Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spaffer, joined by the
Speaker 1: one and only Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here
Speaker 1: from the Potawatomy Sportsbook studio within the walls of lambeau
Speaker 1: Field and West. Since our last show, there was one
Speaker 1: additional padded practice out there at Nichigie Field. We also
Speaker 1: heard from all of the Green Bay Packers coordinators, and
Speaker 1: I want to get to all of that, but I
Speaker 1: think we need to start this show with what we
Speaker 1: heard from Micah Parsons. He spoke to the media after
Speaker 1: Tuesday's practice for the first time since the spring, and
Speaker 1: in providing the update and whatnot on his rehab, it
Speaker 1: sounds like everything is going well. It sounds like somewhere
Speaker 1: in that mid October, you know, range is a possibility,
Speaker 1: and in terms of his return to game action, there's
Speaker 1: a lot that's still up in the air about that.
Speaker 1: But I know you feel the same way I do
Speaker 1: after listening to him answer some questions, and I got
Speaker 1: the same sense when I talked to him for my
Speaker 1: yearbook cover story. For those who want to read more
Speaker 1: about Parsons, pick up a pack pick up a copy
Speaker 1: of the packer's yearbook. Is he has a certain resolve
Speaker 1: and determination with regard to coming back from this injury
Speaker 1: that I'm not sure I've heard it quite expressed the
Speaker 1: way he's expressed it.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm a big pro wrestling nerd, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Obviously we always have these conversations that felt the most
Speaker 2: to me, like when a pro wrestler is coming back
Speaker 2: from a major injury and like is being worked back
Speaker 2: into a program man. There was just this quiet intensity
Speaker 2: about his media scrum and I wasn't there obviously when
Speaker 2: you talk to him over the summer, but just the
Speaker 2: focus that I in Insider Inbox, I call it a
Speaker 2: Daniel LaRusso karate kid type focus where it's just like
Speaker 2: he just seems zeroed in on what his goal is.
Speaker 2: And I also love the realism that he speaks with.
Speaker 2: He's like, you know, when you would suffer an injury
Speaker 2: like that, you're coming back worse or you're coming back better,
Speaker 2: You're not coming back the same.
Speaker 3: It's going to change you at some level.
Speaker 2: And as hard as this guy works, as much as
Speaker 2: he pushes himself, it's like it's taking it to a
Speaker 2: different level now. So I was looking at the schedule
Speaker 2: as soon as you talked about, you know, Dallas being
Speaker 2: realistic in week six.
Speaker 3: I mean, any way you shuffle.
Speaker 2: This out, you got the Bears the week before that
Speaker 2: at lambeau Field. That's going to be a massive game.
Speaker 2: You got Dallas on Sunday Night football could be a
Speaker 2: massive game. I don't know if you'd want to have
Speaker 2: a guy coming back off in ACL in Detroit in
Speaker 2: week seven, but that one is obviously going to have
Speaker 2: big implications. And at the end of the month, the
Speaker 2: Packers close up on Thursday Night Football against the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 2: So no matter where you put number UNO on the
Speaker 2: field and which week that comes, there's gonna be a
Speaker 2: lot of storylines there. There's gonna be a lot of hype.
Speaker 2: It's gonna come at a good time for Green Bay.
Speaker 3: But man, when.
