April 30, 2026 • 31 mins
Mike and Wes answer various questions about the Packers’ 2026 draft class, including who was their favorite pick (1:12), who was a surprise pick (10:08), and who will be the most impactful as a rookie (17:00). They also discuss WR Jayden Reed’s contract extension and what it means for the future.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spafford, joined as always
by the one and only Wes Hodkotz. We're coming to
you here inside the halls of Lambeau Field from our
brand new studio and Wes lots more to talk about
with regard to the Packers twenty twenty six draft class.
The players. Those draft picks as well as undrafted rookies
(00:30):
tryout guys are going to be arriving today throughout the
day here in Green Bay for the two day mini
camp Friday and Saturday, so we'll get our first glimpse
of guys on the practice field, some interviews in the
locker room and whatnot on Friday. But for now, I
mentioned on our last show, I had some questions I want.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
To know, all right, I've been thinking about this for
the last forty eight hours. What is my God for?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Start exactly like brain.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Busters or anything, but.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Just to toss some things back and forth, and some
of this will be I'm sure we'll be repeating some
of our thoughts from our last show as well, but
I'll just start with asking you straight out, six guys
who is your favorite pick in this draft for the
Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Oh see, this is where I want to do the
thing where I'm like, well, this, that and the other thing. Okay,
all right, so let's do this because I'll leave some
meat on the bone there for you. With the Day
two guys, my favorite pick is probably Deny Dennis Sutton.
The main reason for that is that is the perfect example,
(01:37):
in my opinion, of value meeting need meeting a really
intriguing football player. This guy was funny. There was a
lot of comparables. I don't know how much. I don't
think you're as active on the social media as I am.
That's probably a very good thing, but.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
There was also an understatement.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But there was a lot of charts that people have
been bringing out here the last few days about how
him Dennis Sutton matches up in terms of the RAZ scores,
some of the various categories to some of these draft
picks that we've seen, top draft picks we've seen over
the last five ten years. There was one that I
wish I could source the right person who had put
this out there on x but his measurables almost line
(02:17):
up the same way with Leonard Floyd, like they're almost
to a tee the way. I think there was a
little bit of divergence maybe in the weight, but otherwise,
like they kind of line up everything forties, bench press,
all those type of measurables. Packers got themselves a really
good athletic edge rusher who, as we talked about after
the draft, I think is going to give them something
(02:38):
on special teams too. We talk about the three blocked kicks,
but the fact that this guy was a core player
in those units too. I mean, I think when you
lose a guy like jj A Ningbari, who could not
only be a really good hand against the run and
give you something in the pass rotation, pass rush rotation,
but he was a core special teams guy for all
(02:58):
four years that he was here. Now you're using that
and you would hope for the Packer's sake that Lucas
Vaness is going to graduate off of the punt coverage unit.
You're hoping that he's going to be able to focus
solely on defense now as he takes a step up
the depth chart. So they're going to need guys like
Dennis Sutton to come in. Meanwhile, when you look at
some of the areas of improvement for him. Like Lance
Zerline had pointed out others, it's about developing his array
(03:21):
of pass rushing tools. And I think he's going to
have the time in the patients and the development process
here in Green Bay to do that. When you have
a Baron Surrell there, Colin Oliver, Brenton Cox Junior, the
Packers have a number of guys that are going to
be able to handle the pass rushing stuff really on,
while Dennis Sutton takes all those tools that he has
and starts to harness them.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, And for me in this one, I was going
back and forth between whether which of the two defensive
linemen was my favorite pick in this draft, and I
was leaning toward Dennis Sutton. I saw some of those
same comparables that you were talking about, and another one
is with Daniel Hunter. Yeah, a lot of Ye, there
are a lot of things just athletically and when you're
(04:01):
talking about the measurables, and obviously Dennis Sutton hasn't played
it down in the NFL yet, but just you know,
looking at those measurables in those statistics, there's some intriguing
comparables there, and just the fact that you could find
at the one hundred and twentieth pick in the draft,
you could find a pass rusher with twenty five tackles
(04:21):
for loss in seventeen sacks in the Big Ten Conference
over the past two seasons. That says a lot. I
think there's I think there's the potential for the Packers
to have gotten some really good value there at a
position where as we've been talking about, opportunity is knocking
based on the current state of the roster.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And I thought you made the best kind of analogy
and sort of analysis of all when we were doing
the Three Things video after the draft where you mentioned
I mean, there was some questions about, Okay, well there's
no Abdual Hodge anymore, there's no you know, you look
at these pass rushers how that have moved on from
Penn State, and Dennis Sutton just kept producing. Yeah, regardless
of what the circumstances were. It wasn't just all about Okay,
(05:00):
somebody was getting so much attention that it freed him
up for some one on ones. To some extent, maybe
that's true, but when those type of pass rushers were
no longer there, he kept producing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And then you throw in the fact that the guy
blocked three punts last year. He led the nation, led
the entire FBS in college football in block punts, and
you know, you wonder, you know, maybe is that is
that something the Packers can tap into as well? But
as I said, I was going back and forth, and
so I will focus on the third round draft pick,
Chris mccollin, the defensive tackle out of Missouri. And when
(05:34):
you're talking about the you know, the athleticism and the
measurables and all that, this is a guy that doesn't
have that right right. This is a guy where the
RAZ score isn't up there with where some of the
other Packers draft picks are, et cetera. But I'll go
back to what I said on the last show, and
this partly goes to the research I was doing on
(05:54):
interior defensive linemen for the Prospect Primer series leading up
to the draft, where I was looking looking at, you know,
the day too, the round two, round three guys who
were projected to go in that area, not talking about
the round one defensive tackles, but you know who might
be available there for the Packers, and most of those
guys when you're doing the research and you're looking them up.
(06:15):
They're guys that you know, it's like they had one
sack here or one and a half sacks there. And
McClellan is a guy who you know has the size
and the strength and all that is there to stop
the run. But he also had six sacks last year,
and that is that's really really impressive for an interior
defensive linement. And again in a conference like the SEC.
(06:36):
You know, so I don't know how much McClellan is
going to play as a rookie. I mean, if the
Packers get DeVante Wyatt back full strength from that awful
leg injury and in Detroit last Thanksgiving, and you've brought
in Javon Hargrave, you still have Carl Brooks, who's now
going to be a fourth year veteran, you know, on
(06:56):
this team. They don't need to ask Chris McClellan to
go in there and get six sacs as a rookie.
