#648 Packers Unscripted: Picking favorites

but when when I'm not sure. I was gonna say, we'll see if Leroy gets in the Hall of Fame or not. Yeah, and if he doesn't, then probably about forty eight minutes after the announcements made, we'll be doing an episode West. West is gonna drag me in here because we're gonna have to talk about it. Um. But yes, offseason episodes between now and the draft might just be very much news driven, might be based on when West and I are both both happened to be in the

office at the same time. That aside, though, I do want to art this episode with a hearty congratulations and a big time shout out to now former Packers Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. He has landed the head coaching job of the Denver Broncos. This is a tremendous career achievement for somebody that, um, everyone in this building was rooting for him. If this is what he wanted, you wanted, you wanted him to get it and get this opportunity. Um. Just a great guy. I wish he could have been

around Green Bay longer than than three years. He's been really fun to talk to and get to know. But congratulations to coach Hackett. Congratulations to Nathaniel you know, unfortunately been behind the zoom wall here for two years for most of it. But a guy that when you'd see him in the press box, he always have a good smile for you, always have a nice hello, Very personable. I made the comment Mike at the end of the season when I was thinking, originally maybe he'd be a

candidate for Jacksonville. I had tweeted out something along the lines of, if you want to change your culture, if you want to, you know, infuse some positive in your locker room, Nathaniel Hackett's your guy. Well, and it sounded like he was potentially on his way for a second interview in Jacksonville, and the Denver Broncos didn't let him leave town. They they they dropped a contract in front of him and said, uh, and said you're our guy,

so let's so let's go. There are obviously some implications here, uh, you know, the this is going to fuel you know, rumors and speculation regarding Aaron Rodgers and all that. I'm not going to get into what we will see what happens with regard to the Packers staff. Matt Lafleur had mentioned on Monday, Um, you know, he's got a plan in place. Obviously, his plan is to promote from within

for for offensive coordinator. Presumably his top candidates there are Luke Getsy and Adam Stenovitch, Getsy being quarterback coach and passing game coordinator, Stenovitch being offensive line coach and run game coordinator. But then another potential wrinkle here is you don't know if coach Hackett might potentially want to take one of those guys with him to Denver to be his offensive coordinator. So we'll have to see what happens here. But but Matt Lafleur's plan is to promote from within

at offensive coordinator to replace Nathaniel. Yeah. And and here's

the thing. I want to make this abundantly clear, because I made this case an inbox too, in regards of Devandre Campbell and Restold Douglas, two guys that the Packers would love to have back for two thousand twenty two, but have incredibly raised their their stock here over the last few just a bit, whether or not the Packers can bring back Hamble or Douglas, whether or not, well, obviously pack I'll be moving on to a new opportunity

that has positive implications for the Packers franchise, for this team. It's certainly for Matt Lafleur. I think one thing, especially as organizations, you fall into this pit where you want to continue to be the status quo because you fear what it means to lose a player, what it means to lose a coach, when in reality, by a Nathaniel ha get moving on. It creates opportunities for guys on

this roster who are also deserving of those opportunities. What I love the most about Hackett's story though, Mike, it's not like when Matt Lafleur hired him in two thousand nineteen. Hackett was this huge, you know stud you know, had everyone's just raving about him as offensive coordinator. This is a great higher. There are a lot of questions about

him because of how things ended in Jacksonville. Yeah, he'd been run out of town basically, And as I kind of said a few weeks ago, I think as time has passed, his tenure as the offensive coordinator as the Jacksonville Jaguars has really really looked better and better what he was able to do, what they were able to accomplish. And while he was sort of unceremoniously you know, let go during a time in which you know that happens

to coaches where they have to make these decisions. For him to get this opportunity and to become such a beloved coach, you know, get the Packers with the gold zone, you know, setting franchise record productivity last year, being able to kind of rebound here the second half of this season. He had a lot to do with what Green Bay was able to build offensively. So, yes, you hate to see coaches go, you hate to see talented players go, but people around the league are going to notice that Mike.

