#709 Packers Unscripted: Historic anticipation

from different locations at lambeau Field and wes. OTAs are underway this week for the Green Bay Packers, and not long after we get done recording this episode, we will be headed out to the practice field for the one ota per week that is open to the media that is later today, and we have a lot to talk about in terms of storylines things will be watching for over the next few weeks when we do get to watch practices. But we have to begin with the news

that broke yesterday afternoon. Late in the day, it was announced by the NFL that the host city for the twoenty twenty five NFL Draft will be none other than green Bay, Wisconsin. And I'm a Wisconsin native. I've lived in Green Bay for roughly twenty five years now. You are a Green Bay area native. You grew up here, you have lived here your entire life, you went to

college here. All of that tell me what this means to a Green Bay native For an event of this magnitude to be coming to northeast Wisconsin.

whole referendum was happening about the atrium. You know, in Bob Harlan practically knocking on doors trying to get drum up, you know, interest and support for you know that the Saale Ells tax changes the amount of money that was gonna be pumped into Lambeoufield. And I'll never forget my grandfather saying that, you know, he enjoyed all these years of Green Bay Packers football. This is the move that is going to set up my lifetime of Packers football.

And it was so true because not only did the Atrium become a huge success in the renovations, I think, honestly at Lambelefield have set the standard for the National Football League and how you can have a stadium and hold true to your character and your history. But also continually improve it, right, and then we saw Title Town go up, and we've seen the Rush Expo go up

across the street. We've seen Green Bay grow in so many ways, Mike, and for it to finally culminate in an NFL Draft coming here, I just thought about how exciting the last twelve months have been for Packer fans to finally go to London for a game the last team in the International Series. Mike. That wasn't because the NFL wasn't interested in it. It's because every away team in the National Football League? What did it? Let the Packers go?

gonna be a three day celebration of football. Honestly, a whole week long celebration of football.

gonna be involved. You have Title Town across once, you have the Rush buildings across the other street, everything's going to be you know, in use I think in some way, shape or form. We just don't know all the details

and how that's going to shake out just yet. But it's it's it's really gonna be something when you look at what has happened the last couple of years, the crowd that has been seen on television for the draft, especially for those first two rounds on Thursday night and Friday night, and and to think about think about that kind of atmosphere going on, as you said, a celebration of football here in Green Bay and surrounding Lambeau. It's going to be pretty awesome.

handing people beer during race. This city, this community, the way that they embrace one another on an average day, let alone a game day or a major sporting event or something like this where it's potentially a once in a lifetime type of deal. With the NFL Draft coming here, you're gonna have not just all the community leaders, not just the green Packers, You're gonna have the whole city of Green Bay and the surrounding towns and suburbs all

being completely all in on this. And you know, I think the Aaron BnB, you know, rates and things in Green Bay are just gonna be you know, incredible, and how many people are probably gonna open up their homes to this thing as well. And that's the aspect that I don't think a lot of people can appreciate if you've only just kind of, you know, just sort of

dropped in and tried to offer an analysis here. I think back to twenty eleven too, Mike, you were well in time, you know, entrenched in your role as a Packers writer. I was just a little lowly quote taker. I'll never forget walking around lambeau Field during the Kickoff concert game before the Packers played the Saints. And I don't know if there's an aerial shot of that or not.

Maybe justin our producer can swoop it in. But it was just a massive humanity for the kickoff concert, for everything we have put on big events here in Green Bay, the EAA, what they do down in Oshkosh, This community in the state of Wisconsin has done this before. The Democratic National Convention was in Milwaukee. The Republican one, I think is gonna be in Milwaukee. We're not just some

little town that's never seen an event before. I joke to somebody on Twitter, this analogy will completely go over your head. But I was like, this isn't going to be John Snow and mans Raid are trying to get the figure out what to do with the wildlings and game of throne like they are going to know and have two years to prepare for this, and honestly, I just I think it's going to be a great exhibit of Green Bay and everything that this community stands for.