Speaker 2: The question got asked about if Dallas could be a
Speaker 2: realistic return date, I don't think the folks at NBC,
Speaker 2: Peacock whomever, could ever draw that up better than if
Speaker 2: it works out in that particular order.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not making any promises, but he definitely feels,
Speaker 1: as you said, the word was realistic he feels it's realistic,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was also educational of Micah to
Speaker 1: explain because it's been remarkable to see what Tucker Craft
Speaker 1: has done coming back from his ACL, and he was
Speaker 1: actually back on the practice field. Now he's not back
Speaker 1: in eleven on eleven yet, but Tucker Craft was back
Speaker 1: on the practice field ahead of that nine month mark
Speaker 1: from his surgery that took place last November. But Parsons
Speaker 1: was very clear that he should not his situation should
Speaker 1: not be compared to Crafts because Craft had an ACL
Speaker 1: tear and an ACL reconstruction. Micah Parsons had an ACL
Speaker 1: tear with an ACL reconstruction but also a repair of
Speaker 1: his meniscus. So the more complicated surgery produces an entirely
Speaker 1: different rehab and recovery timeline. So as much as Craft
Speaker 1: is being celebrated for what he's done and it is
Speaker 1: remarkable and it's great to see him back out there
Speaker 1: and how great he looks, you can't just take Tuckercraft's
Speaker 1: timeline and apply it to Micah Parsons and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: he's going to be back. At the same time he
Speaker 1: made the comment, Craft was off of crutches in four
Speaker 1: weeks and already walking. Parsons was on crutches for seven
Speaker 1: weeks before he was allowed to walk on his repaired knee,
Speaker 1: so just wanted to put all that out there. There
Speaker 1: is a story on packers dot Com. I wrote it
Speaker 1: after Parsons talked with the media. There's a few more
Speaker 1: details in there and whatnot, but I thought it was
Speaker 1: a good point by him to just say, hey, as
Speaker 1: much as he is going to push and he's going
Speaker 1: to do everything he can to be back on the
Speaker 1: field as soon as possible. The comparison to Tucker Kraft,
Speaker 1: just because the DACL injuries, it doesn't apply.
Speaker 2: So another thing that happened on Wednesday then is we
Speaker 2: talk to the coordinators here in the media auditorium. We
Speaker 2: almost share a wall with it on the other side
Speaker 2: of this, and it was interesting listening to Jonathan gannon
Speaker 2: get basically asked the same question. It was a great
Speaker 2: question by Tom Silverstein Silverstein, sorry Spoon, that you are
Speaker 2: preparing your football team for the upcoming season, but there's
Speaker 2: nobody on that side of the ball. You're going to
Speaker 2: ask to do what Micah Parsons does, So how do
Speaker 2: you balance that right? And it feels to me, like
Speaker 2: the more of these practices we watch, and watching Jonathan
Speaker 2: Gannon work in his scheme and figuring out which pieces
Speaker 2: he wants to use of this defense, it is almost
Speaker 2: like they're gonna get They're gonna start this season and
Speaker 2: they're gonna play the best darn football they can on
Speaker 2: the defensive side of the ball. And then when Micah
Speaker 2: Parsons comes back, that's the chaos agent that gets thrown
Speaker 2: into all this. That's the guy that's going to go
Speaker 2: out there that teams are going to have to prepare for.
Speaker 2: They're going to know what they're going to be getting
Speaker 2: in terms of the athlete, but maybe not necessarily in
Speaker 2: terms of the player that Jonathan Gannon is going to
Speaker 2: utilize within his defense.
Speaker 3: That is exciting to me. And yeah, the.
Speaker 2: Other aspect too, in addition to the AC on the meniscus.
Speaker 2: That difference between what people refer to as the clean
Speaker 2: tear versus sometimes where the other stuff happens is, you know,
Speaker 2: Tucker Craft towards ACL six weeks earlier then Tucker Craft
Speaker 2: then Micah Parsons did. When you get to training camp,
Speaker 2: it's six weeks long. There's never a longer six weeks
Speaker 2: in terms of professional football than that time span. So
Speaker 2: Parsons is realistic in terms of what he needs to
Speaker 2: do to get back on the field and what his
Speaker 2: presence is going to mean for the Packers in the
Speaker 2: second half. So as good as it's going to feel
Speaker 2: as much hype as there's going to be that day
Speaker 2: that he finally goes out there, that his name gets
Speaker 2: you know, right off he goes through the tunnel for
Speaker 2: the first time at Lambeufield, it's realistically about doing what
Speaker 2: the Packers didn't do last year, and that's finishing the
Speaker 2: season with number one on the field.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And we'll have this conversation I'm sure again
Speaker 1: at some point in October. But when you talk about
Speaker 1: Jonathan Gannon's defense and incorporating Michael Parsons and how things
Speaker 1: are going to look, I think realistically we have to
Speaker 1: understand that when Parsons does come back, because he's on
Speaker 1: a completely different timeline from Tucker Craft and all that
Speaker 1: in terms of the ramp up and the preparation and
Speaker 1: everything else. It's not like Michael Parsons is going to
Speaker 1: play sixty snaps in the very first game he's back.
