August 7, 2025 • 33 mins
Mike and Wes give an update on training camp, including WR Christian Watson’s recovery from injury, LB Quay Walker’s start of 11-on-11 work, CB Corey Ballentine’s return to Green Bay, and the standout performances from WR Romeo Doubs and LB Edgerrin Cooper. They also note what they’re watching for in the preseason opener vs. the Jets, and revisit the Hall of Fame voting process.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am like Spofford, joined as always
by my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz, coming to you here
from our studios at Lanmdbellfield. As training camp continues to
roll along, West and I have reached the point in
training camp where I do not know what day of
the week it is anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I said to my buddy this morning, Happy Friday. I
was like, my buddy, Scott, it's his first week back
at the press. Because that I'm like, hey, you made
it through, man, Happy Friday's like it's Thursday. Like, oh crap,
yeah I know.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And I sit here and think, yeah, the Packers first
preseason game is Saturday, Well what day is that supposed
to be? Like, I can't, I can't figure it out anymore.
And I'm having a hard time actually keeping track of
which practices have now occurred since we recorded our last show.
But I'll do the best I can here. One thing
that I know did happen since our last show is
(00:59):
that we heard from wide receiver Christian Watson in the
locker room. Now we've seen Christian Watson out on the
practice field he's his portions of his rehab have been
somewhat public. I guess you might say he's been out
there in front of the fans, running sprints, doing some cuts,
doing the workout things that the athletic trainers are putting
(01:20):
him through in this rehab process from his ACL. But
he did speak with reporters. You were in the group
that talked with him after practice the other day. And
this is a young man. He's gone through it a
lot already with regard to injuries. This is another level
of an injury recovery. But everything that I gathered is
(01:43):
that his attitude is as positive and upbeat as one
could be in his situation.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, and it's been that way since day one. They
were talking. You know, even after the season he has
such a devastating injury where you trying to play in
that regular season finale and trying to help this team
make a run. Here people forget he was already dealing with.
I believe it was that injury to his left knee.
Then he goes out there and suffers the torn right ACL.
First time he's gone through this injury, and there could
(02:10):
have been a big woe is me mindset, especially entering
that contract season, a pivotal contract season for him, and
he didn't allow those thoughts to seep into his brain.
He continued to push forward and immediately worked with the
training staff, got the surgery done once the swelling went down,
and figured out his process for how he was going
to go about the rehab. He actually connected with Stefan Diggs,
who had torn his ACL I believe about two and
(02:32):
a half months earlier, to kind of get some pointers
on what to expect and get some advice on what
he should be doing. He goes down to Florida and
Jaden Reid we're talking with him in the locker room.
He even mentioned too, he's like because of his training,
he ended up crossing pass with Christian pretty early on,
and just his enthusiasm and positive outlook on everything, not
that that wasn't expected, just based on kind of the
(02:54):
person that we know Christian to be, but his ability
to kind of compartmentalize everything that happened in that Bears
game and rechannel it towards trying to get back on
the field as quickly as possible. Personally, I put it
in the story. I think that might be partially a
reason why he's in the position he's in right now.
I mean, nobody's putting a timeline on it. He's still
on the pup list, still could be a candidate to be,
(03:15):
you know, sidelined for the first four games of the
regular season by being on the reserve pup. But all
that being said, I mean, Christian Watson looks terrific in
these workouts. I mean the wind sprints he's doing off
to the side. There's been portions of practice MIC where
I've been more in trance just watching him go forty
yards at a time as some of the action on
(03:35):
the field.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And you do have a story up on packers dot
com for those who want to dive into more of
the details here. One thing he certainly wanted to make
clear is that he still feels he is the fastest
guy on the team right Like, even though he is
not fully through his ACL rehab, He's like, Hey, anybody
wants to take me on in a sprint, bring it on,
because he still is claiming to be the fastest in
(04:00):
the in the forty I assume is kind of what
he's talking.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
About probably any race, to be honest with you, I mean,
based on the way that this guy attacks it. I
mean to do that at six foot four and two
hundred and ten pounds. I mean, we talked about how
this guy is just a physical freak from the day
that he was drafted to Green Bay. There's just aren't
many like him, and it's a big reason why. I mean,
he averaged twenty yards of catch last season in an
offense that really, you know, dispersed the ball to a
(04:24):
lot of different players. So and having him in the
building too, I think has been really critical. I mean
you heard, you know, Matthew Golden talk about and some
of these other guys. I mean, he's a Vet. He's
a young Vet, but he's a Vet nonetheless. And yeah,
I think when when the green clearance finally comes for him, yeah,
the light is sort of put on. I think number
(04:46):
nine is going to have a big impact on this
thing for Green Bank.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I think a forty yard dash between Christian Watson and
Matthew Golden would be like must see television, right, Like
that would be that would really be something. Assuming that
he is going to start the regular season on pup
and then we will see where things are as far
as his timeline of when he can get back. It
does open up, in essence, an extra roster spot for
(05:13):
another receiver in this very crowded receiver competition in order
to make the team. It almost feels like whenever Christian
Watson does come back, it's going to be like this
trading deadline acquisition for the Packers that you know you're
going to be adding a guy like that to the mix,
and uh, and we'll we'll see how the how the
(05:33):
receiver group you know, shapes up at that time. But uh,
it's it'll be it'll be an incredible boost, I think
to this offense to uh to get him back and
everyone will be excited for that. Elsewhere on the injury front,
Kay Walker, who spent really a good portion of the
(05:54):
offseason in in a walking boot because of a cleanup
procedure he had done on his ankle in the offseason,
we have seen him slowly work his way back and
he is now in the defense in the eleven on
eleven in the team reps, lining up alongside Eddrin Cooper,
(06:14):
alongside Isaiah McDuffie sometimes Isaiah Simmons. Walker is Walker is
in that mix, and this Packers defense is starting to
look like what we're going to see come week one
in terms of the personnel.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, and just this overall speed of it at that
second level, it's unmatched. There's no other time in which
I can remember the Packers having this much speed with
natural linebackers at that position. It was really insightful listening
to Quay this week. He talked for the with the media.
I believe that was on Tuesday for about five minutes.
And now this whole offseason surgery was an extension of
that ankle injury that he just could not catch a
(06:50):
break with it. Just he kept rolling it and he
has a high ankle sprain. They thought he'd be able
to get through it. He comes back out there for
the Philly game. He gets through the game, leads the
team in tackles, but actually did roll it again. He
actually went into the off season thinking, Okay, well rest
will help this thing. We'll be fine. He gets back
for organized team activities for the off season program, he
starts working out on it doesn't feel right. They decide,
(07:12):
kind of like the Nate Hobbs thing, which I'm sure
you know we'll get into as well. With you're looking
at the whole bandwidth of these injuries for Green Bay,
it's let's get this thing taken care of. Let's get
back out there for Week one. Quay said he has
no doubts whether or not he'll be available again. They've
been very very, you know, pragmatic with how they've integrated
him back into the defense. It was individuals for a
(07:33):
first week, and then it was kind of getting him
lightly working in some of the walkthrough stuff, and now
we're seeing him probably fifty percent in the team periods.
