#298 Packers Unscripted: Upping the experience

hundredth episode of Packers Unscripted. Congratulations, my friends, Thank you Michael. We hit number three hundred, you know, And it was one of those things that when you every great show starts up, done, Smoke Seinfeld, whatever it is you hope to someday reach those milestones. One hundred, two hundred and here we are Packers on scripted and we did it in just two years. Three al right, Well, it's uh three hundred half hours of my life. I didn't get back.

I guess that's one way to look at it anyway.

I'm just kidding, my friend. Um, but we have another piece of news to talk about here, because since our last show, the Packers added yet another veteran player in UH I guess what you call the late free agency period here in offensive lineman Byron Bell, most recently of the Dallas Cowboys, now a Green Bay Packer and a guy who depending as we've talked about on the recovery of Brian Bulaga from his a c L injury from last season, this is a guy who could be in

the mix to compete for a starting spot at right tackle for Week one. Could be in the mixes started a different bunch of different positions. He's played guard in the past as well, going back to his time with the Tennessee Titans. I think he started seven games at guard that year. He played bolth spots and when he started in Carolina. A very experienced guy still only twenty nine years old, six ft five pounds, certainly passed the eye test in that regarden. He's a guy to the

Packers have had interested in the past. I mean I wrote about this in the five Things to Know about him story on Packers dot Com. He was in for a visit last year right before I think it were right after the free agency started. A week later, he ends up signing with Dallas, where he backed up Tyron Smith. Last year at left tackle and made two spots starts, so a wealth of experience. Has started seventy four career regular season games out of the ninety that he's played.

So this is a guy that came in as an undrafted free agent with the with the Panthers in two thousand eleven and ended up starting twelve games for him right away, the first one of those being against the Packers. So he's been in the league for a long time, knows all the tricks, and now he's gonna see what he adds to all these competitions. Yeah, an undrafted guy who definitely is has made his way in this league, as you mentioned, became a starter fairly early on with

with Carolina. Yeah, and you wonder, and I don't know this this this is just me speculating a little bit, but with him coming in for a visit last year as a potential free agent coming into Green Bay for a visit, you wonder if the Packers were looking at him potentially as a starter at guard, because that would have been before Jarry Evans had signed, because Evans didn't sign until closer to the draft at the end of April.

So um, nonetheless a player the packers have had their eye on a little bit and UH and an opportunity to bring him in. If he is going to compete at right tackle, it'll be Jason Spriggs, Kyle Murphy, those guys we've talked about. I also look at this move because we talked about Justin McCrae on our last show.

I think this is another move potentially that sends an even stronger signal that Justin McCrae is going to get the bulk of his work at guard and get an opportunity to start at guard there because you're bringing in a guy who the majority of his experience in the NFL is at tackle. When I worked at McDonald's, this is going back many years now, fourteen years ago, not as many as you think. Go ahead. When I started there,

they put me on everything. I was working fries, I was working drive through, front desk, cleaning the parking lot, whatever they needed me to do. Eventually I settled it is the morning cook and that was the position that I played for a number of years. You're the egg McMuffin guy exactly. And I look at the Justin mccraie is a very similar situation. This is a guy that played all over the place. Last year, James Campin taught him how to play center. He never played center before.

He was a natural right guard, but he ended up starting however, many games that was at right tackle. They saw a lot they liked in Justin mccraige. But it is probably time for him now to settle in and focus on one position because at the end of the day, the job is always the same, that the goals are always the same. These guys want to start in this league, and I think everybody would agree. Justin mccraige's best chance to be a long term starter is probably going to

be at the guard position. Packers drafted two tackles two years ago, Jason Spriggs who has made a big change in his body, Kyle Murphy coming back off injury, and Brian blog is one of the best there is at right tackle. So a lot of things have to get shuffled out there. What you get though, and Byron Bell now is a player, a veteran that comes in and can fill in a number of different spots and really compete to push all those other guys that are now

trying to, you know, get a hold on a roster spot. Yeah, and For all the trouble the Packers had last year with getting settled on the offensive line, it was nobody's fault. Injuries happened. Guys are shuffling around, moving around. If there's a benefit to it, it's certainly the experience that guy's got, because we don't know how this roster is going to shake out, how the depth chart is going to shake out at the end of training camp in the preseason.

