Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always by the one and the only, Weston had Kowitz. We're coming to you here once again from distant locations at lambeau Field West. Maybe maybe fingers crossed the last time in a while that we'll have to do the show this way. No promises, no guarantees. We will see what
next week brings. But in the meantime, since our last show, the Packers held their last two public practices of training camp out at Raynichki Field on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday was an awfully hot one, but everybody seemed to get through it. Okay, your observations. As the Packers wrapped up these last two public practices.
Rashan Gary wanted to play some foot. It was my observation.
I'll tell you what, Mike uh. He's been going through the individuals the last couple of weeks. As Matt Lefuller told us earlier this week, he was finally going to take that next step to team. I was so incredibly impressed by what I saw from number fifty two. First and foremost, he took two to one on one reps in the offensive line versus defensive front drills and going up against Zach Tom, who is a terrific offensive lineman. I think is gonna be a good starter for the
Packers for years to come. But when you see the when they always say there's levels to this game. That's a big phrase in MMA. But there Rashaan Gary's on another level now. Because the one thing I took away from his two reps against Tom, and a lot of it was just showing his natural strength and also some of the pressures he had on Jordan Love and the team periods had one of the sacks I think you would call perceived sack and one of the one of the team's drills.
Here's the thing about Rashaan Gary that.
Is so impressive to me when we came in and he's a twenty one year old kid and everybody knows, okay, you know, he's he's going to be a project here, but there's a lot of potential there. We talked about how he would rely on his bull rush a lot right right out of the gate. When you talk about all the other tools and the other the other weapons that can be used in his Arsenal. I think that's what we're seeing with Rashaun Gary in those rushes against
Zach Tom. You know, he used some speed, he used some speed to power, he used his power to get out of a stalemates situation. The guy's just so darn resourceful. And we saw it last year those first nine games. I mean, he was on trek to being a Pro Bowl player. Then unfortunately the acl happened in Detroit. So hopefully for him that's all in the past. But I'll tell you what, for a guy that hasn't played football in what nine to ten months, he came out looking
like he was just guns of blazon. Yeah.
And you talk about the development of the repertoire, I mean, that's that's the that's the progression that you see from these guys like Rashaan Gary, who the first thing he had to do when he was drafted and came to the Packers and the three four defenses, he had to learn how to play defense standing up as opposed to in a three point stance with his hand in the dirt.
There's there first, there's that transition. So early on, they're still just going to have that one move to rely upon and then all the other moves have to come. And you know, he had guys like Zadarius Smith and Preston Smith and these other guys to learn from, and
the coaching staff and everything else. And we've just seen this steady progression from him, and we're seeing Lucas Fanness going through that same kind of transition right now, played mostly with his hand in the dirt at Iowa, and he's learning how to play standing up and learning all the responsibilities on the edge. And Lucas van Ness has not developed all the pass rush moves that that he's
going to have either. And there are so many parallels there that hopefully for the Packers, he on the same trajectory as Rashan Gary. But I agree with you with just the I don't know if energy is a use. That's word, a word that's used a lot, and I don't even know if that word quite exemplifies what Rashan Gary brought to these last couple of public practices. There was something different about this Packers defense with him on the field. I think his teammates were excited to have
him back. He's a wrecking ball in some respects, and there are no guarantees yet that he'll be available for Week one. Things are certainly trending in that direction, and hopefully the Packers can get him out there against the Bears at Soldier Field comes September tenth.
This quote is so good. I want to make sure I get this right.
I typically don't go off screen during Packer's unscripted but I want to make sure I get this right from what mattch Steiman had tweeted to us or sent to us earlier this week. And I'm not gonna be able to find it because he probably put twenty three instead of Alexander. Let's look, no, no, not gonna find it. I'm going to paraphrase it. I hope I'm not gonna
botch it. But basically, Alexander said he feels like Superman when Rashon Gary's on the field, and I think that is the sentiment that everybody shares in terms of Yeah, in addition to the fact it's going to put more pressure on the quarterback and decrease his time clock to be able to get that ball out, it's how everybody around him raises their level of play. And I think when you have a premier pass rusher in this league,
that is what the trickle down effect is. When you look at the Packers' defenses in the early Clay Matthews era, when you talk about you know, Aaron Kamptman in the mid two thousands, Reggie White, the list goes on and
on those type of players, they set the tone. And I felt like, you know, Rashon Gary for still being as young as he is, it's all still out there for Michael and as you touched on, and I think one of the things you've been working on too, story wise, is when you have a Rashon Gary, when you have a Preston Smith, a Kingsley, Enigbari and then Kenny Clark and these other guys that can get after a quarterback,
you make an offense start to make some decisions. And if for Shawn Gary's going to get doubled this season whenever he is out there, well then that's opportunities for one on one matchups for Preston Smith, DeVante wy At Kenny Clark. That's the exciting thing I think about having Rashon Gary back in this defense.
