#411 Packers Unscripted: More from OTAs

He made a comment, kind of an off handed comment in a way, mentioning that he thought Aaron Jones came back looking physically like a different player. Okay, so, now the O t A practices, we got a chance to see him. You can definitely see he does look different. He's done something different with his body. Yesterday you found out exactly how he did it. So give us the story. Well here's the thing. Okay, So I made a vow two years ago to myself. This was for my own credibility.

I felt everybody writes the story about how so and so changed their body during the off season. They put on five pounds, they took off five pounds, They cut down their body fat, this, that, and the other, and it's something to fill the time during the spring and summer, but realistically, does anything really change. So I made a vow, is like, I'm not going to do that this year.

Well then you see Blake Martinez come back looking like he's been lifting tires all off season and looks noticeably bigger. And then you hear these comments from Aaron Rodgers. And at that time, Michael, we had not seen Aaron Jones. There were no public practices or anything of that sort. But we had that mandatory minicamp the day of the draft where we got to see the Packers players out there, and immediately my eyes went to Aaron Jones and immediately thought,

this kid looks different. As you said, the big thing for him, it's obviously training his weightlifting program. He split his time between I should say Phoenix and also with El Paso, where he's from. But the bigger sacrifice was his diet. He loved eating cookies, He loved eating gummy bears, that was his number one thing. Twizzlers, skittles, every type of junk food that you and I after a hard day's labor like to sit down and enjoy or even after a hard day's half half day's labor exactly. But

Aaron Jones said, I can't do that anymore. I gotta make changes. So he always enjoyed eating healthy. He said it wasn't a stretch for him to have to focus on chicken and rice and in steak and keen wa. He's done all that stuff before. But it was the snacking, so he cut down on that. He mentioned some of these things. I mean almonds, I like almonds, uh, apples with almond butter. Not as high on that. Rice cakes. Yeah, I don't even throw those at me. But for him

it made a difference. He heloped a taste for it. He came back. He was at about eleven body fat at the end of last year, reported back at five point three. And if you just look at the young man, there are significant changes in his body structure. Yeah, and he's taken it seriously. Really both of his off season since his year in the NFL when because he's had he's had injury issues, primarily with his knees. He's been forced to miss games. He's been very frustrated at the

games that he's missed. He has spent his two full off seasons as an NFL player, working on his body and building his body to withstand the long haul at really, let's be honest, is the most in my opinion, the most physically punishing position there is in the NFL. So he knew from his rookie year that he that he needed to make changes. He made some going into his second year. Unfortunately, he had another knee injury that cost

him a few games. Nothing serious in terms of those injuries, but they do keep him out for a couple three weeks at a time. So his goal, in addition to other things we talked about this offseason about wanting to be more involved in the passing game and being that reliable three down back that doesn't have to come off the field, and all that, he's got that sixteen game schedule in his mind that he wants to be on the field every single week for this offense. Three things

I want to point out. One, when he said he's had some issues, I thought you were going to say Soldier Field, and I honestly didn't know if you're gonna say that that is that is true if you take away Soldier Field. He's not missed the game yet for injuries. There are, Yeah, there aren't necessarily just coincidences in life, right, But be that as it may, it is interesting, and you know what, it was sort of an eye open I mean, this is kind of turning the topic a

little bit. But this year the Packers draft Dexter Williams in the sixth round, right if notre dame. I was going through his bio on NFL dot com. They list the strengths and the weaknesses. One of the strengths that scouts had for Dexter Williams, I never he's seen this. Maybe I wasn't reading closely enough. They said a light workload in college, not a lot of wear and tear. They believe that that will be a positive thing for him going in the NFL. That's becoming a strength now

of players. The reason I bring that up is Aaron Jones has had two knee sprains. He wants to put those in the back, but he only has two fourteen carries in the NFL so far. It's not it's not a lot for two full years in the league. If he can stay healthy here, if the changes he's made with his diet, with the changes he's made with his workout, regimen to develop his lower body strength, his leg strength. If all of that lines up for him, this is a guy that can be a force for years to come. Yeah,

the game has changed. It's not two and fifty touches a year for these guys, four d touches the year. When you think of like Larry Johnson back in the day, Sean Alexander, Sean Alexander, there is more longevity with these players. And I just I think Aaron Jones also understands, and in Jamal Williams does two. Jamal Williams talked about this

