By Paul Bretl: 7/24/2024

There’s was noticeable change on the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line during Wednesday’s training camp practice with second-year player Kadeem Telfort working with the starting offense at right tackle, as Zach Tom is still eased back in.

It was good, you know,” said Telfort. “It was a bit challenging, but it was also a learning experience because you know previously I was on P-squad, so it was really just like another day at practice at the end of the day.

The defensive line had been dominating the offensive line for the first two days of practice. Andre Dillard, who had been at right tackle with the ones during those first two days, was having a difficult time handling Rashan Gary.

Not that it was perfect, but Telfort had his moments, including one rep against Gary, where Andy Herman notes that Telfort absorbed Gary’s power move, anchored, and stalled out his pass rush attempt.

“It actually went good because those guys are top tier in the league,” said Telfort of his performance. “So you know, it was challenging but also my coached prepared me for stuff like that. So you know, at the end of the day it was just practice. I’ve been going against them for a while. Last year went against them for about 20 weeks, you know.”

The Packers signed Telfort as an undrafted rookie following the 2023 draft. Standing 6-7 – 322 pounds, Telfort is a towering tackle. During his final three collegiate seasons at UAB, Telfort played 1,883 snaps, all of which came at left tackle, allowing just three total sacks and 22 pressures, with never more than 10 in one season.

As an undrafted rookie, Telfort spent his first season in Green Bay on the practice squad.

“Practice squad last year,” added Telfort, “it was a humbling experience. Even though I felt I was ready, I really wasn’t. It didn’t really start clicking for me until I’d say third quarter, fourth quarter of the season. This offseason, I really hit the ground and attacked to it.”

The emphasis for Telfort this offseason was focusing on his footwork. This included spending the offseason with Packers’ receivers Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, and Grant DuBose in South Florida, learning from them. Telfort also mentioned that he slimmed down a bit as well.

“It helped a lot,” said Telfort on working with the receivers. “It taught me to be more urgent and I could get to my spot a little more quicker. Even the guys tell me that I slimmed down a lot more. Everything else is really faster and quicker now.”

Versatility is one of the cornerstones when it comes to playing offensive line for the Packers. And while Telfort is getting recognition for his play at the tackle position, during OTAs and minicamp, he took the majority of his snaps at guard. If he can prove to be capable of playing both inside and out, that will only make him a more desirable option on the 53-man roster.

However, lining up at guard during OTAs was the first time Telfort had played their since his Junior College days. So like with any change, there was a learning curve involved.

“The fight starts earlier,” said Telfort on playing guard versus tackle. “Like it starts as soon as the quarterback say hike, and you’ve got to be ready to fight, and gotta dig a little more because I’m somewhat blocking myself at a guard, 6-5 – 330 pound guys, so you know I’ve got to really strain more. Really, like, it’s a lot more.”

At the end of the day, this was one practice on the third day of minicamp when the pads weren’t even fully on yet. The next step for Telfort will be showing consistency and continuing to build upon these performances. However, the opportunity that he had to play with the starters also shows how far he’s come over the last year.

“It means a lot, you know,” said Telfort about playing with the starters. “I’m somewhat getting noticed now. Just taking advantage and taking it day by day. Taking the good with the bad.”

By Paul Bretl: 7/23/2024

During Monday’s first training camp practice, it was the Green Bay Packers defensive front that got the best of the offensive line.

“I thought for the most part the D-line got the better of the offensive line through one day of practice,” said Matt LaFleur Tuesday morning.

Well, the second day was much of the same. Actually it was more so.

“I think this 4-3 style fits the guys we have in our room a lot better up front and you’ve been able to see it the past couple of days,” said Lukas Van Ness at his locker. “We’ve been aggressive getting after the quarterback. And again, pads add a whole different part of the game and it’ll be interesting to see in the coming days. But again, I think it’s a testament to the guys in our room and how hard we’ve been working. I think we have a goal in mind and we’re getting after it.”

Leading the charge for the defensive front was Rashan Gary, who was about as close to unblockable as you’ll see. He was lining up on both sides of the defensive front, using his power and violent hands to make his way into the backfield consistently, logging numerous “pressures” and what looked like several “sacks,” including three in a four play span.

“Just being able to pin our ears back, not think and fly around,” said Gary of the new defense. “It’s been fun so far the first two days.”

