#608 Packers Unscripted: Week 1 arrives

Zadarius Smith now only doing individual drills. But Zadarius Smith back at practice, trying to work his way back for a second time now from that back injury after a start and stop during training camp. But uh, a sign that that this Packers team might just be getting healthy at the right time. Yeah, very much so. And I gotta admit, like I kind of after the intro, I'm still not used to saying Packers versus Saints in Jacksonville. I mean, it's terrible what happened in New Orleans. I

wish this game was being played down there. I just I still can't believe this game is being played in Jacksonville, of all places. But we'll see how the thing goes ninety degree weather. We'll talk about that later this week with Keys to Victory. Drink your gatorade. As far as this is concerned, though, with Sadarius Smith, a pleasant surprise with him being back on the practice field and match.

Niven from The Athletic asked the question of Matt Lafleur before practice, Before practice, are you anticipating scenes to Darius, And as he said, yeah, we're gonna try to get him through the individuals and hope that he can be back over on their field this week. Back injuries are tricky, Mike, and we don't know if it's structural, we don't know

if it's a muscle issue. But for Zadarius to miss as much time as he did after really not missing any I mean, this is a guy that has been banged up the past two years, but he's still found a way to be out there on Sundays. Um it tells you that this was something that that this guy was truly dealing with. And we'll see exact actually what the rep count looks like if he does play. The nice thing for the Packers is I thought Preston Smith had a phenomenal preseas you know, preseason training camp. I

thought he looked great. I thought he he seemed tremor. He seemed like he was you know, really you could tell there's a chip on his shoulder there to want to bounce back this season. That was the best training camp he's had in his three in Green Bay. I think there's no question about yeah. In in Rashaan Garry, although he had a couple of trip ups there with

the groin issue, has continued to make significant strides. I said it from day one, whether it's a Darius Smith is healthy or not, I think I want to see you gotta get Rashaan Gary. I'm more on the field and the defensive snaps, and depending on what Z's workload looks like early this season, this could be a really

good opportunity for him to do so. Yeah, absolutely, I think you know a best case scenario for the Packers here now if Zadarius Smith is able to continue practicing to some extent the rest of the week, given all the time that he's missed, He's not taking the field in Jacksonville to play fifty or sixty snaps or whatever.

That I think is out of the question. But if Smith, given all this time that he's missed, is actually healthy enough and capable to play a situational role in Week one here to play, whether it's ten or twelve or fifteen snaps, whatever it might be, you know, strictly a third down situational pass rusher maybe as an example, that would certainly be a boost to to the Packers defense for a guy that they haven't had on the field

throughout the course of training camp. Also, just on the injury front, Tyler Lancaster, who's been out for a while with an elbow injury. He was back at practice on Monday. As far as the fifty three man roster the active roster, the only player not practicing on Monday for the Packers was second year safety Fernon Scott. So obviously Matt Lafleur's plan was to get to Week one as healthy as possible. It's why the starters, the vast majority the starters, did

not play in any of the preseason games. They did not want to take any risks there. And to this point, it looks like he's going to accomplish that goal as best he could. Yeah, and there's there's two different trains of thought to this, Mike. The first one is you don't want to take out your your stars. You don't want to bang them up going into the season. Uh, you can look. I think even I was looking through

some different game books after the prison finale. I mean, you thought the Green Bay Packers sitting thirty players was a lot. There were some teams it was thirty five forty. It seemed like just they didn't They might have been dressed, but they didn't get in the game. They really concentrated on shorten up that bench because you need to be able to get these guys through a seventeen game season.

But furthermore, Matt Laflour, these guys that don't have any more breaks now until early December, you're gonna go a long wait for that, for the full bye week, twelve straight games to be able to get I mean forty years ago it was twelve games. I mean it was that's just the way it was built. So for the Packers, as I've said to you before, since the day the schedule came out, that is a huge opportunity for them.

