#455 Packers Unscripted: Raider rundown

An interesting thing here. Just a few weeks ago the Oakland Raiders, as everybody knows what the schedule, all the NFC North teams this year, are playing all of the teams in the a f C West. A few weeks ago, the Oakland Raiders went into US Bank State EUM in Minneapolis kind of got it handed to him a little bit. And I think a lot of Packers fans saw that result and said, Okay, well, when Oakland comes to lambeau Field,

that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Well, the last couple of weeks, the Oakland Raiders have gone on the road to beat the Indianapolis Colts one week before the Colts went to Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs, and then prior to their bye week last week, the Raiders went over to London and beat the Chicago Bears. So suddenly this matchup looks a lot different than it did a couple three weeks ago. And this Raiders team is coming into lambeau Field very much in the thick of

the race in the f C West. Yeah, Oakland is a problem. I mean, they really are. I mean I think they've they've shown that this is a young team. As John Gruden said in his conference call with Green Bay reporters, they're building what they believe is their vision for what is going to be a successful run here with his stewardship again in a stick, his second stint with the organization, and there are going to be lumps.

I still wonder at the end of the year if this probably ends up being like an eight and eight hype ball club, because there's just weeks where they they don't have it, and there's weeks when they do. But you know, Derek Carr, I think you've seen this year he's been able to bounce back a little bit. You know, their defense is not the sieve that it was a year ago. They've they've had some guys that are stepping up, and then you've got guys like Darren Waller, who came

from the practice squad of Baltimore last year. John Gruden even said they didn't really even know about this guy until they played Baltimore and saw him warming up before the game as a converted receiver. They like what they saw, they signed him to the roster, and here he is now signing a pretty big extension with the team this past week. First and foremost, though, if you talk about any particular aspect of their offense, I really think it

comes down to Josh Jacobs. This is a guy that they had to kind of project on a little bit. He was not in every down back at Alabama, but they felt like he had those tendencies. And I think when you look at their win loss record this year, that team has gone as he has gone. And that's a guy that the Packers run defense, while improved last week against Detroit, is really gonna have to take into account. Yeah,

well you said it. While and Jacobs are the two guys offensively as far as those perimeter players who stand out statistically, Waller has I believe more than twice as many receptions as anybody else on the Raiders roster. And

then Jacobs. We got a glimpse because the London game between the Raiders and the Bears was going on leading up to the Packers Cowboys game the kickoff, and we were in Dallas, so we were keeping an eye on that game when we got to a T and T stadium that day, and Jacobs was having a pretty nice day running the ball. And then when push came to shove after the Raiders had actually blown a seventeen nothing lead to Chicago, the Bears came roaring back and took

the lead in the second half. The Raiders were backed up to their own three yard line in the fourth quarter, and they went ninety seven yards on the Chicago Bears defense to win that ballgame, and Josh Jacobs was a big part of it. Remind me quickly where he played in college. It's escaping Alabamment Alabama. Okay um. But this is a guy that if there's if there's one guy that they seem to be other than the quarterback obviously Derek Carr, that they're building their offense around, it seems

to be just Jacobs. Well, and it's not just Jacobs, it's their offensive line too, right. I mean, Rodney Hudson was a big signing for them last year. He's a team captain, a big time center in this league. I think he's one of the best past protectors right now according to Pro Football Focus this season, Richie Incognito. I know he's been a lightning rod for a lot of things, but he came out of retirement again and he's playing

pretty good football at their left guard position now. Trent Brown, who they've made a huge investment in, the biggest investment of any offensive lineman in history. He now has some off the field things. He's also dealing with, I believe as a calf injury. UM, so his status is not really certain. But I just think that not only it was the investment of Jacobs, it was the building of that offensive line, that restructuring of that offensive line that

has allowed him to have the success. Because here's the thing, Michael, you talked about Waller having twice as many catch as anybody else. The receiver position has been a continual, you know rotation. Here you have Ryan Grant now signing with the Packers. He started the season with open Trevor Davis gets traded to Oakland from Green Bait. Now he's a starter for them. Terrell Williams, who is there, Tyrolle Williams, who is their leading receiver, might not play in this game.

