#532 Packers Unscripted: Sharing stories

time being. So you okay with that, my friend? Yeah, I'm totally okay with it, Mike, because this is typically what we ended up doing once we get into the o t A schedule anyway. You know, there's only so many days availability. Now there's no availability. So here we are. I did get a kick out of your intro. Your intro though, and you're right, this is social Distancing Style. I feel like when we get back in the studio, it's good enough feeling like we should be like, hey,

this is our studio style. I mean like it's almost like this is gonna end up becoming common place for us. But be that as it may, we persevere, we press on, and we got some cool draft picks to discuss here on today's show. Yeah, well, hopefully we don't have to put up like a plexiglass thing between the two of us when we get back in the studio. That would be that'd be a little awkward. But anyway, yes, you

said it. We're gonna talk about some of the Packers draft picks because since the draft, you and I have been getting in touch with uh past connections to the Packers draft picks, a lot of college coaches other folks like that and posting some stories on the website, So UH for fans who want to UH to check those out by all means do And I think the fun thing with this for US West when we get into these conversations with college coaches and others, you get the

little anecdotes, the little stories that maybe haven't been told necessarily. You get a little bit of a peek into these guys. And I'll start with one because um Kamal Martin, the

fifth round linebacker the Packers drafted out of Minnesota. He's one of these guys, you know, unfortunate and to his college career because he played a stretch of his senior year trying to battle through a knee injury, gutting it out, doing what he could eventually it got aggravated to the point where he had to be shut down and he had to have surgery on it. Now not a full reconstructive surgery or anything, but he had to have a

procedure done. So he's and this is the story I got from Minnesota's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Joe Rossi. So the Gophers are down in Tampa, Florida to play the Outback Bowl, and but Martin, who had just had his surgery, he has to recover at home. He can't travel with the team, so he's sitting on his couch back at home watching the game, cheering on his his Gophers, and everything. Well, Minnesota pulls out this really exciting win,

a big uplifting wind for their program. If you remember, they were on the verge of potentially getting to the Big Ten championship game before Wisconsin knocked them off at the end of the year, and then Wisconsin ended up advancing to that ofference title game, but nonetheless a January first bowl game, the Outback Bowl, big big victory. So Joe Rossi, the defensive coordinator, as everybody is running to the middle of the field and celebrating, and the Gophers

are celebrating this big victory. He facetimes Martin gets him on his couch and basically makes him like part of the celebration in Tampa, passing the phone around to like all the rest of the guys. I just I thought it was a great story. But and it's an illustration of what senior leaders mean to team, to their teammates, to a program. I thought that was the type of story that really illustrated what Kamal Martin meant to the rise of the Minnesota Gophers program under p. J. Fleck. Yeah,

and it's it's cool and it's a neat story. I hope people got a chance to check it out on Packers dot com if you hadn't go back and look at it, because the thing that I've been introduced to with Kamal Martin is just the character of this guy and also just the way that people seem to really gravitate towards him. I mean, he did a little video for our Packers social team, just kind of introducing himself to fans, and he sort of has this infectious enthusiasm

about him. He has an interesting way that he's able to communicate in a very expression, Uh filled and in terms of his uh, you know, interpersonal skills. So that's really neat. But the thing that is cool about his story is and you you were actually the first one I think that asked him about this on the conference call when we first talked to him on draft night.

You know, being a kid from Minnesota, he wanted to play for the Golfers, right, but as so often happens with a lot of these kids from the Midwest, you know, there's only so many Division one schools. Wisconsin only has one Minnesota, you know, certainly it's it's kind of the Gophers are bust out there, and he was pretty content to go to Eastern Michigan. He was gonna play quarterback.

He eventually finds up and he finally impresses them. He gets that opportunity, and like, how many times have we heard this story where a guy a laid offer, a potential walk on, they come into a camp, they earn their keep, and then by their senior year they're featured player. There. The guy that's on FaceTime being passed around the team huddle,

that's Kamal Martin. I think you got a good feel talking to his defensive coordinating his position coach of what exactly he meant to that team and why so many people feel like he'll be successful at the next level because of the way that he approaches this game. Yeah, his desire to play for the Minnesota Gophers was high. He's from Burnsville, Minnesota, which is a suburb of the Twin Cities. He was an all state player, a two way player offense and defense. As you said, he was

a quarterback. And Joe Rossi told me this wasn't just a high school athlete who was, you know, plugged in at quarterback because he was the best athlete on the team. He was a legitimate quarterback. And not just Eastern Michigan, but other MAX schools Mid American Conference schools were offering

