August 15, 2025 • 22 mins
Mike and Wes review all the happenings from Indianapolis, featuring the update on QB Jordan Love (1:27), their takeaways from the joint practice with the Colts (5:21), including a particularly strong day for the defense (7:53) and the work of K Brandon McManus (12:21). They also preview what they’re watching for in Saturday’s preseason game (16:48).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to an odd location edition of Packers
Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford. He's
Wes Hodkoitz. We're coming to you from Indianapolis, Indiana, or
just north of it, I guess. And we've been here
since Wednesday. The Packers had a joint practice against the
Colts on Thursday. Preseason game is coming up on Saturday.
(00:30):
How are you enjoying indian so far?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Wonderful, Mike.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I mean, the one thing that's really neat about Indianapolis is,
out of all these NFL cities, I feel like I
know what the best. We've spent so much time here
between the NFL Scouting Combine all these years. Coincidentally, this
is one of two NFL stadiums I've yet to cover
an actual game in oh I've been there for when
the Combine used to have the media center inside Lucas
Oil in February, I was here for the Royal Rumble
(00:56):
WWE professional wrestling sports entertainment, But I've never got actually
covered a football game here. So this particular trip for
me a little bit more sentimental, and fortunately I will
also give credit to the Indianapolis Colts their practice facility.
From a media standpoint, from a viewing standpoint, probably the
best joint practice I was able to watch as well.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it was it. Actually, it was a really it
was a really good setup. Other than the bugs and stuff,
I'm not crazy about that on it.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, we forgot the bugspray Moor Day.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We did not bring the bug spray with us, but
that aside. Actually, we need to provide some updates here
because literally not more than ten minutes after we turned
the cameras off on Tuesday, we went into a press
conference with general manager Brian Gudakun's Tuesday morning and found
out that Packers quarterback Jordan Love is out this week.
(01:44):
They're hoping to get him back next week. He has
had a procedure done on his left hand because of
a torn ligament in his left thumb from his last
the last play, his last play of the preseason game
against the Jets where he was scrammed and then he
got tackled for a sack. So a very different week
(02:05):
than we anticipated with Jordan Love not being here. But
the good news is that everything sounds like it's on
track that Love is not going to miss any regular
season time. It's just a question of how much can
he do when he gets back into practice next week,
and then how quickly can things ramp up to then
get ready for Week one against the Lions.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know, and I'm gonna bust off the old I
haven't used it years, but the old like the Mike
spoffor let's be real moment of the week, and that
is the fact that Jordan Love in Monday's practice was
handing the ball off with his throwing hand, which is uncustomary.
You want to be able to do that with the
left hand. If you're in the middle of the season,
you do what you gotta do. But as Love was
saying to you and the other reporters, this is the
time of the year. You want to go into the
(02:45):
regular season as healthy as possible. And from my perspective
at this very moment when I'm writing Insider Inbox and
answering some of these questions, my thought on everything is
he had a full off season in Green Bay. He
did the full installs in the first two weeks of practice,
which in training camp practice, which is really the second
run through of the installs, So the grasp of the
offense and what the Packers want to achieve is there,
(03:05):
and then lastly, he needs to get healthy. These receivers
need to get healthy. Yes, you want to get him
some reps with Matthew Golden and save Yon Williams, but
the fact of the matter is Jayden Reid's banged up
right now, Dantavian Wicks has been down for a little
bit with the calf injury, and then you also have
Rome Dobbs going down with this back issue in practice
earlier this week. So in addition to the fact that
Christian Watson isn't back yet, so get him healthy, get
(03:28):
these receivers healthy, and go from there. He seems to
be in really good spirits and it was cool seeing
him at practice as well. He was still doing his
typical handshakes with all the running backs. He was going
through the motions like everybody else. But ultimately, this is
about the Detroit Lions. It's about Week one, and this
is the move that best gets the most one hundred
percent version of Jordan Love there.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And that's really what the whole decision was about, because
he said if this had happened in the regular season,
he'd probably try to play through it, hope it would
heal on its own and just get better as things
go along. But because of when it happened in the
time timeframe prior to week one, there's enough time to
heal from the surgery to get things as close to
back to normal as possible. So that's why the decision
(04:09):
was made. Jordan Love had to battle through a bunch
of injuries last year. There was the knee from the
play in Brazil, and then eventually a groin injury and
some other things. He doesn't want to start the season
feeling less than one hundred percent. He wants to be
all the way there when that ball is kicked off
against Detroit.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And it's a long season, Mike.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Seventeen regular season games is a long way to go,
and the Packers, especially this year, are going to play four.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Before that bye week.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So anything you can do to get this team as
close to one hundred percent possible is going to be
obviously preferable. The tough situation for the Packers from my
vantage point is that first week of training camp practice
they were very healthy. Now mind you, the pads hadn't
gone on yet, yeah, but it looked like everything was
trending in the right direction. A couple soft tissue injuries
pop up. A couple of injuries here to these receivers
(04:54):
and it kind of changes the tone.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But all that being said, I feel like they are
able to still get into work. They want to be
able to, you know, administer, be able to install and
the byproduct and the nice thing is too a guy
like Malik Willis, who was not here for training camp
last year, does get these opportunities to run with the
number one offense, the number one offensive line. So yeah,
Jordan Love trying to get him to the Lions game
(05:16):
and then obviously go from there.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, well, we did watch the joint practice here in
Central Indiana. We were in Westfield as I'm trying to
learn Central Indiana geography while we're around, because we're not
in downtown Indian until like we usually until the game,
which is where we usually are for the combine. You
were watching the Packers defense versus the Colts offense. I
was watching Packers offense versus Colts defense. So I will
(05:41):
start with this because you were just talking about Malik
Willis the number one offensive line, but then sort of
the the backup group of receivers and you know, quite frankly,
it was. It was a rough day in this joint
practice for the Packers offense, particular in the passing game. Really,
I should specify it's it's not that there were you know,
a bunch of protection breakdowns or this or that. You
(06:02):
could just tell that they weren't able to get into
any kind of a rhythm offensively. They just you know,
it's like, yeah, you hit a play here and there,
but nothing that was sustained, nothing that was consistent. It
was a frustrating day in that. Regarding credit to the Colts,
their coverage was tight. They did get some pressure on
Willis at times, but it was a tough day. I
did think that running the ball, I thought the Packers
(06:25):
did some pretty good things. Now, you never know for
sure when the tackling isn't live. You don't know exactly
is Josh Shacob's going to be tackling at that moment,
or is he going to be able to slip by
that guy, break the tackle there, that kind of stuff.