as well. He came back looking very lean. If those guys can put their body in the best physical position possible, if they're going to have platoon situations, you want to be able to extend your career. You want to be able to make sure that your agility, your quickness, your speed, your strength indoors. And these are the type of decisions

you want to see third year running backs making. So from that perspective and with everything else that entails with this Packer season coming up, in the emphasis that there appears to be on the running game under Matt Lafleur, I think both of those guys have put themselves in a position for success. Yeah, and it's good that you mentioned Williams too, because he certainly came back with a little bit of a reshaped body. He did it, you know,

somewhat for different reasons. I think he did it in part to maybe try to fit this outside zone scheme a little bit better, because durability has not been an issue with Williams. This is a guy who has been out there all the time, and whether it's been in a complimentary role or being the feature guy in certain situations and in certain games, Williams is a guy who's answered the call throughout his his two years in the league.

So far, he has. And the thing is is that we don't know how this is going to shuffle out. Is there going to be a platoon, are they gonna look to have one guy. Those things are gonna have to be sorted out in training camp and then going into that opener against Chicago, which is in Chicago, by the way. But you did have to mention at least you get that out of the way though right off, that the grass is going to be in as good as condition is it's going to be in at that point.

Let's hope for Aaron's sake. But the bigger thing is that they're going to need all these guys to be able to play. And the other thing I took away from listening to Jones a little bit as well as the fact that you know he understands the long game. Here. He knows that in order to not only just stay on the field, but to break away from tacklers, he

doesn't want anyone chasing him down. And if these are the things that he had to do to make himself not just a really strong, explosive football player, but a guy that can play all three downs, he was only to make those sacrifices. Yeah, I think we're all really excited to see what Aaron Jones is going to do in this offense, provided he can stay healthy and be

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of Packers fans everywhere. Try the delicious classic chicken noodle soup. Just visit your local supermarket and ask for Campbell's Chunky Sup Official Sup partner of the Green Bay Packers. Okay, moving on to another area of the offense um. The first Open O t A practice last week, Davante Adams was not on the field for the Packers. He was back on the field yesterday, and we saw a little

bit of an interesting dynamic here. And as you wrote about Aaron Jones on our website, of folks want to check out that story I wrote about Davante Adams, and that story is available as well. There was a play and I don't even remember the specifics of it necessarily, but right after the play was over, as Adams is walking back towards the huddle, Matt Lafleur is walking alongside of him, talking into his ear, and you know, the

two of them kind of acknowledge whatever the conversation was. Okay, good, you know, we we move on. This is a first year head coach kind of in the year of a Pro Bowl wide receiver, and Davante Adams didn't flinch. Not only did he not flinch or um show any you know, displeasure with being singled out like that by the head coach. He talked to reporters afterwards. He welcomes it. He says, hey, he's told Matt Lafleur, He's told the other offensive coaches.

If you see something with a route, something that I'm not doing right in this offense as we're trying to learn things, I want you to tell me, just because I'm the elder statesman, the veteran in the wide receiver room. You know, he takes that very seriou lee in the sense that that it's not for any kind of special treatment.

It's because he knows he's the example setter for all of these other guys and if he if he needs to be told to do it right, then he's going to be able to pass that down to the rest

of the guys. It's an interesting dynamic here that's developing West Because my point is that we've seen Davante Adams very naturally and smoothly progress into a leadership role as Jordy Nelson departed, and now Randall Cobb has departed, and uh, this is a guy who's really coming into his own in so many facets here as an NFL player, as a leader, as a guy that a lot of people

in that locker room are looking up to. What I thought about when I read your article and saw that quote in his thoughts about this and and seeing the big picture there with listening to the floor and his coaches in that regard, Elvis Wooded obviously a well accomplished guy that spent nine years in this league. It goes back to obviously, you know, there's not a lot of

route runners out there in the population. Okay, there are a lot of golfers though, And one of the things I thought about it almost reminded me of when you when you know, you do a stroke or you know, you have your drive time after time after time, and then you start to develop that hitch and you start to maybe get a little bit of a slice in there.

