Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the one and only Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field West. Since our last show, the Packers have practiced twice more on nizchegie Field. Not long after we wrap up this show, we'll be headed to the airport because we are off to Denver the joint practice on Friday. The preseason game. Preseason number two
is on Sunday night. So a lot to cover here as we go through, but I'll just start with what news and notes you have from these last two practices here in Green Bay. A couple of things to note very quickly on the health front, as far as some of the bigger names, Jordan Morgan and Carrington Valentine both have returned from their injuries and are back in practice, but thus far only doing individual drills. They are not
yet cleared for eleven on eleven. Don't know what that means as far as Denver on Friday and in the game on Sunday, but good news that a couple of guys who were expecting to have a pretty significant impact on this twenty twenty four Packers team that those injuries hopefully are in the review mirror.
Yeah, you hope. You know, from Morgan's standpoint, I don't know whether or not he'll be out there, but obviously that the hope would be get him in at least in one of these preseason games, if not next week with the joint practice against Baltimore and then before that game. Yeah, because he was doing some really good things Mike at right guard right before the shoulder injury popped up there in practice last week. You look at his size, his
body type. He was talking to the media on Wednesday and even mentioned, you know, he's getting more comfortable in that guard role again. And one of these guys, much like Sean Ryan whom we talked about earlier this week, somebody that didn't play that position at all in college, was just stationed at left tackle and having to make
that adaptation now in the NFL. So when you look at Valentine, when you look at Morgan, obviously, I think Morgan's probably the one that you want to make sure you get out in these preseason games and see as much of them as possible and give him those live reps, whereas a guy like Valentine played so many snaps last year, started twelve games with such a vital part of that
defense with all the injuries that had crept up. I think the other thing that really stood out to me with these practices this week is the more opportunities that Michael Pratt has been receiving at quarterback. And I think a lot of people make too much out of the first team, second team to third team, you know, designations and who's running with whom. But the thing is is
they did put more on Pratt's plate this week. He got a chance in the practice on Tuesday to close out the two minute drive there and the arm talent he has, the moxie. This is a guy much like Clifford last year, who played a lot of college football and I think has shown that he isn't just going to be a deer in the headlights when he makes this jump to the NFL. There's a lot there and a lot of that he can lean back on as he starts to make that transition.
Yeah, there is a lot to watch with regard to the backup quarterback situation. Now, as you said, Michael Pratt getting a little bit more put on his plate taking some reps with the twos as opposed to just with the threes. And with regard to Sunday night's preseason game in Denver, the starters are not going to play. They're going to essentially get their work ones versus ones against
the Broncos in the joint practice on Friday. So then it is the twos and the threes that are going to be getting all the work in the Sunday night game. And it'll be interesting to see because with what Pratt did in his NFL preseason debut in Cleveland, he certainly acquitted himself well. But I came out of that game thinking, Okay, Michael Pratt looks like he belongs in the NFL. I want to see him go against better than third string units on the other side, right, So that's the next
step with Pratt. So we'll see how the reps ended, you know, get divided up on Saturday night. I'm sorry, on Sunday night in Denver.
I keep doing that this week too.
I know I keep saying Saturday preseason on a Sunday night. I had to look back at all of my schedules, which are in a big stack at home since we had to pack up all of our office step to
this temporary location we're working in. I don't know if I've ever covered a preseason game on a Sunday night like this might be, this might be a first, but regardless, I think we're all going to be curious to see if Michael Pratt is able to get into a preseason game where it's not just the threes versus threes, but where he gets to work with the Packers twos but also goes against more of a second string unit defensively as opposed to a third string unit. Then we'll see
how things go. It's interesting to watch it unfold. I would say, I think it's going to be hard. It's going to be difficult to not Clifford out of that spot barring some kind of a disaster, just because of his experience and that he has the one year under his belt. But you can't rule it out. You definitely can't rule it out. And then there's gonna be the decision when push comes to shove. Are the Packers going to keep three quarterbacks on the fifty three years going
to be two? And those are all things that we still have to let these last two preseason games play out before we really get into those conversations.
