#415 Packers Unscripted: Wrapping up

of mini camp practices. We will have some photos and potentially some video of that team activity on Packers dot com later on, so be sure to check that out. But with the offseason program wrapping up, training camp is roughly six weeks away. I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not counting down the days yet, but I think it's I

think it's six weeks away. Matt la Flour kind of wrap things up with his final comments to the media after Wednesday's practice, and I wrote a story about this on the website, kind of characterizing it as he's pleased with how the off season program is gone, but like any coach, he's not satisfied. Um implementing a new offensive system and everything that goes into that. You're not going to get everything done that you need to in one offseason program with the limitations you have with the c

B A and all that. But he's fired up, in eager and ready to get these guys back for training camp. They neither break, so do the coaches. But but there's gonna be a lot of excitement here when training camp rolls around. Yeah, absolutely, Mike, and I really liked this last day of practice and availability. Just hearing some of the guys and obviously also Matt Lafleur discussing sort of their impressions of that nine week ten week program with the extra week this year, with the new coach and

where they are coming out of it. I think everyone was pretty much in agreement. And you touched on it as all the fact that the defense is ahead of the offense at this point. I certainly saw it in the two minute drills. Yeah, she has definitely had some good performances there. But to be quite honest with you, I really liked what Brian Balagas said standing by his locker on Wednesday, saying that, yeah, there's a little bit of talking. You know, there'll be some time for the

offense to come back. But to be quite honest, with you. He was actually kind of pleased to see the defense playing as well as it is right now and coming together the way it is, because, Yeah, the offense wants to win these drills, there's no doubt about it. And if they can win every single one of them in

training camp, they'll have smiles on their faces. But the fact that the defense has appeared to have taken a step forward this offseason with some of the new additions, with some of the young players taking the next step, and also Mike Petton just having an extra offseason to implement his program, whereas Matt Lafleur's in his first offseason trying to get his offense. And this is that's why Mike Petton came back. It's why they made the decisions

they did to put themselves in this spot. That being said, the Packers offense knows it has work to do. Matt Lafleur said, it wasn't as crisp as he wanted to wants it to be, but they're gonna have a chance now coming back in training camp when they start to

put some pads on to really get going on this thing. Yeah, I think when you hear Matt la Fleur say things like the defense is ahead of the offense, there's a little bit of sloppiness, and some things we need to clean up look a little crisper, as he said, not

surprising observations at all given the circumstances here. And I think you know, as you and I have talked to a lot of defensive players around the locker room, they were all saying, yeah, like last year at this time, we were just trying to make sure we're lined up in the right place and we know what to do, and we're processing a lot more of the details of Mike Petton scheme now in year two, while the offense now is where the defense was a year ago and

they're piecing things together. Training camp obviously will be huge, and part of training camp two is going to be to Matt Lafleur confirmed there will be two joint practices here in Green Bay with the Houston Texans leading up to the preseason openers. So those two joint practices will

be between Family Night and the opening preseason game. That's going to be an interesting atmosphere, not only from the standpoint of the competition amongst the players, and when you have the Packers offense working against the Texans defense and vice versa. But that could be a big evaluation tool as well, because then the practice film includes stuff against

an actual opponent, not just stuff against your own team. Absolutely, and I want to ask you this now, two thousand nine was the last was that the last time they actually brought in another opponent? Was that when they played or they went against Buffalo before Okay? There wasn't a Family Night one in there too, No, well, buff Buffalo was the was part of Family Night. Yeah, so that would have preceded you in your time here. That was

that was the year before I got here. I actually remember taking my kids to that Family Night with the Buffalo Bills at LAMB before Okay, because what my question was going to be, as someone asked us an insider inbox, and it got me thinking, like they wouldn't all be

on Ray niche Gy. I'm guessing they're either going to have to use Clark Hankel as well, and the Don Hudson or maybe the Hudson Center have some people in the Hudson because you have a hundred and eight players you and I see it, Mike, when you have ninety on there, when you have ninety on Ray Nitchkey for training camp that that's a pretty cluttered field to begin with, so um that the logistics of it, I'm gonna be

