#781 Packers Unscripted: Early days

right here through the first three practices. What observation is at the top of your list.

they talked about it in locker room yesterday. The idea of being able to pass rush in waves in different different combinations you're gonna be able to throw at people. Rashan Gary, as he often does, has just completely shot out of the gate in this camp. I mean he has been almost unblockable. You look at what the interior defensive line, Davante Wyatt, I think has been really disruptive

so far. Carl Brooks had some good pass rushes in practice on Wednesday, Kenny Clark, Preston Smith, Kingsleyanningbari, the list goes on and on and on of these defensive linemen and so many guys listening to them talk in the locker room this week, mentioning just the excitement that they feel.

And again they're not trying to bury anything that's been in the past, but the idea, especially for a guy like Wyatt, where he feels like he's getting more back to his room as a pass rusher, as a guy that is just going to get off the ball, win his matchups, and get to the quarterback. This often this defense, I should say, in the way it's constructed, in the way they've been building this thing. Outside of Kenny Clark,

Brian Gudokuntz has drafted all of these guys. Yeah, and now seeing that this scheme that Jeff Haffley's you know, bringing together with what they have up front. I think it's one of the most exciting things that we saw throughout the spring and now it's carrying over into the summer.

There's a first a rookie first round draft pick in the mix in Jordan Morgan, who's making an adjustment from

playing tackle in college to playing guard. He's been all of his eleven on eleven snaps, at least that I've seen, have been at right guard as he is in that competition with h with Sean Ryan, and Sean Ryan has also been taking some snaps at left guard when Elton Jenkins needs a breather, and that's a bit of a switch for him because all of his playing time last year was at right guard, and switching sides is not exactly easy. So there are those caveats on top of

the fact that the pads aren't on yet. I always, I always take the pass rushing thing with a little bit of grain of salt until the pads go on, because I think the pads help offensive lineman help in terms of the leverage. It's not to say that that defensive linemen don't use the pads for for leverage as well, but I think it the pads can slow things down a little bit, and slowing things down can help the offensive linemen. So I throw those caveats out there.

And I think in part that's what we're starting to see with Rashaun Gary here.

thing I think you have to consider. But more importantly, it goes back to what he said when we talk to him in the offseason. He got back here in April. He remembers seeing the training staff the first time, Basically that fork in the road where you're not going to go work with the training staff, You're going to get ready, you're going to go practice, you're going to go through the three phases. And he's like, I miss that, And if in watching any of his videos, the way that

he goes about his offseason training. The mindset that he takes, this guy is all football. Everything that he has, every minute in his day is geared towards football. And Mike Smith said it, it's almost six years ago now that when you have a guy that is that physically talented, the former number one recruit in the country when he went to Michigan, and he has that type of worth work ethic, those guys do not fail. And more and more he's been building up towards this thing. We're still

waiting for that, like big, massive breakout. But when you look at his numbers, when you look at the quarterback hits, when you look at the pressures, true media at him down for sixty three pressures last season, this guy eats away at a quarterback's internal clock.

something new. There's a not just because it's now his third year in the league, there's a comfort level that seems to be emerging with DeVante Wyatt that I think is going to serve this Packers defensive front very well as we move into twenty twenty four.

so much on the field. But I was talking with Wyatt about him at his locker on Wednesday, and you could just see how excited he was to be able to continue to work with him, to play with him, because he feels like the growth that he'd made last year and certainly You give credit to Jerry Montgomery for a lot of that, but a lot of it was going back to Kenny Clark and asking him about the scheme,

asking him about his responsibilities. Those two guys in more of that read and react front combined for thirteen sacks last season. Again, you don't want to set expectations too high. You have to go out there and play the games. But when both of these guys are being able to sort of pin their ears back a little bit more and push those guards and those centers back where you just wonder what the possibilities are for both of them. Again,

there's always going to be a counter to that. There's going to be things they're going to have to take into, you know, make an adjustments with. But DeVante Wyatt was brought here because of what he did, largely that final season at Georgia, and it took him a couple of years to build up to that. I think where we're at right now with him going into year three, it's a very similar pattern of his growth and maybe seeing if he can take that thing to the next level.

