#599 Packers Unscripted: Catching the eye

the first workout in pads. What stood out to you? Well, the thing I always look for and you and I kind of have a little thing going. It's the most exciting period of any training camp practice from the beginning to the end, when you have the one on ones offensive line, defensive line, and then you got the routes, you know, the one on one's receivers, running backs, all that against against the dbs. Yeah, it's the most Unfortunately happens at the same exact time, so you can only

pick one. You were over at the receivers and everything. I stayed back with the lineman and it is every year. It's one of my most favorite things to watch because it really is the monoemano part of this whole process. Now, it's not everything. You can excel in the drill and not be that great. You cannot do well in that drill and still end up being really a successful NFL player.

I think back to Kyler Faker. Everybody gave Kyler Faker a lot of, you know, grief for how he didn't one on one Kyler Factro is a legitimate NFL football players, the rubb of the green, so to speak. But what I loved about this was you got a chance to see Josh Myers for the first time taking reps against Kenny Clark with their pads on. Both of those guys two bulls in a china shop going up against each other.

I wrote about it an Insider inbox. For Shan Gary, he's always looked like a man in that drill, but I mean this year, you can see the speed to power that he has in his rush, especially as bull rush. But he also can be guys around the edges, some of these young guys too. I'll close on this. This is the first time we really get a sense of what the guys on like those third team offensive Lions have to offer. Now that might seem really rudimentary, but that's where a guy like Greg Van Rotting back in

two thousand twelve started to emerge. That's where you start to notice that Don Barclays of the world, and ultimately then it starts to translate to preseason games. So it was a really fun first day of practice. That's funny that No, that's funny that you that as soon as you said Don Barkley, that was exactly the name I was thinking of. When you talk about those guys there, you know, they're a little later in that one on

one drill. You know they're down there, you know, further down on the depth chart, really early in their careers, those undrafted guys, and and yeah, that's when they start to that's when they start to stand out. I made a comment in our three Things video after Tuesday's practice because I've been waiting for the pads to go on as far as the wide receiver's dbs, because I wanted to see this Juwan Winfrey, because he really was the

star of the young wide receivers in the spring. When there's no pads, they're really the jams at the line of scrimmage and all that kind of stuff. Well, now we're getting to that stage, and Juan Rinfey had a really solid day in his first one on ones with with the pads on going up against um, going up

against Eric Stokes, the Packers first round draft pick. Now that being said, with the one on ones and as funds as fun as it is to watch, I will say this though, I take I take all of it with just that little bit of grain of salt, because I think for the one on one in the pass rush pass pro I think the defense is at a distinct advantage because there's no other traffic right the I mean the the defender can go whichever way he wants to. He's not going to trip over anybody else, right and right.

The offensive lineman has to has that much more territory to guard the flip side. I think is true in the wide receiver DBS because there's no other route being run. There's no other traffic, so the wide receiver can go wherever he wants to go, and the d defensive back has that much more territory. He can't make a read off of anything else to get leverage anywhere. Every players

cover zero, right, But that. But that's but because of those disadvantages with those guys, sometimes it's where you start to find out a little bit about guys and and just how um, just how talented they might be. So in that respect, it's, uh, it's really fun to watch. My thing I always think is the cheat code and that receiver d dedrill to is whenever they run the slant, It's like, what are you expecting him to do here?

Is he really gonna be able to jump the slant when he's worried about the guy going on and go route with no safety help beyond I yeah, but it's but so you can't you can't take all of it

at face value. But it's a heck of a drill, and it's and it's how guys, both in terms of the lineman and in terms of the receivers and dbs, how they can really start to lock down and refine some of their skills and and and work on certain techniques even if they don't work quite exactly right in that moment, they're still practicing and working on that stuff

for when it's really gonna matter. And getting back to the lineman drills, you very rarely unless you know Jerry Montgomery wants a defensive lineman to work on one specific thing. They're always alternating. They'll run the Packers. They've made this adjustment a few years ago where they'll just run the rep twice. Back in the day, you'd run it once, reset, next group goes in. Now it's they run it twice,

give them two different opportunities. Not only does that allow the offensive lineman and potential to make an adjustment, it allows for that chess match with the defense of Russia also making their own. Yeah, it's fun, it's fun to watch for sure. Well, we heard from quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the Packers had just to walk through practice, not open to the public, not open to the media. We did talk to a few players afterwards.

In one of those was quarterback Aaron Rodgers. And interestingly, we've been kind of as a media core as a whole, we've been kind of trying to needle the defensive guys when we talk to them about like, hey, so what's different about Joe Barry's defense? You know, like, are you guys doing some different stuff or you know, are you being asked to do different things? And most of the guys are you know, It's like they're really not revealing anything.