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of better, all right. Obviously, the biggest storyline of OTAs will be that you know, it's another step in the transition to Jordan Love as the starting quarterback. Right that being said, Jordan Love has been the number one quarterback for this offense during this period during OTAs for the last couple of years. So while we will certainly be watching that and we'll be talking to Jordan Love after practice, I believe today at his locker, I want to hit

on some other things just in general. And I made this comment in an inbox the other day as far as okay, what as a reporter, like, what do you look for when you go to the practice field at OTA? Is like what are you watching for? And in a very general sense, the first couple of things I look for are one, where are the rookies and particularly the draft picks lining up in terms of where's their spot

on the depth chart as things start right now? Is there anybody who's working with the first units when they go eleven on eleven? We may see Lucas van Nests doing that, we may not. I don't know, are they are they with the twos when the twos take the field? Are they back with the threes? So it's a matter of you know, and you don't put a whole lot of stock in it's their first practices other than rookie mini camp in the NFL. But you make those mental notes.

The other thing is, this is our first time to actually see the retur hearning players in person. And you always talk about and you hear about the jump from year one to year two that NFL players can make. Well, the first thing that we sometimes notice is a player whose body physically from year one to year two looks different.

It's sort of like, Wow, that guy, like he grew up really fast, so to speak, right, And I don't mean to disparage anyone who comes into the NFL as a young man, but you know what I'm talking about, There are guys whose bodies will look different than they did as rookies. They've had an offseason to rest and recuperate and then train and get ready for this time.

So those are a couple of the things in a general sense that I'll be watching for as we get a chance once a week for the next three weeks to see the players on the practice field.

completely different guy right now. But for me, I mean the biggest storylines that I think I'm going to be tracking.

As you said, you pay attention to where the rookies are, but it doesn't mean everything, right I am curious to see what they do with Lucas fans because realistically, I think the only other person that potentially could be running with the ones right now is you know, JJ and a Barre, and he's only in a second year, so it conceivably, you know, Vanas could be in that role across from Preston Smith right off the bat, kind of

like Darnell Savage in twenty eighteen. But the other thing I'm very interested to see play out is defensively, there is a huge spot open right now at safety. Rudy Ford is the incumbent. I think you would consider a guy that played in that role last year, but Jonathan Owens started seventeen games, played almost a thousand snaps last season in Houston. Tarvarius Moore has been in that role

in this gains played down the stretch last season. We've talked a lot about that wide open competition at safety.

That's going to be probably the biggest one defensively to kind of keep your eye on, and offensively, just as you mentioned Mike, seeing how you know, Christian Watson has grown, seeing how Romeo Dobbs has grown, and even a guy like maybe Zach Tom, who we talked last year about having everything structurally but maybe just needing that first offseason in the NFL to get his body, you know, to let himself grow a little bit. So a lot of

things attract, for sure. And it's always interesting when you go out there and you take attendance for the first time and you're kind of keeping an eye on all ninety guys on the roster, and I'm sure there'll be plenty written and said.

We don't really know. And the other thing, too, is what whatever we see today or whatever we see next Wednesday or whatever the day is that we're out there, we can't put too much stock in it because here's the thing. We might go out there today and Zach tom will be at right tackle and everybody's going to write about that and be talking about that. Well, you know what, tomorrow, when the media is not there, he might be lining up at right guard, and then the

next day he might be lining up at center. Those days that we don't see because the coaches will have these things on a rotation for guys that are that are trying out different spots and whatnot, and when we're not there every day. When we're there every day in training camp, it's a little bit easier to report on it and feel a little bit more confident as to what is exactly going on in OTAs you have to be a little bit more careful in terms of that.

But that said, we'll definitely be watching where he's lining up and where he's competing, and a couple other things too. A few weeks ago, we thought when we got to this stage, we were going to be potentially watching competitions getting going at long snapper and at kicker, and but since then, Jack Coco has been released, so veteran Matt Orzik, the free agent signing in the offseason, he's the he's,

you know, clearly the number one long snapper. There is an undrafted rookie behind him, but I think the you know, the the pecking order there is pretty clear as as we head into OTAs here. And then at kicker, Parker White was released and Anders Carlson, the sixth round pick out of Auburn, is the only kicker on the roster currently.

So those are things that that maybe we thought we're going to be a little bit more intriguing as things got going here in late May, but but maybe not quite so much at least at this point.

