#302 Packers Unscripted: Wrapping up

season program. Thursday is the final mini camp practice. If there's maybe been one theme you could tag to these O t A s and the mini camp, it's been a little bit of a boost in the eleven on eleven the team reps, as they say, that's certainly by design for Mike McCarthy wanted to focus on the passing game a lot during the off season program because it's really hard to get a lot of work done in the running game, you know, when the players aren't in pads and you can't go full context, so to speak.

But it also makes sense to do a lot of this eleven on eleven work in the spring here when two of the position groups where you have a lot of young players you're trying to get ready are wide receiver and cornerback. Because not to say pads don't matter, but they matter maybe a little bit less at those positions than those interior guys and hopefully the development is

going to pay off. And you've been covering this team mich a lot longer than I have, but in all of my years, this to me feels like the most competitive team periods that the Packers have had during an offseason program. And I say that because even the pass under pressure eleven on nine periods, they've done a lot of those two and those have been amplified. It seems like they're doing a lot of red zone stuff with that.

And then you know the eleven on eleven this week in particular, I think that's so important because you've seen what Aaron Rodgers does and how he can lead the offense, and eleven on eleven period you haven't seen that yet with Deshaun Kaiser, Tim Boyle, this is your first time seeing it. Brett Hunley all of his experience this offseason, you know, two or three months of classroom war, putting

that out there now on the field. I think that's really important to see what these guys have to offer and give those young receivers a chance to make some plays. Joe Philbin was asked about this this week during the offensive assistant coaching availability, and you know, He's basically the premise of the question was can you really draw that much from these practices with these guys running around in shorts?

And I thought he had an interesting answer, and he's like, well, if a guy doesn't look good running around in shorts, there's something to draw from that too. So you you want to see these guys perform. Yes, it's a different game once the pads go on, But this is really the chance for you know, Jamon Moore, e q st Brown, Marquez Valdez, Scantling to go out there and show everything that they put on film in the pre draft process and show that those traits can carry over to the

next level. Yeah, and that carry over then goes into training camp. The first couple of days of training camp will still be without pads before the pads go on, So there's there's a little bit of that acclamation period.

But when you talk about the competitiveness of it, you know, this is my thirteen season covering the Packers from this type of position, and the the I guess I'd say the boisterousness of some of the coaches, the competitiveness of the players arguing when a flag comes out whether it should be off sides or a false start. You see that a lot in training camp. I don't know if I've seen as much of it, you know, in past years as we have in O T A s. The

competitiveness was definitely cranked up a little bit. And I don't know if that's because of the pending competition for roster spots the fact that there's a lot of new blood on the coaching staff, but it's just one of those things that that you notice when it's a little different than in past. And Mike Petton when he was addressing the media this past week saying that you know, they don't want to sweep anything under the rug. They want to be able to have an open dialogue about

what they're seeing and where they can improve. And that doesn't matter if it's the off season program or training camp. He's he's not afraid to speak up. Patrick Graham, the running game coordinator and inside linebackers coach, obviously not afraid to speak up. And if they feel like there's a place where the energy isn't where it needs to be, or the the emotion isn't where it needs to be,

there's gonna be. You know, it's going to be made known. Yeah, it's it's a time where rookies are gonna make mistakes and and you're gonna want to make sure you correct those things. But the one thing that everybody controls on the field is your energy level this time of the year. And it just seems to me Mike McCarthy one of his big mantras this whole offseason has been wanting to to really increase the energy with the coaches, with the

players everywhere across the board. And I think when you look at these young guys coming and trying to impress, whether it's the running backs, the receivers, or even the defensive backs, where there's so many guys competing for jobs, it just seems like there's a higher sense of urgency. Yeah, I think so too. A lot of that. I think we've seen it this week, certainly in the mini camp with all the veterans being excused, the young players know, Okay, this is my time that now I'm gonna take some

reps with the ones. Where I was always on the twos and threes before the guys who have always been on the threes, they get to move up and take some reps with the twos, They get a little bit bigger stage. It's their chance to put a few more snaps on film. This is important stuff. I mean now, granted, I I personally don't believe the competition for roster spots and all that and for playing time really begins until

the pads go on in training camp. But at the same time, it's all about making an impression and and making that impression so that the coaches when you come back for training camp they maybe already got their eye on you a little bit. Absolutely. You and I were both prep reporters way back when at Three Bay Press Becazette non concurrently. But you know, when all the beat reporters will go away. You know what happened. It was

west Hodkowitz got the got the playbook. I'm the one that got the list of agents in case anything happened dur An extension went down. That's the experience you get when the veterans are away. And yeah, it isn't going to ultimately dictate anything today, but in two months from now, when jobs are on the line, it's those kind of experiences you can harken back to, you know, and trying to claim one of those fifty three spots on the

active roster. Absolutely. With that, we're gonna go to a break back with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford in this chair, Wes Hodkinwitz in that one West. We talk a lot about how certain players they look different when the pads go on later in the summertime. There's a player, and we touched on this in an earlier episode, who looks a lot different this year without the pads on. And