One hundred percent. And I like what you said there because I think one thing that people aren't giving Clifford enough credit for I've said even last year, in a lot of ways, he's sort of an agent of chaos, it seems like, in terms of he goes out there in these games and you talk about a gamer, a winner, a guy that was a four year starter at Penn State, Clifford shows it in those instances when when the fire gets on his toes, when when the heat gets turned
up a little bit, the guy doesn't panic. He looks to make plays, he doesn't look to recoil. That's what made him successful last preseason. Honestly, I think that's what's gonna make him a successful NFL quarterback. I think I think so too, if he gets thrown into those situations where you need a guy to go out there. The question was asking me an insider inbox this week, and I don't know how you feel about it, but it was brought it up again about hey, should the Packers
have a Joe Flacco type? Should they have a veteran quarterback behind Jordan Love one no, because the money that you have to invest in those players is so astronomical. People get so over the top about well, these quarterbacks are making fifty million dollars a year to start, Well, we're paying backup quarterbacks eight million dollars a year. That all still comes out of the same salary caps You.
Got to understand you're talking about a different salary cap wise when you have a couple developmental quarterbacks that even if the Packers do keep them both and have three, you're talking about a couple million dollars invested in a couple of backup quarterbacks salary cap wise versus a six or eight or nine million dollar a year deal for a proven you know, NFL veteran, you know that whole thing.
That's a completely different financial equation and it's something that the Packers would rather not have to go down that road. And they believe in their process of developing quarterbacks and getting as ready to play if indeed it happens is.
With w they did last year with Clifford, which they're doing now with Michael Pratt. I love the decision to draft Pratt in the seventh round. The Packers have had this barrage of seventh round picks the last couple of years. When you looked at that draft board, he was the guy that I had on there. When I was looking at it, I was like, this is the dude if they want to go to try to draft somebody late, and it was the guy they ended up picking. I love what he brings to the table. I love his
arm strength. I love the fact that this has been a real live competition between these two. Pratt is moving up from just the entry level one hundred level class to more than two hundred level stuff now with some of these reps he got this past week. But at the same time, I think Sean Clifford's done a lot
of good things too. A little bit of confusion at the end of the two minute series on Wednesday, but the fact that he drove them down as quickly as he did, looked poised, look confident, got the ball quickly out of his hand. There wasn't a timeout to be used during that series was a minute forty with no timeouts. He had a really nice scene pass to Ben Simms
for twenty three yards. He is looking to make those plays downfield with his arm in addition to keeping the drive moving and again, I think Clifford has talked about it at nauseum. Now it was a different beast winning that first week when he was trying to step in there for Jordan Love. Now he's having a chance to get back in with twos, and I think you're seeing the development process take it from there.
Yeah, And the quarterback, the quarterback situation is definitely going to be worth monitoring here as training camp wraps up, and there are a lot of snaps to be had in these last two preseason games because even if Jordan Love and the starters do return to preseason action in that finale against Baltimore, I don't expect it to be a whole lot much more. You know, it might be a little bit more than the really brief cameo in Cleveland, But then again, maybe not. And you know, we don't know.
There are a lot of snaps for Clifford and Pratt to take over these last couple of preseason games. A couple other thoughts with regard to these last two practices. Really too bad on the defensive side of the ball that the two rookie draft pick linebackers Edgern Cooper and Tyron Hoppert have been injured and have not been able to participate. I think Hopper has been going through some individual drills, but neither one has been in the eleven
on eleven at all, and that's really unfortunate. Now there's still another week left after the Denver trip, and there's still the one more preseason game, but at this point, you know, I don't want to put the cart before the horses, they say, but it's hard to see any sort of an immediate, like week one impact from rookie linebackers in this brand new defense when they have missed as much time and as much potential opportunity as they have.