That's not the point. But where he could be down
the road with what he's bringing to the table right now,
I'm really really intrigued by that and the fact that
Brian Goutukunz was very upfront with us saying that McClellan
(07:18):
was a consideration in the second round at pick number
fifty two when they took Brandon Seesay, and he was
still there in the third round, but he wasn't one
hundred percent convinced he was going to get all the
way to eighty four, so he made the move, traded
up seven spots to seventy seven, made sure he got him,
and then as you pointed out, between seventy seven and
eighty four, there were two other defensive tackles that won
(07:41):
off the board. So yes, very likely Chris McClellan may
not have been there. And I think things really fell
into place nicely for the Packers with Gutakunz making the
aggressive move.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, and so many times we talked Mike about, Okay,
what can a guy give you right away as a
year one contributor, And I think the focus is so
heavily on well, what does it mean for week one
or week two? But keep in mind when you look
at Kenny Clark, when you look at DeVante, why when
you go back and look at the Mike Daniels, their
production it was there, but it was all during that
final stretch of the regular season, during their rookie campaigns,
(08:14):
and in Kenny's case, it ended up taking him over
a year to get that first NFL sack. It's about
the progression, it's about getting them in the system. And
you're right when you look at the defensive front this year,
this first year under Jonathan Gannon, with this transition that
they're going to make with this defensive front, it's going
to be on Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave to be
the guys that are sort of carrying the torch there
with the Carl Brooks who now enters that fourth year.
(08:36):
As you pointed out, these are guys now that have
a lot of reps, a lot of snaps underneath their belt.
So it's an intriguing thing. There's a lot of question
marks there as far as okay, who's going to be
the guy right? How is the four or five man
rotation going to shake out? But behind those first three
guys in that spot is a world of opportunity, whether
it's McClellan, whether it is you know, an Azier Stackhouse
(08:58):
or Warren Brinson coming back, Jonathan Ford, who gives you
a different type of body type at that position. That's
where green May needs to get to and I feel
like to get there, you have to keep guys coming
up in the system. And Green Bay made a big
decision this offseason when they traded Colby Wooden was one
part of it, but then also trying to figure out
exactly what this next step forward is going to be
(09:20):
at the defensive tackle position. McClellan is built for that
for the future. And then also keep in mind too,
when you look at RAZ scores and things like that,
some of the best defensive interior defensive linemen the Packers
have had haven't had the best RAZ scores in the world. Yes,
McClellan runs a really good forty, but it's tough to
find guys that are going to just blow you away
on all these different metrics. TJ. Slayton was not one
(09:42):
of those guys, right, because he's a thirty three hundred
and forty pounds man. So, I mean, it's just it's
the way that this thing, this thing goes sometimes, so
you can't compare them always to edge rushers and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But even though TJ. Slayton didn't he do that whole
jump out of the swimming.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Pool, Yeah he could do this, yeah, yeah, yeah, a
lot of power in those legs, that's for sure. But yeah,
it's yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be fun to
watch to see how all these guys take for them.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All Right, question number two, your surprise pick of.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
This jury's tray smack. It has to be just because
the context in which it happened as well, right, and
it's this is I'm not comparing apples to apples here,
but it almost kind of felt like that Jordan Love
where they traded up to get Love back in twenty
twenty when they had Aaron Rodgers. You brought back both
of your kickers for last year, not only Brandon McManus,
but Lucas Haversick is also still on this roster, and
(10:29):
then you trade up into the sixth round to get
the guy the Packers undeniably felt was the best player,
the best kicker in this draft. The one thing I
was I toyed around with using this, and then I
figured that people an insider inbox would take this the
wrong way, so I ended up not writing it in
today's edition. But I kind of explored the idea of
when you look at the seventh round, yes, you can
(10:50):
always find contributors and sometimes yes, once in a generation
you find Donald Driver too. Yeah, but whether it was
Rashid Walker as a three year starting left tackle or
a guy like Carrington Allentine who's been in the conversation
every year he's been in Green Bay. You can always
find contributors, but it is very difficult to find pro
bowlers in all pros in the seventh round. Zire Franklin,
who just got traded to Green Bay is one of
(11:11):
the very few in the last ten years that has
done it. Obviously brock Perty is mister Irrelevant, but most
often you're finding guys that are either going to start
on the practice squad and maybe develop into something, or
someone's going to be a special teams contributor. So to
take those two seventh round picks and find a way
to get the best kicker in the draft, I actually
feel like is a really good, proven investment on Green
(11:32):
Bay's case. And also keep in mind, one last time
I'll say this, the roster fluidity is so different now
than it once was. I don't think we're ever going
to see an arrow where teams are carrying two kickers
going into a season. I doubt it, but it's not
as gridlocked as it once was with the fifty three
man roster, with the forty five man roster, with a
ten player practice squad, all those numbers have boomed in
(11:54):
the last well really since COVID, so there's a lot
more flexibility there. So for Brian to make that investment,
which I think was a very low risk, high reward
proposition for Green Bay, I agree. I just feel like
this is the type of move you make not only
for this season, but if Trace Mack ends up being
your kicker for the next thirteen years, fifteen years, like
Mason Crosby was. Yeah, I think everybody would agree. Two
(12:16):
seventh pick, seventh round picks and a draft that wasn't
considered overly deep, that wasn't a bad move.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, I agree, And that is the obvious selection. As
far as a surprise pick, the other one that I'll
throw in there to me that was a surprise was
in the fifth round Jagger Burton, and I wasn't surprised
that the Packers took an offensive lineman there. When their
first three picks were cornerback dtackle and then edge rusher,
it was like, Okay, I was expecting that next pick
(12:45):
to probably be an offensive lineman. There was a pretty
good chance it was going to be. What surprised me
is that they drafted an offensive lineman who did not
play tackle at all in college. I thought they were
going to go for the for the potential backup offensive tackle.
I was sort of like, okay, here the next Zach
Tom or David Bakhtiari or even t J. Lang who
started his career as a as a backup offensive tackle
(13:07):
before he moved inside the guard. They drafted Burton out
of Kentucky, who has been strictly an interior player, and
it just as we talked about on the last show,
it made me start to rethink, you know, okay, how
does Brian gudokunsk view the depth on the offensive line
right now? And it makes you remember, oh yeah, a
couple of years ago, they spent a sixth round draft
(13:28):
pick on an offensive tackle named Travis Glover who, yes,
they were working him at guard and he had to
go in and play guard in a playoff game as
a rookie, but then his second season was a total
washout due to injury. That's a big man who can
play offensive tackle that they feel, okay, he comes back healthy,
he can be a guy in the mix, you know,
as far as the depth. And then you have a
(13:49):
veteran like Darien Kinnard, whom Brian Gudokun spent a draft
pick to acquire in a trade from Philadelphia. So it's
like you see the decisions that are made in the
draft and then you and then it makes you. It
makes you sort of look at the roster again and go, oh, yeah,
this is what they see or this is what they're thinking.
