#654 Packers Unscripted: Minicamp week

the mandatory mini camp. So we'll do another show later this week after a couple of the mini camp practices and give our impressions of what we see out there on the practice field. But to this point, two weeks of O t a s are in the books. What are your impressions of these spring practices to this point. Well, first and foremost, I love when you mentioned, you know, Marv was gone. He got to go to Jamaica. Yes, your time, your time off is coming, You're time go

to Florida. And then I've just been here the entire time, joined this wonderful spring we've been having in Wisconsin. Uh No, but you know it was interesting. O t A s are always uh, you know, there's there's little narratives you can draw from, there's little nuggets of information that you can glean. But this year is a little bit different than maybe any o t I have ever covered, Mike because of the amount of veterans that weren't here during

the first two that were open to the media. Historically, I think that's been something where a lot there was a lot of veteran turnout. The workout bonuses obviously are predicated on that. But we're kind of in that space right now after not after because I understand I don't want to get people upset, you know, the COVID pandemic

all that still ongoing. But in terms of being able to have a physical offseason program again, uh, there's certain guys that have just wanted to train on their own and will be in this town this week for mini camp. So we've got to see a lot more younger players and I think we've seen in the past. We've got to see Jordan's love leading this offense once again and really seeing how these rookies have been integrated a lot faster into some of the first teamwork than what we've

seen in the past. So in that way, it's been very interesting to see a lot of those young players get opportunities that traditionally we might not have seen here during the offseason program. Yeah, the thing that stood out to me that that strikes me as a little bit different from I guess you'd call it the pre covid O t A S that that we used to cover

um in prior years. Is that so far, And we'll see if it changes this week during minicamp, But so far we haven't seen really seen much eleven on eleven that is at full speed. Now, granted there are no pads right now. Everybody is just in you know, shorts, jerseys and helmets. There is no pads, so there's no full contact. But they also aren't doing doing a whole

lot of the eleven on eleven at full speed. And what I take away from that is is that Matt Lafleur and the coaching staff have decided that these these O t as this part of the off season has been for learning, not so much about competing, but it's about learning. It's it's it's learning the playbook, learning the offense,

trying to learn some of the nuances and whatnot. At a slower speed, so that when you do get potentially this week for a couple of days in mini camp, but then even more importantly in training camp starting in late July, when things are going full speed, the learning the learning stages have gone at a little bit slower pace, so that hopefully there's there's there's better retention, better understanding

of things for when they really want to move forward. Yeah, it's a really sharp observation too, because I don't really recall in the past, it almost seemed like the seven

on seven period was more competitive than the eleven on eleven. Uh. The seven on sevens is where we've probably seen the most uh the fastest, you know, play speed between the receivers and the defensive backs, with the offensive lineman going off and doing drills on their own, where the eleven eleven eleven on eleven has been more and more of a walk through type tempo or job tempo. So again, Matt la Fleur will be the first one to say it.

I mean, there is only so much you can learn from in terms of the competitive nature of this thing by you know, making guys go out there without pads and and just going through some of those emotions. But that being said, it is about the retention of this playbook and the fleur last week when he was talking

with the media. The thing that was interesting about that second o t A is that was the first time they were putting in installs that these guys had never seen before the week before during that first o t

A open to the media. Well, that one was some that something that they had already run through for the majority of the rookies during the rookie minicamp, and then you're getting used to lining up in the formations and and really like the first chapter in any kind of history book or any type of textbook that you might

have in school. So it'll be interesting when we talked to Matt Lafleur at the time in which we're taping this tomorrow, uh and and hearing what he's going to say exactly about how these guys took that information and they ran with it, because it is there's a lot

of young guys on this football team. There's a lot of new draft picks, there's a lot of you know, undrafted free agents trying to make their mark, and it's up to them to pick up that playbook as fast as they can develop their own process for absorbing all

the information and putting it to practice. Yeah, it seems that, uh, from what we've been hearing from Matt Lafleura and from the coaches and whatnot, there's, uh, there's definitely an onus on the players at this time of year, especially the young players that it's it's not just being there for the meeting and doing what you can on the practice field, but you do have to, you know, take that playbook home, do some homework, whether you're at the apartment or at

at the hotel or wherever some of these guys are staying. You know, there there's some homework assignments that go to this if you want to if you want to keep up on things and not not have the head swimming every day when you get into a new meeting, and then okay, here's a brand new offensive concept. All right,

you know, let's go. Well, if you don't have the if you don't have the other stuff down, or at least down to the to the point where where you don't have a whole bunch of questions floating around in your mind, then adding new stuff, um becomes all the more difficult. And and every every guy learns that his learns at his own pace, right, So so that's the coaches are trying to get a feel for these young

guys what they can handle. And eventually those are the types of things observations that that decide, Okay, what are the reps we're gonna give this guy in training camp, what packages? What personnel formations is he going to be in because of what he's absorbed in, what he understands. The incentive is there to try to absorb as much as you can because that's going to lead to the reps and the opportunities that you get later this summer.