When Matt Laflour inevitably starts hiring guys again. After all the dust settles, coaches are gonna want to come to Green Bay. When free agents that maybe are looking for an opportunity because they felt like they got the raw into the stick, like Campbell, like Douglas, like Dennis Kelly, They're gonna notice what those players did in Green Bay. The overall byproduct of that is really important because you're not going to be able to pay everybody ten million

dollars a year. But if people understand that there's an opportunity to grow and enhance and improve in this environment, they're gonna want to be able to be a part of that. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, the other thing that I want to focus this show on before at the end, we will talk about the upcoming conference championship games and get some thoughts there. I came up with. I came up with a few categories, uh sort of to uh

to recap this season for the Packers. Now, in the spirit of unscripted, I haven't told Wes what the categories are. I've had the advantage to do a little bit of thinking to make my choices here. But he gets the advantage of going first. So if he picks what I want I have to come up with something else, but um, we'll start with this West. The best moment of season for the Packers is he gonna is Marv gonna play

like the Jeopardy music. I don't know. That's that's up to him in the in the when he when he gets gets uh doing the final production. Ten seconds for me to write on my monitor, and then we show everybody what I picked the best moment of the two thousand one season. There's a few of them, but I'm gonna try to give you one to me. I think a lot of it is that win over the Minnesota Vikings,

because that was what got them to buy. That's what got them they clinched the division and look and Rogers given that speech to the guys about enjoying this moment. That's something I've kind of talked to people about a lot this season. The other answer I kind of wanted to use there was Rogers just reporting for training camp. I felt like that was a big moment, but it was the appreciation of what you're accomplishing in the moment of what you're accomplishing it. I understand this is a

disappointing week. You heard me talk on Tuesday. It's a disappointing, you know, to fall short of the ultimate goal. But this ride is so long, there's so many days in a year. There's so much legacy involved in these things that if you boil it down to just winning or losing a Super Bowl, it's gonna be difficult to put all your chips in that basket, even if you win the darn thing. I appreciate that Rogers said that to

the team that day. I appreciated what it meant for him to come back, for him to have the success he did. He was a p f W a U m v P of the Year m v P. You know, likely will be the AP one as well. We'll find out shortly. But what Rogers brought to this team and being able to have that moment with the roster, the huddle before they knelt down, I felt like that was a pretty big catalyst to what they did. Yeah. I like that. That's that's a good show. I was looking

for capstone, not catalyst. Um My pick is is the Russel Douglas interception in Arison. Um that was for me. That was a and and you know, wheat for the second straight year because of COVID protocols, restrictions on the team charter and whatnot. You and I did not travel to the road games. That Russel Douglas interception in the end zone to win the game against Arizona when the Cardinals were undefeated. It was a Thursday night game on

the road, traveling multiple time zones. The Packers were devastated by injury. They were they were down several players on

both sides of the ball. That was a jump out of your chair moment um, you know, as as far as this season went um, not only to win that game, but the player that was Russel Douglas having been on the practice squad for Arizona, the fact that the Packers had played such an incredible game shorthanded and it had a chance to put it away in a goal to ghost situation on the one yard line, failed to get

the clinching points. And then as Kyler Murray was taking the Cardinals the other way down the field, you just felt like, oh my gosh, this one's gonna slip away. It's gonna slip away, and Russell Douglas makes the interception on the past to a j. Green. So that was that was my top moment of the season, the Cardinals never recovered that was basically it absolutely was the turning

point of their season. There's no question about it. And I think it's important to kind of note those at times because while it was such a high moment for Green Bay, it shows you a way this league goes and how teams go up, teams go down, and is about that consistency in between. Yeah, no question about it. Favorite touchdown, favorite touchdown, Oh man, there are so many. The Lazard one, the leaping Lazard one was one I'm probably gonna remember for a while. Um, shoot, the opponents

escaping me now though? Was that was that the Minnesota game? Yeah? Yeah, the one where he goes up and came down with it sort of on the side of the end zone there. He looked like Megatron on that play. Uh. And you know, there's so many different ones you could pick, though, Mike, I mean, shoot, I mean Davante had a handful of on the second half of the season. The Lazard one is the one that stands out to me though, because that was at a time in which the Packers really

needed somebody else to step up. They were still trying to find themselves without Randall Cobb. You knew it was Davante Adams, but who's gonna be that secondary playmaker and Lazard to have whatever was five touchdowns in the last x amount of games. I mean he really came on strong for that roster. Yeah. Absolutely, and I I have

