaker 1: he lived out like Meryl or something like that. Like
Speaker 1: he was he was down near Manitowa, and he was
Speaker 1: like he was out of green Bay. He was, he was,
Speaker 1: he was down Highway forty three just a little ways.
Speaker 1: I think he was living somewhere near Manitoa. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: he had a little bit of a hike. If you're
Speaker 1: not from Green Bay, Man's walks probably about forty fifty minutes,
Speaker 1: depending on what side you're coming from. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that was interesting when I was talking with
Speaker 1: him is I believe it was because of his dogs
Speaker 1: that he lived down there, because some of his rut
Speaker 1: wilders or his pit bulls weren't allowed in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: and we had a really interesting thrill conversation. I'm a
Speaker 1: big dog lover, big pit bull lover. Um. It was
Speaker 1: a really interesting conversation about how sometimes those type of
Speaker 1: animals get a bad rap and and that's why one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why he sort of always had that
Speaker 1: place for them in his heart. And if you think
Speaker 1: about it, in some ways, I think Benson sort of
Speaker 1: was like that as well. I think if you got
Speaker 1: to know him as a person, not that I did,
Speaker 1: but if you started to pull back the layers of
Speaker 1: of that onion you saw, I think what kind of
Speaker 1: a good soul he was. And it was when I
Speaker 1: found out about it on Sunday morning, I was really
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to say devastated, but that'd
Speaker 1: be over the top. I was mournful just because it
Speaker 1: seemed like, you pause and you think about it, because
Speaker 1: it is way too young. Yeah. I mean, the thing
Speaker 1: that I'll remember as far as on the field is
Speaker 1: his moment in the sun as a Green Bay Packer
Speaker 1: was stolen from him. And what I'm talking about is
Speaker 1: the fail Mary game in Seattle in two thousand twelve.
Speaker 1: Because if people remember how that game unfolded. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: got sacked eight times in the first half, The Packers
Speaker 1: passing game was going absolutely nowhere. The Packers turned that
Speaker 1: game over to Cedric Benson in the second half and
Speaker 1: the running game, and he was handling that Seattle defense.
Speaker 1: He got the Packers a couple of scores. The Packers
Speaker 1: had the game. We all know they should have won
Speaker 1: the game. And he was the hero for the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers in that game, and it got taken away
Speaker 1: from him by the fail mary and the controversial call
Speaker 1: and everything else. And you know, it's it's unfortunate now
Speaker 1: that we're talking about it in this context because that game,
Speaker 1: at least, even with the injury that happened later and
Speaker 1: his season was cut short, at least he would have
Speaker 1: had that game as a Packer in terms of what
Speaker 1: he did to contribute to a victory. And unfortunately that
Speaker 1: got stolen. Yeah, five starts, I think it ended up
Speaker 1: being two six rushing yards. Unfortunately Liz Frank popped up
Speaker 1: for him there. But I know there's a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that were on that team, including Aaron Rodgers, that
Speaker 1: are going to remember Cedric Benson for probably the rest
Speaker 1: of their lives. Yeah, no question about it. Well, with that,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team and of the rest of training camp on packers
Speaker 1: dot com. Subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and
Speaker 1: other podcast services if you please. On Twitter, he's at
Speaker 1: west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the
Speaker 1: team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next time.