GREEN BAY, Wis. – After colliding with Josh Jacobs to start training camp on Wednesday and hitting Dontayvion Wicks twice on Friday, did cornerback Nate Hobbs have to tone it down a bit at Green Bay Packers training camp?
Coach Matt LaFleur’s slow and exaggerated nodding of the head said all that needed to be said.
After an off-day on Saturday, the Packers got back to work on Sunday. The fourth practice of training camp was the fourth day of shorts and helmets.
“This is what I told him,” LaFleur said before practice. “I don’t think it’s malicious. I think it’s one of the things and one of the qualities that we really admired about him is how he competes. We talk about competing for the football. We just don’t want to go through a person – whoever that person is – to make a play on the ball. I don’t mind him going through the hands.
“We just don’t want him going through the body, because that’s how you end up with people on the ground. We’d all be sick to our stomach if somebody got hurt.”
Who knows if the message about finding the sweet spot between aggressive and dangerously aggressive resonated. On one of the first plays of the day, it appeared Rashan Gary hit Jayden Reed after the receiver was out of bounds on an end-around.
“That’s football, you know what I’m saying?” Hobbs said after practice. “Things like that’s going to happen. I just feel like it’s the nature of the game and, if you playing it the right way, they’re going to have to tell you slow down. Obviously, you got to be a pro about it. Obviously, you need everybody on the team, but I’m a football player, man. I’m not going to stop being a football player.”
Jordan Love’s Day
The daily emphasis at practice was the red zone. So, Love’s 8-of-13 passing included three touchdown passes.
After starting 2-of-4, Love went play-action and waited for Luke Musgrave to break free on a crossing route. He never saw linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper, who was waiting at middle linebacker for the interception.
The barrage of touchdowns came during the second half of practice. First, Love extended the play a bit before delivering a perfect strike to Jayden Reed at the sideline about 5 yards deep in the end zone. It was an elite throw – one of his best of the summer.
Next, Love had all day in the pocket and bounced on his feet for a bit before firing a scoring strike to rookie Matthew Golden in the back of the end zone.
Finally, practice ended with the offense getting the ball at the defense’s 12-yard line with 9 seconds and no timeouts and facing a six-point deficit. On the first play, Love threw the ball over the head of Romeo Doubs. Next came the play of the day.
Play of the Day: Jordan Love’s Touchdown
With 4 seconds left, Jordan Love got the shotgun snap and had to backpedal as fast as humanly possible because linebacker Isaiah McDuffie was coming free up the middle. If this were a real game, maybe McDuffie would have sacked Love. Regardless, Love muscled a pass to the middle of the end zone to tight end Tucker Kraft, who won a 50-50 ball against Evan Williams for the touchdown.
“I can go up and get the ball,” Kraft said. “I’ve shown that time and time again. It’s just getting the opportunity to showcase that.”
The ball probably traveled 30 yards in the air, an impressive display of arm strength and accuracy by Love.
“I think he’s been looking good,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Love’s mobility before practice. “That’s part of playing that position. I think some guys are a little bit better at the pocket manipulation than others. But I think he’s done a pretty good job.
“I always look at the number of sacks guys take, and he has a good feel in the pocket and understands when he needs to use his legs to try to manipulate the pocket. Or, there’s nowhere to go, ‘Oh, shoot, where’s my checkdown?’ So, I think he’s done over the course of two years a pretty good job of that, whether he’s got his legs or not.”
Player of the Day: Sam Brown
During OTAs, the Packers signed undrafted rookie receiver Sam Brown, who had more catches at Houston than his former and now current teammates, first-round pick Matthew Golden.
On Sunday, Brown closed practice with back-to-back catches. In the aforementioned drill in which the offense started at the 12 with 9 seconds remaining, Sean Clifford went to Brown on back-to-back plays. First, it was a bullet to the left sideline in which Brown got to the 2.
“I thought so, too,” when asked if he thought he had gotten into the end zone. No worries, Brown got into the end zone on the next play. He ran a crossing route from left to right and beat rookie safety Johnathan Baldwin. After the catch, Brown chucked the ball a mile in the air while screaming one of Tom Brady’s favorite lines, which we’ll paraphrase as let’s flipping go.
Brown, of course, is part of the deepest depth chart on the team. Along with the six returning receivers, the Packers drafted Golden and Savion Williams and signed veteran Mecole Hardman. So, for Brown to stick with the team into September, he’ll need to keep making plays.
“Of course, yeah, but pretty much what I’ve been preaching throughout my whole career like, it’s only one ball, so you can’t really harp on me not getting the ball,” he said. “Some routes is just routes to get other people open, so it just so happened today was my day.”
