#290 Packers Unscripted: Rookie weekend

although it's not really a mini camp. Um. It's a it's a combination of welcome to the Green Bay Packers to all the rookies, which is the draft picks, the undrafted rookies, as well as a bunch of tryout players who are hoping to land a rookie free agent contract. But it's all so an introduction into being an NFL football player. It is Mike and and that's the one thing you know, Mike McCarthy has constantly preached this is really the preamble to an NFL career. They teach you

how to practice in Green Bay. They teach you the routine in Green Bay and you finally it's it is that integration into the Packers locker room. And Mike McCarthy says it every year, once Saturday night comes around, you're ready come Monday morning. You remember this team. Now, you're still a rookie. You still have a lot of growth and a lot of maturing to do from that perspective,

but you're expected to be caught up to speed. They aren't looking for big plays this week, and it's sure it helps if you're an undrafted free agent or a tryout guy. Yeah, if you're if you're a Troy out guy, you want it. You want to turn some heads if you can. But the biggest thing is trying to limit them out of mental errors and take what you're learning in those pre practice meetings and in the individual corrections and carried over on the field the show come Monday morning,

you deserve to be on that ninety man roster. Yeah. They get an introduction to the a book both on the offensive and defensive side. And I've always thought it was interesting. I've never actually seen it, and it's kind of on you know, the the electronic um, you know, the playbook is essentially electronic now on tablets and and whatnot. But in the in the pre tablet days, you know, I always pictured it as you know, the playbook for rookie Orientation is like one of those folders that you

have for like your fifth grade class. And then when you show up on Monday, when all the veterans are back for offseason workouts, then you get the big binder, you know, with the with the whole like, here's the whole thing, you know, Okay, go study now and figure it all out. So um, but they get you know, they get a couple of practices, they run a handful of plays. You know, it's just you know, parts and pieces some of the basic things and in the in

the scheme. But really it's not even so much about introducing the scheme as what you started with, which is learning how to practice. This is how we practice, This is what the practice routine is like. These are the fundamental drills, these are the eleven on eleven drills, and uh, it's giving them a taste of that so that when the O t A s begin at the end of this month, um, they've had at least an introduction to to practicing as an NFL player, because you're just in

shorts and helmets. There's no paths, there's there's a lot, there's all there's a way to practice in a non contact way that has to be taught in a sense. And this is an opportunity, Michael, for these guys to really start to get to know their position, coaches, what's expected of them. Because here's the thing, let's just be honest. You only have so many hours during the offseason program to work with Clay Matthews and to work with Aaron

Rodgers and all of these veterans that are available. Once O t A start, once those practices start, once mini camps, the two mandatory mini camp practices because they usually end up canceling the third. When you're on the field, you're focused on getting those guys ready to make sure that they know what changes are coming, so that once training camp comes, everybody's off and running. So for those rookies, that's when you're taking the back seat again. So this

is your chance to be in the spotlight. It's your chance to be the focal point and the attention of these coaches. Because yeah, once once you get to mini camps and O t A s, you certainly are a part of the classroom and you're gonna you know, that is gonna be expected, but you're not gonna have as much of that hands on, one on one attention. That's what these two days are all about. Yeah, and you

mentioned the limited amount of hours. These are players who are coming from you know, hours restrictions in the n c a A where you know it's the twenty hours a week total or whatever it is that you can be involved with football. They get they get a taste now on a rookie orientation like this of you know, you have meetings in the morning, then you have a practice, then you have more meetings after practice. Like it's a

full work day. You know, you're in here at between seven and seven thirty in the morning, and those you know late meetings sometimes aren't wrapping up until after dinner. And you know it can be you know, and that's what training camp is like. Training camp is is a full day. It's not even just an eight hour day.

And these are guys who are coming from you know, the football part of their day was a portion in college and then you have class and studying and and you know, training to able and all that kind of stuff in uh you know that follow all the all the n c A rules, So it's it's an adjustment from that standpoint, and this is where they get their first their first taste of it. Yeah, the the number one. I think I could cover the team for another thirty years.

