Packers Practice Roundup, August 6, 2024
The Packers held a non-padded practice today.
INJURIES:
Injury update Returned: Kraft (PUP, pec) New out: Stanley (hamstring) Starkey (calf) Still out: Callis (hamstring) Valentine (hamstring) D. Alexandre (lower leg) Enagbare (hamstring) Banks (groin) Cooper (hip) Jennings (knee). Dougherty
Jordan Morgan just went inside with a trainer. 2) WRs Dimitri Stanley (hamstring) and Rory Starkey (calf) the only new DNPs. Schneidman
Tucker Kraft isn’t in team reps yet, but after participating in first practice of camp today, he says his expectation is to play Week 1. Kraft sees no reason why #Packers opener vs. Eagles should be in jeopardy. Would be a big benefit to the GB offense. Wood [I had no idea that the start of the season was even in question. I thought he would play in one of the preseason games. TGR]
Matt LaFleur says #Packers starters will play on both sides of the ball in Cleveland. Players on the fence with injuries will not play, LaFleur says. That includes Zach Tom, who will take team reps for the first time in camp this week, but will not play in preseason opener. Wood
The Packers released QB Jacob Eason. They had signed Eason to give them a third quarterback while Jordan Love held out of practice, but once Love returned the QB depth chart was bloated. They’re now back down to their ideal three QBs. Wood
Former Lions DE Zach Morton agreed to a one-year deal with the Packers. Shefter 2) A new edge rusher [Zach Morton] for the Packers. Enagabre, Alexandre, and Banks all out right now so this makes some sense especially with Gary and Smith not likely to play much (if at all) on Saturday. Herman
PERSONNEL:
Starters in walkthroughs: Love Jacobs Doubs - Reed - Watson Walker - Jenkins - Myers - Morgan - To.m Did not see the TE but Kraft/Musgrave/Sims all rotating in. Gary - Slaton - Clark - Smith McDuffie - Quay Jaire - Nixon - Stokes McKinney - Bullard. Herman
Sean Rhyan gets the start at RG in team. Tom is at LT Jacobs at RB Bullard at S. Herman
OFFENSE:
1 x 1s:
DuBose beats Ballentine in 1x1s. Clean win. Nice you’re [?]. Wilson drop vs Williams Reed smokes Nixon Watson beats Stokee easy. Deep td. Wicks leaping sideline catch vs Rochell King good coverage on Toure PBU by McKinney vs Musgrave. Doubs short completion vs Jaire Incomplete to Heath. Not on same page as QB. Davis in coverage. Wilson win short vs Williams Melton had Bullard beat deep. Underthrown. Melton didn’t adjust well to it. Wayne win on a comeback vs Green Coyle great coverage and PBU vs Swinson Sims awesome route vs AJJ and was open deep but overhrown. DuBose looks awesome. Just broke Ballentines ankles then made a leaping td catch. Jaire pbu vs Doubs. Good coverage. Bad throw. Williams win vs Wilson. Reed had a step on Nixon but couldn’t make the diving catch. Green great coverage on Hicks. Broke up the pass. Herman
Jordan Morgan stood up Devonte Wyatt on bull rush in 1v1. Drew Kenny Clark one rep later, and Clark beat him with outside speed. The kind you don’t see from DTs in the Pac-12. Great reps for the first-round rookie: Wood [Again, not understanding how going 1-1 constitutes great reps. I guess I will have to wait for a scrimmage or Saturday’s first preseason game to gauge the offensive line. TGR]
Sean Rhyan great job blocking LVN to buy time for Love who fires downfield for a leaping Wicks with Stokes in coverage. Nice play by offense. Herman [Hodkiewicz added that Rhyan had a nice seal block on Slaton on the next play. TGR]
Dillard spelling Tom with ones. 2) Zach Tom returns to RT and stays in front of Gary, allowing Love time to hit wicks on deep crosser. Rhyan at RG. Hodkiewicz [No pads today. TGR]
Jordan Love delivered great ball to Luke Musgrave on crosser vs tight coverage from Evan Williams. Musgrave got hands on it, couldn’t finish catch. Drop. After, Matt LaFleur showed Musgrave proper way to flash hands on over-shoulder catch. Reminder these guys are still young. [TEs should already know that technique and have been practicing it for years by now. This is too much of a free pass. TGR] Wood
Love rolls right and Tyler Davis does an unreal job of blocking Rashan Gary to buy time for 10 to fire downfield for Watson for about 20-25. Herman
Toure catches a slant thrown just behind him for 5 yards on third and 2. Hodkiewicz [Davis is a lock for the 53. He came back strong from the injury. TGR]
Josh Jacobs taking part in team drills. Just broke off a long run down right sideline. He’s all the way back. Wood