fascinated to watch. But as Matt Lafleur said, and he said it going back to when we're when I was talking with him at the NFL Owners meetings, this is a really unique opportunity and he's seen it before. He's been involved with teams that bring in opponents, um that that take on other guy, you know, teams in practice. There's just a different level that guys get to when it isn't a friendly face so to speaks. Yeah, and the phrase he used I thought was interesting. He called

it competitive spirit. And there definitely is another notch to the level of competition. It's still not a game, it's still not even to the level of a preseason game, per se, but it's still different than lining up in a practice across from your teammate. It's gonna be fun too, because then, you know, training camp preseason can get kind of monotonous, just sort of the same sort of routine every year. I remember some off seasons I got excited when I saw, oh cool, there's gonna be some night

practices something to mix it up a little bit. The fact that you're going to have this thing going on against the Texans in the first preseason game, the fact that Winnipeg is going to be around the corner right after that, it's gonna be a lot different. And Matt la Floor also mentioned in that same thing that they're still exploring the options of potentially having more night practices

considering they will open up against the Chicago Bears. All those things are on the table, but I think more than anything, the fact of being able to start to condition this football team for what it's going to expect offense, defense, and special teams. This process, the offseason program is important. It's getting the installs in, It's making sure guys know what's going to be asked of them once training hamp camp hits. You're trying to hit the ground running. You've

got to make every single one of those practices count. Yeah, no question about it. Well, what's the powerful noise canceling technology that helps NFL coaches block out eight screaming fans? Can get you closer to the music you love. Learn more at www dot bows dot com. Slash Packers Bows the official headphones of the Green Bay Packers and at Homer here in the stands. We all know that Green Bay fans give it their all and that takes a lot of energy. So grab a warm bowl of Campbell's

Chunky Soup. It's meaty goodness fuels the greatness 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 West. When we come back in a few weeks for training camp, we're gonna be talking about a lot of position battles, a lot of roster spot battles and whatnot. One I want to touch on here before we sign off for

a while is that the wide receiver position. I think this is going to be extremely interesting because, and again, as we've talked about all along, you take everything in O T A S with a little bit of a grain of salt, because nobody's put on pads. Everybody's just in shorts and helmets. But based on what we've seen, I think there's a couple of things we can fairly confidently say heading into training camp. One, the number two

job is shaping up as behind Davante Adams. I'm saying is shaping up as a potentially very interesting competition between Geronimo Allison and Marquez Valdez Scandling based on the reps that we saw, the way they were being divvied up during O t S and mini camp. But the other thing is after that, it's not just about the draft picks from last year, and I'm talking about e q

st Brown and Jamond More. Eyes will certainly be on them, no question about it, But Trevor Davis and Jake Kumero, they made a little bit of a statement here over the last few weeks in terms of where they are in the mix at this receiver position and in this competition. Um and boy, I'm really really interested to see just how this shakes out through the month of August. Yeah, that statement is worth still here. And they aren't just here to make a roster spot there to make a

run at playing time in this offense. Yeah, there's a couple of things I want to touch on here because you brought up some excellent points. The first one being is that the offseason program. You're right, you take everything with a grain of salt, but at the same time, We've covered enough of these things that you can also tell when guys can't play, When guys just aren't going

to work, they aren't going to fit in. The thing I really like about this receiving corps the same reason why the Green Bay Packers didn't go out and find another veteran receiver to bring in after Randall Copp departed. You want to let these guys spread their wings, and I thought there was a lot of them that did so this offseason. Well, the Packers didn't draft or receiver either. That not only not bringing in another veteran, but they

use their draft picks in other places. So starting off with what you said with Trevor Davis and Jake Kumarro. First off, with Kumaro, he has I think one of the greatest compliments you could ever give a receiver is the one that Aaron Rodgers gave to him this past week and saying that he does all the little things right the way he practices. Now, that isn't a statement

that Rogers gave for the first time. He's given that a few times even before I want to say, uh, Kumarro is even activated to the roster last year when he was on injured reserve. He has been incredibly complimentary of how he carries himself, and to some extent, you expect that from him. Kumaro, that is, he is a veteran. He is seven years old. I think he's the second oldest or maybe even the oldest receiver on this roster.