Now you obviously finish the game situation stuff on Thursday
or on Wednesday, excuse me. So this is this is
the commander, this is the general that defense. They positioned
him to be in that role and certainly now he's
poised to fill it.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And you mentioned Nate Hobbs. He's going to be out
a while. He spoke to reporters as well, described he
had to have a surgery done excuse me, on his knee.
He doesn't seem to have any doubts that he'll be
ready for Week one as well, But it doesn't sound
like we're going to be seeing him back on the
practice field anytime soon. I mean, one thing that has
done with Hobbs now sidelined is Carrington Valentine has sort
(08:18):
of been elevated from I guess you'd say, from a
part time guy with the number one defense to now
he's a full time guy with the number one defense
with Hobbs being out. But then other guys at cornerback
have you know, sort of moved around the depth chart,
you know, getting their reps with the twos and then
lo and behold a familiar faces back in Corey Ballantine.
(08:41):
Now we have to get into the whole Valentine Ballantine
and keeping all that straight. Again. I knew you would
I knew you would like that. But Corey Ballantine, tyme, yeah,
just Valentine, all right. Corey Balance just spent the last
three seasons with THES was a free agent. At the
(09:02):
end of twenty twenty four, he signed a free agent
contract with the Indianapolis Colts. Was not like a big
money deal or anything, but he did get a chunk
of money guaranteed. But things didn't work out for him
in Indy. He didn't really get into that. I was
part of the group that was speaking with him in
the locker room the other day. Didn't really get into
(09:22):
why it didn't work out in India. And you never
really know exactly with these things anyway, but the Colts
decided to release him in a fairly early stage of
training camp and the combination of Nate Hobbs injury, Kamal Hadden,
who's another young cornerback who's trying to find a place
(09:43):
on the depth chart here in Green Bay, he is
injured and currently out, And as we've talked about, behind
the main guys at cornerback, the Packers have a whole
bunch of young guys that haven't been there and done that.
A lot of talent, but a lot of unproven guys.
So when Corey Ballentine is out there and available, and
he knows the system and he's been here and he's
(10:05):
been a big part of special teams and everything in
the past, it just made all the sense in the
world for Green Bay to go and get him. Not
only that, he's very happy to be back and he's
excited to take another shot at making this roster.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And not enough kids talked about The Packers lost four
cornerbacks in free agency, well three, and then they cut
Gay Air right so they've had a pretty big shift
in the cornerback room here. The Balantine thing is just
funny to me, because it's almost kind of like the
Batman and Joker thing. They're just the Packers and Corey
are just destined for each other. All roads eventually lead
back to them being together. I don't know the situation
(10:39):
in Indianapolis. I did do a lot of reading in
the last few days, though, from what I gathered from
the Beat reports down there, it sounded like it's just
kind of the Colts might have just sort of overstocked
the cupboard a little bit. They have basically two of
their first and second team are pretty much set on
what they were using, so it was kind of hard
for him to get into that second unit. So if
you're a veteran player six years in the Colts, don't
(11:01):
know if he's necessarily gonna have a role for you.
I mean, sometimes this is the best way to go
about doing it, because then you land in Green Bay,
which in addition to losing Nate Hobbs, so there's practice
reps to be had there. This is a guy with
scheme familiarity. And some people had asked me too, well,
if the Packers wanted balentein back, why did they just
bring him back. Well, that's not always how it works.
I mean, look at what happened with Christian Welch last year.
The Packers would have liked to have had him back
(11:22):
on the practice squad. It didn't work out. He ends
up in Denver, he ends up on the fifty three
man roster of the Ravens, and then the season ends
and now there's an opportunity to reunite. So what I
love most about this cornerback room though, when you made
the point about Carrington Valentine, how much is his story
right now mirroring Sam Shields. Now, Sam was an undrafted
(11:43):
guy and he was a converted receiver. But this is
the same process Sam went through. Was thrown into the
fire right away, and then it took a little bit
of time from defined an established starting role. And Carrington
has been game for all of it. He's kept a
seventh rounders mindset while playing at a much higher level
than that, where, yeah, when he does get put in there,
he competes. And I've seen enough from him now to
(12:06):
know to really truly believe that this guy can be
a starter in this league. But it's just how the
dominoes are gonna fall, and you need to have depth
in order to be able to weather injuries, and as
we're seeing with this Hobbs situation here early in camp,
this is another example of why you build the roster
the way you do.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, and when you look back just two years ago
to twenty twenty three, the whole Valentine Ballantine combination, those
guys kind of, you know, save Green Bay's bacon. Yeah,
in a lot of respects, because there were injuries all
over the cornerback position. The defense was kind of scrambling
to figure out what to do. And then it's like, okay,
here's a veteran special teams guy in Ballantine. Will put
(12:44):
him in and then you have at that time a
rookie seventh round pick in Valentine. Put him in there
and see what he can do. And they both, I
mean to their credit, and it's also helped both of
their careers moving forward. Those guys both performed really really well,
especially considering the circumstances that they were put in. So
(13:06):
now both of those guys a couple of years older,
they're in different places in their careers, and you know,
we may be seeing them in some respects on the
field together again. A couple of guys that I know,
we talked about them already, but just have to say
that I don't know how you feel. I feel like
(13:27):
every day when we walk out there to the practice
field to watch the action, and we spend most of
our time concentrating on the eleven on eleven and the
one on one reps that are going on. But there's
two guys. There's two guys that just are impossible not
to notice on the practice field every day, and to me,
it's Romeo Dobs and Edger and Cooper, one on each
(13:48):
side of the ball. I don't know if I've ever
gotten this far into a training camp where that answer,
in some respects has been so easy.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You know he's got Dobbs on offense and Cooper on defense.
They're just a presence on the practice field every single day,
and I think it bodes well for the seasons individually
that those two guys are headed for.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Outside of obviously Aaron Rodgers, I would say that it's
Dobbs one A in Jordan Nelson one B for the
best practice players I've ever watched in my time. You've
had a few more seasons on me, but in my
time covering the team in fourteen years. When you talk
about training camp, practices, offseason practices, Jordan Nelson and Randall
and Romeo Dobbs. Like those two guys, I think whether
(14:33):
it's the mentality, the skill set, the hands, what have you. Yeah,
they bring a certain level of tempo and professionalism each
day that they're on the practice field, and Dobbs does
it much like Jordi did in such a seamless fashion.
We talk about the National Football League is such a
difficult game, and it is, but it's the guys that
make it look simple, that really are the awe inspiring
(14:55):
you performers that make this league what it is, and
Dobbs fits in that category. Edrian Cooper is a prodigy.
I mean, there's no other way to say. This guy
can rush the passer, he can cover. You're seeing a
batdown passes. How many passes he break up this week
so far? Three or four in practice team in team drills,
(15:17):
we've seen him blow up TFLs and run plays in
the backfield.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I mean, the one thing we have seen, the one
thing we have seen I think maybe more than anything
with him on a daily basis is if if the
offense wants to run the ball to the outside, you
have to make sure that somebody is blocking fifty six
because if he's got any kind of a seam, any
kind of a gap on an outside run, he is
shooting it and the running back does not have a chance.
