Latest / The Huddle / Packers Training Camp Live - 8/26/26 - Hour 1

Transcript

Packers Training Camp Live - 8/26/26 - Hour 1 · The Huddle

0:00
Speaker 1: As we reach the finale here at Ray Nitschke Field
0:03
Speaker 1: and the capper of the 2026 preseason Friday night, the
0:08
Speaker 1: Packers have now undergone over a month's worth of practice
0:12
Speaker 1: in preparation for a game that's still two and a
0:14
Speaker 1: half weeks away when they travel to the Minnesota Vikings.
0:17
Speaker 1: But decisions will be made coming up this weekend, cut
0:19
Speaker 1: down day on Sunday.
0:21
Speaker 2: And as.
0:23
Speaker 1: Much as we can tell you, the guys that have
0:25
Speaker 1: looked great, the Anthony Campbells of the world who have
0:27
Speaker 1: been standouts here at Ray Nitschke Field, the all-stars like
0:31
Speaker 1: Mark Perry during the preseason games and having good times
0:34
Speaker 1: in good competition, the healthy cornerback competition between Keyshawn Nixon,
0:38
Speaker 1: Carrington Valentine. Newcomer Benjamin St. Juice, seemingly rookie. Brandon Cisse
0:43
Speaker 1: already locking those up. Defensive line positions and obviously up
0:46
Speaker 1: front on the offensive line.
0:48
Speaker 3: My favorite spot, the nest egg as to.
0:51
Speaker 1: How you can have a beautiful incubator for your quarterback.
0:53
Speaker 1: All of those still to be decided from the guys
0:57
Speaker 1: that'll start. The ones that'll make the roster, that'll all
0:59
Speaker 1: be decided. by Brian Gutekunst before we get on to
1:02
Speaker 1: practice here as the Packers will take on the Arizona
1:05
Speaker 1: Cardinals in not only preseason game number three coming up
1:08
Speaker 1: on Friday night, joint practice kicking off in about 30
1:11
Speaker 1: minutes from right now. Brian Gutekunst before the teams take
1:14
Speaker 1: the field here at Ray Nitschke. Speaking to the media
1:16
Speaker 1: just a couple of minutes ago about those final roster
1:19
Speaker 1: decisions as we come down to cut day within five
1:22
Speaker 1: days away right now. Presented by the Pottawatomie Sportsbook. Bet big,
1:26
Speaker 1: bet bold, and bet above the rest on Training Camp Live.
1:28
Speaker 1: Here from the Packers general manager, the decision maker, Brian Gutekunst.
1:38
Speaker 4: I'll let that one go.
1:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're going to let that one go, keep everybody back,
1:44
Speaker 5: see how it ends up. So I got money on
1:46
Speaker 5: my guy.
1:47
Speaker 4: Who's your guy? Come on now.
1:53
Speaker 6: Brian, just how cool is that, though, to have two brothers,
1:56
Speaker 6: head coaches on the same field?
1:59
Speaker 4: It's exceptionally special.
2:01
Speaker 5: You know, I mean, it's obviously unique, but for Matt,
2:04
Speaker 5: his brother, his mom and dad, you know, probably some
2:07
Speaker 5: extended family.
2:08
Speaker 4: It's just a really cool thing, cool moment.
2:11
Speaker 5: At the end of the day, you know, there's work
2:13
Speaker 5: to be done, but, you know, happy for them because that's.
2:16
Speaker 4: You know, it is very unique, and mom and dad
2:19
Speaker 4: got to be pretty proud.
2:21
Speaker 3: How much does this do for you evaluation-wise?
2:24
Speaker 7: You know, you guys do this every year. In an
2:27
Speaker 7: ideal world, would you love if there's three preseason games
2:30
Speaker 7: to do three of them, one with each team?
2:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jason, that's an interesting question.
2:34
Speaker 5: First of all, having another team on your field and
2:36
Speaker 5: your environment, I love that. Even if we have to
2:39
Speaker 5: go somewhere else, it's just to be able to evaluate
2:42
Speaker 5: another team in this format for scouts, it's really valuable.
2:48
Speaker 5: It's valuable to evaluate our own guys, and I think
2:49
Speaker 5: the work is really good. I've talked a lot about
2:52
Speaker 5: the joint practice allows you to kind of control the
2:55
Speaker 5: competition but it is obviously ramped up compared to a
2:57
Speaker 5: normal practice you can protect the quarterbacks a little bit
3:00
Speaker 5: more Matt and his staff can kind of really you
3:04
Speaker 5: know script some things that they want to see and
3:07
Speaker 5: kind of see where we're at with some things so
3:09
Speaker 5: I think it's really valuable I've talked to a number
3:11
Speaker 5: of guys around the league there's some teams that are
3:12
Speaker 5: doing three this year I think if we ever go
3:14
Speaker 5: to 18 games with two preseason games you'll probably see
3:17
Speaker 5: two every year with most teams just because we're going
3:19
Speaker 5: to need to get the work and the evaluations. So,
3:23
Speaker 5: you know, three might seem a little heavy. I mean,
3:25
Speaker 5: you know, I think two is probably a sweet spot.
3:28
Speaker 5: I would have loved to have another opportunity, but we're
3:30
Speaker 5: excited for today and Friday.
3:32
Speaker 4: Those are the next, obviously, two points to evaluate our
3:35
Speaker 4: own football team before we have to make these decisions. So, no,
3:39
Speaker 4: I'm all for them, and I think, you know, they're
3:41
Speaker 4: not going away anytime soon.
3:42
Speaker 7: Do you remember, right, last year cuts might have been
3:46
Speaker 7: on Tuesday or Sunday.
3:47
Speaker 8: I know it's only a couple days, but does that–
3:50
Speaker 8: Do you think there'll be even more roster adjustments from
3:53
Speaker 8: that Sunday until you get all the way to the
3:56
Speaker 8: day before the game?
3:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, they moved it, I think, as the Australia game
3:59
Speaker 5: is the reason they moved it, which I'm not a
4:01
Speaker 5: huge fan of. But I'm not sure.
4:06
Speaker 4: We'll kind of see. I mean, there certainly could be.
4:10
Speaker 5: But, you know, I think the one thing I thought
4:12
Speaker 5: it affected, I mean, as we talked about when the last.
4:14
Speaker 4: Preseason game was going to be, you know, you might
4:16
Speaker 4: love it to be Saturday.
4:17
Speaker 5: But with a Sunday decision point, it was, you know,
4:20
Speaker 5: with all the medical information.
4:21
Speaker 4: We need to get after a game and stuff, it
4:23
Speaker 4: made it kind of tough.
4:24
Speaker 5: So that's, you know, even with the Friday game, it
4:27
Speaker 5: limits our time a little bit. But, yeah, that's a
4:31
Speaker 5: good question. There certainly could be. But I do love
4:36
Speaker 5: the bye week in between, you know, when we had
4:38
Speaker 5: that last preseason game and then went right into the
4:40
Speaker 5: season after cuts.
4:41
Speaker 4: I always felt that was rush, so it's nice to have.
4:43
Speaker 5: Some time to get some guys healthy and kind of
4:46
Speaker 5: work through the exact roster mechanics to try to get
4:50
Speaker 5: your team ready for game one.
4:51
Speaker 4: Just going back to the joint, do.
4:53
Speaker 6: You anticipate doing at least two every year moving forward?
4:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, that'll be really a Matt decision and
4:59
Speaker 5: it'll be probably year to year just on, you know,
5:02
Speaker 5: who we're playing and does it make sense and travel
5:04
Speaker 5: and different things. You know, again, for, you know, for
5:08
Speaker 5: a scout, you know, to be able to go see
5:09
Speaker 5: two or three teams, you know, in a practice setting like.
5:12
Speaker 4: That, have that film.
5:15
Speaker 5: You know, I'd love to have that, but I think
5:17
Speaker 5: it'll be year to year and just kind of, you know,
5:19
Speaker 5: just depending on our schedule.
5:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think certainly.
5:21
Speaker 9: When we dropped the one preseason game, went.
5:23
Speaker 7: To three, you started to see more.
5:25
Speaker 9: Cuz I just think people felt that they needed more
5:28
Speaker 9: evaluation points.
5:40
Speaker 5: Um, and I do think, you know, the, the, the ability,
5:44
Speaker 5: particularly with the quarterbacks, but even, you know, some other players, the,
5:47
Speaker 5: the ability to kind of protect them in the practice
5:49
Speaker 5: setting compared to just playing in the games, um, made
5:53
Speaker 5: some sense. And I think, you know, that's probably why
5:55
Speaker 5: you started to see it took up. I don't know when,
5:57
Speaker 5: when that kind of started hitting, you know, they all
5:59
Speaker 5: run together now, but you know, five, six, seven years ago,
6:01
Speaker 5: something like that.
6:02
Speaker 6: How much could these two days swing? your decision-making when
6:05
Speaker 6: you've got months of information. Could two days of a
6:09
Speaker 6: strong closing statement kind of supersede.