a different choice. I don't want to discount um. You know the Aaron Rodgers breaking Brett Farve's record, you know that touchdown pass to Lazard, But that is actually not my pick for me. I actually go all the way back to Week two. If you remember the home game against the Detroit Lion and the threaded ball down the middle seemed to Tony in that town at the goal line Alex ANZALONEI I believe is how you pronounced the name. He was the linebacker and coverage on Tonnan had had

his back to the to the play. Rogers fired it as you said, as you just said, right past his ear hole for the touchdown. And this is this is in week two, coming off of when you know all of whatever was getting thrown wherever. With regard to that Packers Week one performance against the Saints and Aaron Rodgers through that touchdown pass, um, I thought it was maybe his most impressive throws certainly one of his most impressive

throws of the season. That's one that just the visual of that from the lambeau Field press box and how we saw the visual of that just sticks in my mind. I absolutely love that play. You got that one right, that is out, that is absolutely there are any right and wrong answers here, No, because it was the most I've had the advantage of thinking about. Yeah, it was funny. I kind of forgotten about this as soon as you said week two. I'm like, oh, I know where he's

going with this. Uh, And I'll tell you what. No, I'm putting I'm putting you on the spot. You I didn't even give you the categories in advance, so you know, I'm I'm putting you on this. But Tony in man losing him the second half of the season, they did a good job of sort of stems, you know, stemming the tide for the most part. But Man on life, you saw replacing replacing a guy who had double digit touchdowns the previous season, and he wasn't having that type

of statistical year. But there was still plenty of time left in the season that you felt and I felt like that that he could catch fire. At any time, and then unfortunately the injury and he didn't have that opportunity. Just look at what Lazard did. Lazard was off to a pretty quiet start the first couple of months, and he ended up being their second biggest playmaker down the stretch. Yeah, that's that's a tough one, all right, number three, biggest

surprise player. Oh man, I see. I was kind of figuring, you're gonna say this, and then I was figuring out, Okay, do I say Douglas or do I say, can really put you on the spot here today for the sake of not being overly long win did I'm actually gonna look towards the players that were here already. Um, if you want to talk about either of those guys, I'm gonna welcome you to doing that. We obviously already discussed

that huge play that Douglas had in Arizona. The biggest surprise player for me though this season, I'm actually going to give that credit to Eric Stokes because this is a guy I wish we could go back to training camp, but we never. You know, these are the things like you wish when we had the locker room access, you could just like ask DeVante about Stokes, like just one on one, not just one quick quote, Like actually, like get some some detail there, because Mike, there's no cameras

at training camp. We don't see these team periods that that film does not live in the public domain. But Rogers and Adams were targeting that young man a lot. They went after him and and that, and that was intentional on the part of the coaching status to test, to test Eric Stokes, this young first round draft pick, right out of the box in training camp. Alright, best quarterback, best receiver, you gotta go and stop him on a daily basis. And he took his lumps, but he he battled.

He battled his butt off. In the first two weeks of the season. Remember we did some unscripted I remember I wrote some inboxes. I said, listen, whether it was Casey Hayward, whether it was Micah Hyde, whether it was Jay are these young rookies, man, they play right away. When you have six defensive backs on the field most of the time, at least for half the game, these

young guys are going to get out there. Stokes had to get thrown into the fire against San Francisco when Kevin King was a scratch during warmups right, or maybe it was whatever week that was for that guy to play as many snaps as he did and look as good as he did and not be a liability at any point this season. I just think that speaks so well of him. He has so many natural, God given talents that his speed, his ranginus, is his his his athletic ability is just off the charts that you can

see why he was picked in the first round. And the guy didn't even have to lean on it that much this year. He was able to actually play like so many times on Sam Shields was younger, he had to really lean on those skills while the rest of his game caught up. But there's the difference between an undrafted guy to Sam Shields. In a first round pick, ericson a guy that was playing receiver at Miami and a guy that was playing I like that. I like

that pick. I was fully prepared for you to say either Devondre Campbell or Douglas and I was just going to pick the other one. But no, Definitely Campbell and Douglas are the two guys that jump out the most

to me. Campbell because he didn't show up until June, when the offseason program was almost over and then essentially became the signal caller, the leader, the guy in the middle of everything in Joe Barry's defense for you know, his first year as a coordinator here and as we talked about just he changed the look, the feel, the way this defense played. You can't you can't give him enough credit. And then to do what he did and earned first team All Pro on on top of it. UM.