Speaker 1: There's going to be a process to this. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to be you know,
Speaker 1: twenty five snaps and then maybe forty to forty five
Speaker 1: and then you ramp up to you know, one hundred
Speaker 1: percent participation. So even in the games, when whatever the
Speaker 1: first game is that Parsons is back, you know, he's
Speaker 1: he's going to be almost more like a like a
Speaker 1: change up, you know, in a sense before he's actually
Speaker 1: back to full full duty in terms of his number
Speaker 1: of apps. So again, a lot of time here before
Speaker 1: we get to that point and and want to see
Speaker 1: how it plays out. But but man, I mean, he's, uh,
Speaker 1: he's he's sort of resigned himself to the fact of
Speaker 1: everything that he has to go through in order to
Speaker 1: get back, but he's also kind of embracing it at
Speaker 1: the same time. That's that's that's the sense. It's not
Speaker 1: like he's happy, it's not like he's thrilled with all
Speaker 1: this stuff he has to do. But yet he's like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm just I'm gonna put the work in,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get after it and then everybody better
Speaker 1: watch out.
Speaker 2: And when you look at him physically, I mean, the
Speaker 2: guy is just he looks like he could step on
Speaker 2: the field today and play. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 2: the football conditioning there obviously will still be a transition there.
Speaker 2: But I mean, this guy has put himself in every
Speaker 2: possible position to be ready once he does get back
Speaker 2: on the field, once he does get cleared, and then
Speaker 2: in the meantime, I mean, just watching how he interacts
Speaker 2: with this football team has been really fun to see,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean when he's on the sideline in
Speaker 2: those team practices later on, how he's interacting with Baron
Speaker 2: Surrell and Colin Oliver and the young guys and just
Speaker 2: being able to have that impact on him too. It's
Speaker 2: so different in that when you look back to his
Speaker 2: time in Dallas, he was the young guy on kind
Speaker 2: of a veteran defense on kind of a veteran team. Right,
Speaker 2: he had Trayvon Diggs, but there were so many guys
Speaker 2: that it was like you were kind of adding him
Speaker 2: into that mix. Whereas now the Packers have so many
Speaker 2: young edge rushers, guys that are twenty two, twenty three,
Speaker 2: twenty four years old. How he's embraced that side of
Speaker 2: it too has been fun to watch. So I made
Speaker 2: a comment there was you know, Micah was biking down
Speaker 2: to practice.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've got a chance to see
Speaker 3: that video.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was three sisters I think that he was
Speaker 2: going down with, and they were all kind of, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of yelling at and fighting with each other about
Speaker 2: you know, riding bikes and who's gonna ride who's and
Speaker 2: you know, Mike is just trying to kind of keep
Speaker 2: the peace a little bit. But I made a comment
Speaker 2: there that I was like, I mean, green Bay needed
Speaker 2: this guy. The Packers needed him on their defense, but
Speaker 2: I think green Bay needed this guy. I think he
Speaker 2: is a superstar that has embraced this community. He's embraced
Speaker 2: his role on this team and what it means for everybody.
Speaker 2: I just the guy wasn't drafted here, but it feels
Speaker 2: like he was meant to play here. And the more
Speaker 2: and more we see him out there, the more and
Speaker 2: more I'm convinced to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly there. Well, second padded
Speaker 1: practice was on Tuesday, and I'll just throw it out
Speaker 1: as an open ended question to you, like what jumped
Speaker 1: out at you? What do you think's worth talking about here?
Speaker 3: Baron Surrell.
Speaker 2: Thing was so cool to watch because okay, before we
Speaker 2: even get to that interception, so it was our first
Speaker 2: one on one.
Speaker 3: So as we often talk.
Speaker 2: About with three things and some of our other content,
Speaker 2: you're watching receivers and defensive backs kind of you know,
Speaker 2: do their one on one work.
Speaker 3: I'm always down.
