#606 Packers Unscripted: Roster ruminations

man roster for season. I want to start with what I think are the two biggest pieces of news to come out of the roster decisions from this week. One is that the Packers decided to put David bak Tr on regular season pu p that means physically unable to perform. He was on the pup list for all of training camp.

Starting the regular season, there means that he is out for a minimum of the for six weeks of the regular season, so Elton Jenkins will be this team's left tackle for at least the first six games of one And the other big piece of news is the Packers are going to have a new punter in with the release of J K. Scott and a trade in the work. So I will let you start on those two nuggets and let me know your thoughts. One I thought was

kind of a little bit of the inevitable. One kind of caught me by surprise, and and really the decision at Puncher was the only thing that I think kind of surprised me throughout this process. And generally speaking, I thought green Bay really did win the roster reduction. I think they put together a really strong sixteen man practice squad, and I like the way they built the fifty three. It made a lot of sense, uh for for box Tri though, this was something that I actually have to

admit I was not fully educated on. I originally was operating under the assumption the packers would be able to bring him back onto the the active roster and then place him on injury reserve. That is not the case. If a guy is going to be placed in I ARE he has to pass a physical first and then either have whether it would be an aggravation or different injury than be eligible for i R. So box tr actually wasn't going to be able to go that route. In the past that never mattered, But with the way

the NFL has shifted to having a three week injured reserve. Now, that's why it was sort of a topic. So what the facts are is that he's on the physically unable to perform list regular season that takes him out for the first six games of the year. Here, he would be eligible to come back for Washington. For a lot of organizations, For a lot of football teams, this would be doomsday type news to lose a five time All

Pro left tackle. The Green Bay Packers not saying they don't want to have David bok tr out there, but they have probably as good of a safety net as you're going to find in the NFL with Elton Jenkins being able to play that position. There were so many articles I read this summer, Mike about teams that were dealing with injuries at left tackle, the indian Indianapolis Colts among them, and there were a lot of questions as far as who was going to be able to man

that position. Since the day that this team reported back in July, that has not been a question here. Elton Jenkins has been the guy in the Packers feel pretty good about him going into the regular season. Yeah, and as much as the Packers do feel good about the way things are set up on the offensive line. With Elton Jenkins moving to left tackle. Looks like you're going to have a rookie starting at guard in Royce Newman.

We all know obviously since the day he arrived, Josh Myers will be the rookie second round draft picks starting at center. As good as the Packers feel about their offensive line and how it sets up to navigate this absence of box TR, we do have to make one thing clear, and the the status of the offensive line didn't really have to do with the decision on bok TR. This decision on bok TR is about protecting a major investment in one of the best players in the game.

The Packers recently extended him, signed him to a big, long term contract. The last thing they are going to do is jeopardize that by rushing him back and bringing him back too early. This wasn't going to be a case of, you know, oh well, if they don't have Elton Jenkins to play left tackle, and there's all these questions, we're gonna rush David Barton. No, that's not what the approach of this organization was going to be. They do feel good about where they are on the offensive line.

But the box tr decision was about David bok tr situation first and foremost. Yeah, and it was good. I mean, Brian good Con said, I mean he didn't feel comfortable him personally putting back Tr in that position. I'm sure David, if he had his brothers, would be out there against New Orleans. But the story I'll tell everybody now that we have a real in house example is in his gains, I mean in his gains tears as a c L

during his junior year against TCU. He comes back playing four TCU, comes back in six months and ends up tearing the same knee again. That's what you're looking to avoid the Packers, like they mentioned, there's a nine to eleven month window there for a lot of offensive lineman returning from this injury. There's really, especially early in the season here, where they have some fluidity, There's some you know, versatility that they can take advantage of with that offensive line.

