#634 Packers Unscripted: Model of excellence

our studios at lambeau Field West. It's week fourteen. We have plenty of Packers bears to talk about, but I actually want to start this show talking about a specific individual on this Green Bay Packers team, and that is running back Aaron Jones, who we have found out in the last couple of days is both the Packers nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award as

well as the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award. Now, these are both awards that every team nominates one player and then from those thirty two nominees, one league wide winner is selected at the end of the season. The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award is really the big one, though,

um this one is con It are very prestigious. It's the it's the most prestigious award that the NFL gives out related to any sort of off the field endeavors for players and anybody who has spoken about Aaron Jones this week, whether it's Matt Lafleur, whether it's Davante Adams any of his other teammates. No one can pick a more deserving nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year from the Green Bay Packers than Aaron Jones. I can't say it any better than Davante Adams, so I

won't even try to. But DeVante's line yesterday was this award was truly made for a guy like him, in addition to another number of other eloquent things that Davante said. I felt like that was so true, because there's been some incredible Man of the Year nominees the Green Bay Packers have had. Aaron Rodgers was a finalist in two thousand fourteen. I think back to you know, j Rone Elliott,

you know uh Corey Lindsley, Kenny Clark. You're talking about the creme de la creme of human being that have walked into Bill Packers locker room. And since the day that Aaron Jones got drafted, the day that they pulled us all together, and they back in the day when they used to walk in all the draft picks into the locker room. The week afterwards for rookie minicamp and we would talk to guys. You just got to feel of what this young man is like, who he is,

and what he represents. I've written a number of things on Aeron this week, mostly because we found out they end up being this bevy awards that all got dropped on us and in this timeframe. But you know, you understand how difficult two thousand twenty one has been for him.

You know, he signs the contract that he's basically worked his six years for a life changing deal with the Packers that secured his family's financial future, and before he can even have an opportunity to really savor that, he loses his father, Elvin Sr. After that battle with COVID. So in a those moments, and I don't know what it's like to lose a parent. I can't even imagine what he was going through. I think that tests your will, it tests your your makeup and constitution as a person.

But in the Jones family's case, it's short. It's sort of just refocused them on what their their goals were.

And Aaron talked this week about how him and his dad when they went to the NFL Honors in two thousand nineteen, they talked about Calias Campbell and his speech in what that represented him getting that award, and he felt like at that time, yeah, they were finding ways to give back, but they wanted to create a foundation, and he he made that foundation with his twin brother, Elvin Jr. And just seeing how this family has persevered through everything. As much as words can say that this

guy is selfless and he is a good person. I think it's in those moments of adversity that your true character gets revealed. And in Aaron Jones case, I think we've learned a lot about him this year. Yeah, we absolutely have, and and it's been everything from and none of this that he necessarily wants a lot of attention for. Obviously, he wants attention on his foundation, the foundation with his

brother and the charitable work that they're doing. But when you look at the things that have been in the media, whether it's giving you know, the scooters to Brian Flee Engels family because Flee went out and found the locket in the in the grass at Um after it had come off him on the touchdown run and Fleet was out there in the middle of the night and found it, and so Aaron Jones wanted to do something for for

Flees family. So there's that. But at the same time, there's there is the foundation that he and his brother started. There's the free football camp in their hometown of El Paso, where all these kids can come for uh, you know, to to learn football, learn some skills, have some fun, to hang out with an NFL player, and yet they don't have to pay anything in order to do that. It's it's a it's a free football clinic for the community. It was so cool hearing because I had heard that

this is the fourth year they've done it. But it was in that press conference on Wednesday that Aaron actually mentioned the impetus for that was going back to his own childhood when Alvin Sr. Paid out of pocket so him and Elvin could go to a football camp. Yeah, where they came from, there wasn't an option for a free football camp, not to mention having one where it's a Pro Bowl running back like him and Jamal Williams and all these guys with this amount of experience that

were contributing. I thought that was a really interesting little add on to that story of of why it was so important to have a free football camp as opposed to just putting one on. Yeah. Absolutely. So it's all these different things that that we've seen and heard about Aaron Jones over the course of this year, and and obviously there's been so much more about this year, in particular because of his father's passing. But that's not to say that Aaron Jones is suddenly this different guy this

year because of what his family has gone through. This is this is Aaron Jones. This is who he's always been. It's just been that much more in the spotlight now with him becoming a Pro Bowl running back. Um, you know, as you said, getting the new contract and and all of the financial security that that goes with that. All I'm really pulling for. And I normally don't invest a whole lot of emotion in this because I don't know a lot about the other thirty one guys around the league.

