#832 Packers Unscripted: OTAs underway

during this OTA period. I'm just gonna throw this out there as an open ended question from what you saw at practice or the players we talked to, and we talked to a lot of the big name players on this team that first kind of that first big availability of the off season. What was your biggest takeaway from that day of access last week.

but I think there was a reason why. When you and I were divving up coverage and we were figuring out what to write, the first story you wrote was on the receivers. It was on Jayden Reid and one understanding where he's at because a lot of us forget. He did suffer an injury in that game against Philadelphia. I was in the locker room with him afterwards. He had the sling on his shoulder, ends up having a

partially torn labram in addition to a dislocated shoulder. Said he was pretty much down for most of the off season program in terms of that. There's other things he was able to do, but that did lay him up for a couple months. But he didn't require surgery. He's good to go there. Obviously, there's been a lot of conversation outside the building about number one receivers and two receivers in all this, and now Matthew Golden being added

to the mix. But I thought it was really important that Reid talked about how, first and foremost the culture they have in that room, the culture that seemingly has always been there through the different generations and different players that have come through there, that's still very much in place, and this definitely is an all for one mentality of

how they're approaching this thing. And then the last thing I'll throw in there too before I passed the microphone back to you, Christian Watson Man, you and I walk into the practice inside the Hudson Center, and this guy is not necessarily, you know, running routes and making huge pass catches, but the fact that he was stretching with the team and the fact that he was cleared to a ten practice. He was out there during the Packers' practice at Nichki Field. That's not something typically you see

a lot of guys coming off ACLS doing. And Matt Leffuor did say afterwards they think he's ahead of schedule. It looks like he definitely put the time into the weight room as well. So the Packers' receiving corps if all together, if all healthy, which again could end up being more towards the midpoint of the season. I just think there's so many different intriguing options to it, and the fact is that group very much is still rowing in the same direction.

wide receivers. And then there's the story that gets out that Jaden Reid's agent had contacted the Packers' front office to just clarify like where he stood a couple of things on that. For one, nobody's holding anything against Josh Jacobs, and in fact, Jaden Reid took the comments as motivating, and quite frankly, I don't think this is a receiver group that necessarily needs any extra motivation. They know the stats, the drop passes and all the stuff that happened last year,

so they know what's out there. And the fact that the front office invested two of their top three draft picks and wide receivers, it's like, all right, they're bringing in as much talent as they can and they're going to say, all right, who's who's going to be here, who's going to step up to the plate and show up and play and provide the production that they're looking for. And these guys are going to be competing, you know, through these next couple of weeks and then certainly through

training camp and everything like that. And Reid did clarify with regard to his agent he had hired a new agent, the contact with the Packers' front office. He clarified that that was really just a matter of course in terms of his you know, signing up with a new agent. But the word got out as far as what happened, it was in the context of the two new wide receivers in the draft. As far as Reid's concerned, that whole report was a misinterpretation of what was going on.

So just to just to clear all that up. But I like what you said about the culture, the rowing in the right direction these guys. The biggest thing that Jayden Reid, what he wanted to focus on with all the media questions that were coming his way, is that he had multiple exit interviews with his coaches at in January after the playoff lost to Philadelphia, and he was delivered a very clear message from multiple coaches. We want you to be the leader in the wide receiver room.

They knew Christian Watson's gonna be rehabbing, He's not going to be back for a while. They're looking to Jaden Reid to be the leader of this group, and he is taking that assignment, so to speak, very very seriously. And we've heard from multiple coaches about you know, Reid is right there with Matthew Golden, you know, helping him out, showing him some things, you know, answering questions, whatever the

case might be. So as competitive as all this is and as many questions as there are about exactly maybe what the pecking order is going to be come week one in September, this is a wide receiver room that has that has a lot going for it, has a lot of good vibes, and I think it's it's coming together the way Brian Gudukunstan vision, which is that competition is never a bad thing, and they're gonna find out who's gonna who's gonna rise up here and perform.

all of it. But that being said, I just feel like this is the natural step for Jaden Reid. He's been their leading receiver statistically the past two seasons. I think you listen to what people said about him when he was at Michigan State, the type of guy he is, the way he leads, He is just a perfect Packers person in addition to the fact that he's a really talented wide out as well. So nobody I just feel like everybody understands the game in Green Bay Tucker Craft.