Very impressive. UM. I would have probably say Blast was an even bigger surprise, UM because because of coming off of another team's practice squad. When Jay hear Alexander went down. I mean, you know, you know how I like to talk about things West. You know, your premier positions are are passer, pass protector as in left tackle, pass rusher, edge rusher, and pass defender. Your cornerbacks. When Jay you're Alexander went down, the Packers didn't have a ton of

depth at cornerback. You were looking at that as a potentially huge loss. They plucked Douglas off of Arizona's practice squad. He's here for a week or so. He's thrown in in Chicago. After the opening series of the game, when Justin Fields took the Bears right down the field for a touchdown, Douglas comes off the bench and gets thrown in there and basically didn't come off the field the

rest of the season. And then, of course you all know the pick in Arizona, a couple of picks six is uh in in back to back games at lambeau Field. The two interceptions on Christmas Day, including the clincher against Baker Mayfield there to win the game against the Browns. Um this is as much and he ends up getting

Pro Bowl alternate status based on all of that. When when this is a guy who started the season and wasn't even on an active roster and had bounced around between three or four other teams just trying to to land a job. His story this year was was absolutely remarkable. I remember Washington, the first Packers home game where this guy is active, and I remember watching that game and watching how he collapsed on the ball and how hard he played, and I said, this guy is different. It

was even about the interceptions. It wasn't about you know, making big plays or touchdowns or anything like that. Just the way he had a relentless pursuit to the football. I'm like, this guy's six ft two. He's two uter and eight pounds. He was a third round pick three years ago. Why was he on the practice squad for the Arizona Cardinals? And and I and last time I want to say this because who knows. We'll see what happens. This might be the last time we talked about Douglas

until free agency. The Cardinals keep getting ripped for Douglas. The Cardinals deserve no there's you can't shame them at all for what they did. The Packers had a bunch of veterans that they had signed to to their practice squad. It's what you do in this league. It was week one of the regular season. The Houston Texans are the ones that cut this guy loose after a week. They didn't eve give him a chance to really prove himself.

Arizona pro him on the practice squad. Maybe he stayed there too long, but I give them credit for giving him an opportunity. But this guy to pick up this playbook as quickly as he did and to make himself a contributor by the end of the month October. That is why he's the biggest surprise. I've never seen anything

like that. And the stories of Campbell and Douglas both go to show in this league how you know, the old adage of of opportunity and environment and timing and all of that, how it can make such a difference. Because because with Campbell we had talked about how you know, he got a chance to be back man instead of Robin Right and Joe Barry scheme seemed to be just absolutely the perfect fit for him. He he walked right into a perfect situation and he seized it. He completely

took advantage of it. Russell Douglass again, it was opportunity. Russell Douglas is never putting on a Packers uniform. If JayR Alexander plays the entire season, he would he would never have been here. Um, So it was an opportunity. But then he comes here, he sort of you know, hitches his wagon so to speak to Jerry Gray and learns a lot more about how to watch film and

prepare and he becomes a film junkie. All the stories we heard about, you know, seven eight o'clock at night in the team cafeteria after everybody's gone home and he's got his iPad, they're looking at film. The coaches would see that. So environment opportunity. All that those two guys are are are great examples. I just want to make

this point too quickly, Campbell. I hope the NFL has taken like free agents have taken notice of what Davanre Campbell did, because there's such a emphasis on Okay, I either get cut or I get let go. This league new year starts on March seventeenth. I gotta sign as soon as I can, or I'm gonna look like nobody wants me. Campbell wasn't afraid of that. Man. He said, you know what, if I got to take this thing into June before signing with the team, I'm gonna do it.

It was he was going to find the right opportunity for himself. Because I think I didn't get that. He didn't say this directly. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but it almost did kind of feel like when when he left at Lant it was like, well, Arizona was the best opportunity in terms of money, in terms everything, I'm gonna go there, and it wasn't the

right fit for him this situation. He waited it out, he was cerebral about it, and now he's going to make a pretty good pay day, whether it's here, it's somewhere else in the league. Not enough players do that type of thing. Yeah, absolutely, Next one unsung hero. You can take this any direction you want. You know, I'm gonna say this, uh, because I don't think he gets nearly enough credit for what he did this year is Lucas Patrick was one of the names that the top

of my list too. They used a second round draft pick on Josh Meyers and rightfully, so you look at this kid, Mike, He's a mack truck like he has everything you look for. You draw up a center on a on a you know, prototype in this in this day and age, as centers keep inning bigger the days of the Scott Wells. Is no offense to Scott, but he was a much smaller guy, a Pro Bowl center in his own right. But that's not what centers look like any They look like Josh Meyers, who could be

a freaking tackle that the kid is so tall. But they got put in a real difficult spot because Corey Lindsley's gone. He's been the center now for all of basically half a season in his last seven years in

