#518 Packers Unscripted: Off to Indy

are you ready for this? It's it's another week in Indie. Man, here we go. Yeah, I'm ready for it. I was actually hoping you're gonna say, no, we're live from Indie right now. We we moved. We moved the whole set, the whole studio. We took it to Indie Mart and grabbed a U haul in a Mayflower truck and here we are in Indianapolis. No, I'm excited for it. There's

no week quite like the NFL Scouting Combine. Uh. You see everybody in the National Football League and they all descend upon not only just a city basically about a four or five six block radius. They're all in one one position, and uh, seeing getting a chance to talk with Brian goodacunst already as you and I will discuss right now, and then hearing what Matt Lafleur has to say down there. This is the thing where it always sets the temperature a little bit of the water. When

you go into a new season, everything restarts. This is always kind of like the first quarter. It feels like as you get ready for the next season, it's kind of when the page is officially turned to the next season. It's not about the nineteen season, the twenty nineteen playoffs in January. It's not about that anymore. It's now everything is looking ahead to the scouting combine is kind of that moment where all eyes and all minds start going forward. Yeah.

And in addition to all these NFL teams, every agent for the most part, the National Football League is also in Indianapolis as they begin to go through their meetings and obviously the free agency only a few weeks away. It's just it's incredible because it's that reset button that you press that everything that happened in two thousand nineteen for the Green Bay Packers, as cool as that was,

Brian Goodacun set it himself. I mean, this is a new season, a new year, a new opportunity, and the Packers are looking to you know, continue upon this path that they put themselves on this past year. Well, this time of year, as you mentioned, is really the first opportunity media wise for us to get a chance to talk to head coach Matt Lafleur general manager Brian goodacunst as in terms of the pre draft process here and

normally we hear from them strictly in Indianapolis. It turns out this year Brian goodacoun has decided to do sort of an off to the side session with writers. You and I were included in that session, as well as several other beat writers that cover the team on a regular base. This that was held on Friday at the h at lambeau Field, and some interesting thoughts coming out of there because Packers, you know, this isn't just about

the draft. The Packers have a lot of decisions to make in terms of pending free agents, other veteran contracts, all these things. Now, Brian Goodaquin's didn't give us too much of an insight into where those decisions necessarily are headed, but he did say that really when everybody gets back from the combine and then you have kind of about a two week window there before free agency starts to

kick off. That's when a lot of the decisions and the planning and and the uh, the path so to speak, starts to take shape for where this offseason is going for green Bay. And that's sort of what he expressed to us in that meeting. Yeah, and this will be to where a lot of agents will sit down with the teams that hold their their players contracts uh and start to have some of those really discussions and you know, maybe have a chance to get that face to face

encounter green Bay. It's such an interesting spot that they're in right now because, as Brian said, last year, they made a a you know, a ton of moves. You know, they not only signed those four free agents, they brought back Mercedes Louis. They they did some things that they felt we're going to set them up to have the type of year that they did a real big bounce

back season. Now, you probably don't have as many available resources as you did when you made all those big signings, certainly a lot tighter against the cap, and that's really what it comes down to there. There's no team in the league that's going to have the salary cap space to sign four guys on the first day of free agency two years in a row. Like that's just not gonna happen. So, I mean, it'll be interesting to see

exactly how that shuffles out. Yeah, Well, as we as we look ahead here, Brian Goodkunts gave us a bit of a preview of how things are going to go at the Combine now, just to give fans a sense of of what goes on here. Obviously, what the media is doing or are doing at the Combine, it's very different from what the coaches and the scouts and and the gms and everybody else are doing there the play years. The players are there too. They get medical checks, they

get they have interviews both formal and informal. They do all the workouts, which are going to be in prime time on TV this year. That's been a big change up to the schedule. From a media standpoint, we get to hear from some coaches and gms. We also have access to the players. They take the podiums at the Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis. Reporters from all across the

country that cover the league. Uh, get a chance to be there at two really our first chance to meet a lot of these guys because they've obviously only been playing in college. So that's always an interesting part of it. But a lot of stuff here packed into really what's going to come down to four days like Tuesday through Friday in Indianapolis. Yeah, it's a whirlwind. And you know, you start off that. It's always interesting how those podiums at the very beginning, it's the GMS, it's the coaches,

occasionally it's a it's a president of football operations. They'll go up there and they kind of set the table for everything. And after that, then the quarterbacks come in and the running backs and the receivers in position by position, the eight different podiums and then all the different you know tables that are around there. Guys get a chance to state their case and you know, make some good impressions. The one thing that actually leads to some interesting moments.