You want to see him have that mentality. But it's also telling those young guys on the roster, the draft picks, the guys that maybe were a little bit more heralded a year ago, of where the bar is. He said that really nicely, and then from Trevor Davis's perspective, Matt Lafleur hit it right on the head when he stepped to the group and was talking to the media after a practice. I believe on Tuesday, Trevor Davis is sort

of the forgotten man in this equation. But if you've watched these practices, and I know there's three of them available to the public and not everybody can get to them, but Trevor Davis looks good, and he looks like he's put the hamstring injury behind him. He looks like a guy who's going into his fourth NFL season, and quite honestly, Mike with his speed, there's some people asking an inbox when you pair him with an MVS. Those kind of

type of place. The this receiving corps looks different than it did three or four years ago. There's a different caliber of athlete right now. And that's saying something because

the Packers had some good ones. So watching Davis, watching MVS, watching Kumar, watch all these guys sort of, as I said, spread their wings a little bit, it just tells you that, in my opinion, the Packers made the right move investing in the young guys on this roster and not going out and finding a veteran that might just end up log jamming that whole depth chart. Yeah, and what I was reminded of in watching Trevor Davis in the handful of practices we got to see over the last month

is that when this guy is healthy, he's fast. I mean, you could see the raw speed that he has out there. And you mentioned the different types of athletes now that the Packers have at wide receiver, obviously there's a lot of unproven ability. You know, a couple of those guys MVS and EQ, they only have their rookie seasons under their belt. You know a handful of catches, so to speak, relative to what a guy like Davante Adams has accomplished.

But when you're talking about the different skill sets, the different levels of athleticism that these guys have, it does give the entire receiver group a different feel. And Rogers made the comment also at his locker with regards to Valdes Scantling and the progress that he is making from year one to year two. As partly why I say, based on the reps that we saw, it's looking like it'll be a neck and neck type of race between Valdes, Scantling and Allison for the number two job when the

offense is in a two receiver set. But Rogers said that MVS is starting to play more to his timed speed. This is a guy who ran a four three seven or four three eight forty in the combine coming out in the draft, and the Packers drafted him in the fifth round and we've seen that speed on display, and Rogers from the quarterback position is starting to see in the live action in the eleven on eleven stuff, he's playing more to that timed speed and sometimes it can

take guys a while to get there. Some guys never necessarily get there. They're always just a speed burner. But then you know, when they have to make the decisions and and make adjustments on the fly, they never quite play that fast. And for Rogers Rogers to say that about MVS, I thought was really interesting because to me then that that makes him a top top candidate to watch here during training camp when we get to see a lot more eleven on eleven and full speed work.

You know, I was actually sitting by my desk after you know, practice and everything got done, locker room got done on Wednesday, and I was thinking about this little bit with Velvis Scantling. Aaron Rodgers has had a lot of talented receivers, Jordy Nelson's future Packers Hall of Famer, Greg Jennings, Donald's driver, Randall Cobb, James Jones, the list goes on and on and on. To me, though he's

never had a four, three, four or four type guy. Uh, you know, Cobb was really good and short, short area quickness. Those other guys really master their footwork. I'm just really intrigued that if if MVS can put his whole game together, if he can get on that quote unquote same page that we talk about time and time again. He adds a level to this offense that I don't think we've quite seen before during the Aaron Rodgers era. And then again, you you factor in the Trevor Davis is the Davante Adams,

