Paul Bretl | 8/14/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers were in full pads on Wednesday for a practice that lasted two hours-and-eight minutes. Thursday will be a travel day for the team, as they head to Denver for a joint practice on Friday, followed by their preseason game on Sunday.
As always, let’s open up the training camp notebook and catchup on everything that took place.
Roster moves: It was reported on Tuesday that the Packers made a pair of roster additions. With Jarveon Howard and MarShawn Lloyd still sidelined at running back, the Packers signed Nate McCrary, who spent time with the team during the 2023 training camp. At linebacker, with Ty’Ron Hopper still not participating in the team portion and Edgerrin Cooper out, they signed Cooper’s Texas A&M teammate Chris Russell. The corresponding moves to make room on the roster for these two players included waiving safety Tyler Coyle and long-snapper Peter Bowden.
Who was in and who was out? Both Quay Walker and Jacob Monk would drop out of Tuesday’s practice but were on the practice field Wednesday. Carrington Valentine was back for individual drills after missing time with a hamstring injury. Hopper and Jordan Morgan continued to do individual drills as well, while Cooper, Lloyd, Howard, and Keshawn Banks were all still sidelined.
“I feel like I got a little bit of freedom, a little bit of a taste of what freedom tastes like,” said Valentine about being back at practice. “It was good, though. Just to get back on the grass, I love football, especially when something like that happens, it kind of gets taken away from you for a little bit. So just to get back out there, it felt great.”
What was happening on the offensive line? For the team portion, as has been the case, Rasheed Walker was at left tackle, followed by Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Sean Rhyan, and Zach Tom. On the second unit, Andre Dillard and Kadeem Telfort continued to take turns at both right and left tackle, and we again saw Travis Glover get some right tackle snaps with the twos as well. With Rhyan starting, the three interior players with the twos have been Lecitus Smith, Royce Newman, and Jacob Monk. Caleb Jones was at tackle with the third team.
Other lineup notes: For what seems like a week now, Javon Bullard again was starting at safety next to Xavier McKinney. With Hopper and Cooper both out during 11-on-11s, Kristian Welch and Ralen Goforth were the nickel linebackers with the second defense. With the third team defense was Kitan Oladapo and Benny Sapp at safety. As Oladapo works his way back, he only played special teams in the preseason opener, but should be ready for some defensive snaps on Sunday as he plays catchup after missing quite a bit of time.
Some notable one-on-ones with Andy Herman providing the assist on the wide receiver vs. cornerback matchups:
Rasheed Walker beats Preston Smith
Jacob Monk beats Jonathan Ford
Brenton Cox beats Travis Glover
Devonte Wyatt beats Elgton Jenkins
Kadeem Telfort beats JJ Enagbare
Josh Myers beats TJ Slaton
Lukas Van Ness beats Caleb Jones
Kalen King PBU vs. Samori Toure
Romeo Doubs catch vs. Corey Ballentine
Jaire Alexander PBU vs. Christian Watson
Xavier McKinney PBU vs. Luke Musgrave
Dontayvion Wicks catch vs. Keisean Nixon
Ben Sims catch vs. Evan Williams
Malik Heath catch vs. LJ Davis
Both Corey Ballentine and Kalen King have been working out of the slot in individual drills during training camp, but when the two are on the field together with the second unit, King is lined up in the nickel and Ballentine is on the boundary. However, when one of the starting cornerbacks gets a breather, it is Ballentine who is in before King. If the Packers only roster five cornerbacks, I would pick King over Ballentine because of his upside, but my guess is they find a way to get both on the roster. Although King primarily played on the boundary at Penn State, with more opportunities from the nickel, he is making more plays, including an interception and a “sack” during Tuesday’s practice.
“He’s just really instinctive,” said LaFleur about King. “He’s a really good football player. The more opportunities he gets the more he seems to show up and make plays.”
The offensive line’s performance in pass protection has steadily been improving throughout training camp, but I thought the last two days in particular they’ve been quite good in that regard. Jordan Love has often had plenty of time, even instances where there is good coverage downfield and nowhere to go with the ball. In the run game, however, there haven’t been many opportunities–although, as Matt LaFleur mentioned recently, that may be a product of no live tackling, where Josh Jacobs’ skill set can really shine.
“He’s just a tough, rugged runner,” said LaFleur last week, “and I don’t think we’ll truly get to appreciate his value until we get into live tackling situations ’cause I think that’s really what he’s known for is just he’s a punishing runner.”
The second offensive line unit continues to have it’s ups and downs, particularly today on longer developing plays, like play-action, with Sean Clifford frequently facing pressure in those situations. The defensive front made up of JJ Enagbare, Devonte Wyatt, and Lukas Van Ness has been causing problems for the second offensive line.
Over the last week, we’ve seen more two-split running back sets, with Jacobs and Dillon in the backfield. Dillon had a really nice block on Preston Smith that helped Jacobs get to the second level as the ball carrier. The blocking aspect is where Dillon has a distinct advantage over Emanuel Wilson. And speaking of Wilson, he continues to look dynamic with the ball in his hands.
“I think naturally he’s a pretty quiet guy, but he’s really talented and that’s obvious,” said LaFleur before practice. “And we’re going to keep coaching him to try to get the most out of him. But he’s been a great addition to the locker room, he’s a great teammate. He’s really good in the room. And it’s funny ‘cause I always try to get him to smile each and every day because he is very, very, I don’t want to say introverted, but he’s just a quiet guy. So, it’s good to get him to smile.”
