#282 Packers Unscripted: Catching up

it's been obviously, uh about two months here. We've stepped away from the TV show. It's the only thing we've really stepped away from. It seems like everything else has been you know, so many developments during that time. But the draft. It's interesting because you get two months basically starting from the end of the scouting combine two months of hype and preparation. But you can always see that weekend as it turns back to the concentration of just

being focused on Okay, it's actually here. The the energy just amps up a little bit more and now for the Packers, the highest that they've been picking in the last nine years. I just sense that just based on the Insider Inbox, our interactions with readers on social media, there is probably more excitement about this week than I can really remember in recent memory. Yeah, I would agree with you, And we've got a lot of time this week to preview the draft and get ready for Thursday night.

But before we get to that, there's a lot of stuff we need to catch up on here because in the time that that we signed off, which was shortly after the combine until now, a lot of changes on the Packers roster. And I want to start on the offensive side of the ball here, because to give the quick rundown, Jordy Nelson, Richard Rodgers, and Jeff Janis are no longer Green Bay Packers tight end Jimmy Graham is, as well as a new entry into the backup quarterback competition,

and that's Deshaun Kaiser from the Cleveland Brown. I don't know where you want to start with all those moves west, but I will say this, that's a lot of changes for an Aaron Rodgers offense in the off season before the draft even gets here. Yeah, and you know you would be foolish not to start with Jordy Nelson because this is a guy that he has a future Packers Hall of Famer. I think you can make a case he's on that mount rushmore of of Packers receivers in

this long illustrious history of this organization. Uh, he's right up there with with the Don Hudson's and Sterling Sharps and Donald Drivers. I mean, this is a guy that I think when you look at the passing game over the last ten years, he's been the face of it. And for Aaron Rodgers and him, that was the longest concurrent, uh partnership between a quarterback and the receivers. But I believe two or three seasons in the entire NFL, guys

just don't get on runs like that very often. And losing him in this offense, that is a big presence in the locker room. It's a big presence on the field. The one thing I've talked about a lot though in the Insider in box in the month or so that this is has passed since the move was made, this

is a big opportunity. It's an opportunity for Davante Adams in Randall cop Jimmy Graham coming into this offense and most importantly those young receivers that have kind of been waiting in kind of trying to fight through that gridlock at the top of the depth chart. This is gonna be one of the most intriguing off seasons and in training camps that I can remember on the offensive side of the ball, because without Jordy Nelson there there's a

lot of guys that have to stepped their game up. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you about Jimmy Graham because as Green Bay media members, we met him for the first time last week when the Packers opened their off season program, began their offseason workouts, and he spoke with reporters and he was asked a lot of things, obviously about his statistics and how the numbers fell off in Seattle versus what he was doing with Drew Brees in

New Orleans. And I don't know about us, but I got a sense of a guy who I don't like to say chip on the shoulder because it's it's it's an overused phrase, but I got a sense of a guy who it's kind of coming to Green Bay out to prove a little something that that maybe in Seattle it wasn't quite the right the right fit in terms of the offensive style and and what he can really bring to the table, and that maybe he feels he

wasn't utilized to his his fullest extent. And there were some injuries there along the way, which which certainly played a factor in in Graham's production in Seattle. But this is a guy who sounds awfully, awfully excited to be in a Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers offense. Yeah. And here's the thing, Mike Packers have had some changes. They're at tight end of the last three or four seasons. Jimmy Graham I think fits with what this locker room is about. He fits what they're about on the field.

You know, they've tried different things, but I think at the end of the day, this Mike McCarthy offense functions the best when it has a hybrid type tight end uh available in it. I think you saw that two years ago with Jared Cook. To me, it seems like Graham probably is a little bit more in terms of personality, a lot like Cook in that person you know, fine personality, but likes to likes to just do things quietly. Um, and you know they obviously Martella is Benny can make

everything out of that. But the thing I liked about Cook two years ago is that he was a guy that just kind of went about his business in over the course of the year. You could see him mesh with that offense with Aaron Rodgers. We're only going off the back of one one interview here with Jimmy Graham,

but I think he fits with that. And then yeah, to your second point, there is a big chip on the shoulder there because he was asked the question are you still the same Jimmy Graham from five years ago? And I think you could kind of see that that's something that is sort of weighing on him a little bit. He believes he is, He believes he still runs that same forty time. He wants a chance to prove it, and he feels like this this offense is the best