Did anything really change that much with the offense last year that they were just going to continually feed Tucker Craft. No, Luke Musgrave got hurt, Tucker Craft got some opportunities. He made the Mosso's opportunity, and guess what happens when you make the most opportunities, You're going to get more of them. Everybody understands that. That's how Romeo Dobbs came in in twenty twenty two and made the impact that he did right off the bat as a fourth round pick. Yeah,

as a rookie. That's why Jaden Reid was able to be effective right out of the bat. We'll see what they get Matthew Golden. This is a young man that's coming in. He's a true junior this past year at Texas. He's going to have time to grow. Certainly, Savion Williams is also a guy that is going to need some time to grow. They are still counting very much on this veteran nucleus that they've been developing for the past

two to three seasons to come through for them. And ultimately that I think is where you're going to see the biggest jump. If you can get something from Golden and Williams right off the bat, fantastic, That is awesome for this offense. But the bottom line is Romeo Dobbs, Jayden Reed, Dontavian Wicks, this group that's already been here. If the Packers are going to make a big jump offensively this season, it has to start with them.

some point later this fall. If I were to point to my biggest takeaway, and this comes from, you know the fact that we talked to Jaden Reid and Kenny Clark and Edrin Cooper and Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney and Jordan Love. We talked to all of those guys after this one OTA practice that we got to watch, and when I kind of walked away from it and was processing it over the next couple of days after the word hunger is what kept popping into my mind.

And it's not to say that past teams in Green Bay haven't been hungry, that the desire and whatnot hasn't been there, but there is there is something about this bunch, and I think it's a combination of the fact that last season ended with three consecutive losses, including the first round exit in the playoffs, and then you don't get as far as you did in the postseason a year ago, and quite frankly that you know, as opposed to taking the forty nine ers down to the wire the previous

year and almost getting the NFC Championship game, they didn't really take the Philadelphia Eagles down to the wire. They played them into the fourth quarter, but everybody walked away that day knowing that the Eagles were the better team

and deserved to move on. Having that be the third straight loss to end the season, combined with the fact of I think everything that has been swirling around out there in the various media narratives, whether it's about the wide receivers that we just discussed, or whether it's about you know, did Jordan Love take a step back in twenty twenty four compared to twenty twenty three, And we can talk more about that in a minute, but I think it's just it's arned something up in these guys

that is a little bit different than what we felt at this time a year ago, when a lot of things, you know, arrows are pointing up all kinds of excitement and everything coming off of what was a somewhat surprising and unexpected playoff run at the end of twenty twenty three and how well the team was playing. There's a hunger to these guys that they know what's out there.

They know that they didn't really live up to their own expectations collectively as a team a year ago, and I think that's really providing a motivating force for the group as a whole. That's just the sense I got after talking to all of these team leaders that we talked to on the first day.

Raiders to not have that type of success. Then you get somebody like Aaron Banks, the Packers k new left guard that they signed from San Francisco, and listening to him talk and just the kind of cerebral tone that he spoke with when discussing how he's been as close as you can get to winning a Super Bowl championship without actually having that ring on your finger, and how much that drives him now, how much he's been pursuing that And certainly there's money involved with it, and you

want to take care of your family and you have to take care of yourself. But he said when he was finding that next spot to sign, when he was looking at where it was going to be, he sees a place in Green Bay that has been close as well. Now, certainly there's only five players left from the last time the Packers got to an NFC Championship game, but they know those stories and they know what the standard has

been here for so long. That is the chase. And last year, depending on which way you want to slice it, they had a first round exit, which is one round earlier than the previous year when they got to the divisional round after they pulled off that upset of the Dallas. Last year, they didn't get back to the divisional round, but they also won two more games in the regular season. They also didn't perform as well in the NFC North.

All these things kind of factor into this idea. I think that has been sort of following Green Bay all off season of this is what we've built toward this season. It's not that they're all in, it's not that it's everything about this year, but this is why you were the youngest team in the NFL the back to back years to get you to this point. You want to win a super Bowl every single year, but a lot of teams would struggle to even be competitive being as

young as Green Bay was the past two seasons. The Packers not only did that, they made two postseason runs. In Jordan Love's first two years as a starting quarterback. Everybody wants to talk about Aaron Rodgers was twenty seven years old when he won a Super Bowl. Brett Favre was twenty seven years old when he won a super Bowl. You know what Aaron Rodgers didn't do. He didn't get to the playoffs the first two years as a starting

quarterback in the NFL. Well, Jordan Love did. Yeah, And you you got to take your own pace and you got to follow your own path as it comes. But when you when you talk about hunger and desire and motivation, I think this roster, especially with the way that last season ended and losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion in the wild card round in Philadelphia, I think those are that's sort of that fuel that's firing into the engine right now trying to get these guys going into twenty twenty five.

can bank on that that playoff experience. And even if he's say if he's not going to be the next Hall of Famer like Aaron Rodgers is, the next time Jordan Love gets to the playoffs, if he gets there again in year three, he's in a better spot than Aaron Rodgers was in year three, and I think that could pay dividends for this club. I'll take care of