Yeah, I mean, just what we've seen in his couple of days back, he is going to command so much attention from opposing offenses, and I think that's that's going to change, create opportunities for other players, as you said, and one of the stories that I've posted now on Packers dot com is just looking at where the Packers are at outside linebacker heading into twenty twenty three compared
to how they ended twenty twenty two. Because you didn't I mean, you had Preston Smith, who I believe he had five of his eight and a half sacks last season after Rashaun Gary left the lineup. But you didn't have Gary. You had Nigbari, who was a fifth round rookie who was just trying to figure things out. You had Justin Hollins come in trying to reacclimate himself as quickly as he could to Joe Berry's defense, and he certainly made a contribution. Jonathan Garvin was taking some snaps,
not providing a whole lot of production. They were just trying to survive at that position quite frankly down the stretch last year without Gary. Now you fast forward here, Gary's on his way back. Preston Smith is Preston Smith. You've added a first round pick in Lucas van Ness Kings Leanninggbari just had a two SAT game in the preseason. He's showing the year two jump. Justin Hollins has now
been here, he's settled, he's settled in more. And you have an undrafted guy in Breton Cox who's who showed enough promise early that the Packers moved on from Jonathan Garvin and Breton Cox could be an undrafted rookie who ends up making this fifty three when roster decisions are made next week. The depth at outside linebacker right now compared to nine months ago is night and.
Day two things one.
Aaron Moseby also got claimed in the midway through camp. I think Moseby's had a really nice camp too, for a guy that unfortunately is kind of at the bottom of that depth chart just based on attrition and the guys who have been here. I can now get that quote correct though, because I'm all about the accuracy here. Mike, you know that this is what Jayer said. A healthy Rashaun Gary is like Superman in my opinion. He makes
my job easier, a whole lot easier. If I was on ESPN, That's how I would close my segment and I would just and then back to you, Mike.
Okay. Well, the other thing I think that's worth talking about here is the packers wrapped up these public practices
as we saw. I think in a lot of ways, these practices finished up the way they started, and that we saw hot a lot of well hot, yes, but we saw a lot of We saw a lot of back and forth in terms of the you know, the defense providing some challenge to the offense and then the offense responds, and then the defense responds, and you know, there over these last couple of days, there were stretches where the pass Russ was really getting after Jordan Love
for you know, a sequence of plays, and then suddenly the offense settles in and Love starts to find his rhythm and hits some passes. Then we see the you know, I believe it was on Wednesday. We see the offense looking like, you know, they're hitting some nice running plays, and then the next thing, you know, TJ. Slayton is in the backfield, you know, three or four times in a span of you know, like eight or nine plays
or something like that. The back and forth, and then the epitome of that was the the last two two minute drills. The number one defense won the drill with Rasul Douglass getting an interception on a pass for Romeo Dobbs. But then Sean Clifford Misster two minute takes the number twos down the field, hits a fourth down touchdown pass to Grant Dubo's adds the two point conversion on top of that, so you have the defense win one, the
offense win one in the two minute drills. At the end, it just seemed like these last couple of days everything was about the one side challenging the other and trying to trying to push the other side to provide an answer. And I have to believe Matt Lafleur liked a lot of what he saw in that regard.