him as a quarterback and uh. But he went to a final summer football camp in Minneapolis, a Gophers football camp, and by the end of that they had worked him out on defense and uh, and they made him an offer. And so he he threw the whole quarterback future into the into the trash can, so to speak, and said, Hey, I'm gonna play linebacker for the University of Minnesota. And he couldn't be happier with how it worked out, unfortunately for him, wasn't able to play in that final bowl

game for the Gophers. But moving on to the sixth round. Here three offensive lineman the Packers drafted in the sixth round, and you got a chance to talk with not only John Runyan Jr. From the University of Michigan, the Packers pick there, but also his father, John Runyan Sr. Who's got quite the pedigree as both a former National League Football player and a member of the United States House

of Representatives. Now he's involved with the NFL at the league level when it comes to reviewing film and disciplinary issues and things like that. So, um, tell us your favorite anecdote that you got out of that that wonderful piece to put together on Packers dot Com on the runyons, be sure to check that one out, folks. Yeah, and and certainly you had to edit it and go through

all of it. There were so many stories and it could have been even longer than it was with with not only him, but also Gaven Fonte, who was his high school football coach. He's now actually at Temple. He ended up getting assistant job at Temple for all of his efforts and state championships and what he did at St. Joseph's. But the story that I think I liked the most was it had to been the Ohio State stories, so I knew it's great. I wish you would have had

the photo. He doesn't have the photo anymore. But anyway, if you didn't read the story, basically St. Joseph's Prep, this was a it's a private school in North Philadelphia. The school where Runyan Jr. Was going to basically funnel into in their township didn't offer football. He at that point knew we wanted to play football. His mom ended up finding his mom. Lauretta found St. Joseph's Prep actually asked Gave and Fonte to come out and watch her son play to see if you know, potentially he could

play for him. And by the way, he could. Uh. And every year they go out and they do different types of service events at different area colleges or you know, even traveling a little bit. So they went to Ohio State the football camp, get it's done, and all the kids who were volunteering their time, they're offered to take a photo with Urban Meyer, the then Buckeys coach, newly minted at that point. And if you know anything about the Runyan family. They are staunched Michiganders. I mean, they

are mazing blue all the way. So John Junr. Does take his opportunity. He goes and he takes the photo with Urban Meyer, shakes his hand and is completely covered in Michigan year. It is a phenomenal portrait. Gavin Fonte was the one that told me that anecdote. At first, he was laughing about it as he mentioned it just a true testament not only to the Runyans and how much you know that that means to him, but also John Jr. And you know so many times you hear

these stories, Mike, and and rightfully so. Kids look up to their father's I looked up obviously to mine. I know you do to yours. And it's understandable why John Junior would have been motivated to play football, But John Sr. Never made it about that if he if his kid wanted to go and become a businessman or just get out of sports altogether, would have been fine with that. But the fact of the matter was is John Jr. Was around football as a young man. As a child,

it got ingrained in him. He ended up becoming a pretty darn good offensive lineman. And while so many people may think that that last name, but what that carries a fifteen year pro, a Pro Bowl or a guy that was very notorious in his time for his physicality. John Jr. He has some of those traits, but he's not his father, and he came to terms with that

very early on. And I think that explains why he's made it as far as he did and why he believes now at the next level he can thrive because he's not trying to live up to his dad's legacy. He's trying to create one of his own. Yeah, and that's certain. That's a that's a challenge for anybody in that spot. Um and not just the fact that his father played in the NFL, but was was an established pro,

was was very well known across the league. Um had had a reputation for being, you know, one of the ultimate tough guys in the NFL and playing in one of the tough towns as they say, you know, in Philadelphia with fans and and how they feel about their team. So not a not an easy shadow to uh to walk behind as far as John Jr. Is concerned. But he's been doing in his whole life, right, So why why that against him? Now he's he certainly comes across

as a as a very confident, self assured young man. Yeah, and his dad was incredibly hands off. I mean when he handed him over to the St. Joe's UH coaching staff, infante, he let them coach. If they asked him a question, he would answer it, but he wasn't gonna step on any toes. And John Junior feels like that is ultimately what allowed him to not only stay with the game and and have the love for it that he does, but also have the passion for it because he found

it on It's on his own. I mean, he saw things and he was around it, but it was ultimately his own passion that allowed him to persevere. I mean the Michigan thing, Mike, he committed there the end of his sophomore season. He had two more years of high school. It was like a one year starter at that point, and but he knew he wanted to play at Michigan. He had deep ties family wise on his dad side to Ann Arbor and Flint. This is a big thing

for the young man. So now coming to the NFL, he is a sixth round pick, but I think if you talk to a lot of people around him, the feeling was he probably would have ended up being an interior offensive lineman, but opportunities on Michigan's offensive line allowed him to start at right tackle. His first ever start was at right tackle in a bowl game. In the following year, he became the starting left tackle and he stayed there the last two seasons. So he's up for it.

