#318 Packers Unscripted: The opener arrives

in with Khalil Mack is the new addition. What are the keys for the Packers offensively to come out on top here? Well, from what I saw from some nation national sources, it's to block Khalil Mack, and the Packers plan on doing that, so uh yeah. I mean this is one of those con tests where, I mean, every single week, it's about the pass rush. It's about winning

that battle. Mike Petton talked about it earlier this week, And it doesn't matter if you're dealing with the second year quarterback like Mr Drabinsky, or you're dealing with someone like Aaron Rodgers that's been doing it at a high level for over a decade now, you need to be able to pressure the quarterback. So from that perspective, the counter balance of that is the offensive line in your tackles.

The Green Bay Packers are going to have, by all accounts, will have their starting five for the first time this summer in this game. I know Mike McCarthy said it, James Camp and touched on it. You wish you could have gotten those guys more reps together, but they're also not rookies anymore. Uh. Corey Lindsay has been in this league for five years, is on his second contract. You know, Lane Taylor has been in this league for five six years on his second contract. In David baktr and Brian

Blag are Pro Bowl type caliber tackles. Blaga probably has the toughest assignment in this game, because if you base it on recent history, he'll be seeing a lot of Khalil mac. But at the same time, you can just hear, you know, talking to these guys this week and listening to their quotes, they're really embracing this challenge too. So I think it's been a really good chess match, especially to be able to do it in in the hundredth season.

The first game at lambeau Field Sunday Night football. The energy is going to be electric, and I think seeing that how that's gonna work on both sides of the ball with the pass rush is gonna be really fun to watch. Yeah, I'm not sure how much Khalil Mack is going to play, but when that is on the field, I think if if the Packers neutralize him in any way, I think it takes a little bit of the wind out of the sales of the Bears. I mean, they've

been really energized by this acquisition. I think a lot of people would have been looking at this game, frankly as a potentially a Packer's runaway in some respects as far as the national perspectively, if Khalil Mack hadn't suddenly jumped up and joined the Bears defense and now he's the key piece potentially to slowing down Aaron Rodgers. So

I think that's a big part of this game. The other part, I'll say, for the Packers offensively, you'd like to see them get Jimmy Graham involved early and get him going that connection with Aaron Rodgers. Let's see it. Let's see what impact it has on this offense. And

on any given ball game. And the flip side of that, I'm not going to profess to know everything about the xs and ohs and the personnel of the Bears, but I don't see anybody on that Bears defense that they can line up one on one with Jimmy Graham and feel comfortable necessarily. So that tells me that they're going to have to keep safety help in the middle of the field. And if that happens, then it's Adams and Allison and or Allison on the outside who are going

to have some one on ones. And if you've got those one on ones on the outside, because that safety help is in the middle of the field against Jimmy Graham, you have to win those one on one And you and I saw it during the training camp, Mike. In the preseason. Again, everything's very vanilla. Teams aren't scheming up

a lot of stuff. But we did notice the Packers go to a lot of empty looks, and they can do that when you have Time Montgomery as a running back, when you have Jamal Williams and his background and has proven that he can be a solid pass catcher in this league at any given time, being able to potentially go empty, and we'll see exactly what their plan is for that in this game and have Jimmy Graham, Randall Cobb and then one of those running backs also involved

in addition to Davante Adams and gern Willison. There's a lot of matchup problems there that that presents. We saw a lot of two tight end packages as well during the preseason. I believe the only drive that Aaron Rodgers lad in that game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, all but one of those plays was mostly operating out of a two tight end set. So, yeah, getting back to your original point, there's so many different array of weapons and

they're all so different. Uh, They're they're all incredibly skilled. When you look at what Adams can do on the boundary, when you look at what Alison does, and then having that kind of contrast of of Graham and Randall Cob in the middle of the field, it does it stretches out a defense and Vic Fanjo is gonna have to take that into account. Yeah, alright, Well, switching gears to the defensive side of the ball for the Packers, what do you see as the key thing to folk Ghassan here?

