#538 Packers Unscripted: Let the battles begin

on Saturday. So in looking ahead to that, let's just throw it back and forth a little bit in terms of the position battles, the things that you're gonna have your eye on here as training camp begins. Start on the offensive side, what are you gonna be watching for? Well, there's a lot I'm gonna be watching for. But first and foremost, Mike, I have to say I wrote it an Insider inbox for Thursday. We are talking about practice,

and I've never been happier about it. I mean, this is It's funny how a lot of times you get to that first preseason game You're like, man, we just got to see a preseason game. I just need to see a practice at this point, I just got to see these guys up close, actually get to appreciate what they are physically and what they can do during a team period or one on one drill. If you're an offensive lineman, we are far overdue for being able to see that type of work and seeing exactly where these

guys are at. Now, all that being said, offensively, this is just the biggest wide open competition that I can recall. Mike, You've been you know, doing this probably about twice as long as I have now, But in my nine years, I can't think of it as far as the skill positions. Just a battle at basically every spot, whether it be

tight end, running back, or receiver. Now certainly receivers the one that's going to get the most eyeballs this summer, rightfully, So you want to see improvement there, you need guys to take that next step. Now you bring him the league turner into that competition. Eleven twelve guys that are

all gonna be battling this thing out. And then, by the way, you're gonna have two or three spots on that sixteen man practice squad as well that some of those guys that maybe aren't gonna push Davantie Adams for a starting spot. It's it is imperative for them to show enough during these four weeks for them to get that extended look with this team. As Brian Goodkin said earlier this week, the practice squad is gonna be as important as it's ever been for the Packers tight end.

You have Mercedes Lewis. Everybody knows what he does. He does his job really well. But who's going to be that playmaker that steps up beyond him? You're j Sternberger has received a lot of pub this offseason. Robert tanyan kind of the forgotten guy. But you think about it, Mike, he made arguably his best catch as a Packer at

the time in which he got injured last year. And then Josiah Deguara, you know, arguably one of the biggest question marks in terms of what he's going to do on the field for the Packers and where exactly is gonna line up running back everything, Mike, There's just so many jobs that are gonna be up for grab, so many roles that need to be carved out, and I can't remember a time in which it's just been this wide open for who are going to be those eleven

people that start. When you look at that game against Minnesota next month. Yeah, it is interesting when you look at the skill positions for the Packers because it does seem rather clear who the number one guy is at each position. You have Davante Adams, you have Aaron Jones, and in terms of experience and longevity, you have Marcedes Lewis at tight end. But at those three positions, starting with the number two spot, at all of those, in

all of those areas, there's some uncertainty. You don't really know exactly how this is going to shake out. Now. I would think Alan Lazard would have the inside track to the number two receiver spot behind Adams. You would think Jamal Williams would stay the number two running back as he's been behind Aaron Jones. But you have a j Dillon, a young second round draft pick, being brought in without the offseason, the normal off season that rookies have. How quickly can you get a rookie up to speed

and potentially contributing in this offense. Same goes that tight end with Josiah Deguire. As you mentioned, you have Ja Sternberg, Robert Tanyan, but they didn't draft Iguire to sit on the bench, so but he you know, these rookies, they need some time to get to get into things. So are the rookies going to make a bigger impact, say, come November and December potentially, rather than in September and October. We just don't know how that's going to shake itself out. Now.

The other thing I will say, too, is there's going to be a lot of interest on the Packers offensive line, at least certainly in the early days of training camp, because Matt Lafleur, in his media sessions throughout the off season and in these early stages of camp, he has not committed to a starting five. He hasn't gone on record saying, okay, Brian Blague has gone, Rick Wagner has been signed and he's stepping in at right tackle, and everything else is staying the same. He hasn't said that. Now.

It could happen that way, and that would be the most seamles this way to transition from twenty nineteen to twenty at this point, but we really don't know. Is Billy Turner going to compete with Rick Wagner at right tackle? Is Lane Taylor going to compete for a starting spot at guard, possibly with Billy Turner. So there are some questions there in terms of exactly what the plans are for the coaching staff and how much competition there will

be at certain spots. I think it is safe to say David Baktier will be at left tackle, Elton Jenkins will be at left guard, and Corey Lindsley will be at center. But the right side of that offensive line, it's still kind of wait and see for now. Yeah, And if you remember, Mike, this is exactly what mc lafleur did last season. Last summer with training camp, a lot of questions were asked about, Okay, is Lane Taylor gonna be your starting left guard, and he left it open.