And one of my favorite quotes in regards to a workday schedule is going to go from Brett Hunley last season when he talked about Now, mind you you get the whole situation there with daylight saving time, but he mentioned there are stretches during the regular season where he won't see sunlight. He's in before the sun comes up and he's gone way after it's gone down. So for these young guys that you hear it every single year, and I'm sure come the end of the month at

O T A S you're gonna hear JR. Alexander, Josh Jackson talk about it. It's a business. Now, it is your job, it is your livelihood. You get in here. There are books and pens and papers and all that fun stuff, but it's dedicated towards football. It's the exciting part of this because now you get to master your craft. But it also is that realization that for ten twelve

hours whatever it ends up being. This is your livelihood now and it's your soulfa yeah, And they get their heads spinning a little bit with regards to the playbook, but then they get a couple of weeks to digest it before those o t a start when they really have to, you know, figure out how to do this with the veterans on the field at the same time. But with that, we're going to go to a break back with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome

back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford in this chair, Wes

Hodkowits in that one, and West. We spent a lot of the week obviously talking about the Packers draft picks, eleven of them at all, first chance to to see them in person here this weekend with rookie orientation, but also a handful more than a handful of the undrafted rookies, the the the underdogs, the long shots, however you want to term it, in terms of their fight for a roster spot to to eventually try to get on that fifty three or even on the practice squad at the

end of training camp. There are always a couple of compelling stories that that come out of that bunch. And and uh and one of them that we've come across is the big defensive tackle from Northwestern, Tyler Lancaster uh six ft three pounds bench press thirty six reps of two pounds at northwesterns pro day. Wasn't invited to the Combine, but that number thirty six would have ranked like fourth at the combine. Runs a sub five forty yard dash.

This is a big guy with some agility and uh, you know, he's trying to make it here on what is really the deepest, you know, maybe toughest position group to crack here with the Green Bay Packers. But it really curious to see just what his chances are going to be. Well, first off, Michael, don't be humble here when you say, excuse me, we uncovered you uncovered in a phenomenal story on Packers dot Com. Be sure to check that out. It's up in Live as we speak.

Two things to this one. In my opinion, I don't know if he has the young man has a nickname. I seeing him walk around the locker room on Thursday. To me, he's the Juggernaut. I mean, he is just complete muscle and build. He looked he just he looks the part. He's solid. He is a solid defensive tackle. The second part to this you mentioned it in the year a little intro. My favorite part every year of

college free agency is the stories. I think a Gilbert Pina back in two thousand thirteen who stepped away from football two years to take care of his mother, who had, you know, been basically bedridden because of her diet. I believe it was diabetes. I think of Andy Milumba who came to this country, didn't know how to speak English, went to went to Eastern Michigan on scholarship, didn't know how to speak English, had to learn it while he

was in college. I think about all these litany's year and year and after, you know, year and year out, and I think Tyler Lancaster stories one of those that is right up there in the conversation. The guy had

a phenomenal career at Northwestern. Know you talked to his former teammate Dean Lawry about him and in the kind of player and the kind of character that he has got the number one on his chest given to the guy that best exemplifies, you know, the values of the Northwestern football program, but also his own story his father getting diagnosed with I believe it was oral cancer. Yeah,

um at stage four actually four diagnosed. He still finds a way to get to the northwesterns games this year despite the pain and everything he was going through, and he passes away in January. This is a young man, as he said, it motivated him and he thinks a lot about what his father is telling him. And I'll say this, Mike, Green Bay Packers. I don't know how everything's gonna work out on the field, but this is a guy that is going to give every single ounce

of his being to prove that he's an NFL football player. Yeah. It's interesting because what I tried to chronicle in the story, and hopefully I was successful, is is the motivations that are driving this kid are coming from different directions. There is there is the his his father, who he called, you know, the biggest Tyler Lancaster fan on the planet

was his dad. He says he knows that his dad, right now looking down on him, is ecstatic, is doing back flips about the fact that he's with the Green Bay Packers, but his dad is also saying, Hey, it's time to go do it now, you know, this is just this is just stage one. And the other part of the motivation for him is you mentioned it. The number one on his jersey that he got to wear at Northwestern UM a tradition with that program, with Pat Fitzgerald's program, the the team votes on the one player

who gets the number one jersey. Now, there aren't a whole lot of guys in college football who are three and fifteen pounds wearing jersey number one. You look at the pictures of Lancaster last year during the Northwestern games and it looks out of place. But he took a heck of a lot of pride in the fact that his teammates voted him to wear that number one jersey because it's about the work ethic, it's about the character.

It's about the on and the off the field, and how you represent the university and how you represent being a Wildcat. And there are a lot of people who really look up to this kid, and I shouldn't say kid, there are a lot of people who look up to Lancaster and they want him to see his dream through. They want to see him make it in the NFL. And he said, you know, you put on that number one jersey. You cannot quit ever, you cannot let up.