So dealing with planter fasciitis, and and drewden't even saying on his conference call with us that yeah, it's not really looking like it's getting much better right now. So the receiver position has sort of been you know, non existent for them, So they needed to get production from their tight end, and they've needed their ground game to

do it. And with you know, Derek Carr pulling all the strings of this thing, it's been enough of a you know, a success here for them to call out some victories to be at the point and they are right now sitting at I believe what two and three? Ye dyslexic? Sorry, well, no, that the other part that's interesting to me. And now we're taping this episode on Thursday morning and Thursday evening the Kansas City Chiefs and

Denver Broncos to play Thursday Night Football. The interesting thing here, the Chiefs have lost a couple of games in a row after a hot start, and the Broncos are kind of picking up their game after a slow start. If Denver beats Kansas City tonight, Oakland is coming into lambeau Field with a shot at first play, taking over first place through seven weeks in the a f C West.

So this could be a highly motivated team. I think they'll be highly motivated regardless because they really have started to turn things around here and they're coming off their bye week to to get some extra rest. It doesn't seem like that has helped their receiver situation, as you

mentioned with with Williams still dealing with his injury. But this is this is a really this is an interesting team that I think they already look a lot different in mid October than they looked in September, and I think this is a team that could look very different in December compared to where they are right now. What's

your take on the defensive side of the ball. Because the Packer has obviously played the Raiders in the preseason in Winnipeg, but both teams rested all their starters, we didn't really get a look at what these clubs look like. What stands out to you on the defensive side of the ball for them? I will give you that answer. There's one more thing I just want to say about the office. No, No, that's all right. Just Elec Ingold coming back to Green Yestely. Alec is a kid from

town that played at bay Port. Uh, football, wrestling, even baseball his his senior year. Uh. Just a remarkable talent. If you know anything about Green Bay area, you and I talked about it a little bit during training camp. Um, there's not a whole lot of NFL prospects that come out of here. Ingold ended up going to Northern Illinois. At first, he was gonna be a quarterback, just like he had been at Bayport. Then you get Paul Chris

calling him to go over to Pittsburgh. Chris end up going to Wisconsin and he takes Ingold along with him for the ride. Starts as a linebacker because he wanted to play an NFL type position, ends up going to the least NFL type position in full full back. Has a great career there, gets John Gruden as his coach at the Senior Bowl. Gruden takes a liking to the kid.

They signed him as an undrafted free agent. He makes the roster and now he's blocking for Josh Jacob and has become sort of a pretty pretty big cog here. The thing I love more than anything about Alec though, if you talk to him, if you listen to him, he's still very much the same kid as he was in two thousand fourteen, and I have so much respect for that. With all the success he's seen. You saw it on Hard Knocks. He was excited to be able to gonna say, yeah, the whole that whole scene with

Clay Matthews on on a Hard Knocks during the summer. Yeah. And I tweeted this a month ago, and I really hope Alec doesn't lose that because he There's something to be said for an attitude like that, because it reminds you of why you liked the game in the first place, why you fell in love with it. In the fact that he's able to live out his dream here, he'll be the first player in four years, a Green Bay Metro player to play at lambeau Field in a regular

season a meaningful regular season game since years. Drew Noak in September of two thousand fifteen for Seattle when he started that game at center. It's just a great story. We could talk about the defense now, but I just wanted to give a no, you're right, I I had I had forgotten about Ingold and the fact that that

he'd be playing at lambeau Field. We talked in training camp about Max sharping from Green Bayed Southwest, playing at lambeau Field and practicing right across the street and all that. Playing at Lambeau in the preseason, and really kind of remarkable when you think about, as you said, the very few number of players, not men, come out of the Green Bay metro area and go to the NFL, and now this will be the second one in the span of a few months, actually suiting up to play at