They're gonna be able to rest up and then have whatever it is three of their last five or whatnot at home and be able to kind of build some momentum into a potential playoff push. But to get there, the they got to go through the gauntlet here. Unfortunately for green Bay, they enter Week one healthy. Yeah well, a shout out to our sponsors here West Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need seven

three six and had Cousin Subs. We have something for everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl. Cousins Subs. We believe in better Well. We talked a lot in the offseason Wes about even given the salary cap constraints and and just the strange financial world that the NFL is in here, that general manager Brian gudakunst rust Ball, Matt Lafleur, everybody, they did

everything they could with only a couple of exceptions. They did everything that they could to kind of keep the band together to make another run at this thing. But if there's one area where we're going, there's going to be some significant personnel change compared to what we've seen. It's on special teams because it looks like Amari Rodgers, the rookie third round pick, will be the punt returner. It looks like rookie seventh round pick Kyle and Hill

will be the first option on kickoff return. And now a new punter is also in the fold, and that is Corey B. Horkes. And I do have to apologize because I believe I was saying his name wrong when we brought it up last week. So be Horkes is the proper pronuncia pronunciation. We got a chance to to meet with him. He spoke to the media for the first time since he arrived in Green Bay on Monday after practice, and uh, a young man who's he's excited

to have this opportunity here in Green Bay. He's go goes from you know, Buffalo, a f C runner up, to now he's he's with the the Green Bay Packers, a two time NFC runner up here and the Packers bottom line is they're expecting um Behorkes to be an upgrade in this area on specialty. It was the number one thing that Brian Goodkin said after they made this trade was they felt like this was an opportunity to get better at that position. And if you go off of what he's done in the past, that I think

you you'd have to agree with that. Um Bork has It's funny too, a so cal kid that's sort of been adopted by the cold. I mean, with with him punting for three years in Buffalo and having success there, now it's going to be punting in one of the more you know, tumultuous environments in the National Football League. But that being said, I mean the numbers jump off the page to you. I mean last year, you know,

first and gross average breaks the Buffalo's record. And it wasn't just gross average, I mean he was fifth in the NFL and ned as well. And I really enjoyed that seventeen minute press conference we had with him, and I mentioned this to you afterwards. It almost reminded me more of the days in which would be in the locker room you're just kind of huddled around a guy and you're just not really pelting him with questions, but

we're just having a conversation. I haven't having a chat with a new guy that that's new in the locker room and in the number one question you even asked him of this, and I think it was a lot of on the forefront of a lot of people's minds. Is case, So this guy has this season with Buffalo, looks really good, but then he gets nontender, and then he goes a month without signing, and then he goes to Los Angeles to go up against Johnny Hecker where

he doesn't have a guaranteed job by any means. This is one of the this is one of the top punters in the league. From Yeah, and Biorke has said it himself. I mean, this is in dang near impossible, you know, task of trying to unseat Hecker. But the fact of the matter is, at the end of camp it was Hecker that said he was even wondering if maybe the Rams would move on from him and go

with this guy. After he has a fifty one point nine net average and has four of his seven punts go inside the twenty two of those punts in mile high dying at the one yard line. That's a heck of a performance by Bork has to make this a really solid competition. Yeah, he had a big time preseason for for for the Rams. No doubt about it, and for him to be able to carve out a job is he said it, It wasn't so much just about Okay, well, where do I want to go and where do I

want to punt? It was about where am I going to be able to improve myself. He talked about learning the on the Bananic punt from Hacker, that sideways Ausee style punt um, just little things like that to make him a better punch for when that next opportunity did come. And for him, as he said at the end of his presser, he hopes it's in Green Bay, and he hopes for it's you know, in the long term and

years to come. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, the Packers packers hoping to be better in all phases on special teams and as they head into this week one matchup with the Saints, I thought we could touch on what you and I see as as as maybe some key matchups as far

as Green Bay versus New Orleans. Here, the first one that jumps out at me is the veteran defensive coordinator Dennis Allen for the New Orleans Saints coming up with a scheme he obviously has to deal with Aaron Rodgers, but he's looking at an offensive line that is most likely going to have two rookies on the interior in second round pick Josh Meyers at center, fourth round pick

Royce Newman at right guard. So this you know what the Saints decided to do, how they want to test the Packers rookies, as far as the pressure packages, their defensive fronts, all of that. I think that is something that will definitely be watched very very closely in the early stages of this game, first quarter, second quarter, because Dennis Allen's plan very much could change depending on how these young offensive linemen for the Packers respond to those

initial tests. Don't think the first two quarters are going to really be a huge indicator I think of how this game is going to go. And you know, the biggest question I have, without knowing the full tendencies of Allen in terms of how much he blitz his versus you know, just even man pressure, is seeing what kind of games they run early on, what kind of stunts.

