Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am like Spafford, joined as always by my partner in crime West and Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from different locations at lambeau Field, once again still on zoom. But just to explain to everybody, wes I'm gonna go off script here, we say this is unscripted.
Anyway, right, Yeah, I was gonna say.
People are wondering, like, what is the deal? Like the football team has this brand new facility, you know, and you guys are still doing the show on zoom.
So what's up?
Here's here?
Is what's up?
You know those new video boards that are being installed for the stadium, these huge, like massive things, Well that the installed in installation of those, if I can get the words out of my right, requires a revamping of the control room that runs those video boards. And that control room is the same one that runs the remote cameras that shoot Packers Unscripted when we are in our
usual studio setting. So for these several months now and unfortunately now still continuing into the beginning of training camp, the control room is not available. Therefore, our usual studio setup for unscripted is not available, but I promise you, because there are football games to be played at Lanmbeufield, which means everything needs to be in working order with the scoreboards in the control room. We will be back to our regular well regularly scheduled setting and programming at
some point here. So I just wanted to get that out of the way for all the fans, so you understand why we're doing this the way we are.
See, and everybody's gonna think I'm a liar now because when people have been asking that, I've been actually walking around going, hey, guys, the reason we're separated is a spof was made editor of packers dot Com and then he didn't want to be in the same room as me anymore. He didn't want to be in the same studio. The studio only big enough for one of us. So I got shuffled up to the fifth floor here, right next to all the suites.
So yeah, yeah, and they bought and they bought that line too. They actually believed you he's a real jerk. Yeah. I had to come to my own defense there. So anyway, all of that aside, I apologize for the for the interlude, but the first day of training camp is in the books. Shortly after we get done recording this episode, Wes and I will be headed back to Nishki Field for practice number two, but wanted to get your thoughts Wes on the opening practice on Wednesday. Now the players are still
not in pads. There's a ramp up period here. These practices look very much like OTA's and Mini Camp in the spring in the early going here. But if you want to know, okay, so who won the first practice, the defense won the first practice, And honestly, that is pretty typical of almost any training camp at this stage. The defense is usually ahead of the offense, and I think that showed on the field on Wednesday.
They did, I mean at all three key positions, and even for if you want to throw DeVante Campbell in there too, I'm sorry, Devandre Campbell.
I have too many guys on the top of my head there. Easy for you to say, easy for me to say.
But DeVante White actually had like the first pressure practice. But you look at Preston Smith coming off the edge. You look at Kenny Clark in the middle, and then jyr Alexander on the perimeter.
I thought all three of those guys.
At some of their better practices I think I've ever seen in the Green Bay Packers uniforms. I mean, they all were disruptive in their own way. I would probably, as I said in our Three Things video, put JayR as the MVP of day one. I mean, you just could not throw on the kid. And as I joked about during Three Things, I mean, if there was any question about Okay, well Giry Alexander isn't here for OTAs, I mean that kid was totally up on everything that he was doing. I mean he looked sharp in mid
season form. But Mike, as I talked about in our first episode, the thing I thought was so critical for Green Bay's offense was finally going up against Jayrra. It was going up against Rasul Douglas, those two veterans that weren't there during OTAs trying to see Okay Romeo Dobbs, Jordan Love, Christian Watson, can you get one over on these guys? And you know, Larry, you can go back
and watch Three Things. He did a really good job of documenting how close you know Dobbs and Love were on a couple of their connections, but the one that stood out to me the most was the slant that they ran from Love trying to hit Watson. Watson wasn't able to bring it in on the first catch, and con Ball's kind of hanging up there a little bit. And we know so much about Jyry, Alexander, Mike. If you don't get that thing caught and pulled in immediately,
Gyr's breaking it up. Oh, that's just that's his game and he just doesn't give you that much wiggle room. That's the difference, and that's going to be the key for these young guys moving forward, is understanding the level at which they're going to have to compete to be the number one, the number two, the number three receiver and be these primary targets for this offense.