I'm really pulling for Aaron Jones too, at least maybe make the finalist stage of this like Aaron Rodgers did seven years ago. As you said, we've seen a lot of really really great Packers players getting nominated for this. Corey Linsley was last year's nominee, and he's the Chargers nominee here in one, so that that that speaks to

his work in the community as well. I'd like to see Aaron Jones make his way through this process a little bit and and perhaps draw that much more attention to his efforts to his foundation and the impact that he's making on other people. Yeah, and as you talked about earlier, the fact that he doesn't want the attention all shining directly on him, and Davante Adams mentioned that

his presser as well. And as much as he loves Alvin Jr. Everybody understands, you know, Aaron was the draft pick, right, he was the game changer at you tip. I don't think a lot of people would have blamed Aaron if he started a foundation and just wanted to be the Aaron Jones Foundation. He wanted to do it with his brother though, he because from day one, quite literally, that's

been the guy right alongside him. And I thought it was interesting he goes home on Tuesday after he gets this award and they give him the little the little trophy to signify that he was the Packers nominee, and you know, his mom's there and Virgas, you know, goes and puts the trophy up right next to where Alvin's ashes are at Aaron's home. And after that, Aeron's tells her, you know, thank you, to which she replied, well, what

what are you thanking me for? And it it shows you kind of the humility of that family, because what he was thinking her for was a woman that served valiantly for her country for twenty eight years or whatever it was you know, was away from them, was in Iraq, all these different things, but still always wanted to bring it back to the family, always wanted to support their family.

And I think when you look back to how difficult this year has been, the only way you can really get through something like this is to hold closely together. And again, I thought that that set a lot about not only their family connection, but the ties that bind them that you know that for everything that's happened in two thousand twenty one, they're going to get through this thing and the end of it, while not with Alvin SR,

you know, as close as they've ever been as a family. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, hats off to Aaron Jones for a well deserved honor and hopefully not the last we are hearing about, uh, this honor for him in West. Serious x M NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute

NFL news that true football fanatics need. Seven three and at 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. Cousin Subs, we believe in better all right. It is Packers Bears Sunday Night football at lambeau Field, Week fourteen.

The health situation for both teams. I don't know if you've got a sect to call up the injury report, um, because for both of the spots you're coming into this, this is interesting. The Packers are coming off their bye week and they're a little bit healthier than they have been. And we did also see um on Wednesday, the return to practice of Jayra Alexander, so his window to potentially be activated to the fifty three man roster is now

open since he has returned to practice. But there are a lot of a lot of health questions here, UM, with this game looming on sun Day night, I think particularly with the Bears. So can you give us an update on where some of that well, it starts with David Montgomery, because I just got done on two Isay's episode talking about all this guy's treavilous for the offense. You know, he's going to be the guy that really

stirs the drink for them. And as it turns out, he's dealing with a shoulder growing and glute injury or injuries coming out of that game last week against Arizona. That's a huge thing because, as I mentioned, one of my big qualifiers were was that when David Montgomery is healthy and he's right, I mean this is this offense looks different. Apparently he's not healthy right now again, so

we'll see what the week looks like. You know, a lot of times sometimes teams just want to sit guys down, give them a day or two to rest, and then they'll ramp him up at the end of the week. And Montgomery did miss the first first Packers Bears teame this season. He was not the feature back for the Bears. We also did hear from Matt Naggy, Bears head coach

this week announcing that Justin Fields will start. He has been cleared from the ribbon jury and he will start against the Packers for the second time this year, so they're so the Packers will not be seeing Andy Dalton. Yeah, so, I mean, you know, Juice Herbert is the guy in the backfield when Montgomery's been down. Obviously Terrif Cohen has been out for most of the year. But the last point I was going to make on Montgomery is and he may be he may be fine, we don't know yet.