Either way, him and Kenny Clark together here for the foreseeable future, I think that's a really formidable duo to round out obviously the rest of that deep rotation.

run defender. You don't expect that to change. And in the past rush You've got these two second year guys and Carl Brooks and Colby Wooden who can also rotate in you know the I mean, I've been really impressed with Brooks. Certainly, he had a really really strong rookie season. I thought as a six round pick out of Bowling Green, you know, coming out of a place like Bowling Green, you're making a bigger jump to the NFL than that

in terms of the competition and whatnot. Then the guys you know who are coming from those Power five conferences. But Carl Brooks looked like he belonged very very early on his rookie year and I think he's one of those guys that the year two jump is going to be noticeable and it's going to make a difference for this Packers front.

He played at Bowling Green, he had some big game performances in non conference action, but it's and he got into this stage where it all just seems like football for him, Like there's nothing there that makes you think that, Okay, he was a really good MAC player. Well we'll see what happens the NFL. Now. Man, if you strip away the college from the bio, I think you think this kid played at any you know, major power five conference

in this in the country. Yeah. Uh. And then the other give credit to Colby Wooden two because again and he's you know, it's tough until these pads come on, but the offseason program he put on more weight to me, looked more like a defensive lineman last year. Last year, standing next to Lucas Fanis, they almost both looked like

edge rushers. This is a guy that has fluctuated in his weight a little bit, but now he's back more in that two eighty five to ninety range, and it seems like that made a difference for him as well. In the offseason. I was in the locker room on Wednesday and Jonathan Ford was walking through the seventh rounder from two years ago. Just a massive human being as well.

The Packers and Matt Lafleur touched that they're as deep as they've probably ever been, at least in this era of defensive line play, and especially when you factor in the edge rushers and the different combinations they can run. There are so many different avenues for this defensive front to succeed. You have to do it, you have to execute it. Words can only do so much, but my goodness, Michael, I think there's that's a group right there that definitely could push the pace. Yeah.

some time. Whether you're talking four three or three four base, you know, it doesn't matter those into the interior defensive line. That group they have right now, I think it's it's really impressive. And uh and if you're you know, you're not gonna want to take Kenny Clark off the field, You're gonna want to get DeVante Wyat, you know, as many snaps as he can handle in a lot of respects.

But that being said, when you have these other guys on the interior where the where the game can be so physical and so exhausting, and when you when you have those opportunities to rotate guys in and not take such a you know, such a significant step back, I think that really bodes well for these guys.

defense attack. I mean, you see the statistics, Mike. I believe I didn't come up with this paperwork coming into this thing, but it was somewhere around I think point eight or one yard per carry fewer when Kenny was on the field against the run last season.

story from the beginning. Who's the guy who's going to be lining up next to Xavier McKinney, lining up alongside McKinny when the Packers are playing the Eagles in Brazil in Week one and there's a steady rotation going on right now between with Javon Bullard, with Evan Williams, Anthony Johnson Junior is getting himself in the mix. And now these last two practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, Evan Williams got an interception in each practice. Anthony Johnson Junior got

an interception in each practice. Xavier McKinney is the you know, he's he's the new he's the new guy. But yet he's clearly the leader of that room and the leader of that bunch, and those guys are are are following him, certainly with all the knowledge and everything that he's able to share. But man, this safety competition, this could end up, this could end up going all the way through the month of August before we know who the starter action is. Well.

And I think with Bullard and Williams, what you like the most about those two together is they offer such different ways of sort of succeeding at the safety position. I mean, I've said it numerous times now. I watch Williams out there here, minds me a lot of Micah Hyde, not just his build, not just the fact he's wearing thirty three, but just an extremely intelligent player that just seems to know where the ball is going to be

and how he needs to get there. In Bullard, this is a guy that, like kway Walker, like Devonte Wyatt, like Eric Stokes, played football at the highest level at Georgia, won two national championships, played two different positions, started at two different positions. And so while these guys are rookies. These are guys that played a lot of football next to Xavier McKinney, and then McKinney again is sort of the thing that is going to bring all of this together.

