#667 Packers Unscripted: Minnesota musings

It's a three pm Central Time kickoff. Before we get to talking about this opponent in a big division game here in week one, a little bit of an injury update as far as where things stand with the Packers, and I guess when I say update, maybe it's more to say there's still some injury uncertainty with exactly where things are gonna go this week with Green Bay. Hearing from Matt Lafleur at the beginning of the week, it sounds like David Bakti is working his way into the

eleven on a levin the team reps in practice. Not so sure about where things are with Elton Jenkins. We did find out last week it sounds like Robert Tunny in at tight end is has been pretty close, if not completely full go in in the eleven on eleven. Also still kind of in a wait and see mode as to what may or may not happen with Christian Watson, him having missed all of the preseason games, hasn't played in an NFL game yet, what will be his role

comes Sunday. And also at wide receiver, Al Lazard currently not practicing. The last couple of practices that we've that we've been able to watch, he's been off to the side. It's an unspecified injury. Nothing about it has been discussed.

But on balance, I think you have to say the Packers look pretty darn healthy for this Week one matchup, But there is a little bit of uncertainty here and there in a couple of spots, which is what is going to happen when you have a fifty three man roster, And certainly when the Packers went into the camp having a few of these guys and n f I and p U p uh, this was kind of how it

was all going to sort of lay out. But the one big positive that I think Green Bay has going for itself compared to last year is you know, much fewer season ending injuries, you know, last year, or a couple of a c ls in camp. There are some ankle injuries in camp that wipes some guys out. They pretty much got to the starting line here unencumbered. That's

a positive first step. Now, certainly I know a lot of people out there and I've been seeing it an inbox and we've gotten the tweets people worried about the al lazard thing. We don't know and and I don't think that means it's not a big deal. I don't think that means it is a big deal. I think it just the packers are not obligated to give an injury report until Wednesday practice report with the designations to

follow on Friday. The kudos of the media corps, many of our brethren and in journalism, uh, they tried six different ways from Sunday to to get some information out on Matt the floor on on Monday morning, and the floor wasn't having it in a very positive and respectful way.

Just they're not going to go there right now. So I think the build up in the process, I've you know, we'll talk about some of these other things soon enough, but just listen and even mentioned that Wednesday practice and how you know, some guys were breathing kind of heavy again, you know, trying to get back into the football shape, trying to get prepared for a six quarter or a four quarter excuse me, hopefully four quarter game in Minnesota.

That's where this is all about. It's about ramping up, It's about being prepared and having as many of those playmakers available as possible. Yeah, well, if you prepare for a six quarter game, you're definitely going to be ready for a four quarter game. But let's talk a little bit about the vikings here Week one opponent. We discussed this a little bit in the off season as well.

What's what's interesting about this with Minnesota to me is that you have a new regime at the top, a new general manager, a new head coach, regime change in Minnesota, but yet the cast of characters on the field is

going to look awfully familiar. When you're talking about Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thalan on the offensive side, and guys like Eric Kendricks and Harrison Smith and Patrick Peterson at cornerback who's been in Minnesota for for a little bit now, similar cast of characters to what we've seen. Daniel Hunter another one on defense, but mixing in now a couple of former Green Bay Packers on that defensive

side's Darius Smith Channon Sullivan. Just overall, what are your impressions of sort of where things are headed with with the Minnesota Vikings right now? You know, same deck of cards, a different dealer. Is sort of the way I've looked at this all week. I mean, when you look at you know, Kevin O'Connell, it's gonna be interesting. Probably hearing gave floor talk about him this week because these are

two guys that didn't work together at all. Yeah, but they basically followed the same exact script to be coming head coaches, spending time in Washington. Both of them worked it for you know, Sean McVeigh at the Los Angeles Rams. So the process as for these guys, even though Conna played a couple of years in the league, both quarterback backgrounds, it sort of makes sense. I mean, this is that