One of the things that I think is interesting about this though, and I was actually chatting about this on the sideline the other day with Paul Brettle, who's a relatively new media member on the Packers beat, works for
ESPN Radio out of Lacrosse. He lives here in the Green Bay area, and he was talking about Christian Welch, the veteran inside linebacker, and because when training camp started, you're looking at, Okay, you've got as far as that, as far as that off ball linebacker spot, you have Kuay Walker, Isaiah McDuffie, Eric Wilson, you know, has been doing his thing. You have the two rookie draft picks.
How you know how much more room is there? Well, now that Cooper and Hopper haven't really been in there, Suddenly Christian Weltch the combination of not only the reps that he's getting in practice, but then what he brings as a veteran guy on special teams and all that. It's like, well, the Wisconsin native, I you know, Iola Wisconsin, Uh, Christian Welch is is you know, in position to make this fifty three man roster again. We'll see again, still
a long way to go. But a guy that I don't like to use the word afterthought, but but a guy that you weren't we weren't really talking about him right right, But now it's looking like, well, maybe we should be talking a little bit more about this guy because I think he's going to be in position to make the fifty three.
And I no means do I want to disrespect Christian here, but I think one of the reasons why you don't think much about him is he didn't play on defense for Green Bay last year. He played four defensive snaps the year before that, with Baltimore.
Yeah, he has been a special teams a special teams specialist.
This is where he has cut his teeth in the league. And as Paul was telling us, and I've talked to Christian too, I remember talking him at the end of the season last year about his desire to come back, considering he's ninety minutes from his home, you know, his hometown. Yeah, but you know, as he was saying, it's like he loves special teams. Yeah, this is a guy and it reminds me kind of like the Jared Bushes of the world, Guys that Yeah. I mean, certainly everybody wants to play
on defense. He's in linebacker. That is his position. He wants to play linebacker. But there's certain guys that they embraced that with open arms, those type opportunities and the chance to be able to create a living and have a legacy, be able to tell his grandchildren I played in the National Football League for seven, eight, nine, ten years. A lot of times those grants there aren't asking, hey, were you the starting linebacker in Week two against Chicago. No,
he played for the Green Bay Packers. It all kind of counts the same in that way. Yes, and Welch has the right mentality for it. The one thing I think is very interesting to me because I went into this whole thing even though they drafted Edrin Cooper, even though they drafted Tyrone Hopper, And there's a lot to like about both of those guys.
Absolutely, there is a ton to like about what those guys bring to the table.
But the guy I really honestly thought was going to be a starter no matter what is I'm Misaiah McDuffie, just because of the way he plays the position, and he reminds me so much of those those great inside linebackers, the guys that I don't care what the forty was, I don't care what the bench was when you put them on the field. He is just a missile to
the football. And what I think is interesting now is with the injuries they've had it inside linebacker, a guy that has been a staple on special teams for a number of years, You almost kind of wonder how much are they going to be able to play Isaiah McDuffie on special teams this year? Because I think he's going one way or another, is going to have a big role on this defense.
That's only what it's looking like for sure.
The tough part though, is this is the time where you would have liked to see Cooper and Hopper get those reps, because that's what you build off now if you get called upon once the regular season starts, that's what you build upon when you do get thrown out there, and that's one area where they're gonna have to try to make up some ground on whenever they get back on the field.
Yeah, I'm glad that you brought up McDuffie because, uh, I mean, he's a guy that we've we've watched him over the last few years go from you know, being a guy who's just playing on special teams, handling his role there and and you know, carving out his his niche to where because of injuries and other circumstances, you know, he ended up getting I believe he started roughly half the games.
Yeah season he started eight yeah, eight as a spots starter.
Eight games as eight games as a starter last year.
Four positions each, four for Kuway Walker, for for uh Devondra Campbell.