You know, what is Cam Jordan doing, What is Marcus Davenport doing, A guy that you know, in some ways will always sort of be tied to the Packers because that was the trade the Saints made to go up and get him three years ago when Green Bay ultimately ended up with JayR Alexander, which has worked out pretty well. Yeah, but that's how strongly New Orleans felt about Davenport at the time, and it understand ending how they use these

pieces that the big difference. Mike, you know, you and I for the last decade could talk about how good this offense has been and how multiple it is and the way they use running backs and they always have a top you know five, top three receiver in the league in this in that receiving room. But the difference maker that brought the New Orleans back to prominence here

the last five years has been the defense. There were a lot of years where they put up a lot of points, they put up a lot of yards, but they were also combating that with giving up a lot of yards, giving up a lot of points. Since Dennis Allen has been installed there, he's changed the culture. That unit isn't just an offensive, air it out, you know team anymore. They're balanced and it's one of the reasons why they've been able to make these runs that they have.

Packers are going to be an interesting spot with quite lightly although it's not confirmed, two rookies in the starting offensive line in Week one for the first time in fifteen years. Um, that's gonna be huge on Josh Myers. But as I mentioned that I wrote this an inbox to Mike, Myers has been preparing for this since May. It's not like this was creeping up where it just got surprised there, you know, thrown on them like it

was with Corey Lensley in two thousand and fourteen. He knew this was coming and this is why the preparation was put in place to get him ready for this moment. Yeah. Well, both of these teams have a key member of their offense on the pup list and not able to play here at the start of the season. Obviously, for the Packers that's left tackled David bak Try. For the New Orleans Saints that is star wide receiver Michael Thomas. Now. Thomas also missed the Packers Saints matchup from a year

ago in Week three. But one matchup that we are likely to see on Sunday that we did not see last year down in New Orleans is Davante Adams against Marshawn Lattimore. The Star cornerback for the Saints. Adams obviously missed the game against the Saints last year. He was not on the field. The Packers still put up thirty seven points, which was pretty darn impressive when you're missing your number one wide out. But this Adams Lattimore matchup is I mean, Fox is going to have an ISOK

camera on those two. I mean, any time that they're lined up across from one another, they're gonna have a camera on them every single snaw. Lattimore is a He's an extreme, extremely talented player, you know, fun to watch and and certainly that's gonna be a big battle and really how Allen and how the Saints want to use him in this game if he's just gonna be completely

traveling with him. Uh, you know, there's been a lot of questions about the as as talented as Lattimore is, the overall depth of that position group for the Saints right now. Um, certainly they've been making some moves here the last few days, trying to you know, create some more experience and some more options. But that that's where it's going to really be, you know, an indicator of where this game is going to go, because Adams can move around a lot and Lattimore can move around a lot.

So seeing exactly how those chess pieces fall into place. Uh and and as I've said all along, Mike, how the Packers decided to put what other four players around the field with Adams, the packages, the combinations. You and I don't know that we saw everything during training camp. We saw them, you know, multitude of players to the last week of training camp, Ecuonemia st. Brown was taken first team reps. So what is the ultimate concoction that

Green Bay storms up? And and where exactly is Latimore to counteract that? Yeah, well, what's your what's your feeling? Because this is week one, we just we really don't have a whole lot to go on, So I'm just throwing this at you. What what's your feeling on what's gonna really look different with the Saints offense with Jamis Winston at quarterback? How Winston plays quarterback is my number

one question because the talents there, Mike. It always has been you don't throw for five thousand yards in a season without having you know, the ability. But it's always been the takeaways, right, It's been the turnovers, It's been the interceptions. Can you avoid those moments in which you you shoot yourself in the foot with Drew Brees every single time you and I stepped up here, every single time we did on script, and we talked about pressuring him,

you know, reducing the shot clock. The incredible thing about Breeze and Philip Rivers had this too, was that they could get the ball out quickly, but they also got it out safely, and that's not easy to do in the past. First offense and being able to understand where your help is in your hot routes. Can Winston play faster in place safer than he did in Tampa Bay, because ultimately that's the only reason he ever lost a starting job. That's gonna be really intriguing because they have weapons,