And so that's why Burton was was a bit of
(14:09):
a surprise, and it made me made my wheels start
to turn a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, because when you get a guy like that, even
if you remember when they drafted Josh Myers, there was
actually some questions about, hey, could he potentially play a
tackle position. He did that a little bit at Ohio State.
You're now getting a guy who truly is a three
interior offensive lineman who probably should major in center based
on how his last year win at Kentucky. So I
think that's a good pick. The other thing I'll throw
(14:33):
down as an honorable mention, it's not anybody that the
Packers pick, but it's the fact that they did not
pick a tight end or a quarterback or a running back, yeah,
or a receiver. If we would have went into this
draft even if they said, even if they told us
on Thursday morning, the Packers are going to only end
up with four picks. If you'd have told me that
(14:53):
one offensive, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Six picks, six picks four on Sat.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Four. Yeah, only one of those players was going to
be an offensive player, and it was gonna be alignment.
I would not have I would have probably scoffed at that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I would have thought, based on what I said on
our preview edition of the Draft unscripted talking about the draft,
I would have thought a tight end for sure was
in the cards. If not a tight end, okay, maybe
there was a quarterback that they end up taking. If
not a quarterback, well then maybe they do add another
running back to the room. And then if nothing else,
we'll see what happens at receiver. Now, the way that
wide outs went off the board all three days, yeah,
(15:29):
like it was an ascended Heroes Pokemon etb on a
books a store shelf. Those things just flew right off, right.
So I was stunned. Not necessarily the Packers didn't end
up taking a receiver, but how quickly all those receivers
came off the board. That being said, there was still
a lot of good value on Day three at tight end.
Brian Goodikins even mentioned it in his post draft press
(15:52):
conference that they're still kind of looking for that why
body that blocking in line tight end that they lost
with John Fitzpatrick going down with the Hill's injury. They
have some big bodies on the roster. They also have
the opportunity potentially look at a tackle as a sixth
offensive lineman again, but.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
As a role Canard was playing a late last season.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, but you and I we've covered this team. You know,
you've covered forever, you know, a couple of years after
you we've seen what Matt Lafleur in particular wants to do.
He wants to have that Mercedes Lewis type tight end
in there where it opens up your two tight end packages,
allows you to funnel in different types of personnel. So
if there was ever a position that I could definitely
see Green Bay signing this offseason on a veteran front
(16:33):
is probably is at that white tight end.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah all right, Well, a couple more questions I want
to throw at you, But first we will pay some
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(16:56):
All right, Wes, another question I'm going to throw at you,
which draft pick do you see making the biggest impact
on this team as a rookie.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I'm going to probably say ce say in the second round.
There only because we saw what happened last year. I
think it's very conceivable, very probable even that the Packers
will go into the season with those top four veterans
as the guys, right, whether it be you know, Carrington
Valentine or Benjamin Saint Juice lining up across from Keyshawn Nixon.
(17:26):
Obviously you know Javon Bullard at the nickel right. But
we've seen time and time again Michael In last year
was probably the perfect embodiment of it. How quickly that
depth can get depleted, how quickly an injury here or
there can change the entire complexion of a secondary Cisa
is a very young player. He's twenty years old. But
(17:46):
the more I've watched his film over the past week,
the more you understand why Green Bay was so high
on him, because I think he just brings a physicality
that position that you look for. He does remind me
in a lot of ways of that Keishawn Nixon type,
who is he not afraid to throw his shoulder into
a ball carrier, He is not afraid to go up
and get physical. And then when you throw in the
(18:08):
fact that he's as young as he is, this is
a guy that I think very easily could slide into
a rotational role right out of the gate based on
what his physical traits are as he allows his experience
to catch up with him. So it's not totally out
of the realm of the possibilities that both him and
Demani Jackson could watch most of this season from afar.
(18:29):
I think the Packers have the depth and the returning
depth at those positions in the secondary to do it.
But when you are counting on a base defense practically
these days that incorporates five defensive backs, when you sometimes
have to go as deep as six, it just stands
to reason there's going to be times where you're gonna
have to count on a young guy to step in
and the way that this thing lays out with Green
(18:49):
Bay and what they lost this offseason, CC is right
there as the next man up. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
And for me with this one as far as biggest
impact as a rookie, I've been going back and forth
between first and last pick. Yeah, right, ce say, I
think is is a clear choice there, because this is
a I mean, when you're talking about a guy who's
twenty years old, gonna turn twenty one, I believe at
the end of training camp and with with everything that
(19:16):
we know about him so far, this is a guy
that you could see that by week nine, week ten,
week eleven is going to start to work his way
into the if he doesn't just flat out win a
job coming out of training camp, which I'm not ruling out,
but that would that would be kind of rare, I
think in this instance. But it's a guy that you know,
come November, come Thanksgiving, you could see a young player
(19:40):
like this starting to earn more and more snaps and
get a bigger role in whatever rotation Jonathan Gannon is
going to be using with those defensive backs, and so
that's where I think we could be looking at a
significant rookie impact maybe down the stretch here from CSA.
But as I said, the other one I've been thinking
(20:01):
about is the last pick Tray Smack, because if he
wins this job, if he wins this job, his impact
will be undeniable. And and it's just it's going to
be such a it's going to be such a fascinating
story to watch, and so different from when the Packers
made the draft investment in Anders Carlson a couple of
(20:23):
years ago, because they had already decided to move on
from Mason crossby right, and so there was going to
be a new kicker, and they made, you know, the
investment in the draft pick, and okay, here we go,
and he started out great and then things started to
get sideways and he never quite got back on track.
This is this is going to be a full fledged
competition between an accomplished veteran who has been there, done
(20:46):
that in this league and a young guy who, as
you've said, clearly was the best kicker in this draft,
has the leg to make field goals from any distance
that they would ask him to. And is he going
to have what it takes to beat out a veteran
like Brandon mcmanuson Oh yeah, By the way. The other guy,
(21:06):
Lucas Haversick in the mix, kicked a sixty one yarder
last year for the Packers as well, So he's no
slouch in this hole, in this whole idea either. But
the potential, the potential for major rookie impact from Trey
Smack is undeniable if he wins the job.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And it's funny that those are the two guys we
end up talking about in this segment. It's two positions
that historically Green Bay you've seen rookies play at. You know,
whether it was Anders or you want to go back
to two thousand and seven with Mason Crosby after he
beat out Dave Rayner, he was the guy right out
of the gate. Meanwhile at Cisay at cornerback, and you
even when if you want to expand it to just
the secondary and defensive backs in general, jyr Alexander came in,
(21:45):
made himself undeniable. Casey Hayward came in twenty twelve as
a second round pick, made himself undeniable. Javon Bullard we've
seen it. We saw Evan Williams out of the fourth
round two years ago. There's just something about that position
and maybe it's a credit to the players, the scouts,
maybe even the coach that have been able to develop them.