6:11
Speaker 4: All that to some extent?
6:12
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say superseded, but, yeah, it certainly affects it,
6:15
Speaker 5: no doubt about it. You know, and obviously injuries do
6:17
Speaker 5: that as well. But, yeah, I mean, I think, you know,
6:21
Speaker 5: I always kind of feel at this time we've got
6:24
Speaker 5: more than 53 that are good enough to make it,
6:26
Speaker 5: and we're going to have to make those choices. You know,
6:30
Speaker 5: so I think, you know, these two, the practice and
6:34
Speaker 5: the game, I mean, they're really important. You know, we're
6:38
Speaker 5: so fortunate, I think, you know, not only a practice
6:40
Speaker 5: to have the fans that we have and then in
6:42
Speaker 5: the game to have a full stadium that helps the environment,
6:46
Speaker 5: you know, and seeing these guys having to react and
6:48
Speaker 5: respond in that. So, yeah, that certainly could sway things.
6:53
Speaker 5: It doesn't erase the things that have happened in the past.
6:56
Speaker 5: And you try to be careful of recency bias. You're
6:58
Speaker 5: always fighting against some of that as well. But at
7:01
Speaker 5: the end of the day, you're just trying to make
7:03
Speaker 5: the best decision for the Packers for the season and
7:06
Speaker 5: then moving forward.
7:07
Speaker 4: But it'll matter.
7:09
Speaker 2: I'm sure each year can vary, but when it comes
7:12
Speaker 2: to those final roster decisions, is there a challenge in
7:14
Speaker 2: balancing potential offensive or defensive contributions versus special teams?
7:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you're always trying to kind of predict
7:26
Speaker 5: or kind of see what everybody's role is going to be.
7:29
Speaker 5: And you always get a little bit of that, or
7:31
Speaker 5: you might have a guy who's really good on teams.
7:34
Speaker 4: But maybe isn't there offensively or defensively.
7:36
Speaker 5: And then if you do have injuries, maybe you're not
7:38
Speaker 5: comfortable playing that player in that spot, but he's really
7:42
Speaker 5: good on teams.
7:43
Speaker 4: And how do you balance that?
7:45
Speaker 5: So there's those discussions, you know, have been going on
7:48
Speaker 5: since the beginning of this, I'll continue.
7:50
Speaker 4: And again, it's, it's not easy.
7:52
Speaker 5: And, you know, we get a bunch of coaches, a
7:54
Speaker 5: bunch of scouts. And if, you know, if you ask
7:56
Speaker 5: them to all draw that up and how they'd break
7:57
Speaker 5: down the 53, you'd probably get a ton of different answers,
8:00
Speaker 5: you know? So, And, you know, hopefully we'll get to
8:02
Speaker 5: the end of this and make the right decisions for
8:04
Speaker 5: the Packers. But there's always those kind of tough calls.
8:08
Speaker 9: When you're putting that puzzle together, you're going to keep
8:10
Speaker 9: guys on the 53. You feel like your biggest contribution
8:14
Speaker 9: is going to be the teams, right? big of a
8:18
Speaker 9: swath of that 53 is what your target is, right?
8:21
Speaker 9: It might not just be one number, but is there
8:23
Speaker 9: a range that you want to.
8:24
Speaker 4: Kind of keep for these guys that could really help
8:26
Speaker 4: you here? Are you talking special teams? Yeah. Yeah, like
8:29
Speaker 4: you're talking like a number?
8:30
Speaker 7: Yeah. I think every year is different.
8:33
Speaker 5: I think, you know, in a perfect world, all these
8:35
Speaker 5: guys have a role in offense and defense as well.
8:38
Speaker 5: I think you also balance, you know, if you're going
8:41
Speaker 5: to be a draft and develop team and you're going
8:42
Speaker 5: to develop guys, you're you're going to have to live
8:45
Speaker 5: with some young players playing teams for you, right? That's
8:47
Speaker 5: just kind of how it's going to have to happen.
8:50
Speaker 5: So it's very hard to develop players without playing them.
8:54
Speaker 5: And if you've got nine or ten guys who are
8:56
Speaker 5: strictly special teams guys, that's hard, right? But at the
9:01
Speaker 5: same time, it's an incredibly important part of what we're doing.
9:05
Speaker 5: So I think it varies year to year, but we
9:07
Speaker 5: don't have like a number, say, hey, we need seven
9:09
Speaker 5: or eight special teams guys only, and that's how we're
9:11
Speaker 5: going to break it up.
9:12
Speaker 4: We don't do it that way. It was just kind
9:13
Speaker 4: of ear to ear.
9:14
Speaker 7: Has that number grown for you in the past or
9:16
Speaker 7: has it shrunk?
9:18
Speaker 5: No, I think it's– yeah, obviously it's always been a
9:20
Speaker 5: really important part. Obviously, you know, with the kickoff rules,
9:24
Speaker 5: some things change and it can alter things. But, again,
9:28
Speaker 5: I don't think we've ever looked at it from a
9:30
Speaker 5: numbers perspective. It's just really when you're evaluating those guys–
9:35
Speaker 5: certain positions that are going to kind of fill the
9:37
Speaker 5: back end of the roster. Like, what is their value
9:40
Speaker 5: on teams? Are they going to be on the 48,
9:42
Speaker 5: you know, or will they not be? And, you know,
9:46
Speaker 5: trying to work through it that way.
9:48
Speaker 6: Golden had a really good camp last year, too, but
9:50
Speaker 6: what's the biggest difference you've seen from him on kind
9:53
Speaker 6: of the day-to-day?
9:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, again, he again i think he's um
9:57
Speaker 5: much more confident in in the scheme and what they're
9:59
Speaker 5: asking to do and the kind of nuances uh and
10:02
Speaker 5: certainly i think the opportunities with jordan um and again
10:05
Speaker 5: he did have a good camp last year as well
10:06
Speaker 5: but i think the opportunities with jordan are more and
10:09
Speaker 5: um i think that confidence.
10:10
Speaker 4: Between the two are growing so i think i've seen
10:12
Speaker 4: a little bit of that You're.
10:14
Speaker 2: Coming up on the one year of trading for Micah
10:15
Speaker 2: Parsons a year later.
10:17
Speaker 3: What have you learned from that experience?
10:18
Speaker 5: And do you find yourself less or more likely to
10:20
Speaker 5: make a similar type of deal after learning from that? Well,
10:22
Speaker 5: there's not many Micah Parsons on the planet. So if
10:24
Speaker 5: there's others available, we'll certainly consider it. Um, but no, yeah,
10:28
Speaker 5: I think again, you know, those are rare occurrences that when,
10:31
Speaker 5: when players like that become available and you know, whether
10:35
Speaker 5: in my career, the other one will become available, who knows,
10:37
Speaker 5: you know, um, like that.
10:38
Speaker 4: But, um, I think I've learned a lot more about Micah.
10:42
Speaker 5: Being here, and it's just strengthened our thought process on
10:46
Speaker 5: what he can do for us. There's only so many
10:51
Speaker 5: guys in our game that can affect the game the
10:53
Speaker 5: way he does, so when they become available, you always
10:57
Speaker 5: kind of look at it.
10:58
Speaker 4: How do you feel about Tyrod Taylor's training camp? Tyra's
11:01
Speaker 4: been great. He's done a great job for us.
11:03
Speaker 5: Obviously, I think I talked a little bit about just
11:06
Speaker 5: the luxury of having that experience in the room and
11:08
Speaker 5: having a guy that's played as much as he has
11:10
Speaker 5: because that guy really does support Jordan in a ton
11:13
Speaker 5: of ways, and he's just very experienced there, so I
11:18
Speaker 5: feel very fortunate to have him.
11:19
Speaker 1: People obviously react to the preseason games, and McCord's been
11:24
Speaker 1: pretty productive through the two games.
11:25
Speaker 9: He's obviously played a lot more than Tyra has.
11:28
Speaker 1: Understandably so, so I guess How much do preseason games
11:32
Speaker 1: actually factor into the evaluation of a guy in his 16th.
11:36
Speaker 4: Year like Tyrod? Yeah, I mean, they do. I mean,
11:37
Speaker 4: they obviously do, but obviously he's got a lot of
11:39
Speaker 4: pelts on the wall as well.
11:40
Speaker 5: So, you know, again, I think Kyle's done an incredible job,
11:43
Speaker 5: and I'm really excited to see him not only today,
11:45
Speaker 5: but then he's going to get obviously a ton of
11:47
Speaker 5: work on Friday night. So, but I mean, you know,
11:50
Speaker 5: we brought Tyrod in here for a reason, and we're
11:53
Speaker 5: very happy.
11:53
Speaker 7: We have him.
11:56
Speaker 6: Josh's situation is obviously still open.
11:58
Speaker 4: I'm not asking you what's going on with the legal situation,
12:02
Speaker 4: but if he does get suspended, do you need to
12:06
Speaker 4: make another move there, or are you confident with what you.