Speaker 2: Watching offensive line defensive line since twenty twelve when I
Speaker 2: began covering this team. It's the most fun I have
Speaker 2: at practice is watching those drills because there is no
Speaker 2: fluff there. And I agree with what Matt Lafleur says
Speaker 2: it all you take with a grain of salt. Just
Speaker 2: because someone does something in one on one doesn't mean
Speaker 2: it's going to translate to line work. But in my experience,
Speaker 2: that's where you find out, Hey, Greg van Roten, this
Speaker 2: guy actually has something to him, right, Hey Lucas Patch,
Speaker 2: this guy's battling.
Speaker 3: Right. The guys that are sort of the unsung.
Speaker 2: Heroes, Lane Taylor, Lane Taylor, Oh my god, Lane Taylor's
Speaker 2: reps when he went as a guard I mean, Skake On,
Speaker 2: Kenny Clark and those dudes in Latroit Guy On and yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: It tells you something about the player, no doubt.
Speaker 2: So anyway, there's a lot of different things to discuss
Speaker 2: with that, But what I was impressed by is Baron
Speaker 2: Serrell only took two reps at least that's what I
Speaker 2: had him charted for. One was against Darien Kinnard at
Speaker 2: right tackle and one of them was against Jordan Morgan
Speaker 2: at left tackle. Morgan set the tone for the practice.
Speaker 2: Him and Lucas Vans opened it with the three Packers
Speaker 2: have been doing this last few years. The first two
Speaker 2: people that go up for one on ones, they do
Speaker 2: three reps, almost like a best of three sort of.
Speaker 2: And Morgan held his own against on paper, the Packer's
Speaker 2: best pass rusher right now, without Micah Parsons available on
Speaker 2: Lucas Fans. So here comes Baron Surrell and is able
Speaker 2: to beat later in the drill, able to beat Morgan
Speaker 2: with his speed. Earlier in the drill he's going up
Speaker 2: against Kinnard and he's finally able to use his bull rush.
Speaker 2: That's something that Matt lafuur' talk about when they're not
Speaker 2: in pads. He doesn't want to see it one on ones.
Speaker 2: You can bust that out again, yeah, and he looked goot,
Speaker 2: he looked great doing it. So he has all that
Speaker 2: in his back pocket. Then we get to the team
Speaker 2: period later in practice, and Sorell's been the one that's
Speaker 2: been rotating in the most opposite vaness with the one defense.
Speaker 2: He sniffs out this screen pass and takes it sixty
Speaker 2: yards to the house. And this is not a Jordan
Speaker 2: love thing where he's been throwing picks left and right.
Speaker 2: I think that was his second one at camp.
Speaker 1: YEP number two.
Speaker 2: And for Sorel to make that play and then as
Speaker 2: he talked about in the locker room afterwards, He's like,
Speaker 2: I no one was catching me. He's like, I know
Speaker 2: that's going to show up in the film room. I
Speaker 2: was like, I gotta keep my knees high. I gotta
Speaker 2: get to that end zone. And he did it. And
Speaker 2: Sorell is the ultimate example of the guy that you
Speaker 2: see come in, just the kid with big pause that
Speaker 2: you can see what he's going to be once he
Speaker 2: gets in the weight room, once you have him in
Speaker 2: the system. And I mean he came back a grown man,
Speaker 2: and just watching him work in the tenacity with which
Speaker 2: he practices everything you would expect out of the dude
Speaker 2: that showed up in Green Bay, Wisconsin and got picked
Speaker 2: in the fourth round and walked across the stage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to take anything away from Baron
Speaker 1: Surrell here, because I like, how can you not like
Speaker 1: what you've seen of him out on the practice field,
Speaker 1: and the interception was a very dynamic play in eleven
Speaker 1: on eleven. But I just want to throw this out
Speaker 1: there because I just wonder, and these are not the
Speaker 1: things that we get told, but I just wonder if
Speaker 1: it was part of things earlier in practice, the Packers
Speaker 1: had executed that throwback screen to Josh Jacobs and it
Speaker 1: ruptured for a big play. Jacob Munk got a big
Speaker 1: block on the outside, couple other guys through blocks, boom.