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All right, Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney. We talked to both of those players after practice last week, and I'll let you go whatever direction you want to go with this,

but I will just say this. Anybody who thought that Josh Jacobs was gonna rest on his laurels with a thirteen hundred yard, fifteen touchdown season or whatever he ended up with, and that Xavier McKinney was going to rest on his first team All Pro honors and just collect paychecks the rest of his time with that big contract in Green Bay, that is not how those two guys are wired. And they made that pretty clear. Whether it's

McKinney talking about, Hey, his ultimate long term goal. Individually speaking, he wants to put on a gold jacket and can like he's going to be striving to be that type of player. And Josh Jacobs, for all of his success and how much he was the straw that stirred the drink of the Packers offense for quite a while a good chunk of the season last year, the first thing he's talking about is he feels like he left a lot out there. You know that he didn't really maximize

on everything he could have done. As much of a workhorse as he was, you can't have You can't have better guys than that in terms of their mentality, in terms of their being the leaders in that locker room. When you're talking leaders aside from the quarterback natural leader in that position.

in how he answers things, much like McKinney. But I'm pulling off the number eight thing over here. Listen. He had such an in depth, thoughtful answer. I felt when people talk about, oh, well, the receiver thing, he wanted a number one receiver. He wanted this in that Josh Jacobs, so much of what he discusses is based on that sense of urgency that he understands the position he plays.

He understands tomorrow is never a given and if he wants to win a championship, if he wants to take that next step and make a deep playoff run, he has to do it today. He can't. Maybe you can do it tomorrow, maybe you can do it the day after that. But the only thing can be sure of

is right now, this moment. And I felt like the reason why no one took offense to it, or whatever people wanted to blow it out to be, was the fact that this is a guy that won talked at the end of last season about wanting to get more guys here, wanting to get you know, proved players that you can come to Green Bay and win here and find a future here and make money here. Advertise it to free agents that way, advertise it to incoming draft

picks that way. And certainly I think he's the guy carrying the flag right now for the Packers in terms of we are going to do something special here and he wants to be a part of it. And also that never undying chip on his shoulder that comes along with this. You know, there's a lot of questions that were asked to him about you know, Derrick Henry and Saquon Barklay and all this publicity a lot of these

other backs have gotten. Maybe there hasn't been that type of narrative with Jacobs for everything accomplished, and honestly, he doesn't care. The only thing that matters to him him is can he win a Super Bowl here? In what can he do, to your point to maximize the opportunities he's been given? He said, that comes down to breaking an extra tackle that might have taken a twenty yard gain into a sixty yard game. That maybe is making

a guy miss. And meanwhile, on the opposite side of the room, you had a guy like Aaron Banks talking who's blocked for Christian McCaffrey the last four years, talking about the offensive lines role in making Jacob's job easier. The Packers have never been bigger on paper in this offensive line. That's what it could potentially be with this starting five. You look at where Josh Jacobs is as a running back. This is a combination that Green Bay

has not had during my time covering the team. They are a power running offense that has a pretty good quarterback behind it as well. Yep, so, yeah, Jacobs is twenty seven years old. The guy hopes to play another eight years. I'm sure of it. But the fact is he knows you never are always in a position to be competitive and be aiming for championships. He saw what

that was like at the Raiders. When maybe you go into a season you're not thinking you're going to win a Super Bowl, it would be a surprise if you make that type of run. That isn't the case in Green Bay.

playmaker in this defense. But you know when you actually listen, when you listen to the things that Xavier McKinney talks about, and yes, he's got the high hopes and the high aspirations both individually and collectively, but in the same breath, he's also always talking about how much work it's going to take to get there. Like for him, he's like, hey, my job right now, we still got you know, a lot of young guys in the secondary, and you know my job is to is to get them up to speed.

Make sure you know everybody's still staying on the same page that we can all, you know, continue to make this progress together. Like he's you know, he's taking that upon,

he's taking that upon himself as a leader. And I had asked him specifically about Edgern Cooper when he thought was ahead for Cooper in year two, and one of the first things he says was, we collectively as a defense, the veterans on defense have to keep pushing him because they can see what's potentially out there for Edgern Cooper. And as much as the coaches are going to do that pushing, the veteran players are going to push the

guys where they see the talent. And that's the kind of work that Xavier McKinney wants to do for the group, as well as the work he feels he needs to put in individually in order to potentially earn another All Pro selection or whatever that might be. He talked about,

you know, his intensity can't change. He sees a guy, a free agent like Nate Hobbs come in playing cornerback, you know, in the same secondary and the only thing we've heard from people about Nate Hobbs is really two words intensity and energy and what that guy brings to the practice field. And Xavier McKinney sees that and he's like, you know, I can't let somebody else on this team

have more intensity and more energy than I do. I mean, you know, So it's it's these veteran guys trying to trying to push each other, and obviously it's it's the off season. We are a long long way from week one, but I think collectively, the message, the message that I felt that what I walked away from talking to all the all the team leaders, is that is that these guys'

minds are in the right place. They know that they can do something, but there is not a single one of them that takes anything for granted, let alone even just getting back to the playoffs again. They know they just slipped in as the seventh seed last year. They almost didn't make it, you know, And and so they know how precarious this can be over the long haul to give yourself that opportunity at the end, They're taking

it one step at a time. They're going to put in their work in the offseason, they're going to take their break, They're going to come back for training camp fired up and ready to go.