But Green Bay had many times has had to call
upon those young dbs to make plays and they have.
(22:06):
And then conversely at the kicker position, especially if you
only keep one, that's your gig, young man, right, go
on and be successful. But yeah, I think the one
salient point too that was raised. I was thinking about
this after they drafted Smack was Brian at the end
of the season. I think it was his first presser
(22:28):
kind of reviewing the season, everyone getting the extensions, and
he was talking to us up in the Legends club
at the Lambellfield ah Trium, and he mentioned the patience
that is sometimes required of an NFL GM and how
at times he probably hasn't been patient enough, using JK
Scott and as an example. I still always give Brian
a little bit of grace in that. I think JK
is as good as he's become in the league. I
(22:48):
think it's helped him that he's been out in LA
as opposed to him punting in Green Bay. It seemed
like that wasn't an ideal fit.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
We saw with And again to your point, we saw
with JK. Scott early in the season he was clearly
an NFL punter who could succeed in this league. When
it got late in the year and he has to
kick in Green Bay, has to kick in Chicago, the
cold weather, it didn't work for him.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
You know that's where we always saw the fall off
at the end of the season. So I give Brian
Gudukun some grace there as well.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
But you know what's interesting about this kid in Trey Smack.
He's from Maryland. He even mentioned during his press conference
with US. Yes, he kicked at Florida one hundred thousand,
you know, seed stadiums in the SEC, mostly hot weather.
But he's from Maryland. He remembers being a kid going
out and kicking in the snow, and you know Christmas
Eve you mentioned eight years ago, being outside kicking the
ball around. He's familiar with those conditions. It's gonna get
(23:39):
tested a little bit by how extreme sometimes it can
get in Green Bay. Definitely, But all that being said,
I just I watched the videos of him and his
leg talent. It is evident, man, And I know, if
you're gonna kick in the NFL, you gotta have a
decent leg. Brandon McManus has a good one too, But
the way that the ball explodes off Smack's foot. When
(24:00):
you talk about why the Packers made this move and
what they're hoping to get out of it, I mean,
it's everything you look for. Now. It comes down to
the number one thing, as Brian goodikins, the scout has
to look for, and that's it going through the upgrade.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, exactly, no doubt. Well, there's one other thing that
we need to talk about from draft weekend that was
not necessarily draft related, but we haven't had a chance
to discuss it yet, and that is that a matter
of hours before the Packers made their first pick in
this draft on Friday night, they extended wide receiver Jaden
Reid multi year contract extension, the first of what. I
(24:36):
think the Packers are planning on several contract extensions here
of guys that they're looking at, and we'll talk about
them over the next several months or whatever the case
might be. But Jaden Reid coming off of a disappointing
season because of the injury issues with the foot and
the broken collarbone in Week two, and you know, he
missed essentially like three quarters of the season or whatever
(24:58):
it was, and quite frankly didn't really ever looked like
he was all the way back to me. But a young, dynamic,
explosive receiver who is going to be in Green Bay
long term.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, and it's funny. You got to remember what this
guy has done and how quickly he's done it here, right,
I mean, he was the leading receiver in his first
two seasons for the Packers, broke Sterling Sharp's single season
record for catches as a rookie. I think it was
sixty four. I think he ended up with.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
And Sharp's rookie franchise record was fifty five, so he
kind of blew it out of the water.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah. I mean he was just such a focal point
of the offense. I remember being in philip I should
say we were actually in South Paulo, Brazil, but I
remember watching that game against Philadelphia and I just thought
to myself, I mean, the Packers have a superstar. Yeah,
the way he was affecting that game, the catches he
was making in the Eagles secondary didn't really have an
answer for him, especially in that first half, to have
him locked up and then you see the numbers and
(25:52):
you can go find all those on the internet. But
they made sense for the player, they made sense for
the organization. It's a different version kind of the they
did with Christian Watson last year, right where for Reid
it puts money in his pocket, it gets them some security,
also gives him a chance for another contract in a
few years. Meanwhile, Green Bay with how these contracts are
absolutely skyrocking at the receiver position, and we're probably gonna
(26:15):
be talking about it again here in the next six
to ten months. With Christian Watson, the Packers got somebody
locked up now for the future. That isn't just their
rookie draft picks from last year. So Red, that's a
big one. I had a fun with this because when
it all went down, it reminded me so much of
twenty thirteen, when I'll never forget. It was myself, Rob
(26:36):
Damofski and Mike Vandermoss. We were doing our live stream
before the first day of the NFL Draft, and in
the middle of it, we caught word that Aaron Rodgers
had signed his extension, and Rob and I ended up
getting into a big argument on camera about the scale
of it, because I said it was the most important
thing that's going to happen all draft weekend. Rob pushed
back on me on that because he's like, we all
(26:56):
knew this was gonna happen. We all knew this is
gonna happen. Well, the Packers drafted Aton Jones, and then
you know, Aaron Rodgers did a press conference the same day.
I mean, you asked the modern fan, you know who
they're going to know more about at that point, It's
gonna be Aaron Rodgers. But I digress. Yeah, but it
brought me back to that moment where getting a deal
done right in the eleventh hour there before the start
(27:17):
of the draft. I mean, obviously the Packers didn't have
a pick that day, but when you factor in being
able to extend Reid, obviously Micah Parsons and what he's
brought to this football team in that defense, I'd say
it was still a good opening round there for Green Bath.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, and Brian Gudakunsk has made no secret of his
desire to have guys like Christian Watson, Tucker Craft, DeVante
Wyatt in the plans long term here as well. And
obviously there's there are things that need to be worked out,
both on the financial side and on the health side
with a couple of those guys and all that. So
(27:54):
that's that's what's on that's what's on the radar coming up.
But this was this was sort of the first of
we we didn't know what order they were going to
go in necessarily, this was sort of the first one,
and hopefully it's the it's the first of several, because
you see these these guy these guys are the foundation, right,
These are the guys who have who have come in
(28:14):
within the last four to five years, been brought into
Green Bay and and they are they are the foundation
of what the Packers are doing on the field. They're
also the foundation of the leadership in the locker room
and all of that that we've seen and and hopefully
there are more of these extensions to come.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I was thinking about this a couple of days ago too.
I don't know, and again I offer no predictions, but
I don't know if I can ever think of a
more of a shoe in for an extension independent of
even the knee injury over the last eight years than
Tucker Craft is. Yeah, I was thinking, I'm like, I
think DeVante Adams made a lot of sense in eighteen
(28:55):
when they got they got him and Corey Linsley done
I think on the same day or close to it. Yeah,
But there's been a lot of these where we weren't sure, right,
we didn't know what was gonna happen. Christian Watson last year.