For the Packers to do what they need to do well. The The thing I'm most intrigued by is just to see what the secondary is gonna look like and where all those pieces are gonna fit, because we saw a lot of guys really play well throughout the camp and in preseason. But as far as the biggest factor in this game, I think it comes back to the past rush. You do not want to let Mitchell Robinsky get comfortable

in the pocket. Last year it was kind of an uneven year for him, and you always kind of chalked it up to is that the rookie sort of exposure and trying to get your feet wet like Jared Goff maybe did two years ago before he kind of broke out, Or are you just gonna have the Carson Wentz hit the ground running thing. Traubinsky seems to be more of the golf route, just based on the whatever it was nine games that he started, but they got him Allan Robinson.

Now he has Taylor Gabriel and certainly the options that he has in that backfield. What can he do with that now is going to be a big issue. But I think for the Packers, you have Clay Matthews and Nick Perry healthy. Now, what kind of pressure can you generate against those tackles? What can potentially Mike Daniels and Mohammed Wilkerson Kenny Calr do against that interior offensive line. It looks like Eric Kush will probably be starting at guard. He did not play in the NFL last year. He

was on injured reserve. So there seems to be opportunities as well. As much as the storyline has shifted towards Khalil Mack, the Green Bay Packers have an opportunity, especially with it being Mike Patton's first game with this scheme in Green Bay, to potentially do likewise in terms of trying to generate pressure against Mitchell Roe Bisky. Well, I may be way off base here, which wouldn't be the

first time. But when I look at this and I know the Bears want to get True Whisky going, and they want to get him going with those new receivers, that whole new receiving corps. You mentioned Robinson Gabriel, We talked about Anthony Miller, the new draft pick. He's in that mix as well. But honestly, was I think the Bears are going to come in here and try to run the ball down the Packers throats. I think Jordan Howard, frankly, Jordan Howard is the most accomplished running back, number one

running back right now in this division. I think there's no question about that. Now, Dalvin Cook in Minnesota, he's potentially coming back, you know, coming back from that from that Ace Yell, dalvln Dalvin Cook maybe the running back that everybody's talking about by the end of the season. But Jordan Howard is the most accomplished running back in this division. And he's a pounder, he is a he

is a big, strong guy. And then you have the change up with Tart Cohen, the fast, speedy guy who can get involved in the short passing game and on you know, some outside runs trying to get to the edge. I think the running game is is going to be Mitchell Trubisky's best friend here in his second year, as he starts a season as the starting quarterback for the

first time. I think the Bears have got the excuse me, the Packers have got to take the Bears running game out of this and put the game in Trubisky's hands. And there are a lot of issues that obviously surface last year for the Packers on defense. But the one thing that they did pretty well in these division matchups was stopping Howard and both of the games when you look back to September, the Packers have done a good

job on him over the of the years. Eighteen carries for fifty three yards and then obviously in November fifteen carries fort and that on one play, So they did do a good job of bottling him up. And I'm really glad made that point because it's a valid argument to make. We talked so much about the interior line and being able to generate pressure, and they have that capability. Wilkerson has two ten plus sax seasons. You know, Mike Daniels in five consecutive years has had at least four

and a half or five. And then you also have Kenny Clark coming off the best year of his career in a breakthrough season. But at the core of this, it is about the run defense. And Blake Martinez made

that comment during the off season. You know, he wants to break the the NFL record for tackles, but he also mentioned I believe it was in one of the Packers TV networks, UH, one of those simulcasts when he was doing in a sidelineterview saying, well, if Kenny Clark and and Mike Daniels keep making those tackles at the front line, I'm not going to be able to have that opportunity, which I think he's okay with. If these guys are bottling people up. It is. It's so true, Mike.