As you know, I still remember being at some of these players the Packers ended up drafting, you know, ha Clinton Dicks. I remember being at his podium back in two thousand fourteen. Uh, you know, Josh Jackson Jr. Alexander Um. You know, I don't think I was at Darnell Savages last year, but like it's always been something when you see a guy at that podium and then two months later you end up seeing him in the Packers locker room,

and those are the decisions they have to make. As Brian good Coin said, they have ten draft picks right now, and they got a six rounder for Reggie Gilbert, they got a six rounder for Trevor Davis. They also have their own sixth and two sevenths, So I mean there's a lot of flexibility, especially in that third day that that they're gonna be able to move around and you know, utilize those parts, and that is, you know, what it's

gonna take to really ake that next step. As we were talking about earlier with the free agency side of this thing, Brian Bulaga, Mason Crosby, Tremont Williams, Blake Martinez, Kyler, Facral, they have a lot of unrestricted free agents they're gonna have to make a decision on. And by the time that you know, all these measurables and interviews and and everything gets brought together to make these picks, the Packers will have some resolution to how those free agents played out.

So it's like kind of like doing your homework for a test. But there's that quiz in the middle, right. You got to see how that quiz goes and then start to figure out, Okay, where are you going to emphasize where could the potential strengths be at this draft? You and I will get a chance to get into that next week a little bit more. But there's just that whole week with the convention center of the events over at Lucas Oil Stadium. Um, you know the guys downtown.

I mean, you just get to see these guys in so many different ways. Um, if you're an NFL scout to start making that decision on not only their medicals but character wise personality, could they be a fit for your locker room? Yeah? That the interview process. I always think it's interesting because you talk to any GM, any scout about the combine and they will always say, inevitably, the two most important things that happened at the scouting

combine are the medical checks and the interviews. The chance to sit down and talk to these guys and really kind of test their football knowledge and all that kind of stuff. Those are the two things that get no media coverage because there aren't any cameras, there are und any interviews allowed during that part of the process. So all the media coverage is on a lot of the other stuff, the workouts and this and that, and and that's just part of it. That's that's just kind of

part of the setup. But if you got rid of all of the workouts and all that stuff that's on television, the combine would still be really important for the because of the medicals and the interviews. That's the point I'm trying. And that's why it all started, right, I mean, that was the thing. It all started because of getting all the players together to have medical checks, essentially, like guys who have injuries in college, to get an our eye on a knee or a CT scan on some injury,

a shoulder, whatever it might be. That's how the whole thing started, so that these players, these draft prospects, weren't basically being flown around to twenty or twenty five NFL cities to get a medical check in every single city. So they combined their efforts and uh, and then here we are now with what is what has now become a week long extravaganza with prime time television coverage and

the whole deal. That part of it I thought was a little bit quizzical in my mind, because I still think you could end up taping the workouts in the morning and run them at night and nobody would be any worse for wear. But they except except for the results getting out that. But I mean, if you're watching the thing in prime time, I'm guessing Don Hodkoitz isn't like sitting there reading this thing online being like, man, I really gotta watch this now at night. Oh, I'm

not interested anymore. But that's the NFL. Everything is a spectacle. It's the reason why it's really difficult to take a vacation when you work in this league. But that's a discussion for another day. But but that's it's a it's a three sixty five day news cycle, goes twelve months of the year, fifty two weeks out of the year. And the other thing too that was interesting, getting back to our conversation with Brian Gudkins, was the fact that this is an adjustment in how the coaches, how the

the scouts have to approach us as well. They cut down on the number of formal interviews. But you know, Goodkins kind of pointing out the silver lining to that is they get a couple more minutes now with each of these prospects, whereas before I think it was fifteen. Maybe now it's like eighteen. You don't get your sixty anymore, but you still get forty five formals. Those are important.

