#592 Packers Unscripted: Rookie recap

What were your first impressions, anything that you walked away from those two days of practice thinking about t J. Slayton is a massive human being the first thing. Uh Amari Rodgers Man, I saw it. I again, we have a long way to go see what kind of pro Marie Rogers is going to be. But it's funny you go through this too when you do these stories on guys. Is after the draft, he talked to some of their

position coaches or a parent or a sibling. You get a feel for who they are as a person, but you also got a feel for who they are as a player. And it's one thing to look at a biography or to look at an NFL dot Com scouting report for a draft pick and see five ft nine pounds and and try to make sense of all these different measurables and times and backgrounds. But when you watch him on the practice field, you understand why he's a third round pick. You understand why this is a guy

the Packers traded up to secure. It's you know, the forty time four point five one or whatever it was. Tyler Grisham swears he's a four or four guy. You saw the explosiveness. You saw how when you're that, when you're that size, Mike, you got to be able to to catch the ball natural with your hands. You gotta keep it away from your body. He did all that. It wasn't without flaw. I mean, there was a drop ter in one of the asking drills from the receivers

to the quarterbacks. But I just I was really intrigued by Maybe it's because we haven't seen a rookie draft pick in one of these things in three years, but I I just for me, that was the guy had my eye on. I don't think he disappointed. Yeah, I think there were definitely a few of the guys that came in as as advertised. I guess I would say, because when we first got to look at Eric Stokes going through drills and whatnot, Um, his speed, his foot

speed is obvious. Like it it's it shows up immediately, and uh sure it's not going to show up maybe quite as much when he's on the same field as Jayar Alexander and Darnell Savage and these other really fast guys the Packers have on defense, but in a rookie mini camp setting. That's why this guy was a first round pick, because because his speed, um, you know, jumps off the field at you. Um. Amari Rodgers, I would also say, very much as advertised, we heard a lot

about his build. I didn't watch a lot of the college film on Amari Rodgers. I wasn't really that familiar with him. But then to see him live and impersonate, you know, the build is exactly what he was described as. And then when you see the fluidity of the moves of how he how he uses that frame and the the shift nous combined with you know, some legitimate quickness and speed there and then as you said right from the top, T. J. Slayton, my goodness, is that a

large man. I mean Wow. You know we're around we're around big guys all the time, right, But it's it's one of those things where when when these are rookies and these are young guys and you know that they aren't necessarily I mean, we've we've seen what David Baktari has become from when he was here in as a fourth round rookie to the to the man, the human,

the player that he is. Now we've seen Kenny Clark, you know, the same way when you see a rookie that looks like t. J. Slayton looks uh, it kind of takes your breath away in a sense because you're just like wow, like you wonder like what you know, is there more room for growth or what exactly is his body gonna look like two or three or four years down the road. So those are the kinds of those are the kinds of things that certainly jump out

at me. And getting back to Amari Rogers for a second, you talked about, you know, the natural hands and whatnot. We saw him, um not in a full punt return drill, but we saw him catching punts in in a couple of different periods, and um, that certainly looks natural. He looks like he's been catching wobbly, funny looking you know, spheroids, you know, hurtling through the air. Looks like he's been doing that since he was about six years old. Quite frankly,

because it just it it looked easy for him. And we've seen plenty of situations with punt returners back there where it doesn't always look so easy, and and that definitely stood out to me as you kind of held your breath at times. And there's a difference between watching a series of players, receivers, running backs, defensive backs try to go back and field punts, and there is a difference between seeing a guy who has done it at the highest level of college football for three years has

done it going back to high school. I just it was it's like it's like being in no disrespect teachers, but like it's like being in like a middle school room, right and watching a history teacher explain to students, you know, okay, George Washington and John Adams and then going and being in you know, a graduate school level college course, and it's just you just felt like you're in a different room when you're watching him play the ball, and and

the other thing about him too. He has a low center of gravity and it's just again five ft nine. That might be something. You know, it's gonna be tough to be a first round pick at five ft nine in his position, But if you watch the way he moves and just how deceptive he is with his speed and his burst, and you can understand this guy is gonna be effective on jet motions because he has the Tyler Irvin type body with thirty more pounds of muscle on it. You can understand why he's going to be

effective in the slot. There's just so many different aspects of him to like. But the one thing I wrote it insider in boxes. I'm not saying you have to chalk him down for a thousand all purpose yards or you know, ten touchdowns as a rookie. But Mike, you've saw Randall Cobb in two thousand eleven. I'm not saying he has to be Randall Cobb out of the gate. But you've seen how guys with his skill set in

his pensiont for being able to handle special teams. How that guy could come in year one and make an impact with this roster. Yeah, absolutely, Um quickly, here, what's a little bit of sponsored business. Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Seven three All right, Well, one third of the Packers draft class three of the

nine selections were on the offensive line. Now, I will admit, because most of the time the offensive linemen were doing drills all the way across the field from where we were standing, I'm not going to sit here and say I saw all kinds of things. Go, I have a