I mean, it's tough to have competition at each spot. The other thing that is fun though about this process, Mike, Certainly you have to take everything with a grain of salt because we're just seeing one practice this week. But I go back to last year with Romeo Dobbs, and it was right out of the gate, Dobbs look the part, and it's something that you and I we were joking. I think even Matt Leffleure referenced it a couple times, like, well,

he just has to keep stacking days. And the next thing you knew, it was the end of the preseason and the guy still really hadn't blinked yet. It's cool when you can watch a rookie come in and not necessarily look like a superstar, but just look in his element, look comfortable, look at home. So it doesn't really matter if it's a quarterback. Could be Sean Clifford, it could

be Anders Carlson as a kicker. Just the guys that their eyes aren't too big, you know, they're looking at the opportunity for what it is, and they're realizing that this is just an extension of what I've been doing the last three, four or five years at the college level. And I think that's the most exciting thing about this process. Along with that, We're going to see guys like Caleb Jones.

We're going to see, you know, Jonathan Ford, players that were like virtual red shirts last year that have had a full year to grow and now not only want to compete for jobs, but want to compete for roles

on their respective side of the ball. It's tough because I think the offseason you don't want to make too much out of it, as you illustrated, But it's also the most exciting time because it's it is sort of like opening up the presence here after Christmas and seeing what we have here in a football team that ultimately is going to decide the destiny of the twenty twenty three Packers.

about over the next few weeks. It's things that you jot down or make mental notes, and you file away because the things that you see when they're just out there in shorts and helmets at this stage of the spring, you make those notes because you want to see then if those players carry it over into training camp when the pads go out, and then you're looking at the same player that you saw in the spring, and and things don't necessarily change in terms of their impact, in

terms of in terms of the way they carry themselves, you know, as you get further into training camp. So it's about making those those kind of notes. A couple of stories I'll share from when I first got here when you talk about a rookie making an impression, and then also the growth from one year to the next.

My first year, I actually got hired here at Packers dot Com in two thousand and six in the middle of OTAs, so I walked out to watch, you know, my first OTA practice as a writer for Packers dot Com. And the guy who was absolutely jumped off the practice field right from the beginning was a rookie receiver named Greg Jennings. The way he ran his routes, the way he cut off of his brakes, the way he caught

the ball with his hands. Everything you're you know, everybody's kind of looked and I was a little sheepish because this was my first time out here, but I noticed that everybody was looking around and talking like, is this guy really a rookie wide? This guy does not look like a rookie. Everybody files that away, and then you wait and see and train camp when the pads go on, when there, when he's out there in the preseason games, does he still look like the same guy? Obviously, Greg

Jennings did still look like the same guy. He was a rookie wide receiver who was ready to go from the jump. The other story I'll share is two thousand and seven. I distinctly remember coming back.

the number two quarterback behind Brett Favre. He started throwing the football and it was like it was like he had a brand new arm compared to two thousand and six, Like the ball was coming out harder, faster, the what do they say in the with major league pitchers, the spin rate or whatever of the of the ball. The ball was just spinning faster out of his hand.

notes that you file away to refer to later. Because there will be some players who will jump out on an OTA practice field, and then in training camp they'll start to fade back into the background because they're not quite there yet. There are other guys who will jump out on an Ota practice field and then you start to see it again in training camp and in the preseason games, and those are the ones who you know have a real chance to stick around.

you know, Love's passes. I mean, Winfrey was making some really nice catches for him as well. And I felt like at a time that was a big turning point for Love because twenty twenty was very difficult, very tough, not any preseason games, very few practices, had to be very cognizant of how they were using players at that time. It was mostly about getting ready for Week one more

so than just developing that rookie class. Twenty twenty one was where he made the big jump, the first big jump in his professional career, and obviously we've seen where it's gone from there. It's put him in a position now to be the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers two off seasons two summers. Mike of kind of interning for this job during OTAs in the off season program. Now, Jordan love every single rep out there. He is quarterback one and he is holding a spot for nobody.

on Packers dot Com. With that, we will not have another episode later this week, but we will be back right after Memorial Day with another episode here of Unscripted for you. So with that, for wes I and Mike, thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.