Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always by my trusted colleague Weston Hodquitz, coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field. After taking a week off from the show Wes, but OTAs are still going here for the Packers, and shortly after we are done recording this episode, you and I will be heading out to the practice field for the open ota of week
number three. But let's get caught up on our observations from last week, since we did not do a show to talk about those, and I think really the conversation starts with one position in particular. You wrote a story about one guy, I wrote a story about the other, and I'm talking about the cornerback position. Jyr Alexander and Eric Stokes both soundlike young men with a new lease on life in twenty twenty four with the Packers, four
different reasons. I'll let you start with Stokes because you were in on the media huddle around him last week. And a guy who has dealt with a lot injury wise over the last year and a half and seems to be getting to the point that he's putting that stuff behind him.
Yeah.
And I made this comment to you a couple weeks ago about how in twenty twelve, thirteen fourteen, I learned more about cervical neckfusions than I'd ever known, just because of the injury that the Packers kept getting in that area. I've learned more about the hamstring muscle than I think I ever wanted to know and will ever know. But here's what was interesting about Stokes and I sat there
for fifteen minutes with Christian Watson. I sat there for fifteen minutes with Eric Stokes last week, and they're completely different injuries, but they both ended up going to Badger Athletic Performance to try to get some answers on why they had these recurring hamstring issues last season. For Watson, it was an imbalance. They were looking for more symmetry between his two legs and the strength in them, the muscles,
everything that attaches to that. As it turns out, with Eric Stokes, everything for him started back in Detroit in twenty twenty two, really where he suffers that devastating list Frank injury. Also, I believe had a meniscous injury to his knee. Goes through an arduous rehab to get back on the field. He's gonna get back out there for
training camp, and then he tweaks the hamstring. So when it looked like things were starting to clear for him, he ends up having this hamstring injury that will not go away, and much like Watson, exervads it multiple times during the season, and as they found out after the year, it all started with that Liz Frank and the fact.
That Frank being a very very serious foot injury sort of deals with the arch of the foot and what. Yeah, but it requires surgery to get it fixed, and it is not an easy Recovery's not.
An easy recovery, especially because I think there's some tool parts that have to go in there as well, and trying to build up the strength not just in the foot, but in all the muscles that support the foot. Right. As it turns out, it was the same exact type of origin story as what happened with Watson. When you are lacking in one area, you're going to overcompensate in another, and that's where you increase the.
Risk for injury. So here we are with Eric Stokes. Now.
Now, Matt Lafleur is always one to coach his statements. He never wants to make two overwhelming comments on players, especially this time of the year. But I still think it was illuminating that he said this is the best he's looks since he's seen Eric Stokes mentally on the field. He just looks like he is kind of mentally clear of everything he dealt with last year. He's feeling good again. You have to get through training camp, you have to
get through the season. But I think at the very least, Mike, what we've learned with both Watson and Stokes in the last three four weeks is these are guys who.
Got their confidence back.
They have confidence back in their bodies, and they feel like they can get back to playing the game they way they did.
Once again.
I did a Packers Daily a couple days ago with Adam Hobelheinrich that's also on Packers dot Com. Going back and looking at some of those highlights of Stokes from twenty twenty one when he was almost he was this close to being an All Rookie PFWA remember that year, just narrowly missed out on it, and he just hasn't been able to get those trains back quite on the tracks. You hope that this is hopefully the start that he needs to be able to do that.
I think it's been very interesting with regard to Stokes that again, it's OTA's you take everything with the proper perspective for where things are this time of year. But basically a guy who, other than a few cameo appearances last year in between his hamstring injuries, really has missed
the last season and a half of football. Yet here we are in OTA's heading into twenty twenty four and he's running with the first team defense, you know, And that's taking nothing away from Carrington Valentine, what he did as a seventh round rookie and everything last year. But
Stokes is the guy with the ones right now. And that took me back, As I mentioned in our Insider Inbox column, it took me back to the Combine when we're at a you know, at one of the hotels at the Combine, a bunch of the members of the media.
