Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joint as always by my trusted
Speaker 1: colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our
Speaker 1: studios at lambeau Field. West Were another day closer to
Speaker 1: Week fourteen, green Bay versus Washington Sunday noon Central time
Speaker 1: kickoff at lambeau Field. Packers nine and three, the final
Speaker 1: quarter of the regular season to go as they fight
Speaker 1: for potentially an NFC North championship, a playoff birth, and
Speaker 1: all of that good stuff. It's been a lot of
Speaker 1: things swirling around in the media amongst fans, a lot
Speaker 1: of discussion as to just what is the identity of
Speaker 1: the two thousand nineteen Green Bay Packers. We've talked about
Speaker 1: a little bit on this show. If there's any thing
Speaker 1: I've said along those lines, I think it's that this
Speaker 1: is a team that has proven more often than not
Speaker 1: it's the better team in the fourth quarter, and that's
Speaker 1: how it has won games. You look at defensively, they
Speaker 1: get sacks, they pressure quarterbacks, they get turnovers. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the identity on that side of the ball. Offensively,
Speaker 1: we know this unit is at its best when the
Speaker 1: ball goes through the running backs for the most part,
Speaker 1: at least that's where it starts. Aaron Rodgers had a
Speaker 1: very interesting answer to this question, I thought in his
Speaker 1: post Wednesday practice media huddle at his locker, because he
Speaker 1: was asked the identity question and he didn't really talk
Speaker 1: about the playbook. The play calls the xs and os
Speaker 1: on the field what somebody would see as this team's
Speaker 1: identity on film when they study the two thousand nineteen
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers. His answer was very much rooted in
Speaker 1: the locker room and in the culture and in the
Speaker 1: chemistry of the team. I thought that was very interesting
Speaker 1: because flat out he said he believes the identity of
Speaker 1: this team is that is everybody embracing his role, a
Speaker 1: role that has been handed down from the head coach,
Speaker 1: from the general manager, of the way the roster has
Speaker 1: been constructed. In all of that, I thought it was
Speaker 1: a very interesting answer because it really, in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways it had nothing to do with the identity
Speaker 1: that people talk about in the in the film study sense.
Speaker 1: Right in Matt Lafleur, when he was discussing this said too,
Speaker 1: he's going to leave that identity identifying the identity up
Speaker 1: to the media whatever you want to say their identity is.
Speaker 1: That's well and good. The fact of the matter is
Speaker 1: the Packers, without this identity that's you know, has a
Speaker 1: title and a name and a description and a birthday,
Speaker 1: they have been able to get to nine and three
Speaker 1: at this point in Mike, for the first time in
Speaker 1: two years, you and I are covering meaningful December football,
Speaker 1: legitimately meaningful December football. So if you're nine and three,
Speaker 1: if you've had the success that I don't think many
Speaker 1: people expected the Packers to have this year, to be
Speaker 1: at nine wins sitting in the first week of December,
Speaker 1: do you have an identity? And Rogers tapped into something
Speaker 1: that I've kind of been alluding to for most of
Speaker 1: the season. It's one of the reasons I want to
Speaker 1: track down Mercedes Lewis in the locker room this week
Speaker 1: because so many times, Mike, it's like, Okay, there's Davantie Adams.
Speaker 1: He needs to get hundred and eleven catches, he needs
Speaker 1: to get yards and fifteen touchdowns, and that's the sign
Speaker 1: of a healthy, productive offense and team. And the reality
Speaker 1: is that isn't that isn't it? The reality is is
Speaker 1: that you need guys like Mercedes Lewis and Jimmy Graham
Speaker 1: who have been stars, have been Pro bowlers in other
Speaker 1: locations that are in a different stage of their career
Speaker 1: that are willing to accept the role that's handed to him.
Speaker 1: You need Jamal Williams as a fourth round pick in
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen being the secondary option to the guy
Speaker 1: that was taken around behind him. Aaron Jones that those
Speaker 1: two became close friends in the relationship that they have.