He's flexible, he's extremely athletic. I mean, that's one thing that stands out. He doesn't have his dad's overall size, but I mean he ran basically a five flat forty time. There's some real athleticism there. And when you look at the zone blocking scheme, this is a young man that the Packers feel pretty confident is going to be able

to fit the prototype of Matt Lafleur's offense. Yeah. I really wish we could have gotten to see that photo of him in Yeah, there's there's no way back in the day that Woody Hayes would have even agreed to have that photo taken. I just that that's my, uh my gut feeling when you go back to the rival days of Woody Hayes and Bo schem Beckler at those two universities. He wasn't and he wasn't even committed at that time to Michigan yet It's just that's how much

they loved the Wolverines. That's how much he loved that school that he was willing to already basically right off any chance he had him going to Ohio State at that juncture of his football career. Yeah. Well, to other offensive lineman the Packers drafted in the sixth round, Simon Stepinac from Indiana, Jake Hansen from Oregon. I got a chance to talk to coaches from those schools as well, and um with Stepanek. It was interesting and I'll apologize

right now. I believe on one of our early shows after the draft, I pronounced Simon's last name incorrectly, So hopefully I have it right now, buddy. But yeah, But anyway, I did talk with with offensive line coach Darren Hiller from Indiana, and I asked him just because the thing that stands out about Stepanac, now, this is another young man, unfortunately, who did not get to finish his college career in a bowl game. He ends up injuring his knee during

bowl prep. After Indiana had finished its regular season. Hiller told me that Stepanak was playing some of the best ball of his career, The Big Old Oaken Bucket Rivalry with Perdue, which ends Indiana's regular season with some of the best film that he had out there. But then he suffers a pretty significant knee injury during bowl preps, so he can't go to the bowl game. And then of course everything with regard to the pre draft process, maybe the Senior Bowl, the Combine, all that is thrown

up in the air, and Stepanac tells Hillary. He says, well, I'm gonna go to the combine and I'm at least gonna do the bench press. So I'm gonna figure out a way to do the bench press. Well, Stepanek has to have surgery on the knee in the first week of January, so the combine is about six or seven weeks after that. Now, the bench press, of course, it's it's an upper body exercise, you know, chest and triceps

and shoulders and all that. But as Hiller described to me, you still have to have kind of your feet landed on the ground to uh, you know, to to be able to to have the stability to give everything you've got on the bench press. Well, Stepan Act, less than two months removed from reconstructive surgery on his knee, he does thirty seven reps of two or twenty five pounds on the bench press at the combine, which ends up being one of the top totals of any lineman offensive

war defensive lineman in Indianapolis. And Hiller told me, he said, you know, if he had been healthy, if it hadn't been for having the surgery in early January, and if he had actually been able to prep as much as he wanted to for the bench press, because this kid, you know, been a workout warrior his whole life. He thinks he would have been somewhere in the forties as far as his reps at two on the bench press.

That kind of blew me away. West. I mean, I was never somebody who did a whole lot of weightlifting in my career as a baseball player and a golfer in in my college days. But man, oh man, forty some reps on the bench are you kidding me? I mean, so, anyway, it was it was interesting to to hear the story from the offensive line coach. Take away everything else, right, take away. This is NFL and guys trying to get drafted. Just a human being putting up two and twenty five

pounds thirty seven times? Uh that that? Oh wait, that never ceases to amazing me. I mean, honestly, I think the most on the entire roster right now is what is it Corey Linsley with thirty six. I think Corey had Yeah, Corey had the Lancaster, but that that would put him right up there, and that wasn't even him

at his best. Let's this is the thing I loved about it, and I love the quote that Hiller gave you about it, basically saying that he needs to you know, you don't think about your legs, you don't think about your knees, but you have to be basically bolted to the ground in order to do that exercise. The thing I love about that draft pick, Mike Um this is a long term one. Brian Goodkin set it from the beginning. I mean, the Packers are under no disillusion right now

that that's Simon Stepanek. Whenever they get here is just gonna be good to go, and he'll be running and everything will be fine. He's the young man's gonna need some time to get back. But these are the type of guys that you want to look at in the potential six rounds, especially when you have that many draft picks, as the Packers did in those later rounds, because there's going to be time. The Packers have a really deep, uh you know, fertile crop of you know, offensive lineman

behind their starting five right now. So they're not asking this guy to come in and win a starting job right away. They're asking him to heal. They're asking him to rehab. Yeah. Well, one other one to get to today, and that's Jake Hansen, the center from Oregon, and it was I had a really good conversation with Oregon's head coach, Mario Cristo Ball and uh fortunately it worked out to be able to catch up with him on the phone.