I know you weren't on that trip. I was. We're sitting around at big conference table talking with Brian Gudokunst kind of an annual thing that's done in Indianapolis, and we didn't know anything about where Eric Stokes was at in his recovery, how things are going.
You know.
All we knew was that was that he seemed to be getting past the foot injury last year. But then
all the hamstring stuff started coming up. And I asked Gudakun sort of out of the blue, do you see Eric Stokes playing a big role in this defense in twenty twenty four and with the changes that defensive coordinator and everything that's going on, And it was like Guducun's almost couldn't start answering the question soon enough as if unequivocally, unequivocally to say yes that he believes Eric Stokes is going to be a big part of this defense in
twenty twenty four. And that reinforced for me at the time. And then now what we're seeing in OTAs with him running with the ones that the decision makers here really
believe in Eric Stokes and they are going to give him. Now, nobody's going to hand him anything, but they are going to give him every opportunity to regain the status that he had as a first round draft pick a few years ago and a guy who played a whole bunch of snaps as a rookie and played pretty darn well because he led the team in passes broken up if I recall correctly, in twenty twenty one. So it's going to be interesting to see how this evolves because because
Carrington Valentine certainly did some good things there. You know, Corey Ballentine is a veteran that they brought back for depth and all that.
You know, there's a.
Lot of curiosity around Kalen King and how you know, why he fell the seventh round and what can he do as a rookie in the NFL. But this is a pretty big spotlight and a big time opportunity for Eric Stokes to really move forward in his career. And I will say because of the injuries, the Packers passed on the fifth year option that goes with the first round draft picks, so he is in the last year of his contract. Now. This is a contract year for Eric Stokes as well.
And Stokes said he feels like he because of all this leg work he's done.
He feels fat.
He's just as fast, if not faster, than he ever was. Obviously a guy that was running in the four threes at the time the Packers drafted him. Didn't get the combine, so we didn't get that cement type of score like you usually do in that area. But the other thing I really like about Eric and I thought it was a testament to the type of dude he is. You know, he said, because he was asked the question of like, you know, they could have easily taken a cornerback in
the first round. They've done it before, They've taken defensive backs, gudakuns, that's the position he's drafted more than any other in the first round so far. They didn't do that, And you know what did he make of that? And he's like, listen, I would have been totally fine had they done that, because he looked at Kevin King and a guy that he actually trained with this offseason down in Atlanta as Kevin's trying to get his career restarted after a couple
devastation injuries. Kevin King did never treated Eric like he was going to be a threat, like he was somebody that I have to knock this kid down. He's like he helped him from the day he walked in the building. And Eric said, had they drafted a guy in the first round, I would have been the first one reaching out my hand to try to help that guy. They didn't do that. But he doesn't look at that any
different than working with a Kaylan King. Now, he doesn't look at that any different is dealing with the Carrenton Valentines of the world. So he wants to earn this job. He wants to be that guy, and he wants to show that he can get this thing back going the way it was going in twenty twenty one. And I think for the Green Bay Packers' perspective, when you listen to the guys talk about him, whether it's Matt Lafleur, the fellow defensive backs, everybody in that locker room is
cheering for Eric Stokes. Yeah.
Absolutely, And he's an easy guy to cheer for too, when you get to know him and you sense his personality and and how he interacts and how he treats other people. The other cornerback worth talking about here, of course, is JayR Alexander. We heard from him as well after last week's open Ota session, and again another guy who's seems to sort of have a new lease on life, but for different reasons. He you know, he had a very forgettable twenty twenty three season. You know, make no
mistake about that. He you know, injuries off and on to completely different parts of the body. One was once it was the shoulder, there was the back injury, all kinds of stuff going on. Then there was the suspension that was related to the coin toss captain stunt in Carolina and all that. Then he came back from that, played pretty good football down the stretch as the Packers tried to make the run, had the big interception in the playoff game off of Dak Prescott down in Dallas.