They're keeping keeping it very close to the vest. So yesterday I decided, what the heck I'm gonna ask Aaron Rodgers what he thinks is different about this Joe Berry defense, and we actually got a really interesting answer. The long and the short of it is that Rogers and then Alan Lazard also um sort of confirmed a little bit of what Rogers had said, which is that the biggest thing that the Packers offense and training camp right now is adjusting to with Joe Berry's defense is how they

are disguising their past coverage. They're having a little bit of a difficult time figuring out exactly what type of coverage Berries back end is in on any given snap, and that seems to be that seems to be maybe one of the calling cards here is is that element I don't want to say surprise, but it's the element of disguise. Yeah, and that that was one of the more I mean, the whole press conference, all twenty minutes

of it, were really illuminating. He touched so many different topics, whether it was you know, him reaching out to Jordan's love in the off season, let know everything okay is okay with it. Whether it was him actually reaching out to you know, actually having Randall Cobb in his house, uh and kind of sheltering him here was he finds his his new home in green Bay home he's going to have to overpay for the way that yeah, the market way. But that's a topic for another day. But

what I really liked is I can't speak. What I really liked about the answer on Barry's defense was it

got me thinking a little bit. He'd mentioned all the strength when you thought back to Dom, the fire zone concepts and nine and ten and and the things that they did that made them successful, and it kind of gave you a little bit of an impression on what Barry is going to bring to Green Bay and why right out of the gates that this could be a guy that could really be a difference maker for Green Bay.

And you think about the heavy fronts that they had in Los Angeles, you think about being able to disguise some of the coverage as well. The more pressure you present and the more you mix up what you're doing on the back end, the more it's going to cause the quarterback and also the offensive coordinate or a lot of grief trying to figure out, Okay, how do we play on the play clock here, and how do we also stay in front of what they're trying to do.

You can see a lot of adjustability with what Barry is doing. And to hear Aaron Rodgers say that again, that's that's why I caught my That's why I caught my ear because the defensive players just hadn't really been saying much. But but Rogers was very upfront and saying this is different. He's he's been doing this for sixteen years now. This is a different type of defense that he's facing and training here. Yeah, and and that's that's what you want because this is where we ultimately see

the reps. Right. We always talk about he get into preseason games. One of the reasons why Rogers and historically has not been, you know, really keen on playing a lot of the preseason is because everything does look the same. It We talked about the adjustments they make in one on ones, well, legitimately they basically are just rushing the

same way, they're basically covering the same way. They just want to see what guys can do athletically and kind of make some judgments there and how they're holding their own They're not trying to show some of their undiscus. It looks for the upcoming season, these are the practices, these twenty some practices the Packers will have where Rodgers

and the offense are gonna cut their teeth. And getting back to your point about Lazard that I thought was really interesting is that you know, he feels like the ceiling is high for the offensive group and also seeing what the defense is presenting. It's one of the reasons why when you hear all these guys talking day after day, press conference after press conference, there's a lot of swagger in that room right now that they have it in

all three phases to make a championship run. Yeah, And Lazard made the comment as well with regard to adjustments, because there are so many things that are done on the fly offensively that you're reading what the defense is doing, and then the receivers are choosing their router, adjusting their

route based on how they're reading the coverage. And he was saying it's actually it's been a little tricky to figure out exactly what whole where the holes are to get to in the coverages, where to where to sit down a route or where to break off a route here or there. So I thought that was interesting too, and there's gonna be an evolution of the to this

as UM training camp continues. But but also earlier this week we heard from you know, a lot of fans asking, okay, what what is what's up with David baktr When is when is the Packers five time All Pro left tackle going to get back in action? And you talked about, you know, an illuminating twenty minutes at the podium. Batr is very very very entertaining, but made it very made it very clear. I thought the most interesting thing that he said not that he gave any kind of a timetable.