12:08
Speaker 6: Have that you can sustain it?
12:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm pretty confident we can sustain it. That doesn't
12:12
Speaker 5: mean we wouldn't do that. But, yeah, we'll deal with
12:16
Speaker 5: that when that comes. But we've obviously been preparing for
12:19
Speaker 5: that in case that happens. But at the same time,
12:22
Speaker 5: I feel really good about the guys we've got in
12:23
Speaker 5: that room, and I think we can survive that.
12:27
Speaker 4: An extra, though?
12:29
Speaker 5: I think, again, we'll deal with that if that transpires,
12:32
Speaker 5: but we could. You're always usually going to keep three
12:36
Speaker 5: or four running backs, and I think we have enough
12:39
Speaker 5: to do that. But, again, it comes down to choices
12:42
Speaker 5: and trying to figure that out. The one thing I
12:45
Speaker 5: think particularly at that position is elevating a guy from
12:49
Speaker 5: the practice squad. I wouldn't say it's easy to do,
12:52
Speaker 5: but it's something we've done in the past.
12:54
Speaker 4: And not something we would shy away from.
12:57
Speaker 9: How do you personally balance the excitement of building the
12:59
Speaker 9: initial 53 versus the difficult conversations you have to have
13:03
Speaker 9: to get.
13:05
Speaker 7: There?
13:06
Speaker 5: You know, I think, you know, there's so many different
13:10
Speaker 5: areas in our organization that are part of this, obviously.
13:15
Speaker 5: you know, our scouts, the coaching staff, the contract, the
13:19
Speaker 5: financial part of it, the medical stuff.
13:21
Speaker 4: And those things are going on nonstop.
13:23
Speaker 5: And at the end of the day, it's my job
13:24
Speaker 5: to kind of take all that in and do what's
13:26
Speaker 5: best for the Packers, knowing that what we do on
13:28
Speaker 5: Sunday and Monday may not be what it looks like
13:33
Speaker 5: on the first game, third game, whatever. So it's kind
13:36
Speaker 5: of a constant, you know, thing that we're looking at
13:40
Speaker 5: as far as what's best.
13:42
Speaker 4: And again, you know, You want five of this, six
13:46
Speaker 4: of that. It may not look like that right out.
13:48
Speaker 5: Of the gate sometimes, but I think you're looking at
13:52
Speaker 5: it more over the total of the 17 games and
13:55
Speaker 5: into the playoffs and how that's going to look and
13:57
Speaker 5: trying to give your team the best depth and just
14:03
Speaker 5: kind of maybe hardness to get through this long season.
14:07
Speaker 9: Pretty pleased as an organization with Sean Ryan's camp. It's
14:10
Speaker 9: obviously the first time he's ever been in.
14:12
Speaker 7: He was sticking to one spot and learning to train it.
14:15
Speaker 9: What was the first time you looked at him and
14:17
Speaker 9: thought he.
14:18
Speaker 4: Could be a center?
14:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think right when we got him in, guys
14:22
Speaker 5: felt they could do it, and then we wanted to
14:23
Speaker 5: train him there. Obviously, that takes time. It's not an
14:26
Speaker 5: easy transition. Sometimes you play left tackle in college, like
14:30
Speaker 5: we do with a lot of guys, we move them around.
14:32
Speaker 5: But the center position, there's obviously some certain things, obviously
14:35
Speaker 5: the snaps and just some communication things that take some time.
14:40
Speaker 5: And I think he was doing a great job along
14:42
Speaker 5: the way with the limited opportunities he had. But then
14:44
Speaker 5: obviously last year when he had to step in, and
14:46
Speaker 5: he just got better every week, not only with his play,
14:50
Speaker 5: but then how he was running things with Jordan. So
14:54
Speaker 5: I think through that time was really where I was like, wow,
14:56
Speaker 5: I think this guy can do this and can do
14:58
Speaker 5: it at a high level. So it was probably then
15:00
Speaker 5: where you just felt really comfortable.
15:02
Speaker 4: What is it.
15:03
Speaker 9: About a college tackle that you look at and say
15:05
Speaker 9: he can play that spot inside?
15:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, you know.
15:10
Speaker 5: Obviously, college left tackles usually are at times the best
15:14
Speaker 5: player in that group, and they're usually pretty versatile athletes.
15:19
Speaker 5: Usually if you have, particularly in Matt's offense, if you
15:22
Speaker 5: have the foot quickness and the athletic ability to play
15:25
Speaker 5: left tackle, you're going to be able to do some
15:26
Speaker 5: of the things we're going to ask of a center
15:28
Speaker 5: as far as reaching and getting out to the second level.
15:31
Speaker 5: So we've seen some crossover that way in the past,
15:35
Speaker 5: and Sean.
15:36
Speaker 4: Certainly has that. What's the off?
15:38
Speaker 6: Next quarter or after the game ends on Friday, what
15:40
Speaker 6: do those 40 whatever hours look like for you in.
15:43
Speaker 4: Trying to do this pretty short turnaround?
15:45
Speaker 7: Which is a.
15:46
Speaker 6: Balancing act of what Matt or Cam or whoever wants
15:49
Speaker 6: on the roster goal with what you think it may
15:51
Speaker 6: be is about.
15:51
Speaker 5: Long-term yeah it's never really about what anybody wants it's
15:54
Speaker 5: just about what's what's best for the Packers but uh
15:57
Speaker 5: I think you know it's just it's you know we'll
15:59
Speaker 5: come in on Saturday morning and break down the game
16:01
Speaker 5: and try to you know one of the things I
16:03
Speaker 5: think you got to be careful of is you know
16:05
Speaker 5: is not getting to it too quick you know allow
16:07
Speaker 5: that game to to matter and and take your time
16:09
Speaker 5: just like you would the other preseason games and um,
16:12
Speaker 5: really break that down. Um, and then, you know, over
16:15
Speaker 5: the course of the last few weeks, you know, we
16:18
Speaker 5: basically every, you know, with these guys, maybe that we're
16:20
Speaker 5: trying to make some decisions on every team rep that
16:22
Speaker 5: they've had since the spring, we're watching and comparing and, uh,
16:25
Speaker 5: comparing them to, to our guys, um, to compare them
16:28
Speaker 5: to other guys in the league. Um, and then, you know, sometime,
16:32
Speaker 5: you know, um, you know, in the evening on Saturday,
16:36
Speaker 5: I think we'll, you know, there's obviously gonna be a
16:38
Speaker 5: lot of phone calls with other teams and kind of
16:40
Speaker 5: seeing where everybody's at.
16:41
Speaker 4: Um, and at some point I'll get.
16:43
Speaker 5: With Matt and we'll kind of start going through it and,
16:45
Speaker 5: and try to get a, uh, you know, a good
16:47
Speaker 5: idea of what we're going to do, uh, on Sunday.
16:50
Speaker 5: Now we don't have to be righteous on Sunday until
16:52
Speaker 5: about five o'clock, I believe, which is a little later
16:54
Speaker 5: than usual. Uh, so we'll have some time Sunday to
16:56
Speaker 5: continue to work through some of those things, um, you know,
16:59
Speaker 5: and get a good night's sleep, hopefully Saturday night. And, uh, um,
17:03
Speaker 5: have an idea, but at the same time, there's so
17:04
Speaker 5: many phone calls going on between teams and possible trades and,
17:08
Speaker 5: you know, and, and guys that might get cut, um,
17:11
Speaker 5: the three or four days, uh, going through this. I mean,
17:14
Speaker 5: it's just a lot of tape watching, right? You know,
17:15
Speaker 5: a lot of, you know, maybe guys getting let go.
17:17
Speaker 5: You weren't expecting to get let go. You know, can
17:20
Speaker 5: you help your team, um, to just going through all
17:23
Speaker 5: those things. And, um, and again, it's not, uh, it's
17:27
Speaker 5: never perfect. Um, but at the same time, I think it's, it's, um,
17:31
Speaker 5: it's a good process.
17:32
Speaker 1: That is Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst addressing the media
17:36
Speaker 1: from the perch at Raynichke Field as the Packers take
17:39
Speaker 1: on the Arizona Cardinals in a joint practice.
17:41
Speaker 3: JP, thanks for the time. Thanks for hanging out with us.
17:43
Speaker 7: Oh, my gosh.
17:43
Speaker 8: It's a pleasure, guys. Really fun to be here. Really
17:46
Speaker 8: fun to be in, like, 72-degree weather. A little bit
17:49
Speaker 8: different when you take the 30 off. Oh, 40 off.
17:52
Speaker 8: It was 115 yesterday in Tempe.
17:55
Speaker 3: You come out here.
17:55
Speaker 8: I mean, I wanted to sleep outside last night on
17:58
Speaker 8: a park bench or something.
17:59
Speaker 7: This is perfect. Great to be with you guys. I'm
18:02
Speaker 7: excited to be here.