Green Bay. Lucas Patrick had signed that really quietly, had signed that extension at the end of the nineteen season that took him through his first year of unrestricted free agency, and he had learned the center of this position he did not play in college, learned it, developed it in The Packers had to use him there for ten games. The reason Green Bay was able to get on this run late in the season, a lot of it had to do with how Lucas Patrick had settled in there.

Aaron Rodgers paid him the ultimate compliments, saying that this guy can be a legitimate solid center in the National Football League. And when time came for Myers to come back, Lucas took his lunch pale and he went back to right guard. That's where he finished the season. I don't know what happens with Lucas Patrick this offseason. He'll be an unrestricted free agent. But what he has given this team, it was a great story. Tryout guy didn't get any

undrafted contracts. He had to earn everything he got in Green Bay. The guy's leaving Green Bay as a bona fide NFL football player, and I hope he gets compensated accordingly. But for them to put that much of an investment in center Mike. Again, this is a position. For a number of years, the Packers were using undrafted free agents. They were using Jeff Saturday, I mean late round picks. God bless you know, Scott Wells, but he was a seventh rounder. This is pretty much their highest draft pick

they'd put into that position in years time. And then they lose Myers and it has to be Patrick. And Patrick did the job fast, you know, an incredible season, and I thought, for a guy that doesn't get enough credit, yeah, I agree with you, Lucas. Patrick was my pick on offense. On defense, yeah, you stole you stole one from me there. I I knew, I knew it would happen. That's okay. Um, I'm having a hard time picking between two guys on defense, so I'm going to talk a little bit about both

of them. The first one is Adrian Amos. And it may sound kind of strange to say, oh, this guy was one of the defensive captains. How can he be an unsung hero? But he he didn't have some you know,

monster year. Statistically, he didn't get a whole lot of recognition of anything in terms of Pro Bowl or All Pro and or any of that kind of stuff, but some of the things that we've already talked about here recently, a rookie cornerback and Eric Stokes, you're dealing with JayR Alexander's injury, Russell Douglas, a new guy coming into the secondary. Adrian Amos was kind of the was kind of that glue guy in the defensive backfield that that held everything together, right.

He was a veteran guy. He knows what he's doing, he's he's respected. All those guys look up to him. He could answer all their questions. I'm sure, you know, to be a fly on the wall in a in you know, the defensive back meeting room when they're going over film and stuff like that, I think would give us even more insight into the kind of the kind of guy that Adrian Amos is. So he's one of

the guys I wanted to mention in this category. The other one, also on the defensive side, I'm gonna say, is Dean Lowry um because for years we've been we've been saying, you know, the packers need the packers need that that tandem guy, that guy to pair with Kenny Clark, right, and Dean Lowry has been a very solid player for the Packers since he was drafted in the fourth round here in I thought this season, after a little bit of a slow start, when Dean Lowry started to come

on this year, he maintained that level of play like the rest of the way. He became a very very not not just the guy lined up next to Kenny Clark, he became a very strong, complimentary piece there in the defensive line, next to uh Um, next to Kenny Clark and um. I I really thought Rey's impact on a on a steady consistent basis was the best it's been in his career to this point. Yeah. And he looked bigger, stronger everything. I mean, he he checked all the boxes

he set career. He's a strong dude, man. I mean, Kenny Kenny Clark is strong. Like, don't get me don't get me wrong. But Kenny would always say he has to remind Dean how strong he is, like, hey, just just bull rush the guy, you know, don't you know you don't you don't need to to pussy foot around, so to speak, like go after him because your strength will get the job done. And when you look at the film, Dean Lawry was able to use that strength

in a lot of positive ways. That's sixteen draft, man, I don't think it's I think to me it goes down as one of the more underrated ones that Ted Thompson had because fifteen did not go well. Nobody's gonna sit here and say that the fifteen draft was was

a world beater by any means. But sixteen, I think is a big reason why Green Bay was able to get this thing back on the tracks in nineteen and be able to, you know, start to build something here on defense, certainly it was Blake Martinez for a time until that torch was passed now to deave Andre Campbell. But for a defensive tackle, that's the first round pick, like Kenny Clark, who's by the way at the end of the first round, there's no gimmes at the end

of the first round. Kenny could have not worked out at that spot, but to hit on him and then also find Dean in the fourth round as a comp pick. Those two. To have two guys played together for six years and they're both under contract for next year. That doesn't happen in the National Football League a lot. And they're the leaders, they're the longest tenure members of the defense, and certainly when you talk about guys that I think probably deserve to have more respect put on their name,