He's not making any promises he's going to be back for week one or week two or whatever the case

might be. But he said it was almost as though he said, it's not about whether he necessarily feels, you know, like all the way back to himself, like you know, he's going to be back to his all pro formed a hundred percent, or whether he's night for him, It's going to be the question of when when the doctors say when the doctors say that the surgery is where there were Coovery from the surgery is where it needs to be with your knee and with the graft, with the A C L and all that, and you're not

at any greater risk of re injuring it. David Bactieri doesn't necessarily care if he's only at only feels like he's seventy of himself. If that knee is good to go, and the docs says it's good to go, I think we're gonna see David Bactieri back out there. Yeah. It was funny listen to him too, because he did as probably as good a job as anybody is explaining what happens after you have a graph in the in the Yeah, and every everything they're looking at, everything that they're paying

attention to. Yeah, if he was working in any other industry, in office job, a sportswriter, you know, down the block like my parents at Georgia Pacific, he's back on the job. You know, he's just he's he's back to work. But this isn't a normal job. It's not about how you feel. It's about also being cognizant of the fact that the atrophy in the knee when you do a surgery like that. The body isn't used to that. The body isn't used to oh, somebody else is going to come in and

fix something. It's just used to scarring stuff up and fix sing it itself. So it's how a knee injury like that weakens the quad receps, it's weakening the calf, it's weakening everything around there, and you have to build that stuff back up. So for for box tr I just think I love the I absolutely love the approach he's taken to this because Brian Blaga had a good disposition about it. But Brian was pretty aggressive, like he wanted to be back out there and was making no

bones about it. I mean, they had him back at the end of the preseason. But Brian also tore that the beginning of November. David's happened on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve. That's almost two months separation. So Dave also understands. Okay, you look at what Brian Blaga had to do to be ready for week one, and he was, you know, six eight weeks earlier than when Dave towards a c L. I think he trusts the doctors. I know he trust his rehab. He mentioned He's like,

the best thing is I've had no setbacks. Everything has been all systems go. And then I also would say you have to think, if you're the Packers and you have to think of your box tr You look at Elton Jenkins standing in there at left tackle in his best position might be left guard. Heck, it might be center for all we know, but I mean that's not his natural spot, but dog on it. I mean, he really held his own there last year, and he's taking every rep there this training camp. The Packers have time.

It's not like you and I are having to stand in at left tackle and Aaron Rodgers is, you know, kind of like chattering his teeth, worrying about who's going to be coming from his blindside. They have a good insurance policy. There, get your five time probably future Hall of Fame All Pro left tackle back, and and go from there. Yeah. I think the biggest indication we're going to find out is simply going to be the roster

decision at the end of training camp. Right Because for those who don't quite understand this, David box Tr is on the physically unable to perform list. It's called the PUP list or pub list. Players who do not practice, they don't practice the first day of training camp, they generally they go on that list and they come off that list. Then as soon as they begin to practice. Well, we're not expecting to see David baktier during training camp, but then the Packers will have to make a roster

decision at the end of training camp. Does David Baktieri go on the fifty three man roster or does he stay on PUP and go on to regular season PUP. Now, the reason that will be a big decision is because somebody who starts the regular season on PUP after having been on PUP all through training camp, has to miss the first six weeks of the regular season. That's a rule.

So if the Packers feel like Botry will be back within the first six weeks, he'll be on the fifty three for week one, even if he's not necessarily going to play in week one, but he'll be on the fifty three because they're not going to if he they feel he's going to be ready, they're not going to just shut him down for the first six weeks of

the regular season. That's the best way to read this, right, Absolutely, the one consideration you have to make though, is kind of like if you're at the grocery store and you're try d to stash that last bag of Dorito's on the list of your wife doesn't find out it win over two hund dollars. You have to be cognizant of the fact that if he does go on to regular season injured reserve, that means you're probably gonna have to cut somebody extra, go down to fifty two at the

end of camp. You can't just put him on i R, okay, and then bring them back. No, there's still the difference between training camp i R and regular season i R. So, and if they do that they put him on the fifty three and then put him on i R, that would only be a minimum of three weeks that he would have to be out. So those are the different roster Those are the different roster maschinations that that that the Packers will figure out with box TR when the

time comes on Labor Day weekend. And I think really the big decision is going to be that week after the Buffalo game, because now you don't have that last preseason game. They're not going to cut you know, in that typical Saturday weekend at the end of August, so there's a little bit more time for the training staff, the doctors and bok Tr himself to come together and see where things are at. Um be that as it may.