Packers Injury Updates
New injuries: None.
Old injuries: LB Quay Walker (ankle), receiver Christian Watson (knee), linebacker Collin Oliver (hamstring), offensive lineman John Williams (back), center Elgton Jenkins (back) and WR Savion Williams (concussion).
Savion Williams ran some routes with a trainer, so he’s probably close to returning.
Returning from injuries: LG Aaron Banks (back), running back Amar Johnson (hamstring).
Banks did some individual drills but didn’t take any team reps. The return of Johnson, plus the addition of Israel Abanikanda, means the Packers have seven running backs.
Packers Practice Highlights
– With the temperature closing in on 90 by the end of practice, the feels-like temperature hit close to 95. It felt like a practice at Georgia, rookie defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse.
– Malik Heath, who might be the forgotten man in Green Bay’s receiver derby, made a diving catch on a bootleg pass by Malik Willis.
“I’m just doing my job,” Heath said about the receiver competition. “I compete, but I don’t too much worry about (it). I love my brothers and everything, but I don’t too much worry about everything outside of football. So, I just try to get my mind right for football.”
– Jordan Love’s pass to Luke Musgrave in the end zone was incomplete because of excellent coverage by linebacker Isaiah McDuffie. McDuffie also created a pile to thwart a run by Josh Jacobs.
– Near the goal line, MarShawn Lloyd took the handoff and wound up running over defensive tackle Colby Wooden. It was hard to tell if Lloyd got underneath Wooden or if Wooden stumbled over some bodies on the ground.
– Rookie running back Amar Johnson made his training camp debut. An excellent size-speed prospect out of South Dakota State, he took a toss for an explosive gain up the right side.
– Malik Willis threw a short touchdown pass to first-round pick Matthew Golden. During individual drills, Golden worked the route in which he first cut to the outside before abruptly stopping and taking the route over the middle. He worked that technique to perfection on the touchdown. Now, if it was a game, he might have been blasted by linebacker Jamon Johnson.
– Near the goal line, Jordan Love tried to hit Romeo Doubs on an out at the pylon. First-year cornerback Kamal Hadden, however, made a diving deflection.
– Another young defensive back, first-year safety Omar Brown, also made a diving deflection in the end zone.
– For the third consecutive practice, young center Trey Hill was pulled from the lineup after an errant shotgun snap. Donovan Jennings, an undrafted free agent last year who played left tackle in college and has been mostly anchored at left guard, wound up getting a lot of action at center.
Packers Lineup Notes
– Without starting linemen Elgton Jenkins and Aaron Banks again, the Packers went with Rasheed Walker at left tackle, Jordan Morgan at left guard, Jacob Monk at center, Sean Rhyan at right guard and Zach Tom at right tackle as a primary offensive line. Travis Glover also got some first-team snaps at guard and Monk and Rhyan sometimes flip-flopped. Morgan got a little action at left tackle.
– This marks four days in a row in which the No. 1 secondary consisted of Keisean Nixon and Nate Hobbs at corner, Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety and Javon Bullard in the slot. The Packers did work Nixon and Carrington Valentine at corner with Hobbs in the slot.
– Coach Matt LaFleur likes to two-spot his team, with starters and top backups on one side of the field and everyone else on the other side. This creates a fairly decent representation of the competition.
Players on offense: quarterback Jordan Love, running backs Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd and Chris Brooks, tight ends Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave, offensive linemen Rasheed Walker, Jordan Morgan, Sean Rhyan, Jacob Monk, Zach Tom and Travis Glover, and receivers Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Romeo Doubs and Matthew Golden.
On defense: ends Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell and Kingsley Enagbare, tackles Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden, linebackers Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie and Isaiah Simmons, cornerbacks Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine, and safety Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard and Zayne Anderson.
Packers Training Camp Schedule
Training camp starts for real on Monday. After four days of shorts-and-helmets practices, the pads are about to go on. Practices this week are set for 10:30 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday as well as Thursday and Friday before Saturday’s Family Night.
“We’re going to see who’s who,” cornerback Nate Hobbs said.
Quote of the Day
Why will the Packers be better in the NFC North after finishing 1-5 last season? Here’s Xavier McKinney’s response:
“Sh**, we’re locked in, man. I know personally for me, I got one goal on my mind and that’s to win a championship. So, in order to get that done, obviously, you’ve got to win the division, so I think that’s extremely important for me, that’s extremely important for our team as a whole, and I think everybody understands that collectively. We’re just laser-focused right now and, day by day, we’re going to continue to get better, we’re going to continue to do what we need to do on and off the field to be able to put ourselves in a good position to be able to get that job done.”
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