The organizing continues for the Green Bay Packers. Today was the second Organized Team Activity practice open to reporters as Head Coach Matt LaFleur is now two weeks into the on field phase of his fifth off-season program. It was a steamy afternoon on Ray Nitschke Field and the practice was cut short by about 20 minutes when rain started falling. The end of practice horn sounded just as Jordan Love was running the first two minute drill of the spring. Love was running it just fine I might add. Starting from his 35 with 1:45 left on the clock, Jordan worked short routes cleanly, hitting Romeo Doubs on a tight post, a check down over the middle to Josiah Deguara, Doubs again on an out route before finding rookie Luke Musgrave on the sideline. A deep corner route to an open Jayden Reed missed but Love completed three more in a row to Doubs, Musgrave and Doubs again to get inside the 10 where the ball was spiked with :08 left on the clock. That’s when practice was halted unfortunately but LaFleur had high praise for how Jordan ran the period. Most of the day was designed around individual and group drills with some special team fundamental periods. The 11 on 11 periods took installation number three to the field.
A sideline to sideline OTA formation.
The experimentation on the offensive line continued as the starters up front for the first team period had Caleb Jones working at left tackle and Zach Tom on the right side with Royce Newman and Yosh Nijman rotating with the ones at left guard and right tackle.
Preston Smith welcomed back to town.
Two veteran offensive linemen made their first appearance of the OTA’s today. David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins are back in the building and while they took part in individual drills, they sat out team periods. Preston Smith also arrived for the voluntary workouts but both he and Bakhtiari are earning substantial bonuses for taking part. Among the veterans who still haven’t shown up are Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas and even more surprisingly, Jonathan Garvin who may be hard pressed to make this team with veteran Justin Hollins and two, more recent draft picks Kingsley Enegbare and Lukas Van Ness also on the edge.
After practicing last week, Keisean Nixon and Devonte Wyatt were not seen today.
Players in uniform but working through injuries were Eric Stokes, Rashan Gary, Jake Hanson and three draft picks, Tucker Kraft, Dontayvion Wicks and Grant Dubose.
LaFleur confirmed today the Packers will conduct a second joint practice this summer, heading to Cincinnati early before their Pre-Season opener against the Bengals on Friday, August 11. LaFleur said the team will leave Green Bay that Tuesday, work out with the Bengals on Wednesday, have a walk through Thursday and then play the game. The next week, the New England Patriots will come to Green Bay to work against the Pack on Ray Nitschke Field before the pre-season home opener on Saturday, August 26.
The leader of the line is back.
In the post-practice locker room, Bakhtiari was the star attraction. Whether he likes it or not, the All Pro left tackle, entering his 11th NFL season, is the unquestioned senior citizen leader of the team. David was exceedingly upbeat, animated and playful with reporters for nearly 30 minutes both on the record and off. Here are some of the highlights, beginning with a question about if he feels any differently without his best friend, Aaron Rodgers in the locker room.
Bakhtiari said he’s had plenty of practice beginning another season without close friends, mentioning his offensive line colleagues like Josh Sitton, TJ Lang, Bryan Bulaga and Corey Linsley, all among his closest friends who moved on.
He turned some heads earlier this spring with candid comments on a podcast about how he feels the Packers are in a “rebuild” without the MVP quarterback, and other key veterans like Mason Crosby, Adrian Amos, Marcedes Lewis, Robert Tonyan, Dean Lowry and Jarran Reed all departing. Even though that term isn’t heard in the building, I asked David if it’s come down to semantics as to how those inside or outside the locker room are viewing this season?
Bakhtiari admits he’s in a great place physically and mentally. An off-season without an operation after undergoing 4 surgeries in rapid succession and being able to spend quality time as a husband and father has him feeling “light” heading into his second decade in the NFL. He wants to enjoy coming to work and only wants to win, but one more question was posed to him of note, what if this very young Packers team doesn’t win this fall, are you prepared for that?
Gotta believe it’s going to be somewhere in between.
The squad will have a review walk through Thursday and come back for a third and final week of OTA’s next week.
