Gut Reactions From Friday's Training Camp Practice

Aaron's gut reactions from today's training camp practice. 

The crowd was incredible this morning. Lines on lines of people waiting to get in the stands and three or four deep in places along either end. Just an incredible scene at 8am on a warm summer Friday. Here's what caught my eye today. 

  • Jordy Nelson just gets it. He truly does. Forget the incredible catches, which have now become almost routine. It's the little things that make him stand out. Like during one redzone period, 2s vs 2s, noise being pumped in, Matt Flynn barked an adjustment out to Gerrard Sheppard, who was split wide right. Sheppard, who has been in camp exactly two days after being picked up off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens, clearly had no idea what Flynn wanted him to do. In ran Nelson from the side, giving the adjustment to Sheppard and basically letting him know what his assignment is. It's not a big thing - but it's something a lot of vets wouldn't do. Not Jordy. 
  • It sure seems like Randall Cobb is the first choice as punt returner. 
  • Brandon Bostick had a good day, catching two touchdowns in the redzone period, one which was a great, great catch where he ripped the ball away from Jarrett Bush. Bush, however got him back later when the first team offense was running a drill where they come out of the shadow of their own goal. Rodgers hit Bostick up the right sideline and Bush forced a fumble. Still, Bostick had an overall strong performance today. He'll certainly be in the mix this year, if not starting outright. 
  • Carl Bradford isn't getting a ton of reps in team drills, but in individual, he certainly flashes. He's got great quickness off the line and he has some seriously fluid hips, which allows him to switch direction on a dime. He'll obviously need to show he can handle all that comes with playing OLB, but for now, he's a bundle of potential. 
  • Speaking of draft picks in individual drills, Khyri Thornton had a few nice reps where he shed blocks and got penetration - and then on his final go he got absolutely pancaked by Jordan McCray. Thornton won't be winning too many battles with power, but as a one-gap penetrator, he's intriguing. 
  • David Bakhtiari is noticeably stronger. On one play in team, he stood up Julius Peppers in a way you never saw last year when the two faced off when the Packers played the Bears. There's little doubt Bakhtiari is going to be locking down the left tackle position for awhile here in Green Bay. 
  • Aaron Rodgers and Matt Flynn both drained some sweet tosses into a small net, much too the delight of the crowd. It served as a nice distraction from Mason Crosby's miss from 40 yards out on the other end of the practice field. 
  • BJ Raji has been excellent the two days I've been here. He's making a serious bid to be in the game when the defense goes Nickel. 
  • Datone Jones, on the other hand, still looks uneven. And he's not helping himself when he does things like jump offsides in redzone work, which he did today, to calls of "Get him out of there!" from coaches.
  • The Packers have a very, very good player in Mike Daniels. For all his talk, the guy walks the walk. 
  • Charles Clay has little chance to make the team, but he had a nice breakup of a Rodgers pass in team redzone work. Something he can tell the grandkids some day. 
  • Tramon Williams got absolutely trucked by Eddie Lacy on one run. But then, Lacy tends to do that to most CBs. 
  • When it was 1s vs 1s in redzone work, the defense got the better of the offense almost all day long. 
  • One interesting thing show much of the offense the last two days has been horizontal. Tons of smoke throws to the outside and a bunch of shallow crosses. There have been, maybe, three passed made deep down field since I've been here. You can't draw too much from that, because we have no idea what coaches are looking at or what they want from each session. It's just interesting. The last few camps I've been at have been full of deep throws. Perhaps Mike is working on deep stuff in the Hutson Center, where the number one offense begins every practice this year before emerging and joining everyone else. 
  • Looking forward to Family Night. It's going to be odd, in that it's just going to be another practice. Not a scrimmage. 70,000 people, lots of kids - and here comes the ball security drill kids! Fun times. 
  • Go Pack Go. 

 

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Comments (10)

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TKWorldWide's picture

August 01, 2014 at 02:32 pm

Carl Bradford isn't the only one with fluid hips. I was out in the ocean today.

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bigfog's picture

August 01, 2014 at 02:45 pm

What, no wild speculation about Abbrederis' injury?

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PackerAaron's picture

August 01, 2014 at 03:16 pm

It was all the talk at practice among the Railbirds... Now, sadly, it seems there's something to it: http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/packers-reportedly-fear-torn-acl-for-abbred...

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bigfog's picture

August 01, 2014 at 05:17 pm

Ugh. That sucks. So much for me being a smartalec. :(

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BradHTX's picture

August 01, 2014 at 11:24 pm

You know, Cow, I have been thinking about Richardson the past few days, since you wrote something in a comment to the effect of, "Who's going to stop Kaepernick/Wilson?" I wonder if that isn't a role Richardson is tailor made for: anti-running-QB-spy?

Richardson is slightly smaller than Kaepernick, granted, but he's easily the biggest DB and while we don't hear it mentioned, he's got speed too: ran a 4.52 40 at the combine, easily enough to hang with Kaepernick and lay some wood to his tattooed punk ass.

I could see a formation with three safeties and three CBs specifically for those situations, with Richardson joining Burnett and Hyde/Dix for that specific purpose.

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Tundraboy's picture

August 03, 2014 at 02:42 pm

Oh I cant wait to see that this year. Richardson is going to be a big surprise this year to a lot of people, but not me.

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Idiot Fan's picture

August 01, 2014 at 06:06 pm

I saw one of the beat writers describe R.Rodgers as looking "like Antonio Gates, only fatter." I thought to myself, "Huh, Gates isn't exactly what I would call svelte." But maybe that description was rather apt!

Also, I love #8. Go Wisconsin! Any Zubaz by chance?

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White92's picture

August 01, 2014 at 06:18 pm

I liked Bostick a lot last year. He has all the tools to be a beast.

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Nerd's picture

August 01, 2014 at 07:28 pm

Try Richardson and Bradford at ILB.

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lucky953's picture

August 01, 2014 at 11:53 pm

Took my 21yr old son to Bears training camp this morning (I am such a nice dad). My one major observation was: the Bears suck. We will hand them two losses this year.

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