MarShawn Lloyd has a drop and a fumble during first team period. Schneidman {That is another for Lloyd. Those 8.75” hands. TGR]
Romeo Doubs also has a drop and a fumble. 2) Love had a dart on the run to Watson that he snuck past Anthony Johnson Jr. down the right sideline for about 25 yards. Stenavich was hyped. Schneidma
Toure catches a slant thrown just behind him for 5 yards on third and 2. Hodkiewicz
Love with a nice slant to Reed to pick up a key first down in move the ball. Really nice day for Jordan. 2) Love looked to have a nice deep ball downfield to Wicks but it certainly looked like Wicks completely misjudged it and jumped to early. To be fair it is very windy right now and maybe the trajectory changed a bit. 3) Pratt with a bullet to Joel Wilson right over the middle. Nice pluck by Wilson. Pratt can sling it. 4) Kenny Clark with a pressure up the middle but Love finds Musgrave for a short gain. Love to Doubs on a slant. Love consistently finding solutions to the defense right now. Love with another dime to Watson with Ballentine in coverage. Love finds Musgrave but Musgrave cannot make the catch. Love on fire - the pass catchers not so much. 5) Lloyd gets stuffed by Welch on a run and after the play the defense knocks it out which they are trained to do even after the play is “over.” [Up the middle is rough going for this offense. TGR] Herman
DEFENSE:
Slaton with a tipped pass at the line on Clifford. 2) LVN with a big time tfl on Jacobs. Prob 5 yard loss. [I would guess this is against the ones. LVN has been good against the twos. TGR] Herman
Eric Wilson with a very quick sack of Jordan Love on a blitz. Called a safety in the end zone. The first time Love really hasn’t had a read on the defense. 2) Ty’Ron Hopper with quite the thump on MarShawn Lloyd on a run stop. Wilson can’t hang on over the middle on a contested play by Hopper. Herman
Jaire locking up today. Like white on rice against Wicks and Watson for two incompletions during team periods. Second one hit Watson in the hands with Jaire on his back and 23 almost picked it. Scvhneidma
Anthony Johnson Jr just absolutely buried Grant DuBose on the backside of a run play. Drove him right into the ground on a blitz. 2) Another laser from Love to Watson off boot action. AJJ was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to making a play on it but got up on him too fast. Big gain for the offense, Johnson Jr pounds the ground in frustration. Nagler
SPECIAL TEAMS:
In a stiff crosswind, Greg Joseph and Anders Carlson each open their day 3-3. Joseph good from 42R, 49L, 51R. Carlson good from 45L, 51R, 49L. Joseph now 39-42 in camp. Carlson is 35-42. 2) Easily toughest wing of camp today. Greg Joseph and Anders Carlson both went 1-3 in second set. Joseph good from XP, wide right 41L, wide left 42R. Carlson good XP, wide left 41L and 45L. Joseph is 40-45 in camp. Carlson is 36-45. 3) Greg Joseph and Anders Carlson end practice missing into stiff wind from 53L. An extremely difficult kick. Joseph short and wide left. Carlson had the leg, but his kick hit the right upright. Joseph 40-46 in camp. Carlson 36-46. Wood
MISCELLANEOUS:
The third offensive tackle behind Tom and Walker is a "heck of a competition," LaFleur says. Telfort, Dillard and Jones in the mix. Huber [It would be nice if I thought the competition was fierce because of the quality of the reps instead of who is least bad. A scrimmage or preseason game might prove more informative. TGR]
Jordan Love has hit two big plays scrambling to his right early in practice: 30 yards to Dontayvion Wicks and another 30 to Christian Walker. He’s never looked this comfortable outside the pocket. Wood
You can group Packers safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams together. Both came from big-time programs with defensive-oriented head coaches (Bullard with Kirby Smart at Georgia, Williams with Dan Lanning at Oregon), and both have shown a rare aptitude for a position that demands that of its players. Albert Breer [Breer apparently attended at least one practice at Lambeau. TGR]
Interesting tidbit Whelan told me when we chatted last week -- through offseason workouts he's up to 236 pounds on his 6-foot-5 frame and feeling stronger than ever. When the Packers initially signed him in spring 2023, he was 216. Hodkiewicz
Photo courtesy of Tork Mason, USA Today Network
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Comments (15)
Thegreatreynoldo
August 06, 2024 at 09:50 pm
The Packers have a practice tomorrow (Wednesday the 7th), then a preseason game Saturday the 10th (@ Cleveland), and practice again on Tuesday the 13th.
