When it comes to deciding playing time or final roster spots on this Green Bay Packers team, nothing will be set in stone following this week. But it’s still a very important week in regards to evaluations with two joint practices and a preseason game on Saturday against the New England Patriots.
“This is going to be a big week for our guys,” said coach Matt LaFleur, “in terms of this just being the most exhausting week of the preseason for these guys.
”We will get two practices versus the Patriots, and we got two more games,” added LaFleur. “I think we got a long way to go yet.”
With the first of those two joint practices with New England having just taken place at Ray Nitschke Field, as always, here are my key observations and takeaways from what I saw:
— There were two new additions to the injury report with De’Vondre Campbell not participating with an ankle injury and Bo Melton out with a hamstring injury. David Bakhtiari did not practice again, but Matt LaFleur said before practice that they hoped to get him on the field on Thursday. Also still out was Caleb Jones, Kenny Clark, Innis Gaines, Corey Ballentine, Tyler Goodson, Lew Nichols, and Tariq Carpenter, along with Luke Tenuta, Eric Stokes, and Tyler Davis. Jaire Alexander was back participating in a portion of team drills.
— I thought today’s performance from Jordan Love encapsulated well what we’ve seen from him overall. He had a few overthrows he’d like to have back. He attacked the flats and middle of the field. He was overall efficient and took care of the ball, going through his progressions, and was also able to generate a big play or two. What’s particularly promising about Love’s performance is that he did it with New England throwing a number of blitzes at him, personnel looks, and late movement from the secondary—all things that I’m sure many defenses will try to confuse Love with.
— Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs were both handfuls for the New England secondary. We really saw this during the two-minute drill, where the offense when from it’s own 20 yard line down to the opponent’s 25-yard line, with only completions to these two.
Watch: Jordan Love hits Christian Watson for long TD pass during practice vs. Patriots
— The Packers edge rushers and interior defensive linemen with both the first and second units were incredibly impressive today. Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe were dealing with collapsing pockets and pressure all day. The entire edge rusher group, including Brenton Cox and Keshawn Banks on the back end, were getting into the backfield, along with, you guessed it, Karl Brooks inside, who made two pressures during a two-minute drill. Brooks has been playing very well for two weeks now.
— There were also few opportunities in the passing game for New England as well against either the first or second units of the Packers defense. Jones and Zappe often had to go through a few different reads before either getting rid of the ball or being under pressure. The cornerback group with the second unit was made up of William Hoooper and Kiondre Thomas on the boundary, along with Shemar Jean-Charles in the slot.
— With Campbell out, Isaiah McDuffie was starting next to Quay Walker and had a good day. On one play, got outside to stop the ball carrier from turning up field. On another, he filled the running lane at the line of scrimmage to make the stop.
— In pass protection, I thought the offensive line held up well. With the starters, it was the usual grouping of Yosh Nijman at left tackle, followed by Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Jon Runyan, and Zach Tom. However, as has been the case in practice, any yards picked up on the ground were hard fought for by Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon.
— Get ready to hear the names Reed and Musgrave and over the middle a lot this year. Attacking that part of the field is a key component to the LaFleur offense, and with the speed both of these players have, it creates mismatches and YAC opportunities. Both were able to generate some big plays against the New England defense.
— We saw a number of different combinations at safety for the Packers, but today, it was Tarvarius Moore’s turn to play next to Darnell Savage. Earlier in the week, LaFleur mentioned how his physicality and willingness to make tackles on both defense and special teams was on display in Cincinnati.
— We saw again why I think Patrick Taylor is the front-runner for the third running back role. During the two-minute drill with the second offense, Taylor had two key blitz pickups, one of which allowed Clifford to complete a downfield pass to Malik Heath.
— Speaking of Malik Heath, it’s getting very difficult to justify keeping him off the final roster. On the play referenced above, he had maybe half a step on the defender, but made a contested catch on a well placed ball by Clifford. It’s also worth noting he got some reps on special teams as a flier. I imagine contributing in that capacity will be important for him, and it’s worth noting that he played just one special teams snaps in Cincinnati. Something to watch for during this week’s preseason game.
— Anders Carlson started the day 5-for-5, making an extra point and then four kicks all between 40 and 50 yards. However, during the two-minute drill, he went 0-for-2. The first team offense set him up for roughly a 40 yard field goal with a few seconds left, but he missed right. Then with the second team offense, the clock was running so the field goal unit had to hurry on to the field, and from roughly 40 yards again, the ball hung up in the wind and missed short and left. I’m still not exactly sure what happened on that one.
— Confirming what we already knew, Daniel Whelan packs a lot of power. I still picked Pat O’Donnell as the punter on my latest roster prediction, but as more time goes by, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Whelan on the team.
— From the Packers starting offense, we saw a lot of pre-snap motion, which is something Green Bay used still fairly frequently last season even though Aaron Rodgers was not a fan of it. However, that usage of it is going to increase this season. We also saw a heavy rotation of the skill position players. In part, this is to make sure everyone gets enough reps, but with the versatility the Packers have at tight end and receiver, there is what feels like a limitless combination of personnel packages they could use.
— Players of the Day: Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Karl Brooks, and JJ Enagbare