Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my partner in crime, Weston hod Qwitz. We're coming to you here from different locations at Lambeufield and Wes. A lot has gone on since our last show, So without further ado, let's dive into it. First and foremost, the Family Night practice, the big event Saturday night at
lambeau Field. If you were to ask me to pick a one and a one A in terms of players who stood out on the practice field at Lambo on Saturday night, my one is rookie kicker Andres Carlson, and my one A is converted inside linebacker Turek Carpenter. I thought both of those guys made certain statements of their own during that practice.
That's a great observation, Mike. It was funny.
I we talked about this before, and I haven't covered the Family Night scrimmage practice. Now excuse me in a while because I was with Leroy Butler last year at the Canton for the Hall of Fame, so maybe I have like recency bias here. I actually felt like it was more the it was one of the more consequential family knights i've covered. It felt like stuff happened when
I was in the locker room afterwards. I felt like, not only was it the seventy thousand people or sixty five thousand people, not only was it just the event, but I actually felt like it was a really productive practice.
I thought, and I wrote about it in the Follower.
Whatever you want to call it, the locker room report version of what we did with the practice in Tari Carpenter because to me, although he's no longer a defensive back technically in Green Bay, he's an inside linebacker now. I thought that was a performance that reminded me of the Brandon you know, ross the what's the kid's name that was the Was it Brandon Smith? I'm trying to remember.
They've had these guys that have been either like undrafted free agents or late round picks that have really stood out during the family night, and I felt like that was Terrey Carpenter. What I love about this guy is six foot three, two hundred and thirty pounds, runs of five excuse me, four or five to two forty and is so athletically gifted. But I think the Packers and
a lot of teams around the National Football League. We're trying to figure out, how is it going to play in the NFL, What is his position going to be now? As he said afterwards to us, I mean a lot of days, this still feels like an extended rookie season to him because he is learning a new position. But for a guy that I think probably was sort of looking for that confidence boost, he found it in that performance.
I mean the interception he had off Sean Clifford in the live tackling period was just a heads up play. It's one of those, as I said when we did our three things afterwards with Larry, it's a bang bang play.
You gotta get it. You have to make it. You're not going to get a second chance at it. And he made it.
And then obviously later on was in the right place at the right time on the Benny Sap hit of Dantavian Wicks that led to a second pick. Some people say, well, that one was kind of in his lap, but those are the plays you have to make, and you have to be in the right position to make the play when it's there.
So I was really impressed with him. And then Andres Carlson.
It was exactly what that young guy needed. I don't think he lacks for confidence at all. He seems like a guy that is pretty pretty confident in his abilities and what he can do on a football field. But I think it was a reminder to all of us of Okay, this is what the Packers really liked about him. He had some struggles in practices, he's been missing his first kick on some of these rotations he's gone through.
But when the lights were brightest and he needed to make a statement, as you said, he definitely did that.
Yeah, Carlson was eight for nine I believe were the final numbers on his field goals during family and the one miss was really not on him. It was a bad snap, the operation was kind of all messed up there and he missed the one. But then he also followed up with a pretty pretty solid effort in practice on Monday back on Nichkie Field, dealing with some significant win, probably the most significant win that he's dealt with in practice so far, and uh and had another solid showing there.
So you have to like the way the way Carlson has uh had has you know, continued I guess to ascend you know, after a little bit of a rough start, some ups and downs, maybe things are starting to smooth out a little bit for him.
Go ahead, yeah, something. I'm very proud of myself. I'm very proud of myself. It was Brandon.
It was it was Brandon Smith, the CONVERTI nice job.
I would not I remember Brandon Ross And obviously it's easier to remember him.
He works in the apartment here.
Now.
Yeah, he's been he's been back since his playing days. He's been back for quite a while. But but the Brandon Smith one, it's a good recall.
The reason I wanted to bring that one up so badly was the fact that he was a receiver at ASU that converted to cornerback. He made a big play during Family Night in twenty thirteen, I believe it was. And again it's those little moments that these guys. You're not going to get a live tackling period with Jordan Love and Christian Watson and Jay R Alexander, but you get the live tackling period with some of those young guys.
Now that that that live action, and I feel like that's where you see the hunger in the desire in these A lot of guys.
Give credit to Benny sapp.
I don't know anybody talk to him after the practice, but that guy went out there and put it on the line to create that play for Carpenter.
So yeah, it's gonna happen. Mike.