It is about pass rush, it's about pressure, but the starting point is the run defense, and that's something the Packers are hoping to carry over from from some of the success they've had the past few seasons. Yeah, I always just feel like, especially with a young quarterback on offensive coordinator Matt Naggie, the new head coach, he's gonna want to get that running game going, and that's what's gonna get Trubisky comfortable, especially playing on the road in

the season opener. All that kind of stuff. But getting back to Naggie for a second, I'm gonna give you a little bit of an audio outline of my first One Last Look column for this season, which is my weekly column during the regular season that gets posted on Saturday's, the day before the game. Matt Naggy new head coach. This will be his first Packers Bears game in this long storied rivalry Packers over the last twenty years, not

a lot of success. Actually, when a new Bears head coach has his first game against the Packers, I'm gonna give you the rundown. Here Dick Geron's first game as head coach against the Packers. The Bears win fourteen to thirteen at lambeau Field on a blocked chip shot field goal. Brian Robinson blocks Ryan Longwell. It was six days after Walter Payton had passed away, and it was the hand of Walter was sort of the line out of Chicago that reached up to block that field goal. Okay, fast

forward five years, two thousand and four, Lovey Smith's first game. Now, he made the famous proclamation that the number one priority for Chicago was to beat Green Bay when he was hired, because the Packers were dominating the series with Farve at that point. The Lovey Smith wins his first game against the Packers to ten, gets a ninety five yard fumble return for a touchdown by safety Mike Brown. Another kind of crazy happening, right. Okay, Now go forward another nine years,

Mark Tressman's first game as head coach. I don't need to remind anybody what happened in that game at lambeau Field and Packers Bears Shay McClelland sacks Aaron Rodgers the broken collar bone. The Bears win that game. Okay, so a lot of crazy happenings that allowed the Bears to win those head coaching debuts. But then the Packers flipped the script in John Fox. He takes over for the Bears. His first game against the Packers happens to be Week one, just like it is this time with Naggie, and the

Packers pulled that one out down in Chicago. James Jones comes back after an absence from Green Bay, catches a couple of touchdown passes. Clay Matthews has a big interception of Jay Cutler in the fourth quarter that helps to salt the game away. So I think you know where

I'm going with this. You look at an absence of a player for the Packers who's come back and an interception playing a big role this game points to Termont Williams doing something special here for the Packers to do what they did against John Fox and get away from what happened in these other Bears head coaching debuts. Against Green Bay. Here's what I love about Trumon Williams two. And that's a really good analogy in terms of getting from point to point b with what I'm sure is

going to be a great column on Saturday. But the one thing I love about Williams is that, and then so many guys said it, and it sometimes can get click cliche, but you know, he looks like he's twenty five. He looks like he's twenty four. I think maybe it was Demetri Goodson who said he looks like he's twenty six, you know, a little higher on that schedule, all right, the spectrum, but he looks like he can still play football and at thirty five years old, and we'll see

what Mike Petton's plans are for him. But I still, I've said this time and time again, if he's starting on the boundary on Sunday night at thirty five years old, Trumon Williams has accomplished a lot in the NFL that might be right up there with one of the really special things. You don't see that a lot you see cornerbacks.

Terrence Newman just retired thirty nine years old, forty years old, but you don't see a lot of cornerbacks do that playing the boundary at that age, and it looks like he still has a springing nous and his lower body to do it. But getting back to my original point, Mike, you have Williams, you have Devon House coming back. You know, Kevin King looks like the shoulders gonna be okay, He's

gonna be able to play through. And Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson what they put on film during the training camp, five really talented cornerbacks the Packers have to choose from. Mike Petton has to choose from. In addition to that deep safety group that that has five guys on the roster, It's really going to be interesting to see how those chess pieces moved because so many of those guys can play the slot, a few of them can even play back on deep safety, a couple of them can play

inside linebacker. Seeing how Petton moves those pieces, because we saw a ton of different combinations during camp, is going to be to me, as I said earlier, the most intriguing aspect of this game in this first month of the regular season. Yeah, Well, one other thing I want to hit on for sure, as we are here in week one before the first regular season game is played.

If you haven't checked it out, folks, go to Packers dot com and check out West is really really nicely put together story on Robert Tonyan, the number four tight end, join the Packers practice squad late last season, did absolutely everything he was asked to do and made the team this year. Aaron Rodgers said he deserved to make this team as the fourth tight end. You talked with Tanyan with both his mother and his father. A real uh family affair here in terms of his athletic career going

all the way along. You laid it out really nicely. It's it's really a good story. And these are the stories that we love, these underdog stories of these guys who who work so hard and kind of come out of nowhere to make it in the NFL. He comes from Indiana State. Just tell us about the story because

Roster cut Down Day was his mother's birthday. It was, Yeah, it was, And she said I was joking with her about this that it was, you know, one of the longest days of her life, one of the longest birthdays she's ever had. You know, she vacuumed the house, she dusted, she was cleaning, and at times, as I wrote in the story, when she just gave up, she just paced around the house with her phone in her hand, waiting to hear from him. Um. The thing the impetus for

the story actually stemmed from a conversation I had. I've talked to him throughout the training camp, but it was a conversation I had with him in the locker room in Kansas City when both of his parents had gone to Arrowhead Stadium to watch him, and both of them, for the most part, got to all of his college games.