Shanahan Tree we've talked about. The interesting thing for him is the fact that offensively, you know, you can say whatever you want about Kirk Cousins, but justin Jefferson just turned twenty three years old. Delvin Cook when he's healthy is still among the best running backs in the National Football League, and I think they feel better about their

offensive line. So there aren't a lot of situations you're gonna walk into as a first year head coach where you have a receiver that I think a lot of people would say is in the conversation for being among the best at his position right now despite how young he is. Remember all those positive things that Davante Adams talked about last year with him Delvin Cook again, that a guy that can control the pace of a game

if a defense lets him do that. The big question mark for me is defensively, what this is gonna look like, because even when things weren't going great for Minnesota, you always could hang your hat on a Mike Zimmer defense. The double A app looks strong linebacker play, strong cornerback play. In its prime, that sort of deteriorated. So now you

have ed Donnitel in there. You bring in you know, Mike Smith is the outside linebacker coach, you have Mike Petton as the the oversight in the senior administrator role. That's gonna be really interesting because I think the biggest storyline that's gonna kind of permeate through this week is

the Packers matching up against Darius Smith. And if you're looking at the Minnesota Vikings and a conference that's wide open in a division where it's probably not gonna take a lot to run away from Chicago and Detroit, Minnesota still very much in the thick of this thing. Yeah, and it's interesting when you talk about the these two head coaches sort of coming from the Sean McVeigh tree,

so to speak. And there's been some talk in the locker room already about, well, you know, how similar will this Vikings offense under Kevin O'Connell be to what the Packers have been practicing against in training camp up all summer long. And Devandre Campbell, um me, Bill Hubert from s I, a few other reporters. We were at Campbell's locker after practice on Monday, and he gave a really interesting answer to that whole similarities with the offense thing.

He said, yeah, we're probably going to see some things that we recognize. There will be some things that are similar, but the Vikings have just as the Packers had with Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams and Aaron Jones and all this. When Matt Lafleur took over. The Minnesota Vikings have a completely different cast of of the perimeter weapons, the skill

position players, whatever you want to call it. When you talk about Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson and Adam thieland and I know they're trying to get Er Smith back at at tight end. So yeah, there there are concepts, there are similarities, but but offenses are still going to be tailored to the personnel that's running them, right that

That's what the best coaches do. They find what their personnel does best, and then they get that too, uh, they get that to fit um from a conceptual standpoint, So as much as the Packers are going to have some idea of the motions and and all the pre snap stuff, you don't really know how this offense is gonna look with Kirk Cousins taking the snaps and Dalvin Cook taking the handoffs and Justin Jefferson and Adam Fieland catching the passes until you really, you know, see what

the first quarter, quarter and a half look like out there. And that's just one of the one of the challenges here in Week one for green Bay going up against a team with a brand new head coach and a new regime. And that's why it's such a great litmus test for this defense, this Packers defense that we've talked so much about. We've spilled so much ink over it during the offseason, the expectations, what they think this unit could be the starting eleven of that Nickel package that

we've talked about so much. Um, there's a lot of weapons you have to neutralize in this game, but there's also a lot of opportunities to I mean, I do look at it as you know, Minnesota has had a hard time getting this offensive line right when when we've set it time and time again all of these shows for the last five six years, when you pressure Kirk Cousins, the direct impact of the outcome of that game when he is seeing you know, a lot of guys in

his face and you know, facing some sacks and pressure and turnover generating place. That's been the key to Green Bay winning these games during the Kirk Cousins era against Minnesota, and they have to get back to their bread and butter. At the same time, I think the curious thing for me is also going to be seeing this Packers offense.

You know, you talk about how different you know this, this could potentially look with Kevin O'Connell now running the show in Minnesota, this Packers offense now without Davonte Adams, maybe more on the running backs, maybe depending on how everything works out, David Box tr Elton Jenkins back or both.