I think you're one hundred percent right about that. But the other aspect of it, I think that is so refreshing is when you have a young team like this, how exciting and energetic these practices have been. And not to say that, you know, when it was Clay Matthews and Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers and all that they weren't there was plenty to be you know, taken from. But there are some like when you go into those one on one periods. You don't know always who's going
to prevail in those. I think that's where I first started to know TJ. Slayton, to be honest with you, and he's had you know, I've said this time and time again, I think him, Rashid Walker, those guys are probably in the conversation for most improved player. I mean, Kingsley Ningbari contributed at the end of last season, but you know, he was a fifth round pick and he
already seen some of that growth. Those two guys have just blown me away just with the role that potentially they might have to play on this team this season. And Walker co went from a guy that didn't play at all last year to a guy that now is you know, being charged in these practices as the left tackle for Jordan Love and in the preseason game as
well last week. So to your original point here, yeah, I think the give and take of the offense and defense is sort of indicative of a young football team kind of growing together. And the same way in which you look at those Patriots practices. The Packers take it to the Patriots the first day, the Patriots respond back to second There's a challenge there there is a motivation and a competitive fire. I think that comes out of both of those two sides of the ball working against
one another. The hope would be for the green Bay Packers now as you get through this game against Seattle, hopefully healthy, get through the fifty three man cut, and start building to that game against Chicago, that you have a much better football team than you did eight weeks ago. And I feel like that's where green Bay has really grown the most in terms of just the development and the maturation. This is one of those training camps where I think you can literally look at players and see
the growth. And for some of the Packers' bets in the past, it was about okay, getting back to that baseline, where do we need, what's the play style, what's everything
like that. Matt Lafleur is establishing all of that right now and I think that played into also these young guys, you know, getting this action in the preseason games, because one of the things I wrote an insider inbox this week was the fact that you have a bunch of guys that need snaps and we are no longer in the Larry mccaerran to a day's fifty one practices or whatever of training camp. You got two dozen training prep practice training camp practices in three preseason games.
You have to make those opportunities really count.
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For lunch Cousin Subs.
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Okay, all right, all right, sounds good. One preseason game to go Weston and the there's a there's gonna be a lot to pay attention to in this game, whether you're talking about the battle for the last spots at wide receiver again, that number three running back spot. What's you know, going to happen with some final decisions at defensive back? You know how they're going to piece that together, and certainly special teams plays a role in all that,
and then special teams themselves. There are still two punters and two long snappers on this roster that have that have had a training camp long competition at both of those spots. So where will where will your eyes be trained on come Saturday? After Oh, by the way, it's an afternoon preseason game at Lambeufield, a noon Central time kickoff. A rarity here in Green Bay. Not that I'm complaining, because work wise it's much nicer to have afternoon games.
But back to my question, what will you be watching for come kickoff at noon Saturday against the Seahawks.
It's an excellent question because there are so many different ways you can take this thing offensively.
What does that number one unit look like with Jordan Love? How many series do they see?
They had two in the first game, three in the second, although I think that was kind of brought on a little bit by the Botch snap there earlier. But the fact is is that you know, how long does Matt Lafleur want these guys to play. Sean Clifford probably can use the reps, but he's gotten a lot of reps at this point. So you know, when does Alex Magoog get into the game. He's only played that one game and unfortunately for him, it was an eight r touchdown
on his first snap. As cool as that was for the Packers offense, not really a chance for the usfl ringing in VP to show what his arm can do. So, you know, those type of things are going to be important. Certainly, the safety battle is going right down to the wire when you look at you know where they're going to be trying to find that that one two combination with Darnell Savage. That whole thing's come full circle again. Ruby Ford back with the starters this week, yep. And you
know t Varius Moore has taken those snaps. Jonathan Owens has taken those snaps over and over and over and they kind of.
Unfortunately unfortunately for more now he's injured. He got hurt his knee in the last preseason game, so bad bad timing for him. But we'll see, we'll see what happens here these next few days.
The number three running back battle, the offensive line battle. But the one thing I challenge people to look at and keep an eye on. This is not the most attractive thing to pay attention to, but the coverage teams, offensive kickoff and the punt return units. Very interested to see what that personnel looks like. We've seen from Ritz Pasacci. He's willing to mix and match. So I wouldn't take everything as you know, chapter and verse in terms of what the starters are, so to speak. But I always
go back, dude. James Crawford twenty eighteen. He made the Packers roster based on special teams in the Packers' pre season finale in Kansas City. There's going to be at least one of those type of situations where somebody steps up, somebody makes their presence felt. Because as much as the Packers are building this offensive defense, they're also building these special teams this defense as well. And when you lose a guy like Tyler Davis, who was your leading player
in terms of special teams snap scene last season. I think he played like almost eighty percent of the snaps, that is going to be a big challenge for Green Bay.
Who's going to step up?
Yeah? Absolutely, and you know that these the special teams reps, whether it's whether it's a kickoff return, a kickoff cover, a punt return, a punt cover, those reps are being scrutinized on film over and over and over again by the personnel department as they're as they're trying to decide, Okay, who are the guys that can be counted on to get the job done in that phase? Who are the
guys who are separating themselves in that regard. The Packers have a fair number of veterans now on special teams. That's been one of the big shifts in terms of the roster and the personnel in that face since Rich
Pasacci came in. But there are a lot of young guys who you know, are trying to make a name from themselves, and they're not necessarily going to be second string on offense or defense, but there are going to be some roster spots available, and can they put something on film that's going to get them noticed and get them a chance to either be on the fifty three or be brought back on the practice squad next week when all these roster machinations take place.