Dean Lowry definitely is on top of that list. Yeah. I like those picks there, Lucas Patrick, Dean Lowry, Adrian Amos getting uh getting some run in the Unsung had little awards that we give out. We got it. We have to little little trophies or something that will slide them slide them forward. Last one, last one, and we're going a little bit long today, but but that's okay. It's our last show for I'm not doing another one, So hang with us. Marv Um Marv's our producers as

you all. Alright, last one before we get to championship weekend. Here. The craziest thing you saw this the craziest thing I saw this year? Uh? Is it? Is it the Packers? You can because otherwise it's probably Stefan digs level in that fan last ye. That was pretty crazy. Uh. The craziest thing I saw this year from the Green Bay Packers. While I try to think of a better answer, I'm gonna say the injuries because we last year. One of

the reasons why when they lost to the Bucketeers. What that it was so difficult is it's like, well, they're not gonna have a healthy year like that again, I mean they were just nothing went wrong and then this missing one key guy there in the playoffs last year obviously in baktr but the rest of the team was basically healthy. This year, absolutely completely differ year. Nothing went right.

Every everyone was injured. To lose the Darius, to lose Jayarra the first month of the season and basically have them missed they missed the rest of the regular season and get him back for the playoffs, and then losing some guys here and there to COVID positive tests too. That that got thrown in on top of all your regular injuries that that can happen in the course of

an NFL sea So the injuries are one thing. I'll tell you what it was though, now that I got a little bit more time to think about it, it was Kirk Cousins completing the past to Garrett Bradberry. That was the craziest thing. I saw this good one as levels, Uh the tight end there, I forget which one that was. The ball gets popped up and was there tight end? Yeah, good pick though, I like that. Yeah, that was That was nuts because everybody's staring at it, like what just happened?

That was? That was wild. It was it was the It was It was the you know, the Immaculate Reception Part two, except it wasn't Terry Bradshaw and Frank o' harris. It was Kirk Cousins and Garrett Bradberry and I forgot which reporter asked Amos about it, But you know, Amos lays this big old hit, big big I'm hit. You think you clean hit, but you think the play is over and then here's this three pound not charge and at you with the football. So yeah, that was the

craziest thing I saw. Yeah. My my pick, my pick is the is the ending to the Cincinnati game. All of the all of the missed field goals back and forth by by both teams and multiple I've never I have never watched a game that had that many walk off opportunities that were missed before the before a walk off opportunity then was good and they actually did walk

off the field finally like that, I mean. And it was something about in terms of the number of go ahead or game winning missed field goals within a certain amount of time in the fourth quarter, over time whatever, it did set a record like it was not the type of game that had ever happened before. And and I don't think we're ever going to see another one

like that. That was absolutely insane. No, And actually that was also the thing that told me that Evan McPherson is probably gonna be a pretty good kicker in this because you would have thought that, oh my gosh, this poor kid misses this kick. Yeah, Crosby. Crosby then finally makes one, makes the kick at the end, and Evan McPherson is not just you know, sitting on the bench, you know, like staring staring off into space, you know,

wondering like, oh my gosh, how did I cost? I mean, he's, as you said, he's going out there kind of joking around with Crosby like how like what just happened out there? That told me that that kids confident and certainly end up being the p f w A Rookie of the Year. And that uh yeah, and he drilled drilled the walk off game game winner to get the Bengals into the a f C Championship with that win, or the Tennessee Titans, which We're gonna get to those championship games in a moment.