18:03
Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate you being here. We appreciate the Cardinals
18:05
Speaker 1: coming in here. And I know you guys can appreciate
18:07
Speaker 1: as the longest camp of anybody in pro football for the.
18:10
Speaker 3: Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame game.
18:13
Speaker 1: To be at the end, Wayne mentioned it last two
18:15
Speaker 1: weeks that it's the dog days, right?
18:16
Speaker 3: Now it's like... that you can see the light at
18:18
Speaker 3: the end of the tunnel.
18:19
Speaker 1: But before that tunnel is a big old roadblock of
18:21
Speaker 1: probably the toughest practice that either of these two teams
18:24
Speaker 1: are going to have coming up.
18:25
Speaker 7: I would think so. You know what I mean? When
18:27
Speaker 7: you get into these matchups here in practice, and this
18:32
Speaker 7: is where the veterans, you know, the guys we know
18:35
Speaker 7: are all going to play here, okay, in this practice.
18:37
Speaker 7: That's why we were talking about this the other day, JB,
18:40
Speaker 7: about how, you know, come out to this practice. If
18:42
Speaker 7: you're going to come out to a practice, come out
18:44
Speaker 7: to this one. Because you're going to see... Any starter
18:47
Speaker 7: that's healthy, play. And that's what we're going to get here.
18:50
Speaker 7: And that always ratcheted up a little bit more, you
18:52
Speaker 7: know what I mean? It's kind of like as an individual,
18:55
Speaker 7: when you work out on your own, it's one level.
18:58
Speaker 7: When you work out with other people, you play at
19:01
Speaker 7: a different level, and that's the same thing here with practice.
19:03
Speaker 8: Yeah, when that's Jordan Love across from you, throwing at you,
19:06
Speaker 8: that's a different speed, right, than maybe the practice field.
19:10
Speaker 8: in arizona so um yeah this is this is what
19:13
Speaker 8: it's about man and it's going to be a safe
19:15
Speaker 8: one right they don't tackle to the ground right the
19:17
Speaker 8: thud and that's fine but you can still get your
19:19
Speaker 8: work in with your starters and this will be the
19:21
Speaker 8: last look for the cardinals michael floor just said earlier
19:23
Speaker 8: yeah he confirmed that they're not playing starters on friday
19:26
Speaker 8: night maybe a couple on defense exceptions but other than
19:30
Speaker 8: that uh hey this is it this is the last
19:32
Speaker 8: time he's going to see the starters out here in
19:34
Speaker 8: the entire preseason so They need some good work out
19:37
Speaker 8: of today.
19:37
Speaker 1: We had found out a couple of times the last
19:40
Speaker 1: couple of years when the Packers have had this joint
19:43
Speaker 1: practice into their last week. It's almost been used as
19:45
Speaker 1: a punishment, the game has. And Matt mentioned it on
19:49
Speaker 1: Monday that if you get into one of those scuffles
19:51
Speaker 1: that everybody has had trending across the internet because of
19:55
Speaker 1: these joint practices, you might find yourself playing in there
19:58
Speaker 1: if you weren't expecting to. And if you need that
19:59
Speaker 1: game to be able to make the club or make
20:01
Speaker 1: a final impression... You might not be going on out there.
20:04
Speaker 8: Well, and it's huge for guys that are out there
20:07
Speaker 8: on Friday night because you're auditioning not only for the
20:10
Speaker 8: Packers and the Cardinals, but for these other teams.
20:13
Speaker 7: Look at the tape.
20:14
Speaker 8: It might need somebody a week or two into the season.
20:16
Speaker 8: I had this guy look at the preseason game. So
20:19
Speaker 8: it matters for guys like that that are on the
20:21
Speaker 8: roster bubble trying to make a team. But for the starters,
20:24
Speaker 8: you're trying to bubble wrap after the day. And get
20:27
Speaker 8: ready for September 13th.
20:28
Speaker 7: JP, you guys have one of the most high-profile draft
20:32
Speaker 7: picks this year. Jeremiah loved the running back. I saw
20:36
Speaker 7: a little of him in that game that you did
20:39
Speaker 7: in Vegas. And, you know, I mean, he just looks
20:42
Speaker 7: like he's going to be a terrific, dominant kind of back.
20:45
Speaker 7: um what are your impressions of him and will we
20:47
Speaker 7: see him today or is he kind of being held
20:49
Speaker 7: up i think he's being held out today and you
20:52
Speaker 7: know he's dinged up high ankles okay it was the
20:54
Speaker 7: last snap he played it was caught like an angle
20:56
Speaker 7: over the middle oh he got rolled up and that
20:59
Speaker 7: was kind of it now he's got on the plane
21:01
Speaker 7: he's he's here but did not have a walking boot
21:04
Speaker 7: on so that's a good sign for week one so
21:06
Speaker 7: that's a good sign he's so dynamic i mean he
21:09
Speaker 7: could his vision's amazing His cutting ability, he can stop
21:12
Speaker 7: on a dime and leave somebody in the dust. And
21:16
Speaker 7: then has the acceleration to go with that. So, complete back. Rookie,
21:21
Speaker 7: we'll see. He's played a lot of football in college.
21:23
Speaker 8: But his first impression was like, whoa, okay, this is
21:26
Speaker 8: what all the hype was about. Jeremiah Love has the ability,
21:29
Speaker 8: at least, to be a dynamic star.
21:31
Speaker 7: You think of Bijan Robinson down at Atlanta. You think
21:35
Speaker 7: of Saquon Barkley at Philadelphia. Jeremiah Love is probably cut
21:39
Speaker 7: from that same cloth.
21:40
Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
21:41
Speaker 7: Now, he's got to go play. Yeah.
21:43
Speaker 8: But in terms of just pure ability, yeah, those two
21:46
Speaker 8: guys make sense.
21:47
Speaker 7: And the other thing that was interesting, the debate before
21:49
Speaker 7: the draft, and I know you weren't with the Cardinals
21:52
Speaker 7: at the time, but the debate before the draft around
21:54
Speaker 7: the league was, Why would they waste a draft pick
21:57
Speaker 7: on a running back? They're not ready. They don't have
21:59
Speaker 7: the line. They don't have the quarterback. I don't know.
22:02
Speaker 7: And my point was, wait a minute. Isn't the object
22:05
Speaker 7: to get the best players you can, especially if you're
22:08
Speaker 7: picking third in the draft? And that guy is there,
22:10
Speaker 7: and we're not ready for him. What do you mean
22:12
Speaker 7: you're not ready? When are you not ready for a
22:14
Speaker 7: great player?
22:15
Speaker 8: You know, we had this argument back in Jacksonville, too. 2017,
22:18
Speaker 8: the Jaguars drafted Leonard Fournette.
22:21
Speaker 7: Yeah. Fifth overall or something. And then people were like, oh, whatever.
22:24
Speaker 8: Now, it ended up not working out there in a
22:26
Speaker 8: number of years, but that first year, they go to
22:28
Speaker 8: the playoffs.
22:28
Speaker 7: They nearly went to the Super Bowl. Sure. They were
22:30
Speaker 7: running the football. They had a veteran offensive line.
22:33
Speaker 4: You know what?
22:33
Speaker 8: This offensive line is going to be better than people think, too.
22:35
Speaker 8: I mean, they've got veteran guys they brought in from
22:38
Speaker 8: the agency that are 10-, 12-year guys in the league.
22:41
Speaker 8: So they know how to play. I think they're going
22:43
Speaker 8: to have a certain style about them. and they're going
22:46
Speaker 8: to have to run. They have to run to set
22:48
Speaker 8: up what Mike wants to do on offense.
22:49
Speaker 7: And you know what? You can shorten a game by
22:52
Speaker 7: controlling it on the ground. You know what I mean?
22:55
Speaker 7: If you need to keep your defense off the field
22:57
Speaker 7: or whatever... I'll never forget Marv Levy's first year, my
23:00
Speaker 7: first year in the league in 1978 in Kansas City, okay?
23:04
Speaker 7: The Chiefs were bottom feeders at that time, and they
23:08
Speaker 7: had a real... Well, so there were a lot of
23:11
Speaker 7: question marks on defense, and there were no playmakers on offense,
23:14
Speaker 7: so Marv installed the wing tee offense, and Tony Reed,
23:18
Speaker 7: somebody named Tony Reed, rushed for 1,000 yards, and the
23:22
Speaker 7: Chiefs didn't win many games defensively. But they were competitive
23:25
Speaker 7: because they would shorten those games in half.
23:27
Speaker 1: He had been watching a lot of Adams Friendship or
23:29
Speaker 1: Watoma football up here.
23:35
Speaker 7: It was amazing.
23:36
Speaker 1: But for Arizona, you mentioned, I mean, Paris Johnson, one
23:38
Speaker 1: of my favorite guys to watch in the league, JP.
23:41
Speaker 1: But like their offensive line is a ground and pound unit.