I'm talking about third year offensive lineman Jason Spriggs. He's just flat out bigger and stronger than we've seen him through his first two years in the NFL. He first came to the Packers as a second round pick from the University of Indiana back in You got a little insight into his meal plan. I guess we would say in terms of how he's remade his body a little bit,

what did you find out? Yeah, and to me, Mike, just again looking just the eye test um, this is the most drastic body composition change I've seen, I honestly believe in since Mike Neil going back to two thousands their team. But that was Neil dropping say that was that was the opposite, But you're right in terms in terms of the difference coming back from the end of one season to the start of the next offseason, it

is definitely different. At the beginning of the locker room interview with Jason Spriggs, I got a chance to talk to him by myself, but Larry McCarron had mentioned to him, and you know, it almost looks like Jason Spriggs and a half with rad he's put on He added about twenty between twenty and thirty pounds. He said he's actually now in the covering in the three twenties, so he was really light at tackle and he said that goes back to his high school days. He's a phenomenal athlete.

Four point nine four time in the forty was the fastest among offensive lineman back at the two thousand thirteen NFL scouting combines. Still did thirty one reps of of two pounds on the bench press. But it's just never has been natural for him to put on weight. Uh. And if you remember him coming in here, he was a physical specimen. I mean he was legit lean. I mean there was not really announced a fat on him.

But we talked about how he had the frame, and the first the first day we saw him, it's like you look at that frame and you're like, that is an offense of tackles frame, and he looks like he can carry more weight. Now he now he is carrying I said this from day one with him. He has big pause. You can see how that frame can fill out. We saw it with David bak tr and you're starting to see it now with Spriggs. But to your original question,

how did he go about doing that? This isn't Wes hog Kowitz after his freshman year at w g B. I mean, you wanted to put on clean, healthy weight. You don't want, you know, fatty tissue and stuff like that. It's one thing to gain twenty or thirty pounds, it's one thing to be able to be able to function with that weight. So him and the perform director of Performance Nutrition, with the packers, Adam Corzon, the strength and conditioning staff, they all sat down mapped up a plan

for him. Spriggs ended up spending his entire offseason in Green Bay. Originally that was just because of the knee injury rehabbing that, but then once he was cleared, he still decided to know what I'm going to see this

thing through. What the situation called for was basically him waking up, eating a mini breakfasts, as he calls it, going back to sleep, coming into lambeau Field, eating breakfast at lambeau Field, the facilities here, lifting, working out, eating lunch, going home, having a snack, having a pre dinner, a dinner, and then another snack before dinner before bed. Um, And he said he was asked the question by one of the other Beat reporters about you know, how many calories

do you think you're taking in a day. He's like, I couldn't even tell you. I just measured it by meals. But the end justifies the means that. And Jason Spriggs looks like a much more fuller tackle and he knew he knew he needed to do that to be better

against the run and also the hold up better against bulrushes. Yeah, and what we've seen so far, uh in the mini camp at least this week is Jason Spriggs and Kyle Murphy with with Brian Blag is still rehabbing David Baktari, one of the excuse veterans, and Bilag would be an

excused veteran as well. Um they've been switching back and forth right tackle and left tackle with the number one offensive line, and we've talked about, you know, depending on Bolaga situation, that starting right tackle spot might be open for Week one, and Byron Bell was brought in as a veteran, but Jason Spriggs and Kyle Murphy or two guys who are going to compete for that, and Spriggs is doing everything he can from the physical side of things to put himself in the best position to compete.

Absolutely and by all accounts right now, justin mccraze looking at that right guard position potentially starting there. So not to say you still couldn't mix up some things there,

but that's his primary motivation right now. The Packers drafted two tackles back in two thousand and sixteen with Murphy and Spriggs, not necessarily because you know they need to replace anybody, but you wanted to have those guys developing and in your system if anything happened like it did last year to Bolaga or David Baker when he missed

four or five weeks with the hamstring injury. Right So, now that these guys are there, they're filling out, they're healthy again, I know you talked to Kyle Murphy a little bit and his road back from the foot injury. Uh, the Packers, Both of those guys I thought really had really shined in their limited opportunities last year. They just had the injuries creep back up to kind of take

that opportunity away. Yeah, I'm really interested to see, as we talked about on our last show, just how things are going to shake out on the right side of that offensive line in what we find out at the start to training camp with regards to Bolaga and his status, whether he's going to be ready to practice or if he's on track to get back sometime during training camp to have a shot at week one. A lot of

question marks there. But as we talked about the guys who are competing for these spots and and for the pecking order on the depth chart, it's a lot of guys who, at least now they have some experience under their belts. And I like the cross training philosophy with switching up Murphy and Spriggs a little bit because, honestly, Mike, that's what happens. You don't know where someone's gonna go down. You don't know where they're gonna have to fill in.