Under former defensive coordinator Joe Barry, the defensive front had more of a read-and-react approach as they were responsible for defending two gaps. However, under Hafley, this is an attack front, as defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich put it, that plays with its hand in the dirt and has one primary job: get into the backfield.

Yeah I feel more explosive coming out of a three-point stance,” said Gary about playing with his hand in the dirt. “Sometimes when you’re in a two-point stance you can create more false steps and with the hand in the dirt, the false steps are taken away.”

While Gary may be leading the charge, the entire defensive end position group seems to be getting in on the action. Van Ness has put together two disruptive days on the practice field, as has Kingsley Enagbare and Preston Smith.

During Tuesday’s practice in particular, moving the ball for the offense felt like an impossible task at times, with Clifford not only under pressure regularly, but under pressure very quickly as well. Following those pressures, the defensive front, particularly Gary, let the offense know that the defense was winning the majority of the reps.

“Just me being me bringing energy,” said Gary. “Just trying to bring everybody along and just trying to hold everybody to a high standard as I ask them to hold me to a high standard.”

If the Packers defense as a whole is going to improve in 2024, it starts with more consistent play upfront. In 2023, the Packers’ pass rush ran very hot and cold, recording seven games where they pressured the quarterback on 45 percent of more of his dropbacks, which is an excellent rate. However, on the flip side, there were also seven games where Green Bay pressured the opposing quarterback on fewer than 30 percent of his dropbacks, which is the opposite of excellent.

Then as we all know, the run game continued to provide this unit with issues, with the Packers ranking 23rd in yards per carry allowed, along with giving up a league-high four games of 200-plus rushing yards. 

Success for any defense starts in the trenches The best way to slow any offensive play is with a quick push from the defensive front. Slowing the run then puts the offense in obvious passing situations, giving the defense the advantage in coverage, while pressure leads to mistakes that can hopefully result in turnovers. 

Ultimately, it’s up to the players on the field to execute and make plays, but Hafley’s defense should create more opportunities for the Packers’ defensive line to be in positions to make that happen–and although it’s only been two days without the pads on, the affect that an attacking, high-energy front can have.

“We’ve just harped on depth and having guys to rotate in and out and everybody having the ability to affect the game and be an impact player,” said Van Ness. “As you said, whether it’s Preston or RG or myself or JJ, you know there’s a whole list of guys that can rotate and play any position and I think it’s a testament to the depth and the ability we have to go out and succeed.”

Back-to-back good days doesn’t make a training camp, just like back-to-back sub-par days doesn’t break a training camp. Instead it’s about consistency and building upon the previous day’s performance to continue getting incrementally better. That will be the next step for a defensive end group that is off to a fast and very disruptive start.

“Be consistent,” said Gary about his message. “Be consistent and be critical of ourselves. This is only Day 2. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in practice; we’ve got to bring it to the season. Being consistent, you come out and have a great day, come out and have a great day for the next day. Just being consistent and being critical of yourself.”

By Paul Bretl: 7/22/2024

Training camp is underway for the Green Bay Packers, but without a new deal done for Jordan Love, the quarterback won’t be participating until an extension is reached, which GM Brian Gutekunst understands.

“I think it was Saturday night,” said Gutekunst on Monday morning, “they kind of informed us that until we get something done, that he would not practice. So unless something gets done here before practice starts here pretty soon, he will not be practicing. But again, I think this is something we’re all working on. We certainly understand where he’s coming from.

“We’d like him to be out there. It’s important for him to be out there. Obviously you guys know how important practice is, and working with his teammates. But as of now, until we get that resolved, he will not be practicing. He will be taking part in, he reported last week, he’s taking part in everything else.”

Although Love is not participating in practice, he did report for training camp, and he was present on the practice field as well as in the team meetings, said head coach Matt LaFleur. Negotiations may still be on-going, but Gutekunst is confident a deal will get done because both sides want the same thing.

“Again, you never know,” said Gutekunst when asked if a deal could get done this week. “We’re working really hard to get that done. I think it’s really important for us. At the same time, the thing that I have confidence in is we both want the same thing. We want Jordan here for a long time, give him that stability for him, and it gives us some stability for our group as well.

“Russ is doing a great job with David Mulugheta and their team. You’ve got two people who are very experienced with this, so I’m optimistic. These are big deals. It takes time. They’re not as easy as some people may think.”