You have to give it everything you have because that's what that number one jersey is, and that's what he's gonna do, trying to take this long shot road to a roster spot with the Packers. Absolutely, Mike, And I'll be honest with you too. Uh. You know, I was sitting there what would be Thursday night, reading your story, have my son next to me, and I got kind of emotional at times reading it because here's the thing is that my dad's fifty six. Um, I know your parents,

I believe are in their seventies now. Correct. This is a young man that is at Northwestern, one of the most prestigious schools in the country. Uh, he is trying to get through his final year of college and he's trying to perform at a high level in knowing what his father was going through at that same exact time. I'm thirty years old, Mike. I don't think I could handle that, let alone being twenty two or twenty three.

And yeah, he said he didn't have the big plays, and he gets why scouts didn't go after and and really seek him out. But I think if you look at that and the fact that he was held in such high regard, there's a reason for that. Yeah, and he had an opportunity at Northwestern. I think he maximized it, even if the stats didn't say so in terms of the big play production. And now he's gonna come to Green Bay in the defense that I think those are the type of guys. And we'll see how his story

unfolds here, but those are the type of guys. Those are the type of college freeders that have succeeded ultimately with the Packers. Yeah. I found the interview that I had with him very refreshing. And not to say that, you know, it obviously works for some guys who are undrafted to say they're going to go out and try to prove everybody wrong. He actually was like, Hey, the scouts got it right. I did you know. I only had a few sacks during my college career, a couple

of force fumbles. I didn't have all the big splash plays. I was a run plugger. I was, you know that that run stuff for guy taken on the double teams, doing my job letting other guys on the defense make plays. That's not necessarily enough to get you noticed, for a team to invest to draft pick in you. So he knows he needs to do more. He's excited about being here.

He actually, you know, watched the last few rounds of the draft with the Packers had having come here on a pre draft visit and fell in love with this place. Really had a great conversation with Jerry Montgomery. He was hoping you the Packers were going to draft him or nobody else was, so that he could sign here as a free agent. He really thinks in in the new scheme and system, you know that maybe that will unleash

a little bit more in him. Yeah, and if you haven't a chance to check that on Packers dot com, it's a phenomenal story that thanks. I appreciate that. West. With that, we're going to go to a break back with more and Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford here, Wes Hodka, it's over there. We's another undrafted story here that's a that's a pretty good one and one that you've chronicled on our website

as well. The quarterback a lot of attention always on UM Eastern Kentucky Tim Boyle. Make sure I say that right. Tim Boyle Um. Now this is uh, this is the guy that Packers signed him right after the draft prompted them to release Joe Callahan. So now they're back to four quarterbacks on the roster. Took kind of a roundabout way from a geographical standpoint to get to to get to where he is. But to tell us a little bit about his story, Well, here's the thing that's really

interesting about Boyle. Um. You hear Eastern Kentucky and sometimes people get thrown off by that when it's an FCS school or somebody like that. Boyle started his college career at Yukon and he was originally committed to play at Boston College BC. And he had a remarkable high school career Xavier High School in Connecticut, born and raised out there on the East Coast. UH one three consecutive state championships. Had contributed to the final two including how to Fun

dominal year. One of the top players in the state in that year that they won their last state title, and I believe it was two thousand twelve. He goes to Connecticut, stays home and it was a whirlwind that he went through their three different head coaches in three different years. He actually was the first UH freshman true freshman to start right away off the bat in two thousand thirteen and since two thousand three. But it was

an ebb and flow. Injuries were an issue, and consistency was an issue, and he even mentioned, I mean, there was kind of this sort of looking behind your shoulder in terms of okay, are they gonna pull me if something goes wrong and they put somebody else in. In credit to him, he actually rode those waves for three years when one coach. When one coach gets fired, the

class usually transfers, but he stuck it out. His thought process was if I if I stick around long enough, if I stayed and continue to do the right things, my time will eventually come. It never really did, though. He ends up getting hooked up with Eastern Continent Hockey through a connection to his former quarterbacks coach at Yukon, and last year started all eleven games from them. He looks like an NFL quarterback six ft four two or

thirty pounds. He has all the intangibles from that perspective, good arm, live arm, and now we'll be trying to make that jump to the next level. Yeah, and I found it interesting because you pointed out in your story that one of his best games at Eastern Kentucky was excuse me, against Western Kentucky. And if I'm not mistaken, Western Kentucky's quarterback was drafted. Was he the name Escapes?