at their position in the National Football League. Watching Nate Hobbs in practice, the one that we've watched at the time in which we're taping this, seeing him play the star position, that nickel position in the sub package, and he had multiple pass breakups on slants intended for Tucker Craft and Luke Musgrave, and you start to understand the method to the madness and why Green Bay gos and signs a player like that, because one, it's a long season and you got to have guys who can play

multiple positions. But you also see what the Packers saw on film with Hobbs, and obviously the emphasis there to feature or can you know Keishaw Nixon potentially as a boundary cornerback, a perimeter cornerback. That's another factor in this as we wait for, you know, some resolution here with

Jyry Alexander situation. But more than anything, Mike, what my biggest takeaway was when I was after we got done with all the availability and the fact that edgern Cooper was one of these star players that the Packers' pr staff made available. This is a guy that has been

in this uniform for barely a year. And in my head I was hearing Mike Smith, even though he was an outside linebackers coach here in Green Bay, but when he was talking about Rashaun Gary and how Gary, you know, the way that he performed, the way that he prepared, the way that he worked at it. This is a guy that just is not going to fail. And I get a very similar feel with edgern Cooper. If he can stay healthy, this guy is legitimate. This guy is

a problem for opposing offenses. And when you're talking about making that next step defensively, yeah, maybe the Packers can do better than a top five defense, but it also so can this be a unit that can be feared when it's on the field, And I think with number fifty six out there it can be. And I don't know if there's been a guy in the defensive front since Clay Matthews prime that has kind of given me

that feel. Drin Cooper gives me that type of motivation. Yeah, and I'm very excited to see where he goes from here.

that's who you are, you're naturally a leader. But we heard at the end of last season Matt Lafleur say he wants Jordan Love to be more vocal, to speak up more in meetings and on the practice field sets. He sets the example that every leader should set in terms of just his approach, his demeanor, I mean his as we've talked about many times, his uh, his steadiness and and sort of unflappableness of lack of a better word, is something I think that serves this team really well.

That being said, Love is being pushed to to be to be a little bit more vocal, to take charge in maybe some different ways, and from everything we heard from him, he's totally embracing that he's not he's not shying away and just saying, you know, I'm just going to be you know who I'm going to be. He's saying, yes, it's it needs to be genuine and he needs he

needs to step forward a little bit. He's he's not going to fake it, but he is embracing the idea of kind of taking another step as a as a leader. And uh and this team, this team has a lot of leaders on it, but those who are not the leaders, I think this whole team is ready to follow.

counts for something. That has to count for something. This isn't a standard business where it's like, Okay, well you've been around for six years or three years as a starter, you know you probably get still get your feet wet. You aren't necessarily in that manager, No, dude, this is NFL. It's like dog years. This guy's been here for like forty two years now. I mean, like that's the way this business runs. And he is the face of the franchise.

And there was reason why, Like I did an insider inbox column where I'd lead with him on doing that because everybody it was so funny to me. Everybody was kind of picking on his pitch at the Brewer game and everything like that on Memorial Day. But it's like, that's the franchise right there doing that. That's Jordan Love going around and doing these things, doing all this charity

work this offseason. You're watching the maturation and evolution of a guy that this generation of Packers' football is going to be based around. It's going to be centered on and having that voice in the locker room is important and at the same time, as Jordan also warns, you don't want to be someone you're not, but you can still be yourself while also giving more your viewpoints in your opinions, not just on your position, not just on the offensive line, not just no the entire operation. The

Packers want that type of feedback. Matt Lafleur wants that type of feedback. He wants a guy that's going to rally those troops in the good, the bad, the in between. Jordan Love can be that individual. And I think that's the exciting thing because the way Jordan leads is with authenticity. He's very genuine in the way he acts and the way he handles people, the way he conducts himself on a daily basis, and just seeing him mature and just see him come more into his own skin now it

going on twenty seven, it just shows you. I mean, this is the Packers made the right call in twenty twenty. It was a difficult call at the time, but they found their guy. Now hopefully can stay healthy and obviously, you know, and find improvements in some of his own areas of his game, but as far as a locker room leader, it's all right there for him. It's just kind of realizing that you're like, you're that really impressive dog, right and it's just realizing what your bart can do.

And I think I think Jordan's in that process right now.