Paul Bretl | 8/1/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Thursday was the Packers’ final training camp practice before Family Night on Saturday and the ninth overall. Today’s practice lasted two hours and two minutes.
As always, let’s crack open the notebook and dive into what took place today.
Who was practicing and who was not? Still sidelined were Carrington Valentine, Keshawn Banks, Deslin Alexandre, and Tucker Kraft. Valentine had a hamstring injury pop up on Wednesday, and Matt LaFleur did not have a timeline for when he would be back on the field. The team will be cautious.
“I think we’re still kind of going through that right now,” said LaFleur, “but certainly we’re going to be very cautious when it comes to those. It’s unfortunately the price of doing business at times. You get into camp, they’re bound to happen sooner or later for somebody and he’s been doing a lot of good things. He tried to power through it, it’s just that’s not something that you want to fight through all the time, or usually.”
Edgerrin Cooper dropped out of Wednesday’s practice with a hip injury and did not practice on Thursday. Josh Jacobs was out with a groin injury and Don Callis with a hamstring. Several players sat out on Thursday for a vet rest day, including Tyler Davis, Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, Preston Smith, and Elgton Jenkins. Josh Myers was absent for a personal matter.
Who was where along the offensive line? After several practices where Kadeem Telfort was the primary right tackle, today it was Andre Dillard who saw the bulk of those reps with the starters. At right guard was again Jordan Morgan, and at center was both Sean Rhyan and Jacob Monk. Left guard was Royce Newman and left tackle was Rasheed Walker. With the second unit, as both Telfort and Caleb Jones compete for the swing tackle role, both played right and left tackle with that offense. The center was either Monk or Rhyan–depending on who wasn’t with the ones–and the right gaurd was Luke Tenuta and the left guard Lecitus Smith.
Today was Bullard’s turn to start next to Xavier McKinney at safety, although before practice, LaFleur had some high praise for Anthony Johnson Jr. and the offseason he has put together.
“He’s had an outstanding camp up to this point,” LaFleur said. “I think it’s a very competitive situation. He’s really learned a ton. He’s made a huge jump I would say, in my eyes, to this point from last season. Now he’s got to go out and do it as we get to some live bullets in terms of those preseason games. So it will be interesting to see how he does. But I’m excited for him.”
The linebacker rotation remained the same, with Quay Walker in the middle, and Eric Wilson and Isaiah McDuffie to his left and right. In nickel, it was Walker and McDuffie, while Wilson and Ty’Ron Hopper were the nickel backups.
Without Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd was the second running back today behind AJ Dillon. After the draft, we heard GM Brian Gutekunst say that Lloyd brings something “different” to the running back room, and we sure saw that. During a carry in the team drills, Lloyd made a lightning quick cut to avoid a linebacker and then accelerated upfield for what looked like would have been a big run.
The kicking battle takes a turn. For the most part, the competition between Anders Carlson and Greg Joseph has been –pretty even, but today, Joseph got the upper-hand, making all seven of his attempts, while Carlson would make only four, with all three misses being to the left. Carlson is now 25/31 in camp and Joseph is 29/31.
“Nope,” said Joseph when asked if he watches Carlson kick. “I go through my steps, my cues, my process that, you know, took time to cultivate and make sure works for me and I’m going through that. And if you happen to hear say good job or ohh, like, I don’t care. Block it out. All I’m focused on is seeing my foot through that next ball.”
The starting punt return unit featured Keisean Nixon returning, Bo Melton and Corey Ballentine as the jammers, along with Kingsley Enagbare, Kristian Welch, Lukas Van Ness, Eric Wilson, Isaiah McDuffie, Malik Heath, and Evan Williams.
Of note, and keep in mind the Packers didn’t have Gary or Smith, but Colby Wooden saw some defensive end snaps today and Kenneth Odumegwu was at defensive end with the second defense. The Packers have been working both Ballentine and Kalen King in the slot, but when both are with the second defense, King is the nickel and Ballentine is on the boundary. During a few reps with the ones when Nixon wasn’t in, Ballentine took his spot.
During the two-minute drill, we saw the defense really trying to do the dictating by sending a few linebacker blitzes, rather than just sitting back.
Two minute drill: The offense was at their own 45 yard line with 1:00 left on the clock, down 28-21, and with no timeouts. Dontayvion Wicks both sparked and kept this drive going. He had a 13 yard catch, finding the soft spot between defenders. On the next play, Jordan Love connected with down the left sideline for 27 yards on a really impressive catch with Eric Stokes in tight coverage. Love then had a pass fall incomplete, completed a pass to Jayden Reed for nine yards and then threw the ball away while scrambling. On the following play, Wicks drew a penalty, setting up first and goal for the offense with four seconds left, Love threw a quick out route to Wicks but Jaire Alexander was there to push him out of bounds at the goal line. The offense ended up doing pushups.
“It was the play call,” said Wicks about the deep ball. “Get open. Him putting his trust in me to go up and go get it. I knew it was close to the sideline so I was just trying to get my feet in and attack the ball.”
Sean Clifford two minute drill: Facing the same situation, Clifford scrambled back to the line of scrimmage. On second down, he led Malik Heath too far on an out route. On third down, he complete a pass to Samori Toure along the sideline, and then threw an incomplete pass on fourth down–ending the drive.
An interesting tidbit from LaFleur, during these two minute periods, Love is making the play calls for the offense, giving the coaches an opportunity to see what he likes in these situations.
“I just think it’s good for him to be in an uncomfortable situation and get that experience. It’s kind of a work in progress,” said LaFleur, “but he called the majority of the plays yesterday in the two-minute. We’ll follow that again today with him doing that. I think it’s just really good, No. 1, I want to see what he likes, what he’s thinking and why he’s thinking. I think that will help us moving forward, when we get into games. That’s certainly an area where we’ve got to be better. And so it gives, I guess, our coaching staff an opportunity to see what he really likes and what he’s calling in those situations.”