This offseason we’ve seen Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence sign a new deal that pays him $55 million per year–tied for the highest average annual value in football–and Detroit’s Jared Goff sign a contract that pays him $53 million per year on average.

However, while the quarterback market is a part of the equation, Gutekunst would point out that there are far more pieces to the puzzle when it comes to getting a deal of this magnitude wrapped up. While Gutekunst didn’t dive into those specifics, one obvious element is the long-term factor with Love’s contract and how this pending deal effects the salary cap down the road, impacting how much cap space the team has to re-sign its own players or make outside additions.

“Certainly that’s part of the process,” said Gutekunst about the future salary cap. “Again, we’re aware of that. They’re aware of that. It’s really just finding common ground. Again, we’re really fortunate to have Russ in the role he’s in. He has so much experience, just again confident we’ll find that common ground, hopefully soon.”

After a rocky start to the 2023 season, Love and the offense finished the year as one of the hottest units in football. From Week 11 through the divisional playoff game, which spans 10 games, Love completed 70 percent of his throws at 7.8 yards per attempt with 23 touchdowns to only three interceptions.

Among all quarterbacks during that span, Love ranked fourth in completion percentage, second in yards, ninth in yards per attempt, and first in touchdowns. Love also was the most productive quarterback on downfield passes of 20-plus yards, leading the league in completions, yards, and touchdowns on those throws.

Perhaps the cherry on top of all those stats and figures is that Love performed at that high level while being the most blitzed quarterback in the NFL as well.

In the grand scheme of the NFL, Love has limited experience as a starting quarterback, but there isn’t any doubt that he is the team’s franchise quarterback moving forward. But again, there are many factors in play when it comes to how the deal is built out, not only how much money per year Love will earn, and new contracts are, in large part, paying a player for what they will do in the future, not only what they’ve done in the past.

“Certainly we’re very down the road as far as we know he’s our franchise quarterback and we’re ready to move forward,” Gutekunst said,. “It’s not like we’re trying to make that decision. But at the same time, we want to put the best team around him we can, and we want to make sure that there’s certainly the structure of it so that we can do what we need to do for our football team moving forward, not only this year but in years to come is very, very important. Again, like I said, this is just part of it, not unexpected.”

Without Love, the Packers have only two quarterbacks participating in practice, Sean Clifford and Matthew Pratt, which should be a sign that a deal may done sooner than later. One would assume that if these negotiations were going to go on for a while, the Packers would bring in a third quarterback to handle some of the workload.

“That’s a great question,” said LaFleur when asked how long they can operate with only two quarterbacks. “Obviously we’re hopeful we’ll get something done here in the next–sooner than later. But that’s something that we’re gonna have to just adjust on the fly.”

Naturally there could be concerns about how the locker room would respond to this, but the players understand this is a business and know the work ethic Love has both on the field as well as off, when it comes to being a leader.

“The thing about Jordan is during OTAs,” said Sean Clifford, “he was here 100 percent of the time. He’s been working the whole summer. Guys know that. Nobody’s questioning his work ethic. Now, it’s just, he’s got to do what he’s got to do. He’s our leader, he’s somebody that everybody can lean on.

“It’s not a question of his morals or ethics or anything like that. It’s a business at the end of the day, and I don’t think it’s going to take super long. It’s just what he’s got to do now. But again, it speaks volumes – he’s not in California, he’s here. I got in here at 7. His bag was already in here. He’s in early, he’s staying late. He’s doing all the little things so it’s no worry from the players that’s for sure.”

Of course, the Packers want Love on the practice field for training camp during this valuable time before the regular season begins, but from coach Matt LaFleur to GM Brian Gutekunst, they understand why he isn’t. However, the Packers know that whenever Love is back on the field, he will be ready to roll.

“Whether you’re a young player or a veteran player, I think when you get to camp you want everybody out there,” said LaFleur. “There’s some guys that can’t be out there today for other reasons, but you know, you’ve just got to adjust and adapt. That’s the nature of the beast. That’s part of our game and part of our business, but we’re confident that he’ll be out there sooner than later.

“I know how he prepares, so I’m not overly concerned about that. He’s going to do everything he can to get the mental reps. Obviously the physical reps are really what’s important.”