But when it's three injuries, and especially two very different parts of the body, that is a little bit of a concern. But but looking at the overall picture, you know, you also had some guys dealing with illnesses. Kiem Hicks has been banged up with the ankle, you know, Marquis Goodwe has the foot. Allen Robinson obviously returned coming off

the hamstring. So they are beat up right now. And I think this is the difference between what you see and just like how Green Bay's injury report was vastly different from the Rams when the Rams were coming off the by it's the attrition, it's the way the season goes.

But if there is an issue there with Montgomery where he either can't go or he's limited, I think there is a big effect that that will have as far as the trick down domino on this offense, Yeah, and the Packers are continuing to proceed with at this point anyway, as of Wednesday afternoon, holding Aaron Rodgers out of practice,

continuing to let that broken pinky toe hell. But Rogers making it clear in in the comments he made to the media that this is not a case of even though he's not practicing, that there's some sort of a scale down game plan or whatever that Aaron Rodgers wants the you know, the full gamut of everything. Hey, you know, Matt, whatever you want to dial up. Hey, let's talk about it. Let's figure out what we like and and and let's

go with it. This is not about even though he's restricted in terms of his practice, reps and his availability at practice, he doesn't go into the games feeling restricted. He's gonna he's gonna leave it all out there, both in terms of in terms of the schematics and his play. As we've seen, he's not afraid to take off and run, even with even with that toe bothering him. So we'll see now week to week. Rogers did say getting the entire getting an entire week off was extremely helpful for

his toe. Um, he does hope that it's going to continue to get better and that maybe, just maybe he will start getting back into a regular practice routine at something. But what this all reminded me of was, I don't know, if you've ever been in a position you've had to throw the donut on your car because you're tired, you know, blew out. That's the way this kind of feels with Roger's in the toe, Like they have the tiger ordered.

They know that it's gonna be there. You just got to hope that you that the doughnuts stays, you know, intact here, and you can just get to the finish line. Because as Rogers said, I mean, the problem with the surgery option is that he mobilizes the toe. They basically throw a pin in there, and then it's he's not gonna be able to move that toe the rest of the year. It would reduce the chances of it getting any further fractured. But then there's the mobility side of it, right.

His hope is and Doc mackenzie and everybody else just say, do Bob Anderson, everybody that has looked at this thing, Their hope is that, Okay, well, if you can just keep it healthy, maybe not get stepped on anymore. Yeah, that would be good, not to get stepped on, like he has a couple of times already. But this thing can heal up a little bit. But it's just the

challenge of it. And as Rogers I think told Pat McAfee, if if he gets through this weekend healthy, you know, maybe next week is where it could potentially start to to really start to feel the way he needs it to feel. Yeah. Well, as we had talked about on our last show, the Packers potentially could be taking the field on Sunday Night with a chance to clinch the NFC North if the Vikings lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers

on Thursday Night Football. There is also a scenario if the Vikings do win and stay alive in the division race. There is also a scenario where the Packers can clinch a playoff spot if both the Saints and the forty Niners were to lose prior to the Packers taking the field Sunday night. But all that being said, I want to get to the keys to victory here. This is a Packers Bears game. It's a big it's a big

rivalry game. Aaron Rodgers throughout the whole I own you thing it's Soldier Field, which he said was directed at the fans. But you know how things can get taken in different ways. What do you think is the most important thing, what's at the top of your list for the Packers to win this game? Sunday night. I let Insider in box on Thursday. You had to edit it with the statement that I don't care if it's Justin Fields. I don't care if it's Andy Dalton, I don't care

if it's Jim Miller, Shane Matthews, Shane Falco, whoever. The Packers need to turn over the football defensively, and they need to stop the run. If David Montgomery is not playing in this probably gets a little bit easier. Although

Juice Herbert had some decent games himself. I think really it comes down to if if it is Justin Fields, to basically have that same game plan with some modifications of what they did earlier this season, you have to be able to limit him, you know, and make sure he doesn't scramble, make sure all that stuff, but just finding ways to keep the pressure on enforce him into a few errors. I think if you achieve that you

keep this game in third and manageible. This game plays out the way it needs to play out if a third distance, If it gets to be third and manageable, that's where it starts to get more interesting than it probably needs to be. I feel like if Green Bay stops the run, forces them into third and longs, those opportunities are going to be there to take the ball away and really control the tempo of this game. Yeah.

