For the sixth time in seventh days, the Green Bay Packers were back on the practice field on Sunday. They’ll have an off day on Monday.
Let’s open up the training camp notebook and dive into what took place today.
– Robert Rochell, Marshawn Lloyd, and Tucker Kraft remained out. Also not practicing today was Zayne Anderson (knee), Deslin Alexandre (lower leg), Keshawn Banks (groin), and Elgton Jenkins who had an off day for vet rest. Josh Myers was back after missing the last two practices for a personal matter.
– The offensive line consisted of Rasheed Walker at left tackle, Sean Rhyan next to him at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Jordan Morgan at right guard and Kadeem Telfort at right tackle. Andre Dillard was again worked in at right tackle for Telfort at times, and in a new development, we saw Royce Newman at left guard briefly with the ones. From the sounds of it, Morgan is going to stay at guard unless Matt LaFleur feels added competition at tackle is needed.
“He’s been predominantly inside,” said LaFleur before practice. “Certainly in OTAs we put him a decent amount at tackle, but I think he’s starting to feel more and more comfortable inside. But I think he’s talented enough if need be that if we have to kick him outside we can do that.”
– It was Anthony Johnson’s turn to start next to Xavier McKinney at safety today. In base, the linebacker trio was Quay Walker in the middle, with Eric Wilson and Isaiah McDuffie around him. In nickel, it was McDuffie and Walker, with Edgerrin Cooper taking over for Wilson the second time through base. Everything just mentioned about the linebacker position has pretty much been the status quo during camp.
– One other change to the offensive line was Luke Tenuta seeing reps at right guard today with the second offense. That unit was made up of either Telfort or Dillard at left tackle, Royce Newman primarily, Jacob Monk, Tenuta, and Travis Glover. Caleb Jones was back to participating in team drills and was the left tackle with the third offense.
– The Packers ran some one-on-ones today with the receivers versus the cornerbacks and the offensive line versus the defensive line. I was watching the OL and DL–here are some of the notable outcomes:
- Rasheed Walker and Preston Smith split there reps one-and-one.
- Kenny Clark and Sean Rhyan went 1-1.
- Jordan Morgan went 2-0 versus Devonte Wyatt.
- Rashan Gary went 2-0 versus Kadeem Telfort.
- Colby Wooden went 2-0 versus Luke Tenuta.
- Karl Brooks went 1-1 versus Royce Newman.
– Andy Herman of the Pack-A-Day podcast was watching the receivers against the secondary. Here are some of the notable outcomes from what he saw:
- Dontayvion Wicks beat Keisean Nixon on a slant.
- Jayden Reed beat Corey Ballentine on a comeback route.
- Luke Musgrave had a drop with Xavier McKinney in coverage.
- Christian Watson beats Eric Stokes, who fell down on an out route.
- Catch by Romeo Doubs on a comeback versus Jaire Alexander.
– Today we saw Anders Carlson and Greg Joseph kicking and there was a change up, instead of each kicker having three attempts in a row and then the next kicker going, they alternated reps. Both kickers finished the day 5-for-6 with Joseph missing from 53 yards and Carlson from 51 yards. Both kickers are also 16-for-18 in training camp.
– Kalen King had a very good day. He came away with an interception off Jordan Love and had a pass breakup later in practice with Michael Pratt throwing. King has gone through individual drills in the slot, but during the team portion he has played both from the slot and on the boundary.
“I would say the details,” said King on the differences between the boundary and slot. “There’s more things you’ve got to look at. More keys you’ve got to read. I gotta key lineman, and running backs, and quarterbacks. I’m more of a QB-eye guy, so it’s definitely a different world than the outside. But, you know, I’m just taking it day-by-day, studying as much as I can so I catch up to speed as quick as possible.”
– End of game two minute drill with Love: The drive started with a 23 yard completion to Wicks on a beautifully thrown deep out route that was just tipped by the cornerback but Wicks was still able to come down with the reception. The next play was a five yard completion to Josh Jacobs in the flat. A screen to Bo Melton lost two yards. The next two plays were wiped out by an offsides on the defense and then an illegal formation on the offense. Love completed a five yard pass to Musgrave, setting up a fourth down, which the offense went for just out of field goal range. On that play, there was both great coverage downfield and protection by the offensive line to give Love time. He threw the ball downfield to Musgrave but overthrew him. On the sideline after the play, it looked like Love was telling Musgrave to keep moving downfield.
End of game two minute drill with Clifford: The drive ended after one play following an interception by Evan Williams.
End of game two minute drill with Pratt: There was a really nice anticipation throw on a deep out to Jalen Wayne by Pratt that sparked the drive. Overall, Pratt did well taking what was there, setting up a 55-yard field goal opportunity that both Carlson and Joseph hit.
– Just in general, it’s been really fun watching the safety position. We are seeing this group move around, rotate, make quite a few plays on the ball, and noise at the line of scrimmage.
“I’m really excited about both those guys,” said LaFleur about Williams and Bullard. “It all starts, certainly they have a skill set, but the mental ability of both these guys to be able to retain what they learned throughout the course of OTAs, come back and continue to build on that day by day, I think has been super impressive. Just, they’re versatile enough that we can interchange the safeties so you can’t get a bead on who’s going to be where, I think that’s an important part of it, and it’s such a competitive situation in terms of, we’ve got a few guys who are challenging each other right now to roll opposite of X.”
The Packers defense has to generate more takeaways this season after coming away with only seven interceptions in 2023. A key part of that improvement will be the defensive front, whose persistent pressure on the quarterback has been a catalyst behind all the pass breakups and interceptions we’ve seen in camp.