It's better to be able to make sure that Bat is in a good spot so that this team that has real Super Bowl hopes for two thousand and twenty one can have their best player available down you know, whatever point it comes, but definitely down the stretch yea. And just to provide some perspective on the timeline here, the fastest we've ever seen anybody come back from an a c L in Green Bay was Brian Bolag a few years ago. And botr E being on pup for

at least the first six weeks of one season. Essentially, when he's eligible to come off p pup within a week or so is almost almost matches up to Brian Bulag's timeline. So now every injury is different. I'm not saying the Packers are following the Brian Bolagh a timeline because every individual individual and every injury is different. But just to provide that perspective. That was eye opening too

when Bolaga did that. You guy, remember he actually toured at the beginning of November and he was ready for week one. This is a little bit different. This was New Year's Day or New Years even New Years Practice of week seventeen, almost two full months later. So Box are very much still on the same timeline, just trying

to make sure you can get him healthy. Yeah, and with regard to a new punter, a trade is in the works for Corey b yor Quaz hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly, punted three seasons for the Buffalo Bills, was in training camp this summer with the Los Angeles Rams, but the Rams decided despite Bi york was having a really impressive preseason, they decided to stick with their tried and true veteran, the All Pro Johnny Hecker. So the Packers,

seeing that by Us was going to become available. But the Packers, being a conference runner up from a year ago, very very low in the waiver claim order, Brian Gudokuntz was not going to take the chance that this punter could be claimed in front of him. So a little swap of draft picks for the future down the road guarantees that the Packers get him. B York was doesn't actually go on waivers, and he's on his way to

Green Bay to join the Packers. And this is a punter that Brian Goodacom is the personnel staff feel is is one of these young players with the arrow pointing up and you just have to look at his statistics from twenty nineteen in Buffalo to to see, um, you know that that arrow pointing up for this young man. Yeah, and you know the Bills. They ended up going in

a different direction. They signed Matt Hack, who was a little bit more of an established punter this offseason, so that allowed york has to kind of hit free agency in a month into it felt like maybe Los Angeles, rams, a place where he's actually from southern California, might be a good fit for him. As you mentioned here, there was a five time four time All Pro and Johnny Hecker there, but Hecker's had some you know, injuries, There's

been some issues there the last few seasons. So it was a legitimate competition right down to the final bell. There was a contract thing kind of going on with with Hecker as well, which is also partly why b York was maybe wasn't brought back to Buffalo because of becoming a restricted free agent and and with the depressed cap and all of that. So lots of circumstances lead to the thing. And now suddenly Corey borku was is

a Green Bay Packer. But and as I told people an insider inbox, because they were asking about special teams, what are the Packers doing to improve their special teams? I said that they are turning over all the stones. Now they are taking a look. They're casting a wide net. JJ Molson came back on the practice squad as a kicker. I don't remember the last time the Packers kept a kicker on the initial roster going into the season on the practice squad. Obviously, Molson was there at the end

of the last season as the COVID replacement. You know, there's questions they're about, you know, how they're going to handle these coverage units. At the end of the day. J K. Scott probably the most talented punter during my time on the beat that the Packers have had, but consistency was an issue. They feel like the Orcus is a guy that can help kind of calm those waters a little bit. And with some cold weather experience having

punted in Buffalo for a couple of seasons. Absolutely, And even though he's a left footed punter, a right footed holder, right footed, right footed, right, that would be a trick West, that would be something that would actually get some ratings. All right handed gentleman despite being a left footed punders. So what we'll see how it all shakes out. Yeah, well, um, quickly,

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Packers roster as it sits right now. We we've talked before about about how as rare as it can be, you can never necessarily count out these guys that show up part way through training camp. Everybody kind of wonders, like, why are you bringing someone in like after the first preseason game. How does he get a chance to show

what he can do well? Three guys Dennis Kelly, I key at Um the cornerback, Kelly being the backup offensive tackle, I keat him at cornerback, and Chauncey Rivers the edge rusher. All three of those guys show up after training camp starts, and all three of them end up surviving final cuts and are on this Packers roster. And uh and Rivers a really interesting story and just in terms of a