Lambeau really incredibly special. He mentioned he had a ton of ticket requests for this game. Unfortunately, as you know, when you're a road team, you don't get as many ticket allocations. So he has about twenty really close family that are coming, and then there's just gonna be a lot of friends and former coaches sort of dispersed throughout

the stadium. Also they're cheering him on. So a really great story in Alec Angold, and certainly as he tries to push forward here to an NFL career, you you wish the best for him, because it's, uh, it's pretty special when an area kid like that who grew up

a Packers fan, he's been to thirty forty games. He estimated to be able to now get a chance to play at Lamblefield a second time after he played in that LSU game, you know, a few years that's right, l s U against Wisconsin in two to open that season, which turned out to be a great victory for the Badgers in a great season for the Badgers overall. So okay, I'm glad you remember that. I didn't um. But Oakland's

defense what stands out to you? Because to me, you're not looking at big name guys or guys that people are talking about in terms of going to the Pro Bowl or you know, necessarily anything like that. But these last couple of weeks against or before their bye week against Indian against Chicago, this is a defense that's played some pretty good football collectively. Yes, other than that, it's not going to jump out of you much. They only

have nine sacks as a team. A defensive lineman by the name of Benson Mayowa has their leading sacks right now at four and a half. He's sort of been a journeyman. Um you know, been a contributor in the NFL. I think this is fifth or six NFL season, but not you know, you know a guy that's going to jump off the page to you. They made a big investment this year. Uh. You know, Cleveland Farrell was a

guy that you and I had talked to at the combine. Uh. I think a lot of people were surprised they ended up going with them as early as they did, but they certainly feel good about his development and where one of one of many high picks off of that Clemson defense from a year ago, but right now only ten tackles, one sack for him. Arden Keys a guy I liked as well coming out of LS. He's been really quiet here so far this season. And really realistically, their biggest name,

Vantez perfect now is out for the season. So you have you know white Head, who used I believe was with Detroit for some time. Sort of this hodgepodge of defensive players. But to your point that you originally made, even though they don't have a lot of takeaways, they don't have a lot of sex, they're playing good, collective team football right now and that's what kept him in

that game against Chicago. I'm really curious though, when you get a quarterback the caliber of Aaron Rodgers going into a game like this, how that stresses them because I don't know if they've really seen that kind of test yet. Yeah, And that's the interesting part here as we go into the matchup, because we can start talking about what's going on with the Packers offensively. You mentioned Aaron Rodgers, but Davante Adams, Marquis Velde Scantling, Geronimo Allison all on the

injury report right now for Green Bay. Valde Scantling listed with knee and ankle injuries and Geronimo Allison with chest and concussion protocol. So the Packers have added a veteran

receiver and Ryan Grant. They signed him. As you mentioned, he started the year this year with Oakland, played the bulk of his career first four years of his career with Washington, had a really solid year in when he became a agent, and then there was a failed physical with Baltimore when he was going to get a big multi year deal as a free agent, ended up spending last year with Indianapolis, then started this year with Oakland.

Oakland released him before the end of September. Now he's in Green Bay because the Packers, because of the injuries, are are really thin at the position and not really sure who's going to be healthy on Sunday as of as of this moment. Yeah, there's stands the reason that Ryan Grant could play in this game for Green Bay. Yeah, and be asked to actually fill a role. Now, how much you can really expect of him? How many snaps can you give a guy even though he is twenty eight,

He's in his six NFL season. That is a big ask to come in in a four or five day notice and actually play in a competitive, meaningful regular season game. That being said, if you look at his history, he's done a little bit of everything in his career. He's a former fifth round pick and the same draft class that produced Davante Adams. Those two actually worked out together.