Yeahs for Campbell. Yeah. So he ends up over these last couple of years now, he started to get a lot more action on defense he's been involved a lot more and all he's done is, you know, it's the cliche, but all he's done is do everything that these coaches ask him to do. And if you line up Isaiah McDuffie and have him run a forty yard dash, he's not going to impress anybody. And that's why he was still on the board in the sixth round coming out
of Boston College. As a tackling machine at Boston College, but he was still there in the sixth round. But he's one of these guys that, as you said, the forty time doesn't matter because he plays so much faster than that, because because when he knows a system and he's in a system and then he's able to he's able to use his instincts to read what the offense is doing. He plays so much faster than any forty
time on a stopwatch. And as he has worked his way into more and more defensive snaps over the last couple of years, and this year could be his biggest yet, depending on what happens with the rookies and those injuries and when those guys can get back and really start to try to compete for playing time. He's he's going to have a major role in this defense, and to his advantage, it's Jeff Hafley's defense. He worked, you know, he played for him at Boston College. This is a
system that he knows. The transition or whatever you want to call it to this system was probably the easiest for Isaiah McDuffie than anybody else on this Packers defense. And it looks like he's taken advantage of that.
Yeah, and just seeing that again, everything he did in college has been applicable to what he's doing in the NFL. And you know, and not to throw him too far under the bus at the forty, I mean, he ran a four to six one. But you look at what these linebackers are doing now and that people want stronger, faster, all these different things they're asking these positions to do. He's the throwback. He is the guy that is the gritty,
hard nosed dude. And you saw it in practice even I believe it was on Wednesday where it was a free play. You had TJ. Slayton jump off the guys the offset. Jordan Love drops backs trying to make something happen, throws a ball across the middle. Isaiah McDuffie's skies tips it quay Walker interception. If that happens in a game, it's all for not because the guy jumped off sides and it was a free play, but what the potential ramifications of that play are by giving them the free
opportunity to take a shot down field. Those are huge and it just shows you the type of football player and the type of headiness he has. The Packers have set themselves up well here depending on what happens with Cooper and Hopper, because you have McDuffie and Wilson who have both played a lot of football and can be
counted on and relied upon be in there with kuay Walker. Again, it's just it's unfortunate where you made that heavy investment in an inside linebacker to day two inside linebackers, and you just are hoping to be able to give them as much opportunity as possible to learn this defense, to get familiar with it, because it is it's a long seventeen game regular season.
Yeah. Absolutely, I want to look ahead to Denver a little bit here, but I'll take care of some sponsor business. For serious 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 cousin subs. We have something for everyone like our Wisconsin Cheese Kurds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or sub and a bowl cousin
subs fifty plus years of better. All right, joint practice coming up Friday in Denver. I already mentioned this is going to be where the starters for the Packers, both on offense and defense, are going to get the bulk of their work because they will not be playing, according to Mattlefloor, in the game on Sunday night. So my question to you, Wes is what are you looking for?
What are you watching for? When we are at the practice field out there in the Rocky Mountains on Friday afternoon or Friday morning, I should say.
Yeah, I'll be Friday morning, get ready for that bus ride. Yeah, I'm going to start it off. And this isn't just lip service or trying to like, oh hey, go read my story, but Emmanuel Wilson is a big name that sticks off the page for me for two reasons. One, no running back in the National Football league since the start of the twenty twenty three preseason has more rushing
yards than Emmanuel Wilson led last year. He's currently one yard off of the lead for this year with those sixty seven rushing yards he had last week in Cleveland, fifty. As you said on our Tuesday podcast after the contact, So you're taking an already talented, already motivated, five two hundred and twenty six pound running back and now you're sending them back to Denver, where his NFL career began when he signed with them as an undrafted free agent
out of Ford Valley State. He gets cut three days after that rookie mini camp, and for as quiet as humble, as determined as a manual is, you can tell how that affected him because he was saying to us this past week, you know, he thought that was the end of the road. He thought football wasn't going to be for me anymore. Well, I think it was ten or
eleven days later the Packers signed him. He comes in and Mike, how many times have the Packers signed an undrafted running back that's fifty or six on the depth chart that is sort of the the guy that's just coming in. We'll see what he can do. You got to eat snaps in the preseason. Emmanuel Wilson from the time in which he signed with the Packers that towards the end of May in over the next three months,
made himself undeniable with that roster spot. An eighty yard touchdown run against the Cincinnati Bengals will help that, but it was what he did day in and day out, and even how he looked last season before the shoulder injury, just in real spot duty. This is a talented, really hungry young man. I'm really interested to see how the Packers in him are able to run this football. It could be a lot of Wilson in this game. I think it's gonna be a lot of Wilson in these
practices too. Although Josh Jacobs this is going to be his game day, so to speak. I mean, you're not going to run him into the ground. And they're currently without Marshawn Lloyd and also Jarvin Howard, who neither of whom practice this week, so great opportunity to build on what they did in Cleveland, and certainly Wilson is going to have a lot of motivation to do to do really well.