lot of the connections here. He went to junior college route played at East Mississippi Community College, the school made famous by the Last Chance You show on Netflix, which was also a school that Zadarius Smith attended earlier in

his career. Rivers also went to the same high school, not at the same time, but the same high school as Preston Smith, and both of those guys also coming out of Mississippi State, and the Packers with other younger Mississippi State players like kyl and Hill, like Elton Jenkins, guys that Chauncey Rivers played with, it must not have been a whole lot of a big transition for that guy to walk into the Packers locker room. A lot

of familiar faces. Yeah, I think he even said he walked in the cafeteria and like Preston was like laughing whenever they locked eyes the first time. So yeah, for a guy that's showing up on August fifth or whatever it was, I mean, obviously, uh, he's been around this some of these guys on this football team. You know. The thing that's great about Chauncey Rivers story is this is a guy that when you talk about the deck

kind of being stacked against you. Last year, he's trying to make Baltimore's roster as an undrafted free agent during COVID H he sticks on the practice squad all year, got elevated for one game, but ultimately came back trying to crack the roster this year, and then a weekend a training camp gets cut. Now, as I wrote in the story that we have on Packers dot com, that is a death knell usually for players that are undrafted free agents or first two players getting cut the first

week at camp. Because you know, everybody likes to talk about, oh, who's gonna these guys are gonna get claimed, or or this guy is not gonna be able to make our fifty three, but the other thirty teams are gonna want him. The reality is is that these teams have been developing their own rosters for three four months. When a guy comes free at the beginning of August, it's a really long odds for him to make the fifty three man roster.

Some have done it, you know, Jamal Jamal Crawford, James Crawford a number of years ago did it with Green Bay. But for Rivers to come in and make the statement that he made. He's not the tallest pass rusher you've ever seen, six ft two two and fifty nine pounds, but he just was explosive and as he said, I mean he had a fire and inside himself. After the Baltimore Ravers, Ravens cut him. And for Green Bay, it was perfect timing. They just lost Randy Ramsey to that

ankle injury. They needed bodies at outside linebacker with said Darius Smith being injured, with Rashawn Gary and Preston Smith sitting out of the preseason games, and here's Chauncey Rivers getting a big opportunity and he capitalized it, especially against Buffalo.

I was going to say, we've talked a lot, and we were talking last week about there's always going to be somebody who states their case and and earns a roster spot in that last preseason game, somebody that you don't think is necessary, or somebody who is definitely on the bubble has not solidified a spot on the roster. And I would say, really, two guys, in my mind

did that. Rivers did that. The Packers had been with with the Smith's and Gary not playing in the preseason games, the Packers had not had much edge rush pressure in the preseason games, and then in the first half against Buffalo, Buffalo starters are on the field and Chauncey Rivers gets a ten yard sack of All Pro quarterback Josh Allen. Those are the kinds of things that that make people

take notice of you. The other guy, I would say, in my opinion, earned his roster spot in that final preseason game in Buffalo was the sixth round draft pick out of Boston College, Isaiah McDuffie. This was a young man who was dealing with I believe it was a hamstring injury early in camp. Miss some time. I'll miss the first preseason game if I'm not mistaken. Second preseason game, you know, did find a little bit up and down. Then the third preseason game he showed up to play

um defense, special teams. It was all there, and as a result, the Packers end up keeping five inside linebackers, McDuffie being that fifth guy to go along with with the other veterans in front of him. Yeah, I was able to play the whole game. Packers only had three inside linebackers active for that, so they excuse me, rotated way Ray Wilburn and Scoota Harrison the other spot. And here's Isaiah McDuffie every single play serving as a communicator,

being out there leading this defense. Nine tackles whatever, it was a half sack. I mean, the guy wasn'tpactful. And as Brian Goodutz was asked, because he's like, okay, you kept five inside linebackers. We also have to look at it as they only have four safeties right now, one of which Vernon Scott is dealing with the hamstring issue.