And what was really the biggest question that people wanted to ask during this offseason program, Well, Aaron Rodgers isn't here right now? How is that affecting the young players? And then obviously Jordan loved getting a chance to run this offense with the starters once again as he did

last year. Rodgers wasn't present. So the one thing that you brought up and we've talked a lot about, is I personally, now that we've gotten a mini camp week, now that Rogers is back in the building, uh, you know, absent just a couple appearances here there, I actually think this has been a great way for these young guys to go about absorbing this thing, and not just the rookies, Mike. I think that's one other thing people talked a lot about,

is this okay getting the rookies understand the playbook. It's for a Marii Rodgers too. It's for you know, even an aj Dillon, guys that are still new to this thing in the grand scheme of things, being able to really pick up not only the core principle of this, you know, this academia that Matt Laflour is throwing at these players, but also the changes that are going to be implemented now that you don't have Vante Adams. Now that you are going to have it's a new season

with new concepts and new take on things. That's why I'm really excited to see, you know, getting potentially Rogers back in the fold this week, seeing how he he mingles now with this offense where you've had young guys now that I've had a month two months in this playbook to really absorb what they're what they're trying to put out on the field. Yeah, well Mini camp is this week, so uh, what are you what are your thoughts heading into this week. What are you gonna be

looking for out in the field. Obviously Aaron Rodgers is here, other some other veteran players. I think we're gonna see as far as what we've been able to see because because the media has not had access to all of the O t A practices, So I don't like to declare who's been here and who hasn't because we don't exactly know that in terms of every day of the week.

But I think we're going to get our first look at Sammy Watkins potentially um out on out on the practice field here in in the Packers unial reform, some other veterans perhaps that that we haven't seen to this point because this is the one mandatory week um of of the off season. And uh and presumably we'll hear from Aaron Rodgers after practice as well and see what he has to and this is gonna be the funniest thing. Well, it will be great to hear what Rogers has to say.

You know, we haven't actually sat down with him formally and talk since anything has really happened this offseason, so it'll be good to get his thoughts on, you know, the the grand, big scheme of what the Packers are going through. But the real story here is the Sammy Watkins of the world that we haven't talked to yet, him coming in in year nine, trying to show that he still has a lot left to offer. A Packers offense in in perimeter receiving game that has really nobody

set in a certain position. They could go a number of different ways with you know, the first guy in the depth charts for the eighth guy in the depth chart. Then you look at the defense, Mike Gyro Alexander is going to be here, Where is he lining up with this group? How are they deploying that Nickel package? As much as Rogers drives, you know, so many headlines and so much of the news around the Packers. We knew Aaron Rodgers was going to be here this year. It

wasn't like last year where there's so many questions. So it's more about these veterans that we haven't seen before, these guys potentially stepping into a new role. What do they look like when you get out there for this mini camp, because realistically, this is the closest you're gonna get to training camp and not necessarily the padded stuff. But in terms of getting into the playbook, being able to get into the early installs, that that's personally what

I'm gonna probably be looking at the most. You mentioned Alexander, and I want to get back to him in just a second, but I will take care of some sponsor business here. First 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 kurds, 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. The biggest piece of news coming out of this building since we signed off a few weeks ago, um from Unscripted for a brief hiatus, is that Jayar Alexander has a new contract. He will not be playing this season under the fifth year option. He has a long term deal. He is in the fold multiple years here for the Green Bay Packers and something that it's a great thing for Jayar Alexander and his family. Um, we saw some photos and whatnot.

He's certainly celebrated um with those closest to him. But also, you know, creates a little extra cap space foo for Green Bay because he his cap number now is not that fifth year option number, but really about half of

that with the way the new contract with structure. But and you mentioned it, how are the Packers going to line up these uh, these top three cornerbacks when you're talking about Jr, Alexander Russell, Douglas, Eric Stokes, the big question, Okay, you know who's going to play Who's going to play the slot? You know, we know the Packers are going to have five defensive backs on the field quite a bit.