His older sister sometimes she played at Bowling Green for volleyball, so sometimes they had to split up a little bit, but for the most part, they've always tracked him at every level, going back to when he started playing in middle school. The thing that was most interesting to me about Tanyan story is that he was at a position that I think a lot of But when you're just filling out a fifty three man roster in June, you just think, okay, you have those three tight ends, the

three veterans, you move on. And Tanian earned a spot on that roster, and I mentioned to his mortain Tammy the quote that Aaron Rodgers said about how he earned this, and it made her emotional because if you understand tanyan story, he was a high school quarterback that really didn't get looked at very much. The high school team didn't have

a ton of success. He goes to Indiana State, doesn't have a ton of success there, and he eventually moves over to receiver, and she said that was the lowest point for him because all he ever did is he wanted to be a quarterback. When he was three years old, he had a birthday party wearing a Brett Farve jersey in Illinois because like the quarterback, and when he had to move to to receiver, he understood it, but it

was tough. And he's went to that school in Indiana State head and had a guy make the opening roster in the NFL and eighteen years there's been one guy that's played aid in for the Green Bay Packers for out of Indiana State in the franchise's history. And he makes the decision not only to convert to receiver, we ended up being the second all tailand leading receiver in Indiana State history, but then he understands that he has to move to tight end to play that at the

next level. And and you'll get it if you get a chance to read the story. I just kind of go through the different levels of what that journey entailed. But I think the most important thing for him is last year he got cut by Detroit, really didn't get much of a chance during training camp to prove himself.

Took ten visits throughout the course of the regular season up until the Packers finally bringing him in in December for a workout, and then was told by one of the scouts after it to call your parents and tell him you're not coming home. And you know, he took that.

He did everything he could do. He put on the weight, put on good clean weight, came back for training camp as a tight end, And to be honest with you, Mike, other than the fact that he was a former practice squad player and an undrafted free agent in this league, they're really he really wasn't that dramatic. I mean, it just he just seemed like after that game in Kansas City where he had four catches and thirty yards and a touchdown, it just sort of seemed like it was there.

He was going to be on the roster. Yeah, the writing was on the wall that he had that he had done what it took. And I think as a as amazing a happy birthday phone call as I'm sure that was on on Saturday. The thing he could really take the most pride in, I think, is that he didn't make this roster, as you said, because the packers needed a tight end. He made this roster because the packers didn't want his talent to go somewhere else. Because you can certainly have three tight ends on a fifty

three and be just fine. So that's definitely an element to to how he made it here and got as far as he did. The cool part of the story too, once he does. Once his parents Bob sr And Tammy got the call, uh, they were celebrating. She actually bought three bottles of Green Bay Packers champagne, but she didn't tell anybody about it. She had completely hidden in a in a cupboard, but then quietly on Saturday morning moved them into the refrigerator just in case, you know, things

turned out okay. He calls her she's just like Robert, and he goes Happy Birthday, and he mentioned the locker room this week that he was going to buy her an item. He's a pretty notorious gift giver. I guess he's phenomenal with his mom and his sister. But as she said, I put it near the end of the story, all she wants is that number eighty five jersey and just to look at where he's come from in the last twenty four years, the man he's become, and now

this opportunity. She admitted, she understands how the game works. People have told her the NFL is not for long, but they're enjoying this moment. They're gonna be here on Sunday night, and whenever he does step onto the field for the Packers, they're going to be cheering them on. Yeah, well we see, uh we still see some eighty five jerseys at lambeau Field. A lot of people still have their Greg Jennings jerseys. But if anybody's at the game Sunday night and they see an eighty five with Tanya