Speaker 1: I wonder did Jonathan Gannon tell Matt Lafleur call another
Speaker 1: screen later in practice, because I need to see if
Speaker 1: my defensive guys learn something from the one you burned
Speaker 1: us on earlier, you know, And I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that that happened, but I wonder because the
Speaker 1: next time they ran the screen, and we're talking about
Speaker 1: forty five minutes later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: This isn't like bards a back or anything. This there
Speaker 1: was a lot of time in between. But then when
Speaker 1: they tried to run a throwback screen to Jacobs again,
Speaker 1: like Baron Surrell was right there, the defense had it
Speaker 1: completely had it completely sniffed out, and uh and Sorel
Speaker 1: was able to make the play. Those are the things
Speaker 1: that I that, you know, I always kind of wonder about.
Speaker 1: But again, it's not like they're gonna tell us exactly
Speaker 1: how they're how they're calling things in practice. With regard
Speaker 1: to one on ones, I always find it. One of
Speaker 1: the things I find so interesting is that you know,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, we divide and conquer. I go watch
Speaker 1: the pass catchers against the pass defenders one on one.
Speaker 1: You watch the lineman with the pass blocking and pass rushing.
Speaker 1: The one that you watch is sort of slanted towards
Speaker 1: the defense, right, because when there's nobody else out there
Speaker 1: and it's just one on one, the pass rusher can't
Speaker 1: isn't going to bump into anybody else, so there isn't
Speaker 1: the other traffic, you know, to help the offensive lineman. Right.
Speaker 1: The one that I watch is heavily slanted toward the
Speaker 1: offense because with no other coverage players out there and
Speaker 1: it's just one on one and the receiver has the
Speaker 1: entire field to work with. Now, there's a certain route
Speaker 1: that's been called that he's supposed to run, but essentially
Speaker 1: there's you know, there's no one else out there, so
Speaker 1: it's it's slanted toward the offense. So I always take
Speaker 1: particular note if a defensive back has a really good
Speaker 1: day in the one on ones, because the drill is
Speaker 1: kind of working against him and he's you know, he's
Speaker 1: kind of up against it, which is why it really
Speaker 1: jumped out that three reps Brandon Cisa against Savion Williams.
Speaker 1: CSA won all three of them, and there's a story
Speaker 1: up on packers dot com this morning I wrote about
Speaker 1: about Cisa and how his training camp is going, and
Speaker 1: not to say that it has been absolutely flawless. I mean,
Speaker 1: we saw Christian Watson get a step on him on
Speaker 1: a shallow cross and eleven on eleven, and Christian Watson
Speaker 1: can do that to a lot of defensive backs. But
Speaker 1: Brandon seesay every day that you're out there on the
Speaker 1: practice field, whether it's the one on ones, whether it's
Speaker 1: something in team, you see something that just tells you
Speaker 1: that he's he's proving every day that he belongs at
Speaker 1: this level. And for a guy who wasn't a first
Speaker 1: round pick, now we talk about him as a first
Speaker 1: round pick because he was the Packers' first pick. But
Speaker 1: for a guy who was not a first round pick,
Speaker 1: the impact that he is making, the impression that he
Speaker 1: is making early on is hard to ignore.
Speaker 2: And that's the part of it too, is that I think,
Speaker 2: and I've made this case so often when talking about
Speaker 2: the Packers receivers, because you know, you get the national
Speaker 2: media that gets on the Green Bay about, well, the
Speaker 2: first round picks have n't produced a lot of pro bowlers,
Speaker 2: all pros, all these you know, different accolades and platitudes.
Speaker 2: And then you look at the second round with what
Speaker 2: they've had with Jordan Nelson, DeVante Adams, you know, when
Speaker 2: you think about even the offensive lineman, you know, and
Speaker 2: Elton Jenkins coming out of that. And then obviously I've
Speaker 2: talked a lot about Casey Hayward in the past too
Speaker 2: and getting him in the second round and what that
Speaker 2: meant for the fence in twenty twelve, there's a very
Speaker 2: good chance that when you take a guy in the
Speaker 2: second round, you're looking at a guy that's gonna be
Speaker 2: a franchise pillar for you. Maybe not with the same
Speaker 2: type of name value in Cachet, but those are critical
Speaker 2: those top seventy five picks are critical for the construct
Speaker 2: of your football team, and the Packers took that very seriously.