(15:43):
And he's a difficult guy to block because it's hard
to get an angle on him because of it, because
of his speed and because of his anticipation. But it
is almost impossible to execute an effective outside run if
you don't get had on number fifty six.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He is everywhere. That was my tweet during practice. This
guy has been everywhere. Yeah, and you think about it too,
because there's still a lot for him to learn, and
he admitted it. He's like he wants it all, like
he sees it all out there for himself, but he
knows there's still ways to go here on the command
of the defense, knowing his assignments, the consistency down in
(16:22):
and down out. But there's a reason why he flashed
as brightly as he did last year. It's because he
is a legitimate playmaker. Yeah, And when you're drafting guys
in this league, at the end of the day, that's
what you're looking for. You're looking for the dude that
is the one percent of the one percent. And I
truly see it, man, I've seen it since when you
went back and watched his I'm no scout. I'm not
(16:42):
gonna act like I'm a scout, but you go back
and watch his college film. There just was something different
about him. It wasn't that he just was getting some
sacks or some TFLs or he was coming on block. No,
this guy was making plays, and through one year and
what four months in the Packers' uniform, he just can
continues to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, we heard when he was drafted that his speed
was different, and that has certainly proven to be true.
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available at Menard's. Welcome Back to Packers. Unscripted WES Saturday
Night at lambeau Field will be the pre he sees
an opener. It's against the New York Jets. A lot
of questions in the media swirling around about are their
(18:06):
starters gonna play or how much or are they not?
And I don't even want to get into it because
we don't know. Matt Lafleur is not tipping his hand here.
He's basically just told all those guys to be ready,
be ready to play, and then the coaching staff is
going to make a decision. So I don't even want
to get into that part of it. But what I
do want to ask you is first preseason game, what
are you looking for?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Well, first and foremost, Kenny Clark sure sounds like he
thinks he's playing. Like I mean, if Matt Lafleuur is
selling this and then gonna tell the guys are it's
I think the guys are buying into this, the notion
that they might be out there on Saturday night. Listen
what I love the most about the preseason? And and
you know me, You've had to read all my copy
here the last ten years. I'm the biggest proponent of
the preseason. I love it. I'm not driven by the
(18:49):
almighty dollar. I think like a lot of this capitalistic,
you know sort of leagues can be in the professional
sense and now even somewhat in the amateur sense. This
is where guys get opportunities, and you can't have a
caringon Valentine. We can't talk about that if you don't
initially give them those reps as their rookie in first years,
and seeing a guy like Omar Brown, even in a
stage like family Night, you know, kind of ball out
(19:11):
and try to make his case for a roster. How
many times over the years, Mike, have you and I
been sitting ore at these things? And yeah, we cover
the first drive of the number one offense and defense,
and then it's the second or third team or that
shines the rest of the afternoon. I love preseasons my
favorite time of the year because I think the thing
that's cool as a writer, I don't know fans can
(19:31):
relate to this, but we get to see these guys
for ten, eleven, twelve practices, and now we get to
see him against another team. We get to see him
finishing tackles. You get to see the actual what this
is all built up to, and who rises to that
challenge and who doesn't, who separates themselves and who falls behind.
The stakes are so high and they've never gotten there
(19:52):
never been higher now because of the reduction in the
amount of preseason games. So I'm looking forward to seeing
some of these young running backs that are going to
get tons of opportunities. With Emmanuel Wilson and Marshawn Lloyd
both banged up right now, I think we're gonna see
the secondary. You know what safeties stand out with a
position where I don't even know how much of a
drop off there is, you know, from where we're looking
(20:14):
at with the Evan Williams to the Zane Anderson's. I mean,
there's just there's such a small margin for error there.
And then also just overall how the efficiency is of everything.
Preseason's awesome, and I think it's gonna be fun to
have this thing at Lambellfield and seeing how fans respond
to it.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I think there are a lot of things certainly to
watch on Saturday night. If I were to narrow it
down for myself, I'm narrowing it down to the first
round draft picks from the last two years. I'm gonna
have eyes on more than anything because we're going to
see presumably we're going to see Matthew Golden in game
action in a Packers' uniform for the first time, and
I think that will be a treat in and of itself.
(20:53):
And then Jordan Morgan, last year's first round pick. He's
been taking all of the number one reps at left
tackle as Rashid Walker is working his way back from
a groin injury. And Walker was back in practice on Wednesday,
but only in individual drills. He was not back into
eleven on eleven yet. So the fact that I mean, now,
there's still time before Saturday, but I don't know at
(21:14):
this point if they would put Rashid Walker into a
preseason game. So if Jordan Morgan is the starting left
tackle on Saturday night and gets his share of the
reps there, that will definitely be worth watching because you
have to remember, even though this guy was a full
time left tackle in college, multiple year starter and all
that at Arizona. He did not really play tackle as
(21:38):
a rookie when he came in last year. He was
put at right guard to compete with Sean Ryan, and
he was in a rotation with Ryan getting game action
at right guard until his shoulder injury caused enough trouble
that they decided, you know, needed an operation and then
and shut him down for his rookie year. So he
hasn't played left tackle. He hasn't played offensive tackle in
(22:01):
a game in the NFL yet since arriving as a
first strong pick. So those are the two I guess
I would say the two guys that I will be
having my eyes on more than any others.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Excellent choices, especially when you're looking at the twenty twenty
four draft class, because there's still so much we've yet
to learn about that group as a whole. I will
mention another name from it, though, that I'm excited to
watch is Tyron Hopper, because Hopper is a guy third
round pick last year. I've been a big fan of
him since the beginning. He's a tackling machine. If you've
been watching him in these practices, he's been kind of
that number two MIC linebacker throughout camp. I think he's
(22:34):
going to play a lot in these games. I would imagine,
you know, again, we'll see whether not Qua goes. I
would imagine then it's probably Isaiah McDuffie's gonna be wearing
the communication headset. But after that, I would imagine you're
going to see a lot of Hopper in these games.
And he's the type of dude. If you remember last
year in Denver, he basically didn't practice a whole lot.
He was kind of getting his feet underneath him, and
then he has eleven tackles. That was like the one
(22:55):
highlight of that game against the Broncos was just all
all over the place. He was Packers. I was talking
about all this depth they have inside linebacker encapsulates that
and and Hopper is a guy too that I think.
I think it's gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, Hopper is a great one to point out. We
saw him have a really, really good preseason game last
year as a rookie, and it's funny when I watch him,
my mind always goes back to what I like to say,
is an old friend of mine who used to work here,
which was before you arrived. And of course I'm talking
about Vic Ketchman. He always used to talk about linebackers
as one of two types. They're either chasers or their thumpers.
(23:29):
Tyron Hoppers a thumper.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Thumper.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
He is a thumper and and that's that makes him
worth watching at any time he's on the pH Oh.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
My goodness, when we did the live tackling drills, just
seeing him attack guys. Yeah, you know, I mean, this
is a guy that is when when that the red
is in his eyes when he sees the ballcarrier, for sure,
And yeah, he definitely sets a tone.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
All right, One last thing, do you want to get
back into this whole Hall of Fames?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
We can.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I'm gonna. I'm gonna lay it out here as quickly
as it can, please do so. Okay, you have two
different ways, essentially to get into the Hall of Fame.
There's the modern era voting process, which are the players
who have been retired for five years but retired for
less than twenty five years who there's an entire voting
process that it whittles down to finalists and then they
get and then the finalists get their cases presented, and
(24:19):
then everybody on the Hall of Fame Selection Committee gives
an up or down vote, and if they get eighty
percent of the vote, they get in. Other ways, there's
the Senior Committee, which is guys who have been retired
for longer than twenty five years whose cases are being revisited.