Speaker 1: That's special because so many times times it can be adversarial. Uh,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're dealing with running backs and touches
Speaker 1: and things of that nature. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: money at stake when these guys go for second contracts
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. That's all part of
Speaker 1: the business too. Yeah, and you look at the receiving court,
Speaker 1: Yeah it is Davante Adams. But if Davante Adams has
Speaker 1: to take a back seat in any given week, he's
Speaker 1: cool with it. And that permeates through the rest of
Speaker 1: the room, whether it's Al Lazard, Marcus Veld, the scantling,
Speaker 1: Jake Kumero. This list goes on and on of all
Speaker 1: these different guys that have stepped up in Geronimo Allison
Speaker 1: in that conversation as well, that is the identity defensively,
Speaker 1: it's the same situation when you look at Kyler Facral,
Speaker 1: guy had ten and a half sacks last year. The
Speaker 1: Packer signed two premier pass rushers in the off season,
Speaker 1: guys that you know we're gonna be the two most
Speaker 1: coveted guys in terms of their age and what they
Speaker 1: put on the field and their potential. Packers got both
Speaker 1: of them, and Kyler Facral had to go back to
Speaker 1: a secondary role. You haven't heard him piping up this season,
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark. I mean the list goes on and on.
Speaker 1: So I mean for the Packers to be at this point,
Speaker 1: you don't do that without camaraderie. You don't do that
Speaker 1: with chemistry. Without chemistry, and more importantly, Mike, it's the
Speaker 1: culture of that locker room right now that's helped him
Speaker 1: get to this position. Yeah. I thought it was interesting because,
Speaker 1: and if you want to check out my story, I
Speaker 1: fashioned a piece after the locker room interviews on Wednesday
Speaker 1: evening with you know, around Rogers comments, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was just very interesting how he mentioned guys the guy.
Speaker 1: The names of guys that he rattled off, Marcedes Lewis,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Graham, Jamal Williams, Geronimo Alison, Kyler Facral. You look
Speaker 1: at you look at all of those guys. They have
Speaker 1: all had bigger and better seasons in their NFL careers
Speaker 1: than they're having right now, even Jamal Williams, because you
Speaker 1: look back at Williams rookie season he had. He had
Speaker 1: a stretch of three consecutive games in his rookie year
Speaker 1: where he had a hundred plus yards from scrimmage three
Speaker 1: games in a row. He was the bell cow. He
Speaker 1: was getting it done. That's not his role this year.
Speaker 1: Geronimo Allison, last year we talked about how he was
Speaker 1: on pace for a thousand yards season before he got injured.
Speaker 1: He's not having that kind of year this year. Kyler Faco,
Speaker 1: you mentioned the double digit sacks. Marcedes Lewis and Jimmy
Speaker 1: Graham have gone to Pro Bowls before, They're not going
Speaker 1: to Neither one of them is going to a Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl this year. Let's just be honest, right, They're not
Speaker 1: having that type of individual season. But yet nobody's nobody's complaining,
Speaker 1: nobody's barking. Everybody has accepted and the way Rogers described
Speaker 1: it as it's accepting a challenge that's handed down from
Speaker 1: the head coach saying, this is your role, this is
Speaker 1: what we want you to do. So give it everything
Speaker 1: you have and knock our socks off with this role
Speaker 1: that you've been that you've been handed And it's it
Speaker 1: is a big reason the Packers are nine and three
Speaker 1: right now. And I think that's partly why, as we've
Speaker 1: discussed at other times on the show, you don't really
Speaker 1: know every week how the Packers are going to go
Speaker 1: about winning the game, or at least attempting or trying
Speaker 1: to win the game. But the thing is, because of
Speaker 1: because of the culture they have and because of the
Speaker 1: roles that more polished players or players with more polished
Speaker 1: seasons in their careers earlier, because of the roles that
Speaker 1: they've accepted, they believe that if they buy into it,
Speaker 1: then they are putting their best foot forward for the
Speaker 1: for the team to have a shot to win the game.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's fostered a belief and a confidence and
Speaker 1: and I I personally think that that type of confidence
Speaker 1: is what carries into the fourth quarter that if these
Speaker 1: guys are right there in the fourth quarter, they believe
Speaker 1: they're going to pull it out. Yeah. And it's different
Speaker 1: this year too, because the Packers haven't, to this point
Speaker 1: twelve weeks into the season, haven't had to deal with
Speaker 1: a lot of injuries. Would Geronimo Allison's roll be bigger
Speaker 1: if you didn't have all these other secondary options? Would
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams will be bigger? Certain Jones wasn't having the
Speaker 1: season he's having, certainly, absolutely, And it can change like that.