Yeah, I thought we saw some nice pass breakups from Alexander, as you said. Also Keishawn Nixon and Corey Ballentine had a pass breakup against a tight end against Luke Musgrave, the rookie tight end down the sideline. But the other thing I walked away from that first practice thinking about was because when they went to eleven on eleven, the offense was going into the wind. It was actually a fairly you know stiff breeze for the summer, and that
wind was having an impact on Jordan Love's throws. And I walked away from that practice saying, if that practice had been in the Hudson Center, we'd probably be talking about how incredible a practice Jordan Love had. Now you have to play outside, you have to play in the elements. And afterwards, Jordan Love was not making any excuses. He's like, yeah, you know, the wind got me on a couple of throws.
They hung up there a little bit. The defenders were able to knock them away instead of you know, connecting and making those completions. But but that was one one thing that occurred to me is that in a controlled environment, you know, Jordan Love was was right on target. And you know another thing he's going to learn as he goes along that every day you're out there on the field,
something can be different, and it's about adjustments. And when you only have a couple dozen plays to run in a practice, sometimes it can be tough to make that adjustment right away.
Mike, I'm gonna say one more thing on that too, the Balanine breakup. I got a big kick out. Aaron Jones was phenomenal to his locker. He talked for like a half an hour on Wednesday. He had a great line though, talking about the Musgrave play and how big of a moment that was for Luke Musgrave because, as he said originally when I watched it first time, like, oh, was the ball just slightly underthrown that Balentine was able
to make the play on it? And Darren Jones is like, no, I mean that is late hands to a te Luke got his hands out there, Ballantine saw it. And when you put that blood in the water, defensive backs are always going to jump on it.
That's what training camp is for.
That's what these practices are for, having those type of moments understanding, Okay, if I do X, this is what Why's response is going to be.
And certainly, I think when you.
Talk about a young guy with as much potential as Musgrave has, and certainly from an x's and o's perspective, the other's a lot to learn, but physically a lot of talent there.
Those are the day.
One things that you tend to look for and you hope that they don't show up again on day two and three.
Yeah, well, we certainly expect X the offense to keep putting things together and to catch up in some respects to where the defense is. But as I said, I mean you and I both wes, we've been doing this for a long time. I don't know if I've ever gone to a first practice of training camp and walked away saying, well, the offense had their way today. I mean, defense always wins early in training camp, and so you can almost almost guarantee it. So a couple other thoughts
quickly with regard to the depth chart. On our previous episode, we talked about, you know, the open competitions at a couple of spots, just to give you the update there
where things started. On day one, Rudy Ford was the safety that was lined up alongside Darnell Savage with the first unit defense and then with regard to right tackle on offense, Zach tom the second year pro out of Wake Forest, fourth round draft pick last year, he was the first one to get the shot at right tackle, and with David Baktiari being on a somewhat modified practice schedule right now where he's not taking all of the
reps with the first unit at left tackle. When Baktiari stepped away from the first unit here and there throughout practice. Josh Nimen was the left tackle stepping in there. So that's the update on where things are with the depth chart in the early going. Anything else depth chart wise that you took note of on day one West.
Well, first things you mentioned Mike Rudy Ford getting that opportunity, John Owens and Down Levitt. We with the safeties with the number twos to various more obviously all with an illness right now. I think it's really interesting that Ennis Gains Thump Gains is still he is a safety, but it's almost seems like the Packers are running him more like a slot and he was one of those next guys up after Keishawn Nixon in the slot with some of those second teams great size.
We saw a little bit of a breakup.
He again doesn't take a lot for Thump to make an impact, and it happened. I think I believe it was against Christian Wats. I can't remember exactly which, but the kid can put on the brakes and he's still gonna end up getting home occasionally a few other things to keep an eye on. I'm gonna be going into this practice. We're shooting this before Thursday's practice. We'll be keeping an eye on Jonathan Garvin. He actually was working
a little bit with the inside defensive line players. So I'm curious to see what the plan is for him there and where they're going to go moving forward, and if he's still if he's gonna play both or he's gonna try to work them. You know, sometimes they do that cross training because if you look at him, Mike outside linebacker got filled up pretty quick. Now with Lucas Vans back, they're hoping to have for Shawn gary Beck, you know potentially sometime here during training camp. Then you
have JJ and Ningbari, you have Justin Hollins. I mean the Packers position that went from being you know, a little shallow last year that they had to bring in a guy like Hollins after Gary's injury. Well, now suddenly they have a dearth of options, or not a dearth, but in an overabundance of options with Lucas Vanes in the fold.