But you just look at all these guys were talking about McCrae, Lucas Patrick, Jason Spriggs, Kyle Murphy, Byron Bell. Whoever ends up starting whoever, and you know, and this again, assuming Brian bulag is not back for Week one, which there's always a chance that he could be, but whoever ends up starting Week one, and whoever ends up being the backups at the start of the season, everybody's played. Now, these guys have experience, they've been they've been there and

done that at least a little bit. And that's gonna matter if potentially more injuries strike down the road, because look at Justin McCrae. I mean, this is a guy that was a long shot to make the roster last year. He ends up kind of getting his foot in the door as a backup center. It's really the only position he ended up not playing during the season. Lucas Patrick was a fringe guy who ended up making the roster.

You don't know what the roster is gonna look like by the end of August, but you can prepare for different scenarios. I think this is another thing the Packers are doing to really give themselves that kind of cushion. Yeah, no doubt about it. 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 ended the last segment talking about experience and depth that the Packers are are starting to develop here on what appears to be the right side of the offensive line. There's another position that the Packers probably have more experience, maybe than they've ever had at this stage, and I'm

talking about tight End. We we discussed the edition of Marcedes Lewis in our last episode, but when you look at the tight End group as a whole, you've got the young guys, Emmanuel Bird, Robert Tony and a couple of other young guys who are trying to make their way. But the three guys at the top of the depth chart right now and whatever order you want to put him in, Jimmy Graham, Lance Kendricks, Marcedes Lewis. That's an awfully experienced group that has a lot of games under

their belt in this league. Yeah, over thirty years of experience all told there. And I think the thing about that, really, I don't want to say, stung me the most about the Mercedes Lewis signing is the really the reality afterwards that yeah, you already do have Jimmy Graham, what nine years and in now, uh, Lance Kendricks with seven or eight under his belt, and now you get Louis coming in and and obviously still playing at a high level at thirty four and year thirteen. So it's gonna be

interesting to watch all these these chips fall. But the fact that they have as many moving pieces as they have, and Mike McCarthy addressed it when he met with the media on Thursday morning, they're gonna be able to do from tip types of things now with Jimmy Graham, the versatility and how they're gonna be able to use these guys around in the you know, really the different pieces that they have to work with in those two tight end packages. It's gonna be something he's never really had before.

You know, I honestly was, you know, wrapping my brain around it too. I mean, I would say it's probably what the late nineties, since Shimura, Keith Jackson, maybe Tyrone Davis or Tyrone Davis. Yeah, maybe that is a comparable group, But I mean in terms of their accolades too. I mean, first round pick for Lewis, second rounder was Lance Kendricks. Jimmy Graham's a five time pro bowler. There is a lot of experience, a lot of accomplishments among that group. Yeah.

One of the interesting comments that McCarthy had, I thought in talking about Louis, because you know, Mike McCarthy likes tight ends, he talks about that all the time. And he said, yeah, this is the guy who can block

any defensive end in the league. Now, we would not specifically talking about necessarily protecting the quarterback, but in terms of blocking setting the edge for the running game, you know, being able to do something on the edge against against a defensive end with the running game with with the tight end, which then obviously frees up other linemen for for other assignments on the second level things like that. I think a guy like Lewis, I think McCarthy has

wanted a tight end like this for a while. It's a big reason they brought in Martellis Bennett last year. It didn't work out, but his blocking ability was definitely something that attracted the Packers to that acquisition, and I think it's what it's what attracted them to Marcedes Lewis. They're they're given another shot here and um and I know McCarthy is excited about it. And let's be honest too. I mean, Mercedes Lewis has been in Jacksonville for twelve years.

He was a former first round pick and they remained committed through him, through other coaches, changes, different schemes, different running backs. He was the constant. He started all sixteen games last year. I think this year they felt a need, a desire to get a bit younger at that position, but certainly he did not wear out his welcome by any means. This is a guy that I think they

hold in very high regard in Jacksonville. Now he gets a chance to try something different, to get in a different scheme, to see what he can bring to this offense. I think we haven't at the time in which we're taping this, we haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. But based on his Instagram account and just the excitement in signing that contract, you can tell this

is something that has rejuvenated him a little bit. And now coming to Green Bay, getting the opportunity to be in that room with Jimmy Graham and Lance Kendricks, I'm really interested to see what it develops from it. And and Brian Angelico. You go to his track record of developing tight ends and you know, the Gary Barnages of

the world. Absolutely, he has three remarkable athletes to work with now and also being able to teach those different concepts, whether it is as an inline tight end or splitting these guys out wide, just a lot of versatility. And then also for those young guys, the emmanual birds in

that room, a lot of guys to learn from as well. Yeah, another interesting aspect with the addition of Louis because he knows, I'm sure he's a realist, he knows he doesn't have a lot of years left in this league as long as he has played, but last year he came oh so close to getting to a super Bowl, and uh and again that different types of motivations for different players, but you've got to believe that is a huge motivator for him right now at this stage of his career.