Taking what you learned at the Senior Bowl, you're gonna have your thirty pre draft visits that you'll also have with prospects between you know, March and April to kind of sift through as well. So to a lot of people outside looking in, it was a big challenge. I think there were some people that were even kind of you know, complaining about it. But Brian had a pretty

optimistic outlook on it. What he thinks this is gonna mean and and basically with his overlying assumption being they're still gonna be able to get the job done and in some cases maybe they'll even learn a thing or

two more than they would have under the previous set up. Yeah, and it sounds like there's there's been another set of what they call the informal interviews that are added where where players from a specific position will be gathered in a group, and then the corresponding position coaches from around the league will be able to get together specifically with those players, just in an informal interview setting, but maybe not quite as chaotic as the old school one, which

involved players and scouts and coaches and everybody, uh, kind of all together at at what they called the train Depot in in Indianapolis. So they're breaking things down a little bit more too, and Goodakoon said he thinks that will be be beneficial to have some of these extra opportunities going forward to point this out too. And maybe you're going to mention this, but the Packers actually they will be sending their whole coaching staff and their scouting departments.

That's been kind of a point in can tension this offseason with the reports that the Rams are going to keep home their assistant coaches. I believe it was Denver as well with vic Fers another team we're gonna keep their coaches at home. Brian said he feels like that still has a lot of value for his guys to be down there. Now a position coach doesn't have to

be there the whole week. An offensive line coach can go down there during the couple of days that the offensive linemen are available and get the job done that they need and get back up to Green Bay. But you know, for some people, they're trying to you know, maybe get a little cute, I think some would say, or trying to reallocate the resources in different ways. Goodacuns to his staff, Matt Lafore is still like, feel like

there's a lot of values still having those guys in Indianapolis. Yeah, well, I do want to get back to the conversation we had with the other Beat writers and with general manager Brian Goodacoons, because you mentioned the Packers have decisions to make on pending free agents like Brian Bulaga, Blake Martinez. Those decisions are going to be made at some point. He did give. If he gave us insight into anything, it's that it really sounds like he wants kicker Mason

Crosby to be back. Now that's another pending free agent. Crosby coming off of maybe probably the best season of his career, twenty two out of twenty four on field goals, he only missed one extra point, he said, a personal best for touchback percentage on kickoffs, and Gouda Kun said I think he I think he used I forget exactly the phrase he used. I think he said the right ending. He he wants Mason Crosby back on this team. In

obviously there are no guarantees. This is a business. There are all kinds of business decisions that have made on both sides, the team side and the player's side. But it sounds like he wants his veteran kicker still here in Green Bay. Yeah. And and Mason has signed two

contracts already with Green Bay. So that's one of the reasons why I've always kind of had that faith in it that you can you know, when you come to an agreement once, okay, you come to another agreement, all right, then he starts to get down the line here, ten twelve years into a career, if there's no obvious signs of deterioration or drop off, in which I don't feel there's been any with Mason Crosby. You've pointed it out too. I mean, his touch back percentages as high as it's

ever been in his career. Uh. And and here's the other caveat to this too. And I don't mean to keep bringing this up because I did talk about it a lot during this past season of unscripted. But if you ever need a reminder of how important a kicker is, look at what happened in Chicago after they moved down

from Robbie Gold. They're still not settled there and we're now three three and a half years since they've released him at the beginning of the season back and there one playoff appearance in a decade ended because of a missed fundle. So you got to see all the thing. You know, he Mason Crosby is gonna have a market. There's a dearth of really competent, capable kickers out there. But I think history has shown that those two sides have always found a way to make these things work out.

I would think that they're going to put those efforts again here together. Crosby still only, I believe, thirty five years old for a kicker. Still a lot of tread

on the tire. Yeah, one of the things I think that's interesting here with the Packers, and as we will be doing a couple of unscripted episodes from Indianapolis, we you know, our annual on location UM episodes, and we'll get into, you know, some of the name dropping of guys that some different positions that we hear from, and you know, those positions that people are talking about as as needs for the Packers and and whatnot. So we'll get into a lot of those names and who's saying

what next week. But one thing I think is interesting here is that when you talk about these free agent decisions, specifically with Brian Bolaga and with Blake Martinez at offensive tackle and inside linebackers specifically, I get the feeling west that whether or not you bring back Brian Bulaga, whether or not you bring back Blake Martinez, I think those are two positions the Packers are still going to be

looking at pretty strongly in this draft. Now, the the acuteness of the need, the immediacy of the need, will would depend on those decisions on those veteran players. But I think in terms of in terms of, you know, building the roster the way Brian Goodkins would like to build the roster, the are going to be positions of