They had had a common bond there, common thread with Keith Williams, the receiver's coach, was at a number of different colleges, including Fresno Staton to Lane, where um Grant went. They worked out together this offseason, so they had a little bit of a common bond there. He's familiar with Adams. The rest of it he's kind of catching up on. But if you look at his career, his best season in two thousand and seventeen, the season that almost got

him a big contract from Baltimore. They used him everywhere. He played the slot, he played outside, even though he's six f he tends to slant more towards being a boundary, you know, perimeter receiver, but he does give you that flexibility. The big thing I'm just curious to see is how

quickly he can pick this thing up and contribute. Because our first injury report, again this is before we get to Thursday's practice, but Davante Adams, Mark Quisvelda Scantling, and Jonimo Allison currently in the Concussion pro Protocol, none of those three guys listed as the starters were actually on the practice field. So now you're looking at Al Lazard, You're looking at Jake Kumero and Darius Shepard and now

mixing in Grant into that equation. Yeah, this Keith Williams connection is really interesting because because Keith Williams was James Jones receiver's co yet San Jose State. Then he was he coached Davante Adams in college. He coached Ryan Grant in college. Kind of amazing how it becomes such a small world sometimes in the NFL with these connections. Yeah.

And you know the other thing too. I remember talking number of years ago, and I'm gonna forget the gentleman's name, but the guy who was the position coach for Ha Ha Clinton Dicks. Uh, he was already at Louisville at that time. If you would have still been in Alabama, I wouldn't been able to talk to him. Uh. That's another story for another day. But he remember some of these coaches, um, even the offensive line coach the Packers

had as an assistant a number of years ago. These guys will go two years in some cases where they don't stay in the same spot. Uh. It's just constant motion and it creates these sort of you know, step brother ships sort of you could say, in where a guy knows a guy that knows a guy and suddenly those two players get brought together. So it's an interesting story. Grant very you know, excited to be in Green Bay now.

He had a tryout last week with the team, UM, and you know he hoped that it kind of would lead to this. And now for him being out of work for a month being down in Texas, a real opportunity for him to get his career back afloat Um as he looks to take that next step forward. Yeah, all right, Well quickly some sponsored business here West Select Cousin Subs locations are now offering delivery. Whether you're ordering catering or your favorite sub, they're delivering right to you

when you order online at Cousin Subs dot com. Cousin Subs we believe in better. What's your take here West on just how this perimeter group is going to shake out for green Bay comes Sunday. You mentioned there's Alan Lazard, who came on the scene in a big way obviously and helped the Packers win on Monday. There's Jake Kumero. There's Darius Shepard, the undrafted rookie who will be looking to bounce back from a rough game. Robert Tonyan who missed the last game with a hip injury. After he

was injured in Dallas. He's was estimated as a limited participant in practice. So we'll see um here in Thursday's practice how much he's doing. We saw Mercedes Lewis get two catches for fifty yards Jimmy Graham obviously had opportunities for a couple of plays that didn't work out, then did make a big catch to move the chains for

a big first down late in the fourth quarter. It just seems like the way things are going that the more Aaron Rodgers can continue to spread the ball around right now and not necessarily try to zero in on one guy, it's what's keeping this Packers offense effective. I

actually counted it up. Not only has Rogers completed passes when you count the backs, the tight ends, and the receivers completed passes to nine different players in each of the last two games, it's actually a total of twelve different players over the course of two games that have caught a pass from Aaron Rodgers. Here, that seems to be what's keeping things at least, you know, manageably efficient for this offense with some of the big guns, so

to speak, offensively on the sidelines. You go back to a final thoughts that you and I had done. I want to say it was after the Philadelphia game going into Dallas, and I said, one of my big keys for that victory against going up against Dallas was Aaron Rodgers. Because you knew you weren't gonna have Davante Adams. You had a pretty good idea you weren't gonna have Jamal Williams, even though he looked for all intensive purposes. Okay, Aaron

Rodgers needed to be at his best. I would argue these last two weeks, Aaron Rodgers has been at his best. And I know there was some things written, There was some more mumbo jumbo type saber metrics that were brought up to say otherwise, But you can't look at his ninety passer rating in that contest last Sunday and actually think that that was a reflection of how he performed. Matt Lafleur said it himself. There were six drop passes.