But but so you know, there was kind of, you know, a quarterback matchup two guys that you know that have have a little bit of a potential future. And uh and he performed pretty well in uh in a pretty big spotlight game he did. And he actually played pretty well against Kentucky too during that process. Uh. And here's the thing. Let me see here. Mike White, Yeah, from Mike White from Western Western picked in the fifth round by the Cowboys. Uh. Yeah. He has a live arm

and he can make throws. The biggest thing I think the Packers are gonna work with him on is probably the decision making side of it. He did a thirteen interceptions last year. But we talked about this couple days ago. Mike. When you're dealing with UFAs or late round picks, there's gonna be some flaws. I think if you look at his makeup, though, there's a lot to work with. He ran a four seven forty at his pro day. Um put up, I forget what it was on the bench press,

but had a nine nine broad jump. I mean, he has a lot of the measurements that you look for in an NFL quarterback in the pedigrees there. This is not a guy that just overachieved and now is getting some notoriety. He's a guy that's had the makeup to be in perform at this level. And he said too, I mean, he's really close friends with Bryan Jones, who played at Yukon. He was the guy that the Cowboys draft in the first round of two thousand fifteen. After

that remarkable combine tested through the roof there. He's had a lot of different guys that he's reached out to the sort of cue him into what this is gonna be like and what to expect to the next level. And the fact that now he gets to work with Aaron Rodgers, he said, I mean, that's just the cherry

on top for him. Yeah. An interesting thing about his story that I'll be I'll be curious to follow is that a lot of times, you know, these guys, big time college players, they have a lot of success, they've never really failed and then they get into the NFL and how are they going to handle their first failure. This is a guy who's failed. I mean, things went

south at Connecticut and things did not go well. He had to kind of pick up the pieces in a sense and get things back on track during his college career just to get to this point. So you wonder, is that something you know, just as being part of his background, that is he tries to make his way here in the NFL, is that something that can help the experiences have molded him. And he said, in high school he learned how to win. In college, he learned

how to deal with adversity. And now taking both of those lessons, he hopes that that's something that's really going to galvanize him now that he goes into the NFL. Alright, with that, we're going to go to another break back with moren Packers Unscripted right after this Welcome Back to Packers Unscripted Mike Spofford alongside West, hod Kowits and West.

Before we go, I wanted to touch on one thing that's making a little bit of news in the NFL at large, and that's the discussion of what might be happening with the kickoff um. Different proposals being thrown out. There is something that the league's owners are going to discuss very earnestly at their their next meeting, which is

later on in May. But we've heard a lot of things, you know, in terms of trying to change the kickoffs so that it's not so dangerous that the concussions come down, because all the studies they've done show the propensity for concussions compared to other regular plays from scrimmage, it's heightened on kickoffs because of the high speed collisions. So they're talking about maybe, you know, the players on the kicking team don't get a running start. They have to stand

at the thirty five yard line. You know, when the ball is kicked. We're seeing the n c A going to uh any kind of a fair catch inside the twenty five yard line. On a kickoff, the ball is at the same as a touchback. Maybe the NFL adopts something like that, maybe not. Do you have any sense of of what the final result of of all these machinations are going to be? I said to this to you a couple of days ago, and and I'll be honest, man,

if you sent me on a debate podium. I think I think the best option is just to get rid of it and really and to just go to if you're going to do an onside kick, you do an onside kick. But otherwise you just you just the play starts at or the twenty for that matter, whatever you want. And the reason why I say that isn't necessarily because even the concussion issue, I just think of, you know, I really do. I go back to Jonathan Franklin in two and the fact that this is a guy that

was a fourth round pick. I think a lot of people expected him to push Eddie Lacey for that starting job going into the season, and his career ended on a kickoff return and what was not a scary looking event. It wasn't like this this thing where he got carded off the field. He had the whatever you want to call I don't know if it was stenosis or whatever, and that was the end of it. So I've really struggled with this a lot, and I've tried to come up with different options, But to me, I don't know,

it's that's that's kind of what I keep coming back to. Yeah, that's what the NFL has to figure out in terms of and they're talking about not eliminating it completely. And you have to maintain some sort of kickoff because of the onside kick possibility, because you have to have a way for a team that's behind multiple scores in the fourth quarter to get to score and then get the ball back right away. You know, you can't take that

part out of the game. So a lot of work to do here and something I think will continue to discuss down the road. You would lose the surprise on side kick element, but I think in the long run that looks to me to be the best situation. We'll see what happened. Yeah, well the story to to see how it unfolds. 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 Hod I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers

for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next