need here going into this draft regardless. Yeah, and I have so much respect for Bolaga because I think, you know, there was a lot of doubters when he signed that five year deal, you know, back in two thousand sixteen, or whenever that was. It was two fifteen, it was after the fourteens. There were some people saying, Oh, there's no way he's going to see the end of that, And here he is. He fought through injuries, he played at an exemplary level. I mean, he's in my mind

he's a Packers Hall of Famer right now. I think he's had that type of career and he's had that type of longevity, but you never know. And the thing I keep going back to was, and this is why I feel like it could be important for them to

bring him back again. I'm not the ones you know, signing checks and and picking up the phone, but two thousand and ten is such an important year when you look at what they did going into the Super Bowl season and the ability to bring back Chad Clifton, and I think Brian probably has a little bit more left than what Chad did at that point, but having Clifton as the left tackle that season was imperative for a Super Bowl run, and I see a lot of things

with Bolaga could be very similar. This is a guy that has played good football for you. He's still one of the best right tackles in the game, and I'm sure Brian wants to get paid like one of the best right tackles in the game, so that's gonna be something to monitor. All that being said, I think it's been one draft in the last maybe fifteen years where

the Packers haven't taken an offensive lineman. Otherwise they've kept going down to that well because you need them, you need the backups, you need to be able to keep guys in the pipeline. Packers have to taken some swings at tackle over the last few years. They haven't all worked out. So I think that's one reason why, regardless of what happens with Bolaga, you maybe think about having that guy there that you can develop behind those guys or jump in right away if you need them to.

As far as middle linebacks is concerned, this is really going to be a question, I think more for Matt Lafleur and seeing what the direction at defense is going to be. They played a lot of sub package safety this year in the box with Ibraheim Campbell and Raven Green. I'm curious if that is really by design or if that was mostly by necessity. Um and we're gonna find out in twenty But depending what happens with Blake Martinez. That's one spot, maybe two spots that you're gonna need

to address. Yeah, well, and we and we will hear from Matt Lafleur on Tuesday in Indianapolis, So when we do a couple of shows from India, will certainly be talking about a lot of his comments from the podium at the convention Center. Goudakunts also had he shared some thoughts with regard to the youth on this roster and as any GM I mean, and I don't care whether you're talking about Ron Wolf or Ted Thompson or Brian Goodakuns.

Mike McCarthy would would say it as well, the biggest improvement for this team when when you get to this stage the Packers made all their the big free agent signings a year ago, you end up making a run to the NFC Championship Game. Your biggest improvement is most likely going to come from within. It's going to come from the young guys who are taking that next step. Now you could be talking about you know, Jairo, Alexander,

Elton Jenkins, you know, guys like that. But Gudakunst also is you know, looking at guys that wide receiver and tight end and whatnot and and what are they going to do? Those are positions I think the Packers will be looking at in the draft as well. So some interesting thoughts there in terms of just how exactly this puzzle is going to fit together when Brian goudacunst arrives at the ninety man roster that he's going to take into training camp in late July. Yeah, first and foremost,

and again we'll discuss this next week. But tight end isn't nearly as deep as it was last year in this draft. Oh yeah, they're there there. I mean you look at some of the projections. Now, last year we were talking about two tight ends almost certainly going in the first round, and they did. They both went in the top twenty, if I'm not mistaken, the two tight ends from Iowa. This year, there's talk that there may not be a single tight end drafted in the first

round at all. So it's a completely different class at that specific position. But regardless of whether or not it was deep, j Sternberger has to be a big part of this. You know, I said all season, I said it even going into this season with the tight end, you gotta be patient you gotta let them develop. Year two, year three is where you look for them to make a premium impact. So I think improvement has to start

with Sternberger. It has to start with Robert Tanny in and then seeing what exactly happens from there with Jimmy Graham in, Mercedes Lewis. Beyond that, though, I just think there's so many young players on this entire roster that whatever draft picks the Packers end up using and bringing in,

they're gonna have competition already here. If they bring in a middle linebacker where you have Oren Burke's you have Ty Summers, who Goods was very quickly to to mention that he's still very high on those guys and being, you know, potentially a part of this this team in this role and finding a spot on defense, you have you know, Kevin King, Jaire, Alexander Chandler Sullivan, are Chanted Sullivan, Uh,