I mentioned that story. It was the biggest offseason play that the Packers made in the practices that were open to the media. Xavier McKinney's out there for the first step, he goes trotting off because you're watching your veteran work. Bo Melton goes for a seventy five yard touchdown the exact play that McKinney leaves the field. I mean, he is the and asking Eric Stokes about this on Wednesday. He is the guy that is making sure that people

are where they're supposed to be. He's the guy that's communicating the assignments on the back end in his vocal. So when the Green Bay Packers went into this offseason, more than anything more than offense, defense or special teams, they knew they had to make repairs at safety. They've done that and now we have to see how it all looks come Brazil. But they're in a much better spot right now than if you're just wondering, Okay, well,

let's throw on somebody else and see what happens. Now all these guys are earning their playing time.

And Xavier McKinney is challenging himself in the same way where you know, some plays he's deep, some plays he you know, moves up into the box depending on the call, the personnelity offense. But these two rookie draft picks, they've really picked up the system. You're not seeing, you're not seeing a lot of confusion out there. You're not seeing missed assignments, and you know, guys immediately talking to each other after the play because you know this or that,

and it was interesting. It's been interesting over the course of time talking to both of them about about picking things up. Williams, I remember telling me back during the rookie mini camp when I asked him about you know, the playbook and trying to get acclimated to, you know, an NFL defense, and he says, well, you know, I played for you know, four different defensive coordinators and you know my time at Fresno State and then at Oregon. So he's used to learning a new system. He's got

his own process. He knows he's been through this before. Then you ask Javon Bullard kind of the same thing about how he's picking things up, and his answer, he's picking it up much, you know, in the same fashion with the same speed that Williams is, but his answer is completely different. His answer is, Jeff Hafley's a dB guy. So was Kirby Smart at Georgia. They build their defenses with the know in some senses, with the DBS in

mind in terms of how you process things. And he said it, the similarities in that regard have made it pretty easy for him to make this transition to Halfley's defense, because it really is not about the concepts, it's about the It's just about the terminology. It's what do you call something? And he has to forget the terminology from Kirby Smart's defense at Georgia and just apply Halflee's terminology

here in Green Bay. My point is both of these guys have picked things up pretty quickly, and that's that's how you get reps with the ones in training camp, is because the coaches trust that you know the calls and you know the playbook, and now it's just a matter of seeing who perform.

defenders on the field. There's going to be probably be four, five, maybe six, probably four or five defensive backs. But at the end of the day, it's about what you have, how that group is pushing each other, and then when the injuries come, when the adversity comes, who can you turn to. And you look at last season, especially at safety,

it got a little precarious at times. Again, we're one week into this practice of training camp and a few months into what this twenty twenty four season is going to look like. But I think the Green Bay Packers have to feel good about where they're sitting right now, considering all the investment they've made into that position.

plus years of better. All right, Another thing I wanted to touch on because actually shortly before we came in here and turn the cameras and the microphones on, you posted a story on Packers dot Com with regard to AJ Dillon. Now on the health end of things. Marshawn Lloyd, the third round draft pick at running back, He has not practiced yet because of a hip injury. We did see Jaden Reed, the second year receiver, back on the

practice field from his toe injury. Limited at least initially, but he's back and there aren't a whole lot of major concerns with regard to that toe. But getting back to running back, aj Dillon went about this past off season not just in terms of, you know, signing a contract to come back to Green Bay after his rookie deal expired and all that. That was all part of his process, but he went about this off season in terms of in terms of his body and his preparation

in a very different way. And you got some of the details on that.