You also have a coach category and contributor category. Now
those have been combined in the past coach and contributor
(24:41):
that now they've become separate categories. But what used to
happen is the Senior Committee nominees, the coach nominees and
the contributor nominees who made it all the way to
the finalist stage, they would simply after they go through
this whole process and you get to the finalist stage,
they would then have their cases presented in front of
(25:03):
the committee for an upper down vote, and if they
got eighty percent, they got in. If they didn't, they didn't.
But most of the time, because the quality, I guess,
the selections are so narrow, it narrows down so quickly,
most of the time somebody who made it all the
way to the finalist stage as a coach, as a contributor,
or as a senior finalist would get in. What they
(25:27):
did this year is they put forward three senior finalists,
one coach, one contributor. The one coach was Mike Holmgren.
One of the three senior finalists was Sterling Sharp obviously,
but what they decided to do instead of having all
of their cases presented individually for an upper down vote
in front of the committee, is they said, Okay, here
(25:47):
are these five guys coach, contributor and senior finalists, and
the committee can only vote for three of the five,
and then, based on voting for three out of the five,
if any individual still had to get eighty beyond eighty
percent of the ballots in order to get in, extremely
(26:09):
difficult threshold, much much harder than it was in the
past for the folks in these categories. Sterling Sharp was
the only one of the survival of the five to
survive that voting stringency, I guess, I would say, And
so out of those five the coach, contributor and three
(26:30):
senior finals, Sterling Sharp was the only one to get
in this year because of the new voting process. Extremely
disappointing for Mike Holmgren. I think extremely unfair to those
who are now in those categories and now facing a
completely different voting process in terms of who gets in
it and who doesn't. But with that explanation as the
entire background, I'll hand it back off to you.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
The Blue Ribbon Committee put forward their semi finals, their
nine semi finals for head coach, can you know candidate
for the Fame last October. We just did the actual enshrinement.
So it shows you how long this process goes to
select Mike Holmgrin for that to actually have all these
(27:13):
people push him forward for this honor. Again, just one,
not three, just one coach. I thought it was a
slap in the face of the Blue Ribbon Committee, to
be honest with you, I thought it was a slap
in the face to everybody who's had to watch the
Pro Football Hall of Fame continue to, in a lack
of a better terms, Jerry mander, the way that they're
doing this voting.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, it's a good word too. Actually, the way this
is going now every.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Year it changes. And again I've raised this several times.
I have a huge problem with how they went about
the centennial slate. I felt like they use it as
an opportunity to shoehorn in a lot of people from
the more modern era, when the initial reason behind it
was the pre Hall of Fame era, right.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And I actually and I actually looked that up. There
were it was a group of ten senior inductees as
part of the Centennial class in twenty twenty, and out
of those ten, only four of them had completed their
careers in the pre Super Bowl era. That's not what
that was supposed to be about. And I mean, hats
(28:17):
off to Bobby Dylan, Green Bay Packer. He got it.
He got in that way, but he was one of
the only four. When the thought was that that centennial
class was supposed to really take a closer look at
the guys from you know, the first fifty years of
the NFL before you got into the Super Bowl era.
But that didn't happen. So you have the vern Llewellens
(28:40):
of the world and whatnot are still out there and
probably never going to get in.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Now here's the point I was going to make. It
was an up or down vote the twenty centennial class.
Either they all got in or nobody got in. We
did that for the centennial slate. Why aren't you doing
that for the contributed coach? Yeah, when we've already been
to this point already, what do the contributors and coaches
if they've gotten to this point. If if they've gone
through all these different hurdles and obstacles, what's the rationale
(29:07):
then for looping them in with the modern era? What's
the rationale for trying to hold them out when they've
already pushed through? And also keep in mind, it took
forever to have contributors coaches, they were Prior to that,
it was all one big pile. Yeah, so now if
we're trying to catch up, if we're trying to right
some wrongs here, why are we doing it like this?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah? I agree, it is what it is, and I
think it's and what I think, And I laid this
out in a story that I posted earlier this week,
and looking at the Bears have thirty two Hall of Famers,
the Packers have twenty nine. The franchises with the two
most and you know, how are the Packers potentially going
to catch up at some point? I you know what's
(29:50):
really unfortunate for Mike Holmgren is that I don't think
his chances are very good of getting pushed forward again
to get another shot at this, because very soon Bill
Belichick is going to be in the mix for coach.
And of course if you're only going to put forward
one coach, and Bill Belichick is eligible, how can he
not be? The guys?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Can they change that role now too? So that's only
one year, Okay, it's not five years or four years anymore.
Whatever it is for coach, Bill Belichick can go in
the Hall of Fame, I believe next year.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
So he's so he's going to be He's going to
be in the mix very soon. And then you have
a couple of two time Super Bowl winning coaches. I
don't want to get into their you know, the their
candidacies at the moment, but just the fact that they're
a pair of two time Super Bowl winning coaches and
Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin who are also waiting, and
Holmgren was put forward in front of them this year.
(30:40):
But with Holmgren not getting in, you can see that
committee is going to potentially go another direction and see
if they can get somebody else in. It's it's it's
extremely unfortunate for Holmgren. I think, I mean, I think
a guy who takes two different franchises to Super Bowls,
whether or not he wins those super Bowls. He did
win one, but and even as We've talked about Bill
(31:03):
Cowers in the Hall of Fame as a coach. You
look at the credentials. If Bill Cowers in the Hall
of Fame, Mike Holmgren should be in the Hall of Fame.
And to Bill Cower's credit, he has gone on the
record saying, if I am in the Hall of Fame,
Mike Holmgren should be in the Hall of Fame. Yeah,
and I just I think it's extremely unfortunate. But I
know we're running out of time. We got a press
conference to get to.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I got to close on this. A lot of the
AP vote, a lot of the Hall of Fame voters also,
some of whom are involved at the AP process. Kevin
Stefanski has been twice put forward as the NFL Coach
of the Year during his tenure because of the ineptitude,
for a lack of a better term, of the Browns
over the last you know, since they were brought back
in the league. The amount of disrespect that and this
(31:41):
this is my big issue with the Leroy Butler Canna
to see a number of years ago, the mount of
disrespect for the ninety six Super Bowl team that the
Packers had in that era of Packers football is mind
boggling because they were the Cleveland Browns at that time.
They'd gone twenty nine years between championships, however, many years
between true play off appearances. Mike Holmgren was the face
(32:03):
of that. Leroy Butler was a face that Brett Favre
was the face of that. Reggie White was a face
at the fact that it's been so hard to get
them in. There has just been If the Browns would
win a Super Bowl this year, they might build as
a statue of Kevin Stefanski in these I mean, like
it just it's wild to me the way that this
has been treated, in how it's been going. It is
(32:26):
what it is. I if I understand this right, team
media personnel now are eligible to be among the Hall
of Fame voters. Pete Doherty handles it for the Packers
now down the road. Not that they'd have me, but
I'd gladly throw my hat into the ring.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I'll put in a good word for you.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
With that.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
We do have to call it a wrap on this
edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow continue to
follow all of our coverage of training camp on Packers
dot Com and everything with Saturday night's preseason opener here
at Lambellfield against the Jets. We'll have it for you
on packers dot com for Wests, I'm Mike. Thank you
for tuning in, everybody you will STI
Hi, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am like Spofford, joined as always
by my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz, coming to you here
from our studios at Lanmdbellfield. As training camp continues to
roll along, West and I have reached the point in
training camp where I do not know what day of
the week it is anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I said to my buddy this morning, Happy Friday. I
was like, my buddy, Scott, it's his first week back
at the press. Because that I'm like, hey, you made
it through, man, Happy Friday's like it's Thursday. Like, oh crap,
yeah I know.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And I sit here and think, yeah, the Packers first
preseason game is Saturday, Well what day is that supposed
to be? Like, I can't, I can't figure it out anymore.