There's so many question marks, which is somewhat expected for a Week one opener, But in terms of the personnel aspect of it, what the offenses, defenses, and even to some extense special teams, the form they're going to take probably one of the more intriguing ones I think I've covered here in recent memory. Yeah, and what you said as well with regard to Minnesota's defense, they're they're the

familiar faces. They're the new additions, like as a Darius Smith, who having essentially not played all of if he's healthy, you know that he's also fresh, right, he's going to be as ready to go um as anyone. And uh and and a guy like Channon Sullivan who had a really important role here in Green Bay secondary for multiple seasons. That's a big boost for a team like Minnesota to get a proven guy like that, whether they're using him

as a number three, number four corner. I'm not sure exactly what, you know, how their depth chart lays out, but that's a big boost because that's a that's the type of depth piece that in the last couple of years of the Mike Zimmer era, they didn't really have that at cornerback. You sort of knew your best chance against Minnesota was, Okay, spread them out and test the depth in the secondary and then really go after him. And we've seen Aaron Rodgers have some big games in

recent years against that defense. Now we'll see Daniel Hunters, Darius Smith being the guys coming off the edges. You know, Harrison Smith back there, you know, whether he's playing center field or on the line of scrimmage. But it's going to be interesting to see just what this Minnesota defense looks like with with a few new pieces, but but yet being mixed in with with the old guard, so to speak. And if I may, Mike just jump in.

I mean, that was the one piece that fell out of place for Minnesota that never got fixed during the Zimmer era when you lose Xavior Rows and Trey Wayne's and they not saying these were l pro type corners, but they had a process and it just got it unraveled so fast, and it all happened at the same time, and they ran into a scenario where nobody stepped up

in that interim. Now Patrick Peterson comes in. They do seem like they found a little bit more of an identity there, But to me that that's where this thing starts for them, because if the next fusion is cool for Daniel Hunter, that's a big injury. But let's say everything's chill there and he can come back and be the player. He's still only twenty seven years old or

whatever it is. The back surgery for Zitarius Smith, they have a feel pretty good idea, but what they're gonna get out of that pass rush, it's about what's behind it. And even as good as Harrison Smith has been throughout the course of his career the last few seasons, it just hasn't been enough. Well, I'll take care of a

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the spot here with a little hip mystery trivia question. Here, Wes Bud Grant. No, how many times? How many times prior to this year have the Packers and Vikings opened the season against one another? How many? Would you say? Okay, so a couple of years ago, was it when it was at Minnesota? That was the first time the Packers had ever opened in Minnesota. I'm trying to remember how that worked. I'm gonna say it's six very close this,

this will actually be the eighth. There was a weird stat like that where it was either Green they hadn't opened there or the Vikings hadn't open here. Ever, no, that yeah, the Packers hadn't opened in Minnesota? Like was that was? Yes, it was the first. It was the first game of the of the COVID season with the with the remember schedule or at least day. I was walking around the office all puffy chest because I felt

so good about that. Said, hey, did you know since the Packers have never opened the season at Minnesota, and then the all the interns looked at me like you are old and you are a loser. Well, it's interesting because if you look at you look at the history. Now, this this game will sort of go down in history, not necessarily from the Packers side, but from the Viking side. It's Kevin O'Connell's first game as the head coach of

the Minnesota Vikings. Right you look at these openers, as we just talked about, was the first game of the COVID season with no fans in the stands. Two thousand eight, Week one, Aaron Rodgers first game as a starting quarterback two thousand and three, the first game in the redeveloped, renovated lambeau Field was against the Minnesota Vikings. Here in Green Bay, Mike Holmgren's first game as the Green Bay