23:44
Speaker 1: But it also their culture starts with James Conner. And
23:46
Speaker 1: when you add in a guy like that to be
23:49
Speaker 1: able to play behind, that's a heck of a duo
23:51
Speaker 1: because i think you can absolutely play love on the
23:54
Speaker 1: field with connor at the same time.
23:55
Speaker 8: That's another thing we haven't seen connor he's been off
23:58
Speaker 8: to the side or been doing individual work he hasn't
24:00
Speaker 8: had teamwork so he's taking it they're letting him kind
24:03
Speaker 8: of control when he's ready to go they're not really
24:06
Speaker 8: pressing the issue too much because they have backs they
24:08
Speaker 8: got outgeared pre-agency yeah that's right they got love clearly
24:11
Speaker 8: bam knight actually has been really good this preseason And
24:14
Speaker 8: then Corey Conner is the guy who's on the bubble,
24:16
Speaker 8: but in the times he's played in these games.
24:18
Speaker 7: He's looked pretty good. He's been fine. Yeah, I've seen
24:20
Speaker 7: all three of the games. Serviceable, right?
24:21
Speaker 8: And then if Conner's back, then you've got some choices
24:24
Speaker 8: to make there.
24:25
Speaker 7: I thought the pickup of Tyler Algier was really interesting
24:28
Speaker 7: because he's one of those guys between the tackle, physical
24:31
Speaker 7: kind of back, and he could be a heck of
24:33
Speaker 7: a compliment to Jeremiah. And I forgot that.
24:37
Speaker 8: I always thought of him as like, oh, he's in
24:39
Speaker 8: the passing game in Atlanta because of Bijan, all this stuff.
24:42
Speaker 7: No, he's thick. You stand by him, I don't want
24:45
Speaker 7: to tackle that guy. No, he's 5'10, 225. You put
24:48
Speaker 7: 225 on a 5'10 frame. Come on now, physical guy.
24:52
Speaker 7: So he's been fantastic so far.
24:54
Speaker 3: And the quarterback spot is what everybody always wants to
24:56
Speaker 3: talk about.
24:56
Speaker 1: Here with Jordan Love, going to be one of the
24:59
Speaker 1: hot things to be able to.
25:00
Speaker 3: See against a defense that.
25:02
Speaker 1: New look defense, obviously a whole new look coaching staff,
25:04
Speaker 1: but Cardinals fans will be somewhat familiar with what the
25:07
Speaker 1: Packers defense would look like and holdovers from the roster.
25:11
Speaker 1: What's that transition like at this moment with Jonathan Gannon?
25:14
Speaker 1: We've talked mostly about the LeFleur brother connection, but the
25:17
Speaker 1: former head coach being the D.C.
25:18
Speaker 3: Here in Green Bay makes a difference.
25:18
Speaker 7: It's an interesting dynamic, isn't it? Right, sure is, man.
25:21
Speaker 7: I'm curious to see that today. Yeah, I am too.
25:23
Speaker 7: I think it'll be interesting the kind of practice they
25:26
Speaker 7: run and that type of thing. Jonathan Gannon has been
25:28
Speaker 7: a breath of fresh air here. I thought he did
25:31
Speaker 7: a good job in Arizona. Just didn't quite have the
25:34
Speaker 7: players to bring that defense around. But they've, you know,
25:37
Speaker 7: they've got some people. And there were so many injuries. Oh,
25:40
Speaker 7: my gosh. Yeah.
25:41
Speaker 1: Looking up and down the roster, you almost forget just
25:44
Speaker 1: how talented the roster can be for a team that,
25:47
Speaker 1: you know, in the NFC West. You look up at
25:50
Speaker 1: some of the behemoths of the NFL, obviously the one
25:52
Speaker 1: that just unveiled a sweet ring, one that ringed in
25:55
Speaker 1: the new year by bringing back a future Hall of
25:57
Speaker 1: Famer and bringing in another one to play alongside with
26:00
Speaker 1: the MVP. And no slouches, the team that's stacked up
26:04
Speaker 1: by the substation there in San Francisco, one of the
26:06
Speaker 1: toughest divisions in football to prepare for.
26:08
Speaker 7: And the AFC West is on the schedule this year, too. Chiefs, Chargers.
26:12
Speaker 7: How lucky. You know what?
26:14
Speaker 8: This is one of my pet peeves. I know I'm...
26:17
Speaker 8: I've been in the league for a minute, but I'm
26:18
Speaker 8: a rookie in Arizona, but I'm going to say this anyway.
26:21
Speaker 8: The tough schedule debate just bothers the heck out of me. Like,
26:25
Speaker 8: you cannot control the schedule. Are you going to text
26:28
Speaker 8: Roger Goodell and be like, hey, Rog, sorry. We need
26:31
Speaker 8: a break. We need a second bye week. What are
26:35
Speaker 8: you talking about? It is okay for a team to
26:38
Speaker 8: improve and play week to week and match up well
26:41
Speaker 8: against any of these teams in the NFL, and especially
26:43
Speaker 8: in this division.
26:44
Speaker 7: That is allowed.
26:45
Speaker 8: You can get better as an organization, and it starts
26:48
Speaker 8: from top to bottom, from ownership down to the fan base.
26:51
Speaker 8: Same thing happened in Jacksonville. They couldn't win anything. They
26:54
Speaker 8: had a 20-game losing streak. And then a year later,
26:56
Speaker 8: they win the division. And they've won two since then,
26:59
Speaker 8: and they've got the quarterback to do it. And they
27:02
Speaker 8: had some other playmakers come in. They're in the process
27:05
Speaker 8: of building that now in Arizona. So don't tell me
27:07
Speaker 8: that it's just a tough division and they're not going.
27:09
Speaker 7: To win anything. They might not, and that's fine too
27:11
Speaker 7: because they are really good teams. That's fine. But the
27:13
Speaker 7: Cardinals can be better, and they can improve as the
27:15
Speaker 7: season goes on. That's my soapbox. Well, you know, it's
27:18
Speaker 7: interesting because you mentioned that. I thought you were going
27:20
Speaker 7: to go a little bit different direction because my pet
27:22
Speaker 7: peeve is always when the schedule comes out and we
27:25
Speaker 7: do win, loss, win, loss.
27:27
Speaker 1: It's the highest viewed podcast we put out every year.
27:30
Speaker 7: It's incredible everybody's like lost lost lost lost i'm not
27:33
Speaker 7: come on it is the most foolhardy thing anyone could
27:36
Speaker 7: do because football is a game of not who you
27:39
Speaker 7: play or even where you play but when you play
27:41
Speaker 7: okay so i mean in injuries in the nfl because
27:45
Speaker 7: it's a hundred percent injured league all right everybody's going
27:47
Speaker 7: to get hurt doesn't matter you're going to get injured
27:49
Speaker 7: at some point it's not a matter of If it's when.
27:53
Speaker 7: But so you face a team like, you know, by
27:56
Speaker 7: the end of last year, the Packers, they had five
27:58
Speaker 7: of their top ten people on IR. The Cardinals played
28:01
Speaker 7: 81 players last season.
28:02
Speaker 4: Yeah.
28:03
Speaker 7: You can't compete with your third string guy. That's why
28:06
Speaker 7: they're third string.
28:07
Speaker 4: Sure.
28:07
Speaker 7: Like, that's just how it works. So, you know. So
28:10
Speaker 7: you don't know. I mean, and we're all thinking the
28:12
Speaker 7: Rams are going to go to the Super Bowl.
28:15
Speaker 8: Yeah, but you know what? What if they get a
28:16
Speaker 8: few injuries in the right places? All of a sudden,
28:19
Speaker 8: they come right back to the back.
28:20
Speaker 1: Their quarterback was living in a mobile home outside of
28:23
Speaker 1: the practice facility last year because he couldn't practice.
28:25
Speaker 3: He couldn't play there. Trying to do some kind of
28:27
Speaker 3: hyperbaric chamber for him.
28:29
Speaker 8: Or what if they can't cover Trey McBride and he
28:30
Speaker 8: scores three touchdowns on him?
28:32
Speaker 7: That's what I'd like to hear. That's possible, too. We
28:34
Speaker 7: are going to see two really great tight ends here
28:37
Speaker 7: in this practice today, you know, because Tucker Kraft is
28:40
Speaker 7: ready to go, and Trey McBride is at the top
28:43
Speaker 7: of the list of pass-catching tight ends. Tucker is a
28:45
Speaker 7: little more of a complete tight end, a little more.
28:47
Speaker 7: He does some other things, blocking and that kind of thing,
28:49
Speaker 7: but Trey McBride is a dynamic pass-catching tight end. I'll
28:53
Speaker 7: bet you're looking forward to seeing him on a daily basis.
28:54
Speaker 7: You guys are fun to watch, man. I mean, he
28:56
Speaker 7: is a killer.