We're days away now at the time we're taping this away from this, these joint practices, and that this preseason game against the Bengals. You've got three weeks to make a statement, make the fifty three man roster, and I felt like Carpenter did that.
Yeah, And I have to admit, Wes, and I think I told you this back when we first heard about Carpenter being shifted from safety to inside linebacker. I am like the ultimate skeptic when it comes to these position changes, Like I've seen this happen with young players. Usually, as you mentioned, it can be an undrafted guy or a late round draft pick. In Carpenter's case, He's a seventh round pick last year, and it just it very rarely
do these things work out. Every once in a while, you know, a Spencer Havener comes along who converts from linebacker to tight end and ends up making the roster and making an impact on the team. But that is definitely the exception and not the rule. This one with Carpenter just might stick. It just might work out because he had already established himself on special teams, so that's we have to get that out of the way first. So my skepticism was not so much in terms of
what he could still contribute to this football team. But these positions switches, it's it's tough. It's a tough deal. They don't work out very often. But he looks like he's really settling in to inside linebacker. He doesn't have the prototypical body for it, but he also doesn't have the prototypical body for safety, which is why they've been trying to figure out. You know, he's got he's got size,
he's got decent speed. There's a lot to work with there physically, but where does he best fit if you're going to put him into eleven on eleven on defense? And I thought he had. I thought he had a really, really solid practice. He was obviously very excited about it as well as you talked to him afterwards. He felt like it was his best practice at inside linebacker since he had made the switch. And when you can do that on a night like family night under the lights
sixty five thousand. It sets up well for him to now move into the joint practice with the Bengals, the first preseason game in Cincinnati. So so Carpenter definitely a guy to keep an eye on. A couple other things to watch for here, And as you said, Wes, not long after we turn off the cameras here, we're going to be headed to the airport to go to Cincinnati. The Packers have a joint practice with the Bengals on Wednesday. The preseason opener is on Friday. But a few other
things that stood out to me. I'm really curious to see if what appears to be developing some decent depth on the defensive line with these young players. I'm curious to see if this can now carry over into these preseason games. As can't move along. Because we've seen Colby Wooden and Carl Brooks, the two draft picks, the two day three draft picks from this last draft class, and then a seventh round pick from last year, Jonathan Ford.
These guys are starting to flash. Now they're not going up against the ones you know, they're they're playing on the reserve units and whatnot, but they're doing some things to get noticed, and I think as training camp goes along, these guys are really starting to get their legs under him. And I kind of like what I'm starting to see from these young defensive linemen that the Packers are to some extent certainly are going to be counting on in twenty twenty three.
They're all going to be such huge perirs, you know, pieces of this whole puzzle. Mike. I mean, I think you've even seen with Kenny Clark.
I think Kenny had one of his best practices back to back from family Night and then going into Monday. These young guys in the rotation the Packers can get going is going to be so critical to the success of this unit moving forward. DeVante Wyatt flashed early on that was great to see. As a former first round pick, I think TJ. Slayton could potentially feel a huge, huge need in this defense as a run stuffing nose tackle.
But then it's the Carl Brooks is just randomly showing up in the backfield so many times now for Green Bay. Colby Wooden has really struck me as a very consistent, disruptive play.
Here early on.
That's how you get in the rotation, right, Mike, when you go back to Kenny Clark's rookie year, when you go back to Mike Daniel's rookie year. Shoot, even look at the way a guy like bj Rogie broke in the door in two thousand and nine. You have to find ways to contribute to the group, and I feel like you're seeing that with these young guys.
The Packers took a risk.
I've talked about this in inbox, you and I have talked about on this show. They could have easily looked to find a three million, four million dollar a year veteran defensive lineman to bring into that rotation, but kind of like what they did at tight End, kind of like they've done in some of these other positions, they opted to go young, take those lumps together, but hope that over the long run, you're gonna find some real answers.
But I'll say this, Mike, with DeVante Wyatt specifically, if this kid can continue to stack these days the way he has for the first two weeks of camp, maybe show some of that in the preseason, we'll see. But if he gets off to this, you know, kind of torrid start that he's been off to in training camp. This is probably the most excited I've been about a Packer's defensive lineman from the jump in a very long time in terms of what his long term potential could be.