You get that golf prow behind you. Sometimes it's even your dad for that matter, and they kind of tell, yeah, you're leaving your club face open, your your you know, your hips aren't quite where they need to be. You can get into such a regiment, in such a routine that sometimes those fundamentals, even when you are honing them, can start to slip off, and you don't want to

let that continue to slide. That's kind of what I took away from that conversation is Davante Adams knows what he has to do, he knows what's going to be expected of him, and he's always up to that challenge. But there are so many things mentally you have to think about, especially when you're learning a new offense, that those moments I think are important for Matt Lafleur to step in and say, well, this is what we're looking for, for Elvis Witted to say this is the player you

need to be. But as you also pointed out the article that I thought is so important is by setting that example, by being open to those ideas and being open to those conversations. There is a roster of young receivers there that are going through the same thing. If I'm a young guy, a young sportswriter, and there's somebody else that's on my list, you know, my employment list, a guy that's been there for ten, fifteen years and has written award winning pieces and there's things that he

needs to work on. Yeah, I mean that tells you that you can't ever get complacent. That's way. So I just think that's very important with with his open mindedness to be in a situation where he's willing to take that coaching, but also understanding he's the number one guy in the depth chart, there's a lot of young guys are gonna be looking up to him. Well, in the other understanding part of it, Davante Adams is no fool. He knows he's going to get the ball. He knows

he's going to get his numbers. Now, whether he's going to have a hundred eleven catches plus yards and double touchdowns again, I mean, who knows what it ultimately is at the end of the season. But he knows he's going to get the ball, and he knows he's gonna

put up the stats and all that. But he also knows that the wide receiver group a whole, the success of the group is going to be more defined by what Valde is Scantling and st Brown and Jamon Moore and Jake Kumero and maybe Trevor Davis or you know, all those guys. Whoever makes the team out of training camp, the success of the group is going to be more

defined by what they produced. Geronimo Allison obviously in that in that mix as well, then by what he does and whether he makes the Pro Bowl again or not. So that's where the taking the leadership part of things

very seriously is is. Uh, it's an honest approach on his part, and it is big picture thinking on his part as far as what is best for the team, not just what is best for Davante Adams to maybe try to break Jordy Nelson's records this year, to get to another Pro Bowl or make get an All Pro recognition or whatever it might be. He's looking at that receiver group as a whole and how it's going to

be viewed. It's such a great way to look at it too, because if you if you look at the two thousand eighteen season, Davante Adams was as sharp as a receiver could be. I mean, he came into his own, lived up to that contract, and was everything that Aaron Rodgers needed him to be in this offense. The results are still what they were from a team perspective, though there weren't enough wins. There wasn't enough production and changes

had to be made. So yeah, it goes back to that old adage of you know, you are only as strong as your weakest link. They need Marquez Valdes scant link to be making big plays. We saw one of them in the first team period during Wednesday's practice when he was able to beat the cornerback down the sideline, beat the over the top safety help and have a nice connection with Aaron Rodgers for it would have been like a fifty five yard touchdown. They need Geronimo Allison

to be the player they think he can become. Uh, you know, versatile, accountable, explosive. Those are the fixtures of this offense. It's multiplicity. It's being able to go three or four deep on your depth chart at receiver. They need young guys to step up. There's a good competition brewing there. The more guys that are pushing for those snaps, that are pushing for those targets, the better it's gonna

be for this offense in the long run. Yeah. Well, another guy I want to talk about from a leadership standpoint, and this is a little bit different conversation because he's

in a different place in his career. But we've talked a lot about Tremont Williams since he came back to Green Bay last season after spending three years in a combination of Cleveland and Arizona, comes back to the Packers and as actually last week during the open locker room session, I just decided to walk up to him and ask him, Okay, so why are you still doing this like you don't have I mean, he's got a Super Bowl ring, he's been to a Pro Bowl, he's got twelve years of

service under his belt. There's there's no there's no practical reason, so to speak, that he needs that he needs to keep doing this. And it turned into an interesting conversation because he mentioned one of his one of his primary motivations right now that and you could see the smile

that it brings to his face. And Tremont smiles a lot, but it brought maybe a little bit bigger smile to his face as he was talking about his kids and specifically his son, Tremont June Year, who is going to turn nine years old this fall, and he started talking about how his son now understands the game of football, understands what dad, does you know? Talks to dad about this and that with the defensive scheme and you know what you did on this play or what you did

on that play, and Tremon just absolutely loves it. He's just he and you know, as anybody would, you know, he loves the fact that his son now is to the point where he can have those conversations at home and it it puts him in a different place in his career when you look back at the fact that say, the most famous play that everybody's going to remember Packers fans as far as what Tremont Williams did, the pick six in Atlanta in the playoffs in two thousand ten.