all these other guys with these different skill sets. There isn't one of the same player on that depth chart right now. So when you look at MVS and the way he's positioned himself, and I think he has right now, I'm not going to, you know, annoint him as a starter, but I think he's established himself as one of those leading guys that will be going out with the ones when we get back on July six. Whatever, it is the fact that he took it as seriously as he

did this offseason. Remember this is a guy that last year was drawing the playbook up over and over again, doing everything he could to get everything down. Is that game starts to slow down and his speed starts to

catch up. That's a really dangerous combination. Yeah, And he had an interesting comment too when I was at his locker after Wednesday's practice and I asked him about learning an NFL playbook for the second time, and is that any different, you know, as opposed to learning an NFL playbook as a rookie, and you know how he is.

He just kind of shrugged and smiled and laughed it off, and he's like, I've been learning a new offense every year for every year that I can remember, going back to a player who transferred in college and played for a number of different offensive coordinators and coaching staffs and everything like that. So this whole thing about learning a new system, it's nothing new to him. He has his his own system, like you say, of kind of drawing the plays himself to help commit him to memory and

and stuff like that. And just getting back for a minute to Geronimo Allison as well in this mix, Davante Adams had an interesting comment in that, um, he really sees Alison. Now, Davante Adams is not the wide receiver's coach and he's not the offensive coordinator at head coach, but he really likes what he sees from Geronimo Allison in the slot when they're in the three receiver set.

Just his experience. And if there's one thing we always heard about Allison before he got hurt last year from coach Mike McCarthy and the guys on his staff was toughness when it comes to Geronimo Allison, and that seems to be at least a piece of what the Packers maybe are looking for at that slot position. Absolutely, and I think the more that the off season program went on, I think at the beginning of the off season, I wasn't quite sure how that position was going to settle out.

It does seem like that is where Alison is sort of settling in now. That being said, Larry mccarren pointed out on one of the three things that we did after a practice this week, packers are using a lot more bunch formations. They're they're they're doing more to mix and match their personnel. We saw plenty of Davante Adams lining up inside, so there's gonna be a lot of

positional flexibility there. They're not the reason they didn't go and get a five ten slot receivers because I don't think there's really gonna just be one slot receiver in this offense. Yeah, we've talked about that before. But that being said, I think Geronimo Allison looks natural inside and I think it's going to be intriguing to watch how he further further develops in that role, and talking to him after practice, I believe on Tuesday to this guy

just wants to be healthy. He just wants to be able to go out there. He felt like he was on the right trajectory. He didn't care what the stats were last year. He didn't care that he was on pace for a thousand yards. He just liked the way he was playing and how he felt in the offense. He can come back now and pick up where he left off there again, this Packers offense is gonna be positioned really well. Yeah. Well, to touch on the defense

here quickly was before we go. I don't know about you, but if there were two guys defensively that I probably had my eye on more than anybody else, it was those two first round draft picks for Shawn Gary and Darnell Savage. You have to like what you see out of Rashaan Gary, just in terms of the athleticism that the guy can run. I know they're not necessarily going to ask him to drop back into coverage a lot, but from an athletic standpoint, he's certainly capable of doing that.

And uh, then with regard to Darnell Savage, the number twenty one overall pick the Packers traded up for the safety out of Maryland. Davantae Adams made it pretty clear at his locker and you know, I I take the comments from the players in the locker room pretty seriously because they know when they say things about their teammates that it's going to get some traction and it can potentially put pressure on guys, especially young guys. Davantae Adams

made no bones about it. He said, Darnell Savage is going to be that guy. He's you know, the expectations here for Savage are high. That's been evident from the very beginning. They slotted him in there as a starter in this defense from day one, from the day he first put on that number twenty six jersey. But he

has not disappointed so far. His athleticism has been on display, and when the pads go on, he gets in those preseason games and I'm I'm really interested to watch him from above, like our view from the press box where during the preseason games we get to see how the secondary is lined up in the way those guys move. I'm gonna take at least a few series in the preseason, and just watch how he plays and how he moves