He was the offensive coordinator originally for Oregon. He went there from Alabama when he'd been working for Nick Saban and then he became the head coach at Oregon. So he had a really good perspective on Hansen's career. And the story I really liked that he told is that he said he he still remembers getting on the plane when he was gonna fly from Alabama to Oregon. He was gonna start his new job as offensive coordinator for the Ducks. He's got his iPad and he's looking at

the film of the sixteen season. This is heading into when he gets the job at Oregon. He's looking at film of the offense for the sixteen season to see what he's got. Right, who were the players that he's got coming back? Well, lo and behold, he's got a freshman quarterback named Justin Herbert who ends up being drafted sixth overall in this most recent draft. So all his film obviously stood out, but he also noticed two guys

on the offensive line. He had a red shirt freshman at guard and Shane Lemieux, and he had a red shirt freshman at center in Jake Hansen, And both of those guys jumped off the film as well. And he's he was talking about how he was really excited seeing that on the film, knowing like, all right, I've got a quarterback and to offensive lineman that I can use to install my new offense because it was gonna be

this whole new playbook and everything like that. And he could tell from watching that film, and he mentioned with Hansen specifically the way Hanson as a red shirt freshman is making calls, directing traffic, doing all those kinds of things that a center does for his freshman quarterback, taking the snaps. He knew he was gonna have no problem installing that offense and getting things going because of those guys. Hansen was a big piece of that. And by the

time Hanson's career at Oregon ended, he star. He had started forty nine games at center for the Ducks, and then the Packers draft him in the sixth round and Shane Lemieu, the guard that played next to him for those four years, was drafted just one round earlier. I believe it was by the New York Giants. Yeah, what

a cool story Hanson is. And and certainly he's a guy that I don't think he's just gonna flash, right, He's just he's a down in, true blue collars center that has a lot of experience, much like Stepanek did coming out of Indiana. So you understand why sometimes these guys last until the fifth and sixth round. But that doesn't mean that they can't play, and it doesn't mean that they can't come in and win a job in

the NFL. It's just sometimes guys just don't have that type of like awe factor, especially on the interior offensive line. And the thing I took away from your story with Kristal Ball too, is that you kind of touched on it. But this is a guy that, even at a young age, was capable of communicating an offense and capable of setting

up an offensive line for success. That's so important because we don't know whether or not Jake Hanson's gonna end up being a center in the National Football a He could be a left guard, could be a right guard, but he has that experience and you saw it last year. Mike Elton Jenkins was a center his last two years at Mississippi State. But he comes in here and he has that background, he has that knowledge, and he ends up becoming a really good starter for the Packers and

all rookie left guard right off the bat. So with Hanson, all three of those guys, whether it's Hanson, Runyon, or obviously Stepanek, those all three of them offer the type of things that you're looking for in a sixth round pick, a developmental prospect, and it's gonna be interesting to see exactly what he can Hanson can turn this into now this opportunity in Green Bay. Yeah, and certainly no uh,

no slacker in the strength department either. He put up thirty three reps on the bench press at the combine, I believe so. So the phrase country strong and definitely applies. And yeah, Kristo Ball talked about Hansen just he's a grinder, He's a guy that he thinks he can play, you know, ten years in the NFL wherever a team wants to use him, center guard, whatever the case might be. So be interesting to see these uh, these prospects develop as

their careers just get started here. Yeah, and it's always fun with offensive linemen in particular because it's sort of like unboxing a present. You know that you're getting an offensive lineman, but you don't know where they're going to fit. We didn't really know that David Box is gonna be a left tackle. We certainly didn't know if Brian Blago is gonna be a right tackle. That was a conversation for four years. But you know, you see where these guys end up finding a home in the league, and

that's gonna be the key. And as John Runyan Senior told John Runyan Jr. Now that he's draft in the NFL, you have to basically make the team twice. You need to make the team right off the bat, and then you need to keep your spot in order to get an opportunity to potentially grab a starting job, you know, as a Day three pick. He had been through that, and now that's what all three of these young men are gonna be doing, is they try to find a

spot here in Green Bay. Yeah, we'll be sure to check out all of those draft pick features that are posted on Packers dot com. We've got some more coming in the ensuing days and next week. Uh here on Unscripted will continue sharing some of those fun anecdotes from our conversations with the players, the connections to the players from their past. So for now we will sign off on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Thank you for tuning

in everybody for West I am Mike. Take care. We'll see you next time.