Yeah, and that was another thing I took note of too, because we'll watch as training camp onfolds, not only for when Rashaun gary Get gets back in the mix, which the hope is that maybe by the end of training camp he gets the medical green light to go. But also that the way things started with Rashawn Gary out, the starting outside linebackers were Preston Smith and Justin Hollins. Lucas van Ness, the first round pick out of Iowa
not working with the first team just yet. That's another thing to watch because I think at some point he's going to work his way up and at least be rotating in with the first team, perhaps sooner than later. Another thing we also during the spring, we had talked about this, we didn't really get to see a whole lot. Maybe one day. I think of Andras Carlson, the rookie six round pick, you know, kicking in a live field
goal period. Well, they went right at it on day one of training camp, and I thought Carlson got off to a solid start. He made five out of six field goals. All the kicks were between forty and forty five yards. The only miss was from forty four and it didn't look like he missed it by much, just a little a little wide to the left.
Yeah, to mention, if the referees weren't out yesterday, I think all the media probably would have given him put it for six for six.
It was that close.
Yeah, we were, I mean, and we were kind of looking at each other like, oh, did they say that one was no good? And there was one The one official underneath the one upright said, you know, was waving that it was no good, but.
The other almost staring at him saying, bail me out here, buddy.
The other thing I want to see too moving forward, and I'm sure we'll see it at some point in camp. We don't have the schedule in front of us in terms of what days they're doing what, but knowing the leg strength that Carlson has and he was kicking with the wind behind him yesterday, so you know, the ball was really taking off. But I want to see him
on kickoffs. I want to I want to see, you know, I want to see him with the you know, the full run up and wind up and and where that ball ends up on a kickoff because because I think that's something that the Packers are going to be counting on from their new young kicker is to is to boom that ball the back of the end zone as often as possible.
Yeah, in an effortless stroke.
I mean, that was sort of my biggest takeaway and the little bit we got to see him in mini camp and then certainly watching him again on Wednesday.
The guy doesn't have to.
Over exert his body in order to develop that kinetic energy in that football.
And as we saw last year.
I mean, I love Mason, will always love Mason, and I hope that he still gets a chance to keep playing. But you and I had those questions every once in a while, Hey, is this You know, if Mason keeps kicking, are they gonna eventually have to start going to Adam deni Terry route where you have a punter that can handle kickoffs. And we saw last year Packers wanted to stick with the kicker. They didn't want to go a pad O'Donnell on that. So you know it's gonna be
a big part of the job descript for rounds. Carlson probably something none of us have really talked about. But the fact of the matter is is that when they drafted him, it was about the leg strength and then hoping that the mechanical issues that he worked through in the after that ACL injury could be smooth out with Rich Pasaci and his team.
Yeah, no question about it. We'll get to a few more observations from day one of camp in a minute, but for some sponsor business, Serious XM NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty four to seven, three sixty five and a cousin subs. We have something for everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and Cheese, golden fries and creamy shape, all paired with your favorite sub
or sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs fifty years of better. Well, we found out some other little tidbits of news. I guess you could call him with regard to Jordan Love as he makes this transition to QB one here for the Green Bay Packers. The night before his first training camp practice, he actually got a text message communicating via text with his predecessor, Aaron Rodgers Rogers giving him some words of encouragement, wishing him good luck and saying, you know, hey,
just be yourself out there. And that's what we've heard from Jordan Love all the way along. It's like, you know, hey, he knows he can't try to be Aaron Rodgers, he can't try to be anybody but himself. And as Matt Lafer likes to say, be the best version of that self,
and that's what Jordan Love is out to do. And we also found out some more details about these off season workouts that people saw snippets of on social media over the last several weeks and whatnot, with Jordan Love and Aaron Jones and some of the other guys getting together out in California and Wes. You talked to some of the players in the locker room about those. There is a story on packers dot Com detailing all that. So what'd you find out?