in the back end. Boy, can that guy really cover some ground from where he can get to point A to point B in his acceleration. To be quite honest with you, not to compare a safety to an outside linebacker, but that was the number one thing that stood out to me with both Gary and Savage this offseason, how explosive they are. I don't care about the forties, although both of them have impressive forties, but whatever their ten

yards splits must be must be pretty impressive. Ye from Savage's perspective, you like what you're seeing there because quite honestly, that's a position where the Packers don't have a lot of depth right now, with Josh Jones first being here in the mini camp and then obviously not practicing. UH you have Raven Green, but Raven Green looks like he could potentially be a dime player right now with the

way that things are situated. N Trelle Jamerson, the the guy that was with UH Wisconsin previously in with the Houston Texans, looks like he's transitioning more to a safety role, so they need there. There isn't like there's a direct competition right now for Savage to be with the ones. But I like what he's done since he's gotten there, and then as far as with Shaan, Gary, Mike and I am not one for Hyperbill, you know that, but that he is about as impressive as a rookie as

i've seen come in here. Now, I don't know how he is doing with the playbook. I don't know how he's gonna do its own dropping. I don't know if he's going to be able to master the outside linebacker position this offseason, in this summer. But athletically he he comes as advertised, no question about it. His ability Now we're gonna have to see a lot of times there's no pads, so it is just, hey, how quickly can you get around the tackle? He is giving David bak

Tari a run for his money. He's given Alex Light a run for his money. This guy needs to be able to harness those skills to be an every down player because there's always going to be a CounterPunch. But in terms of looking for a first round pick, a twelfth overall pick to come into an off season program and look like the number twelve overall pick. I really

thought Rashan Gary did that. Yeah. And the other thing I will say about this defense too, because we weren't sure all the talk about Petton a year two and all the progress that can be made, and the guys who were here last year are definitely feeling better about the Petting system and where they fit. But you're talking about adding Preston Smith, Zadarius Smith, Adrian Amos all into the starting lineup in this defense, plus adding in a

couple of rookie draft picks into significant roles. I don't know about us, but from what I've heard, it doesn't sound to me like Petton held anything back in terms of trying to work these guys in He's especially with the veteran free agent signings. It's like, hey, these guys have played in the NFL. They've all played in the league for four years, um, and there's no need to hold anything back. Let's give it to him. Let's uh, you know, let's pound it into him and let him

learn it as quickly as possible. And it seems that the progress that Patton wanted to make with this defense is being made, even though he did have to incorporate a bunch of new players. Well, the thing that's nice too is with the Smith's Preston Smith, I expected him to have a really seamless transition, just based on what he did in Washington and how how well rounded his skill set is for that position in the three or

four defense. I expected that to go well. In Zadarius, I mean, the thing that's gonna be really fun to watch with him is just how he marries his natural pass rushing instincts and his his versatility into Mike Petton scheme. I think is the season plays out, if he stays healthy, that's gonna be the number one telltale sign of the success with that pass rush. If he can pick up where he left off in Baltimore and Petton scheme, it's

gonna be really good for that upfront. Yeah. Maybe one of my favorite comments of the entire offseason was Mike Petton at the podium talking about Zadarius Smith and all of the different responsibilities of an outside linebacker, and he said, well, Zadarius getting paid to go that way, not that way. All the stuff about pass coverage for outside linebackers not going to be high on the priority list for Zadarius Smith. Just a very funny comment from from Mike Petton, who

is always entertaining I think at the podium. I liken it to a picture, Michael. I mean, obviously you need to have your changeups, you need to have your curve balls. But if a guy throws ninety eight miles an hour, you want the guy throwing nine. And zaire Darius Smith throws Yeah, he's a pass rusher, no doubt about it. 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.

Will have a lot of player features and whatnot between now and the start of training camp. Follow us a subscrip ribe to us on iTunes and other podcast services like us if you don't mind on Twitter, he's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in everybody. We will see you for training camp. H