Yeah, the thing I still have to get used to with Emmanuel Wilson, and I'm starting to What I have to get used to with him is seeing that body type five ten, two hundred and twenty six pounds with legit speed, like because you just you look at him, you know, sort of that that first impression, and yes, he looks like a running back, but he doesn't look like a running back who would have the type of
breakaway speed that he does. And when he broke off that eighty yard touchdown in Cincinnati last August, and when he broke to the outside with you know, Michael Pratt throwing that extra block for him in Cleveland last week, when he gets in the open field, man, he can turn it on and that's you know, that's really impressive because because at two hundred and twenty six pounds, you know, he's got the power between the tackles like that's there
and that's that's not a question and h and his speed, his speed is always is always impressive to me. The other thing I want to watch for, and I don't know how this is going to go in the Friday joint practice, but with the fact that this will be you know, the action for Jordan Love and the number one offense is are the Broncos going to dial up some blitzes? Are they going to get a little exotic?
Are they going to challenge the Packers offensive line, the protection calls, the unit there, Jordan Love with the hot reeds and the receivers to stay on top of everything because and I know, the game out in Denver last October was before the Packers kind of found their footing on offense and got things going. But that Denver defense gave the Packers all kinds of problems. Yeah, last year in the regular season, to the point that the Packers didn't even have any points on the board at halftime.
It was a first half shutout for Denver. So the challenge that it will present, and I hope, I'm hoping for Jordan Love and Company's sake that they do get the challenge of, you know, some third down blitzes and some different calls and different looks that they have to react to and respond to to really make that joint practice work worth it when when they're not going to be playing in the preseason game. So so for me, that's that's a big one to watch. And then when
it comes to the game on Sunday night. The a couple of receivers that I'll have my eye on. One of course, is Grant Dubo's And as you mentioned, you have a story on Packers dot com on Atmanuel Wilson coming out of the Cleveland game not long before we turn the cameras on here. A story of mine on Grant Dubo's has been posted on Packers dot com. So if you want to check that out, certainly do so. But as I mentioned on our last show too with with with a guy like Dubo's, he had such a
strong game in Cleveland. Now the question is, okay, can you do it again? Can you repeat it? Can you stack the success in these preseason games? And then on the flip side of that in the same competition for you know, wide receiver and a difficult place to make this roster. Boll Melton had a couple of drop passes in Cleveland, but we've seen what boul Melton can do
in games when he was active last season. This is the guy who can help the Packers and he can produce, but he's in a really competitive situation to make this team right now. So how does bull Melton bounce back from a bad day at the office out in Cleveland. Now in Denver, can he get back to looking like the Bowl Melton that we saw down the stretch last season, who was a big part of things for the Packers on offense. So at the receiver position, there's always something
to watch. But those are the two guys that I think are going to have the most eyes on them heading into this Denver game.
Yeah, for sure. And I again just seeing Granted bow Is just week after week, practice after practice, and preseason game after preseason game be able to stack that has been really impressive to watch. And as Matt Lafluur also said that what he's added as with his pass blocking too, He's impressed a lot with the effort he's shown in that capacity, which is the off forgotten phase of the game when you look at it from a fans perspective, but sometimes it's just as critical to a team. I love that.