But I thought, on balance, the Packers' run game looked
like it showed up to play.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And obviously you watch the offense.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I didn't get to see any of it because where
I was down on the other opposite end of the
field and the practice facility. But I'll say this before
I get into the defense, Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Goodson
could find no running lanes for the most part when
they were going up against the Packers' first team defense.
They were getting stuff within the first five yards. So
if you see Josh, you're right, does he go down?
Does he not go down? There was an interesting anecdote
(07:05):
that I know you were able to get as well
about trying to gauge whether or not you get brought
to the ground. But the fact that Jacobs was breaking
through I think still does speak some volumes to things,
and also the other at the way to look at
this thing too. From again, my perspective is these are
ultimately a lot of the guys that are gonna be
playing in this preseason game. It was a little bit
different than the joint practices from the offensive sense that
we've seen in the past, because a lot of times
(07:27):
it was the first team starters, it was the top receivers,
it was Jordan Love getting in that work before ultimately
sitting on the sidelines on Saturday. So as difficult and
as frustrating as some of those moments may have been
for the passing game. I'm curious to see what it
looks like on Saturday when you are now going up
against a lot of the backups for the Indianapolis Colts
and seeing if those guys can maybe use some of
those experiences from Thursday and put it towards a better
(07:49):
effort on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, you were watching the defensive side of things,
and the Packers defense had a pretty strong day by
all accounts. You were there for all of it. What
stood out most to you?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
It was just an wrest of performance all around, I mean,
and the tone was set from one on ones on.
I mean they the defensive front in particular, they were
just having their way with that Indianapolis Colts offensive line
and off the edge, I thought Rashaun Gary Lucas Vans
started the pressure party, both of.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Those guys, and especially Vaness.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I mean he had a terrific rush right off the
beginning for a sack of Anthony Richardson, and that just
kind of seemed like it started every single play. If
he wasn't sacked, he was under pressure. They had a
hard time in the eleven on eleven periods getting any
type of downfield passing game going. They had some success
with it in the two minute, which was sort of
the little bit of the you know, the caveat to it,
(08:42):
and that was the part that the Packers' defense afterwards
was talking about. They wish they would have finished stronger,
but by and large, after what happened against the Jets,
and I was talking with Kenny Clark about this after
the practice, you know, they felt like they need that
was a wake up call for them. And as Kenny
said to us, I mean, he has not really spoken
in the postgame locker room very often during his ten years.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Packers have had a lot of leaders, a lot of
more vocal people that.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
They've handled those responsibilities. But in that instance, he said
he had some stuff on his heart that he needed
to get off his chest. And the big message there
was He's been around some really talented Packer teams. He
believes this Packers team can be right up there with them,
but we have to be able to carry through everything
we do during the practice week into the game settings.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And they didn't do that against the Jets.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And I felt like every emphasis that Green Bay preached
when we were talking to the coaches, when we were
talking to players this week.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
They came through with that in this practice against the Colts.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, well, you know that that opening drive for the
Packers number one defense last week against the Jets didn't
sit well. Justin Fields took the Jets down, they got
a touchdown, and then that was kind of the end
of the action for the starters. So they had that,
you know, marinating, you know, for a few days, and
I thought they came out and really really took it
(09:50):
to the Colts and another sign of that the Colts
are trying to figure out on their side of things
whether Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones is going to be
their starting quarterback for the upcome season. After practice, of course,
that was the big question for Shane Stike and the
head coach, like, hey, you know, where are things at
with the court, And he really didn't make any commitment
on one quarterback or another, which tells you neither one
(10:12):
of those quarterbacks stood out enough for the Colts to
be able to make a decision here.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
One percent, And I'm glad you brought up that point
about the mobility of Justin Fields, because one thing I
actually didn't get into my story that I probably should
have was the emphasis that the defensive players had in
practice and also going into this joint practice this week
that they were going up against another mobile guy. Yeah,
and honestly, Daniel Jones kind of fits that category too.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He's a guy that will take off.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
They ran plenty of Reid option concepts and the Packers
defensive front, I mean, obviously you're not going to touch
the quarterback, but they had their run fits where they
needed to be. They did not get burnt on anything
in that regard, so that was a positive sign. And
the other aspect too that I liked, and in addition
to the three interceptions that they had was Javon Buller
being able to punch out the ball from from Mitchell
(10:57):
the receiver from the Colts. We heard from Jeff Habay
this week talk about that preseason game against the Jets.