You have to be able to be trained on both sides. Spriggs was a specialist. He was a left tackle his entire time at Indiana. Developing that technique on the right side is equally important at this level. Yeah, and if Justin McCrae is going to be the starting right guard, you don't have your Mr versatile super sub who can just jump in anywhere. You've got to have these tackles ready to play right side or left side. So with that, we'll go to a breakback 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 about guys coming back from injury and whatnot. Boy, what a difference a year makes for a guy like Vince Bagel last year at this time essentially not doing anything but trying to recover from

foot surgery. He had arrived in Green Bay as a fourth round draft pick out of the University of Wisconsin, participated in the rookie orientation right away, then had to go have surgery on the foot. Was then on pup missed all of training camp, didn't really get back into practicing at all until late October, about midway through the season. But now here he is year two or maybe year one and a half in a sense. But he's been

on the field all the way along. Um, been here through the entirety of the off season program, and uh, yeah, this is a guy who has some things to prove on the field, but he's putting himself in the right position to do it because he's been healthy. Yeah, absolutely, Mike, And I know that was such a tough thing from last year, having surgery on your feet like that. Uh, you know, at the same time and going through that process,

it's not easy. And you know he has he's able to be in the meetings and be in there with Clay Matthews and develop those relationships. But you can't simulate that on the field stuff. And even when you get back in there. We've seen this with j C. Treader. Um, you know, a guy that's a bona fide starting center in this league. Just how difficult that is when you start the year on pup and try to catch up

as a young player. I think the older you are, the longer you've been in this league, the easier it is, but as a young guy, it's not an easy task. In your first you know, two or three seasons. That was where you know, Beagle admits he was playing catch up and it's not easy to catch up on you know, NFL players that have had months and months of preparation on field, uh to to get ready for those moments. That being said, he ended last year healthy. He was

able to do everything he wanted in his raining. This offseason. He spent some time down in San Diego in February. In March, went to Los Angeles and trained with Clay Matthews and David Bakari, Kenny Clark, Aaron Rodgers, the list goes on and on of other teammates that he was working with. All to get back here in April and start competing for a spot in that rotation. The opportunities there, Mike, I mean, we've seen what's happened. You know, Clay Matthews

has missed most of the offseason program. Nick Perry has been out this offseason. They've given a lot of those reps to those young guys. So everything that Vince Bigle really missed out on last year, he's been able to

almost get a double dose here in year two. Yeah, and for all the talk obviously about the Packers not taking an outside linebacker and edge rusher until the seventh round of this year's draft, really when you look at how things have shaken out with Beagle, it's as though the Packers are getting a fourth round pick at outside linebacker this year. Because his rookie season in many ways

was was a watch. When he did get into ball games, you know, it was I'm sure with a very limited sliver of the playbook that it was like, Okay, this is a role that he can play. He can spell a guy for a few snaps. This is going to be a completely different situation. He's looking at wanting to

be maybe that next guy that goes in at outside linebacker. Um, you know, to spell a Matthews or a Perry, and maybe it's for an entire series, maybe it's for an entire drive some like that, not just a player two. So um certainly looks in shape and um, you know, he's a guy who's who's going to be fired up to put those pads on get out there in those preseason games. Another thing that he didn't get last year. He's going to have these preseason games in August to uh,

to get ready. UM really interested to see exactly what he's going to bring to the table in Mike Petton's defense. Yeah, he said, since the beginning, I mean, this has all been a maturation process for him. And yeah, you have the in state ties. He was at, you know, Wisconsin Rapids High School. He went to Wisconsin. He played under