Yeah, it was a neat experience, Mike, because you know, we saw last winter Aaron Jones went out there for one day. Romeo Dobbs lives in La Is right there, has trained with Jordan before, so he.
Ran some routes for him.
But one of the lasting things they talked about when the off season program broke was, Hey, should we get some guys together and just see who shows up and
it'll be whatever we want it to be. But even more so than just running routes and you know, being able to work out together, it's also about some of the team bonding stuff, getting to know these guys a little bit better, and I thought, you know, credit first and foremost to love, you know, I thought he learned that leadership sort of mantra from Rogers, has understood that
that's his role. Now he's going to be the guy that guys are going to turn to and wants to step up and be a guy that anyone feels comfortable talking with. And one way to do that is bringing guys together. So Danny Etling backup quarterback, went out to Orange County. Also, that was Dontavian Wicks and Jaden Reid, the two rookie draft picks. Christian Watson was able to
make it out there as well. Jeff Cotton also took part in that, although Jeff was let go this week, so it was eight guys all together that were able to spend a couple of days ago. They got rooms at the same hotel, they ate dinners together for a couple.
Of days, even when bowling.
Although it was funny, Aaron Jones laughed about how they originally were supposed to be setting up some kind of reservation where they're going to go to a local speedway and drive go karts, and somehow the reservations on that got messed up. And Jordan was like, well, let's go bowling. It was like straight out of the Big Lebowski, Let's go bowling. So and as it turns out, Jordan's a
pretty good bowler. Has everyone found out pretty quickly. So, but Mike coming back now the off season program, you know, whether it's Jordan and these younger receivers or even a guy like Aaron Jones in his seventh season getting to know Dontavian Wicks and Jayden Reid a little bit more, that's going to be such a big part of this thing because in a lot of ways, as Matt le Floor's message has been to this team, they are all in this together. I mean, it's not gonna be about
Aaron Jones. It's not gonna be about Jordan Love. It's gonna be about who are your primary playmakers and who steps up alongside those men, And if the Packers are gonna get to where they want to be this year and show those signs of growth and improvement, it's gonna happen through all those guys that went down to southern California with Love, and I just thought that showed a lot of maturity on Love's part two. Okay, I'm not just gonna go work out run routes for random people.
I want to get my receivers there. I want to get my timing down and also have a little bit of fun in the spare time as well.
Yeah, and the competitiveness apparently was in full force as well, because Christian Watson apparently is not willing to concede that Jordan Love is the best bowler in the group, even though Love rolled a one ninety eight, which is pretty good score. But Watson was complaining that the lanes were too oily or something because he throws like a big hook and his ball wasn't you know, wasn't wasn't turning and cranking into the pocket the way.
He's used to.
So so yeah, these guys are getting to know each other, they're getting to be friends. But trust me, anytime, whether it's the football field or the bowling alley, these guys are competitive and and they're going at it with one another. For sure.
It's like who's the better tennis player on clay or grass, you know, like trying to find out who exactly you know, holds the dominance there. But no, I think it's been good. I mean, we didn't We talked about it a little bit during the summer too, but you know, Jordan getting together with Christian and Jonathan Owen, Simone Biles up in Door County for a couple of days with Aaron with AJ Dillon. Those are the type of things you don't
want to force it. You don't want to be like, oh, I got to go out and do all this stuff. But when you can build those type of relationships and those connections, that matters. And as Aaron Jones said, I didn't work this into the story, but a lot of those young guys that he hadn't really talked much with
before he was texting with them afterwards. He was talking with him the lead up into this training camp, and yes, it was a learning experience for the offense on day one, but certainly the roots are there, the seeds have been planted, and now you just kind of want to watch it grow.
Well. With that, we do have to get rolling with the second practice right ahead of us here after we turn off these cameras, but on our next show next week, we will have a few more practices to discuss and a few more observations to get to, so we will definitely share those with you, but for now for Wes, I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted, and we will see you next time.