I love that line Lafleur had in the press conference the other day about the receivers no block, no rock. If you don't block in the running game, you're not going to get your number call to the pass like that's that's how much they emphasize it. Here, if you're if if you're just going to be a receiver who's going to run your routes and then hang around, hang out on the periphery when the running plays are called, and not stick your nose in there to find a corner,
find a safety. Maybe it's even a linebacker that you got to put a hat on a hat and throw a block. It's really really emphasized around here. And we've seen it. Whether it's Bull Melton, whether it's Malie Heath, whether it's Samari Ture, whether it's Grant Dubo's these guys who are fighting for those spots at the bottom of the roster. It's not just you know, Romeo Dobbs and Christian Watson, who are who are blocking in the running game.
All these guys are and and it speaks to the speaks to the mentality and the culture that has been created amongst the wide receivers. And I think it's something that's existed in the Packers wide receiver room for a long time, going back to Donald Driver and James Jones
and Jordy Nelson and all that. I think the whole blocking in the running game has that the mentality has been has been even heightened in a sense in this particular era with with the way Lafleur emphasizes it and the other offensive coaches do as well.
Yeah, no doubt, and yeah, so to have do Bo's get involved with this and looking as good as he's looked three weeks into camp, and you know, obviously bow Melt, we all know what he can do. Some unfortunate drops there and some stuff that didn't really sync up right, but incredibly talented. We saw it in the one on ones you were watching that with the receivers and defensive backs. Had a huge touchdown on that. And then quickly I
just want to mention also with Malik Heath. I mean, Malik Heath's the guy that I thought had some drops and had some missed opportunities during the off season program. I thought he's really bounced back well. And when you're talking about guys that also contribute in special teams, his body type and just that's bridge. Pasaccia has deployed him in a number of different units, whether it was on kickoff return as you know, a blocker, or even on I think he's been doing some stuff as a gunner.
There's a lot of ways to use him as well. So it's what you expect. You want to see good competition throughout that receiving room. But it's just so interesting to me, Like, for example, last week, Mike, I'd be challenge you to show me how many teams will start with their starters in a preseason game and then after that initial series there's four guys that are are not going to play anymore. You know, Dantavian Wicks is technically
I guess you would say the number four receiver. He has a sixty five yard touchdown and he's done for the afternoon. That's very rare, I would get. I would venture to guess that you go back and talk to James Jones. I'm guessing James Jones played in a lot of preseason games and saw a lot of action despite
the fact he was the established number three or number four. Yeah, but just shows you how deep Green Bay is and if those number five, six, seven, eight, Samory two Ray, those guys get involved in these games, you have to be able to take advantage of it.
Yeah. I'm glad you brought up Malie Heath too, because I think we've seen him on the practice field lately looking a lot more like the guy we saw last year and knops guy who looked like in the spring he was trying to find himself again a little bit. And he's another guy to watch to see now if he can take what he's been doing on the practice field into a preseason game and cash in on what I think will be some opportunities for him.
You know, it's the coolest thing too. I'll close on this in terms of the receivers. You're not an Instagram social media, but I think something is so cool about that room because anybody can say, oh, yeah, we're all pulling for each other and everything like that. Grant to Bo's has a great game against the Cleveland Browns. I would imagine I haven't talked to Bow about it. I'd
imagine Bo probably wasn't thrilled with this game. You know what was on Bo's Instagram story two days ago a picture of one of Grant's catches from the Packers account reposts it on his That's being a teammate. Yeah, that's being somebody to root for and hopefully you know, both can get this thing. Yeah again, because he's an explosive football player man.
Yeah, and you talk about culture, that's a great example of culture right there. So with that we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript. You'd be sure to follow all of our continuing coverage of training camp and everything that's going on in Denver, the joint practice on Friday, the preseason game on Sunday night. We will have it all for you on Packers dot com for Wesiam Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We will see you next time.