caveat best best avenue conduit towards making that happen. And I want to get to uh to Also, Deshaun Kaiser acquired in a trade from the Cleveland Browns for cornerbacked Marius Randall. Now you've got Deshaun Kaiser, Brett Honley, Joe Callahan as the the backup quarterbacks on your roster behind Aaron Rodgers. Mike McCarthy said it um at the scouting combine. If I'm not mistaken, he wants more competition for the

backup spot behind Aaron Rodgers. O see, things did not go as planned when Brett Humley had to start as many games as he did in The Packers really liked to Shaun Kaiser when he was coming out of Notre Dame. There was a chance that the Packers were going to draft him last year. That didn't work out. But now he's in Green Bay. This is a really intriguing change to the quarterback room. Yeah, and I've said this before too. With Kaiser, you hope that he can just wash his

memory bank clean of everything that happened last year. I have not had time to do this. I obviously don't have a stats or alias kind of bureau that can help me on these things. But trying to remember the last time a quarterback that was twenty one years old started fifteen games in the league for a team that, mind you, I think it's not even arguably was the

worst team in the NFL last year. Not ideal circumstances for a young guy to walk in on and on top of that, as we've talked about, he played the majority of that rookie season without his number one wide receiver in Josh Gordon, and without his Hall of Fame left tackle and Joe Thomas for different reasons, but he was without those guys, and that was a team that, even with those guys, was going to struggle to content And he looked different when Gordon was on the field

that final month of the season. So he's a great prospect. Mike six ft four, two pounds. He has everything you look for in a quarterback to develop into me. In my opinion, this is the best summer battle they're going to have in ten years, trying to figure out exactly you know, whether it's gonna be Huny, whether it can be Kaiser. Joe Callahan still involved in that conversation. There's a lot of depth at that position. That's exactly what Mike McCarthy wanted go into this offseason. Yeah, well, I

mentioned the trader to Marius Randall. That was one of the changes on the defensive side. We'll get to more of those on that side of the ball back with more on Packers unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers unscripted. Mike Spofford in this chair, were Hodkoitz in that one in West On the defensive side of the ball, here for the Packers, talking roster changes, Damarius Randall traded to the Browns. Morgan Burnett signs a free agent contract

with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tremont Williams back in the fold. He resigns after three years away with different teams, and then also Devon House resigned for another year. He had been with the Packers on a one year contract a year ago. But probably the biggest change is the addition

of Mohammed Wilkerson on the defensive line. You're talking about adding a guy, he's got a couple of double digit sack seasons to his credit from his time with the New York Jets, a former first round draft pick, and uh joining a group that already has the likes of Mike Daniels, Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, perhaps an upcoming Montrevius Adams. To me, this move signaled, if anything, it's signaled that the foundation of a Mike Petton defense is going to

be the guys up front. That's why they made this move. Absolutely, Mike and in the last segment, we talked about Jimmy Graham having a chip on his shoulder. Mohammed Wilkerson has a chip on his shoulder, probably the size of new jersey from the Green Bay Right now, Packers are getting a motivated player. There's a very motive motivated mo when you look at the fact that this is a guy that was twice an All Pro in this league, twice had over ten and a half sacks at the defensive

tackle position. I mean, it's not like he was this Michael Strahan defensive end where he's just constantly coming off the edge. He provides you a really stable presence inside um And to me, I thought that this signing really indicated, as you just pointed out, where Mike Petton wants this defense to go. Because he has Kenny Clark coming off a career year, he has Mike Daniels coming off of

a Pro Bowl. The Packers very easily and if there was any position on either side of the ball where they could have just stood pat and been fine, it looks like it was probably the defensive line. Especially with Montrevius Adams coming back after being the third round pick last year, they weren't having that Mohammed Wilkerson is here, and if you look at his track record, Mike, he plays.

Whatever you want to make out of all the off the field issues that came up in New York, this guy played over of his defensive snaps in four or five of his six seven seasons that he was in New York. He is a guy that is going to be a constant presence. And if you go back and look at that prototype for the Packers signing free agents,

he meets it in the fact that he's incredibly durable. Yeah, and when you talk when you think about what what Mike McCarthy has said in the past, and he's reiterated it since the signing of Wilkerson, it's about wanting to have a rotation of those defensive linemen. You don't want those big guys having to play eight hundred snaps a year. You want to have them more in the six seven

hundred snap range. Be able to rotate them. Obviously, you know, we know how important it is to have fairly fresh legs in the fourth quarter, try to close out games. All of that. That's what I see the Packers building here upfront. With the addition of Wilkerson to two guys in in Mike Daniels and Kenny Clark, who I thought were becoming, you know, maybe one of the top defensive

interior defensive lineman tandems in the league. Then you're throwing a guy like Wilkerson into that mix where where you don't have to have your top two guys on the field every single snap. I think that's gonna pay some big dividends. What's the shortest distance of the quarterback Michael right in the middle. You look at what Los Angeles did this offseason bringing ensue, matching him now with Aaron Donald.