kept himself in really good shape. He was at two fifty at eight nine percent body fat, but he thought and He challenged himself, how can I get better? How can I make sure that when I look back on this thing ten years from now, I know, Okay, whatever happens, I gave it my best shot. He cut down on the carbs, He intook more grass fed beef. He traded in all the soda for water. He started running the steps with a weight vest like Jared Bush used to

do out in the stadium. Boulder, You're at lambeau Field. He got a whoop band that showed him how much he's sleeping, what his respiratory rate was, all the different things that he's doing. And when he came back to the Packers during negotiations in March, when he went back and visited a couple other teams and talked to some other teams, he said, I want to play at a Pro Bowl caliber level in twenty twenty four. It's not

saying he's going to make the Pro Bowl. He just said, whatever role you want me in, if you want me as a running back, if you want me as a special teams player, whatever you want me to do, I'm going to give it everything I had. The phrase he kept saying over and over again was two yards two thousand yards, two million yards, whatever it is that it

ends up being, he's comfortable with that. So with all the work he did physically, as he said, what he feels like is he actually chased down the part of the game he was trying to master mentally, which was taking out the thought process into anything, taking out the worry, taking out the pressure. He knows there's pressure. The football

is pressure. Marshawn Lloyd got drafted, Manuel Wilson is there packers have they brought in Josh Jacobs Like it is a business where you can never get complacent, But in terms of executing what his assignment is, aj Dylon feels more at peace right now than he's ever felt in his NFL career. In in addition to that, you know, he accomplished a lot off the field. Him and his wife Gabrielle, they started their own foundation, the Dylan Family Foundation.

lot of levels to this. But at the end of the day, yeah, again, as Matt Lafleur said at the podium earlier this week, the best he's ever looked, hands down, and certainly mentally, I think he's as clear as he's ever been.

After AJ Dillon re signed with that special fifth year deal, a lot of fans were kind of trying to write off AJ Dillon in a sense and just say, well, it looks like he's going to be the odd man out, like is he going to be the is he going to be the surprise veteran cut that everybody seems to wanting to try to pinpoint like well in advance, and I don't know how this thing is going to shake out, But what I tried to emphasize in answering those questions, is that, look, you have to look at this from

a very realistic perspective. Josh Jacobs is new to Green Bay. Marshaon Lloyd is new to Green Bay and this offense. Emmanuel Wilson was an undrafted rookie last year who missed a ton of time. AJ Dillon is a guy who has been in this offense for multiple years. He has done the two minute stuff. He's done, He's done the hurry up stuff. He he knows all of the pass

protection calls to protect your franchise back there. Even if AJ Dillon is only going to play ten to fifteen snaps a game, and I have no idea, I'm just pulling a number out of a hat, but even if AJ Dillon might only be playing ten to fifteen snaps a game, I think he can be a really, really valuable piece to what's going on here. And I don't think that can be dismissed just because there are some

younger guys who are showing a lot of promise. And certainly you may have both both I'm talking about Lloyd and Wilson may have futures in Green Bay. But right now, in twenty twenty four, there's a lot of value in having AJ Dillon not only in that running back room, but on that field.

blocker right now, just where it's at. I mean, Emmanuel Wilson did, I don't think played special teams last year in a regular season game. I could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. Marshawn Lloyd is now coming into this thing for the first time, has been some things have been flowing about maybe him helping out kickoff returns. But AJ Dillon is a is a guy that can be a four core player for you in that phase two, just the way he's built at two

hundred and forty five pounds. I mean, AJ Dillon brings a lot to this football team, and I understand the pressures that go along with playing a skill position and how everybody looks at the numbers and they look at the touches and they look at the touchdowns and that's what they equate to what is a good football player. But as Matt Lafleur said, I remember sitting at the table with him in Orlando weeks after he was signed that AJ was re signed, and he made sure to

mention that was a pivotal signing for them. He came back on a very unique contract, which I think was somewhat spurred on by his desire to be here in Green Bay, to stay in this community. But all that being said, Uh, this is a guy that I think, at the end of the day, you want to have on your roster, and you want to have him for a full season. And if he can truly be able to put the injury stuff behind him from last year, if he can get the body thing tuned in the

weight it peers that he has. Yeah, there's still a lot out there for him too. At twenty six years old.

We've got all your coverage of training camp on Packers dot com. Check it out and we will see you next time.