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all year long. That's what keeps us having paychecks. And also, I did happen to get a gift card this year to cousins that I haven't used yet, So I think there's some shakes in my future here once it's not negative fifteen degrees outside. And I would say that that you should you should take me out for a sandwich, except everybody knows that I steal your sandwiches all the time. So yeah, and then Mark said I should take him

as well too, But yeah, we're even You're good, all right? Um. Championship weekend here wes Cincinnati at Kansas City, San Francisco at the l A. Rams, Although what I'm hearing is, uh, there are reports based on secondary market ticket activity that they're looking at potentially two thirds of SOFI Stadium being San Francisco fans on Sunday for the NFC Championship. That's sort of what's been leaking out. We'll see if it actually happens. But anyway, what was the worst idea of Mike,

Let's put you on the spot. What was the worst idea? Seventeen regular season games or putting two teams in l A. I thought you were going to say putting one team in l A or putting two teams in l A. Like, what was the what was the worst idea? Um? Yeah, I mean Sean McVeigh pleading pleading with the Rams fans not to sell their tickets because he knows that the

fans are going to overrun. That is, it's really not going to be a home game for the l A Rams, with the exception of really being in their home locker room probably and not having to get on not having to get on an airplane. But um, what was the question, how do you see these games playing? Who do you think who do you think will be playing in the Super Bowl. Out of those four teams, I think Kansas City's winning it. So that so that makes it so

that I believe that they're going to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Um, do I have a coin you're gonna flip that NFC the third meeting in the in the NFC West between I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to Rams just because I'm not saying it's gonna because of the fans. But it's really difficult to be good teams three times in the same season as a tall task for San Francisco

to actually be able to do that. I saw that stead already that they're the first team in NFL history now to close the season with three straight wins over teams with at least twelve victories. I learned that from the internet. Uh so to make that the fourth you know, to go Rams, Dallas Packers Rams again, that's a that's something else. If they do it there there nobody's underdog in the Super Bowl. But I just feel like the Rams caught onto something. Man. I feel like Matthew Stafford

is in one of those rhythms right now. They got to clean up the run game. They have to minimize the mistakes. But defensively they can stop San Francisco, So can they get the points that they need? I agree with you, I think it's uh. I think it's going to be Kansas City against Los Angeles. We're gonna at a rematch of that highest scoring Monday night football game ever from a few years ago. Obviously it will be with a different Rams quarterback now that Matthew Stafford is

there instead of Jared Goff. But it seems like that's uh, that's where this uh, that's where this is headed. But who the heck knows? Right? I mean, um, but what

is exciting? I'm interested to see. I'm interested to see how Stafford does because, as I mentioned before, he finished the regular season on a in a bad rut of turning the ball over and obviously he enters the postseason with a ton of pressure on him as a quarterback who's never a veteran quarterback and very accomplished quarterback who's never won a postseason game. Before. He gets that monkey off his back against Arizona, the Cardinals did not play well.

He wins that. Then he puts together a really, really tremendous performance against Tampa Bay on the road last week and then survives and and makes the big plays at the end to make up for all of his teammates fumbling the ball over the place. And now suddenly it's just it's it seems like all of you know, the whole narrative about Matthew Stafford and the pressure on him and everything. He's he's in a he's in a different

place now heading into this game. It just feels like and I'm very curious to see if he can take this to the finish line, which is which is what the Rams, which is what the Rams got him for. And you mentioned the Rams defense too. Von Miller. When the Rams played here at Lambeau, von Miller had fairly recently joined their roster and I believe was kind of

dealing with an ankle injury. Watching the Packers offensive film Rams defensive film from that game, von Miller was a complete non factor really in that game against the Packers. Von Miller is a big time factor. Um, He's back to being looking like the old von Miller now and him being added to what was already a pretty good

Rams defense. I think the Rams are in uh. I think the Rams are in pretty good position to h to pull this off if Aaron Donald keeps his hands off of the opposing offensive lineman's head and neck area. I like this. The Los Angeles Rams chances here down the stretch. They listen. Man, we talked about being all in. I don't believe in it, but the Rams are all in, Like this is it. They're on there like they didn't take out a second moregin. They took out like a

third one this thing. So they gotta win. Yeah, absolutely, well. We just set the record, I believe, for the longest unscripted episode in the long six years of was it five years or six years we've been We've done this for six years, six years. Let's say. I can't even I can't even keep track anymore. But with that, we are going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. We will be back at some point

during the off season on a whim who knows. Just stay tuned to Packers dot com, where we have all the coverage of your favorite team, the Green Bay Packers. It's all there for you for West. I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody, and for tuning in all season long. We will see you next time.