And I'm having a hard time actually keeping track of
which practices have now occurred since we recorded our last show.
But I'll do the best I can here. One thing
that I know did happen since our last show is
(00:59):
that we heard from wide receiver Christian Watson in the
locker room. Now we've seen Christian Watson out on the
practice field he's his portions of his rehab have been
somewhat public. I guess you might say he's been out
there in front of the fans, running sprints, doing some cuts,
doing the workout things that the athletic trainers are putting
(01:20):
him through in this rehab process from his ACL. But
he did speak with reporters. You were in the group
that talked with him after practice the other day. And
this is a young man. He's gone through it a
lot already with regard to injuries. This is another level
of an injury recovery. But everything that I gathered is
(01:43):
that his attitude is as positive and upbeat as one
could be in his situation.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, and it's been that way since day one. They
were talking. You know, even after the season he has
such a devastating injury where you trying to play in
that regular season finale and trying to help this team
make a run. Here people forget he was already dealing with.
I believe it was that injury to his left knee.
Then he goes out there and suffers the torn right ACL.
First time he's gone through this injury, and there could
(02:10):
have been a big woe is me mindset, especially entering
that contract season, a pivotal contract season for him, and
he didn't allow those thoughts to seep into his brain.
He continued to push forward and immediately worked with the
training staff, got the surgery done once the swelling went down,
and figured out his process for how he was going
to go about the rehab. He actually connected with Stefan Diggs,
who had torn his ACL I believe about two and
(02:32):
a half months earlier, to kind of get some pointers
on what to expect and get some advice on what
he should be doing. He goes down to Florida and
Jaden Reid we're talking with him in the locker room.
He even mentioned too, he's like because of his training,
he ended up crossing pass with Christian pretty early on,
and just his enthusiasm and positive outlook on everything, not
that that wasn't expected, just based on kind of the
(02:54):
person that we know Christian to be, but his ability
to kind of compartmentalize everything that happened in that Bears
game and rechannel it towards trying to get back on
the field as quickly as possible. Personally, I put it
in the story. I think that might be partially a
reason why he's in the position he's in right now.
I mean, nobody's putting a timeline on it. He's still
on the pup list, still could be a candidate to be,
(03:15):
you know, sidelined for the first four games of the
regular season by being on the reserve pup. But all
that being said, I mean, Christian Watson looks terrific in
these workouts. I mean the wind sprints he's doing off
to the side. There's been portions of practice MIC where
I've been more in trance just watching him go forty
yards at a time as some of the action on
(03:35):
the field.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And you do have a story up on packers dot
com for those who want to dive into more of
the details here. One thing he certainly wanted to make
clear is that he still feels he is the fastest
guy on the team right Like, even though he is
not fully through his ACL rehab, He's like, Hey, anybody
wants to take me on in a sprint, bring it on,
because he still is claiming to be the fastest in
(04:00):
the in the forty I assume is kind of what
he's talking.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
About probably any race, to be honest with you, I mean,
based on the way that this guy attacks it. I
mean to do that at six foot four and two
hundred and ten pounds. I mean, we talked about how
this guy is just a physical freak from the day
that he was drafted to Green Bay. There's just aren't
many like him, and it's a big reason why. I mean,
he averaged twenty yards of catch last season in an
offense that really, you know, dispersed the ball to a
(04:24):
lot of different players. So and having him in the
building too, I think has been really critical. I mean
you heard, you know, Matthew Golden talk about and some
of these other guys. I mean, he's a Vet. He's
a young Vet, but he's a Vet nonetheless. And yeah,
I think when when the green clearance finally comes for him, yeah,
the light is sort of put on. I think number
(04:46):
nine is going to have a big impact on this
thing for Green Bank.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I think a forty yard dash between Christian Watson and
Matthew Golden would be like must see television, right, Like
that would be that would really be something. Assuming that
he is going to start the regular season on pup
and then we will see where things are as far
as his timeline of when he can get back. It
does open up, in essence, an extra roster spot for
(05:13):
another receiver in this very crowded receiver competition in order
to make the team. It almost feels like whenever Christian
Watson does come back, it's going to be like this
trading deadline acquisition for the Packers that you know you're
going to be adding a guy like that to the mix,
and uh, and we'll we'll see how the how the
(05:33):
receiver group you know, shapes up at that time. But uh,
it's it'll be it'll be an incredible boost, I think
to this offense to uh to get him back and
everyone will be excited for that. Elsewhere on the injury front,
Kay Walker, who spent really a good portion of the
(05:54):
offseason in in a walking boot because of a cleanup
procedure he had done on his ankle in the offseason,
we have seen him slowly work his way back and
he is now in the defense in the eleven on
eleven in the team reps, lining up alongside Eddrin Cooper,
(06:14):
alongside Isaiah McDuffie sometimes Isaiah Simmons. Walker is Walker is
in that mix, and this Packers defense is starting to
look like what we're going to see come week one
in terms of the personnel.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, and just this overall speed of it at that
second level, it's unmatched. There's no other time in which
I can remember the Packers having this much speed with
natural linebackers at that position. It was really insightful listening
to Quay this week. He talked for the with the media.
I believe that was on Tuesday for about five minutes.
And now this whole offseason surgery was an extension of
that ankle injury that he just could not catch a
(06:50):
break with it. Just he kept rolling it and he
has a high ankle sprain. They thought he'd be able
to get through it. He comes back out there for
the Philly game. He gets through the game, leads the
team in tackles, but actually did roll it again. He
actually went into the off season thinking, Okay, well rest
will help this thing. We'll be fine. He gets back
for organized team activities for the off season program, he
starts working out on it doesn't feel right. They decide,
(07:12):
kind of like the Nate Hobbs thing, which I'm sure
you know we'll get into as well. With you're looking
at the whole bandwidth of these injuries for Green Bay,
it's let's get this thing taken care of. Let's get
back out there for Week one. Quay said he has
no doubts whether or not he'll be available again. They've
been very very, you know, pragmatic with how they've integrated
him back into the defense. It was individuals for a
(07:33):
first week, and then it was kind of getting him
lightly working in some of the walkthrough stuff, and now
we're seeing him probably fifty percent in the team periods.
Now you obviously finish the game situation stuff on Thursday
or on Wednesday, excuse me. So this is this is
the commander, this is the general that defense. They positioned
him to be in that role and certainly now he's
poised to fill it.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And you mentioned Nate Hobbs. He's going to be out
a while. He spoke to reporters as well, described he
had to have a surgery done excuse me, on his knee.
