Paul Bretl | 7/29/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — As Packers’ head coach Matt LaFleur said prior to Tuesday’s training camp practice, there was going to be “real football” taking place today. So what does “real football” entail?
“It’s exactly what you think it means,” LaFleur said.
Real football on Tuesday included full pads, one-on-one drills, some live tackling, a lot of physicality, and eventually, that all resulted in Rasheed Walker and a few teammates taking a lap near the end of practice.
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘The Paul Bretl Show’ for more Packers coverage.
To end practice, there was a 25-minute move-the-ball period with the Packers rotating through the first, second, and third units. During the first-team offense’s second time through, Walker and JJ Enagbare were locked together as the play unfolded and then continued to be once the play was over.
Enagbare would let go, but Walker didn’t, and he would pull Enagbare to the ground.
“Offense is going hard, defense is going hard,” Walker said at his locker after practice. “High intensity. Thick of camp, stuff happens.”
Once the commotion settled, the offense left the field, with LaFleur following and yelling at Walker to take a lap–something that hasn’t happened to many of these players in a long time. For Tucker Kraft, he hasn’t ran a lap since his sophomore year of college. For Zach Tom and Josh Jacobs, it had been since high school.
However, while Walker was the only player instructed to run, he was joined by his fellow starters along the offensive line, including Tom, Sean Rhyan, Jordan Morgan, and Elgton Jenkins, along with Jacobs and Kraft.
The other players didn’t have to join. Nothing was discussed before or after the incident that led to several of Walker’s teammates joining him, but as Rhyan said, they weren’t going to let Walker run alone.
“At the end of the day, we were out there with him when the incident happened,” Rhyan said. “It was a unit thing, so we just took a jog with him. Nothing wrong with it.”
Tom added, “We didn’t want him to go around alone, so we’re just like, let’s join him. Obviously, we have his back.”
While what happened after the whistle between Walker and Enagbare garnered the most attention, there was some minor pushing and shoving throughout the day. And when it was all over, a fiery LaFleur addressed the team in the middle of Ray Nitschke Field, a moment that Jacobs said was among the “top three” most fired-up moments he has seen from his coach.
“I think we need to see that from him sometimes,” Jacobs said. “I think it’s good for the team. At the end of the day, he’s the leader. Everybody is looking to him. He sets the standard, and we as leaders set the standard as well, but we gotta maintain the standard that he sets. I think he said a lot of good things out there.”
Notes and takeaways from Packers training camp practice No. 6
Elgton Jenkins returned to team drills one day after going through individual drills. The Packers still had Jenkins on a snap count as they ramped him back up, so he did not take every rep during the team portion of practice. When Jenkins was on the field, he was at center, with Walker at left tackle, Morgan at left guard, Rhyan at right guard, and Tom at right tackle.
Aaron Banks was out due to a back injury. When Jenkins wasn’t on the field, Rhyan moved to center, and Jacob Monk took over at right guard.
MarShawn Lloyd was out with a groin injury after exiting yesterday’s practice. Dontayvion Wicks was out with a calf injury and Savion Williams exited early.
Like any first-year player, Matthew Golden is navigating the learning curve that comes with making the jump to the NFL. At the beginning of training camp, LaFleur mentioned that there is “a lot going on upstairs” from a processing standpoint as he gets more comfortable with the offense–which is normal.
However, having said that, he is also regularly capitalizing on the opportunities that come his way. Overall, Golden has flashed very strong hands, his ability to adjust to the ball, and on Tuesday, a double-move put him behind Hobbs and Evan Williams for a 50-plus yard touchdown catch.
“Man, I think they were in man coverage and MG was on the back side,” Jordan Love recalled. “They did a good job guarding our front-side concept, but I just worked back and he ran a double move and he did a really good job selling it, it’s a play that we actually ran yesterday, a similar play, and I think he just did a great job selling it, committing to the first route before he broke out and I think that’s what helped get him open.
“Those are the easy ones, just lob it up there for him and let him go finish it. He’s been doing some really good things.”
Jeff Hafley’s defense in Year 2 is already throwing what feels like a ton of different looks at the offense. We are seeing the disguising of coverages, blitzes from all parts of the field, and simulated pressures.
“I think our defense does a great job of giving some very challenging looks,” LaFleur said. “I love it because it’s making both sides of the ball better. I’d say there’s some good and there’s some things that like always, that you’ve got to improve.
One-on-ones: Here are some of the results from the receiver vs. defensive back and offensive line vs. defensive line drills.
- Lukas Van Ness beats Jordan Morgan
- Jordan Morgan beats Devonte Wyatt
- Rashan Gary beats Zach Tom
- Rasheed Walker beats Barryn Sorrell
- JJ Enagbare beats Kadeem Telfort
- Anthony Belton beats Arron Mosby
- Luke Musgrave beats Javon Bullard
- Matthew Golden beats Carrington Valentine
- Xavier McKinney beats Tucker Kraft
Second-year linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper had an impressive day. On one run play that was bounced outside, Hopper identified, knifed through the blocker, and made the tackle behind the line of scrimmage. On another play, he was a late blitzer up the middle, pressured Love, and that throw was then intercepted.
Hopper has been at middle linebacker with the second defense and has filled one of the outside linebacker roles with the third unit.
“He’s done a nice job,” LaFleur said of Hopper. “I think he’s definitely taken a step in the right direction.”
It’s going to be interesting to see how the back end of the receiver depth chart shakes out. Malik Heath, Mecole Hardman, and Savion Williams are all getting rotated in, and perhaps adding to the difficulty when it comes to evaluating these players is that each has a different skill set that they bring to the team.
“Whether we keep five, six, seven, who knows how the roster will shake out,” GM Brian Gutekunst said of the receiver position. “To me, particularly, all those guys, Matt asks a lot of our wide receivers. Obviously, they’ve got to make plays in the passing game, they’ve got to catch the ball, get open, threaten the defense, but they’ve also got to block. They’ve got to get in there and do some of that dirty work we ask our guys to do a lot of that.
“And then, certainly, usually if you’re going to make the 48-man roster, particularly if you’re not one of those top guys, you’re going to have to play on teams. You’re going to have to play a lot of teams for us. Those are the things we’re going to look for.”
Speaking of special teams, as we know, the ability to contribute in this phase of the game is key for any back-end roster player. One name to watch in that regard is Kristian Welch. During the teams period today, Welch was with the punt coverage, punt return, and field goal block units. If I were to build out the depth chart, he would be the sixth linebacker at this time, but his ability to help on teams could be a reason the Packers go heavy at that position.
Lineup notes: The one thing I’ll add here is that Barryn Sorrell, Warren Brinson, and Nazir Stackhouse are each gaining more opportunities with the second-team defense. They aren’t often starting out with that unit, but each has been rotated in more often as more practices take place.
As mentioned yesterday, ball security has been an issue for the offense. Hafley’s defense has made it a priority to go after the football aggressively, and they’ve done a good job of it.
“It’s a double-edged sword, you know?” LaFleur said of the fumbles. “It’s great for our defense, and I think our defense is attacking the ball unlike anytime I’ve seen it in my, going into Year Seven now. They’re doing a really good job of taking it to heart.
LaFleur continued, “In turn, it needs to make our offense better. I got on the guys this morning about exposing the football. Certainly we all know what kind of player Tucker Kraft is and can be. He can’t allow Evan Williams to reach around and punch a ball out. So it is challenging everybody, and hopefully that makes us that much better.”