There was times where some of these defensive players that
they've extended, we weren't sure if they were gonna come
or they were gonna go. Even Aaron Jones, both of
Jones's contracts, I didn't really know whether or not he
was gonna be back in Green Bay. But Kraft just
(29:18):
he makes sense for the team, He makes sense for
the for himself. And I'll tell you what, man, if
Tucker Craft can stay healthy, he is the bona fide
definition of a tight end. You want to see in
this offense for ten years, right, just a decade, See
where he takes the whole thing. See where he just obliterates,
you know, franchise records and build an offense around him. Packers.
(29:40):
There was there is years, Mike where you and I
we would sit in the off season be like, Okay,
so who's gonna be the tight end next year? Right?
I mean from the Jared Cook transition to Martell's Bennett
to Jimmy Graham. The Packers kind of had to keep
digging and digging and digging, and now I think they
found one of the topest sending stars in this league
at that position. Yeah, and it's just too bad about
the kne injurycause I think if not for the injury,
(30:01):
we might already be talking about it being done.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Well he and Yeah, I think we would be talking
about his extension already being done, and we'd be talking
about heading into this year. How his twenty twenty five
season shattered all the Packers single season tight end records
because he was on pace receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.
He was on pace in twenty twenty five to have
the best single season by a Packers tight end in history,
(30:23):
and unfortunately, right around the halfway point, it it ended.
But we know Tucker. We've were interested, obviously to talk
to him again when he gets healthy, but he's not
going to let this stop him.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
This is also why I wanted them to draft a
tight end so badly, because we're at the point now
with Tucker going into your fort dude, you just want
to get as many young tight ends around him as possible. Right,
he can have his own little tight end you over
in South Dakota. Yeah, the way that this thing is
going in, the personality type that he has, Yeah, yeah,
no doubt. It'd be fun.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Well, we've got the Rookie Minichamp coming up this weekend,
so on next week shows we will talk about our
first impressions actually getting to see these guys up close,
meet some of them, talk to them and whatnot. But
for now we'll call it a rap on this edition
of Packers on Script. It'd be sure to follow all
of our coverage of the team and everything with Rookie
Minni Camp this weekend. We'll have it all for you
on Packers dot com for Wesiammike, thank you for tuning
(31:17):
in everybody. We will see you next time.
Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spafford, joined as always
by the one and only Wes Hodkotz. We're coming to
you here inside the halls of Lambeau Field from our
brand new studio and Wes lots more to talk about
with regard to the Packers twenty twenty six draft class.
The players. Those draft picks as well as undrafted rookies
(00:30):
tryout guys are going to be arriving today throughout the
day here in Green Bay for the two day mini
camp Friday and Saturday, so we'll get our first glimpse
of guys on the practice field, some interviews in the
locker room and whatnot on Friday. But for now, I
mentioned on our last show, I had some questions I want.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
To know, all right, I've been thinking about this for
the last forty eight hours. What is my God for?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Start exactly like brain.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Busters or anything, but.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Just to toss some things back and forth, and some
of this will be I'm sure we'll be repeating some
of our thoughts from our last show as well, but
I'll just start with asking you straight out, six guys
who is your favorite pick in this draft for the
Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Oh see, this is where I want to do the
thing where I'm like, well, this, that and the other thing. Okay,
all right, so let's do this because I'll leave some
meat on the bone there for you. With the Day
two guys, my favorite pick is probably Deny Dennis Sutton.
The main reason for that is that is the perfect example,
(01:37):
in my opinion, of value meeting need meeting a really
intriguing football player. This guy was funny. There was a
lot of comparables. I don't know how much. I don't
think you're as active on the social media as I am.
That's probably a very good thing, but.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
There was also an understatement.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But there was a lot of charts that people have
been bringing out here the last few days about how
him Dennis Sutton matches up in terms of the RAZ scores,
some of the various categories to some of these draft
picks that we've seen, top draft picks we've seen over
the last five ten years. There was one that I
wish I could source the right person who had put
this out there on x but his measurables almost line
(02:17):
up the same way with Leonard Floyd, like they're almost
to a tee the way. I think there was a
little bit of divergence maybe in the weight, but otherwise,
like they kind of line up everything forties, bench press,
all those type of measurables. Packers got themselves a really
good athletic edge rusher who, as we talked about after
the draft, I think is going to give them something
(02:38):
on special teams too. We talk about the three blocked kicks,
but the fact that this guy was a core player
in those units too. I mean, I think when you
lose a guy like jj A Ningbari, who could not
only be a really good hand against the run and
give you something in the pass rotation, pass rush rotation,
but he was a core special teams guy for all
(02:58):
four years that he was here. Now you're using that
and you would hope for the Packer's sake that Lucas
Vaness is going to graduate off of the punt coverage unit.
You're hoping that he's going to be able to focus
solely on defense now as he takes a step up
the depth chart. So they're going to need guys like
Dennis Sutton to come in. Meanwhile, when you look at
some of the areas of improvement for him. Like Lance
Zerline had pointed out others, it's about developing his array
(03:21):
of pass rushing tools. And I think he's going to
have the time in the patients and the development process
here in Green Bay to do that. When you have
a Baron Surrell there, Colin Oliver, Brenton Cox Junior, the
Packers have a number of guys that are going to
be able to handle the pass rushing stuff really on,
while Dennis Sutton takes all those tools that he has
and starts to harness them.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, And for me in this one, I was going
back and forth between whether which of the two defensive
linemen was my favorite pick in this draft, and I
was leaning toward Dennis Sutton. I saw some of those
same comparables that you were talking about, and another one
is with Daniel Hunter. Yeah, a lot of Ye, there
are a lot of things just athletically and when you're
(04:01):
talking about the measurables, and obviously Dennis Sutton hasn't played
it down in the NFL yet, but just you know,
looking at those measurables in those statistics, there's some intriguing
comparables there, and just the fact that you could find
at the one hundred and twentieth pick in the draft,
you could find a pass rusher with twenty five tackles
(04:21):
for loss in seventeen sacks in the Big Ten Conference
over the past two seasons. That says a lot. I
think there's I think there's the potential for the Packers
to have gotten some really good value there at a
position where as we've been talking about, opportunity is knocking
based on the current state of the roster.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And I thought you made the best kind of analogy
and sort of analysis of all when we were doing
the Three Things video after the draft where you mentioned
I mean, there was some questions about, Okay, well there's
no Abdual Hodge anymore, there's no you know, you look
at these pass rushers how that have moved on from
Penn State, and Dennis Sutton just kept producing. Yeah, regardless
of what the circumstances were. It wasn't just all about Okay,
(05:00):
somebody was getting so much attention that it freed him
up for some one on ones. To some extent, maybe
that's true, but when those type of pass rushers were
no longer there, he kept producing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And then you throw in the fact that the guy
blocked three punts last year. He led the nation, led
the entire FBS in college football in block punts, and
you know, you wonder, you know, maybe is that is
that something the Packers can tap into as well? But
as I said, I was going back and forth, and
so I will focus on the third round draft pick,
Chris mccollin, the defensive tackle out of Missouri. And when
(05:34):
you're talking about the you know, the athleticism and the
measurables and all that, this is a guy that doesn't
have that right right. This is a guy where the
RAZ score isn't up there with where some of the
other Packers draft picks are, et cetera. But I'll go
back to what I said on the last show, and
this partly goes to the research I was doing on
(05:54):
interior defensive linemen for the Prospect Primer series leading up
to the draft, where I was looking looking at, you know,
the day too, the round two, round three guys who
were projected to go in that area, not talking about
the round one defensive tackles, but you know who might
be available there for the Packers, and most of those
guys when you're doing the research and you're looking them up.