He doesn't seem to have any doubts that he'll be
ready for Week one as well, But it doesn't sound
like we're going to be seeing him back on the
practice field anytime soon. I mean, one thing that has
done with Hobbs now sidelined is Carrington Valentine has sort
(08:18):
of been elevated from I guess you'd say, from a
part time guy with the number one defense to now
he's a full time guy with the number one defense
with Hobbs being out. But then other guys at cornerback
have you know, sort of moved around the depth chart,
you know, getting their reps with the twos and then
lo and behold a familiar faces back in Corey Ballantine.
(08:41):
Now we have to get into the whole Valentine Ballantine
and keeping all that straight. Again. I knew you would
I knew you would like that. But Corey Ballantine, tyme, yeah,
just Valentine, all right. Corey Balance just spent the last
three seasons with THES was a free agent. At the
(09:02):
end of twenty twenty four, he signed a free agent
contract with the Indianapolis Colts. Was not like a big
money deal or anything, but he did get a chunk
of money guaranteed. But things didn't work out for him
in Indy. He didn't really get into that. I was
part of the group that was speaking with him in
the locker room the other day. Didn't really get into
(09:22):
why it didn't work out in India. And you never
really know exactly with these things anyway, but the Colts
decided to release him in a fairly early stage of
training camp and the combination of Nate Hobbs injury, Kamal Hadden,
who's another young cornerback who's trying to find a place
(09:43):
on the depth chart here in Green Bay, he is
injured and currently out, And as we've talked about, behind
the main guys at cornerback, the Packers have a whole
bunch of young guys that haven't been there and done that.
A lot of talent, but a lot of unproven guys.
So when Corey Ballentine is out there and available, and
he knows the system and he's been here and he's
(10:05):
been a big part of special teams and everything in
the past, it just made all the sense in the
world for Green Bay to go and get him. Not
only that, he's very happy to be back and he's
excited to take another shot at making this roster.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And not enough kids talked about The Packers lost four
cornerbacks in free agency, well three, and then they cut
Gay Air right so they've had a pretty big shift
in the cornerback room here. The Balantine thing is just
funny to me, because it's almost kind of like the
Batman and Joker thing. They're just the Packers and Corey
are just destined for each other. All roads eventually lead
back to them being together. I don't know the situation
(10:39):
in Indianapolis. I did do a lot of reading in
the last few days, though, from what I gathered from
the Beat reports down there, it sounded like it's just
kind of the Colts might have just sort of overstocked
the cupboard a little bit. They have basically two of
their first and second team are pretty much set on
what they were using, so it was kind of hard
for him to get into that second unit. So if
you're a veteran player six years in the Colts, don't
(11:01):
know if he's necessarily gonna have a role for you.
I mean, sometimes this is the best way to go
about doing it, because then you land in Green Bay,
which in addition to losing Nate Hobbs, so there's practice
reps to be had there. This is a guy with
scheme familiarity. And some people had asked me too, well,
if the Packers wanted balentein back, why did they just
bring him back. Well, that's not always how it works.
I mean, look at what happened with Christian Welch last year.
The Packers would have liked to have had him back
(11:22):
on the practice squad. It didn't work out. He ends
up in Denver, he ends up on the fifty three
man roster of the Ravens, and then the season ends
and now there's an opportunity to reunite. So what I
love most about this cornerback room though, when you made
the point about Carrington Valentine, how much is his story
right now mirroring Sam Shields. Now, Sam was an undrafted
(11:43):
guy and he was a converted receiver. But this is
the same process Sam went through. Was thrown into the
fire right away, and then it took a little bit
of time from defined an established starting role. And Carrington
has been game for all of it. He's kept a
seventh rounders mindset while playing at a much higher level
than that, where, yeah, when he does get put in there,
he competes. And I've seen enough from him now to
(12:06):
know to really truly believe that this guy can be
a starter in this league. But it's just how the
dominoes are gonna fall, and you need to have depth
in order to be able to weather injuries, and as
we're seeing with this Hobbs situation here early in camp,
this is another example of why you build the roster
the way you do.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, and when you look back just two years ago
to twenty twenty three, the whole Valentine Ballantine combination, those
guys kind of, you know, save Green Bay's bacon. Yeah,
in a lot of respects, because there were injuries all
over the cornerback position. The defense was kind of scrambling
to figure out what to do. And then it's like, okay,
here's a veteran special teams guy in Ballantine. Will put
(12:44):
him in and then you have at that time a
rookie seventh round pick in Valentine. Put him in there
and see what he can do. And they both, I
mean to their credit, and it's also helped both of
their careers moving forward. Those guys both performed really really well,
especially considering the circumstances that they were put in. So
(13:06):
now both of those guys a couple of years older,
they're in different places in their careers, and you know,
we may be seeing them in some respects on the
field together again. A couple of guys that I know,
we talked about them already, but just have to say
that I don't know how you feel. I feel like
(13:27):
every day when we walk out there to the practice
field to watch the action, and we spend most of
our time concentrating on the eleven on eleven and the
one on one reps that are going on. But there's
two guys. There's two guys that just are impossible not
to notice on the practice field every day, and to me,
it's Romeo Dobs and Edger and Cooper, one on each
(13:48):
side of the ball. I don't know if I've ever
gotten this far into a training camp where that answer,
in some respects has been so easy.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You know he's got Dobbs on offense and Cooper on defense.
They're just a presence on the practice field every single day,
and I think it bodes well for the seasons individually
that those two guys are headed for.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Outside of obviously Aaron Rodgers, I would say that it's
Dobbs one A in Jordan Nelson one B for the
best practice players I've ever watched in my time. You've
had a few more seasons on me, but in my
time covering the team in fourteen years. When you talk
about training camp, practices, offseason practices, Jordan Nelson and Randall
and Romeo Dobbs. Like those two guys, I think whether
(14:33):
it's the mentality, the skill set, the hands, what have you. Yeah,
they bring a certain level of tempo and professionalism each
day that they're on the practice field, and Dobbs does
it much like Jordi did in such a seamless fashion.
We talk about the National Football League is such a
difficult game, and it is, but it's the guys that
make it look simple, that really are the awe inspiring
(14:55):
you performers that make this league what it is, and
Dobbs fits in that category. Edrian Cooper is a prodigy.
I mean, there's no other way to say. This guy
can rush the passer, he can cover. You're seeing a
batdown passes. How many passes he break up this week
so far? Three or four in practice team in team drills,
(15:17):
we've seen him blow up TFLs and run plays in
the backfield.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I mean, the one thing we have seen, the one
thing we have seen I think maybe more than anything
with him on a daily basis is if if the
offense wants to run the ball to the outside, you
have to make sure that somebody is blocking fifty six
because if he's got any kind of a seam, any
kind of a gap on an outside run, he is
shooting it and the running back does not have a chance.