That's just life in the NFL these days. A couple of weeks ago we heard from I guess is maybe almost a month ago now, we heard from Jerry Gray, the defensive backs coach, passing game coordinator on the defensive side, and he was asked the whole question about who's going to play the slot out of these top three cornerbacks

and whatnot. And he didn't say it in so many words, but the impression I got from the answer that he gave is the Packers are going to go about this more with regard to matchups of which cover guy they want to match up against a certain receiver, not who's lining up where it's gonna be, like, hey, twenty three, you've got him, twenty one, you've got him, and don't worry about where they line up. Just worry about guarding

your guy. That's that's what I took away from how Jerry Gray kind of danced around the whole question of who's going to play the slot quote unquote, And you know why you're right about that because you look last year how the Packers utilized Kevin King. Kevin King had never played the slot before in any like substantial snaps during his time in Green Bay, he played both the nickel and the dime. By the end of the season, the inside positions. Uh. Jerry Gray even said it too.

If a guy can learn the outside, he's confident that same player can learn the inside. He doesn't make many qualms about Okay, well as this guy's situation fit the best, that's not necessarily the case. Yes, Chandon Sullivan mostly played that role the past few years, but I think when you look at the makeup of and Alexander, of a Stokes, of a Russeul Douglas, I think all those guys have different attributes that lend themselves to play in that position.

The most intriguing thing to me is the fact that the first time there was the thing. For his first four seasons in the National Football League, you've figured, Okay, Alexander's probably on the left side of this defense. That's the position that they they've typically wanted to shut down. That's where they're going to keep him. The idea of job moving around more is the most intriguing thing. Will he spell or shadow the top receiver every single week?

I don't know if that's even going to be the case, but the idea that you can't just kind of pigeonhole them to one spot, I think is going to make this defense really dynamic. You look at why I think Joe Barry was so successful in year one, whether it was the cornerbacks, defensive line, linebackers, anywhere. He was very multiple with how he used his players. He liked using two inside backer formations with being able to play off

potential blitz packages. Off of that, He'd liked being able to bring up a Kevin King and a dime package late in the season and almost use him as a pseudo inside backer. He was very creative with how he used the personality his fingertips and with how deep this group is this season. That to me is what is the most exciting part. They brought back a lot of pieces. Yes,

they lost to Darius Smith. I'm not saying that that's not a huge loss, but the amount of guys they brought back, Mike, compared to where I thought things were going to be at back in February, I'm blown away by the possibilities of the secondary and really this entire defense. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean we talked about this actually when the season, when the season wrapped up last year, when we're talking about the possibilities you know of can you can you

bring Rasul Douglas back? Like is he still going to be around? And this essentially what will be the Packers starting nickel secondary. Of the three corners were talking about Alexander Stokes and Douglas put him in whatever order you want to put him in, and then the two starting

safeties Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage. That's a nickel secondary that is a top five in that group that that rivals what the Packers had when Dom Caper's first came in in two thousand nine and took over this defense when he had Charles Woodson, Al Harris, Tremont Williams, Nick Collins, and then you know the other safety it was supposed to be Morgan Burnett, he got hurt as a rookie. But then there was Charlie Pepper. There was a Tarry

big Bi in that mix. But that you you really you have to go back that far in terms of in terms of that one through five of a Nickel secondary and the talent level, the depth of it UM now where the Packers go with the depth at corner and safety. Beyond that, there's some sorting out to do their Keyshawn Nixon from the Raiders UM brought came over kind of you know, familiar with with Rich Pisacci and what UM and what he's done on special teams and and he would appear to be potentially a big piece

of the special teams here in Green Bay. But he's going to be part of the cornerback depth mix. And you're and then you're looking at your looking at these young safeties like like a Sean Davis or Trek Carpenter who was who was just drafted. How the how the depth beyond those top five gets sorted out, will definitely be something to watch as the summer goes along. But that group of five, that group of five is as good as talented, as deep as the Packers have had

in a secondary in quite some time. You can't do this thing on paper. Matt Lafleur said that as much last week, but he did talk about on paper it does look really good, not just the secondary, at all three levels of this defense. You talk about, you know, this secondary being as deep as it's been since that

oh nine teams. Same can be said for inside linebacker, sam can be said for edge rush, or maybe even more so that it isn't just based on you know, Clay Matthews, there's another potential guy there with Preston Smith and Rashawn Gary. The defensive front, like, this is the best defensive line on paper during my ten years covering this team, when you factor in that they finally added a first round pick and then also being able to