As I said, I think that the Packers have the offensive line dep there too to be able to stem the tide. But certainly at some point, you know, he's he's a difference maker, he's the best in the game at what he does, and the Packers you don't want to have him back as soon as possible and as soon as safely as possible. And you mentioned Elton Jenkins is the guy who's who's holding down the fort there at left tackle here throughout training camp. That's going to

be his spot until box Tr is back. We're seeing a competition here at guard with Jenkins, who's was a Pro Bowl left guard obviously last year, and you know has has played in so many different spots, but right now the coaches are rotating John Runyon, Ben Braden Lucas Patrick, three guys kind of for those two guard spots while Jenkins is playing left tackle. And from what we've seen so far, nobody's in a hurry to make a decision there. This looks like a competition that is going to continue

to play out as we go through training. Yeah, and and there has been a very balanced competition, as you said. Now, the one caveat to all this is the fact that Lucas Patrick really is the backup center to so as you mentioned, they've been circling him out on some first team rep so that he can take the second team

reps at center. And then in that case that's where Ben Braiden has been over at right guard with with John Runyan staying basically only at left guard, the competition there for that left guard those spot is really interesting because Runyan, I thought, really showed out last year, played well in a pinch, but never actually started a game. He was always just kind of called upon to finish. He was a finisher, closer, if you will. But you know,

I said this during the one on one drill. The thing that I like about John the most is that he has incredibly broad shoulders. He might not have his dad's height in terms of it's funny me saying six it's not as though he's small, but yes, his dad, his dad had a little bit more of that. By golly, I mean, he has those broad shoulders and at the guard position. There are a couple one on run reps he was taking. I want to say it was against Tyler Lancaster and Lancaster kind of had to move on it.

But the way you know, with how much space that that John takes up, he's able shift, move his feet and he won those two reps. Brandon is just a massive human being six ft six two. I think let's sat three twenty nine pounds. Uh. This is a guy that has bounced around a lot in the league. He was with the Packers in two thousand nineteen on the practice squad for a couple of months, got cut, ended up going to New England, found his way back to Green Bay, and the coaching staff seems to be really

high on him. We've never spoken to him. We've never you know, there hasn't been an availability with him. We haven't really seen him really play that much because he's only been here during like the regular season portion of things. He hasn't really been there in camp. So uh interested to learn more about him. And he was a guy too during the offseason program when they were still feeling

things out with the tackle situation. Took some reps at tackle too, so an interesting little guy to have involved there as well. Well. After one week of practice and thus far only one practice in pads, it is not a time to make any grand pronouncements. But there are two things I think that we have learned based on what we've seen with the reps and also what we've heard from from players, from from Matt Lafleur and whatnot.

One is that it sure looks like the rookie second round pick Josh Meyers is going to be the starting center for this team barring something very unforeseen, because he is as he was in the spring now into training camp, he is taking every rep at center with the number

one offense. And the other one is that it sure looks like when Joe Barry is going to have two inside linebackers on the field, it's going to be the youngster Chris Barnes, the second year undrafted guy from u C. L A. And then Devandre Campbell, the veteran that the Packers brought in um during the spring. Late in the spring towards the time of the mini camp. Those two guys, now they are going to be plenty of times there

won't be two inside linebackers on the field together. But when there are two together, it sure looks like those are the two guys that are very much out in front of the rest of the compety. Yeah, I would agree with that. And and you know, also this is

these are guys. These are names that you're not gonna hear on your local you know series XM radio, which, by the way, I think we still have to do the read at But these are the positions that I think, really when you talk about the Packers putting together a championship type run, uh, this is where it's going to be decided. First, starting off with Josh Myers, I think that this was the perfect way to bring him along.

Now there's no blueprint, you know, Corey Lindsley didn't take a single rep with Aaron Rodgers during the preseason and then he ended up snapping to him week one because of the injury to j. C. Treader in two thousand fourteen.

But for Myers to be able to work with the first team offense, understand the communication role, getting a feel for Jordan's love while Aaron Rodgers was still you know, sitting out of the O t A s him for Rogers now to come in and work with the guy that has been immersed in this system now for three

or four months. That is just incredibly invaluable. It was funny listening to box Tre talk about him a little bit, mentioning how the first time he saw him, he said to him, He's like, okay, so what's your deal your six ft five? Are you like a terrible athlete? Do you have bad footwork? Because why would you at that size be playing center? And then you just sort of get it. It doesn't make a lot of sense why

he's at center. He looks like a freaking tackle. But he's smart, he's intelligent, and he is a good athlete and it fits him there. Chris Barnes, I think that says a heck of a lot about him, the fact that he's still the mic linebacker right, no question of defensive coordinator. With all the competition at that position, he's still the guy in Devandre Campbell, as he talked about, he kind of fits where the Packers want to go

with this defense. He's a guy that can cover tight ends, he can stay on the field and nickel and again we're talking about options. He's a guy that gives Joe Berry a lot of options for how he wants to settle that defense in the sub packages. Yeah. An interesting combination there of a young guy with veteran. A veteran who's you know, new to this team and this system. But you are right, I need to do the the

sponsor business here. Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Seven three and with that, we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and of training camp. It's all there for you on Packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time. Yeah,