on the back, it's probably uh Tammy Tony. And there's quite a few of them too. I was told that basically the whole city, their whole town of mckenry. Uh there, They've had requests to the Packers Pro shop all week for Jerseys. They haven't can them out. Yeah, they haven't produced a lot of NFL players, haven't really produced a ton of high Division one players, So this is a

really special moment for them. And it's also the understanding the maturity that that I think Tonyan demonstrated during this He never got too high, never got too low. When he felt like he needed to be a little happier, he went out to California for a month in October and in the early November to get away from some of the gloominess and and things that a company the fall in the Midwest. But um for him to be able to make that roster behind Jimmy Graham, Marcedes Lewis

and Lance Kendricks, that's not lost on him. It means the world. Yeah. Alright, Well, one other thing I want to touch on before we go. As we usually do on our Friday show, we take a look at what's going what else is going on around the league, particularly in the NFC, and things that may affect the Packers. Thursday Night Football, we had the kickoff opener for the NFL season. The Eagles hang on and beat the Atlanta Falcons.

Any impressions of that opening game. It was a really it was a strange game to watch because it was actually kind of dramatic, but it was slow at points to Yeah, the biggest thing I took away from it is that, as you and I've talked about, there's gonna be some bumps to go through with these with these

rules and officiating. But uh, my biggest takeaway, this might not even be the thing that rises to the top of your mind, is Darren Sprowls still has it and he's still a speedy, explosive football player thirty five years old, and I think he's gonna be a big weapon for them this season. Yeah, if you're the Atlanta Falcons, don't you just feel like you went through deja vu? I mean driving down? I mean it was even the same

end zone, the same end of the field. You've got the chance in the final men of the game, multiple chances, you know, first in goal, got all these shots at the end zone to win the ball game. You can't get the completion that you need. And uh and you walk out of Lincoln Financial Field with another tough laws and they got just like the divisional round the last January, and they basically got five downs with the illegal contact

in the end zone. That's right that they got. They got the extra shot at it, still couldn't do it. So yeah, I mean for the Eagles, you gotta feel good about it. I know everybody was thrown up that. I think it's what days since they've lost a game now, So it's a good way to start. But yeah, after the Falcons, that's a that's a tough one to swallow. Yeah, we're looking at the NFC North here in Week one. The Lions play on Monday night actually, so we may

hit on that game in a little while. But the Minnesota Vikings opened the season at home against the San Francisco forty Niners. Jimmy Garoppolo undefeated as a starter in the NFL was he won two games with New England as a starter and then went five and with the San Francisco forty Niners when he took over a one and ten team last year for the final five games. So this is an intriguing matchup here. You know, week one,

you always never know what you're gonna get it. Maybe the most unpredictable week in all of football in a very unpredictable league in general. But the forty Niners going into Minneapolis. What do you think Jimmy Garoppolo and US Bank Stadium is going to be interesting to watch. I don't know how much you and I'll actually be able to see it, but uh, that's gonna be probably the biggest challenge he's faced so far in his young career. Yeah, showed a lot of moxie last year. Obviously has an arm,

he can run an offense. He threw for a lot of yards in a short on a time last season. But I'm most interested to see if the forty nine can start finishing some of those drives. You know, he had a lot of passing yards last year, but not a lot of touchdowns. H And the Minnesota is not a team with Mike Zimmer's defense that gives up a lot of them either, So seeing that contrast is gonna

be interesting. And then obviously Kirk Cousins the you know, with everything that he was paid this offseason, the Vikings really hitching their way into him, seeing if he can take that offense to the next level. Yeah, it feels like from everything we hear, it's like a super Bowl

or bust mentality. And Annapolis amongst amongst their fan base and everything, so They certainly want to get things started out right at home against against a team from the West Coast that some people are thinking maybe is a is a playoff sleeper with Garoppolo, so an interesting MATCHO. Absolutely the NFC West, There's been a lot of movement there the last few years, that the bottom's risen and see if they can take it from there. All right, with that, we will call it a wrap on this

edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and of sunday Nights big Week one game on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's at West Hot, I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team. Mccau. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time, m HM.