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