Speaker 2: And I remember going through the draft process and you
Speaker 2: and I are kind of like projecting, Okay, who's going
Speaker 2: to potentially be there for Green Bay when they finally
Speaker 2: pick in the second round. And Cisa was a name
Speaker 2: that flew under the radar for me. But once they
Speaker 2: drafted him, and you looked at his age twenty years old,
Speaker 2: when you looked at his skill set, when you looked
Speaker 2: at his size, and you look at his speed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just turned twenty one last month, I believe
Speaker 1: it was July third.
Speaker 2: And it's just like, there's so many different things that
Speaker 2: make him a Packer's person. So in addition to the
Speaker 2: fact that Mattlin Fulord praised him for just the professional
Speaker 2: that he's been since he came in the building, and
Speaker 2: that's not something you often see about the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one year old. So yeah, there's just a lot to
Speaker 2: like about him. And unfortunately, you know, Carington Valentine dealing
Speaker 2: with this hamstring injury the last few days.
Speaker 3: It's afforded s say some.
Speaker 2: Reps, and he was playing in that role on that
Speaker 2: first practice too, when Keishawn Nixon was taking a breather
Speaker 2: there with the hamstring. So this guy's got a lot
Speaker 2: of snaps. And we talked about in the spring, we're
Speaker 2: talking about in the summer now. I mean the amount
Speaker 2: of playing time with the number one units that the Packers'
Speaker 2: draft picks have been receiving that is going to at
Speaker 2: some point pay huge dividends for them this year. Whether
Speaker 2: it's week one, whether it's week fifteen, You're gonna need
Speaker 2: those guys to be able to go out there and
Speaker 2: hold their.
Speaker 1: Own Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, a couple other
Speaker 1: topics to get to before we go, but we do
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Speaker 1: com Slash Wonders. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted all right, Wes,
Speaker 1: you talked a little bit about what we heard from
Speaker 1: Jonathan gannon anything else. When we had that media session
Speaker 1: with the coordinators, cam Acord put on, put on, put
Speaker 1: on quite a show. And and just if you haven't
Speaker 1: seen it, folks, you know, go to the video on
Speaker 1: Packers dot com of Special Teams coordinator cam Acord's news conference,
Speaker 1: because when I use the word educational with Micah Parsons,
Speaker 1: mister Acord was being very educational up in front of
Speaker 1: the room, and uh, but it's but it's beneficial to
Speaker 1: all of us, and it's a reminder of how much
Speaker 1: every little, small detailed matters at this level, because, as
Speaker 1: I always like to say, this is not the same
Speaker 1: game that we all played in the backyard. Yes, this
Speaker 1: this is a different game when it's played at this level,
Speaker 1: and every single detail matters, it really does.
Speaker 2: And obviously if we got end up getting an impromptu
Speaker 2: demonstration from Achord on just the different things that go
Speaker 2: into holding a football and what was very interesting to me.
Speaker 2: I posted the video on my Instagram video and Lucas
Speaker 2: Haversk actually sent me a message afterwards talking about it.
Speaker 2: And as Lucas explained it, that's actually an ideology that
Speaker 2: was sort of passed down from Nick Folk, the long
Speaker 2: time NFL kicker also spent time with Achord in New England.
Speaker 2: And when you're dealing with harsher conditions and harsher climates,
Speaker 2: the trajectory of the ball, as Lucas was kind of
Speaker 2: explained to me, I mean, obviously you're not kicking a kickball.
Speaker 2: This thing's an egg and you got to make sure
Speaker 2: that you are kicking it to give yourself the best
Speaker 2: shot in terms of the trajectory of it and where
Speaker 2: that thing is leaning, and what it's going to mean
Speaker 2: with the win, with the cold, all those type of things.
Speaker 2: So Acord has been so interesting in terms of being
Speaker 2: not just innovative with some of these things that he's
Speaker 2: been doing in practice, but then coming to the podium
Speaker 2: and explaining the why behind them. And if he's doing
Speaker 2: that with the media, Mike, you can't imagine what he
Speaker 2: must be doing with players behind the scenes. Is he
Speaker 2: reiterated again, there is not a drill, There is not
Speaker 2: a period. There is not anything they're going to do
Speaker 2: in practice that he's not going to ask them to
Speaker 2: do in a game. That is the critical thing for
Speaker 2: Green Bay right now, as they're implementing a new scheme,
Speaker 2: as they're learning a new special teams unit, and they're
Speaker 2: taking some of the things they've done with their personnel
Speaker 2: and trying to make it go to the next level.