get Jaron Reid in here too. Um, you have massive defensive linemen that that are athletic, I mean, so you have to play this thing out. I think really it just comes down to what you mentioned. It's this can you keep this unit healthy? And that was the problem last year. Now, by the good graces of the football gods, they were able to find Russell Douglas. If you don't have Russeul Douglas, maybe the season goes in a different direction. When you lose Jayre for literally the remainder of the

regular season. Isn't that just crazy? Though? I mean, I don't mean to interrupt you, but no, we're when we're looking at the landscape of things here and we're talking about you know, this, this secondary and particularly this this top three cornerback group of Alexander Douglas and and Stokes and what the Packers are going to take in two and you know, if Alexander doesn't get hurt, Russell Douglas

never puts on a Green Bay Packers uniform. And not only that, now Douglas has a long term contract of his zone to go with Alexander's new long term contract. Now these guys are potentially going to be playing together in that in the at that cornerback position for this Packers defense for multiple years. And uh and they never set foot on a field together until the playoff. And it only happened. Yeah, and it was only the eight

snaps that Alexander played. It's just the way things can go, the way things can change week to week, you know, month to month, a year to year. It it always, it always fascinates me because because last year, at this time, we were having a completely different conversation about where the Packers were with their cornerback position, who they had, and then bringing in a first round draft pick and Eric Stokes and you didn't quite know how he was going

to fit in. Now look where we are twelve months later. Well, and I want to bring this step up to before we move on when we talk about, you know, Brian Goodkins hitting on his draft picks, when you talk about him signing draft picks, I think one thing that's really gotten overlooked is the quality of free agents he's signed within those draft class is that aren't necessarily guys that

were breaking the bank. In the case I'll make for you, as the two thousand sixteen draft, Deveandre Campbell, you add him now in with Kenny Clark, with Dean Lowry. You look at the seventeen draft for Seul Douglas now paired up with Aaron Jonesen, You're you're looking at your Robert Tonyans is a fifth year guy. Guy going into his fifth year now, Um, you know the year before that, Alan Lazard is a fourth year player now. Along with Gary and Savage, they've found ways to augment this roster

with really talented players that haven't committed fortune. So that's the key. As much as it's important to have Aaron Rodgers and and to have you know, Pro bowlers and all pros and guys making plays all over the field, you have to be able to find diamonds in the rough to the roster's too big, there's too many players, there's too many injuries. And that's one thing since Brian Goodkin's took over in eighteen, he has been able to

identify those players with his personnel staff. Yeah. Absolutely, there's no question about it. One other topic to touch on before we let before we go today, because when we left last time, it hadn't happened yet, and I'm talking about the schedule release. Um. The schedule is out for two week five is the game in London. UM, Packers have are scheduled for five primetime games. Um. If I were a betting man, I would say they'll be at least one more that gets flexed into prime time to

make it six for us here in Ino. But the schedule, um, what what were your what was your initial reaction? What were your first impressions when you saw it? Well, my first initial reaction was I have a much different reaction to this than Mattel Floor and Brian good couns. I was thinking, this is not a very good schedule in terms of how it lays out for the Packers. But as it turns out, it seems like what Floor and and Good counts in the organization are actually okay with it.

The Week fourteen, by to me, is a really, really, really long time from the start of the regular season. But I think the Packers really liked it last year having Week thirteen and so um a year after having the latest bye they've ever had, they found a way to actually make it even longer this year. And they're thinking, is is that you know they play the Giants so early in the season, they were just very cautious about

taking a bye that early. Now during an eighteen week season. Yeah, with the with the London game being in Week five, they were they were not in favor of taking the bye immediately after the London trip because that would be week six and then you have to get all the way through week eighteen then without a break. And uh, and so they did not request to have a bye

after London, and uh. What struck me about it not only the the full bye week not being until week fourteen, but the Thursday night game, which is sort of your quote unquote mini by because you play on a Thursday night and everybody gets the weekend off. That's not until week eleven. So when this regular sea and starts with the London trip mixed in, the packers are playing ten consecutive weeks, then the eleventh week being a short week on a Thursday night, before you get any kind of

a break. But the plus side on the back end of that is that you get the mini buy after that Thursday night game, and then a few weeks later you get your full by. You have two significant opportunities for rest, recovery recuperation in the back half of the schedule. As long as you can you know, both healthwise, position wise, record wise, you can survive these first ten eleven games