scouting report on every guy. I can tell you that what I was, what I was going to what I was going to say is that even though I didn't didn't don't really have a whole lot to say here with regard to Josh Meyers, Cole Van Landon, and Royce Newman, I did see Royce Newman's hair from all the way across the field. Um. Sorry, I just had to throw that in there. But uh, but no, the Packers drafted drafted three offensive linemen. Um, certainly, uh certainly, size wise,

they all look like they belong. And as you know, we've talked about this before, we're gonna see these guys through O, T, A s and everything like that. But until those pads go on in training camp, and you start seeing these young offensive linemen, you know, banging it around with veteran defensive linemen handling their one on ones. Uh, you know, the one on one pass rush, pass protection drill,

those kinds of things. We won't really get much of a sense of of the offensive lineman, but certainly from a size perspective, you can see how they fit the type of lineman that Green Bay likes to bring in here. No question, didn't mean to step on your voice either with that punch line. That's a good one. Uh. Here's the one thing I did notice you and I covered Scott Wells, Jeff Saturday, Evan Smith, Corey Lindsley was an upgrade in terms of size of those centers. Was a

bigger guy. Then you see Josh Myers, and while I'm guessing him and Corey are probably right around the same weight, Josh is you know, two inches taller. Uh. Now, again, nobody's annointing him the starting center. He's gonna have to work for the Packers. The thing about how versatile and how deep they are, that starting offensive line could basically

take any form they wanted to. I don't know if going into training camp absent of David baxt R, who's still coming back from the e c L. I don't know if you can pencil anybody in at a specific spot. That being said, if Josh Myers does win the center job, it's going to give them their biggest asset they've really

had at that position in decades. When you look at where he was drafted, the size of that position, and just his kind of legacy and pedigree, and what I like about it is that's kind of the way the league is trended. You know. I even asked him that on Friday. You know, when you look at your size and your makeup, what allows you to sort of succeed at that level? Because six ft five you would think, you know, smaller, powerful defensive tackles are gonna be able

to get up over the shoulders on him. And as Meyer said, He's like, you know, I've just my athleticism, my footwork, and my ability to get low. That is what is what enabled him to stay at that spot. He likes center, he embraces center, and Mike if that's the way that this whole deck would shuffle out, that is a body type that they've never had at that position, at least as long as I can remember. Yeah, we're certainly seeing a bit of a change in that direction.

And it's and as we talked about on a previous show, not just with the Packers drafting Josh Meyers, but we've seen it around the league that that, you know, these guys who are six ft four, six ft five playing center, it's not as rare as it used to be. At starting to become a little more calm. Yeah, And I just remember how like crazy people thought Seattle was when they moved justin britt there. That was a big storyline when you had a six ft five center, And now, yeah,

that's that's the way these things go. If you have a quarterback that meets some of those those you know, things of either being over that six two range or being able to escape the pocket, it opens up some options for you there. And that's probably why you've seen over the last twenty five years those rules and regulations

kind of change a little bit. On the offensive line. Yeah, another interesting element we got kind of a close up look at because the running backs were doing their drills on our side of the field, you know, where where we were stationed with the rest of the media Kylan Hill, the seventh round pick from Mississippi State in the mix.

But also because rookie mini camps will allow for certain players if you if you don't have enough service time on on a fifty three man roster, etcetera, you can still participate in a rookie mini camp even though you're not technically a rookie anymore. And that actually allowed both Mike Webber and Patrick Taylor, two running backs the pack Packers are bringing back from last year to participate in

the rookie mini camps. So suddenly there, as far as the running backs were concerned, you had you have three of the four guys Dexter Williams was the one who is not there, but three of the four guys who are going to be competing for the number three running back job behind Aaron Jones and a J. Dillon Um And it's interesting, I guess I would say, you know, no two running backs are ever exactly alike, right there definitely definitely some some different body types, and I think

as we get in a training camp will see what some of the strengths and weaknesses are with regard to these players. But one thing that stood out to me from the two practices over the weekend is all three of those guys, Taylor, Webber, and Hill all showed some hands in terms of catching passes out of the backfield, and not just not just making the routine one, but making some tough catches on some throws that maybe we're a little bit you know, to the sideline this way

or maybe a little high. They were snagging those and and and bringing those in. It was actually, it was actually a pretty pretty impressive set of drills for a while there. Yeah, you're absolutely right on that. This time of the year, rookie minicamp, a lot of it is just trying to get acclimated, trying to get these guys up to speeds so when they bring the vets back in, they don't have to skip a beat. They don't have to take you know, time to show these guys what's expected.