Yeah, I think there's a there's a lot to like there from what we've seen. It's still early, long way to go, and the preseason games are certainly going to show us a lot in terms of how far these young defensive linemen can develop. A Couple other things on
family and I don't want to touch on. I thought coming off of what was a pretty good practice for the Packers tight ends on Thursday, and I had mentioned on our three Things video after that practice, I thought, you know, Tyler Davis was laying some of blocks in the running game and Luke Musgrave and Tucker Craft were making some nice catches downfield. I thought they followed it up with a pretty solid family night practice as well
in a lot of those same respects. And then connected to Luke Musgrave, he was a big part of the lightning fast two minute drill that Jordan Love ran getting going seventy five yards I believe in four plays, maybe it was five down the fil Old Musgrave had a big catch there, and after the two minute drill had to be re wrecked because there was a bad snap or I should say a mistimed shotgun snap on the first one, So rather than just end the drill right there,
they rewracked it and Jordan Love took the offense right down the field lickety split. And another thing I guess to make note of, we hadn't really heard or seen a whole lot of Christian Watson on Family and Night, but then boy, during that two minute drill, it was it was banged two catches. I think he covered, you know, roughly forty of the seventy five yards, including the last twenty with a touchdown on a back shoulder throw and
a great catch against some pretty good coverage. So that two minute drill was a was a pretty good way to end that night for the number one offense.
It really was.
I mean, I you always have to throw in the caveat that. You can't have the miscommunication or whatever that issue was that led to the fumbled snap at the beginning, because as I was sort of talking about writing about, that's the difference between them either getting the ball in the red zone the opposition or getting a touchdown or Jordan Love bringing this team down the field and looking like a million bucks while doing it.
Yeah, it's that narrow right. But here's why I like the most about it.
Talking to Sean Clifford, it wasn't about this place specifically, but it was Bill Huber asked this question of Sean Clifford.
I thought it was an excellent question and even better answer.
The the the rhythm of a two minute drill in what it represents, and Clifford said, in a lot of ways, it's like art.
It is. It is a feel.
It is. You know, there's decisions that you have to make within it. You know whether or not to check down and do you have a timeout? And if you don't have the timeout, you're in the middle of the field. Is it worth the five yards? Do you just throw it away? Do you dirt it?
And I just.
Thought that that series in particular showed the mastery of Jordan Love and it kind of gave me some callbacks to that game in Philadelphia a little bit. He starts off with a very what does the Watson plays were? And we'll talk about those in a second. Hitting Luke Musgrave down in the seam on whatever that kind of like a skinny post, sort of rowdy was running. That's something Green Bay's been searching years for. Robert Tunyan did it at times, but it's been difficult to find that
that seam threat. They've been kind of searching for it for ten years, to be honest with you, since Jermichael Finley retired. So being able to get a big chunk play like that, that's what the big offenses in this league do. That's why the Travis Kelceys are making the money that they're making right now. Flip it forward them
the two Watson plays. He showed his speed and explosiveness on the first one and then just the Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Nelson whatever kind of you know relationship you want to call it on the back throw, back shoulder throw and love put it on the money with the catch radius of Christian Watson. He caught it, kept it away
from the defender, scored the touchdown. I think that was one of the bigger moments for the Powers number one offense in this training camp because those are the competition periods and nobody's doing push ups or set ups or you know, updowns or whatever. But let's be honest, Mike, you and I have watched enough of these things. That's when the rubber hits the road in these practices is
when you get to the two minute situation. I felt like the offense, after a little bit of a stumble early on, really rallied and I love what I've seen from Jordan Love in those moments.
Yeah.
Absolutely, it was a rough start to the night for the number one offense. There were lots of bumps in the road in the first you know, one to two team periods, the eleven on eleven, But then you saw them, you know, kind of start to find find a little something, find a little bit of rhythm, and then with the two minute drill they got things figured out and lickety split went right down the field. So some other news actually post family Night that I want to get to,
but we'll take care of some sponsor business. Here for 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 at Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone, like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes. All paired with your favorite sub or sub and a bowl cousin
subs fifty years of better. All right, some news. First, on Sunday, the day after Family and Night, the Packers made the decision to release backup quarterback Danny Ettling, which has now reduced the quarterback room heading into these preseason games and the joint practices from four down to three. So you have Jordan Love, you have rookie fifth round pick Sean Clifford, and you have the reigning USFL MVP
in Alex Magoo. And then on Monday, Rashaun Gary and rookie seventh round pick at wide receiver Grant Dubo's they both were activated and practiced for the first time. For Gary, it's his first practice since the ACL injury in Detroit last November, and for dub it's his first practice as a Green Bay Packer because since the Packers had drafted him, he'd been dealing with a back injury. He missed OTA's and Mini camp and everything in training camp up to
this point. Now, both of those guys as of Monday, just doing individual drills, not cleared for eleven on eleven, you know, the full contact stuff just yet. But a good sign that those guys are activated, and certainly a potentially really good sign that maybe the Packers will have Rashaan Gary on the field for a Week one in Chicago. Nobody's making any promises, but that game is still a month away, and Rashon Geary is cleared to be doing some drills on the practice field. That's a great sign.
