GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the Green Bay Packers, organized team activities began on Tuesday. On Wednesday, reporters got their first glimpse of the 106th edition of the team.
Only five players weren’t present for the second voluntary practice. That list includes cornerback Jaire Alexander, whose future with the team remains in limbo, and offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, who was moved to center in a new-look offensive line.
Here are some of the highlights, with practice capped by three competitive 2-minute drills.
Minimal Competition
These voluntary practices are noncontact in nature, with players wearing shorts and helmets. How can they be evaluated by the coaching staff?
“Yeah, it’s tough,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “It’s kind of the rules in terms of the no contact. You try to do the best you can. I think it’s important for these guys to go out there, and whether it’s a jog-through rep or it’s full speed on the 7-on-7 periods that we’re doing – we did go full speed in the 2-minute – but there’s still a lot of limitations in regards to you’re trying to limit contact.
“You want to obviously keep guys off the ground, so upfront is really where the biggest challenges lie in terms of you’re not going to do any stunts, you’re trying to rush totally on edges (and) you can’t bull rush. But it is important to me for the quarterbacks to kind of get a feel for what that pocket is going to feel like when they get in a game, so it’s a little bit different than 7-on-7, when they can bake a cake back there or (get) nice and comfortable.”
While the competitive periods are being judged by the coaches, this is mostly an on-the-field classroom as the players learn (or relearn) the scheme.
“It’s more or less the alignment, the assignment, the communication that needs to take place,” LaFleur said, “and then when we do slow it down in those jog-through periods, fundamentally, in theory, you should be flawless in regard to taking the right footwork and just playing with good pad level and fundamentals.”
Jordan Love Sharp
With all of that said, it’s dangerous to pass too much judgment on a quarterback in this setting. For what it’s worth, though, Jordan Love was sharp. On two plays, he found holes deep against Green Bay’s zone for big completions to Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks.
His most impressive throw came during a 7-on-7 period, when Wicks got behind three defenders, including safeties Zayne Anderson and Evan Williams, and hauled in a pass thrown probably 50 yards downfield.
“There’s a lot of things” Love is working on, he said. “Right now, when we’re just passing and catching, it’s just trying to be as consistent as possible with accuracy, ball placement, things like that, the timing of my feet, timing up with the routes, trying to marry all that stuff up.
“It’s always a little different when you go routes vs. air and then you start getting back into team and 7-on-7 routes where you’ve got defense out there. Just try to be as consistent as possible with accuracy and all those little things until we start going more live reps.”
Nate Hobbs Shows Potential
While Love had a strong day, cornerback Nate Hobbs made two impressive plays on the ball in his second practice with the team. On a third-and-5, Jordan Love pump-faked and threw the ball to tight end Tucker Kraft, but Hobbs wasn’t fooled and broke up the pass. Later, he broke up a pass over the middle to Luke Musgrave.
Signed to a four-year, $48 million contract in free agency, Hobbs is listed at 6-foot and 195 pounds but looks powerful, like a running back.
“Yeah, he looks great, a guy that, he certainly looks the part,” LaFleur said. “He’s a guy that I think brings a lot of flexibility to our defense with his versatility to go, whether we want to play him inside or outside.”
Competition on Offensive Line
Without Elgton Jenkins, Jacob Monk, a fifth-round pick who barely played as a rookie, got most of the first-team reps at center. Sean Rhyan, the returning starter at right guard who will have to fight to keep his job, took some, as well.
“I think we’re confident in him,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Rhyan playing center. “He’s been training like this for a couple of years now.”
For the most part, the No. 1 offensive line consisted of Rasheed Walker at left tackle, Aaron Banks at left guard, Monk at center, Rhyan at right guard and Zach Tom at right tackle. Jordan Morgan got some work with the starters at left tackle and right guard. Most of the time when Morgan was at right guard, Rhyan was at center.
“You’ve got a number of guys who are like Swiss Army knives,” Banks, a starter the past three seasons for the 49ers, said of his new teammates.
Secondary Without Alexander
Without Jaire Alexander, Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine were the perimeter cornerbacks and Nate Hobbs manned the slot. The defense spent most of the day in base defense, and those three rotated at the two corner spots.
Interestingly, Gregory Junior got some run with Valentine and Hobbs with the starters. Junior, who made history when he was drafted in 2022, was signed exactly one week ago but ran ahead of returning players Kalen King and Kamal Hadden.
At safety, Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Zayne Anderson got the first-team snaps. Javon Bullard watched practice from the sideline.