The two positions when you talk about core four on special teams that they usually get a lot of play are inside backer in safety Isaia McDuffie is gonna play, Tye Summers is gonna play, or in Burke's I thought had a really nice camp, He's gonna play. Packers are talking about rebuilding these special teams units. They have a core there that I think they really can kind of

circle around. In addition to the fact that mcduffee's a really solid long term prospect for that inside linebacker position, yeah, no question about it. A couple of other thoughts, uh, the undrafted rookie streak that that we talked about a lot. Jack heflin the defensive Lineman out of Iowa, from northern Illinois to Iowa now to green Bay ends up making

the roster. And then, with regard to that wide receiver competition that we spent so much time talking about, the last wide receiver standing so to speak, uh earning the number six spot Malik Taylor, with three of the other wide receivers that he beat out being brought back onto the practice squad, that being e q st Brown, Juwan Winfrey and Chris Blair. Yeah, and Devin funchis who I think a lot of people had almost sharpied in for a roster spot at the beginning of camp. He ends

up not being there. This is why I love the preseason, Mike, and this is why, while I agree you don't need four preseason games, you may not even need three. Malik Taylor is the reason why you need preseason games because I think that this is just a training camp competition. It's gonna be a lot harder for him to make

the roster. But with Green Bay sitting there four veterans during this entire preseason, Malik Taylor played a lot of football, maybe more than anybody on the Packers offense this offseason. When you factor in the fact he was also at

the offseason program O t a S Mini Camp. This is a guy I think a lot of people sort of quote unquote left for dead and in this this you know, this really tight, hotly contested receiver competition, and he comes out right out of the gate fourteen catches, eighty five yards, leads the NFL in the preseason and receptions. This is a really impressive young athlete. And as Matt Lafleur said on Wednesday, that talent has always been there, but you're starting to see him bring some of those

other things to the table. And then obviously the cherry on top is the fact that he also can contribute on special teams. Yeah, and how can you not like Jack? Heflin stories ods a young man profits town, Prophetstown, Illinois. Uh, small town. He's uh, you know he he even said he knows he's got a lot of people following him, a lot of people counting on him. He's you know, he but you know, jokingly, it's like, you know, he he wants to he wants to make a name himself,

making name for his town. I mean, all all that kind of stuff, and uh, and here he is that you know, the Packers have the four veterans on the defensive line in front of him, with Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, Kingsley, Kiki Tyler Lancaster. They spend a fifth round pick on t. J. Slaton out of Florida, who was also impressive during camp and the preseason games. So there's there's five defensive linemen

in here. Jack Heflin ends up carving out a six spot at that at that position for for him to stick and and just uh, you know, if you haven't seen, he's now done two press conferences in the media auditory and both of those videos are posted on packers dot com from within the last week to ten days. So if you haven't seen um the interviews that have been done with Jack heffln, you gotta go check him out. This is h He's he's a fun young man to talk to. He's a fun young man to talk to.

He's amazing to listen to. But actually the most underrated thing about him, I love nonverbal communication, Like I just I live forward. It's something that's one of my big things I sort of majored in. If you ever don't just listen to what he says, watch his press conferences, because to me, it looks like the mayor of a small town, like going up on the podium just kind

of holding court. I mean, he looks so comfortable. He has kind of a posture there that he's just but but at the same time, it's kind of a heart on your sleeve. It is thing. It's just it's it's it's it's endearing, incredible, it's incredible to hear him listen, it's incredible to hear him talk about his story. Because yes, there's been undrafted players year after year that I've come

through here and have had success. And some of them are like Allen Lazard who just for whatever reason got overlooked by NFL scouts even though he was incredibly productive at Iowa State, or Chris Barnes. Just people just miss

on these guys. Jack Heflin, you almost get the feeling that nobody was really looking for it, you know, coming out of profits town, and the fact that he didn't have any d one scholarship offers, and the fact that he didn't build a chip on his shoulder because of it, it just made him work harder and out of all the things he said, in addition to the fact mentioning that when Jerry Montgomery called him and woke him up to tell him he had made the roster, saying that