Aaron Donald, this is something and you need to have pass rushers, you need to have adge rushers, you need to have elephants, no doubt, won't debate that, but this is the type of move that I think is signaling where the league is headed and why you need to have deep rotations inside. All right, well, what are your thoughts on where the Packers are with their secondary right now?

As I mentioned, Mary's Randall gone, Morgan Burnett gone, Tremont Williams, and Devon House to veteran cornerbacks who will be in that room with a lot of young guys around them. Kevin King, Quentin Rollins, Lenzy Pipkins, all these guys. Where do you think it stands right now? Obviously, I think the Packers are still going to use the draft to

work on the future of that position. But you've got two veteran guys now that provide that they can stay healthy, they can they can help bridge the gap here between now and where the Packers secondary will be down the road. This is the thing that stands out to me, Mike, when I look at this. They lost Morgan Burnett. They got to find a way to replace him to Murus Randall. For all the things that happened earlier in the season,

I don't think anyone would question his playmaking ability. He played well down the stretch in the slot they need to replace him. Those are two big spots, those start nickel position. It's becoming really important in this league. Who's going to fill that. That's what I want to find out this offseason. But fourteen defensive backs right now on the roster have NFL experience. They have guys that have

been there, that have done that. Truman Williams, I look at him as a almost like a tranquility kind of factor, a Catharsis for this defense. A guy that just has has that kind of mentality, that leadership value that people gravitate towards. I think he's going to be really positive for them. And he also said he's here to play. The Packers wouldn't have signed him if he couldn't play. Thirty five years old, he still has that spring nous

in his legs. He still can make days, and I'm interested to see what he can do now that he's paired up again with the Packers and also Mike Petton, who he played for in the with the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, that was my favorite thing about what Williams said when he met with the media last week at the start of the offseason program. You know, talk about all the all the reasons that it made sense for the Packers to bring him back. He's been in a pettent defense.

He's he knows everything about what it means to be a Green Bay Packer. He was here for nine years before he left. He Uh, he's a veteran guy who's who knows the ropes. He's been in postseason games, he's been in big time games, all of that. But the biggest reason he's here is because he can still play absolutely and he gives him a lot of versatility to all right with that, we'll go to a break back

with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to pack Years Unscripted Mike Spofford alongside West, Hotkowitz and West. If there's another big piece of news we need to catch up on here before we get to more of our draft preview shows later in the week, it's that the two thousand eighteen schedule was announced late last week. Always an exciting day, wondering, you know, we we always know the who, you don't know the when with all

of these matchups. What was your first impression when you saw the schedule? You know, it's funny because it is it's almost like an engagement. You know, you're getting married now. You just gotta figure out which day it's gonna be. Uh, I mean, you have to, myke, you gotta look at that schedule. The two things that stand out it is really cool they get to open the season against the Bears. You wrote a tremendous column going into all of that.

To me, though, that middle stretch of the season, that eighteen nineteen days will be traveling over ten thousand miles a road trip out to l A. Then they got to go across the country to New England, come back over, go to Seattle in a short week, and then they finished with another prime time matchup against the Minnesota Vikings in a month long stretch that's going to test them. Mike McCarthy constantly preaches the importance of November and playing

your best football in November. They have a great chance to get off to a fast start with three or four at home. That middle, that middle of the season stretch is going to be something that really is defining though when you look at how this how this season is going to play out. Yeah, and when you look at that, it puts an even greater premium. As you just mentioned on taking advantage of the way the early

season schedule sets up. Personally, as a as a football fan, I'm I'm not in favor of the way this starts for the Packers with Bears and Vikings. And what I mean by that is having two division games. You only have six of them all season long, and they have two of them right off the bat in the first two weeks. I'm not crazy about that. But if you look at it from the Packers perspective, you get both of those at home, you do right out of the gate.

