Preparing for the Packers | Episode 48

Taylor being familiar with the offense that Scott Turner runs is one of the main reasons he was brought here to begin with as an emergency COVID quarterback, not realizing he'd take over pretty much all of last season in the Snap's gonna be the first game he starts since the end of last season against the Giants. Look, you already heard that he uses his legs when the play breaks down. He's not afraid to go. He throws a

little bit with his hair on fire. But what would you say are the greatest strengths that he has, London, Well, just that the ability to extend plays and put pressure on defense with his mobility, his ability to make off schedule plays, and also you'll be able to add the element of the zone rewear or some design quarterback run and it's going to open up the offense from that standpoint,

more movement passes, more bootlegs, things like that. I think also maybe you'll see Scott Turner go a little bit more to the quick short short passing games, some of the intervarior rowsing and go play action and take his shots down the field with what the Packers have to try to stop stop our running game. And you know, you know, one of the things that was, you know that that was clear that what coach stood out and said that stood out to me that coach said was,

you know, his pamiliarity, you know with the system. You know, he's been the system long enough, so they have a chance of saying, okay, we can gauge off what he did will and what he didn't do well. So and as any player that's putting this situation again, I'm sure Teller as a veteran, knows that, hey, this is what I need to correct from last year or the years previously. That's gonna you know, bring my game to another level.

So I'm just looking forward to this guy now showing his team what he's learned from himself in year three, you know, running his offense and another thing that we need to touch on when he was a starter. A year ago, we didn't have the type of talent that we haven't skilled position. We didn't have a Jahan Dotson,

we didn't have a Brian Robertson. We didn't we didn't utilize Antonio Gibson in the matter that we can use utilize him now and health healthy either, So there will be more playmakers at his disposal, where last year was really the Terry mcclarin and the j. D mckittick show from from the standpoint of who you're going to get to the ball too. So now that he has more options, Santana,

that's a good thing. Is there a way it could be something or maybe it's it's too Do they have to adjust maybe a little bit so it doesn't become too much. It's a great question, But I think this is going to rely on solely on the coordinator making sure that he put these guys in a great situation. I think, um, that's something that we've been harping on, you know, des far in the season, when he comes to seeing that favorable matchup, seeing that that we can

make those adjustments throughout the game. When you want to get a guy matched up on someone who you know, we can take advantage of um when you have a guy that's more familiar with your offense. Let's see if this, you know, plays a role on how successful this offense can go, just knowing that you're a little more comfortable with the quarterback. All right, Look, they had familiarity going up against the Packers last season. A little bit different

this year though. Aaron Rodgers and this Packers team is not the same team that we saw last year in London. They've struggled, They've lost two straight games. What's going on? And knowing that Aaron Rodgers toil has the ability to be Aaron Rodgers, and they have two very legitimate running backs as well, what a big thing is he doesn't have Davante Adams, and he's really without three of his top receivers from a year ago, and that's there's been

an adjustment. He's playing with a lot of a lot younger guys, and those receivers also haven't been healthy and the offensive lot hasn't played up to his standard. And you can almost see where see Eric's frustration with the receivers and also with the protection at time. So he has he has a lot on his played as the quarterback with the Packers. And then if you want to, you know, talk about their defense. Their defense has supposed

to been, you know, this defense similar to us. They have I believe three more than three first round picks on that defense, and they just haven't been playing up to that standard. We can talk about the office of line not playing well too. So it's a lot of stuff going on other than Aaron Rodgers and him knowing that system. Plus, we are celebrating ninety years of Washington's greatest We welcome back Super Bowl champs and Washington legends

for alumni weekend. It is also our homecoming weekend. Of course, we're gonna have about one hundred and thirty alumni coming out to this game. Like that is a large number. We are going big for ninety. It's so important London to say, like, while we're celebrating today, we play the game for today. We honor, rerespect, and we appreciate those that we played it, especially, you know, given where we are as the franchise in terms of the name change

and making sure we still tap into our past. And then the former players, and I loved representative Burgundy and gold to players who played before me, and that was something that I took great pride in and I'm sure you did two Tina when you played here, definitely took great pride in those guys that came before us. You know, I'm I still talk to those guys and look at them and all just knowing that they got a chance to experience championship and some of the stories that I've

heard from him. But it's great to have this weekend because you always look forward to hear some of those stories again and just seeing a lot of those faces that you once watch play. When you have the alumni that come out out to practice, and this is something head coach Ron Rivera has kind of encouraged each week

they have like an honorary captain. Some of that comes out and kind of talks with the guys like as a player, how important was that to you and what do you kind of get from that or you you know, do you are you receptive to it or you tuned into it? Absolutely. I'm a historian of the game. I study the past players, and you know, anytime you get a guy that that's coming and speaking to you, when you get to hear his story and you know, it's great for that guy too, to know that he's not forgotten.

So I definitely took a took a great pride of being able to hear those guys, you know, to share their stories and talk to us. Yeah, I always thought it was just great to have those guys around, you know. It always lifts me up in practice just seeing especially you know, seeing Gary Clark week in and week out.

Now now you know nowadays, but when he used to come around, it gave me that kind of like, you know, I want to put on for Gary, show him that I can, you know, we're out then and did some the things that him and those guys monk did you know, and send us or whatever. But it always was just great just to see those guys around because I was familiar with that coming from college, saw the great from the University of Miami, always in our locker room, always on the field. So and just lift you up as

a player. For all of your news and analysis, be sure to tune into command Center weeknights at five thirty and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also stream on YouTube and Commanders dot Com. Hails to the Commanders