Mike, looking at my phone.
Here the time in which, again we're taping this August eighth. The Green Bay Packers at the beginning of the training camp said, Hey, we're gonna take these two weeks. We're going to see where things are at with Rashaan Gary and then move from there. I think that is a huge positive sign that everything in his rehab and that final sort of stretch in terms of the return into play was sort of green light to get to this point.
You're not going to put Rashaun Gary out there if you don't feel confident in the ligament and confident in his recovery. Nine months in, one day after tearing his ACL he was back out there now again. As you said, you don't want to overemphasize things you don't want to talk about. Hey, what is this going to mean, when's he going to play, is he going to be in
team periods, what have you. But there was a lot of people, including myself, that when those injuries happened in November, you immediately start thinking what does that mean for their
next season? Last year, Elton Jenkins ends up making it back after suffering a November ACL tear he missed at the beginning of the season, but then is available to be able to get Rashaun Gary back in the flow of things, I think was huge, and as Larry pointed out in three Things, I mean, the fact that this young man stood right up and took the first reps
of the individuals. I think that sets the tone for the entire group, and Mike I just salivate at the thought of the ways in which Green Bay can use all of these pass rushers when they get Rashaan Gary back on the field. Lucas Fans is not going to be an MVP overnight. I'm not going to try to illustrate it as such, but you know, I actually think that was one of the things they've kind of missed here since the end of the Zadarias Smith era was having the three sort of outside backers and the dime
package that you can really rely on for pressure. Gary can play inside, Ben ask could potentially play inside. You have pressed and available Kingsley and Nigbari I thought really passed a lot of tests last year, and then obviously Kenny Clark being utilized in that capacity.
That's the money down.
And I would say the Packers with the way they're set up right now with those cornerbacks and those inside backers, they have a lot of bases covered. But it was trying to make sure that you can pressure the quarterback in those instances, and Rashan Gary being back and having Lucas fans in the fold now goes a long way and helping accomplish that.
Yeah, And the way I look at it, I mean hopefully Gary is on track to be available for Week one. I don't necessarily see Rashaun Gary playing sixty snaps at Soldier Field in Week one, considering the length of the recovery. But the way this timeline has gone, if you get Rashaan Gary for ten snaps at Soldier Field in Week one, that's a huge victory for the Packers and for this defense because then he can only take off and and go from there. So that that was that was really
really positive news to see him back on the practice field. Obviously, he's very excited about it as well, although trying to temper his own excitement knowing that it's it's not as though he gets completely cut loose to do everything he wants to. You know, the medical staffs has have a plan for him. They're going to They're going to bring
him along and see where things go. With regard to the backup quarterback situation, We're certainly going to see I think a fair amount of rookie fifth round pick out of Penn State, Sean Clifford in these preseason games. Matt Lafleur had suggested that that, you know, Jordan Love may may be playing some in these three preseason games as well.
But but I think I think the coaching staff is gonna is gonna put Clifford in there and for a good chunk of time, and these these three preseason games are going to be, you know, trial by fire for him in terms of how quickly, how quickly can we get a rookie quarterback to a level that that if he's needed, he could step in and no offense to to Alex Magoo. But he like just got here right
before training camp. I mean, there's still a lot with the playbook that he needs to learn and everything like that, and he's certainly coming along and he's made his share of plays. But the Packers invested a fifth round pick in Sean Clifford, and now Danny Ettling is gone. Clifford is the guy who who's going to have a big spotlight on him. I think in this preseason Yeah, credit to Edling.
I mean, he did pretty much everything this team could have asked him to do. But at the end of the day, Sean was the fifth round pick. And this is kind of the way I sort of saw this thing playing out as soon as they signed Magoo, because it's like, all right, Danny's twenty eight, Do you really want to have him on the practice squad again this year?
If that goes, do you want to take a look at somebody else.
I really thought it was going to take a hercu lean effort for him to really use surp Clifford as a rookie fifth round pick for that number two job. But it also says that the Packers do have confidence in Clifford to handle this, because if he did, if they didn't. You could have waited another week with Danny,
you could have gotten through this Bengals game. I think they made the ultimately, the decision that Clifford is going to be, you know, a guy that we're dedicated to, We're dedicated to see in his development, and we've seen enough from Alex Magoo to validate no longer having Danny here because it is tough. Man.
