The Green Bay Packers wrapped up the mandatory mini-camp Thursday not with a third practice in as many days, but a trip to the local Paintball course for a little team building and fun. I spent the week at four camp site locations, the media auditorium where Head Coach Matt LaFleur held court, the Don Hutson Center for Wednesday’s rained-in workout, Ray Nitschke Field for the Tuesday session and in the locker room where I chatted with a host of players.
So what were some of the takeaways from the brief, get acquainted session with the vets and newcomers?
Let’s start with the coach.
LaFleur was certainly pleased with the turnout. The only player not in attendance was wide receiver Allen Lazard. That’s an issue for Lazard, his agent and Brian Gutekunst to resolve. Lazard has yet to sign his 3.9 million dollar restricted free agent tender. He could keep his name off that dotted line into training camp hoping the team considers a long term extension but that doesn’t appear likely. LaFleur understands Lazard has been in the system for a couple of years and won’t have a problem getting back up to speed but there are a whole bunch of hungry, young wide receivers now in the building. While the players were getting to know each other, LaFleur said it was an important camp for his revamped coaching staff. Adam Stenavich is now the offensive coordinator, Tom Clements is back with the quarterbacks, Luke Butkus has assumed the offensive line chores and John Dunn is a new tight ends coach. Throw in a couple more on defense, not to mention new Special Teams Coordinator Rich Bisaccia and LaFleur said it was good week to have his new lieutenants get organized and carry out practice plans. The systems in all three phases have now been installed, they’ll do a quick review of each phase in the opening days of training camp and away they’ll go.
As for the offense.
The appearance of Aaron Rodgers was front and center. It was his spring of football drills in Green Bay since 2019. He conducted a 20 minute session with the media on Tuesday, an always interesting conversation that covered the Davante Adams trade, his long term playing considerations and working with a new cast of pass catchers. Rodgers said the most important thing they can do is have the offense down by late July. All of the new arrivals had their moments. Sammy Watkins “looks the part”, according to the quarterback and he was very honest in describing his 2022 season with the Pack as a “prove it” year. The draft picks all had flashes, I noticed 4th rounder Romeo Doubs the most, seems to make at least one, head-turning play every time on the practice field. Christian Watson did nothing to disappoint. He’s tall and lean but gets to full speed quickly. There were a couple of drops but he played feisty against Jaire Alexander in their matchups. Three key members of the unit stayed on the side all week in the rehab group, David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins and Robert Tonyan. Bakhtiari’s layoff, outside of a series in Detroit and a few practices late last year, is now at 18 months. If even more time is needed to get him in uniform and getting reps once training camp begins, you wonder if that repaired knee is going to hold up at all. Bay Port Pirate Cole Van Lanen and Yosh Nijman got a lot of snaps at both tackle positions this week. It appeared to me there was an increase in jet sweep action and motion on plays during team periods. Could Amari Rodgers seize that jet role? He had a big day on Wednesday and it looks like he’s applied some hard rookie year lessons to his advantage. Tyler Davis is getting every opportunity imaginable to earn a larger role from the tight end position. The questions in need of answers later this summer will be the medical progress of the healing knees, the pecking order at receiver beyond Lazard, Watkins and Randall Cobb, sorting out the best 10 offensive linemen from a competitive group and maybe settling on that third running back behind Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon. Patrick Taylor is number three in line now.
On the defensive side.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry got the arrow pointing up as the season progressed last year, Gutekunst delivered more talent in the draft and with free agents and let’s see if the big investments pay off. Every defensive player I spoke with believes they have the pieces to put together a 17 game, top flight unit. You can almost pencil in the starting 11 right now. Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, Jarran Reed up front. At the back end it’ll be Adrian Amos, Darnell Savage, Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes with Rasul Douglas getting first dibs as the slot corner. Preston Smith will be flanked by Rashan Gary on the edge with De’Vondre Campbell probably having number one pick Quay Walker lining up next to him at inside linebacker. Two of those names are new in Reed and Walker. Throw in Devonte Wyatt along with T.J. Slaton and Jonathan Ford to beef up the line, Khrys Barnes and Jonathan Garvin have plenty of snaps at linebacker and getting a lot of traction for backup secondary jobs are two more new faces. Shawn Davis at safety and Keisean Nixon at corner were given quite a few snaps with the one’s and held their own.
Finally, special attention.
With everyone in Packer nation acutely aware of the state of the special teams, it seemed to me the Packers, perhaps by design, scheduled a lot of special team periods during practice. Some were brief, like a couple of quick field goal snaps in between drills. Both practices this week began with a lengthy special teams focus on punt, kickoff and return units. Bisaccia as you would expect, gets very involved, sometimes with his bark, or just his whistle. I didn’t see a whole lot of boots from new punter Pat O’Donnell as a jugs machine launched most of the balls. The placekicking battle went from three legs down to 2. Mason Crosby handled a super windy day with aplomb but Dominik Eberle has shown plenty of leg although he missed one inside on Wednesday. The return game rolled out several candidates. Amari Rodgers and Cobb were given the bulk of fielded punts. Doubs struggled pulling in punts on that windy day but he’s also the front runner for kickoff returns. Mistakes from the specialists are easy to spot, it’s the blockers, gunners and tacklers that need to improve across the board too. Bisaccia has his hands full in deploying his “We-fense.”
After about three hours total on the field this week, and wiping off the paint smudges Thursday, the veterans are all getting cut loose leaving the final week of Organized Team Activities to the youngsters next week. Then it’s a summer break and the real camping begins in late July.