Punt Team
It’s far too early to read too much into special-teams depth charts, though players who run with the 1s on the kicking units tend to have a leg up in roster battles.
So, for what it’s worth, this was the first punt unit: Ty’Ron Hopper at left tackle, Lukas Van Ness at left guard, Matt Orzech at long snapper, Kristian Welch at right guard, Isaiah McDuffie at right guard, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft as the wings, Zayne Anderson as the personal protector and Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine as the fliers.
Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, Matthew Golden and Keisean Nixon got some opportunities as the returner as punter Daniel Whelan hit one bomb after another.
Packers Injury Report
Not seen at practice: K Brandon McManus, CB Jaire Alexander, C Elgton Jenkins, G John Williams, CB Tyron Herring.
At practice but not participating: LB Quay Walker, WR Christian Watson, S Javon Bullard, RB MarShawn Lloyd, DE Josh Oliver, DE Jeremiah Martin, DT Nesta Jade Silvera, WR Jadon Janke, TE John FitzPatrick, DT Warren Brinson, DT Kenny Clark.
Coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t have to produce an injury report during offseason practices, so there are no specifics about what injuries those players were rehabbing.
Other than Watson, who is recovering from a torn ACL, LaFleur didn’t believe any of the injuries were serious.
“Christian’s doing outstanding. I would say he’s ahead of schedule, but again, I’m not a doctor. I’m not medical staff,” he said. “So, we’ll see where he’s at. But I don’t really anticipate anything too long term with any of these guys.”
Last But Not Least: 2-Minute Drills
Practice concluded with three 2-minute drills. The scenarios had the offense starting at the 30 with 1:15 on the clock and two timeouts with the score tied.
First up was the No. 2s. Malik Willis got the offense into the red zone with a couple big-time plays. First, under pressure from Colby Wooden, he unloaded the ball to running back Chris Brooks for a gain of 13. Moments later, on third-and-3, he lofted a corner route to tight end Luke Musgrave, who made a leaping grab for a gain of 24 to the 21.
Linebacker Isaiah Simmons made a quick tackle on a short completion and rookie cornerback Micah Robinson prevented a completion. Willis had to throw it away on third-and-5 at the 16 to end the drive.
Up next was the starters, with Jordan Love completing three passes to Romeo Doubs to move the ball inside the 10. After a 7-yard completion to Doubs, running back Josh Jacobs, who was lined up wide in an empty backfield, made a downfield catch for 19 to the defense’s 44. Doubs struck again for a gain of 15 to the 29; he failed to get out of bounds, though, so the offense had to burn a timeout.
Physical downfield coverage by Carrington Valentine resulted in an incompletion before a completion to Jayden Reed resulted in a gain of 8 to the 21 and the final timeout with 18 seconds to go. On third-and-2, Love found Doubs over the middle for a catch-and-run gain of 12 to the 9. Love clocked the ball with 3 seconds remaining.
Finally, it was the backups. Sean Clifford produced one first down with a 9-yard completion to Julian Hicks. Clifford was flushed out of the pocket on first down, completed a pass for 9 yards to Malik Heath on second down and was “sacked” on third down; Clifford wasn’t touched and appeared to run for the first down. That ended the drive and the practice.
Noteworthy
- Before the first snap of 11-on-11, defensive end Rashan Gary went into the offensive huddle and high-fived just about everyone. Lukas Van Ness and Kingsley Enagbare split the No. 1 reps opposite Gary.
- It appeared Malik Willis and Emanuel Wilson botched a handoff, with defensive tackle Colby Wooden scooping up the loose ball and returning it for a touchdown. It was the only turnover.
- First-round pick Matthew Golden didn’t make any big plays but he did make a couple catches. On one, he took his route to the outside and then back in, catching the ball from Jordan Love and quickly getting upfield for additional yards.
- Veteran Bo Melton might find himself on the outside looking in due to the depth at receiver. Late in practice, he caught a short pass and used a nifty move to juke past linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, which fired up the rest of the offense.
Quoteworthy
Jayden Reed, on agent Drew Rosenhaus reaching out to GM Brian Gutekunst to get “clarity” about his role.
“A lot of people misinterpreted that,” Reed said. “I hired a new agent and we talked about it before even the draft, really, that he said he was going to talk to the front office and everybody here to just catch up and make sure everybody’s on the same page. As a new client, he told me that’s the way he was going to do it, and he did it. Now, I don’t know how it got out because it was supposed to be confidential. But that’s how it goes sometimes. People get a different perception, they make their own perception, which is OK. That’s how it goes sometimes.”