I guess I am ready to see what they look like against another team's personnel.
Wisma Packer
August 06, 2024 at 10:54 pm
TGR, thanks! We appreciate all you do... getting this stuff together and presenting to us is awesome.
Is it too much to ask to add some punctuation? Maybe new lines to separate disparate content? I'm not sure how you get the material, I guess it must be a mess, and you have to wallow through it.
If possible to format the matter better, then great! It not, that is fine, we can live with it. But I always think that having one person fixing the format and making it easier for hundreds to read is better than each of those hundreds mentally formating that same material.
Again, appreciate all you do!
Go Pack Go!
*SAMPLE FORMATTING*:
Starters in walkthroughs:
Love
Jacobs
Doubs - Reed - Watson
Walker - Jenkins - Myers - Morgan - Tom
Did not see the TE but Kraft/Musgrave/Sims all rotating in.
Gary - Slaton - Clark - Smith
McDuffie - Quay
Jaire - Nixon - Stokes
McKinney - Bullard. Herman
Thegreatreynoldo
August 07, 2024 at 08:58 am
Acknowledged. I think these guys do a pretty good job overall given they have to type out their tweets while watching practice. I do spruce some tweets up a little. However, I have some time constraints since I work full time. Last night I came home, made dinner (I am a widower), and started on this roundup around 7 pm. I finished/published it at 9:17 pm. I had a couple of things to do before going to sleep and getting up later for work.
That said, some things would not take too much time. I shall see what I can do.
[I am listening to Andy Herman. He noted that Grant Dubose has been smoking Corey
Ballentine. Interesting. Also, the competition at safety is good. Bullard, Williams, and AJJ are in a tight competition. That is one where the team is checking to see which guy is best, and it seems like the winner will be able to provide quality snaps to the team during the regular season. The backup OT battle is more like who is least terrible, and I see little chance of quality snaps during the regular season.]
Bear
August 07, 2024 at 02:45 am
TGR, you are more appreciated than you know. Living in the mountains in Northern California all I hear is 49er B.S. Your ability to dig deeper down the roster is great. We like to hear about the unknowns fighting for roster spots.!
GregC
August 07, 2024 at 06:15 am
Sounds like it was almost all the #1 units practicing on Tuesday. There's only one mention of Michael Pratt and two mentions of TE Joel Wilson, who looked pretty good on Family Night by the way. He's a practice squad candidate. No mention of Sean Clifford. We'll see plenty of the backups in the preseason game on Saturday.
Glad to hear that Tyler Davis looks fully recovered from his ACL injury. They need him on special teams, and maybe he will have some value on offense as well. He could beat out Ben Sims for the #3 TE spot.
These are by far the best practice summaries I read on the Internet.
Coldworld
August 07, 2024 at 07:03 am
I echo the gratitude for this. I go to this even before giving Al a chance to pollute my mind.
I saw your comment on TEs and over the shoulder catches. I’m not sure I agree. Most TEs, even move ones, aren’t asked to make those in college. Indeed most non big school WRs aren’t that good: Watson is an example, probably because they never had a QB who was capable of making them in part and in part because their physical advantage means there are easier ways to get the ball to them and let them do their thing.