that was the best day of his life. You couldn't. Also, you talked about tugging at the heartstrings a little bit, the story that he told of calling his mom Judy to tell her, hey, I had made the roster. And if you remember the first presser he did with the media, you know, he was saying, I used to tell her I'm going to play at Iowa and She's like, okay, Yeah, he went and played at freaking Iowa and now he's

in the National Football League. Well, and then and then his his season at Iowa is shortened by COVID And then didn't the Hawk guys end up losing their bowl game? Wasn't wasn't their bowl game? I mean you talk about trying to get noticed and get film out there for scouts and everything, all kinds of things working against this young man. And now here he is on the Packers roster for week one of the season. Yeah, and you

gotta feel good about it. And again, Mike, it's not a position where there's a lot of special teams, you know, incorporated with defensive line. God, he had to earn it. He he had to earn it at his at his position. He didn't really have a whole lot of other chances. And for Green Bay, I think this is great though, because not only do you get another developmental defensive lineman in the system, Tyler Lancaster is working through the elbow injury.

T J. Slayton is an incredible talent, but obviously still kind of wrong. Jerry Montgomery has talked about that, you really get the feeling with heflin. This is a guy that they're kind of we're looking for last year dude that can go in there and play a dozen snaps rotationally if you need him to to be able to give some of those other guys a breather. Yeah, one other thing we need to touch on before we sign off for today, west the Packers Week one game against

the New Orleans Saints has been moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Obviously, thoughts and prayers and hopes and everything else going out to all the folks down there in New Orleans and the Louisiana area dealing with the the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. But one of the one of the results of that from a football perspective is Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium will be hosting the Packers in the Saints kind of a trade off here of your trading the noise of

the Superdome for the heat of Jacksonville. The biggest difference though, in terms of calling it a trade is that the noise is a one sided thing that's only for the visiting team. The heat is a two sided thing, though the Saints will be able to pick the sideline that's more in the shade, you know, for the for the bulk of of the first half there with a late afternoon kickoff. But that being said, it is the heat down there in Florida will be something both teams have

to deal with on September twelve. Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be crying about not having to travel down to that game. I think I'll be okay covering that one from lambeau Field from Afar, remember that sixteen openers.

I'll never forget it. We're down there. We're down there doing our pregame like social media live hits and stuff like that, and we're you know, we're dressed up light, dressed up all nice like we are when when we go on the road with the team and oh my goodness, like it wasn't even New Eastern Time yet and we were sweating bullets out there. I just remember walking out there and locking eyes with j Roon Elliott and I'm like, dar and it's too hot. It's too hot, and he

just laughed it off. But it's just it was, you know, it was funny. T J. Slayton actually mentioned this earlier during the training camp because he's from Florida. Obviously South Florida. Somebody had asked them like, is this is it this hot because they were complaining about hot It wasn't training camps. This is hot in Florida, and Slate was like, yeah, yeah, it's a lot hotter than this. This isn't. This doesn't

compare to Florida. So I will say this the one thing the point I made an Inboxes that both teams are gonna have to contest with it. The Saints are gonna have a little easier They'll be able to where their road whites. As you mentioned, they'll be able to pick where their benches. But the bigger issue there is that if you're playing this in New Orleans, the Superdomes, the loudest venue that in whatever century link is called now are the two loudest venues in the National Football

League for my money. So that was gonna be working against the Packers. New Orleans was gonna have it on their side. On offense, this is something both teams are gonna have to adjust to, and they have to adjust to a quick So hydration is going to be a key, cardio is going to be a key, and ultimately just mental toughness being able to fight through those emotions. Because I'll tell you this, this is the type of game I thought would have been really fun to play on

a fast track. Uh, this will not be a fast track. Yeah, and especially when it comes to the fourth quarter in a season opener, when you're when you're not quite sure how in shape all of these all these guys are. It's it's going to be an interesting one for sure. But we got a whole another week to to talk about leading up to that. For now, we'll 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'll see you next time.