Speaker 1: So that's why it's important to stay in tune with
Speaker 1: where you're at because there could come a day in
Speaker 1: two or three weeks where hey, now Jamal Williams is
Speaker 1: the featured back and he has to carry the load.
Speaker 1: You have to be ready for all of that. You
Speaker 1: have to mentally be able to under stand, this is
Speaker 1: what's asked to me today and what could potentially be
Speaker 1: asked to me tomorrow, and how you react to both
Speaker 1: of those things matters, matters to the locker room, matters
Speaker 1: how these things go. Because if any of these guys,
Speaker 1: sixty three guys if you count the practice squad, any
Speaker 1: of them peep up with discontent or whatever that creates
Speaker 1: stress that creates dysfunction, It creates distractions that you don't need.
Speaker 1: And I just feel like that's the thing that stands
Speaker 1: out to me about this your team. You don't have that.
Speaker 1: You asked me for a Tremont Williams quote when you're
Speaker 1: writing that story. Unfortunately I didn't have one for you
Speaker 1: when I knew you would. I knew you had talked
Speaker 1: to him. I had. I had missed his locker room
Speaker 1: scrum on Wednesday, and I was hoping maybe he had
Speaker 1: a comment that I could use for my story. Turned
Speaker 1: out not to be the case, but He's gonna have
Speaker 1: one for one that I'm going to be using with Lewis,
Speaker 1: And it relates to what the importance is of showing
Speaker 1: a guy like that and a guy like Tremont too,
Speaker 1: who's been a star in this league, been a pro
Speaker 1: bowler in this league, and has made a lot of
Speaker 1: money playing the game of professional football, coming from very
Speaker 1: humble beginnings, being able to humble themselves and understands what's
Speaker 1: asked of them today, because it's not just about what
Speaker 1: it does for the locker room. In two thousand nineteen,
Speaker 1: you have Gyr Alexander, you have Robert Tonyan, you have
Speaker 1: Ja Sternberger, You've got guys that are in the absolute
Speaker 1: spring of their NFL careers that are hopefully, in their eyes,
Speaker 1: going to be playing ten twelve years as well. They're
Speaker 1: gonna remember those moments. They're gonna remember when when Mercedes
Speaker 1: Lewis says something, when he does something, or the way
Speaker 1: that Rogers interacts with him, and you're gonna remember the
Speaker 1: way that Truman Williams very selflessly came back and said, yeah,
Speaker 1: sure you need me at safety, although that's not my
Speaker 1: best position, Yeah let's play it because that's what I
Speaker 1: have to do to help this defense stay afloat for
Speaker 1: their second half of the season. That's that leaves big
Speaker 1: marks and impressions on a locker room. So that that's
Speaker 1: why it's important to Darius Smith talk about him changing
Speaker 1: the culture, bringing in something new and energy, a passion,
Speaker 1: and being able to bring everyone along for the ride. Whatever.
