GREEN BAY – After practicing this morning for the first time since Thursday Aug. 5 when he had to leave practice early due to soreness in his surgically repaired knee, safety and return specialist Will Blackmon doesn't think he'll practice in this evening's session of two-a-days.

"I'm probably going to take tonight off," said Blackmon following practice this morning.

The fact that he's probably going to take Tuesday night off appears to be more of a matter of rest than an indication that he had a setback or experienced more soreness, however.

"It's definitely a day by day thing," said Blackmon. "The thing with me in the offseason is that everybody trains. I can go a week straight, train my butt off and do this and whatever to emulate it, but you can never emulate football. Like there are guys who train all offseason to get in shape, they feel awesome. They get here in practice, and they feel gassed because you can't simulate.

"When you train, you know what you're going to do. When I'm training, I know I'm going to run to the cone and I'm going to run back. When I'm playing football, I know I'm going to run to the receiver, but I don't know where the hell he's going to go. So it's different. You get mentally and physically exhausted."

Blackmon said that even though he practiced this morning, the team played it safe with him. They limited his snaps both with the scout team and with the No. 1 defense where he got a little bit of work.

He did work in a regular rotation on all the special teams return segments, though. And that may be where the Packers need him the most.

As this past Saturday's preseason loss to the Cleveland Browns demonstrated, the Packers can't rely on inexperienced player to return kicks after watching talented but raw rookie Sam Shields muff one attempt and fumble another away.

Blackmon has 47 career punt returns for 515 yards, good for a 10.9 yard average and three touchdowns, which shows just how much of a game-breaking player he can possibly be.

But will he be the same player after undergoing ACL surgery this past season?

"I got a little soreness last week, flared up a little bit, so it was like, 'Let's chill out,'" said Blackmon. "So I expect that stuff, but I also expect my body to get acclimated to that and used to that so therefore it won't have a crazy reaction, it will just be, it's sore but we can still go."

Blackmon will also be adding depth at safety, a position he just made the move to this past offseason and a position that has had some depth issues of its own.

Derrick Martin is coming off ankle surgery this past offseason and has been held out of practice from time to time during training camp. Plus incumbent starter Atari Bigby remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list after undergoing ankle surgery of his own a week and a half ago.

As such, the Packers have had to rely on third-round draft choice Morgan Burnett as a starter in the secondary. So far, Burnett has shown promise, but he's still just an untested rookie.

So Blackmon is trying his best to make it back to the practice field and being as versatile as possible for the sake of the team.

"It was funny," describes Blackmon. "I think it was the first day here, Greg Jennings ran a seam route and he ran right into my chest and he looked up and he said, 'Safety? I didn't know you were at safety.'

"I said, 'Yeah, they're not getting rid of me, boy. I'm playing everywhere.' It helps. We definitely need that depth that as the season goes along. Hopefully, we don't have any injuries, but you never know. That's how the game of football is. The more guys can do, the better it is."