And maliek Keith is the guy also, Mike that I'll probably have my eye on the most I mean undrafted rookies. We know the history and the backstory with the Green Bay Packers and at those spots. If he can put together a strong performance in this preseason finale against Seattle, I don't know what that all means for Tuesday and how the Packers will sort through it. But this is a guy that Mike, you and I were talking about him at OTAs and he has just continually done it
over and over again, so impressive. It reminds you of the Allen Lizards, the Jake Kumeros, where you have an inundation of draft picks at receiver. You remember when Kummero made it the first time. I gave Jake no chance at making the fifty three because they had three rookie draft picks that year. Just so turned out that, you know, you had Marcus Veldez scantling, but otherwise there was a lot of opportunities still there even though there were those
incoming picks. This is going to be critical to see exactly how the Packers shuffle this out. I do not envy Brian Goudikuntz and his scouts. I know they relish these opportunities. I know it's a challenge for them and it's an excitement that they don't have to go too well, we got forty seven players, and who else do we want to fill up this roster with now? I mean, it is going to be a tedious cut to fifty three, no doubt about it.
I think.
One of the things, and we'll kind of close on this. One of the things that has struck me about watching Malie Heath, as you said, we've watched him, you know, through all the way since he arrived here, is that a lot of times when undrafted guys catch your eye, it's always like, oh, like where where's where's he from? Or what school did he come from? And you know, you look up and you try to get to know
him a little bit. Yeah, if you didn't know the background for of of Malie Keith, the question you'd be asking is what round was this guy drafted in? I mean, and that's that That's not always That's not always the case. Undrafted guys will still kind of look like undrafted guys, right, he hasn't looked like one. The question it's it's like you're wondering, what round was he drafted and he wasn't drafted at all, and he's uh, he's made a strong case.
But we don't know. Are the Packers going to keep five receivers or six receivers or seven receivers, how many are going to be on the fifty three, how many will they want to bring back on the practice squad. We really don't know what's going to happen here. There are always there are always decisions that are made that nobody saw coming right in terms of how the how the initial fifty three is built and how that practice
squad gets put together. So we will we will just have to see, but there will be There are a lot of nervous time between the end of the game on Saturday and when the decisions are made on Tuesday. It's a tough time for these players, but it's also what they signed up for, right Yeah.
And the one that probably is going to tug at your heart strings the most, at least tug at my heart strings, is the running back competition, because you got a bunch of dudes that are all good, solid guys competing for that number three spot. Patrick Taylor has been here for three and a half years. I mean Obviously the injury that he had kind of wiped out his rookie season, but has been one of the more beloved players at locker room, very close, tight knit group. Obviously
contributed on special teams. Tyler Goodson, I thought, did everything that is physically possible to make a run at the fifty three this year. Unfortunately he gets the shoulder injury at the wrong time. We'll see how things play out for him this week. And then also, I mean Emmanuel Wilson.
The stories don't get much better than this kid Division two Fort Valley State, you know, coming in and being a late add to this roster as the Packers are looking for an extra running back and some guys being banged up, and then he ends up having you know, he's leading the NFL right now in preseason rushing. I mean, yeah, that is that is probably gonna be the one the most.
It's like, you don't You'll be happy for whoever prevails, assuming the Packers do keep three, hoping that they keep three, but yeah, your heart kind of goes out to the rest of them because that that whole group has been a lot of fun to cover this summer.
Yeah, and I think as as we know injuries. Injuries are never good, They're always unfortunate, right, But I think aside from Tyler Davis being lost for the season to the knee injury from the Cincinnati preseason game, there was maybe no more unfortunate injury in this training camp than Tyler Goodson with that shoulder injury, because because all the way up until the time he got hurt, he looked like he was really really making a statement and making a run at this fifty three man roster and to
be that number three guy. But he has not been able to get back on the field since then, So you just don't know how these how these things ultimately are going to go.
Maybe this week we'll see, Maybe this week.
You never know, you never know. With that, we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team as training camp wraps up, as the preseason wraps up with Saturday's game against the Seahawks. We will have it all for you on Packers dot com for Wesim Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.