They have this huge emphasis on forced fumbles and it
didn't carry through in that preseason game against the Jets.
The Packers were back punching at the ball. In this practice,
Evan Williams ended up picking that ball up, running it
back for a touchdown and obviously would have been a
touchdown or not.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
That's up for you to decide But the fact is
is the point of emphasis was there.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
The Packers were looking for the ball, They were gunning
for the ball, and several times they came up with
the ball.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, all right, Well a few more thoughts here before
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(12:05):
at Minards. Welcome back to our on location edition of
Packers Unscripted in West I want to get to your
thoughts on what you're looking for in this preseason game
coming up at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday. But one
last thought on the joint practice, because we have to
talk about Brandon McManus. Yeah, how fun was that? Like
he now he was? He had a really good session
(12:28):
they did. They put the Colts field goal rush team
out on the field and so the Packers were practicing
their kicks and the same thing was happening with the
reverse on the other field. McManus, as it has been
typical of this training camp, had a really good session,
booming some long kicks upper forties in distance, fifty five
yarder right through he hit a fifty six yarder I
(12:51):
believe it was, and it was good by plenty, like
he had a little bit of a breeze at his back,
but he absolutely nailed it. So then when the Colts
left the field, then the other Packer guys are leaving
the field. He kept Matt Orzick and Daniel Wheel and
his snapper and a holder out there. They did they
just set up for one more quick kick and he
lined up for a seventy yard Of course, Jacksonville's Cam
(13:14):
Little in the Jaguars preseason opener hit a seventy yard
field goal. So McManus is like, all right, I'm gonna
give this a shot, and so of course he can
kick it a little bit lower because there's no rush
coming from the other side. But he drilled it and
it hit the crossbar almost right smack dab in the
middle too, hit the crossbar, bounced up and went over.
(13:36):
The crowd that was watching it definitely, you know, let
out a roar of approval. It was. It was a
pretty neat thing, but just another sign of how locked
in Brandon McManus has been since training camp began.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
In two things here about the special teams. The first
one on McManus, what a hypocrite I look like, because
I just got done an insider inbox this week saying
why would kickers be trying.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Seventy yard field goals?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
You don't need to make the team, you don't need
to get yourself hurt.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And after Cam Little does it, there's Brandon doing it
as well.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
But didn't want to be upstage.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I'll say this.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In this kicking preseason.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Game, right and rich Basacia talked about the work that
he put in this offseason, and Brandon said it himself.
He feels like he came back in the best shape
of his career. I know, that's kind of a cliche,
but he really feels like you know, they talked about
him being a twenty two year old kicker with his
experience and the other thing I think we sometimes forget
about too. When Brandon mcmanons broke into the league a
decade ago, he was known for his leg like that
(14:29):
was one of the big things when you know, when
he was trying to get in with Denver, everyone knew
his leg strength and it was just about honing the
rest in and.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Obviously at thirty four years young, showing he can still
do it well.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, and he wasn't just making long field goals in
Denver because of the ALTI stude and all that kind
of stuff. I mean, the leg has always been there
for Brandon McManus.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So I want to mention this too about special teams
because one of the fun things one I think there's
not a lot to write about it because we just
typically don't Media coverage doesn't emphasize the third phase, especially
in practice, but joint practices might be the most beneficial
day of all because of what you said, whether it
was the field goal rush team, whether it was the
kickoff coverage team, punt returns, you are going up against
(15:08):
another unit, and for the most part it's kind of
a live rep. And what impressed me is that, well, one,
you take some notes, right, you and I have been
covering this team a long time. You can kind of
start to see the trends of the roster. A guy,
a seventh rookie, seventh round pick, Michael Robinson was on
the kickoff cover team.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
That's a big thing for a young guy. The number
one kickoff cover team.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
That tells you what rich pisach and these coaches are
thinking of what the young man's doing. In two I've
been saying it a lot. I will eventually write it.
It'll probably be another week or so. But if you
ever want another we focus so much about the receiver
cornerback thing with bow Melton. If you ever want a
really good feel for what this guy does and why
he ultimately has been as successful as he's been.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Watch him on punt coverage.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, because I made this comment this past week and
I said he is, in my opinion, one man's opinion,
he's the best flyer the Packers have had since Jeff Janis.
Now some people are like, what about Jared Bush? Thanks
for checking your notes, Jared Busch's last year with the
Packers was in twenty fourteen. Jeff Janis was drafted in
twenty fourteen. Appreciate you keeping up, But the fact of
the matter is is that bow has the speed. Oh yeah,
(16:10):
and he has just that relentless tenacity. We saw it
in one of the joint actually was the practice on Tuesday.
It wasn't even the joint practice where the Packers set
up a double team against him. He split it and
he got down the field to force of you know,
a fair catch. So much is on Daniel Wheelan. It
is his job to get that ball down there and
give his gunners and give everybody as much time as
possible to get down the field.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
But bo melting with.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Four to three whatever speed makes it a lot easier too.
And as we're making this, you know case for him
in the cornerback transition, don't forget he's been a very
pivotal player on the Packers special teams as well.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, no question about it. Well, the second preseason game
is on deck here at Lucas Oil. It'll be Saturday afternoon,
a noon Central time kickoff, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
It's awesome from a work standpoint, UFC pay per view
at night, I get home for the entire thing.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
There you go, Well, we have to stick to that schedule.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Absolutely, especially in training camp.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well, UFC A side, what are you looking for on Saturday?