They know it. But occasionally in these summer practices you see the competition begin, and in this case, I thought that was really true. With running back. Uh, we don't get to talk to them. We did talk to Kylan Hill on Saturday, but you definitely got the field, like, you know what those guys are running routes out of the backfield. You know, you saw Kylan Hill and Mike

Webber both really extend to catch passes. Maybe weren't right where they were supposed to be because that was what the expectation was and they want to show that they can handle it. Guy like Patrick Taylor, Mike he's a guy whos been very high on since the beginning. Not trying to pat myself on the back, but anybody would

tell you this. I mean, six ft two seventeen pounds almost kind of reminds you of a little bit thicker James Starks in that way, and a guy that was really going to be the bell Cow, at least it looked that way from Memphis going into his last year there he has I believe it was the List Frank injury, the foot injury, and then it kind of wipes him out for most of that season and caused them to MRS Rookie Season in Green Bay. But the Packers knew that when they signed him as an undrafted free agent

they wanted him in the fold. He was around all last year on pup. He practiced a little bit at the end of last season. I'm really excited about watching this running back battle happened because you have Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, you have the h back types that will help with some of the blocking. But Matt Laflora said it, he wants three options back there, and then Wells, Hill and Taylor, and then also throwing Dexter back into

that equation. Once they get back to O. T A. S. You have four different types of running backs to choose from there, and it's kind of up to the Packers to pick their own adventure. Yeah, I think this is gonna this This number three running back competition is going to be really interesting, and I know we mentioned before a lot of it will probably come down to the preseason games. As these guys get you know, get carries. They're not necessarily running scripted plays like they are in practice.

You get to see, okay, how quickly can they hit the whole how how can they can they break tackles, you know, make guys miss what do they look like in that live action in the preseason games. But the one thing that I think is going to be watched really really closely in practice, uh this summer, as opposed to the preseason games, we may not see as much

as the past protection because in the preseason games. Now, maybe Robert sala as a good friend of Matt Lafleur, when his Jets are playing the Packers in the preseason, he'll dial up some blitz is there to test the young running backs, but doesn't happen very often in preseason games, right, So the blitz pick up drills and in the eleven on eleven in training camp, that's where these young running backs are going to be put to the test in terms of in terms of the past protection and will

and we will see potentially some separation there. You think back to with the three running backs the Packers had drafted. They had the three rookies there, Williams, Jones, and DeVante May's. We saw Jamal Williams separate himself immediately because he was a step ahead in the past protection part of it right from the beginning as a young player. Aaron Jones is certainly more than caught up in that respect over

the last few years. But that's I think something we're gonna be watching closely come August as as the past

protection drills take place out there in training camp. And you saw last year, Mike, I mean when the you know, injuries hit and then unfortunately the COVID issue flared up with both you know A. J. Dillon and Jamal Williams being a close contact, had to go on that that list and miss a game that that originally meant that it was gonna have to be dexter Williams and then they had to make some shifts and things of that nature. But you never know when your number is going to

get called, and that's why it matters. But Kylan Hill, I'm really excited to see him try to get his career back going here. He obviously had that tremendous season two years ago. He opts out after three games after Mike Leach takes over, so he's sort of an unknown commodity in some regards despite being a former All SEC

running back. So again, you talk about storylines and training camp in preseason games, running backs always one of them because it's the most easy to point to, it's the most easy to the naked eye to be able to look and understand and see who could potentially separate themselves. And in this particular case, this is one of the more captivating battles that we're probably going to see at that position. And sometime, yeah, absolutely anything else from rookie weekend.

You want to touch on here before we sign off for the day. Yeah, I mean, you know, the Packers were in an interesting spot. They had up to five trial players that they could have brought in. They only chose to use three of those. Certainly the COVID things changed it. The Packers went from two thousand nineteen having forty nine players at that rookie orientation camp. Surprisingly, Alan

Lazard was one of them. It just shows you how fast time moves, considering the role that he's carved out for himself to this year, they you know, could only use twenty eight. So how did they use those spots? But with only having two quarterbacks on the roster, or at least that were eligible going into the weekend, that meant that they had to bring in some tryout players.

So Chad Kelly, former seventh round pick, had an opportunity and Kirk ben Kurt Kurt ben Kurt, I gotta make sure I get that right, was the other tryout guy spent three seasons with Atlanta and then also Elvin Jones Jr. Eron's twin brother at linebackers also brought in and Ben Kurt was the one that ended up getting the job

the ninety spot on the rosters. So a guy that, as I mentioned, had been developed for three years with the Falcons if Falcons thought enough of them to keep him around, played two seasons at u v A. Was very successful, They're very productive. So excited to see what he brings to this competition. But with Blake portals four quarterbacks on the roster, Uh, it's gonna be an interesting summer as we get into the height of the off

season program. Yeah, and we will get our first look at Blake Bortles in a Packer uniform next week when O t A s begin. I believe we're going to get to watch maybe one practice a week and uh, and you know, we'll see what see what we see at the quarterback position. Any predictions on the numbers yet, Bortles has only worn number five, and as we know here, it's unofficially retired, so very curious to see which one

he picks. Can't pick fifteen either. Yeah, I've never been a big numbers guy, but in this particular case, especially with eight already being taken by Marie Rogers, Marie Rogers taking number eight, it's all my eye on that one. All right, sounds good. Well, with that, we will 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 for West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.