Speaker 1: You don't want to make fun of the d train
Speaker 1: or kind of laugh about it, that's off matters because
Speaker 1: it's not about what the Packers are trying to do
Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen, and by all means that's win
Speaker 1: a super Bowl. It's getting back to a place where
Speaker 1: they can contend every single year and have a locker room,
Speaker 1: a coaching staff, and a culture that fits along with
Speaker 1: that vision. Yeah, and I think as much as uh,
Speaker 1: the guys that I rattled off before, they aren't every
Speaker 1: down players on this team. They have specific roles they've
Speaker 1: they've also taken on leadership roles to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: But also you see the leadership coming from those frontline
Speaker 1: every down guys as well. And I'm talking about Davante
Speaker 1: Adams who didn't say a word about the fact that
Speaker 1: he went ten games or whatever it was without getting
Speaker 1: a touchdown this year. Now, yes, he's enjoying the fact
Speaker 1: that he's got three touchdowns in the last two games,
Speaker 1: but he didn't say anything about that. And and what
Speaker 1: what trickles down from there is is because, in my
Speaker 1: in my opinion, because that kind of stuff doesn't come
Speaker 1: out of his mouth, the the other receivers in that
Speaker 1: room understand their value. Because if Davante Adams are saying, well,
Speaker 1: I gotta get a bunch of touchdowns, then the other
Speaker 1: receivers are like, well, what are we a bunch of
Speaker 1: chopped liver? You know, I mean, so it's hard to
Speaker 1: speak to that room when you're leading it absolutely, And
Speaker 1: I say the same thing about the Smiths that you
Speaker 1: know at outside linebacker, Preston's and Darius they are they
Speaker 1: are the every down guys. They hardly ever come off
Speaker 1: the field. They're the ones racking up all the statistics
Speaker 1: and everything like that. But they have made it clear
Speaker 1: with their comments both publicly and behind the scenes. I
Speaker 1: think in the meeting room how important a guy like
Speaker 1: Kyler Facral is and the role and the role that
Speaker 1: he plays that yeah, maybe we're the ones racking up
Speaker 1: all the sacks, but hey, we need you out there
Speaker 1: and lo and behold who makes the play on the
Speaker 1: goal line against Carolina to preserve and and save that
Speaker 1: a point? And Kyler Facral is the first guy in
Speaker 1: the backfield, right. So it's those kinds of things that
Speaker 1: you know that have helped, that have helped this team
Speaker 1: along and create I I give Matt Fleur, Matt la
Speaker 1: Fleur a lot of credit, and I don't know how
Speaker 1: much he'll be in the discussion potentially for Coach of
Speaker 1: the Year, and who knows. There's still four regular season
Speaker 1: games left and a lot of stuff can happen here.
Speaker 1: But regardless of the any potential postseason award. I give
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur a lot of credit because he's created this
Speaker 1: culture and this locker room with the help of Brian
Speaker 1: Guducunsten the players who were brought in in a really
Speaker 1: very very short amount of time. Now, winning helps, but
Speaker 1: but they aren't. You know, the culture isn't just there
Speaker 1: because of the winning. The culture has also contributed to
Speaker 1: the winning. And it was interesting too because I wrote
Speaker 1: about this an Insider inbox because somebody was kind of
Speaker 1: I think taking la Fleur's comments a little too literal
Speaker 1: about where he's pointing at himself and saying it's on him,
Speaker 1: and somebody asked, well, when when's he gonna get this
Speaker 1: all figured out? When he's gon get the play call
Speaker 1: and figure it out? You got to see past the
Speaker 1: words with that, because if Brian good excuse me, if
Speaker 1: Matt la floor sits up there and says, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what, he didn't do very well, or you know what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're losing confidence in that guy. You know what, I
Speaker 1: can't really deal with what we're dealing with right now.
Speaker 1: Then what messages that send your locker room? The Fleur
Speaker 1: every single time he has stepped forward and there's been
Speaker 1: an issue, he points at himself. First, he did it
Speaker 1: with J. K. Scott, the punter. What does the head
Speaker 1: coach have to do with the how the punter is performing?