He was gonna give Elton Jenkins an opportunity to compete for that spot, and even through training camp and even in a little bit into the regular season, was still giving him some reps there. And then obviously disaster strikes and you have Lane end up airing his biceps and then next thing you know, Jenkins is starting four teen games.

So things can turn on a dime on you. The one thing I think is really interesting about this group the Packers have put together on offense, though, is it is arguably the deepest that I can remember them being at a lot of these positions. Uh, it isn't just Okay, Davante Adams, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. Now that's a really good trio to have, but there were some years there where if one of those guys went down, you really didn't know who the next guy was gonna be

to slide in there. Uh, there's a lot of interchangeability right now with these parts. You look at the tight ends, they're built all the very similarly. So where this thing ends up shuffling out, I don't know if it's going to be your typical Okay, well you know you're gonna start this tight end and he's gonna play fourty or fifty snaps. It could be a lot different. You could see these guys get twenty here, twenty there, depending on

who earns the playing time. And then by the way, you get a guy like John Lovett now coming in, maybe they still keep a fullback. Maybe they have that position in that back field as well. So many different things that be because we haven't seen any offseason program practices, because we haven't seen any training camp practices. At the point that you and I are taping this, you just

really don't know. All you know is if I'm Matt Laflour and I'm looking at that room and I'm getting ready for Saturday mornings practice, I am excited to see all these guys finally get to work and see who really starts to shine. Yeah, and I think shifting gears to the defensive side of the ball, I don't know if there's quite as much that needs to shake out in terms of the guys we're going to see on

the field regularly in this defense. We've talked a lot about how Rashaan Gary is certainly going to have a larger role at outside linebacker, the first round pick from a year ago, and how he the snaps that he gets may um, you know, lighten the workload for the Smiths at those outside linebacker spots, or maybe Mike Patton is going to have some packages where all three of those guys are on the field at the same time.

Those are the kinds of things we will see as camp in the early stages of the of the stages of the regular season roll along. In the secondary, I think it's pretty clear that jayro Alexander the Kevin King and probably Channon Sullivan as your number three. Those are your top cornerbacks Adrian Amos, Darnell Savage or your top two safeties. I don't you know, barring an injury or something unexpected, I don't necessarily see any of that changing.

We'll see at cornerback how things uh um pan out between Josh Jackson Kedar Holman, because you know, the Packers are gonna want to have five six cornerbacks on this roster, certainly when it's all said and done. To head into Week one, I think the thing that everybody's gonna be watching on the defensive side of the ball is what is happening at the inside linebacker spot. Christian Kirksey is in, Blake Martinez obviously is out. That seems to be a

rather um simple interchange, I guess. But then who is the guy that's going to be next to Christian Kirksey in certain packages. There's Orn Burke's, there's Curtis Bolton, there's the new draft pick Kamal martin Um, there's Ty Summers, a seventh round draft pick from a year ago. So there's a lot of competition there for that other inside linebacker spot. But then also, what does Mike Petton want

to do with packages? Does he want to have an extra defensive back playing that inside linebacker spot in sort of that that dime look that he likes to go with. Maybe that's Will Redman as the third safety, that kind of thing, Raven Green. So though that's the spot, I think that everybody's gonna have their eye on on the defensive side of the ball, whereas a lot of the other spots on defense there doesn't seem to have been you know, a whole lot of question marks as to

how the Packers are gonna line up. Yeah, it's funny. It's almost like the additive inverse of the offense, where you look at the defense and you know you're gonna have the Smith's playing over seventy of the playing time, even if they do cut their snaps a little bit this year. You know, Kenny Clark is gonna be playing a lot. Dean Lawrie, they paid him last year to be a starter. Your boundary corners, your back safeties. So much of that stuff is solidified right now going into

this camp. But it's those auxiliary pieces. It's the depth, it's the defensive line rotation, and as you pointed out, what I would consider to be that a eleventh man on defense, what do you do it inside linebacker? You know, you go back to that opener last year, Mike Raven Green had a heck of a ball game, and then the following week he ends up aggravating that ankle inch

injury again doesn't play the rest of the season. So seeing exactly what you have in Green is probably gonna be the biggest indicator of how much we see that hybrid safety on the field. Will Redmond can play that position as well, but as you saw last year when Redmond had to go in, it was Adrian Amos moving down into the box, and I think, especially in the second half of the season, while it was a very selfless move from Amos, they didn't sign him to be

a hybrid linebacker. They signed him to be a strong safety, to be that that commander on the back end, and they want to keep him in that role, especially if they end up being a little bit more flexible with how they used Darnell Savage. Now in year two, that's a guy that could potentially move into the box and he maybe even be a slot corner. Here and there.