(06:15):
They're guys that you know, it's like they had one
sack here or one and a half sacks there. And
McClellan is a guy who you know has the size
and the strength and all that is there to stop
the run. But he also had six sacks last year,
and that is that's really really impressive for an interior
defensive linement. And again in a conference like the SEC.
(06:36):
You know, so I don't know how much McClellan is
going to play as a rookie. I mean, if the
Packers get DeVante Wyatt back full strength from that awful
leg injury and in Detroit last Thanksgiving, and you've brought
in Javon Hargrave, you still have Carl Brooks, who's now
going to be a fourth year veteran, you know, on
(06:56):
this team. They don't need to ask Chris McClellan to
go in there and get six sacs as a rookie.
That's not the point. But where he could be down
the road with what he's bringing to the table right now,
I'm really really intrigued by that and the fact that
Brian Goutukunz was very upfront with us saying that McClellan
(07:18):
was a consideration in the second round at pick number
fifty two when they took Brandon Seesay, and he was
still there in the third round, but he wasn't one
hundred percent convinced he was going to get all the
way to eighty four, so he made the move, traded
up seven spots to seventy seven, made sure he got him,
and then as you pointed out, between seventy seven and
eighty four, there were two other defensive tackles that won
(07:41):
off the board. So yes, very likely Chris McClellan may
not have been there. And I think things really fell
into place nicely for the Packers with Gutakunz making the
aggressive move.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, and so many times we talked Mike about, Okay,
what can a guy give you right away as a
year one contributor, And I think the focus is so
heavily on well, what does it mean for week one
or week two? But keep in mind when you look
at Kenny Clark, when you look at DeVante, why when
you go back and look at the Mike Daniels, their
production it was there, but it was all during that
final stretch of the regular season, during their rookie campaigns,
(08:14):
and in Kenny's case, it ended up taking him over
a year to get that first NFL sack. It's about
the progression, it's about getting them in the system. And
you're right when you look at the defensive front this year,
this first year under Jonathan Gannon, with this transition that
they're going to make with this defensive front, it's going
to be on Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave to be
the guys that are sort of carrying the torch there
with the Carl Brooks who now enters that fourth year.
(08:36):
As you pointed out, these are guys now that have
a lot of reps, a lot of snaps underneath their belt.
So it's an intriguing thing. There's a lot of question
marks there as far as okay, who's going to be
the guy right? How is the four or five man
rotation going to shake out? But behind those first three
guys in that spot is a world of opportunity, whether
it's McClellan, whether it is you know, an Azier Stackhouse
(08:58):
or Warren Brinson coming back, Jonathan Ford, who gives you
a different type of body type at that position. That's
where green May needs to get to and I feel
like to get there, you have to keep guys coming
up in the system. And Green Bay made a big
decision this offseason when they traded Colby Wooden was one
part of it, but then also trying to figure out
exactly what this next step forward is going to be
(09:20):
at the defensive tackle position. McClellan is built for that
for the future. And then also keep in mind too,
when you look at RAZ scores and things like that,
some of the best defensive interior defensive linemen the Packers
have had haven't had the best RAZ scores in the world. Yes,
McClellan runs a really good forty, but it's tough to
find guys that are going to just blow you away
on all these different metrics. TJ. Slayton was not one
(09:42):
of those guys, right, because he's a thirty three hundred
and forty pounds man. So, I mean, it's just it's
the way that this thing, this thing goes sometimes, so
you can't compare them always to edge rushers and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But even though TJ. Slayton didn't he do that whole
jump out of the swimming.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Pool, Yeah he could do this, yeah, yeah, yeah, a
lot of power in those legs, that's for sure. But yeah,
it's yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be fun to
watch to see how all these guys take for them.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All Right, question number two, your surprise pick of.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
This jury's tray smack. It has to be just because
the context in which it happened as well, right, and
it's this is I'm not comparing apples to apples here,
but it almost kind of felt like that Jordan Love
where they traded up to get Love back in twenty
twenty when they had Aaron Rodgers. You brought back both
of your kickers for last year, not only Brandon McManus,
but Lucas Haversick is also still on this roster, and
(10:29):
then you trade up into the sixth round to get
the guy the Packers undeniably felt was the best player,
the best kicker in this draft. The one thing I
was I toyed around with using this, and then I
figured that people an insider inbox would take this the
wrong way, so I ended up not writing it in
today's edition. But I kind of explored the idea of
when you look at the seventh round, yes, you can
(10:50):
always find contributors and sometimes yes, once in a generation
you find Donald Driver too. Yeah, but whether it was
Rashid Walker as a three year starting left tackle or
a guy like Carrington Allentine who's been in the conversation
every year he's been in Green Bay. You can always
find contributors, but it is very difficult to find pro
bowlers in all pros in the seventh round. Zire Franklin,
who just got traded to Green Bay is one of
(11:11):
the very few in the last ten years that has
done it. Obviously brock Perty is mister Irrelevant, but most
often you're finding guys that are either going to start
on the practice squad and maybe develop into something, or
someone's going to be a special teams contributor. So to
take those two seventh round picks and find a way
to get the best kicker in the draft, I actually
feel like is a really good, proven investment on Green
(11:32):
Bay's case. And also keep in mind, one last time
I'll say this, the roster fluidity is so different now
than it once was. I don't think we're ever going
to see an arrow where teams are carrying two kickers
going into a season. I doubt it, but it's not
as gridlocked as it once was with the fifty three
man roster, with the forty five man roster, with a
ten player practice squad, all those numbers have boomed in
(11:54):
the last well really since COVID, so there's a lot
more flexibility there. So for Brian to make that investment,
which I think was a very low risk, high reward
proposition for Green Bay, I agree. I just feel like
this is the type of move you make not only
for this season, but if Trace Mack ends up being
your kicker for the next thirteen years, fifteen years, like
Mason Crosby was. Yeah, I think everybody would agree. Two
(12:16):
seventh pick, seventh round picks and a draft that wasn't
considered overly deep, that wasn't a bad move.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, I agree, And that is the obvious selection. As
far as a surprise pick, the other one that I'll
throw in there to me that was a surprise was
in the fifth round Jagger Burton, and I wasn't surprised
that the Packers took an offensive lineman there. When their
first three picks were cornerback dtackle and then edge rusher,
it was like, Okay, I was expecting that next pick
(12:45):
to probably be an offensive lineman. There was a pretty
good chance it was going to be. What surprised me
is that they drafted an offensive lineman who did not
play tackle at all in college. I thought they were
going to go for the for the potential backup offensive tackle.