Speaker 1: But he does that because if he doesn't look inward,
Speaker 1: if he doesn't act accountable, how do you expect people
Speaker 1: underneath you to be accountable? And this locker room, it
Speaker 1: goes back to that story I wrote at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the season. The first time the Packers had to
Speaker 1: look themselves in the mirror when the defense came back
Speaker 1: from Baltimore and had a three am meeting after they
Speaker 1: played a preseason game, one quarter one preseason game against
Speaker 1: by the way, maybe the m v P of the league,
Speaker 1: Mr Jackson. So the way that you have to look
Speaker 1: at this is there is an accountability. There is a
Speaker 1: critiquing and understanding that before you go and say what
Speaker 1: you knew need to do better, I need to tell
Speaker 1: you what I need to do better. That is what
Speaker 1: has impressed me the most. And by the way, that's
Speaker 1: the reason I leave. Matt Lafleur should be in the
Speaker 1: conversation for Coach the Year because the one thing you
Speaker 1: notice with these a p coach of the years. A
Speaker 1: lot of times it's the biggest turnaround. It's not always
Speaker 1: who wins the Super Bowl. Now, if he wins the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, then I think that pretty much galvanizes it.
Speaker 1: But you know, the fact that Mike McCarthy didn't get
Speaker 1: it in two thousand seven has always kind of bothered
Speaker 1: me because if a team it goes fifteen and one
Speaker 1: or they win a Super Bowl, coaches don't always get
Speaker 1: those accolades. Matt Lafleur should be right in the middle
Speaker 1: of this conversation because of how quickly they've been able
Speaker 1: to turn this thing around. Yeah, and I like what
Speaker 1: you said about la Fleur in terms of in terms
Speaker 1: of his accountability because there are a lot of head
Speaker 1: coaches in this league there we always talk about there
Speaker 1: are different ways to do things right. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of head coaches in this league who they wouldn't
Speaker 1: They don't say things to the media at the podium
Speaker 1: the way Matt Lafleur does because they're afraid that it
Speaker 1: projects weakness. You know, Matt Lafleur believes that it projects
Speaker 1: accountability and that is then what trickles down to the
Speaker 1: rest of the team and I got to kick out
Speaker 1: of that question. You answered an insider inbox about you know,
Speaker 1: when is Matt Lafleur gonna fig hear out this play
Speaker 1: calling thing and stop having to say that you know
Speaker 1: he should have called better plays or there so that
Speaker 1: I got news for you. Everybody in the NFL who's
Speaker 1: calling offensive plays are calling defensive plays, no matter how
Speaker 1: long they've been doing it every game. They have regrets,
Speaker 1: they have play calls that they want back. They don't
Speaker 1: always say that. They don't always make it known to
Speaker 1: everybody that yeah, you know, I screwed up a few times.
Speaker 1: But trust me, every single one of those guys, like
Speaker 1: nobody's got this whole thing figured out. You know, just
Speaker 1: because Matt la Fleur is the one who's saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta call better plays, I gotta put my guys
Speaker 1: in better position. He doesn't just say I need to
Speaker 1: coach better, which is what a lot of coaches say.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. They don't want to get into the
Speaker 1: details publicly. That's their choice. Matte Fleur has, you know,
Speaker 1: has pulled back the curtain a little bit in terms
Speaker 1: of where he feels he needs to help the team more.