All those things have to be disfigured out and and get a certain level of comfort in this training camp so that Mike pett can realize, Okay, how much do I want to get Rashawn Gary on the field? How much can we trust Chandon Sullivan to be that nickel cornerback? Where are we going to shuffle out next to Christian Kirksey. Who's gonna be that guy? You know? Is it an

inside linebacker? Is it a strong safety? Those are the type of things that I think over these next three, four or five weeks, the Packers have to get a real solid feeling for what they have because Mike, let's be honest, this is the year for the Packers defense. Offensively, you have Aaron Rodgers, you got Davante Adams, you gotta you know, you have Aaron Jones. You have all these guys that can make plays. But defensively, they've built this thing to be a team that can dominate on that

side of the ball. They want to be a top ten defense. They want to take the ball away. They want to be someone that a offense fears every time they play them. They're coming into their own They're in

their prime. And this is the year to do it. Yeah. Well, the other interesting thing, of course about this training camp usually at this point you and I have watched a handful of O t A practices, We've seen a rookie mini camp, we've seen a full squad mini camp, and all of these new faces in the locker room are guys that we've seen him at least run around in shorts and helmets on the field. So you and I

have been asked a lot in insider inbox. Okay, which rookie are you most looking forward to seeing for the first time, because here we are the middle of August and we haven't seen these guys at all yet. So the Packers currently, I believe it's twenty two rookies on the roster, nine draft picks, thirteen undrafted rookies. Is there one guy that really is the one that you're most interested in seeing out there on the field in a Packer uniform for the first time? A J freaking Dylan. Yeah.

I knew they were going to say that. The reason I say that I didn't watch a lot of Boston College football games. Certainly I didn't see them coming off the bus when they got to the stadium. But if I was BC, that's the guy want coming off first. Yeah, I want him on the cameras. I want the other team to know we're gonna have this guy and we're gonna shove them down your throat for the next you know, sixty minutes. Now, that's not going to be his role

right away. But Mike, when you see the way that A. J. Dillon is built, he's just not like other guys. I mean, he is thick, he is full in his lower body, but he is lean in his upper body. There's so many different parallels in comparisons you can make. I'm not gonna make them right now because that's not fair to a second round pick that has yet to carry a

ball in practice, let alone in a game. But when they drafted him last year, and you watch some of the things that Larry put together for his Rock reports, and you get the chance to finally watch some of that film from BC, you can see why the Packers were so excited about this young man. Oh and then by the way, he goes to Indianapolis and he runs a four or five three forty. He goes and puts up all those reps that he did on the bench, he had, the vertical that he had, what was it

forty inches? Thirty nine inches? This is just this is a guy that is a difference maker. He was a guy that you could rely on and so often, Mike, you think of guys coming out of college, Oh, they've touched the ball seven eight hundred times. Is that a concern with him? I really don't feel that way because you see how he takes care of his body. Jamal Williams is phenomenal running back. He has been just a model employee here at Green Bay the last three seasons,

but he's not built like that. As a power back, Dylan brings a different dimension to that running game that nobody else possesses. And for that reason, it's the reason why all offseason, Mike, you were editing my stories, I was saying, this is the most deep backfield that I can remember in fifteen sixteen years that Green Bay has had, just because of the assets that they've invested into it and how all these guys can win in different ways. Yeah, I think Dylan is definitely one that a lot of

people are gonna be watching. I'm just interested to see a two hundred and forty seven pound running back just what that looks like lining up in the in the backfield. Yeah, I know, he's he's a specimen for sure. I think there's plenty to watch obviously with Jordan's love the first round pick at quarterback as well. You know, as we've talked about, he's in a really tough spot because the

quarterback position is so difficult to play. And then yet here you come in as a rookie and you don't get any snaps during an off season program, you don't get any O t s, you don't get any mini camp practices. All he's been able to do is try to absorb the playbook through meetings and walk throughs to this point until he takes the practice field on Saturday.

So just watching how he starts in his first practice on Saturday, and then maybe where he is and how he looks at the end of these three weeks of practices heading into week one, I think I think will be a story. I'll throw one other guy out there, and I'm cheating a little bit because he's not a rookie. He's technically a first year player because he played in the CFL and was a pretty big star in the CFL. And I'm talking about receiver Reggie Bagelton. I hope I'm

pronouncing that correctly. Now, as we've talked about with wide receiver, the Packers didn't draft anybody. The biggest offseason acquisition, Devin Funch, just decided to opt out due to the coronavirus. So Begelton is a guy. He put up some monster numbers in the CFL. And you know, yeah, if if the was always translated, there'd be a ton of guys coming from the CFL to play in the NFL every year.