Thegreatreynoldo
August 07, 2024 at 08:36 am
That is interesting and may be correct. It appears that the coaching in college is very uneven. Or it may be that these are young men that have always been physically dominant in high school and college. We see guys like Rashan Gary, LVN, and now Jordan Morgan (McCarren just said that Morgan will be good when he learns technique) about whom it is said they need a year to learn in the pros. Guys like TJ Lang admitted he spent his first year in GB going to parties. Some of these guys spent their college careers learning "night moves" rather than practicing their kick step. And/or they spent their time imbibing excessively - I know that I drank like a cone head until I went to law school.
And then there are guys like Zach Tom who not only come into the pros with sound technique but can play right away. Gary played at a big-time program (Michigan) and didn't learn technique whereas Tom played at Wake Forest and learned technique somewhere.
T7Steve
August 07, 2024 at 08:54 am
Thanks, TGR!
I hope thy get the swing tackle worked out. I think (hope) with more reps since his injury, Jones will start to pull away from the others.
When do they start some joint practices? Do they practice at home first after Cleavland?
Thegreatreynoldo
August 07, 2024 at 09:07 am
Saturday, August 10 - preseason game @ Cleveland.
August 16 - scrimmage in Denver
August 18 - preseason game @ Denver
August 22* - scrimmage at home w Baltimore
August 24 - preseason game w Balt at Lambeau.
*Informal get together with Andy Herman at the Green Bay Distillery at 6 pm on August 22. I plan to be there. First, Baltimore figures to be tough and I would like to see that scrimmage so I can focus on what I want to look at. Then I can watch the game two days later on television.
T7Steve
August 07, 2024 at 12:18 pm
Thanks. I know I could look these up, I'm just too lazy to do searches.
Hope you have fun. Can you convince Andy to sneak into a special teams play? Might be memorable.
Swisch
August 07, 2024 at 12:25 pm
I'm still wondering why it makes sense to scrimmage a team when you're going to play them a day or two later?
Also, how is scrimmaging a team less dangerous for injuries than a preseason game? (If scrimmaging is so controlled as to not be a danger for injuries, then of what value is scrimmaging?)
At least in a preseason game there is the bright lights and official structure of a real game to help to motivate players while keeping them from going rogue.
For the up-and-coming players, a preseason game allows them to go hard to display their skills, but without the complexities of regular season games that can cause more missed assignments which leave players vulnerable to injury.
In general, I'd like to see teams take the preseason games somewhat more seriously as far as playing the starters for the first quarter or so to get them tuned up as units working in sync -- which would seem to be good preparation to prevent injuries in the wilder games of the regular season -- while getting rid of the scrimmages with other teams altogether.
I'm glad to know how others may disagree (while hoping any such comments aren't snarky).
T7Steve
August 07, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Can't hit the QB and you're practicing against someone else's 1s. The 1s mostly don't play in the preseason much. I agree that I'd like to see the 1s more up to speed before the season, but the season's too long now (should be 21 games for the Packers) and the risk doesn't seem worth the gain to them, I guess.
LLCHESTY
August 07, 2024 at 07:15 pm
I think you mean 20 games(home field advantage).
T7Steve
August 08, 2024 at 07:40 am
I included the Super Bowl. 18 game regular season + home field division game + the home field NFC Championship + Super Bowl = 21.
LambeauPlain
August 07, 2024 at 11:07 am
Really enjoy these recaps, TGR...keep em coming!
Love is already wired in it seems. Very comfortable with what he's doing leading the Offense. The Defense is keeping pace...but are getting stressed much more with Love on the trigger. That's great...competition lifts all boats.
This is a yikes for backup Tackle:
"....nice if I thought the competition was fierce because of the quality of the reps instead of who is least bad."
I wonder if a trade for T is probable...at least a few tryouts. I know it is barely halfway through Camp but I am surprised at least one backup T has not made a statement. Carpe Diem, somebody!
(Bakht is still a FA)