Darnell Savage. I mean, there's so many young so much young talent there in addition to what they could do in the draft, and even if a guy like Trumon Williams could come back. But the thing I really looked for on the offensive side the ball, though, is the young talent that emerged throughout the course of last season. You bring up Elton Jenkins, you know, Alan Lazard. I

mean there are guys and playmakers that. Yeah, undoubtedly the Packers could be helped by bringing in another receiver to maybe lessen some of that load, whether it be a veteran to help Davante Adams or a high draft pick those either those guys could help or both or both. But Alan Lazard needs to be a player on this team next year. E Q. St Brown coming off of the high ankle sprain, they want to see him make an impact. Yeah, And Goudacots did say all health reports

at this point on st. Brown are positive, suggested he'd probably be eased into some things during the off season program with offseason workouts, but everything progressing as they would hope for with st Brown coming off of the season ending injury. Yeah, So as much as we can sit here and we will over the next six eight weeks talk about the draft and who you know where where they need help and who could step in. A lot of times those are conversations for you need need those guys.

Maybe not necessarily you're Darnell Savages, but I mean some of the guys that are those second, third and fourth round draft picks to start to carry that baton like Blake Martinez did in two thousand seventeen, like Kyler Facral did in two thousand eighteen, like Kenny Clark did in two thousand seventeen. So that's where I really look for this team to get better. In addition to finding a few players here and there in this draft that could potentially help you from year one, you just don't have

to depend on them right away. Yeah, I mean, and and certainly you look back at last year's draft. Uh, the Packers ended up picking three players in the first two rounds or Shawn Gary, Darnell Savage, Elton Jenkins, and two of those three end up making the PFW a All rookie team. They were you know, starters for the bulk if not the entire season, depending on the case.

And uh, you know, the pack if if Brian Goodakuns has another draft like that, Um, you know, it would be really interesting to see exactly where this Packers team goes, because it looks like, you know, this is headed toward or you know, another one of these mixtures between the veteran guys and the young guys, and then you want to see that chemistry come together in the locker room like it did last year. That's not going to be

an easy thing to repeat. But the veteran guys who were here, they know what that felt like last year and that they're going to know what it takes to to kind of steer things in that direction with whatever new faces come in. Yeah, and the young guys that were on this roster are going to be a part of that too. You know, they're going to feel that energy.

Look at Rashan Gary, he was there all year last year, both on the field with you know, za Darius Smith in Preston Smith, but also in the locker room in their positional room. That's really important for young guy who's twenty one years old to be able to gain that kind of experience in that exposure. And and yeah, there's a trickle down effect to it too. I just feel like the most exciting thing for Green Bay is the fact that they are back in the winner circle again. Now,

certainly the goal is not done. There's still work to be done. They want to win a Super Bowl, they want to get back to a Super Bowl, they want to get over the hump from that end CE Championship game. But they also aren't sitting at six nine and one anymore. Um, you're a little bit back up in front of the pack again. So I think that that's where you're listening to, Brian. It's just incredible from where they were at a year ago, at this time when they had nobody left from their

two thousand fifteen draft class. For the most part, they needed to restart there. They needed to find improvement. Well, now you start to have to answer tough questions again. Your sixteen draft was incredibly fruitful. Uh. You know, you look at Kenny Clark. I think he's gonna be one of the highest paid defensive tackles when the dust settles

here in the next year or so. You have Aaron Jones and Kevin King and Jamal Williams from that two thousand seventeen class, and you already touched on the eighteen class with Alexander. You're starting to see the tree that you know, bear fruit again. And that's a good thing because as as as cool as it was to go and sign the Smith's and Adrian Amos and and Billy Turner,

you don't want to always have to go to that. Well, it's kind of a get out of you know, purgatory free car and you know the Packers were able to that last season. Yeah. Absolutely, Well tell you what, my friend, it's time to go to Indie. So we are. Yeah, we are off to Indianapolis. And that is the next time you will see us and hear from us. Will be from the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Will do a couple of episodes from there. West, Larry and I'll do

some three Things videos. West and I will be doing some stories off of the interviews with Matt Lafleur, the interviews with the prospects. We got all kinds of NFL Scouting Combine coverage coming to you all week long, so be sure to check all of that out. For now, He's West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.