It doesn't work that way. Just whether or not this guy really looks like he belongs in the NFL in what, as you talked about before, is a very wide open receiver competition behind the star Davante Adams. I think that's a that's an interesting guy, an intriguing guy to watch. Here is these next few weeks unfold. And you know what I like the most about Bagleton? What intrigues me the most, Mike, you can say, yes, okay, sure, yes,

thank you. What intrigues me the most about Bagleton is the fact that this isn't a guy that came through the NFL system and washed out and then went north. This is a guy that never got an opportunity in the NFL system. And this happens every once in a while, and it really kind of happened to Darius Shepard last year. Although he did at least get a try out, Bagelton didn't even get that coming out of Lamar. He had to go north and show that, you know what, I

have the skills and everybody missed out on me. So when a guy that you've never really considered, that has not been on a team, there's no preseason film of him, goes up to Canada and has the production that he had. He he checked every box, Mike. He had the receiving yards, he had, the big place, he had, the touchdowns, he had, the receptions. The guy just dominated at that level. That's a guy you want to learn a little bit more about. And I love the fact that he came down and

accepted the challenge. There has been times Mike over the years, and I'm not gonna name names, but there's been guys that have gotten some some looks from the NFL and they just decide, you know what, I'm comfortable with where I'm at in the CFL. The seasons don't really align. I don't want to ruin what I have here for a long shot opportunity to go to the NFL. That's happened. Bagelton embraced this challenge. January came around, he was free

to sign with an NFL team, and he did so. So, yeah, this is gonna be an uphill battle for him because you're looking at a lot of draft picks. You're looking at guys like Alan Lazar that are established now. It's not really going to be advantageous for him just to come out and show right away. Okay, Aaron Rodgers, throw me the ball. But as we saw last year, Darius Shephard gradually did that, Lazar gradually did that. There are guys that can make their way at that position in

practice to start getting some of those reps. That's gonna be the key here. This opening week for Bagleton's gonna be huge. I love his mindset, I love his backstory, and I love the fact that this is a guy that despite everything he's been through, still feels like, you know what people missed on me, and that's just fine. I'm ready to show them and prove that I can really play in this league. Well, speaking of Canada, all throughout one other name as well, and that's the the

undrafted rookie Mark Antoine de Coy. Now, this is the guy. He was drafted a top fifteen pick in the CFL. He decided to take an undrafted offer from the Packers to see if he can make an NFL roster. His story is something else and I can't wait to see just you know, whether he looks like he belongs out there as well. He's Uh, he's gonna be a fun one to pay attention to. I want to see how

fast he runs too. We saw the forty time and certainly you did a great job of documenting his story and and you know, being overcoming the flu or wherever he was dealing with to have the performance that he did at his pro day uh in Montreal. But you know, does that translate to an NFL field now? Six ft three?

I mean, Mike, there's just Kenny, you know, Kevin King is one of them that there's just God only made so many of those guys that can be six three six, you know six too and run that fast and be that fluid with their hips. Uh d Koa has that so, uh it's gonna be again a wake up call competing at this level. Uh, there's just there's just a huge difference between playing in the you know, Canadian college system

and then coming down to the States. But they have time with this guy, and I think it's gonna be really exciting. He's a little bit older. But at the same time, Mike, we've seen it time and time again. If guys can pick up the concepts, they aren't that far away from being able to really show that they can they can do something. Yeah, and this guy, Dakoy, he was he was running back interceptions for touchdowns in the college Canadian ranks, like you know, they were going

out of style. So he he really does have quite a story. It'll be it'll be fun here these first few days. And let's be honest about one other thing, Mike, we are all blind to the undrafted rookies right now. Even to some extent the Bagelton's of the world that came into wouldn't even recognize them if they walk past me in the parking lot. I have no idea who any of these guys are. Yeah, I mean I was looking at Evan Siegel's photo gallery of the head shots.

I didn't recognize a lot of these guys. So But the thing is is that there's been times, either whether it be through the offseason program or the first week of training camp, guys start to show up a little bit,

you start to notice them a little bit. Uh so yeah again, much like Bagelton, seeing what these undrafted rookies can do, how they can apply everything they learned during this virtual program to an actual practice setting, especially some of that post practice stuff that Matt Floor has been talking about wanting to do with the younger guys. It's all gonna be critical. Every snap matters, and there has never been a training camp like this. There's never been

practices like this. The stakes are so high. Well, it is finally here Weston. We are almost headed out to the practice field. So with that we will call it a rap on this edition of Packers on Scripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and all the goings on at training camp on Packers dot com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time. Mm hmm.