Speaker 2: Still a lot of work to do. I mean, Trey Smack,
Speaker 2: we've seen what the stats are at these practices, He's
Speaker 2: still trying to get a handle on exactly what it's
Speaker 2: like kicking over at Nischki. And then we will see
Speaker 2: it eventually in a stadium here, maybe as early as
Speaker 2: Family Night on Friday Night. That's where Green Bay ultimately
Speaker 2: needs to get to. You need to put the thing
Speaker 2: between the uprights. But Acort at least taken some time
Speaker 2: there to explain what he's looking for. What are the
Speaker 2: big check marks that he wants to see from not
Speaker 2: only Smack, but holder Daniel Wheelan cal Adamitas, who's been
Speaker 2: the long snapper. All these things kind of attached to
Speaker 2: one another in some shape or form. That ultimately, when
Speaker 2: when you're talking about teaching the game of football. As
Speaker 2: much as I know, I think CBS Sports and some
Speaker 2: other people picked up on it makes good for you know,
Speaker 2: a cool highlight video, but that's also the stuff that
Speaker 2: makes us smarter in terms of understanding what they're doing
Speaker 2: out there and why they're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he even mentioned yeah exactly, and he even mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, when you bring a new long snapper into
Speaker 1: the mix, and he didn't say necessarily this specifically with Adamitis,
Speaker 1: but but there can be adjustments where a long snapper
Speaker 1: is used to snapping into the holder's chest, but then
Speaker 1: maybe he comes to a new team and they want
Speaker 1: it snapped over the spot of the hold, you know,
Speaker 1: So then the long snapper might be making an adjustment
Speaker 1: based on what he's used to from elsewhere that he's
Speaker 1: been and all that, you know, and all that is
Speaker 1: before you get to you know, the hold and the
Speaker 1: lean of the ball and everything that he was that
Speaker 1: he was demonstrating in front of us there. So again,
Speaker 1: just very enlightening in terms of just everything that goes
Speaker 1: into something that is very easy to take for granted.
Speaker 2: And also I really like the follow up too on
Speaker 2: the tennis ball drill. We talked about that in the spring.
Speaker 2: How on punt returns, you know, they're doing this thing
Speaker 2: now where the guys get to the spot, they throw
Speaker 2: up the tennis ball and then they catch the ball
Speaker 2: the football, and then they catch the tennis ball is
Speaker 2: acor to illustrate, he's like, he doesn't really care whether
Speaker 2: or not they catch the tennis ball after they catch
Speaker 2: the football, that's the primary goal. But the reason you
Speaker 2: do the tennis ball thing is to basically line yourself
Speaker 2: up for where you're going to receive the punt. And
Speaker 2: if you end up throwing that thing up and it
Speaker 2: doesn't land anywhere to where you are when you're catching it,
Speaker 2: that tells you there's something in misalignment there. Yeah. Again,
Speaker 2: small things that we just sit there and go, oh,
Speaker 2: that's kind of interesting, but understanding what they're actually looking
Speaker 2: for in that particular drill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Because how do you make the cleanest catch and
Speaker 1: give yourself the best opportunity to get yardage going forward?
Speaker 1: It's to have your body in position to catch the
Speaker 1: ball as quickly as possible. You don't drift, you don't wait,
Speaker 1: you don't try to catch it on the run unless
Speaker 1: obviously you're moving forward. And the tennis ball drill is
Speaker 1: is what tells a returner did I get there in time?