I was sort of like, okay, here the next Zach
Tom or David Bakhtiari or even t J. Lang who
started his career as a as a backup offensive tackle
(13:07):
before he moved inside the guard. They drafted Burton out
of Kentucky, who has been strictly an interior player, and
it just as we talked about on the last show,
it made me start to rethink, you know, okay, how
does Brian gudokunsk view the depth on the offensive line
right now? And it makes you remember, oh yeah, a
couple of years ago, they spent a sixth round draft
(13:28):
pick on an offensive tackle named Travis Glover who, yes,
they were working him at guard and he had to
go in and play guard in a playoff game as
a rookie, but then his second season was a total
washout due to injury. That's a big man who can
play offensive tackle that they feel, okay, he comes back healthy,
he can be a guy in the mix, you know,
as far as the depth. And then you have a
(13:49):
veteran like Darien Kinnard, whom Brian Gudokun spent a draft
pick to acquire in a trade from Philadelphia. So it's
like you see the decisions that are made in the
draft and then you and then it makes you. It
makes you sort of look at the roster again and go, oh, yeah,
this is what they see or this is what they're thinking.
And so that's why Burton was was a bit of
(14:09):
a surprise, and it made me made my wheels start
to turn a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, because when you get a guy like that, even
if you remember when they drafted Josh Myers, there was
actually some questions about, hey, could he potentially play a
tackle position. He did that a little bit at Ohio State.
You're now getting a guy who truly is a three
interior offensive lineman who probably should major in center based
on how his last year win at Kentucky. So I
think that's a good pick. The other thing I'll throw
(14:33):
down as an honorable mention, it's not anybody that the
Packers pick, but it's the fact that they did not
pick a tight end or a quarterback or a running back, yeah,
or a receiver. If we would have went into this
draft even if they said, even if they told us
on Thursday morning, the Packers are going to only end
up with four picks. If you'd have told me that
(14:53):
one offensive, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Six picks, six picks four on Sat.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Four. Yeah, only one of those players was going to
be an offensive player, and it was gonna be alignment.
I would not have I would have probably scoffed at that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I would have thought, based on what I said on
our preview edition of the Draft unscripted talking about the draft,
I would have thought a tight end for sure was
in the cards. If not a tight end, okay, maybe
there was a quarterback that they end up taking. If
not a quarterback, well then maybe they do add another
running back to the room. And then if nothing else,
we'll see what happens at receiver. Now, the way that
wide outs went off the board all three days, yeah,
(15:29):
like it was an ascended Heroes Pokemon etb on a
books a store shelf. Those things just flew right off, right.
So I was stunned. Not necessarily the Packers didn't end
up taking a receiver, but how quickly all those receivers
came off the board. That being said, there was still
a lot of good value on Day three at tight end.
Brian Goodikins even mentioned it in his post draft press
(15:52):
conference that they're still kind of looking for that why
body that blocking in line tight end that they lost
with John Fitzpatrick going down with the Hill's injury. They
have some big bodies on the roster. They also have
the opportunity potentially look at a tackle as a sixth
offensive lineman again, but.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
As a role Canard was playing a late last season.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, but you and I we've covered this team. You know,
you've covered forever, you know, a couple of years after
you we've seen what Matt Lafleur in particular wants to do.
He wants to have that Mercedes Lewis type tight end
in there where it opens up your two tight end packages,
allows you to funnel in different types of personnel. So
if there was ever a position that I could definitely
see Green Bay signing this offseason on a veteran front
(16:33):
is probably is at that white tight end.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah all right, Well, a couple more questions I want
to throw at you, But first we will pay some
bills and hear a quick word from our sponsor. Serious XM.
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(16:56):
All right, Wes, another question I'm going to throw at you,
which draft pick do you see making the biggest impact
on this team as a rookie.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I'm going to probably say ce say in the second round.
There only because we saw what happened last year. I
think it's very conceivable, very probable even that the Packers
will go into the season with those top four veterans
as the guys, right, whether it be you know, Carrington
Valentine or Benjamin Saint Juice lining up across from Keyshawn Nixon.
(17:26):
Obviously you know Javon Bullard at the nickel right. But
we've seen time and time again Michael In last year
was probably the perfect embodiment of it. How quickly that
depth can get depleted, how quickly an injury here or
there can change the entire complexion of a secondary Cisa
is a very young player. He's twenty years old. But
(17:46):
the more I've watched his film over the past week,
the more you understand why Green Bay was so high
on him, because I think he just brings a physicality
that position that you look for. He does remind me
in a lot of ways of that Keishawn Nixon type,
who is he not afraid to throw his shoulder into
a ball carrier, He is not afraid to go up
and get physical. And then when you throw in the
(18:08):
fact that he's as young as he is, this is
a guy that I think very easily could slide into
a rotational role right out of the gate based on
what his physical traits are as he allows his experience
to catch up with him. So it's not totally out
of the realm of the possibilities that both him and
Demani Jackson could watch most of this season from afar.
(18:29):
I think the Packers have the depth and the returning
depth at those positions in the secondary to do it.
But when you are counting on a base defense practically
these days that incorporates five defensive backs, when you sometimes
have to go as deep as six, it just stands
to reason there's going to be times where you're gonna
have to count on a young guy to step in
and the way that this thing lays out with Green
(18:49):
Bay and what they lost this offseason, CC is right
there as the next man up. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
And for me with this one as far as biggest
impact as a rookie, I've been going back and forth
between first and last pick. Yeah, right, ce say, I
think is is a clear choice there, because this is
a I mean, when you're talking about a guy who's
twenty years old, gonna turn twenty one, I believe at
the end of training camp and with with everything that
(19:16):
we know about him so far, this is a guy
that you could see that by week nine, week ten,
week eleven is going to start to work his way
into the if he doesn't just flat out win a
job coming out of training camp, which I'm not ruling out,
but that would that would be kind of rare, I
think in this instance. But it's a guy that you know,
come November, come Thanksgiving, you could see a young player
(19:40):
like this starting to earn more and more snaps and
get a bigger role in whatever rotation Jonathan Gannon is
going to be using with those defensive backs, and so
that's where I think we could be looking at a
significant rookie impact maybe down the stretch here from CSA.