And then coming to a team with Aaron Rodgers, and how many times did he have to go through a rebuild in Jacksonville. Now, they did make the playoffs with Jack del Rio. I think it was in two thousand

seven or two thousand eight. Been a while ago, but I mean to go through all those losing seasons and now having the chance to get that close, he keeps him right in that race now and and certainly by no measure, I mean, this is the most accomplished quarterback he's going to be working with now to Aaron Rodgers. So trying to put all that together, you have to put it out on the field. We'll have to see

what happens in training camp. But you do have to like the signing because of how he compliments the other pieces in that room. Yeah, I would agree with that. We're gonna go to another break back with more and Packers unscripted. Right after this, Welcome back to Packers unscripted. Mike Spofford here, West Hodko, it's over there, West shifting gears to the defensive side of the ball. We talked before as we got into O T A S here with the Packers about this is the installation phase of

the off season. They're installing the playbooks, both on offense and defense. There's been some changes obviously on the offensive side, the bigger change on the defensive side with a new coordinator, a whole new system that Mike petton Is is putting in.

Just to kind of, I guess, explain how this process works a little bit, Mike McCarthy talked about how right now in O T A S. This is actually the third time that the players are going through the installation now the first time really UM at this level in the eleven on eleven setting on the field during O T A workouts offense versus defense, but they go through a whole installation in the classroom, and then they do another whole installation of the playbook and sort of a

walk through, jog through setting without anybody on offense on the other side, but the defensive players UM going through a walkthrough setting. So this is sort of installation number three in uh in the sequence, and then training camp in essence becomes another review and and installation number four. So it's there's a lot of repetition to this, but in different settings that allow the players to to process

everything in the playbook in different ways. You know, I kind of think of it as like a musical or a play. I know, you over the years in the history the work that goes into it to memorize the lines and the scenes and everything like that, and then you have the performance and I think ultimately that that final performances training camp, that's where the packers are trying to get to. That's not to say it's going to be perfect, but it's that you're prepared and you can

hit the ground running once July comes around. Uh yeah. I mean there's a lot of veterans here that I think are still gonna have to, you know, learn some new terminology and learn some new things. But it's really for those younger players on the roster to understand what Mike Petton is going to be asking of them and exactly how are gonna have to be utilized because I think for even guys like Clay Matthews and Mike Daniels, they've been in the league so long, they've seen so

many different concepts. By now they've said there's gonna be some terminology changing. But for the most part, football's football. It's these young guys now who have not been in the offensive defensive scheme so far that have to see that jump from the college level to the pros. And that's what these three orientations, whatever you wanna call it,

really come down to. Yeah, and that's the added challenge for the rookies because they miss some of that initial classroom work and some of that walk through and jog through work simply because they're not here yet. And they go through their rookie orientation just getting acclimated to how the Packers practice, what the day is structured like for the in terms of the meetings and the practice field and when you eat your meals and and all of

that kind of stuff. So then when they start going through the installations, the veteran players, even when it's a brand new system like Mike Patton's, the veteran players already have a bit of a headstart on them. So that's where the challenges for the rookies to try to absorb as much as they can between now and the end

of Mini camp, and they'll have some days. Certainly in mini camp there's usually a review day where the veterans are excused and the rookies, so the practice is solely focused on the rookies and the younger players, but to try to absorb as much as they can so then after the break when they come back at the start of training camp, they're not quite as far behind as

they were when they first got here. Right, you're a pretty big baseball fan, right, I think there's that one gimmick one of the teams does, like where it's catch the freeze or catch the flash or whatever it is, where the guy you give the fan the running head start and then the guy comes around and just laps him pretty much the first you know, goes around the outfield. I kind of look at that a little bit like with the veterans in the rookies, and I think a

good example of that is like Justin mccrai. Again last year, he signed on March twenty nine, so he had two or three weeks to kind of get ahead start in all those incoming rookies he got that, and he held them off throughout that. A lot of times you get those guys that have that experience. It's about how quickly

those rookies can close the gap. Some are able to do it, some ow't, But whatever the case may be, it is really about making sure that you're ready, you're good to go once July rolls around, because that's when the coaches are expecting not exactly perfection, because again, there's always gonna be some room for error. There's gonna be an understanding that everyone's human. But knowing what your assignments are, knowing what that playbook is, and being able to keep

pace with those installs because now it's real. Now you've got twenty practices, practices until the games matter. And I think that's gonna be the ultimate thing for these young guys coming in is understanding that the one thing they have going for him though the fact that they got rid of that college rule that no longer requires like players on the West Coast trimesters to be the guys on the different that the guys on the different college calendars.