28:57
Speaker 8: Now, the interesting part in this tight end room, You know,
29:00
Speaker 8: there was this trend in the draft. Everybody's drafting tight
29:02
Speaker 8: ends on day two. I mean, they've got Tip Ryland,
29:05
Speaker 8: who hasn't touched the field in a minute, who's more
29:06
Speaker 8: of a blocking option. Elijah Higgins had a concussion earlier
29:10
Speaker 8: in camp, fourth-year player. But who else is there? I mean,
29:13
Speaker 8: I don't know if they're four deep right now at
29:15
Speaker 8: tight end. Like, a lot of these teams are trying
29:16
Speaker 8: to trend that way. You know, what is it behind McBride?
29:21
Speaker 8: That's the big question around here. No, and there's a
29:23
Speaker 8: lot of questions to be answered there. And the other thing,
29:26
Speaker 8: this is going to be an intriguing weekend. I try
29:29
Speaker 8: not to go, you know, like they're going to cut
29:31
Speaker 8: to 53, but it's not the final 53 because they're
29:33
Speaker 8: going to boom, boom, boom, and trades and everything else
29:36
Speaker 8: go on.
29:37
Speaker 7: You've got to kind of waiver claims to the Cardinals
29:39
Speaker 7: have the third waiver claims. Right. So, guys, yeah, if
29:42
Speaker 7: you need a tight end, you probably get a good one.
29:44
Speaker 7: You know, probably get a pretty darn good tight end
29:45
Speaker 7: out there. But, you know. so i always wait you
29:48
Speaker 7: gotta wait for the dust to settle three four days
29:51
Speaker 7: after the fight you know okay they gotta be at
29:53
Speaker 7: the 53 man roster five o'clock on sunday well but
29:57
Speaker 7: that's not the final 53 that's a 53 man roster
30:01
Speaker 7: yeah the.
30:02
Speaker 1: Initial i think one of the biggest moves the packers
30:04
Speaker 1: made a couple of years ago happened right after they
30:06
Speaker 1: submitted it for malik willis when they traded for him
30:08
Speaker 1: yeah down in tennessee so it happens year in and
30:11
Speaker 1: year out you keep bringing up Jacksonville, JP was the
30:13
Speaker 1: voice of the Jags.
30:15
Speaker 7: I did everything but the voice. Everything but the voice. Pre-game, post-game,
30:18
Speaker 7: coach's show, everything. My goodness.
30:20
Speaker 1: Hanging out with Tony Buscelli, that would intoxicate me as
30:23
Speaker 1: an offensive line guy. But being around that team, you
30:25
Speaker 1: mentioned the leaps that they took. in a number of
30:28
Speaker 1: different coaching changes.
30:30
Speaker 7: A number, yeah, a lot. A big number. A crooked number.
30:33
Speaker 1: And a lot of different things, you know, that transpire
30:35
Speaker 1: into those. But one thing that you can see is
30:38
Speaker 1: the turnaround from year to year and physicality up front.
30:41
Speaker 3: We talked about it on the offensive line. Defensively, it's
30:44
Speaker 3: another group that is very intriguing that way.
30:46
Speaker 7: It is.
30:47
Speaker 8: And, you know, like we were talking about, I don't
30:49
Speaker 8: know how deep they are right now, but they're frontline
30:52
Speaker 8: guys I think are going to be able to step in.
30:55
Speaker 8: Roy Lopez is back, nose tackle. I asked him the
30:57
Speaker 8: other day about, you know, what does it take to
30:59
Speaker 8: become a good run defense? And he had a great
31:02
Speaker 8: answer on just everybody doing their own thing, not getting
31:05
Speaker 8: out of place.
31:06
Speaker 7: It's these front five. They're a 3-4.
31:08
Speaker 8: So, like, those five guys set the tone up front
31:11
Speaker 8: for the physical. He'll take up two blocks. They got
31:13
Speaker 8: Andrew Billings, who's like 400 pounds.
31:15
Speaker 7: We saw a lot of him in Chicago last year.
31:18
Speaker 7: He's a pain in the rear end, right?
31:19
Speaker 8: So, if you can't move the middle, okay, then you
31:22
Speaker 8: got your outside and your linebackers flying around.
31:25
Speaker 7: So, that's the number one priority.
31:27
Speaker 8: And then what do they have at pass rush? I mean,
31:29
Speaker 8: Josh Sweat's going to be out here on the field
31:30
Speaker 8: today doing individual stuff finally. He finally got activated off
31:33
Speaker 8: PUP with a knee issue. And he was on the
31:35
Speaker 8: field the other day in Arizona. And the video I saw,
31:38
Speaker 8: I wasn't there. I had other stuff going on. But
31:40
Speaker 8: I saw the video. I'm like, he's still kind of
31:42
Speaker 8: favoring it a little bit. I don't know if that's
31:44
Speaker 8: his regular gait, how he walks. But let's see a
31:47
Speaker 8: little bit of that today at individuals. But what else
31:49
Speaker 8: do they have in the pass rush? If they stop
31:51
Speaker 8: the run, how are they going to get home? That's
31:54
Speaker 8: a question. There's a handful of guys there. Zabin Collins
31:56
Speaker 8: is one. But after that, I mean, there's two, three,
32:00
Speaker 8: four guys that are competing for the rotating spots there.
32:02
Speaker 8: And they've got some new faces in the secondary, too.
32:05
Speaker 7: You know, they brought in a safety from Jacksonville and
32:08
Speaker 7: free agency and Dewey Wenger. So they got Buda.
32:12
Speaker 1: I was just going to say, Buda Baker ends up
32:14
Speaker 1: being the main thing that everybody thinks of.
32:15
Speaker 7: He sets the tone. Yeah, he's a safety, but he's blitzing.
32:18
Speaker 7: He's around. He's all around the football all the time.
32:21
Speaker 1: And there's a couple of guys on there that Wayne
32:22
Speaker 1: and I do the draft show that we talked about
32:24
Speaker 1: a lot during their time, and Will Johnson is one that,
32:27
Speaker 1: I mean, he was one of the most intriguing names, Wayne,
32:30
Speaker 1: when he came out of talent-wise unparalleled. It was hard
32:34
Speaker 1: to measure up against the other guys in that class,
32:36
Speaker 1: but the health-wise was a concern, but it hadn't necessarily
32:39
Speaker 1: been as much, right?
32:40
Speaker 8: He played, what, 10 games last year, 10 starts a
32:42
Speaker 8: season ago. He had a couple of injuries last year,
32:44
Speaker 8: but he's the number one corner on this team. There's
32:47
Speaker 8: no doubt about that. There are questions about the number
32:49
Speaker 8: two guy, and they've been... auditioning some guys the last
32:51
Speaker 8: few weeks okay we've.
32:52
Speaker 1: Been seeing that too over here as uh the number
32:54
Speaker 1: two corner has become the much uh most maligned player
32:57
Speaker 1: potentially on the Packers roster Keyshawn Nixon I'm excited to
33:00
Speaker 1: see him go up against Marvin Harrison Jr. a couple
33:03
Speaker 1: other guys in there Wayne knows and JP I apologize
33:05
Speaker 1: I will salivate once the offensive defensive line one-on-ones generally
33:09
Speaker 1: happen right over here in front of us But those
33:11
Speaker 1: wide receiver cornerback ones will be the matches.
33:13
Speaker 8: So I'm excited for the one-on-ones because Mike LaFleur doesn't
33:17
Speaker 8: really do a lot of that in practices.
33:20
Speaker 7: It's a lot of just teamwork.
33:21
Speaker 8: They believe that football is football, we're going to play,
33:24
Speaker 8: and we'll kind of dissect it from there. So I
33:27
Speaker 8: haven't seen, with my own eyes at least, one-on-ones.
33:31
Speaker 7: Corners, DBs, against receivers. Or offensive line pass rushers, D-line.
33:36
Speaker 8: So I'm excited if they do that today, which I
33:38
Speaker 8: should have asked earlier.
33:39
Speaker 7: But I'm sure they will at some point today. Yeah.
33:41
Speaker 7: That'll be fun to watch. No, it really will. And,
33:43
Speaker 7: you know, the other thing is people are wondering about, well,
33:47
Speaker 7: this is practice. Yes, it's a practice. But when you
33:49
Speaker 7: have somebody else in camp. You know, the intensity goes
33:53
Speaker 7: up a little bit. That's what the coaches look forward to.
33:56
Speaker 7: And they've shied away from it. You know, it used
33:57
Speaker 7: to be when we did these joint practices, it would
34:01
Speaker 7: be two days. And then you play the game. Well,
34:04
Speaker 7: one team would come out and kind of dominate the
34:06
Speaker 7: first day. The next day, the other team, they got
34:09
Speaker 7: their butt kicked. And they're going, you know, they're coming out.
34:12
Speaker 7: And all of a sudden, day two was a scrum,
34:14
Speaker 7: not a practice. It was a scrum. No doubt about it.
34:17
Speaker 7: So they don't do that anymore. They do one. Very rarely.
34:20
Speaker 7: They do one. I think Minnesota Baltimore did two this week.
34:24
Speaker 8: Jaguars Bucks did two, but the second day was not
34:27
Speaker 8: at pads.