before you get any kind of a break. If you get yourself in a good position there, then the rest, the recovery the potential health of the team can be there for for the stretch run because because of the rest, because of the rest being all pushed until later and something else. I think that it's really, you know, kind of stood out to me throughout this in higher process

is we know the injury rate with the NFL. Guys get banged up, and if you can't avoid that at least, it's very difficult to Yeah, you might as well take this thing on the back end of it and give yourself the best chance as you get into December and January to get healthy. I you know, I can't imagine a scenario in which the Packers have any worse injury luck than what they had in one. I mean that season in and of itself was right up there with what they've had some bad ones, but I mean when

they had some awful look. So I mean that that aspect of it is something that you hope history doesn't repeat itself and it will get better. There A c l s were twice the number what the average is in in a in a you know, a season. So I think it's just that gauntlet to getting to December. Uh, and it's going to take a lot of hard work. It's going to take a lot of mental toughness, but seventeen game regular season is going to be a daunting challenge, Mike.

We've said it since the day that they added that game to the schedule twenty weeks, as Mason Crosby was even talking about last week. Even for a kicker there, that's taxing. So it's gonna be, you know, a battle of attrition, and the teams that are smart about it, that can manage those waters the best, ultimately they're gonna be the ones at the end of the season standing toll. Yeah.

Another another interesting element and we've seen this in the past, although it wasn't the case last year when the Packers opened with the game in Jacksonville against New Orleans. But this year, you only have the six division games right to each against the Bears, Vikings, and Lions. Well, weeks one and two our division games, Weeks seventeen and eighteen

our division games. So four of your six division games are you know, right out of the gate and then right at the end, and then all those weeks in between you only have two division games, um that are that are spread out in there. It's just it's kind of interesting it's interesting to me how that fell. But we had talked about it before. With regard to the opponents on the schedule. I mean, you're talking about going, you know, going to Offalo hosting Tennessee on a Thursday night.

You're playing um you know on packers knew they were going to be going to Miami, but now they know it's going to be on Christmas um down in in South Florida. So just a lot of really interesting, a lot of interesting, you know, maybe borderline quirky things with the with the way this schedule is. But now it's like, okay, there it is. It's all laid out, and and all Matt la Fleur cares about is week one against the Vikings, and he's not even going to talk about anything else.

And and frankly, I don't blame him, no, And and that wasn't just a line of bs. And he said, he's like, I don't even really know who's on the schedule for a week two. It really is to that level of specificity. The other thing I'll say too, and I understand it. We're still gonna get the questions. There's no way to avoid it. But when you have seventeen regular season games last year affirmed to me that I don't want any valuable, established veteran playing in the preseason.

To me, Aaron Rodgers has played, you can play ten more years. I think he's played his last preseason snaps. I agree, they're just valuable. And the people that come out and say, well, what happens if New Orleans happens again, then New Orleans happens again, Right, you can't And and what did that? What did that? What did that blowout lost to New Orleans mean? In the end, absolutely nothing.

The Packers got the number one seed in the NFC, So if they had won, if they had won that game, or if they had lost a close one against New Orleans, it ended up having zero, zilch, no impact on the season whatsoever. Now, again, it's different this year because you're opening with a division opponement, right, so there's a little bit there's a little bit different feel in that regard. But I am told, but I am totally with you. It's a seventeen game season. This thing, this thing is

an absolute marathon. And and uh, I mean I I sort of felt, you know you mentioned earlier. I felt from the day that Jordy Nelson tore his a c L in Pittsburgh in a preseason game, that that would be the last time that would be the last time that something that that the Packers would play their starters for any sort of significant tie in the preseason. It is simply not worth it anymore, Jordy Nelson. Absolutely. You know,

the other guy doesn't get enough credit for this. Desmond Bishop changed the entire complexion of that young man's career absolutely twelve. Who knows what Desen Bishop would have accomplished for the next three or four years if he doesn't tear his hamstring basically off the bone out in San Diego in in a in a preseason game. Yeah, to me, it's not worth it. Week one, week two, week three, whatever. People want to win a super Bowl, Let's win a

super Bowl. I'm not I'm not very concerned about being the champions of the September, you know. So that's just me. I hear you, I hear you. Well. We will be back in a couple of days to talk about our observations from Mini Camp, but for now we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script and be sure to follow all of our coverage of the

team all week long. The rest of the off season, we got all kinds of stuff for you on packers dot com for West, I'm Mike, Thank you for tuning in everybody to see you next time.