But JayR Alexander is everything we had heard until we actually heard from him, hearing from Matt Lafleur, from Brian Gudakum's, from assistant coaches, everything was that that JayR Alexander is being is being the guy, being the locker room guy, being the player on the field off the field that the Packers want him to be. And then and he confirmed that he sounds he sounds like a guy who was so much more cited about where things are going right now than maybe we've heard from him in a while.
And I know there is something about the new coordinator, the whole change in defensive philosophy and everything that has a lot to do with that. I think. I think Alexander felt last year he lost, you know, one of his allies when Jerry Gray left, you know, as far as an ally on the coaching staff and whatnot. He's trying to put all that behind him, and it's it's moving forward now with Jeff Haffley and the staff that
the that the Packers have here. And I get the sense that I get the sense that jay R Alexander is out to prove that the twenty twenty two Alexander that got an All Pro second team selection for the second time in his career, that that's the guy the Packers are going to see moving forward, not the you know, I don't want to say malcontent, but the but the less enthusiastic and somewhat selfish guy that we saw in twenty twenty three.
Couple things to all that. One, there is something to be said for the even years in Jo's career tends to be the big ones for him were kind of like the present Smith thing a couple of years ago. We've now entered that again. I've always said this, I will continue to say this because just getting the conversations.
I've had with JayR. Over the years.
I told people even last year when things weren't going great, this is not a prima donna. This is not a pretentious dude. This is not a guy that is going to be a problem for a football team. But he's very proud and if you understand where he came from his upbringing, what he had to do to fight to get to Louisville, to get to the National Football League, there's a lot of pride that's involved in that in his football game. And I think when he has had a chance to kind of step back a little bit
and look at where he's at. How many times did he say during that news conference Mike that press scrum talking about him being a seventh year guy, a seventh year VET, a guy that he wants to be a leader. And I think JayR, at this juncture of his career is really fully embracing that. And I just want to mention this too, because you know, some people have talked about the Charlotte thing in Carolina, and I'm probably more than anyone, the one that's kind of let Gyr off
the hook on that. But the thing I think people need to understand, I want to make sure this gets
this point gets made. I can't imagine what that must have felt like for him to be back in his city because there isn't a lot of those opportunities the Packers, you know, Caroline Panthers are not an uncommon opponent, but the Packers have not played there very often, so oftentimes I've kind of put myself in Gyr's shoes, and I don't want to say I understood what he did, but there's a part of me that when I look back on it, I think the way that that got painted
publicly is a lot different than what it was in reality. And what I'm excited about listening to joh talk this week is in addition to him saying the best cornerback in the league has entered the chat. I enjoyed that intro, but I think this is a guy that has always
been highly motivated. I don't think that's ever gone away, but he just seems so focused on what his goals are, on what the Packers' goals are, and the understanding too, Mike that seven years in there's probably not another seven on the other.
End of this.
Maybe he's Narl Green, who knows, Yeah, you know, but I think JayR understands it's now about winning championships, it's about building a legacy, and he has an opportunity to do that with this football team. And I think that is definitely something too when you look at this shift and the coordinator of the shift in this philosophy that I think really excites him.
And you mentioned how often during that media session he brought up year seven, seventh year guy. The other thing that he mentioned several times is that he's focused on what he means to the team. Yes, not just what he means for jay R Alexander at number twenty three, It's about what he means for the team. And I think that that mental shift is I think it's refreshing to hear, and I think it's not only going to be good for the Green Bay Packers, it's going to
be good for a JayR Elis sure as well. And because I'm with you on the Charlotte thing, I think there's I think there's a way to understand what happened there without excusing it, right, you know, from the insubordination kind.
Of, and I understand why the Packers had to do what they had.
Yeah, the one hundred percent you had to you can't you can't not let something like that go by. And we were told that that wasn't that that was sort of like the last incident. There were some other things to a lesser degree and obviously less publicly people didn't know about him, that had gone on behind the scenes. So but again, it's about for Alexander, it's about putting
all of that behind him. It's about moving forward with a new focus, not only on the team, but but on the new defense, the new coaches he's working with, the new approach on the defensive side that he seems to be really excited about. And uh, And as you said, I think I think the word for a j Alexander is focus. He's not he's not worried. He's not worried about a contract right now. He's not worried about out
an injury, you know, a rehab recovery thing. Those are the kinds of things that have been that have been you know, a part of a part of his approach to different seasons in the past. And and uh, and none of that is on the table right now. It's it's about Uh, it's about what's in front of him.