Tremont Jr. Was just a couple of months old at that time, you know. So he's in a completely different place now, and he's absolutely relishing the relationship that he has with his son and with the game of football. Because he's in his mid thirty's, he's still able to play right now and and is a guy who's going to play an important role on this defense. It was funny too, because another point of he talked, He's talked in his first two locker rooms for an extended amount

of time. One of the Huddles that I was, and he was even asked about, you know, you ever run a Ford anymore? Just for funny. He's like, no, but I don't need to because I'm running with Jackie, Alexander, all these other cornerbacks and I know I'm still fast. So he says he can keep up the way he's invested in himself. And I've written about it numerous times now I give it again last season when he played all but five snaps in that defense. Is the fact that he just puts such a heavy emphasis on his

body making sure he's in the right spot. But let's be honest though, too, Mike. You can do everything right physically, if you don't mentally evolve with the game, you're not going to last. That's why Truman Williams is still here. He's smart, he's intelligent, and he's proven that he can do a number of different things in this defense. I just felt from day one it was the right move for the Packers to get him back when he had the resurgence he did with Arizona in two thousand seventeen.

That's the type of player this team was missing when they didn't have that older veteran that can you know, kind of guide and bring guys along. But the great thing was is he was still motivated to compete with those young guys, that he still wanted those snaps. He still wanted to be out there, and here we are, you're thirteen or fourteen for him now, he's still taking snaps with the number one defense. Truman Williams is going to help this defense get to where it wants to be.

He's going to help this secondary be the secondary that the Packers field, that the potential is there to be the big thing. I think that special is that the longer that he can continue this on. Truly, I mean this, and I don't want to sound somewhat you know, cheesy, but the memories that that's going to form for for his kids, for his family, you don't get that a lot, Mike. We see it so often, especially in this game. It's these guys don't play twenty years. It's not Lebron and

Kobe and things like that. And his his daughter, his daughter Trinity just turned seven years old too, so she's getting to the point where she's gonna start she's starting to understand what's what what dad does for a living now and everything and and all of that. That dynamic with his kids is is completely different and he wants to keep it going as long as he can. It's always baby pictures, right when you see the family night, it's it's guys with their for one and two year olds,

and those are going to be great someday. But the fact that Tremon Junior can enjoy that ride too with his dad, I think it's exceptional and it probably sets a little bit of a standard for him too that hey, maybe I want to be able to do that someday as well. So I just think it's great. You know, listen to Jaire Alexander and Kevin King and these guys talk about what Williams has meant to that locker room. At some point, Father time is undefeated, collects us all.

It's going to collect us as sports writers some day too, when there's young people asking why are you still here? But no question the fact that Tremon has been able to extend this as long as he did. He's on what his fifth contract now in the NFL. I mean, it's just impressive to see that kind of work ethic allow him to still have those opportunities today. Yeah, and his as we've talked about his versatility, his knowledge of

Mike Patton's defense, and his versatility. Being able to play safety last year when the injuries hit and whatnot was obviously valuable. But he made it pretty clear he's like, I'm I'm here to play corner. Hey, if stuff happens, I'm open minded. I'm always a team guy first, I'll

do what needs to be done. But you kind of get the sense that and he doesn't know how many years he has left, whether it's this year or another year beyond whatever, but you kind of get the sense that he wants to play corner here as he finishes out, because it's what he grew up on in this league. It's what he knows best. It's where he feels he can make the best impact, not just filling in somewhere,

but actually be an impact player. And I think that's what the Packers are going to look for him at corner. With the way they revamped the safety position in the off season. I think you look at Terrence Newman, how long he held on too at the cornerback position without making a natural transition to safety. It's pretty impressive too. Here's the other thing too, Mike, that I just I know some people last year we're talking about safety play

and things like that. Charles Woodson, to be quite honest with you, was not an All World All Pro safety in two thousand twelve. He settled into that spot with Oakland and he came in All Pro in his last season, But it wasn't that way for day one. For Tremont Williams not to have a training camp and then have to start there for some seven games or whatever it

was nine games, that's a tall ask. So for him to be back at cornerback now with those young guys in that room, I just think that that's still his best spot. That's where he gives the Packers their best chance. And you know, we're gonna see how long that you can push off Father time to stay in the lake. Yeah, it's definitely one to watch as nineteen goes. Along with that, we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our

coverage of the team on Packers dot com. Subscribe to us on iTunes and other podcast services like us there as well if you don't mind. On Twitter, he's a West hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.