What will your eyes beyond in terms of watching what's
going on with the Packers?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Well, first and foremost, it will be a great opportunity
for Malik Willis and Sean Clifford and obviously Taylor elder
Zima being able to get some more reps in this game.
You're not trying to get snaps to four quarterbacks, You're
only trying to get them to three. They've obviously had
more practice reps this week. You hope that that can
help them all out. But I actually am really interested
to see the running game for Green Bay because Israel
Abana Kanda also returned at this practice. He was missed
(17:33):
one with a hamstring tweak but ended up being fine.
He was formerly with the San Francisco forty nine ers.
They brought another running back into the mix this week.
The one position where they've kind of gotten healthier though,
is that backfield. Emmanuel Wilson and Marshaw Lloyd both returned.
Matt Lafleur before practice was asked about Lloyd and just
what his reps are going to look like. He wanted
to make sure he got through that particular joint practice
(17:55):
before figuring that all out. But you had to edit
me this week, Mike, when we were writing the Insider
Inbox column.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
This might be the most.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Excited I've been to watch a player in a preseason
game because, as Lloyd even talked about it as locker
this week, it's basically, well, it has been almost a
year since he played an NFL game. Coincidentally, it was
the Colts in that regular season opener. But as he said,
even just to have like a consistent amount of reps,
it really got to go back to his time at
uc USC. So he has the explosiveness, he has the power,
(18:23):
he has the speed. There's a reason why this guy
was a third round pick and Daniel Jeremiah guys were
talking about him being the best running back in that
draft class.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And now we finally get it, hopefully a chance to
see it.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
He's had the right mentality and now hopefully he can
actually get out there and do it on the field.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, it's been an interesting week as far as the
Packers backfield because as you said, Emmanuel Wilson, Marshaun leyd
have come back from injuries. They're looking to get some
snaps in this game. A Banakanda missed a practice, but
he's back as well. And we had talked on our
last show about Damar Johnson from the preseason opener against
the Jets and and what he did. I will say
(18:57):
this as far as watching the Packers running game ye yesterday,
and there were a lot of good things that were
going on. If I were to pick one of those
backup running backs that really stood out to me in
terms of the really running hard, like we talked about
with Johnson in the Jets game, it was Chris Brooks.
Chris Brooks brought it to the Colts yesterday. He was
not shying away from contact at all, not to say
(19:19):
that any of the other guys were, but just watching
the reps that Chris Brooks got, it was like, okay,
was he had some kind of a purpose out there
that that was maybe a little bit different. So this
whole backup running back battle and how the know how
what the pecking order is going to be when the
Packers get to Week one games like this and next
week against the Seahawks are going to go a long
(19:40):
way and determining.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
That that's an excellent point.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I'm glad you brought up Chris Brooks, because sometimes you
can be sort of the forgotten man of this party
just because of how darn consistent he is and in
a lot of ways, Mike, I don't like playing the
comparison game. I obviously never liked doing that insider inbox.
But the more I watch him, the more he does
kind of remind me of that Jamal Williams type back,
a guy that had a natural foundation for pass protection,
(20:03):
for pass catching.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You're seeing some of the stuff they do with the
two backs. Stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
He comes in out of nowhere after being getting injury
settled in Miami, signs the Packers practice squad, and by
the end of the season he's the featured guy in
that there's times now where the Packers will utilize him.
We saw it in some of these practices. The Packers
have been utilizing him and then using Emmanuel Wilson as
the second pack It's not even that it has to
be the Josh Jacobs show all the time. Chris Brooks,
in addition also providing a presence on special teams. Definitely
(20:29):
got to keep an eye on as well.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Well on the defensive side of the ball against the
Colts in this preseason game. I think what you'd really
like to see is the guys who played well on
defense with the reserve units last week, can they do
it again? Can they stack the performances. And I'm talking
about guys like Colby Wooden up front, Tyron Hopper at
the linebacker level, and then in sort of a different
vein Isaiah Simmons at linebacker, who's been having a really
(20:53):
strong camp. The Jets game didn't really go the way
he wanted it to, but then he had a big
interception in the two minute against the Colts. Had a
really solid joint practice here in Indy. So does that
carry over for him now into the second preseason game
as a guy like that, a veteran guy who's trying
to find a role on this defense and whatnot as
(21:13):
he's fighting for a roster spot.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I loved his run fits too, man. I mean, yeah,
the interception, everybody kind of saw that. But earlier in
practice the Levnon elevens, when I was talking about Jonathan
Taylor not really having a lot of room Isaiah Simmons
did a phenomenal job of closing in. He kind of
has that explosiveness that Edrin Cooper has where he can
get to the spot quickly, and I felt like he
did that. The other guy, too, is obviously Tyrone Hopper,
and I keep talking about him over and over and again,
(21:36):
and the main reason for that is it's just this
depth of the inside linebacker room is why I think
we haven't seen a lot of him. It's not that
he's not ready for it. I mean he is getting
massive reps as the number two Mike linebacker. I made
the comment I don't know how you felt about it,
but an insider inbox, there would have been a time
ten years ago where they would have drafted Tyrone Hopper
and he would have been in the starting lineup on
day one.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, next to aj Hawk.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I mean like they just were that hard up for
inside backers for a long period of time.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
They were moving outside guys inside. Now they have this.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Embarrassment of riches at that position, and fortunately for them,
unlike the receiver spot, right now, they've been able to
keep that unit healthy.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, we will be off to Lucas Oil
Stadium very soon, but for now we will call it
a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure
to follow continue to follow all of our coverage of
training camp and of Saturday's preseason game from Indie. We'll
have it all for you on Packers dot com for Wes,
I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We
will see you next time.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to an odd location edition of Packers
Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford. He's
Wes Hodkoitz. We're coming to you from Indianapolis, Indiana, or
just north of it, I guess. And we've been here
since Wednesday. The Packers had a joint practice against the
Colts on Thursday. Preseason game is coming up on Saturday.