And uh, I think I think it's going to be It's going to be very interesting to see how that evolves, because for everything that has happened, there's absolutely no question nobody is questioning whatsoever that JayR Alexander is the number one cornerback.
Yeah, this team and the thing I love too.
He mentioned the communication with Matt Lafleur and Brian Goodekuntz as well, in addition to Jeff Hafley and the part that I really and this goes back to when you have a good culture and your football team, the fact that you can have everything that happened at the end of last season, Charlotte, him getting suspended from Minnesota and at the end of the year, even before the end of the year, everybody came together and put their cards
on the table. In the amount of maturity that was shown both by the front office and Jai Air to keep this thing going. How often do you that yarn just continually unravel They nipped it in the butt at that point, and Josh said, I mean he was back here, you know, when he was asked the question why are you here this year, He's like, well, I.
Was already here. We've talked about that before.
I mean, he'll train here during the off season when they aren't here for OTAs and everything else, and he decided to stick around and see where things took him. The one thing I love about John and again, he's the He's the type of dude that fascinates me as a human being because money is important. Don't get me wrong, It's very important. But if you remember when he signed his contract extension, he mentioned he was wearing like a
polo shirt that he had bought from Goodwill. I mean, this is a guy that he doesn't live extravagantly by any means, but it is about what it meant to him to be the highest paid cornerback in the league, what it means to him to be a leader in this locker room. And I think when you have that type of drive in you, even if there's going to be some moments of adversity, that's going to continually inject that fuel back into the engine to keep this thing going.
And that's why I'm excited to see what Jock can do now in twenty twenty four, for injuries aside, he can get this thing going.
Yeah, absolutely, I'm with you one hundred percent on that. A little bit of sponsor business here Wes Sirius XMNFL 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, another guy worth talking about here. I actually just posted a story on him on Monday on our website from last week's interviews. And that's the new number one running back in town, Josh Jacobs coming over as a free agent from the Las Vegas Raiders. And the crux of the story, and the crux of a very long conversation with multiple reporters at his locker, was that, and setting aside that a course in free agency, a lot of times it does come down to the
best offer, you know, the best contract. A big money contract doesn't hurt a guy who'd been looking for that kind of money and then played on the franchise tag his his fifth year with the Raiders, but he's looking for a place to establish a legacy, and for him, a legacy for the best players in football is drawn up in postseason football. He wants to play in the playoffs, the biggest games, the ones that matter the most, and he wants to prove in those biggest games that he
is a big time player. And in his five years in Vegas he made exactly one playoff appearance.
Who is his coach?
Rich Basaccia as the at the time the interim coach of the Raiders. Got the Raiders into the wild card round. They were playing in Cincinnati, and Jacobs actually had a pretty good game.
He was he had a hell heck of a game.
Yeah, he had. He had one hundred and twenty seven yards from scrimmage. It was I believe it was eighty three rushing, forty four receiving.
Game seventeen.
Yeah, he he had a heck of a game. The Raiders came up short. They had basically what was looking to be a game tying or potentially game winning drive if they had scored and gone for two, ball got intercepted at like the goal line or the two yard line or something like that in the final seconds of the game. So Cincinnati moved on. Cincinnati ended up going to the Super Bowl that year. But that's the only
postseason game that Josh Jacobs has played in. And when you come from Alabama and you know, it's about national championships, it's about making the college football Playoff and all that, and then you play five years in the NFL and you get exactly one playoff game. You know, this is a guy. And this is what I wrote about it. It's like, Okay, he's had three thousand yard seasons, he has an NFL rushing title. He you know, he's been named first team All Pro obviously the year that he won the NFL
rushing title. He's now got the you know, the big money contract that he saw. So the goals start to change for veteran players in those in those in and Josh Jacobs is all about getting to the playoffs and chasing a championship, which then for him personally, he hopes to leave a legacy in a place like Green Bay.