You have to take advantage of that. That is your opportunity to win those first two home games against Chicago and Minnesota to year division rivals and to say, okay, here we are, come and get us. We're gonna be in this thing from start to finish. That's what the Packers have to say in September. It's such a great point you make, because I'm so far looking at this at all the really terrible like starts they've had in terms of having to go to Jacksonville and then opening

these stadiums in Atlanta and Minnesota. So I if they get too at home, I just look at that naturally as a positive. But you bring out a good point in that starting against the NFC North, that is going to be difficult and it is going to be a tough stretch in terms of you have new coaches in both of those spots. Conversely, the Packers have two new coordinators as well. But that ultimately is what you know kind of is goes into how this season plays out,

is how you're perform in your division. It's almost like starting if you were a college football team starting with two Big ten games right off the bad too. You're not You're not always who you are until the end of the season, so they'll just have to shift into a faster gear early and kind of hope for the best. Yeah. I kind of like the way December sets up, And I want to get back to talking about that November stretch you mentioned, but I like the way December set

up here for a few different reasons. One is that you have three home games in December and they're all against Dome teams Arizona, Atlanta, and Detroit. Now, Detroit is used to the cold weather because they have to play plenty of late season games in Chicago and Green Bay over the years. But to get teams like Arizona and Atlanta coming to your place in December again another thing you have to take advantage of. And the other thing I like about December is that second Bears game is

in December. I had looked this up for the for the column I wrote last week when the schedule was announced. There was a stretch of sixteen consecutive years through two thousand thirteen where either in Green Bay or Chicago, the Packers and Bears played a December game. Then that stretch ended with the great you know, Roger stacab fourth and eight from the forty eight. Then you get away from it for a couple of years. Then two thousand sixteen,

it's another December game. The Packers are trying to do that run the table thing, and Jordy Nelson sixty yards down the middle sets up the game winning kick and all of that. So I just I like the fact that Packers Bears is going to be in December again, no matter where the teams are in the standings or however that shakes out. I just like the fact that those two teams are going to be out in the

cold planing. And I don't even know if there was any deliberate action towards, you know, in terms of the NFL setting that up. Obviously, Mark Murphy, the Packers president CEO, they had requested to host the Bears for their hundredth season, to open it that way, but to have the back end of that have that matchup with the Bears, I think is very fitting. Well, those road trips you talked

about before are definitely worth discussing. We'll get to uh those a little bit more after the breakback with more on Packers unscripted. Right after this welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford here, West, Hodkowitz all the way over there West. A couple of final thoughts on the schedule. You did the math talk about those road trips. What did you come up with that in that November stretch ten thousand,

five hundred five d sixty four round trip miles. Yeah, and uh, you know, and every schedule is going to have it's it's set of challenges. And the way this one sets up for the Packers, there are some trade offs in there because right before you start, you know, this stretch of road trips with the trip to l A, the Packers have their bye week, so you've got sort of that rest and recuperation a little bit, hopefully get guys healthy, all that kind of stuff before you start

on these long road trips. Then you have that short week going to Seattle for a Thursday night game. But then that gives you a little bit of the extra break that many bye week the players talk about before you have that big road game in Minnesota, big NFC North game there in late November. So a lot of trade offs here and there but that's gonna be one heck of a stretch of Yeah, as you said, that's a great way to put it. There are trade offs

because you do get the Monday night game in. You don't have a short week because you can go into the bye week after that, so that helps. Yeah, and you do at least get to play at home against the Miami Dolphins before you travel Seattle as opposed to having to travel somewhere and then have the short weekend going out there. So there are silver linings to it.

But whatever way you slice at Mike eighteen days in the quality of those opponents, I mean the l A Rams, they're different ball club now and you always know what you're getting in the Patriots with Bill Belichick, uh in Seattle, they've had some absolute wars with them over the years.

It's a rough and ready time for the Packers. But also the positive side of that is with as you mentioned, how the December slate lines up, if you can come up victorious out of that, if you can have a positive over record in those series, that's really going to

propel you towards that final stretch. Yeah, I mean the Packers, but it's it sets up to where if you're shifting gears and really starting to play your best football in November and then you gu upe for a stretch run in December, that's just the way you draw it up. And yeah, I mean having all these primetime road games. I mean you're on the road in primetime and Fox Spurrow in Seattle and then in Minnesota in a in a stretch of a month. Basically, it doesn't get much

more difficult than that. But if the Packers are in contention heading into December, with the way that sets up I talked about last segment, I like green based chances to be right in this thing. Yeah, absolutely, And the big thing is here, Mike, Michael Knowlton Spofford will be home for Thanksgiving, he'll be home for Christmas, and he'll be home for New Year's the Packers not having to play in a Thanksgiving game for the first time and in three years since two thousand six. Um, so they

get that side of it. So that's part of the schedule works out. There's just always a give and take. And you read any story across the country, Mike, every beat writer's writing about, well, this part is really terrible, and this part is really great. You just hope that there isn't a lot of terrible the Packers overall. I think it ends up being a pretty decent schedule and that'll be the first and last time my middle name is much on the show. But with that, we're going

to sign off on Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's at west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time. H m hmm.