Packers head coach was against the Minnesota Vikings. And the other one of significance was nineteen sixty two, which was the first game when the Packers were defending their first title under Vince Lombardi. They won the championship in sixty one. In their first title defense began against the Minnesota Vikings with a big victory. But the interesting thing you look at since that first game of Mike Holmgren's head coaching

career nine two. There was also an opener in ninety four, and then I said, oh, three oh eight in two thousand and twenty. All of those last five Packers Vikings openers have been decided by nine points or less. Like there haven't been haven't been any blowouts in there. Now in the Packers had a pretty good handle on that game, but yet that game was so back and forth in Minnesota, you know, put up a couple of touchdowns in the fourth quarter and started to make you think, oh, what's

going to happen here? That ended up being a nine point victory for Green Bay and that's actually the largest margin of victory in a Packers Vikings opener um in in the last thirty years. But um, definitely. Uh. It's always a different feeling, isn't it when you open the

season against a division rival. You've got seventeen games to play here and only six of them are against your division, but then one of them and in the Packers case, the first two weeks Minnesota and Chicago, you're getting these division games right off the bat. There's no there's no time to waste to you gotta get into it right away. Yeah, yeah,

you're absolutely right. It's I've kind of gone back and forth on this because how can you ever say a game is a must win in a seventeen game season now where the things go so long, and even last year the Packers get you know, blown out of the water by New Orleans, but then the Saints fall apart and don't make the playoffs and Jameis Winston tears is a c L. The Packers end up getting the number one seed in the NFC anyway, But this year, what's gonna be very interesting is to go back to back

in the division, to go out of the gates, not only having to host Chicago at home, which I can't even imagine there's any scenario that plays out on Sunday where the Packers are not heavily favored against the Chicago Bears, knock on wood, everyone's health notwithstanding. But this game, you know, playing at the US Bank Stadium, playing on the Vikings home turf has always been a challenge. Green Bay got

a little bit better at it. Last year was kind of a step back, but I look at this as a huge opportunity though too because if you come out of the gate and you knocked down Minnesota, which looks to be your biggest competition in this division, the one team that isn't in complete overhaul mode, you knock them down a peg, and then you take care of busines against Chicago. It doesn't get any better that as far

as starting off a season. So so, but at the same time, if it doesn't work out that way, I'm not going to be like screaming, you know, panic either. But it's I just look at it. It's such a great opportunity to sort of set the tone for your season, um while also taking whatever air there might be out of that balloon for Minnesota, because I think there are a lot of folks that side of the Mississippi River that feel like, you know, with the moves they made,

that that's enough to get us back in the hunt. Here. Yeah, it's it's interesting because the from uh not that anybody has ever not fired up in week one, but I think when you've had the Mike zimmer era had certainly had its moments of success, but there's you you know, there's going to be a new just a new energy and a new attitude and everything that a new regime is going to bring and then when you get when you have that and you get to open at home.

Right when Matt Lafleur took over, first game was against the Division ravel against the Chicago Bears, and it was in prime time, but it was down in Chicago. You didn't really get a sense of of of you know, the home crowd and maybe the different energy that would be a part of things with the new regime because the opener was on the road. The Vikings are getting the Vikings are getting this opener at home. From a from an atmosphere standpoint, um, this is going to be

this is going to be a significant challenge. You know, they're going to be moments in this game, whether it's you know, Hunter Smith coming off the edge, or whether it's you know Dalvin Cook maybe busting or run or Justin Jefferson who had a big game um in Minnesota last year against the Packers, you know, making a big

play down the field. The Packers are going to have to you know, they're going to have to weather a storm at some point in this game because if Minnesota get something going, that crowd is going to get behind him. It's week one, it's their new head coach, the new regime. All of that, Packers are going to have to weather that storm and that becomes that becomes as big a test in itself as as much as the opponent. When we know how important the opponent is when it's someone

in your own division. You know what's exciting about this season though for the Packers. Whatever problems Minnesota presents, green Day actually has an answer for it. You talk about Justin Jefferson, without a doubt, as I just said four minutes ago, one of best young receivers in league, one of the best receivers in the league. Get rid of the qualifiers, Well, they got JR. Alexander. They have a pretty dependable back end. If you want to go over the other side of the field, I think Eric Stokes