I was talking to a member of the packers I will not name, but you know, we were talking about how difficult it is losing Aaron Jones. But the fact that from a personality standpoint and a human standpoint, we'll see how things work on the field. But Josh Jacobs has been that everything and then some when it comes to filling those type of shoes that Jones left. I mean,
you're talking about an extremely positive, high character individual. If you know anything about his background, you know, growing up homeless, you know things like that, how that shaped him in the ways that that can drive a person. And I don't know Mike a little bit, and I haven't had a huge amount of interaction with him so far, but I don't know if I've yet to see him without a smile on his face, whether it be on the practice field in the locker room.
He just s has that type of disposition.
Of himself in an easy going kind of move, much like Aaron Jones in terms of just the approachability. The guy did the Packers Junior Power Plaque Kids clinic on Saturday. Our ladies in Brandon Marketing and everybody over in that side of the building, they do a tremendous job with it. I my nephews have been a part of it. Highly encourage you to take part in that. But a lot of times it's a lot of the rookies, It's a lot of the young guys getting back to Jiro Alexander,
Josh Jacobs, and jyr Alexander were over there. Yeah on a weekend. You're these guys are able to leave town. They don't need to be here for anything. But it shows you again, and he's taking pictures with kids. He's embracing that aspect of it. Now, the other side of it, the professional athlete side of it, is, this is a guy's highly motive to get back to the postseason. He's highly motivated to show that he's still the player he was two years ago.
When he was the NFL rushing champion.
And he's still relatively young even for that position. Yeah, I believe at twenty six years old. So I think when you're looking to what was the biggest question the Packers had this offseason, what's going to happen with Aaron Jones and what is going on in the secondary the back end with safety Xavier McKinney and also bringing in Josh Jacobs. They solve those two answers before we even got to the draft, and I'm just really excited to see hopefully there was a little bit of a hamstring
flare up, hopefully nothing going on there. We're expecting to see him more this week, But all in all, Man, this is a guy that's been a belcoll in the league. He's played at the football at the highest level, both in the pros and college, and now he's hungry to be able to build onto that legacy with potentially a Super Bowl championship.
Yah.
And he's he's excited about what he's seen of Matt Lafleur's playbook as well, just in terms of you know, when you think about you think about the times that you know Aaron Jones would motion out of the backfield and line up in the slot or maybe even line up wide, you know, on the weak side of the formation, but the running back is split out wide and you're trying to get the defense to commit to something to
create a matchup somewhere. Josh Jacobs sees himself and I think Matt Lafleur has told him that he's going to be used in some in similar ways, and he couldn't be more fired up about that. This is not just a guy who's gonna, you know, take twenty two handoffs a game and pound the ball between the tackles. The Packers are going to use him. Now, there are certain things Aaron Jones could do that that Josh Jacobs might not be able to do. But there are also some
things that Josh Jacobs maybe is able to do. Matt Lafleur can set him up for some certain situations that that maybe didn't necessarily apply to Aaron Jones. So there's gonna be there's there will be some interesting x's and o's that go along with his incorporation into this offense. And from what I could tell, he's pretty fired.
Up about it. I'll tell you what.
Man, watching the running backs a little bit and these ota practice so far, you see the body types of Josh Jacobs, Aj Dillon and then rounding that out with Marshawn Lloyd. Yeah, especially in Lloyd and Jacob's case, guys that are you know, shorter dudes, but just are so well built and put together. I mean, guys that pack a series also add some explosive.
Yeah, there's a there's a thickness to those guys without looking slow at all. And that's what That's what strikes you, and and it just it it makes me that much more curious to see. Okay, when when they put the pads on, because we haven't other than the Monday night game.