Speaker 1: And uh and I and I agree with you. I
Speaker 1: think that's projected something that has trickled down to the
Speaker 1: other leaders in the locker room, which then trickles down
Speaker 1: to the rest of the locker room. That Hey, account
Speaker 1: ability starts with looking in the mirror. And if that
Speaker 1: guy is going to stand in front of all those
Speaker 1: cameras at the podium and take the blame for something,
Speaker 1: then you guys can do it behind closed doors as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you what I mean when you look
Speaker 1: at how this season has unfolded for green Bay, I
Speaker 1: still don't think if you don't have that type of leadership,
Speaker 1: if you don't have that type of oversight. As much
Speaker 1: was made coming into Green Bay about Matt Lafleur's offense
Speaker 1: and what he's gonna do to, you know, revitalize things,
Speaker 1: if you don't have that, I don't think the Packers
Speaker 1: are at nine and three the way that he's handled
Speaker 1: this because they've had to win so many close games,
Speaker 1: They've had to pull things out late in ball games,
Speaker 1: and they've really had to dig deep at different intervals
Speaker 1: and have that contribution come from a number of different positions, phases,
Speaker 1: what have you. And now you're down to the final
Speaker 1: four games. And I wrote about this an inbox on
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. You never apologize for victory because it's so
Speaker 1: difficult to attain it. Asked the Atlanta Falcons, asked these
Speaker 1: teams that thought they were legitimate at contenders, asked the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears, the fact that they've had to be the
Speaker 1: team now that's like, okay, they went twelve, they went
Speaker 1: twelve and four a year ago, and right now they
Speaker 1: have an extremely difficult schedule in looking at ten and
Speaker 1: six as the best they can do if they can
Speaker 1: run through a gauntlet of a final month. So if
Speaker 1: you're staying at nine and three, you can say whatever
Speaker 1: you want. The identity to be my identity. The way
Speaker 1: I look at that is you're a winner and you
Speaker 1: have a real chance right now to do something special
Speaker 1: in January. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, you wrote another follow up
Speaker 1: story to Mason Crosby. Um, not just related to coming
Speaker 1: off of the Giants game and everything that was going
Speaker 1: on there, but you had some interesting statistics in there
Speaker 1: within the context of the fact that Crosby and we
Speaker 1: don't want to jinx our veteran kicker here, but he
Speaker 1: did knock on woods. Yeah, every of the lockers are
Speaker 1: made of woods, because guys will do that occasionally. He's
Speaker 1: only missed one field goal so far this season. He's
Speaker 1: perfect on his extra points. He's having a career year
Speaker 1: from a percentage and an accuracy standpoint. But it's interesting
Speaker 1: because across the league that's not what's happened. The field
Speaker 1: goal percentages are down league wide compared to where they've
Speaker 1: been in recent years. It's it's kind of interesting how
Speaker 1: this is unfolding and we're seeing how injuries at kicker
Speaker 1: or under performance at kicker with other teams and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's leading to a revolving door, kind of a carousel
Speaker 1: of of kickers jumping around to different teams and taking
Speaker 1: their shot and then getting cut right away and all
Speaker 1: this other kind of stuff. And uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: Packers have as much stability, if not more so, at
Speaker 1: that position than than anybody could ask for at this point. Yeah. No, strangely,
Speaker 1: a lot of kicker injuries this year. Yeah, that has
Speaker 1: that has definitely factored. Yeah, Robbie Gold has been injured,
Speaker 1: and I'm then Terry's hurt again. The money Badger in
Speaker 1: l A was out for a long time. Michael Badgeley
Speaker 1: so I mean like there's actually been like quite a
Speaker 1: few of those, yeah, for New England. So as of
Speaker 1: you know, we saw on Wednesday the Patriots didn't have
Speaker 1: a kicker during practice, and it turned out because they
Speaker 1: had put in a claim on Chase McLoughlin, who had
Speaker 1: just been released from San Francisco because Gold is back,
Speaker 1: and then three teams place a waiver claim on him
Speaker 1: and he gets picked up by the Colts, who now
Speaker 1: don't have venetary. So this shows you one how difficult
Speaker 1: it is to find a kicker in the NFL too.
Speaker 1: When you get that guy, how important it is to
Speaker 1: stand by them because there are going to be highs
Speaker 1: and lows and ups and downs. But if you feel
Speaker 1: like you have a guy you can be confident in,
Speaker 1: you need to value that guy. There was a conversation.
Speaker 1: I hope I'm not speaking out of school here, but
Speaker 1: I was talking with Crosby afterwards after we did the
Speaker 1: interview for the story, and he was talking about how
Speaker 1: they went out for practice on Wednesday, and he said
Speaker 1: that was one of the more difficult days he's been
Speaker 1: out kicking outside because of how the wind currents are fluctuating,
Speaker 1: the temperatures go down I don't think people fully appreciate
Speaker 1: what Crosby has been able to do here for thirteen years.
Speaker 1: And you can ask Ryan Longwell about this. You can
Speaker 1: probably go back and ask Chester Markle about it if
Speaker 1: you want to. It is not easy to kick in
Speaker 1: these conditions. I thought the Bears took that for granted
Speaker 1: when they moved away from Gold four years ago and
Speaker 1: they struggled to replace that. I totally agree with you.