(15:43):
And he's a difficult guy to block because it's hard
to get an angle on him because of it, because
of his speed and because of his anticipation. But it
is almost impossible to execute an effective outside run if
you don't get had on number fifty six.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He is everywhere. That was my tweet during practice. This
guy has been everywhere. Yeah, and you think about it too,
because there's still a lot for him to learn, and
he admitted it. He's like he wants it all, like
he sees it all out there for himself, but he
knows there's still ways to go here on the command
of the defense, knowing his assignments, the consistency down in
(16:22):
and down out. But there's a reason why he flashed
as brightly as he did last year. It's because he
is a legitimate playmaker. Yeah, And when you're drafting guys
in this league, at the end of the day, that's
what you're looking for. You're looking for the dude that
is the one percent of the one percent. And I
truly see it, man, I've seen it since when you
went back and watched his I'm no scout. I'm not
(16:42):
gonna act like I'm a scout, but you go back
and watch his college film. There just was something different
about him. It wasn't that he just was getting some
sacks or some TFLs or he was coming on block. No,
this guy was making plays, and through one year and
what four months in the Packers' uniform, he just can
continues to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, we heard when he was drafted that his speed
was different, and that has certainly proven to be true.
We do have to pay some bills here quickly, Wes,
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available at Menard's. Welcome Back to Packers. Unscripted WES Saturday
Night at lambeau Field will be the pre he sees
an opener. It's against the New York Jets. A lot
of questions in the media swirling around about are their
(18:06):
starters gonna play or how much or are they not?
And I don't even want to get into it because
we don't know. Matt Lafleur is not tipping his hand here.
He's basically just told all those guys to be ready,
be ready to play, and then the coaching staff is
going to make a decision. So I don't even want
to get into that part of it. But what I
do want to ask you is first preseason game, what
are you looking for?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Well, first and foremost, Kenny Clark sure sounds like he
thinks he's playing. Like I mean, if Matt Lafleuur is
selling this and then gonna tell the guys are it's
I think the guys are buying into this, the notion
that they might be out there on Saturday night. Listen
what I love the most about the preseason? And and
you know me, You've had to read all my copy
here the last ten years. I'm the biggest proponent of
the preseason. I love it. I'm not driven by the
(18:49):
almighty dollar. I think like a lot of this capitalistic,
you know sort of leagues can be in the professional
sense and now even somewhat in the amateur sense. This
is where guys get opportunities, and you can't have a
caringon Valentine. We can't talk about that if you don't
initially give them those reps as their rookie in first years,
and seeing a guy like Omar Brown, even in a
stage like family Night, you know, kind of ball out
(19:11):
and try to make his case for a roster. How
many times over the years, Mike, have you and I
been sitting ore at these things? And yeah, we cover
the first drive of the number one offense and defense,
and then it's the second or third team or that
shines the rest of the afternoon. I love preseasons my
favorite time of the year because I think the thing
that's cool as a writer, I don't know fans can
(19:31):
relate to this, but we get to see these guys
for ten, eleven, twelve practices, and now we get to
see him against another team. We get to see him
finishing tackles. You get to see the actual what this
is all built up to, and who rises to that
challenge and who doesn't, who separates themselves and who falls behind.
The stakes are so high and they've never gotten there
(19:52):
never been higher now because of the reduction in the
amount of preseason games. So I'm looking forward to seeing
some of these young running backs that are going to
get tons of opportunities. With Emmanuel Wilson and Marshawn Lloyd
both banged up right now, I think we're gonna see
the secondary. You know what safeties stand out with a
position where I don't even know how much of a
drop off there is, you know, from where we're looking
(20:14):
at with the Evan Williams to the Zane Anderson's. I mean,
there's just there's such a small margin for error there.
And then also just overall how the efficiency is of everything.
Preseason's awesome, and I think it's gonna be fun to
have this thing at Lambellfield and seeing how fans respond
to it.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I think there are a lot of things certainly to
watch on Saturday night. If I were to narrow it
down for myself, I'm narrowing it down to the first
round draft picks from the last two years. I'm gonna
have eyes on more than anything because we're going to
see presumably we're going to see Matthew Golden in game
action in a Packers' uniform for the first time, and
I think that will be a treat in and of itself.
(20:53):
And then Jordan Morgan, last year's first round pick. He's
been taking all of the number one reps at left
tackle as Rashid Walker is working his way back from
a groin injury. And Walker was back in practice on Wednesday,
but only in individual drills. He was not back into
eleven on eleven yet. So the fact that I mean, now,
there's still time before Saturday, but I don't know at
(21:14):
this point if they would put Rashid Walker into a
preseason game. So if Jordan Morgan is the starting left
tackle on Saturday night and gets his share of the
reps there, that will definitely be worth watching because you
have to remember, even though this guy was a full
time left tackle in college, multiple year starter and all
that at Arizona. He did not really play tackle as
(21:38):
a rookie when he came in last year. He was
put at right guard to compete with Sean Ryan, and
he was in a rotation with Ryan getting game action
at right guard until his shoulder injury caused enough trouble
that they decided, you know, needed an operation and then
and shut him down for his rookie year. So he
hasn't played left tackle. He hasn't played offensive tackle in
(22:01):
a game in the NFL yet since arriving as a
first strong pick. So those are the two I guess
I would say the two guys that I will be
having my eyes on more than any others.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Excellent choices, especially when you're looking at the twenty twenty
four draft class, because there's still so much we've yet
to learn about that group as a whole. I will
mention another name from it, though, that I'm excited to
watch is Tyron Hopper, because Hopper is a guy third
round pick last year. I've been a big fan of
him since the beginning. He's a tackling machine. If you've
been watching him in these practices, he's been kind of
that number two MIC linebacker throughout camp. I think he's
(22:34):
going to play a lot in these games. I would imagine,
you know, again, we'll see whether not Qua goes. I
would imagine then it's probably Isaiah McDuffie's gonna be wearing
the communication headset. But after that, I would imagine you're
going to see a lot of Hopper in these games.
And he's the type of dude. If you remember last
year in Denver, he basically didn't practice a whole lot.
He was kind of getting his feet underneath him, and
then he has eleven tackles. That was like the one
(22:55):
highlight of that game against the Broncos was just all
all over the place. He was Packers. I was talking
about all this depth they have inside linebacker encapsulates that
and and Hopper is a guy too that I think.
I think it's gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, Hopper is a great one to point out. We
saw him have a really, really good preseason game last
year as a rookie, and it's funny when I watch him,
my mind always goes back to what I like to say,
is an old friend of mine who used to work here,
which was before you arrived. And of course I'm talking
about Vic Ketchman. He always used to talk about linebackers
as one of two types. They're either chasers or their thumpers.
(23:29):
Tyron Hoppers a thumper.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Thumper.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
He is a thumper and and that's that makes him
worth watching at any time he's on the pH Oh.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
My goodness, when we did the live tackling drills, just
seeing him attack guys. Yeah, you know, I mean, this
is a guy that is when when that the red
is in his eyes when he sees the ballcarrier, for sure,
And yeah, he definitely sets a tone.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
All right, One last thing, do you want to get
back into this whole Hall of Fames?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
We can.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I'm gonna. I'm gonna lay it out here as quickly
as it can, please do so. Okay, you have two
different ways, essentially to get into the Hall of Fame.
There's the modern era voting process, which are the players
who have been retired for five years but retired for
less than twenty five years who there's an entire voting
process that it whittles down to finalists and then they
get and then the finalists get their cases presented, and
(24:19):
then everybody on the Hall of Fame Selection Committee gives
an up or down vote, and if they get eighty
percent of the vote, they get in. Other ways, there's
the Senior Committee, which is guys who have been retired
for longer than twenty five years whose cases are being revisited.