During Tuesday’s practice, following a second interception from Sean Clifford, Michael Pratt took over running the second team offense. However, outside of one series today, Clifford was back with the second team. With Jordan Love not playing in the preseason game against Denver, LaFleur said he expects Clifford to get the start.
“It’s super-healthy,” said Clifford about the competition with Pratt. “That’s the thing, I’m honored to compete with Mike just because I respect him so much as a quarterback. When you come in and you have an opportunity to get better every single day and you know that if you take a day off, he’s not, it raises the level of the competition in the room. I think ultimately, we’re all here to put the best product on the field for the Packers. That’s the only thing that matters is that we’re in Super Bowl contention every single year and we can win the North.
“For Mike and I, it’s about battling every single day. We know we’re in a competition. It’s super-healthy. I respect him so much. He’s a great quarterback, so it’s awesome for me because, if I slip up, he’s going to come back and make a play. It’s balancing that back and forth and just knowing the situation, too. We know what’s at stake but you can still be friendly and have a good, competitive room and just want to win, because that’s what we’re here to do.”
As of late there’s been some good on-ball production from the linebackers. Isaiah McDuffie had a tipped pass today that Quay Walker was able to intercept. On Tuesday, Kristian Welch had a pass deflection while with the ones, and Eric Wilson was positioned well in coverage against AJ Dillon on a downfield pass that fell incomplete.
Clearly there was an emphasis today for the offense on running RPOs, with Love, Clifford, and Pratt running multiple of them. This can be a great way to throw-off an attacking defensive front and catch them off guard, which we saw on the first RPO of the game, with Love picking up a big gain down the left sideline. But as practice went on, particularly with the second and third units, those plays became less effective.
Tucker Kraft was again participating in the team portion of practice, and today had two receptions. One came during a red zone period with Kraft picking up 11 yards on an out route. Over these last few days, we are seeing Luke Musgrave get more opportunities as well.
“I think it’s well documented his growth was really good,” said tight ends coach John Dunn about Kraft. “I think towards the end he had a really good feel of doing it. You know, the effort, the toughness, all those things are there. And then so much of the run games about technique, and footwork, and hand placement, hat placement.
“He had a pretty good understanding of that. It’s kind of going back to you’re previous question, now it’s getting back into the saddle and doing it again and feeling it out. But I thought he grew a lot there. Obviously he can continue to improve there, but that’s something that he works at daily.”
Not the best day for the kickers. After Alex Hale really struggled on Tuesday, it was Greg Joseph and Anders Carlson’s turn on Wednesday. Joseph finished the day 3/6, missing left from 55 yards and 45, and then right from 49 yards. Carlson would go 4/6 missing right from 55 yards and 41 yards. If the Packers had to make a roster decision today, I’m not sure which direction they’d go. Given that things have largely been equal, my guess is Carlson with his upside and potential, but either way I’m not sure the team would feel all that great.
Two minute drill: The scenario for Love and the starters was that they began at their own 35 yard line down 21-28 with not timeouts and 1:40 left on the clock. Love started the drive by connecting with Doubs on an inbreaking route. The offense hurried, snapping the ball with Love then finding Jacobs over the middle on what was a nice catch while running with the ball slightly behind him. With a new first down, Love steps up while facing pressure and finds Jacobs on the sidelines who gets out of bounds. On second down with 1:01 left, Love finds Musgrave who had a step on Isaiah McDuffie on an out route. He gets out of bounds, picking up a first down and stopping the clock. At the opponent 35, Love throws an incomplete pass to Jacobs. On second down, he finds Christian Watson on a curl between Bullard and Ballentine. A new set of downs and the clock running, Love leads Watson a bit too far along the sidelines. On the next play, he finds Musgrave. The offense hurries to the line of scrimmage, Love snaps the ball and completes a pass over the middle to Wicks. The offense tries to spike the ball but time runs out. The offense falls short at the 11 yard line.
Clifford’s turn at the two minute: The second offense also had 1:40 on the clock but were down only three points an at their own 35. The drive started with two really nice passes from Clifford. The first was in rhythm and on time as he connected with Grant DuBose on a comeback route between two defenders. Hurrying to the line of scrimmage, Clifford then hit Sims down the seam for a big gain. On first down, Clifford completed a pass to Ellis Merriweather who was brought down from behind by Wyatt after a decent gain. The offense then picked up a first down after Clifford hit DuBose on a curl. With 35 seconds left, Clifford threw an incomplete pass on first down. On second down he found Samori Toure in the front right corner of the end zone but Toure couldn’t get both feet in. On third down, Clifford was sacked. With the clock running, they tried to get the field goal off but ran out of time and Telfort didn’t get off the field before the ball was snapped either.
“It’s on me,” said Clifford of the two minute period. “I thought that we were in the same situation as Jordan where we were down seven and we were down three. I need to check but I just assumed that we were down seven, so I was thinking a little bit differently than I probably would’ve thought if we were down three, which is a bummer because it looked weird at the end. That’s just knowing the situation and being able to relay that with the coaches. I should have checked, ‘Hey, same deal here?’ I thought we moved it pretty efficiently, regardless. I’m happy about it. I think I would’ve done something probably different on that last play if I would’ve known but that’s on me.”