Speaker 1: Because if he throws the tennis ball up, catches it,
Speaker 1: and the ball comes down right in that spot, then
Speaker 1: he knows that he was there. But if he throws
Speaker 1: the tennis ball up and then has to drift to
Speaker 1: catch the punt and the tennis ball lands over there,
Speaker 1: he didn't get there as soon as he needed to write. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff. Last thing before we go. Family Night is
Speaker 1: up next Friday Night at lambeau Field. The I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's been every single year, but gambling remains
Speaker 1: illegal at Bushwood. But you can almost bet on Family
Speaker 1: Night that there will be a young defensive back who
Speaker 1: makes a tremendous interception, maybe even multiple interceptions. It seems
Speaker 1: like that happens on Family Night more often than not,
Speaker 1: where somebody in a crowded defensive backfield, a young guy
Speaker 1: that hasn't been talked about whole lot, starts to make
Speaker 1: his case to make the roster. Right. I just wonder again,
Speaker 1: because there are a lot of defensive backs taking reps
Speaker 1: out there. I wonder if we're going to see something
Speaker 1: like that again on Friday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure we will.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's funny we were talking with Tremont Williams
Speaker 2: about this, right, because I mean that's how Tremon.
Speaker 3: Way back when.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of got himself noticed, and the amount of
Speaker 2: dbs that were kind of trying to make the roster,
Speaker 2: and many of whom actually ended up making the roster
Speaker 2: by finding ways to kind of ball out and show out,
Speaker 2: and that's the best way to do it. On Family
Speaker 2: and Night, you got sixty thousand, sixty thousand plus people
Speaker 2: sitting in the stands. You got that first vibe of
Speaker 2: what it's like to be in an NFL game, an
Speaker 2: NFL game setting, And actually, I personally think it probably
Speaker 2: takes on even more importance this year because you only
Speaker 2: have one preseason game at home this season, and the Packers'
Speaker 2: first regular season game isn't until you're already two games
Speaker 2: into the twenty twenty six campaign, so Packers actually won't
Speaker 2: have very many opportunities other than their walkthroughs to get
Speaker 2: in there and feel what it's like to be in
Speaker 2: that stadium. So who that person's going to be, I mean,
Speaker 2: your guess is as good as mine, but there always
Speaker 2: is somebody that makes a big play, and I just
Speaker 2: think it's.
Speaker 3: Such a cool family night.
Speaker 2: The average fan won't understand this anymore because you just
Speaker 2: you don't spend them all of time and that's totally fine.
Speaker 3: People have lives.
Speaker 2: But when we spend so much time out at practice
Speaker 2: and you see the shift that the Packers make with
Speaker 2: their their practice format when they go to family Night,
Speaker 2: the long distance throw as the quarterbacks will do, trying
Speaker 2: to hit the net from fifty plus yards, that's always
Speaker 2: a favorite. Those are things we don't see at it
Speaker 2: every day practice, and I think it's always cool the
Speaker 2: way they lined it up. They obviously will do the
Speaker 2: kicking thing near the end of it. Just always stuff
Speaker 2: to kind of not only entertain people, not only learn
Speaker 2: something about the football team, but also put their guys
Speaker 2: in situations where, okay, these are the plays you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to make to win games in this stadium and
Speaker 2: sort of simulating that the best you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it'll be. It's always kind of that first
Speaker 1: milestone of training camp is you get to Family Night,
Speaker 1: because then once you get out the backside of family
Speaker 1: and Night, then it's like you're in to the week
Speaker 1: by week getting ready for the preseason games. And then
Speaker 1: with each preseason game that goes by, you're getting that
Speaker 1: much closer to the roster reduction and then getting ready
Speaker 1: for Week one.
Speaker 3: So it's the playoffs, yeah, and the combine and.
Speaker 1: Then you're at the owner soon and then the draft
Speaker 1: is right around the corner after that. But but no, yeah,
Speaker 1: family night, Family Knight's always it's it's for me.
Speaker 3: It's always the.
Speaker 1: First milestone of training camp. Yeah, and then everything everything
Speaker 1: moves on from there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just right, I think, because it's the first
Speaker 3: time you do feel like you start you start to
Speaker 3: get back into a weekly schedule.
Speaker 2: Although this year it's gonna be even weirder though, because
Speaker 2: we're playing on Thursday.
Speaker 1: But yeah, generally we're getting on a plane on Wednesday
Speaker 1: to go to Pittsburgh for a Thursday preseason game.
Speaker 3: So that's something you do routine.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we never know what day of the week
Speaker 1: it is. In August Thursday, Yeah, don't ask 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 training
Speaker 1: camp and this football team. It's all Florida on Packers
Speaker 1: dot Com for West Simon like, thank you for too much,
Speaker 1: sim