And for me, quite honestly, West, the whole key for me in this game is for the Packers just to not turn the football over on offense. While certainly some turnovers on defense could could go a long way here, to me, this isn't a game the Packers necessarily have to win the turnover battle, but you just can't lose it. And if you don't turn the ball over on offense,

you won't lose the turnover battle, right. I know. I spoke on our last show and we were talking about the Vikings, and I brought up, you know, these two games for the Vikings, the types that you just can't lose. When they lost to the Cowboys and they lost this past week to the Lions, I know this is Packers Bears.

I know it's a big rivalry, but with where the Bears are in their season, there injury report, with where the Packers are in their season, and what's at stake, and the fact that this is at home, under the lights at Lambeau Field, this is one of those, quite frankly, that qualifies for me as a game if you're the Green Bay Packers, you can't lose this game. Now, I'm not saying the Packers are gonna win by thirty. SPA thinks, you know, this is just something that's not what I'm saying.

But I'm saying this is a game that if you're the Packers, you can't lose it. And I don't care if you win it by three or win it by thirty. You just can't lose it. And to me, the quickest path to losing this game and to giving the Bears the shot at the upset is if you're turning the ball over on offense. If the Packers don't do that, I think they win this football. I agree, And just come out and control the tempo, you know, whether you

win the opening coin toss or not. If if if it's the Bears taking the field first, defensively shutting them down. If it's Green Bay, find a way to get those ten place seventy five yard drives and get into the end zone. This is such a great opportunity, Mike. And we've we've expelled so much breath here, uh, the last few weeks talking about the late by finishing three or five at home, the amount of division games they have, with where everything stands in the North right now, the

two game magic number, all that stuff. As Davante Adam said, there's an element of run the table to this. Now. They're not running the table like two thousand sixteen where it was to make sure you at least make the playoffs. But they have a realistic shot at this number one seed. And if you look at the way Arizona schedule lays out, it's a little daunting for the Cardinals. So you have to take advantage of that. And it starts on Sunday

against the Bears. Yeah. And I want to talk about some of those other games on the slate this weekend in the NFL that that will impact the Packers. But I do want to throw out another plug for Cliff Crystal's history book. Packers fans, if you are looking for holiday gift ideas. Team historian Cliff crystals book The Greatest Story in Sports is now available at the Packers Pro Shop.

The four volume of hardcover books set tells the true complete story of the Packers first century, from humble beginnings to heartbreaks and triumphs. Buy your copy online or in store today. I gave I gave Cliffs so much well to do credit for everything on Tuesday's episode. Forgot to mention Aaron Popke, Katie Hermson, Tom Fanning, everybody else that was involved in this. The publisher of the book don't can't remember what the name of the publishers right now,

but they did a fantastic job with it. And I've already gotten multiple requests from family members to get this signed by Cliff Crystal, to get his John Hancock on that book. They want to have that forever and uh And actually, for those who are in the area or are coming to the game, Cliff is doing a book signing at the Packers Pro Shop on Saturday afternoon this weekend, So for a couple of hours in the afternoon, stop by and get a copy of the book and get

it signed by the author. Just books, though no babies. No, no, no babies, no memorabilia. I think it's just just just for the just for the book. Um. Other games to keep an eye on. Already mentioned the Steelers Vikings game on Thursday Night Football and the implications that will have as far as the NFC North race. But other ones to watch your west are really interesting, I think, really interesting game in the NFC East, Dallas is at Washington.

Washington is coming on strong. The Cowboys obviously still leading that division. I believe they have a two game lead in the division. Yeah, two game lead, two game lead over Washington. So Washington looking to cut that deficit in the NFC East to one game. Another one to watch it will be on I believe it's essentially the National late afternoon game prior to the Packers Bears in primetime.