It's tough being.
Able to work in four quarterbacks, especially when everybody's healthy, and especially when Jordan Love is going to you know, require them on a reps that he does need during a training camp. I'm personally very excited for these preseason games. I think it's going to be very exciting to see what Clifford can do. It's actually interesting he gets to play his first preson season game in his hometown of Cincinnati. He said he'll have about twenty to thirty people there.
I'm guessing you'll have some people cheering for him. He mentioned having some you know, Clifford number eight Jersey's walking around there at the joint practices as well. So a neat experience for a guy that used to be able to go to Paul Brown Stadium head season tickets, I think, he said his senior year of high school. So him and his baby brother who's now at Penn State, when he was in eighth grade, they went to quite a few games together, really grew their relationship and love for
football that way. So for him to be able to start that chapter of his career is very interesting and very cool. But Alex McGoo is an amazing story too, Mike, and a guy that was actually drafted back to back picks with Atling in twenty eighteen has sort of risen from the ashes to put together two impressive seasons in the USFL to re earn another opportunity in the NFL
at twenty seven years old. And if you talk about a guy that's gonna be hungry and motivated to show that he belongs that those two quarterbacks together, I think.
Are going to make for a really good competition the rest of the way.
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, very shortly here Wes, as a famous head coach once said, we are on to Cincinnati, and.
The famous head coach is going to be here next week. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
One last thought for me though, what are you looking for? And we'll talk more about the game, hopefully on our next show. Technically, if everything goes okay, our next show will actually be from Cincinnati. You'll be hearing from us near.
It will be next to each other.
But yeah, yeah, perhaps perhaps we can get that worked out as well. But with regard to the joint practice on Wednesday, what are you looking for? What are you gonna have your eye on? For me, it's seeing Jay or Alexander against Jamar Chase hopefully, and then I think on the other side, it's seeing a woozy a the number one cornerback for the Bengals, up against Christian Watson.
These will make for some interesting matchups because we don't really know if we're gonna see those matchups Friday night, but we very well could see them on Wednesday afternoon on the practice field.
Yeah, and you know guys like t Higgins too, right, Rasseill Douglas. I mean, there's a lot of opportunities and matchups are gonna be fun to watch. Me personally, I can't wait to watch the O line D line work. We talked about how good the Packers young defensive line has looked. Cincinnati historically has not had one of the strongest lines in the football in terms of their O line, So seeing and if maybe some of those successes that
that Slaton has had. You know, you talked about why it's seen if those translate, does a guy like you know, you know, these offensive linemen that I think have really stood out. I thought Sean Ryan has put together a good camp so far, Caleb Jones has looked great at tackle.
They'll get some reps there as well.
Very interested to see how that plays out for them, and honestly kind of seeing how the offensive line rotation is going to look. Maybe Dave practices in these things. I don't know if him and you know, if he's going to go or not. If he does great, you know, Trey Hendrickson, you know Sam Hubbard. They got some really good edge rushers down in Cincinnati as well. But also you know, where's Joash Shneiman, Where's Zach Tom How are
they looking at that competition? Because that's ultimately the thing, man, is that when you get some of these position battles, and you talked about it, you know, with the with the John Owen story and everything that's going on with him at safety right now, there's a trickle down here where you want to give everybody an opportunity to win the job. But at some point you do need to start turning the clock towards the season. And where do
you feel most comfortable. Where's Jordan Love most comfortable? Where is Darnell Savage in the back, and most comfortable seeing when the rotation stop, regardless of whether or not we're in Cincinnati practicing against the Patriots or the following week back get ready for that finale against the Seahawks. When the rotation, when the musical chairs starts to end and they start to settle in. That's what I'm always interested
to watch. And for the guys who don't play in this preseason game against the Bengals, that practice is going to be really essential to understanding not only where they're at, but where the direction of this team is at. Now two weeks into this program and realistically, you know, four months now into the Jordan Love era here in Green Bay.
Yeah, absolutely, well, my friend, we have a flight to catch, so with that we will call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript. You'd be sure to follow all of our continuing coverage of training camp. Will be in Cincinnati for the joint practice the preseason game on Friday Night. Be back here in Green Bay next week, continuing with everything with the Patriots coming to town, so we've got it all for you on packers dot com for wes Im Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody.
We will see you next time.
M HM.