They don't have to stay away anymore, and that's if they don't have the degree. So they're here now. So that's the nice thing. You have ninety players, see, you know who the best man may win. Yeah, and you mentioned the coaches have the expectations come training camp. The veteran players also do as well, the Aaron Rodgers, the Clay Matthews, the Mike Daniels of the world. It's like, Hey, we're not waiting around anymore. This isn't time to learn. This is time to go. This is time to get

ready to play football in September. And I think Kenny Clarkler there, remember that with Mike Daniels when he came out during Daniels is barking and hollowing. The game changes once those training camp practices started. Yeah, no question about it. With that, we'll go to a breakback with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted

Mike Spofford alongside West, Hod Kitwits and West. Before we go, there are times on the show where we have talked about the power of social media and how it changes our perceptions of the world. We find out things that we probably otherwise never would have known about. And there was a little uh story along those lines that happened this past week with packers running back Aaron Jones. I'll let you fill everybody in, Well, this is it's fun

about this. Mike McCarthy even said it. You know, it's it's one thing for the public to see the sides of these people, but you know a lot of times when you work behind the scenes or you know them, it's not a surprise at all. I kind of get that feeling already because of just all the stories I've done on Aaron Jones and how many family members I've talked to and friends I've talked to about him, But

this did not surprise me at all. The story, the background of it is he was flying back into Green Bay. Mind you, he was getting in a day early too for O T A S. So he wasn't gonna risk out, you know, potential plane delay. He was getting in a

nice two days early. Um, and he was I'm presumed, going back to his car from the Appleton Airport or you know whatever the connection maybe, And there was an older lady there that that was in a wheelchair and and you know, if you know airports, usually guys will come around like workers will come around and push them. But she didn't have anybody to help her. I'm presume after she got off her flight, Aaron Jones stepped up

and pushed her that destination. Unbeknownst to him, there was evidently a packer fan because they identified him as Aaron Jones that was sitting in the airport and flashed a quick picture of him. Uh And and you know, just a very small form of generosity. Obviously it didn't require much from him, but for him to step up in that way, I think says a lot about him. And if you know anything about his upbringing, his parents background in the military and military family, that's the way him

and his twin brother, Alvin Jr. Were raised. Yeah, they absolutely were. And that's that's what I like about these types of stories. Because Aaron Jones didn't take the picture and he didn't do what he did because he's a Green Bay packer. He did what he did because he's Aaron Jones. And that's that is just who he is and and his upbringing and and you know the military, um, you know, the discipline and and everything that goes along with that. Just how he was raised by by his parents.

And as you said, you've talked to his twin brother. You've talked to others involved in the family, there's Uh, there are a lot of stories I think about Aaron Jones that we don't even know about that are probably very similar to this that that you know, without somebody snapping that picture and putting it out on on social media, we'd never know about it. And Aaron Jones would be

totally fine with that. He's gonna he's getting some attention for this now, probably doesn't want it necessarily, but he'll also take it in stride. He's also and we've only been around him for one year now, but I think, in my opinion he ranks right up there as far as being one of the most genuine players you're going to be around. Aaron Jones. Not to say this is a case with a lot of people, but I mean Aaron Jones, when the camera goes on, the camera goes off,

he's the same guy. He's very gregarious. Uh. I wun't say necessarily outgoing. I think he's slightly introverted, but a very positive and you know, cooperative dude. I think you could ask any beat writer that just really goes about his way, um understands the job that's required of him, what's expected of him, uh and and lives up to that. And he just also happens to be a pretty heck of a good football player too. Yeah, where do you

think his second season is going? Because I thought, I mean, for as much promises Jamal Williams show, and you know, we haven't necessarily seen a whole lot of Davante Maze yet. But in terms of those three rookie running backs that came in last year, if you give me one word to describe Aaron Jones that maybe separates him from the other two, the word to me is explosive. I was gonna say the same thing, And I'm really curious to see just where his second season goes here with the Packers.

You know, I'm talking to so many people, Mike will Hernandez among them. At the NFL scouting comment. Everybody uses that word to describe him. It's just it's so it goes with his style. That's just his style. He's explosive.

It's gonna be a great battle. I think it's gonna be the best position camp battle that the Packers have um and all three of those guys tie him, Montgomer included, are going to have roles on this team, But who's going to be the guy that can be counted on for all three downs that they can roll with in a in a key too minute situation. That's what you'r Aaron Jones needs to rise up to right now because

the talent is obviously there. Yeah, and when the Packers get into that no huddle and stuff like that, they want to have that one guy on the field for all the place. But with that, we're gonna sign off on this edition of 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. Than for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time. H m hmm.