Buffalo is at Tampa Bay. The Bills coming off of the short week, the tough loss to division rival New England when the Patriots just ran and ran and ran the ball in the bad weather. But Tampa Bay a nine and three team looking to stay with just the three losses as both the Packers and the Buccaneers trying to keep the pressure on the Cardinals and then Monday Night football in the NFC West, you have the Rams

are at Arizona. Now, the Cardinals won the first matchup between these two teams in Los Angeles, so this is the rematch. It's in Arizona Monday Night football. Obviously, Packers fans will be looking to see if the Arizona Cardinals take a third loss. They are the team sitting in the catbird see right now at ten and two, Arizona is gonna take a third loss. So the Rams are gonna take a fifth loss kind of out of nowhere with the way that their season is headed. So yeah,

we know we've talked about, said Nawzy. In the NFC West, there's it's gonna be right down to the wire. There's a lot of competition there, not only for the division title, not only for the conference uh you know, being able to get a buy or anything like that. There's also a factive number of these teams are trying to make the postseason. The game I am most infatuated with, though, is that Dallas Washington matchup, because Washington they hung their

hat on their defense a lot last year. Well, you don't have Chase Young now, Monte Sweat is gonna miss at least two games. That that big, bad offense, defensive front we were talking about with all those first rounders, it's been chipped into a little bit and Dallas, you know, it looks like Tony Pollard now dealing with a foot injury. Ezekiel Elliott has been up and down, but he may be the guy that has to go. He was a full participant in practice on Wednesday. That they got to

get Zeke going again. That's gonna be the big key for them down the stretch. Can they do it against a really formidable Washington defense that is also kind of struggling a little bit on the injury front. Buffalo has got to get a win. They just gotta do it. They're trending in the wrong direction right now. Yes, I know, Monday Night was a weird, weird game and anomaly something game you're only gonna play on once every ten years,

but it was. It was a costly loss for them against their division rival against New England when they had him at home. Those are the types of games that that are that are tough, and we talked about the Packers building a cushion so that as disappointing as that game was against Minnesota. They had some leeway there to make a mistake. Buffalo is they've lost too many of

those games. They don't have that right. And as you mentioned with regard with regard to the Cardinals, they do have a pretty tough schedule here down the stretch because they also have a him against the Cowboys. And I'm trying to remember that they have an Indianapolis. Yes, they have the Colts. It was a cross conference. Yeah, Indianapolis besides that loss to Tampa Bay has won like five or six and they found out that they have Jonathan Taylor.

It's not just West that doesn't know that Jonathan Taylor is a good running back. The Indianapolis Colts are starting to figure it out too. Yeah. No, that so the Cardinals. The Cardinals definitely have a tough schedule. To me, the opposite is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because if the Buccaneers don't take a fourth loss against the Buffalo Bills this week, I think that is going to be the signal to the Packers that you have to run the table to

have a shot at the one seed. Because based on the Buccaneers schedule, I believe it's two games against the Panthers, one against the Saints, and one against the Jets. I don't see the Buccaneers losing any games in those last four. So this one against Buffalo, if the Buccaneers are going to take a fourth loss and give the Packers a little bit of leeway if you want to look at it that way, which is, you know, dicey, But if the Buccaneers are going to take a fourth loss, it's

going to be here. And if they beat Buffalo, I think the Buccaneers are running, which means the Packers have to run the table and at least stay even with the Buccaneers because the tiebreaker between those two would be conference record, and the Packers have the edge there because one of Green Bay's losses was to Kansas City in the a f C. Just throwing that out there if

you've been following all this. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing that kind of stinks about this whole deal too, is that, like you sort of forget that the cross conference, interconference battle for green Bay this year was the a f C North because of the game against Kansas City and these different things that have happened. Now, so Packers still got two good games coming up against a decent you know, Brown's team in a Baltimore team that I

think has shown that they can play with anybody. So you can't let up. You have to take care of business the division. You have to take care of business and the other the other North Division as well. And and hope that maybe you know Tampa Bay slipped up once against New Orleans, could they potentially do it again

to in addition to whatever happens again it's the Bills. Yeah, all right, Well with that, we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script and you should have follow all of our coverage of the team, all of the coverage of Sunday's big Packers Bears game from lambeau Field. Will have it all for you on Packers dot com for Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.