34:27
Speaker 1: I don't know why exactly you're doing that, but at
34:31
Speaker 1: that point, why not?
34:31
Speaker 7: I'm not there anymore. I don't care. Good one to have.
34:34
Speaker 1: Now, you're also, correct me if I'm wrong here, and
34:36
Speaker 1: you definitely might be, Voice of the International Series, right?
34:39
Speaker 1: Or one of the voices, Westwood won on the International Series.
34:42
Speaker 8: So it happened that I was over there with the
34:43
Speaker 8: Jaguars anyway, doing events all week and then pregame and
34:46
Speaker 8: postgame on radio with the Jags. And I'd started doing
34:49
Speaker 8: some college games with Westwood. And they were like, hey,
34:52
Speaker 8: what do you do during the games? I'm like, well,
34:54
Speaker 8: I just twiddle my thumbs. I don't really do anything.
34:56
Speaker 7: Watch the game. Okay, let's think about it. Because Tom
34:58
Speaker 7: McCarthy was going to do the game one year.
35:00
Speaker 8: The Phillies made this improbable run to the World Series.
35:04
Speaker 7: So he couldn't go.
35:05
Speaker 8: And bang, when Bryce Harper hit the home run, I
35:08
Speaker 8: was doing the Jags game in London on Westwood. I'm like, yeah,
35:10
Speaker 8: Bryce Harper's my guy now. So that's how it started.
35:13
Speaker 8: And from then on, it was every Jaguar game. I
35:15
Speaker 8: would just do it on Westwood 1, do the Jags pregame,
35:17
Speaker 8: slide over two tables down, call the game neutral, come back.
35:21
Speaker 8: and talk how the Jaguars blew it or didn't on
35:23
Speaker 8: the post-game show.
35:24
Speaker 4: Sure.
35:25
Speaker 7: And then I added a few after that. So I
35:27
Speaker 7: always do the other games. We usually have three games
35:29
Speaker 7: there now.
35:30
Speaker 8: So, yeah, and then it worked into Thanksgiving and Christmas
35:33
Speaker 8: and some other dates as well.
35:34
Speaker 7: So very, very lucky, yeah.
35:36
Speaker 1: Well, we're excited to have you on a full-time basis
35:38
Speaker 1: with the Cardinals because I mentioned it to Wayne and
35:41
Speaker 1: people laugh at me. It's one of my sick obsessions
35:43
Speaker 1: is the radio calls on the NFL app are my
35:45
Speaker 1: favorite part of the NFL Plus package to be able
35:47
Speaker 1: to tap around. the nerdy side of it, get the,
35:50
Speaker 1: get the feel of what it's like from somebody that
35:52
Speaker 1: sees it all the time. And I'm excited to be
35:53
Speaker 1: able to have that today with both sides.
35:55
Speaker 7: Well, here's the thing. I got to say this, not
35:57
Speaker 7: just because I'm sitting here, but to sit by this guy.
35:59
Speaker 7: Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Wayne Larrabee is like,
36:04
Speaker 7: a legend in the business. He is. You are. That
36:08
Speaker 7: only means I'm old.
36:09
Speaker 8: Well, you mentioned 1978, so you're.
36:11
Speaker 7: The one that brought it up.
36:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so.
36:13
Speaker 7: But that seems like yesterday to me. But then again,
36:16
Speaker 7: you know, when you're failing, still getting voted the number
36:19
Speaker 7: one guy in the league, like all these... I mean,
36:22
Speaker 7: it's real. I mean, the fastball's there. He's got everything
36:24
Speaker 7: you want. You're very kind. What people should.
36:28
Speaker 8: Aspire to be doing this business. Does that mean I
36:30
Speaker 8: have to pick up the check at Manny's on Thursday?
36:32
Speaker 7: Thanks, Jeff. Thank you. We'll have dessert. Thank you. They
36:36
Speaker 7: get it done as well.
36:37
Speaker 3: We'll see if we'll have two.
36:39
Speaker 7: Of those as well. Well, you have dessert. I'll have
36:41
Speaker 7: another pitcher of beer. I love that.
36:44
Speaker 1: We will hold off on the pitchers for a couple
36:46
Speaker 1: more minutes, and the plays will happen in a couple
36:48
Speaker 1: more minutes as well. J.P.
36:50
Speaker 7: Shadrick, voice of the Cardinals.
36:51
Speaker 1: As Big Voice Guy said, there is Wayne Larrabee. We
36:53
Speaker 1: appreciate J.P. Shadrick joining us here before going off and
36:56
Speaker 1: hanging out on the Cardinals sideline. That is phenomenal, Wayne,
36:59
Speaker 1: of getting a look on the other side, somebody that
37:01
Speaker 1: gets to see a Cardinals team. And the statement about
37:05
Speaker 1: the schedule is about as perfect as you can have
37:07
Speaker 1: it because you see a team that, and I mentioned
37:09
Speaker 1: it on the huddle earlier on today, I think you're
37:12
Speaker 1: going to watch some of the Cardinals players and realize, wow,
37:14
Speaker 1: there's a lot of talent on a team that a
37:16
Speaker 1: lot of people don't anticipate a lot of wins from
37:18
Speaker 1: coming up here.
37:19
Speaker 7: Absolutely. And, you know, we kind of hinted at it
37:21
Speaker 7: a little bit. And, you know, JP's right. This is
37:24
Speaker 7: kind of a new era for the Cardinals coaching staff.
37:27
Speaker 7: And obviously the personnel department will be fitting players to
37:31
Speaker 7: what they want to do. And they're in the infancy
37:33
Speaker 7: of that process. But there are good players on this
37:37
Speaker 7: Cardinals team where they might run into a problem is
37:40
Speaker 7: they don't quite have the depth that more established programs
37:43
Speaker 7: have but be honest with you folks uh nobody has
37:46
Speaker 7: depth throughout the roster you have depth in certain areas
37:49
Speaker 7: the packers have feel they have depth like on the
37:51
Speaker 7: defensive line uh they have depth at wide receiver they
37:55
Speaker 7: feel like uh but they're they're not deep everywhere nobody
37:59
Speaker 7: is for the most part because just the way the
38:01
Speaker 7: system is today the finances of it the salary cap
38:04
Speaker 7: everything else You can't build a team with depth at
38:07
Speaker 7: every single position, but you hope you have depth in
38:10
Speaker 7: the right places. Now, a team like the Cardinals, they
38:13
Speaker 7: don't have a lot of depth, but they're front-line guys.
38:15
Speaker 7: If they're out there, they'll be very competitive.
38:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we highlighted a couple of them. The battle
38:20
Speaker 1: of the 285s, Trey McBride and Tucker Kraft, you're not
38:24
Speaker 1: going to find two better tight ends in football than
38:27
Speaker 1: those two guys right there.
38:28
Speaker 7: And a little bit different, you know, Trey is the pass-catching,
38:31
Speaker 7: big-play tight end. Tucker is a pass-catcher, a big-play tight end, but...
38:37
Speaker 7: does it a little bit differently, maybe a little more physical.
38:39
Speaker 7: And Tucker Kraft is probably a better in-line player than
38:43
Speaker 7: Trey McBride. And he's just a little bit more of
38:46
Speaker 7: a complete tight end. But Trey McBride is probably the premier.
38:49
Speaker 7: pass-catching tight end now in the NFL, right?
38:51
Speaker 1: The folks that are listening to us playing fantasy football
38:54
Speaker 1: are nodding their head with Wayne Larrabee right there, saying, yeah,
38:56
Speaker 1: I'm going to get Trey McBride every time, because he's
38:58
Speaker 1: going to grab about 10 balls almost every single game.
39:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's going to be featured in their offense. Whereas,
39:03
Speaker 7: you know, and again, the Cardinals have decent wide receivers,
39:06
Speaker 7: but not of the ilk that the Packers have at
39:09
Speaker 7: this stage, where, you know, you're going to see that
39:11
Speaker 7: ball spread around a little bit more in Green Bay.
39:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're still waiting for the third-year jump now
39:16
Speaker 1: from a guy like Marvin Harrison Jr., and They're cornerbacks,
39:20
Speaker 1: as we mentioned. Max Melton, the brother of Bo Melton.
39:23
Speaker 1: This will be the third time they match up, a
39:25
Speaker 1: couple of times during games. But everybody is searching for...
39:29
Speaker 1: there's a question on just about every roster, even though
39:32
Speaker 1: it feels like there are teams that every spot, you know,
39:35
Speaker 1: one through 35 is taken care of. Wayne, it's just
39:38
Speaker 1: simply not the case, especially when you get tested with
39:41
Speaker 1: the rigors of a 17-game season.
39:43
Speaker 7: Yeah, no question. I mean, Mike McCarthy says this all
39:45
Speaker 7: the time. I think he said, It took 77 players
39:48
Speaker 7: to win Super Bowl 45 over the course of that year.