(00:30):
How are you enjoying indian so far?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Wonderful, Mike.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I mean, the one thing that's really neat about Indianapolis is,
out of all these NFL cities, I feel like I
know what the best. We've spent so much time here
between the NFL Scouting Combine all these years. Coincidentally, this
is one of two NFL stadiums I've yet to cover
an actual game in oh I've been there for when
the Combine used to have the media center inside Lucas
Oil in February, I was here for the Royal Rumble
(00:56):
WWE professional wrestling sports entertainment, But I've never got actually
covered a football game here. So this particular trip for
me a little bit more sentimental, and fortunately I will
also give credit to the Indianapolis Colts their practice facility.
From a media standpoint, from a viewing standpoint, probably the
best joint practice I was able to watch as well.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it was it. Actually, it was a really it
was a really good setup. Other than the bugs and stuff,
I'm not crazy about that on it.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, we forgot the bugspray Moor Day.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We did not bring the bug spray with us, but
that aside. Actually, we need to provide some updates here
because literally not more than ten minutes after we turned
the cameras off on Tuesday, we went into a press
conference with general manager Brian Gudakun's Tuesday morning and found
out that Packers quarterback Jordan Love is out this week.
(01:44):
They're hoping to get him back next week. He has
had a procedure done on his left hand because of
a torn ligament in his left thumb from his last
the last play, his last play of the preseason game
against the Jets where he was scrammed and then he
got tackled for a sack. So a very different week
(02:05):
than we anticipated with Jordan Love not being here. But
the good news is that everything sounds like it's on
track that Love is not going to miss any regular
season time. It's just a question of how much can
he do when he gets back into practice next week,
and then how quickly can things ramp up to then
get ready for Week one against the Lions.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know, and I'm gonna bust off the old I
haven't used it years, but the old like the Mike
spoffor let's be real moment of the week, and that
is the fact that Jordan Love in Monday's practice was
handing the ball off with his throwing hand, which is uncustomary.
You want to be able to do that with the
left hand. If you're in the middle of the season,
you do what you gotta do. But as Love was
saying to you and the other reporters, this is the
time of the year. You want to go into the
(02:45):
regular season as healthy as possible. And from my perspective
at this very moment when I'm writing Insider Inbox and
answering some of these questions, my thought on everything is
he had a full off season in Green Bay. He
did the full installs in the first two weeks of practice,
which in training camp practice, which is really the second
run through of the installs, So the grasp of the
offense and what the Packers want to achieve is there,
(03:05):
and then lastly, he needs to get healthy. These receivers
need to get healthy. Yes, you want to get him
some reps with Matthew Golden and save Yon Williams, but
the fact of the matter is Jayden Reid's banged up
right now, Dantavian Wicks has been down for a little
bit with the calf injury, and then you also have
Rome Dobbs going down with this back issue in practice
earlier this week. So in addition to the fact that
Christian Watson isn't back yet, so get him healthy, get
(03:28):
these receivers healthy, and go from there. He seems to
be in really good spirits and it was cool seeing
him at practice as well. He was still doing his
typical handshakes with all the running backs. He was going
through the motions like everybody else. But ultimately, this is
about the Detroit Lions. It's about Week one, and this
is the move that best gets the most one hundred
percent version of Jordan Love there.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And that's really what the whole decision was about, because
he said if this had happened in the regular season,
he'd probably try to play through it, hope it would
heal on its own and just get better as things
go along. But because of when it happened in the
time timeframe prior to week one, there's enough time to
heal from the surgery to get things as close to
back to normal as possible. So that's why the decision
(04:09):
was made. Jordan Love had to battle through a bunch
of injuries last year. There was the knee from the
play in Brazil, and then eventually a groin injury and
some other things. He doesn't want to start the season
feeling less than one hundred percent. He wants to be
all the way there when that ball is kicked off
against Detroit.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And it's a long season, Mike.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Seventeen regular season games is a long way to go,
and the Packers, especially this year, are going to play four.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Before that bye week.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So anything you can do to get this team as
close to one hundred percent possible is going to be
obviously preferable. The tough situation for the Packers from my
vantage point is that first week of training camp practice
they were very healthy. Now mind you, the pads hadn't
gone on yet, yeah, but it looked like everything was
trending in the right direction. A couple soft tissue injuries
pop up. A couple of injuries here to these receivers
(04:54):
and it kind of changes the tone.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But all that being said, I feel like they are
able to still get into work. They want to be
able to, you know, administer, be able to install and
the byproduct and the nice thing is too a guy
like Malik Willis, who was not here for training camp
last year, does get these opportunities to run with the
number one offense, the number one offensive line. So yeah,
Jordan Love trying to get him to the Lions game
(05:16):
and then obviously go from there.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, well, we did watch the joint practice here in
Central Indiana. We were in Westfield as I'm trying to
learn Central Indiana geography while we're around, because we're not
in downtown Indian until like we usually until the game,
which is where we usually are for the combine. You
were watching the Packers defense versus the Colts offense. I
was watching Packers offense versus Colts defense. So I will
(05:41):
start with this because you were just talking about Malik
Willis the number one offensive line, but then sort of
the the backup group of receivers and you know, quite frankly,
it was. It was a rough day in this joint
practice for the Packers offense, particular in the passing game. Really,
I should specify it's it's not that there were you know,
a bunch of protection breakdowns or this or that. You
(06:02):
could just tell that they weren't able to get into
any kind of a rhythm offensively. They just you know,
it's like, yeah, you hit a play here and there,
but nothing that was sustained, nothing that was consistent. It
was a frustrating day in that. Regarding credit to the Colts,
their coverage was tight. They did get some pressure on
Willis at times, but it was a tough day. I
did think that running the ball, I thought the Packers
(06:25):
did some pretty good things. Now, you never know for
sure when the tackling isn't live. You don't know exactly
is Josh Shacob's going to be tackling at that moment,
or is he going to be able to slip by
that guy, break the tackle there, that kind of stuff.