they have Dane. You know, we know what Sean Payton can do. Can Winston executed. Yeah. The big thing that we're going to see in a general sense in terms of how the Saints offenses, excuse me, is going to look different is you have a quarterback who can scramble and get out of trouble. Whereas for years now Drew Brees, I mean, very shifty in the pocket, could always find his throwing lane. And you know, his height was never

really an issue. I mean, this is a Hall of Fame, a Hall of Fame guy, But Drew Brees was not going to take off and run for ten or twelve yards on third and six, right, I mean, Jamis Winston can do that. So from a defensive game planning ampoint, you have to take that into account with him. But obviously the wins and losses for Winston over the course of his career, for the most part, it's it's always

been determined by the turnovers. I mean he's had he's had four hundred yard games and and you know, if he throws three interceptions in a four hundred yard game, he still would usually lose. And uh and when you know when Winston's had success against Green Bay too, I mean they know how dangerous this guy can be. And also you know would be you're amiss. You have to say it every time you see the Saints. As long as Taysom Hill that number seven is on the field,

there's available for the Saints. How he's used now because it's a pretty clear, narrow vision now for what they want to do. Winston's the starting quarterback, you know, so you imagine you're gonna see more gadget type plays with Hill again. Where he's lined up and how they're utilizing him is also gonna be something Green Bay is gonna have to be aware of. They are much faster in the backfield in terms of the signal color position than

they were in the past, no question about that. Yeah. Well, and and what Packers fans obviously remember from last year's game was the mom ster performance by Alvin Kamara because Packers had a hard time tackling him. Obviously, that offense is designed to get him the ball in space, with those opportunities to get yards after the catch, to break tackles,

you know, all of those kinds of things. And you know, yes, the Packers did win that game last year, they also gave up thirty points and Kamara was was almost like a one man show on some of those drives for New Orleans. So you have to believe that. You know that film, Joe Berry's digested it, He's looked at it. He's got to come up with a way to to not let Alvin Kamara just have those stretches where he kind of takes over. Yeah, and that's gonna be on

the inside. Backers it's gonna be on those slot cornerbacks, and and how they want to make sure that you know, you have tabs on this guy at all times. It's gonna be curious seeing how this offense operates now that Breeze has gone in regards to Kamara, because it did seem like, especially the last season, as Breeze got older, he started leaning on Kamara more and more actually in

the passing game. And I think from that you learned, Okay, this guy we knew since day one he could catch the ball, but just how dynamic he is in space, that's gonna be a principle that's gonna hold true here going forward, and without Michael Thomas available, he's the playmaker. He is the guy everybody has their eyes on um.

And it's funny, you don't really go into a lot of games where it's like, okay, it's it's you know, a lot on the running back and yeah, they have some receivers, but it's this guy here that you know, in terms of a pass catcher, he's going to need all your attention. Yeah, absolutely, Well, we'll get down to some more specifics, the brass text, so to speak, the keys to victory and what I will be in our show later this week as we get a little closer

to Sunday's kickoff, But I'm already excited. I don't know about you, but it's just all the work you put in in the off season. We've seen it all. You get through training camp, you get through the preseason games, and yes, it's a long season, seventeen games and everything, even longer than it's normally been. But there's a lot of excitement around Week one. You can't help it get fired up. And this is, without question, this is an

easier matchup for Green babying in Jacksonville. But there is a part of me that's like, Man, if you could have had this game, you know, inside the super Dome with that crowd, the first time they would have been back, you know, in a year, in that environment, it would have been so cool to hear it, to see it. Jacksonville's Jacksonville. You're gonna enjoy the game for what it is. But at the end of the day, it is football. We're back to week one and incredible, Mike, that's six seven,

eight months. How fast it you know, passes by? And right here again you have a two thousand one season staring in the face. Yeah, very curious to see just how many Packers fans are in that stadium in Jacksonville on Sunday afternoon. It could be very very interesting crowd mixture down there in Florida. But with that, we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team here in Week one leading up to the season opener.

We'll have it all for you on Packers dot com. For West, I'm Mike, Thank you for tuning, and everybody, we will see you next time.