39:51
Speaker 7: And generally, if you have to play 77 players, folks,
39:54
Speaker 7: you're not going even to the playoffs. But that was
39:57
Speaker 7: one of those exceptions where that young team was so
40:00
Speaker 7: deep and the players that they replaced, they actually got
40:03
Speaker 7: better in some positions in that offense and defense that year.
40:07
Speaker 7: That's rare. That hardly ever happens. And You've generally got
40:11
Speaker 7: to be healthy and get your people, the right people,
40:14
Speaker 7: through to the Super Bowl. No doubt about it.
40:16
Speaker 1: And for Arizona, there's a couple of important guys to
40:19
Speaker 1: watch and a couple of little tidbits to follow. Josh
40:22
Speaker 1: Jacobs in pads looking like he will be ready to
40:25
Speaker 1: roll coming up here momentarily. Xavier McKinney as well. One
40:29
Speaker 1: of their teammates, Mack Wilson Sr., one of the anchors
40:32
Speaker 1: of that Arizona defense. They were all teammates at Alabama
40:36
Speaker 1: from 17 to 18 together, and Marvin Harrison Jr. and
40:39
Speaker 1: Kyle McCord, speaking to those two, they have some time
40:43
Speaker 1: back at St. Joseph's Prep Academy in Philadelphia before rolling
40:47
Speaker 1: together to Ohio State, where McCord put up very good numbers.
40:51
Speaker 1: They didn't beat Michigan, and that ended up being the issue.
40:54
Speaker 1: But Marvin Harrison Jr. went on to one of the
40:56
Speaker 1: most prolific college football careers that a wide receiver has had,
41:00
Speaker 1: and there's some interesting combinations you know, correlations between the
41:03
Speaker 1: two sides. Everybody is talking about the LaFleurs, rightfully so.
41:07
Speaker 1: But the one that almost went right past me, Wayne,
41:10
Speaker 1: was the fact that Nathaniel Hackett is calling plays once again.
41:13
Speaker 1: Or is the offensive coordinator going to be a part
41:15
Speaker 1: of that staff? I assume Mike LaFleur is going to
41:16
Speaker 1: call the plays for Arizona. But once again, just the
41:20
Speaker 1: blending of these two, the programs are very similar.
41:23
Speaker 7: Yeah, and it's good to see Hackett back out there.
41:28
Speaker 7: He's just one of the great people I've met. You know,
41:31
Speaker 7: Nathaniel Hackett. Hey, listen, Billy, I know I caution you
41:35
Speaker 7: all the time about preseason stats and all this other stuff,
41:40
Speaker 7: but the Arizona passing game in three preseason games, the
41:44
Speaker 7: Arizona passing game has been phenomenal. They're completing 62% of
41:49
Speaker 7: their passes, 718 yards, seven yards per pass attempt, six touchdowns,
41:55
Speaker 7: one interception, a passer rating of 114.5 as a team
41:58
Speaker 7: in preseason. And Most of it has not been Jacoby Brissett.
42:04
Speaker 7: He's played one series, five for five, passing 44 yards
42:07
Speaker 7: and a touchdown on Vegas. He's going to start the
42:10
Speaker 7: season for them. But Gardner Minshew is in there, former
42:13
Speaker 7: Jacksonville Jaguar. Carson Beck played one game and has been
42:17
Speaker 7: injured since with a rib injury. But he's a guy
42:19
Speaker 7: they've got to look at. He's a third-round draft choice
42:22
Speaker 7: out of Miami. We broke him down during the draft.
42:24
Speaker 7: You remember it very well. And, you know, this is
42:27
Speaker 7: a guy they need to find out about because, hey,
42:29
Speaker 7: They're going to have a high draft pick next year.
42:31
Speaker 7: A lot of quarterbacks are coming out next year, and
42:33
Speaker 7: do they need to use that draft pick on a quarterback?
42:35
Speaker 7: And the other guy we'll see a lot of is
42:37
Speaker 7: Keaton Slovis, second-year player out of BYU. at quarterback for Arizona.
42:42
Speaker 7: So those are the guys. We won't see Jacoby Percet Friday,
42:45
Speaker 7: but we'll probably see Minshew through Slovis. And Beck is
42:50
Speaker 7: questionable only because of his status.
42:52
Speaker 1: And interesting guys at all four levels. Slovis might be
42:55
Speaker 1: the last one. He played so much college football. I
42:58
Speaker 1: think he started as a true freshman at one time.
43:00
Speaker 1: So like all these guys have played a lot of ball.
43:02
Speaker 1: And Gardner Minshew, you almost forget about. has played some
43:05
Speaker 1: good football in.
43:06
Speaker 7: The NFL already.
43:08
Speaker 1: They are going to have to find out about Beck,
43:10
Speaker 1: you would assume, during the season. That's the tough mathematics
43:14
Speaker 1: of building out the team and flipping around the program
43:18
Speaker 1: like they are. As you mentioned, they're going to have
43:19
Speaker 1: a high draft pick. And there's somebody named Manning. There's
43:22
Speaker 1: somebody who's going to be playing quarterback in Lambeau Field
43:25
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, C.J. Carr, who's going to
43:26
Speaker 1: be right there at the top of the list. And
43:29
Speaker 1: it's not only going to be Cleveland that might be
43:30
Speaker 1: looking for another quarterback coming up in the draft. It'll
43:33
Speaker 1: definitely be One of these teams, potentially, unless Carson Beck
43:36
Speaker 1: goes and takes that thing over. I am excited as
43:38
Speaker 1: they get into some padded practice and into some real
43:42
Speaker 1: game-like situations, Wayne.
43:44
Speaker 3: I know you're stunned on the offensive line.
43:46
Speaker 1: What we start seeing from Zach Bacoboele is he fully
43:50
Speaker 1: gets himself engaged here against somebody else.
43:53
Speaker 7: Initial thoughts, you know, based on what I saw the
43:56
Speaker 7: other day at practice, it looks like he's pretty close.
43:58
Speaker 7: You know, it really does. you know this offensive line
44:03
Speaker 7: this is a crucial week remember we talked about Denver's
44:07
Speaker 7: offensive line they're going on their fourth year together all
44:10
Speaker 7: five the Packers are trying to get five or six
44:13
Speaker 7: days under their belt with their offensive line and it's
44:16
Speaker 7: just been a matter of injuries and things like that
44:19
Speaker 7: and moving people around and getting the right pieces into
44:22
Speaker 7: the right place But the one thing the coaches have
44:24
Speaker 7: told me about the offensive line, because that's one of
44:27
Speaker 7: my concerns, and I've said, you know, that's kind of
44:29
Speaker 7: a concern. I asked LaFleur if he's concerned. Well, he's
44:33
Speaker 7: not concerned if they get the right pieces in place
44:36
Speaker 7: by the time they go to Minnesota. Would you like
44:38
Speaker 7: the offensive line together the way it is in Denver
44:41
Speaker 7: and several other places, Detroit or whatever, and Chicago maybe? But, yeah,
44:46
Speaker 7: you'd like that. But what they're hoping to do is
44:49
Speaker 7: make the right decisions, have the right people in the
44:51
Speaker 7: right places. to start the season and then go from.
44:53
Speaker 1: There and hopefully you can validate once again i think
44:56
Speaker 1: jordan morgan's had a phenomenal camp uh very steady as
44:59
Speaker 1: it's gotten later into camp and continue to grow And
45:02
Speaker 1: hopefully that locks itself in. JP mentioned Josh Sweat not
45:07
Speaker 1: going to most likely go here today as he just
45:09
Speaker 1: came off PUP. But against some other pass rushers, you
45:12
Speaker 1: want to see against another jersey, absolutely so.
45:15
Speaker 3: Just how you're able to compete. And also, Wayne, there's something, too.
45:19
Speaker 1: Packers' defense has looked very, very impressive over the last
45:22
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. And I want to see how that
45:24
Speaker 1: translates with a lot more of the looks that we'll
45:27
Speaker 1: see through the 17-game regular season.
45:29
Speaker 7: Absolutely, Bill. That's the one thing I want to see
45:31
Speaker 7: what happens with. I'm more curious about how the Packers'
45:35
Speaker 7: defense handles the Arizona offense. Because you're right, they've been
45:40
Speaker 7: so dominant. The last practice was, what, Tuesday?
45:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.
45:43
Speaker 7: We were here for it Tuesday, and the defense really
45:45
Speaker 7: dominated it. I mean, to a layman like me, you
45:48
Speaker 7: could say, well, boy, that unit is really having its way.
45:51
Speaker 7: And so, you know, you're wondering how good are they really?
45:55
Speaker 7: Is that a product of, hey, they're going to be
45:56
Speaker 7: really good? Or do we have to start worrying about
45:59
Speaker 7: the offense here? Just, you know, as an observer. But
46:03
Speaker 7: this will get an opportunity to see them work against
46:05
Speaker 7: an offense that, quite frankly, has been very productive in
46:08
Speaker 7: preseason games. So, you know, it'll be a nice test
46:12
Speaker 7: to see if they get the pressure and all that.