likes his chances. You look at Delvin Cook. Packers have two of the biggest, fastest linebackers in the league. Now behind that defensive line, they have two outside linebackers who are a hundred percent committed to spilling gaps and stopping the run and setting edges. The Packers defensively match up

with this really well. And with all due respect to some really good unit screen they had in the past, there were some years where Adrian Peterson he was gonna step on the Metrodome turf and you're gonna hope that he wasn't gonna gain too many yards on it. You know, there were some years there where you're just kind of holding your breath, like, Okay, can these guys do what they need to do to win this football game. Packers have to stay healthy, they have to play within themselves,

and they have to execute. But my goodness, when you look at how that defense is constructed in these expectations that have been built for it, that's also the exciting thing that maybe Minnesota does bring their best shot on Sunday and it may not matter. Yeah, I think the one I think the one thing that always puts me on edge, maybe more so with Week one. And we know this Packers defense is talented, it's loaded there, they

believe in themselves. There are a lot of high expectations, but you wonder at the very beginning of the season, how are they going to tackle right, because that can take a little bit of time to get going. In Minnesota didn't play a bunch of their starters in the preseason either, They're going to be in the same boat

as the packers as far as this goes. But when you're talking about and I say it specifically with the tackling, because when you're talking about a guy like Dalvin Cook, he's really hard to tackle in any week of the season, even as as seasoned and as ready as your defense might be to take on a running back like that. This is where this is where your your fundamentals get tested because you don't necessarily know what they're gonna run. There's gonna be a lot of unscouted looks. You have

to you have to stick to your fundamentals. Read your keys and play ball, was the was the line that Dvandr Campbell had at his locker. It's read your keys and play ball. But it's also the fundamentals being tested with the tackling, because Dalvin Cook breaking a tackle, or Adam Thiel and breaking a tackle, Suddenly you can be in uh, you can be in a world to hurt.

Now obviously it cuts both ways, um, but but it's it's the kind of thing again when you know, a broken tackle gets the crowd all riled up and and and all that, and packers are gonna you know, take a deep breath, settled down weather the storm. I think they're just gonna be They're gonna be moments in this game that are that are really really going to test Um, that are really going to test green Bay on both

sides of the ball. I'm excited to see exactly how they respond, and especially those first thirty minutes, right I mean just seeing you know, who comes out fast, who you know we will getting the keys to victory later this week. But you know, you look at green Bay right now. You know you mentioned all the things that Cook does well, certain how dangerous Jefferson can be when he has an open field in front of him if there if a guy you know, he breaks, that makes

that first guy miss. Conversely, you know, you wonder what Aaron Jones out in space could do. You wonder what a j. Dylon can do if he breaks a couple of tackles in the middle of the field. Those first through haymakers that get thrown in this game, I think are going to be so important because you know, the no ons are known here. I don't think you're gonna see anything that's gonna surprise you too much. With Kirk Cousins, I don't think there's gonna be a whole lot with

Aaron Rodgers. You know what what those guys offer at the quarterback position. But it's seeing how the offensive makeups on both sides of the ball, um how that takes form. After a preseason in which you talked about Green Bay, yet there wasn't a game where Minnesota didn't have fewer than thirty starter thirty players not playing. They took a very deliberate path too, So I don't think you can do the Hey, you know, do they she played starters

or whatever? In the preseason, Minnesota said everybody. They barely played Alexander Madison. So that aspect of it is just going to be so interesting because, as you said, Mike, when you when you have all these unscouted looks and a new coaching staff, I mean, it does create a lot of questions for how does Kevin O'Connell and ed Donna Tell and these coaches in Minnesota, how do they play with this clay that had already been there? What form are they going to actually bring out of it? Yeah,

and we're gonna We're gonna see. And then the rematch against the Vikings is not for four months or whatever it is, right, Yeah, And then uh, and then it'll be three before the Packers and Vikings see one another again. But with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team all week long here in Week one leading up to the show down with the Vikings on Sunday, we'll have it all for you on

Packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.