You know, last year out in Vegas, we haven't really seen you know, Josh Jacobs, you know, going full speed in the NFL, and you know guys like that, you know, put the pads on and start to you know, start to sync those hips into a move and then see who can tackle them. It's going to be fun to watch.
And I'll be honest with you, Mike, I haven't really watched a lot of Josh Jacobs football until the last couple of months, going back and watching some, you know, because again when the Raiders, you know, they've been struggling, they've gone through some tough times, and they aren't always
a nationally televised team right now. And but the more highlights I've watched, and especially when you mentioned the pass catching element, does that guy just not strike you as a dude that's just champing at the bit to have that part of his game showing.
Yeah, no question. He averaged about forty receptions per season in his five years in Vegas, and we had talked about this before. I think he's I think he and Matt Lafleur are looking for a potentially significantly larger number than that. Talking about pushing maybe fifty five sixty receptions over the course of the season as opposed to like high thirties low f It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
He ain't get too much into the scheme stuff, and certainly we haven't really even done a lot of this in the off season program. But when you I don't expect the you know, the pistol looks with the two backs, I don't expect any of that to go away. I think there's still a lot of those pony type elements of this offense there that are still going to be
parts of it. Because as much as it helped to have Aaron Jones, it's not like the Packers built their entire offense just around that one guy, right It was built out for multiple backs. It's the thing Mattlefloor has talked about for years that he wants multiple options, and right now, in Josh Jacobs, you have a guy that I don't know if he's gonna get the three hundred touches that he was getting there per season in Vegas and originally Oakland.
But I had a lot of guys to share the ball with around here, whereas in Vegas the last couple of years it was sort of Jacobs and DeVante Adams and and other than that, you know, everybody else was kind of playing a real secondary role.
Pretty simple.
So yeah, I'm excited to see where it takes us, and and certainly year and a chance to have him talk some more. And I think he's gonna be guy. It's to me extremely popular throughout the course of the season in the locker room. Yeah.
Well, there's a story on Jacobs that was posted Monday on Packers Dot. Another one, one last thing before we go If you didn't catch Mark Murphy's monthly MT five Murphy Takes five, which was posted on the website on Saturday. He decided to break some news for us. Yeah, that's he did, because he announced in that column that the Packers' first training camp practice will be the morning of Monday, July twenty second, and the shareholders meeting is going to
be that afternoon. This will be a first a training camp practice and the shareholders meeting on the same day. It's going to be a wild and crazy day at Lambeufield. I might call him sick that day, just warning you. I can see, I could see you're already thrilled about what the first day of training Camp is bringing here.
But that was the news.
That was news we learned over the weekend. Is the start of training camp and the shareholders meeting on the same day, Monday, July twenty two.
If you call him sick that day, I'm not going to do the full on like scarface thing to you, but there might be some dead fish heads in your bed that morning or something like that. July twenty second, Mike, July twenty.
Second, it's gonna get it's going to get rolling. Uh yeah, there's there's no there's no stop in that train once it leaves that station.
My selfishness aside, I think it's a great idea. I like the idea of training Camp. I know it's because of Brazil, but training Camp and shareholders I think is I think they're onto something. There being on the same day, I think that's that can be a really big deal for people. It's a way to keep it because I think there's one thing about Green Bay. It's an awesome city, it's an aweso community. It's cool to be around. But training camp practice, especially those that first one is like
an hour and a half. Then what do you do? Well, you got the shareholders you got some stuff around the stadium. I think that's a great idea. Just wish it was July twenty ninth.
Yeah, it'd be nice if it were a week later, if we had another week of summer before we dive into things. But Mini Campus next week, Mini Campus next week, and the off season program ends, and then you and I are probably gonna figure out a way to not.
See each other unless you're coming to Vegas with me five weeks.
No, I'm not coming to Vegas with you. I'll be following your uh, I'll be following your social media timeline though. On that Vegas follow yeah, there will be. With that, we're gonna call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team. One more week of OTAs this week, Mini Camp next week. We will continue with Packers Unscripted shows through the end of the off season program. So for Wes, I am Mike, thank you for tuning in.
Everybody.
We will see you next time.