But I thought, on balance, the Packers' run game looked
like it showed up to play.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And obviously you watch the offense.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I didn't get to see any of it because where
I was down on the other opposite end of the
field and the practice facility. But I'll say this before
I get into the defense, Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Goodson
could find no running lanes for the most part when
they were going up against the Packers' first team defense.
They were getting stuff within the first five yards. So
if you see Josh, you're right, does he go down?
Does he not go down? There was an interesting anecdote
(07:05):
that I know you were able to get as well
about trying to gauge whether or not you get brought
to the ground. But the fact that Jacobs was breaking
through I think still does speak some volumes to things,
and also the other at the way to look at
this thing too. From again, my perspective is these are
ultimately a lot of the guys that are gonna be
playing in this preseason game. It was a little bit
different than the joint practices from the offensive sense that
we've seen in the past, because a lot of times
(07:27):
it was the first team starters, it was the top receivers,
it was Jordan Love getting in that work before ultimately
sitting on the sidelines on Saturday. So as difficult and
as frustrating as some of those moments may have been
for the passing game. I'm curious to see what it
looks like on Saturday when you are now going up
against a lot of the backups for the Indianapolis Colts
and seeing if those guys can maybe use some of
those experiences from Thursday and put it towards a better
(07:49):
effort on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, you were watching the defensive side of things,
and the Packers defense had a pretty strong day by
all accounts. You were there for all of it. What
stood out most to you?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
It was just an wrest of performance all around, I mean,
and the tone was set from one on ones on.
I mean they the defensive front in particular, they were
just having their way with that Indianapolis Colts offensive line
and off the edge, I thought Rashaun Gary Lucas Vans
started the pressure party, both of.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Those guys, and especially Vaness.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I mean he had a terrific rush right off the
beginning for a sack of Anthony Richardson, and that just
kind of seemed like it started every single play. If
he wasn't sacked, he was under pressure. They had a
hard time in the eleven on eleven periods getting any
type of downfield passing game going. They had some success
with it in the two minute, which was sort of
the little bit of the you know, the caveat to it,
(08:42):
and that was the part that the Packers' defense afterwards
was talking about. They wish they would have finished stronger,
but by and large, after what happened against the Jets,
and I was talking with Kenny Clark about this after
the practice, you know, they felt like they need that
was a wake up call for them. And as Kenny
said to us, I mean, he has not really spoken
in the postgame locker room very often during his ten years.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Packers have had a lot of leaders, a lot of
more vocal people that.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
They've handled those responsibilities. But in that instance, he said
he had some stuff on his heart that he needed
to get off his chest. And the big message there
was He's been around some really talented Packer teams. He
believes this Packers team can be right up there with them,
but we have to be able to carry through everything
we do during the practice week into the game settings.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And they didn't do that against the Jets.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And I felt like every emphasis that Green Bay preached
when we were talking to the coaches, when we were
talking to players this week.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
They came through with that in this practice against the Colts.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, well, you know that that opening drive for the
Packers number one defense last week against the Jets didn't
sit well. Justin Fields took the Jets down, they got
a touchdown, and then that was kind of the end
of the action for the starters. So they had that,
you know, marinating, you know, for a few days, and
I thought they came out and really really took it
(09:50):
to the Colts and another sign of that the Colts
are trying to figure out on their side of things
whether Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones is going to be
their starting quarterback for the upcome season. After practice, of course,
that was the big question for Shane Stike and the
head coach, like, hey, you know, where are things at
with the court, And he really didn't make any commitment
on one quarterback or another, which tells you neither one
(10:12):
of those quarterbacks stood out enough for the Colts to
be able to make a decision here.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
One percent, And I'm glad you brought up that point
about the mobility of Justin Fields, because one thing I
actually didn't get into my story that I probably should
have was the emphasis that the defensive players had in
practice and also going into this joint practice this week
that they were going up against another mobile guy. Yeah,
and honestly, Daniel Jones kind of fits that category too.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
He's a guy that will take off.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
They ran plenty of Reid option concepts and the Packers
defensive front, I mean, obviously you're not going to touch
the quarterback, but they had their run fits where they
needed to be. They did not get burnt on anything
in that regard, so that was a positive sign. And
the other aspect too that I liked, and in addition
to the three interceptions that they had was Javon Buller
being able to punch out the ball from from Mitchell
(10:57):
the receiver from the Colts. We heard from Jeff Habay
this week talk about that preseason game against the Jets.
They have this huge emphasis on forced fumbles and it
didn't carry through in that preseason game against the Jets.
