Jordan Love was back on the practice field for the Green Bay Packers and the pads were back on as well. Today’s practice would go exactly two hours with the Packers spending a fair amount of it doing 11-on-11.
“I think it makes us more whole,” said Matt LaFleur about getting Love back at practice. “We’re still missing a couple guys, but anytime you can … he’s one of the leaders on this team. I thought he showed great leadership last year, and so it kind of comes with the position naturally, and so I think it’ll certainly give everybody a boost. Not just the offense but I think the defense as well.”
Let’s open up the notebook and dive into my takeaways and observations from today.
– There weren’t any changes on the injury front. Josh Myers was still absent for personal reasons. Robert Rochell was still out with a calf, as was Marshawn Lloyd with a hip and Tucker Kraft with a pec. Zach Tom only went through the individual portion again, as was expected. Caleb Jones, Corey Ballentine, and Donovan Jennings were all back out there after returning on Friday–although I still didn’t see any of them going through the team portion of practice.
– The starting offensive line initially remained the same with Rasheed Walker at left tackle, followed by Sean Rhyan, Elgton Jenkins, Jordan Morgan and Kadeem Telfort. Andre Dillard was worked in throughout practice at right tackle with the starters as well.
– The starting defense again had Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, TJ Slaton, and Preston Smith along the defensive front. In base, it was Isaiah McDuffie, Quay Walker, and Eric Wilson at linebacker, and as the rotation at safety continues, it was Javon Bullard’s turn to line up next to Xavier McKinney. Eric Stokes and Jaire Alexander were the starting cornerbacks with Keisean Nixon in the slot.
– Other lineup notes: Anthony Johnson and Evan Williams were with the second defense at safety. Kalen King is going through individual drills in the slot but is seeing a few outside snaps during the team portion. The second offensive line unit has either Telfort or Dillard at left tackle–depending on who isn’t with the ones–followed by Royce Newman, Jacob Monk, Lecitus Smith, and Luke Tenuta.
– Edgerrin Cooper made a few nice plays at the line of scrimmage today. He was with Ty’Ron Hopper when the second defensive unit was in nickel, or has been rotated in for Wilson when the starting defense is in base.
– Even with Jordan Love back on the field, it was a slow start for the offense. A number of those issues can be traced back to the play of the defensive front and how disruptive they were. It’s nearly impossible to get into a rhythm as a passer when the play is blown up almost instantly. On the plays where Love was in rhythm and had even a little time, the offense often moved the ball.
– Before practice Matt LaFleur praised Love for knowing the offense inside and out and you really see that on display when there is quick pressure. Love’s recognition of it, ability to escape and knowing exactly where his outlet options are to get rid of the ball is a huge differentiator between him and the other quarterbacks on the roster.
“What he’s got such a great command of right now is he’s got such an unbelievable command of our offense,” said LaFleur. “He knows all the details, the ins and outs. He can help the other guys. He can coach the other guys up on the field. It’s pretty impressive.”
– The two minute drill: at the end of practice, the offense began at their own 30 yard line with 1:35 left on the clock and one timeout in an end of half situation. The first time through, the defense won. The first play was incomplete over the middle to Dontayvion Wicks–the throw looked to be just in front of him. The second play was broken up by Keisean Nixon, and the third was a two yard gain on a throw to the flat to Luke Musgrave.
During the second time through, and facing the same scenario, Love connected with Christian Watson down the left sideline for about a 45 yard gain. Eric Stokes was in coverage but Watson had a good step-plus on him. The next two plays were a five yard and then eight yard completions to Musgrave, with the drive being capped off with a 10 yard touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs.
“Yeah, it felt good,” said Love about connecting with Watson. “It felt good to be able to hit Christian in stride on a deep ball. I felt like the defense, they’ve been doing such a great job since we started camp just kind of sitting on the routes and jumping some things. We saw early on, they were able to jump a couple of the plays – a testament to them. They’ve been doing an outstanding job. It felt good to be able to get one and run by him and Christian is the speed of the team right there. To be able to him in stride and him make that play, it felt good to connect on that first day back, for sure.”
– Two under the radar names to watch right now are wide receiver Dimitri Stanley and offensive lineman Lecitus Smith. Stanley is getting some work with the second offense and is taking advantage of his opportunities with both the second and third units. Smith has been at guard with the second team offense and center with the third team. Now, I’m not saying we should pencil these players into your roster predictions, but they appear to be off to some good starts.
– I wrote recently about the safety rotation that’s taking place next to Xavier McKinney along with the added movement we see from this position group. One example of that came today with McKinney looking like he was going to blitz, then at the snap dropping into the middle of the field where he took away Love’s throwing lane, forcing him to the flat.
– James Turner finished the day 5-for-6 technically, missing left from 49 yards. He did make two kicks over 50 yards. I say “technically” because Turner had seven attempts, he had one do over after the defense lined up offsides, but he did miss that attempt. So overall, he was 5-for-7. He is 13-for-18 in camp if we don’t count the miss on the offsides play.