Two of those could have been touchdowns. The way that Rogers rallied back I let an insider inbox with this week. This week, they followed his lead, they followed his energy, and again, as Jon Gruden even pointed out, he loves statistics. He doesn't care about all these other weird statistics that happened. He looks at wins, He looks at what the threat is that a player possesses. In that threat is still very much there with a R twelve well, I totally

agree with you, and it was interesting. I got a great question that I posted in this morning's Insider Inbox column from a fan asking when was the last time Aaron Rodgers through an interception that didn't bounce off of his own receiver. And I stopped and thought about it, and I went back and looked just to make sure.

And you actually have to go back to the Carolina game when Rogers had come back from the broken collar bone ended up being only a one game return because the Packers lost the game, But that was the last time he threw an interception that actually didn't bounce off of his own receiver. And those some of those opportunities obviously have gotten away from Green Bay here in the last couple of weeks. But I'm with U s I

what Rodgers is doing it. He brought up the game in when the Packers went down to at Anna and they were banged up on the perimeter, and in that game, Geronimo Alison, Trevor Davis, and Jeff Janis all got their

first NFL touchdowns in that game. Um, I remember the obviously playoff game out in Arizona where Davante Adams was out Randall Cobb went out in the first quarter after making a great diving catch, but bruising is long the way he landed with the miked up microphone thing that was that was on his back, and Rogers almost won a playoff game with James Jones, Jared Aberdarris and Jeff

Janis as his three wide receivers. Sometimes it's these situations that bring out the best in the guy, you know, and and so no matter what the perimeter group is, you know, you just can't you just can't count this guy out because if there's a way, he's probably gonna find it. Yeah, and I look at this matchup against Oakland. You have to be creative. Nathaniel Hackett, Matt Lafleur, Aaron Rodgers,

Luke Getsy. They need to be creative again, depending on how this sort's out, because even if let's say one, two or any of those starting receivers can play, you're gonna have to be mindful because Gerono Wylson didn't just have the concussion, he also had the chest injury. Mark Casvelda Scantling is dealing with an ankle and a kneed, two things listed on the injury and certainly Davante Adams injuries,

no laughing matter with with the turf toe. So the fact of the matter is that you need to be creative. I felt like he was last week. Two big catches to to Mercedes Lewis, you know, finding Alan Lazard, you know, helping this guy that had played twenty one snaps the entire season make the most out of his seventeen in that game with five targets, four catches, sixty yards in a touchdown. And then let's I'd be risked remiss not to say when you don't have your resources that receiver.

Look at what the Oakland Raiders are going through right now. You need to have a ground game, and the Packers very much have that. And it's a two headed monster. It's never gonna please fantasy football owners. But last week that game needed to get into the hands of Jamal Williams. He stepped up to it. It could very easily be Aaron Jones this Sunday. But either way, they have two guys that they feel confident about in as every down backs that you can turn to when maybe your star

perimeter receivers aren't available. And it's using those running backs in the passing game, both with some design passes and then also using them as check down options to keep the chains moving at times. If that's what it takes, absolutely, and I mean Danny vitally fits into that as well. It's it's the prototype, the way that this thing, the blueprint that Matt Luthor draws it up. He wants to

be able to threaten you another in multiple ways. Because the course of a season, in sixteen games, Mike, you're going to have to make alterations and adjustments. The Packers did that the last two weeks and they came up with two big victories. All right, Well, with that, we'll 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. You can subscribe to us,

like us on iTunes and other podcast services. On Twitter, He's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Ackers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time. H