The Packers were back punching at the ball. In this practice,
Evan Williams ended up picking that ball up, running it
back for a touchdown and obviously would have been a
touchdown or not.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
That's up for you to decide But the fact is
is the point of emphasis was there.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
The Packers were looking for the ball, They were gunning
for the ball, and several times they came up with
the ball.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, all right, Well a few more thoughts here before
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(12:05):
at Minards. Welcome back to our on location edition of
Packers Unscripted in West I want to get to your
thoughts on what you're looking for in this preseason game
coming up at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday. But one
last thought on the joint practice, because we have to
talk about Brandon McManus. Yeah, how fun was that? Like
he now he was? He had a really good session
(12:28):
they did. They put the Colts field goal rush team
out on the field and so the Packers were practicing
their kicks and the same thing was happening with the
reverse on the other field. McManus, as it has been
typical of this training camp, had a really good session,
booming some long kicks upper forties in distance, fifty five
yarder right through he hit a fifty six yarder I
(12:51):
believe it was, and it was good by plenty, like
he had a little bit of a breeze at his back,
but he absolutely nailed it. So then when the Colts
left the field, then the other Packer guys are leaving
the field. He kept Matt Orzick and Daniel Wheel and
his snapper and a holder out there. They did they
just set up for one more quick kick and he
lined up for a seventy yard Of course, Jacksonville's Cam
(13:14):
Little in the Jaguars preseason opener hit a seventy yard
field goal. So McManus is like, all right, I'm gonna
give this a shot, and so of course he can
kick it a little bit lower because there's no rush
coming from the other side. But he drilled it and
it hit the crossbar almost right smack dab in the
middle too, hit the crossbar, bounced up and went over.
(13:36):
The crowd that was watching it definitely, you know, let
out a roar of approval. It was. It was a
pretty neat thing, but just another sign of how locked
in Brandon McManus has been since training camp began.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
In two things here about the special teams. The first
one on McManus, what a hypocrite I look like, because
I just got done an insider inbox this week saying
why would kickers be trying.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Seventy yard field goals?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
You don't need to make the team, you don't need
to get yourself hurt.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And after Cam Little does it, there's Brandon doing it
as well.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
But didn't want to be upstage.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I'll say this.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In this kicking preseason.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Game, right and rich Basacia talked about the work that
he put in this offseason, and Brandon said it himself.
He feels like he came back in the best shape
of his career. I know, that's kind of a cliche,
but he really feels like you know, they talked about
him being a twenty two year old kicker with his
experience and the other thing I think we sometimes forget
about too. When Brandon mcmanons broke into the league a
decade ago, he was known for his leg like that
(14:29):
was one of the big things when you know, when
he was trying to get in with Denver, everyone knew
his leg strength and it was just about honing the
rest in and.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Obviously at thirty four years young, showing he can still
do it well.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, and he wasn't just making long field goals in
Denver because of the ALTI stude and all that kind
of stuff. I mean, the leg has always been there
for Brandon McManus.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So I want to mention this too about special teams
because one of the fun things one I think there's
not a lot to write about it because we just
typically don't Media coverage doesn't emphasize the third phase, especially
in practice, but joint practices might be the most beneficial
day of all because of what you said, whether it
was the field goal rush team, whether it was the
kickoff coverage team, punt returns, you are going up against
(15:08):
another unit, and for the most part it's kind of
a live rep. And what impressed me is that, well, one,
you take some notes, right, you and I have been
covering this team a long time. You can kind of
start to see the trends of the roster. A guy,
a seventh rookie, seventh round pick, Michael Robinson was on
the kickoff cover team.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
That's a big thing for a young guy. The number
one kickoff cover team.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
That tells you what rich pisach and these coaches are
thinking of what the young man's doing. In two I've
been saying it a lot. I will eventually write it.
It'll probably be another week or so. But if you
ever want another we focus so much about the receiver
cornerback thing with bow Melton. If you ever want a
really good feel for what this guy does and why
he ultimately has been as successful as he's been.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Watch him on punt coverage.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, because I made this comment this past week and
I said he is, in my opinion, one man's opinion,
he's the best flyer the Packers have had since Jeff Janis.
Now some people are like, what about Jared Bush? Thanks
for checking your notes, Jared Busch's last year with the
Packers was in twenty fourteen. Jeff Janis was drafted in
twenty fourteen. Appreciate you keeping up, But the fact of
the matter is is that bow has the speed. Oh yeah,
(16:10):
and he has just that relentless tenacity. We saw it
in one of the joint actually was the practice on Tuesday.
It wasn't even the joint practice where the Packers set
up a double team against him. He split it and
he got down the field to force of you know,
a fair catch. So much is on Daniel Wheelan. It
is his job to get that ball down there and
give his gunners and give everybody as much time as
possible to get down the field.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
But bo melting with.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Four to three whatever speed makes it a lot easier too.
And as we're making this, you know case for him
in the cornerback transition, don't forget he's been a very
pivotal player on the Packers special teams as well.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, no question about it. Well, the second preseason game
is on deck here at Lucas Oil. It'll be Saturday afternoon,
a noon Central time kickoff, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
It's awesome from a work standpoint, UFC pay per view
at night, I get home for the entire thing.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
There you go, Well, we have to stick to that schedule.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Absolutely, especially in training camp.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well, UFC A side, what are you looking for on Saturday?
What will your eyes beyond in terms of watching what's
going on with the Packers?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Well, first and foremost, it will be a great opportunity
for Malik Willis and Sean Clifford and obviously Taylor elder
Zima being able to get some more reps in this game.
