It’s the battle of the Bays with a twist of Canton as the Packers get back to work off the bye week.
Green Bay puts its 4-0 record on the line when they head to Tampa, Florida to meet their former division rivals, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon. These aren’t your creamsickle Yuccaneers of a generation ago, nor are they the Pewter Pirates who won a Super Bowl under Jon Gruden. The 2020 edition stands 3-2, sharing the NFC South Division lead with second year coach, NFL veteran Bruce Arians and a 40-something quarterback not quite ready to ride into the sunset in Tom Brady. More on that in a bit.
It was a blustery start to the practice week with a heavy overcast sky, an intermittent sprinkle of rain and gusty winds blowing around Ray Nitschke Field. The week off did the team well as nearly everyone was able to practice. On the week’s initial injury report, only Kevin King (quadricep) and Tyler Ervin (wrist) were not able to participate today. Jaire Alexander, Krys Barnes, Rashan Gary and Marcedes Lewis were all limited but active on the practice field. Better yet, Chandon Sullivan coming off a concussion from last Monday night against Atlanta and Za’Darius Smith were full participants, as was Kenny Clark who has been out since opening day in Minneapolis with a groin injury.
Davante Adams looking ready to run.
Finally, Davante Adams was full go after missing both the New Orleans and Atlanta games with a pulled hamstring. In the limited time allowed to observe practice, it appears Adams has put the pull behind him. After practice, he met with reporters via zoom to talk about the minor controversy from a week ago when he posted a not so subtle tweet about working through his injury and his readiness to play but indicated hours before kickoff he was being withheld by the medical staff. The post was quickly deleted which led to speculation that was directed by management. Not so said Adams who covered his healing hamstring, his twitter account and his desire to spare his teammates from the distraction:
The Packers did make some roster moves on Tuesday, placing rookie tight end Josiah Deguara on injured reserve with ankle and knee issues. Center Jake Hanson was moved to the injured reserve/practice squad list. General Manager Brian Gutekunst also signed another wide receiver to the practice squad, bringing in rookie Kalija Lipscomb, undrafted from Vanderbilt who spent time with Kansas City’s practice squad last month.
From 1977, the second year of Tampa Bay’s existence, through 2001, the Packers and Buccaneers were division rivals in the NFC Central. They met 47 times including once in the playoffs. Green Bay led the series 28-24-1 until realignment arrived and the Bucs moved to the NFC South. They’ve met 8 times since and split those games with the Packers winning the last three meetings, most recently, a 26-20 overtime game at Lambeau Field in 2017.
Longtime coordinator and former Arizona Cardinal Head Coach Bruce Arians took over the Bucs in 2019 and got busy building the franchise back up. He hit the motherlode this off-season by convincing Tom Brady to move south after 20 years in New England. Tight end Rob Gronkowki was coaxed out of retirement for a reunion tour and some shrewd drafting has quickly turned the roster and franchise fortunes around. They’re now a legitimate NFC contender.
The obvi0us storyline going into this weekend’s contest is quarterbacks who will share the field, mabye for the last time. Brady and Aaron Rodgers have a tub full of Most Valuable Player Awards with Tom a part of six Super Bowl victories while Rodgers remains the NFL’s all-time passer rating leader with one ring to his credit.
Tackle David Bakhtiari called the matchup, “The Tampa Bay Bradys versus the Green Bay Rodgers”, knowing it’s Tom’s offense against the Packer defense and vice-versa. Adams said he’s oblivious to the quarterback hype. “It’s a cool thing until the clock starts running”, Adams said, “but then I don’t care if it’s Nate Peterman or Tom Brady on the other side.”
So how does Rodgers feel about playing a game against another quarterback he’ll most certainly be alongside in the Pro Football Hall of Fame now too far down the road? Aaron talked about it this afternoon.
It should be an afternoon to savor for fans of the game.