Jim Leonard there when he was a defensive backs coach. Uh. And you know, Leonard has a has a really long history of Mike Petton and they've had those conversations amongst themselves. And the fact that he played in a three four with the Badgers and Dave Randa's system. Uh, those all helped him in terms of making that transition. But as you and I both know, and I know our producer Marvin knows, it's almost like the first day of high

school again, right. I mean you might have your pens, your books and all that fun stuff going into the west and way back we are we're dialing it back to. But for real, think about it and the fact that you you can be as prepared as you want to be, but until you start going through those classes, until you start getting a feel for what this is like. It's

an entirely different world. And I think that's the one thing Vince Biegel has experienced, and the fact that he's been willing to go out to California in these different places to improve himself as a football player. He's really just been absorbing all that knowledge from Clay Matthews and company in that room, because, as you said, and you

laid out perfectly, there is opportunity in that rotation. There's snaps to be had behind Matthews and Perry, and he wants to be one of the guys that gets in on that. Yeah. Absolutely. With that, we'll go to another break back with moren Packers Unscripted right after this Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford next to Wes Hodkowitz and West. We're about to take a summer break here from the show as the players and coaches also take their summer break. Um, we don't get to leave the

office for five weeks. That we don't quite have that kind of cred around here. But uh um. But that being said, before we go on a little bit of a hiatus, there's one other thing I want to touch on because, um it's gone a little bit maybe unnoticed, you might say, in that players. The Packers ended last season with a lot of players on injured reserve, and a really good sign this spring is that most of those guys were able to get back and beyond the field and be in a lot of eleven on eleven

work um during this offseason program. We talked already about Jason Spriggs and Kyle Murphy. There is a question obviously with Brian Bulaga. We did not see him um during O t S and will wait for an update in training camp on him. But you talk about guys like kentroll, Bryce, Quentin Rollins, Time Montgomery, Herb Waters, who's trying to make, you know, fight for a roster spot here. These are guys who dealt with some pretty serious injuries last year.

They were able to you know, kind of get their feedback under him here during the spring and and it's a good sign for them moving forward that they can try to, uh try to fight for roster spots and playing time with as deep as the I R list was at the end of last season, I think it was like thirteen or fourteen players by the time it was all said and done. I was blown away during that first o t A practice by seeing as many guys being back on the field. Quentin Rollins coming back

off the Achilles injury. We saw Kentroll, Bryce with the ankle surgery, you know, being around on the scooter for most of the second half of last season in locker room and he's able to make it back. Kyle Murphy getting integrated back into things after having his own foot surgery. So I have to imagine if I was Mike McCarthy and these coaches, that's something you want to see because yeah, I mean, you know, you look at where bolog is at right now. He's an experienced veteran, He's come back

from this kind of stuff before. But you know, a lot of these young guys, in some ways, this is their first quote unquote major injuries. So it's not only working your way back to get on the field, but also making that progress and your rehab to be cleared

and to have those opportunities. I look at a guy like Kentroll Bryce and Mike McCarthy was just effusive in his praise for him during the final media availability he had before breaking for the summer and saying, this is a guy that communication wise, he's right where he needs

to be. He had one of the best off scene offseason programs of anybody, and him coming off of that ankle injury and being able to sort of get back into a rhythm of things again, that's so so important for these young players and being able to not only put their best foot forward in terms of being back on the field. But a guy like Bryce is right in the thick of it right now for a starting spot. Yeah,

he definitely is. And even if he doesn't necessarily become a starter with with the different packages and everything we're seeing that Mike Petton is going to run, I mean kentroll, Bryce is is certainly in line for significant playing time in this defense. One guy we didn't see in the eleven on eleven work, but I think if he had change his jersey and slipped out there, he would have been just fine, at least by the way he looks.

I'm talking about Kevin King, because you know, he was doing individual drills and everything like that, but he wasn't fully cleared from the shoulder surgery to do the eleven on eleven work. He would just be off to the side on the sidelines doing pushups and everything like that. You know, you talk about a guy who's itching to get out there. I mean he's you know, he's cool

that he's like, hey, you know, it's a process. But but he certainly sounds from the times that we've talked to him, he is fully confident he'll be ready to go for camp. Yeah, Michael, how many I don't know how many push ups you can do, but I mean he's doing these marine pushups on the sidelines. He's doing he's doing twenty or thirty at a set, and then and you see him do it at least four or five times during the during the course of a practice. He talked about that. He's like, you know, you just

you do that during certain breaks and whatever. He says, by the end of the day, you've got three hundred or four hundred of the men, and it's like, okay, I mean it's again, they're not the West hot quits arms spread out all eagle. I mean, they are tight elbows in. I mean, he was impressive, but he wants to build up about strength. That's been a big emphasis for him coming back from the shoulder, you know, in that labor and you know, getting that all strengthened back.

He again, if you haven't seen him in person yet. Not to be labor this point, but Kevin King is a physical He is a physical specimen. I know you use that term earlier, but six ft pounds, this is a guy that has great fluidity in his hips. He has good speed when he's able to press. He really you know, he packs a punch. Yeah, definitely. Well, as I said, we are going to take a little bit of a break here on Packers Unscripted, go on hiatus and looking forward to it. Training camp starts in late July.

It will be here before we know it. But with that we will sign off for now on Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's still at West Hodd, I'm still at Mike Spofford at Packers is still the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Enjoy your summer.