You're not trying to get snaps to four quarterbacks, You're
only trying to get them to three. They've obviously had
more practice reps this week. You hope that that can
help them all out. But I actually am really interested
to see the running game for Green Bay because Israel
Abana Kanda also returned at this practice. He was missed
(17:33):
one with a hamstring tweak but ended up being fine.
He was formerly with the San Francisco forty nine ers.
They brought another running back into the mix this week.
The one position where they've kind of gotten healthier though,
is that backfield. Emmanuel Wilson and Marshaw Lloyd both returned.
Matt Lafleur before practice was asked about Lloyd and just
what his reps are going to look like. He wanted
to make sure he got through that particular joint practice
(17:55):
before figuring that all out. But you had to edit
me this week, Mike, when we were writing the Insider
Inbox column.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
This might be the most.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Excited I've been to watch a player in a preseason
game because, as Lloyd even talked about it as locker
this week, it's basically, well, it has been almost a
year since he played an NFL game. Coincidentally, it was
the Colts in that regular season opener. But as he said,
even just to have like a consistent amount of reps,
it really got to go back to his time at
uc USC. So he has the explosiveness, he has the power,
(18:23):
he has the speed. There's a reason why this guy
was a third round pick and Daniel Jeremiah guys were
talking about him being the best running back in that
draft class.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And now we finally get it, hopefully a chance to
see it.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
He's had the right mentality and now hopefully he can
actually get out there and do it on the field.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, it's been an interesting week as far as the
Packers backfield because as you said, Emmanuel Wilson, Marshaun leyd
have come back from injuries. They're looking to get some
snaps in this game. A Banakanda missed a practice, but
he's back as well. And we had talked on our
last show about Damar Johnson from the preseason opener against
the Jets and and what he did. I will say
(18:57):
this as far as watching the Packers running game ye yesterday,
and there were a lot of good things that were
going on. If I were to pick one of those
backup running backs that really stood out to me in
terms of the really running hard, like we talked about
with Johnson in the Jets game, it was Chris Brooks.
Chris Brooks brought it to the Colts yesterday. He was
not shying away from contact at all, not to say
(19:19):
that any of the other guys were, but just watching
the reps that Chris Brooks got, it was like, okay,
was he had some kind of a purpose out there
that that was maybe a little bit different. So this
whole backup running back battle and how the know how
what the pecking order is going to be when the
Packers get to Week one games like this and next
week against the Seahawks are going to go a long
(19:40):
way and determining.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
That that's an excellent point.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I'm glad you brought up Chris Brooks, because sometimes you
can be sort of the forgotten man of this party
just because of how darn consistent he is and in
a lot of ways, Mike, I don't like playing the
comparison game. I obviously never liked doing that insider inbox.
But the more I watch him, the more he does
kind of remind me of that Jamal Williams type back,
a guy that had a natural foundation for pass protection,
(20:03):
for pass catching.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You're seeing some of the stuff they do with the
two backs. Stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
He comes in out of nowhere after being getting injury
settled in Miami, signs the Packers practice squad, and by
the end of the season he's the featured guy in
that there's times now where the Packers will utilize him.
We saw it in some of these practices. The Packers
have been utilizing him and then using Emmanuel Wilson as
the second pack It's not even that it has to
be the Josh Jacobs show all the time. Chris Brooks,
in addition also providing a presence on special teams. Definitely
(20:29):
got to keep an eye on as well.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Well on the defensive side of the ball against the
Colts in this preseason game. I think what you'd really
like to see is the guys who played well on
defense with the reserve units last week, can they do
it again? Can they stack the performances. And I'm talking
about guys like Colby Wooden up front, Tyron Hopper at
the linebacker level, and then in sort of a different
vein Isaiah Simmons at linebacker, who's been having a really
(20:53):
strong camp. The Jets game didn't really go the way
he wanted it to, but then he had a big
interception in the two minute against the Colts. Had a
really solid joint practice here in Indy. So does that
carry over for him now into the second preseason game
as a guy like that, a veteran guy who's trying
to find a role on this defense and whatnot as
(21:13):
he's fighting for a roster spot.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I loved his run fits too, man. I mean, yeah,
the interception, everybody kind of saw that. But earlier in
practice the Levnon elevens, when I was talking about Jonathan
Taylor not really having a lot of room Isaiah Simmons
did a phenomenal job of closing in. He kind of
has that explosiveness that Edrin Cooper has where he can
get to the spot quickly, and I felt like he
did that. The other guy, too, is obviously Tyrone Hopper,
and I keep talking about him over and over and again,
(21:36):
and the main reason for that is it's just this
depth of the inside linebacker room is why I think
we haven't seen a lot of him. It's not that
he's not ready for it. I mean he is getting
massive reps as the number two Mike linebacker. I made
the comment I don't know how you felt about it,
but an insider inbox, there would have been a time
ten years ago where they would have drafted Tyrone Hopper
and he would have been in the starting lineup on
day one.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, next to aj Hawk.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I mean like they just were that hard up for
inside backers for a long period of time.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
They were moving outside guys inside. Now they have this.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Embarrassment of riches at that position, and fortunately for them,
unlike the receiver spot, right now, they've been able to
keep that unit healthy.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, we will be off to Lucas Oil
Stadium very soon, but for now we will call it
a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure
to follow continue to follow all of our coverage of
training camp and of Saturday's preseason game from Indie. We'll
have it all for you on Packers dot com for Wes,
I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We
will see you next time.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.