You also have a coach category and contributor category. Now
those have been combined in the past coach and contributor
(24:41):
that now they've become separate categories. But what used to
happen is the Senior Committee nominees, the coach nominees and
the contributor nominees who made it all the way to
the finalist stage, they would simply after they go through
this whole process and you get to the finalist stage,
they would then have their cases presented in front of
(25:03):
the committee for an upper down vote, and if they
got eighty percent, they got in. If they didn't, they didn't.
But most of the time, because the quality, I guess,
the selections are so narrow, it narrows down so quickly,
most of the time somebody who made it all the
way to the finalist stage as a coach, as a contributor,
or as a senior finalist would get in. What they
(25:27):
did this year is they put forward three senior finalists,
one coach, one contributor. The one coach was Mike Holmgren.
One of the three senior finalists was Sterling Sharp obviously,
but what they decided to do instead of having all
of their cases presented individually for an upper down vote
in front of the committee, is they said, Okay, here
(25:47):
are these five guys coach, contributor and senior finalists, and
the committee can only vote for three of the five,
and then, based on voting for three out of the five,
if any individual still had to get eighty beyond eighty
percent of the ballots in order to get in, extremely
(26:09):
difficult threshold, much much harder than it was in the
past for the folks in these categories. Sterling Sharp was
the only one of the survival of the five to
survive that voting stringency, I guess, I would say, And
so out of those five the coach, contributor and three
(26:30):
senior finals, Sterling Sharp was the only one to get
in this year because of the new voting process. Extremely
disappointing for Mike Holmgren. I think extremely unfair to those
who are now in those categories and now facing a
completely different voting process in terms of who gets in
it and who doesn't. But with that explanation as the
entire background, I'll hand it back off to you.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
The Blue Ribbon Committee put forward their semi finals, their
nine semi finals for head coach, can you know candidate
for the Fame last October. We just did the actual enshrinement.
So it shows you how long this process goes to
select Mike Holmgrin for that to actually have all these
(27:13):
people push him forward for this honor. Again, just one,
not three, just one coach. I thought it was a
slap in the face of the Blue Ribbon Committee, to
be honest with you, I thought it was a slap
in the face to everybody who's had to watch the
Pro Football Hall of Fame continue to, in a lack
of a better terms, Jerry mander, the way that they're
doing this voting.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, it's a good word too. Actually, the way this
is going now every.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Year it changes. And again I've raised this several times.
I have a huge problem with how they went about
the centennial slate. I felt like they use it as
an opportunity to shoehorn in a lot of people from
the more modern era, when the initial reason behind it
was the pre Hall of Fame era, right.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And I actually and I actually looked that up. There
were it was a group of ten senior inductees as
part of the Centennial class in twenty twenty, and out
of those ten, only four of them had completed their
careers in the pre Super Bowl era. That's not what
that was supposed to be about. And I mean, hats
(28:17):
off to Bobby Dylan, Green Bay Packer. He got it.
He got in that way, but he was one of
the only four. When the thought was that that centennial
class was supposed to really take a closer look at
the guys from you know, the first fifty years of
the NFL before you got into the Super Bowl era.
But that didn't happen. So you have the vern Llewellens
(28:40):
of the world and whatnot are still out there and
probably never going to get in.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Now here's the point I was going to make. It
was an up or down vote the twenty centennial class.
Either they all got in or nobody got in. We
did that for the centennial slate. Why aren't you doing
that for the contributed coach? Yeah, when we've already been
to this point already, what do the contributors and coaches
if they've gotten to this point. If if they've gone
through all these different hurdles and obstacles, what's the rationale
(29:07):
then for looping them in with the modern era? What's
the rationale for trying to hold them out when they've
already pushed through? And also keep in mind, it took
forever to have contributors coaches, they were Prior to that,
it was all one big pile. Yeah, so now if
we're trying to catch up, if we're trying to right
some wrongs here, why are we doing it like this?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah? I agree, it is what it is, and I
think it's and what I think, And I laid this
out in a story that I posted earlier this week,
and looking at the Bears have thirty two Hall of Famers,
the Packers have twenty nine. The franchises with the two
most and you know, how are the Packers potentially going
to catch up at some point? I you know what's
(29:50):
really unfortunate for Mike Holmgren is that I don't think
his chances are very good of getting pushed forward again
to get another shot at this, because very soon Bill
Belichick is going to be in the mix for coach.
And of course if you're only going to put forward
one coach, and Bill Belichick is eligible, how can he
not be? The guys?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Can they change that role now too? So that's only
one year, Okay, it's not five years or four years anymore.
Whatever it is for coach, Bill Belichick can go in
the Hall of Fame, I believe next year.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
So he's so he's going to be He's going to
be in the mix very soon. And then you have
a couple of two time Super Bowl winning coaches. I
don't want to get into their you know, the their
candidacies at the moment, but just the fact that they're
a pair of two time Super Bowl winning coaches and
Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin who are also waiting, and
Holmgren was put forward in front of them this year.
(30:40):
But with Holmgren not getting in, you can see that
committee is going to potentially go another direction and see
if they can get somebody else in. It's it's it's
extremely unfortunate for Holmgren. I think, I mean, I think
a guy who takes two different franchises to Super Bowls,
whether or not he wins those super Bowls. He did
win one, but and even as We've talked about Bill
(31:03):
Cowers in the Hall of Fame as a coach. You
look at the credentials. If Bill Cowers in the Hall
of Fame, Mike Holmgren should be in the Hall of Fame.
And to Bill Cower's credit, he has gone on the
record saying, if I am in the Hall of Fame,
Mike Holmgren should be in the Hall of Fame. Yeah,
and I just I think it's extremely unfortunate. But I
know we're running out of time. We got a press
conference to get to.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I got to close on this. A lot of the
AP vote, a lot of the Hall of Fame voters also,
some of whom are involved at the AP process. Kevin
Stefanski has been twice put forward as the NFL Coach
of the Year during his tenure because of the ineptitude,
for a lack of a better term, of the Browns
over the last you know, since they were brought back
in the league. The amount of disrespect that and this
(31:41):
this is my big issue with the Leroy Butler Canna
to see a number of years ago, the mount of
disrespect for the ninety six Super Bowl team that the
Packers had in that era of Packers football is mind
boggling because they were the Cleveland Browns at that time.
They'd gone twenty nine years between championships, however, many years
between true play off appearances. Mike Holmgren was the face
(32:03):
of that. Leroy Butler was a face that Brett Favre
was the face of that. Reggie White was a face
at the fact that it's been so hard to get
them in. There has just been If the Browns would
win a Super Bowl this year, they might build as
a statue of Kevin Stefanski in these I mean, like
it just it's wild to me the way that this
has been treated, in how it's been going. It is
(32:26):
what it is. I if I understand this right, team
media personnel now are eligible to be among the Hall
of Fame voters. Pete Doherty handles it for the Packers
now down the road. Not that they'd have me, but
I'd gladly throw my hat into the ring.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I'll put in a good word for you.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
With that.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
We do have to call it a wrap on this
edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow continue to
follow all of our coverage of training camp on Packers
dot Com and everything with Saturday night's preseason opener here
at Lambellfield against the Jets. We'll have it for you
on packers dot com for Wests, I'm Mike. Thank you
for tuning in, everybody you will STI
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