Speaker 1: So you have Crosby now, who has made fifteen, fourteen
Speaker 1: and fifteen field goals, not been a ton of attempts,
Speaker 1: He's made every single extra point. He has a chance
Speaker 1: to potentially for the first time since they moved that back,
Speaker 1: to make every single extra And if you go back
Speaker 1: to that disastrous scheme against Detroit and Crosby's not about statistics,
Speaker 1: he said, he really doesn't think about him because that's
Speaker 1: only then you're doing it for the wrong reasons. But
Speaker 1: he fully understands he would have had the best year
Speaker 1: of his career if you could just take away Detroit
Speaker 1: last year. You have been on his field goal makes
Speaker 1: and since that game he's made thirty three or thirty six. Now,
Speaker 1: that's the funny thing is that you you look at
Speaker 1: field goals. He missed more field goals against Detroit than
Speaker 1: he's missed since that Detroit game. And think about that.
Speaker 1: That's that's more than a full season of games. Because
Speaker 1: Detroit last year was what week six, and here we
Speaker 1: are to week fourteen of nineteen. So just that that
Speaker 1: alone is pretty market inutive extra points. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really you know, you look at where he's come
Speaker 1: from and what he's endured and the I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about two twelve anymore because that's so far
Speaker 1: long ago. But if you actually go back and look
Speaker 1: and just see the years that he's put together eight
Speaker 1: eighty six, the level of consistency that he's maintained since
Speaker 1: then is really admirable, aside from kind of a weird
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen season where they didn't kick a lot
Speaker 1: of field goals. In the fact, you want to mix
Speaker 1: in what's he's dealt with with his wife, what happened
Speaker 1: with Brittany, and you know, he also mentioned that Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur actually sent him a text Tuesday night just to
Speaker 1: see how he was doing and see if everything went okay.
Speaker 1: When he was in Texas on Monday, and Tuesday being
Speaker 1: a player's off day, he made his way back to
Speaker 1: Green Bay. He's here on Thursday to practice. He'll go
Speaker 1: back for the funeral on Friday, then he'll fly back
Speaker 1: to Green Bay. The jet leg, the emotions, all of that.
Speaker 1: Mason Crosby, thirty five years young, potentially making an argument
Speaker 1: for his first Pro Bowl of his career. Um, some
Speaker 1: good kickers still in the NFC, with Will luttson Zane Gonzalez.
Speaker 1: But man, with what Crosby has done in the obstacles
Speaker 1: he's had to overcome to get there. I just again,
Speaker 1: you just have to kind of put your head down
Speaker 1: at night. And if you're a Packer fan and you know,
Speaker 1: thank your lucky stars that he's been your kicker for
Speaker 1: the last thirteen years. Yeah, and you certainly can't discount
Speaker 1: the value of the kicking game. As the Packers are
Speaker 1: going to play back to back December home games before
Speaker 1: they move indoors for weeks sixteen and seventeen Minnesota and Detroit.
Speaker 1: But these, uh, these two outdoor games, Uh, the kicking
Speaker 1: game is going to be at a premium for sure.
Speaker 1: So I didn't even look at it. Might but I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think like, so would he be would he
Speaker 1: be the third longest tenured kicker in the league now
Speaker 1: at this point because Venetaris Venetarian Guskowski's time has been together,
Speaker 1: that's s been since oh six, right in Mason came
Speaker 1: in oh seven. So I mean you talk about a
Speaker 1: run with one team, yeah, as far as yeah, as
Speaker 1: far as a tenure, a tenure with one team, yet
Speaker 1: it's uh yeah, it's rare. Yeah, it's absolutely as well.
Speaker 1: With that, we will sign off on this edition of
Speaker 1: Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage
Speaker 1: of the team on Packers dot com. You can subscribe
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Speaker 1: and check out the Packers YouTube channel. All kinds of
Speaker 1: great video content there. For West, I'm Mike. Thanks for
Speaker 1: tuning in. See you next time. H