But as I said, the other one I've been thinking
(20:01):
about is the last pick Tray Smack, because if he
wins this job, if he wins this job, his impact
will be undeniable. And and it's just it's going to
be such a it's going to be such a fascinating
story to watch, and so different from when the Packers
made the draft investment in Anders Carlson a couple of
(20:23):
years ago, because they had already decided to move on
from Mason crossby right, and so there was going to
be a new kicker, and they made, you know, the
investment in the draft pick, and okay, here we go,
and he started out great and then things started to
get sideways and he never quite got back on track.
This is this is going to be a full fledged
competition between an accomplished veteran who has been there, done
(20:46):
that in this league and a young guy who, as
you've said, clearly was the best kicker in this draft,
has the leg to make field goals from any distance
that they would ask him to. And is he going
to have what it takes to beat out a veteran
like Brandon mcmanuson Oh yeah, By the way. The other guy,
(21:06):
Lucas Haversick in the mix, kicked a sixty one yarder
last year for the Packers as well, So he's no
slouch in this hole, in this whole idea either. But
the potential, the potential for major rookie impact from Trey
Smack is undeniable if he wins the job.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And it's funny that those are the two guys we
end up talking about in this segment. It's two positions
that historically Green Bay you've seen rookies play at. You know,
whether it was Anders or you want to go back
to two thousand and seven with Mason Crosby after he
beat out Dave Rayner, he was the guy right out
of the gate. Meanwhile at Cisay at cornerback, and you
even when if you want to expand it to just
the secondary and defensive backs in general, jyr Alexander came in,
(21:45):
made himself undeniable. Casey Hayward came in twenty twelve as
a second round pick, made himself undeniable. Javon Bullard we've
seen it. We saw Evan Williams out of the fourth
round two years ago. There's just something about that position
and maybe it's a credit to the players, the scouts,
maybe even the coach that have been able to develop them.
But Green Bay had many times has had to call
upon those young dbs to make plays and they have.
(22:06):
And then conversely at the kicker position, especially if you
only keep one, that's your gig, young man, right, go
on and be successful. But yeah, I think the one
salient point too that was raised. I was thinking about
this after they drafted Smack was Brian at the end
of the season. I think it was his first presser
(22:28):
kind of reviewing the season, everyone getting the extensions, and
he was talking to us up in the Legends club
at the Lambellfield ah Trium, and he mentioned the patience
that is sometimes required of an NFL GM and how
at times he probably hasn't been patient enough, using JK
Scott and as an example. I still always give Brian
a little bit of grace in that. I think JK
is as good as he's become in the league. I
(22:48):
think it's helped him that he's been out in LA
as opposed to him punting in Green Bay. It seemed
like that wasn't an ideal fit.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
We saw with And again to your point, we saw
with JK. Scott early in the season he was clearly
an NFL punter who could succeed in this league. When
it got late in the year and he has to
kick in Green Bay, has to kick in Chicago, the
cold weather, it didn't work for him.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
You know that's where we always saw the fall off
at the end of the season. So I give Brian
Gudukun some grace there as well.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
But you know what's interesting about this kid in Trey Smack.
He's from Maryland. He even mentioned during his press conference
with US. Yes, he kicked at Florida one hundred thousand,
you know, seed stadiums in the SEC, mostly hot weather.
But he's from Maryland. He remembers being a kid going
out and kicking in the snow, and you know Christmas
Eve you mentioned eight years ago, being outside kicking the
ball around. He's familiar with those conditions. It's gonna get
(23:39):
tested a little bit by how extreme sometimes it can
get in Green Bay. Definitely, But all that being said,
I just I watched the videos of him and his
leg talent. It is evident, man, And I know, if
you're gonna kick in the NFL, you gotta have a
decent leg. Brandon McManus has a good one too, But
the way that the ball explodes off Smack's foot. When
(24:00):
you talk about why the Packers made this move and
what they're hoping to get out of it, I mean,
it's everything you look for. Now. It comes down to
the number one thing, as Brian goodikins, the scout has
to look for, and that's it going through the upgrade.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, exactly, no doubt. Well, there's one other thing that
we need to talk about from draft weekend that was
not necessarily draft related, but we haven't had a chance
to discuss it yet, and that is that a matter
of hours before the Packers made their first pick in
this draft on Friday night, they extended wide receiver Jaden
Reid multi year contract extension, the first of what. I
(24:36):
think the Packers are planning on several contract extensions here
of guys that they're looking at, and we'll talk about
them over the next several months or whatever the case
might be. But Jaden Reid coming off of a disappointing
season because of the injury issues with the foot and
the broken collarbone in Week two, and you know, he
missed essentially like three quarters of the season or whatever
(24:58):
it was, and quite frankly didn't really ever looked like
he was all the way back to me. But a young, dynamic,
explosive receiver who is going to be in Green Bay
long term.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, and it's funny. You got to remember what this
guy has done and how quickly he's done it here, right,
I mean, he was the leading receiver in his first
two seasons for the Packers, broke Sterling Sharp's single season
record for catches as a rookie. I think it was
sixty four. I think he ended up with.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
And Sharp's rookie franchise record was fifty five, so he
kind of blew it out of the water.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah. I mean he was just such a focal point
of the offense. I remember being in philip I should
say we were actually in South Paulo, Brazil, but I
remember watching that game against Philadelphia and I just thought
to myself, I mean, the Packers have a superstar. Yeah,
the way he was affecting that game, the catches he
was making in the Eagles secondary didn't really have an
answer for him, especially in that first half, to have
him locked up and then you see the numbers and
(25:52):
you can go find all those on the internet. But
they made sense for the player, they made sense for
the organization. It's a different version kind of the they
did with Christian Watson last year, right where for Reid
it puts money in his pocket, it gets them some security,
also gives him a chance for another contract in a
few years. Meanwhile, Green Bay with how these contracts are
absolutely skyrocking at the receiver position, and we're probably gonna
(26:15):
be talking about it again here in the next six
to ten months. With Christian Watson, the Packers got somebody
locked up now for the future. That isn't just their
rookie draft picks from last year. So Red, that's a
big one. I had a fun with this because when
it all went down, it reminded me so much of
twenty thirteen, when I'll never forget. It was myself, Rob
(26:36):
Damofski and Mike Vandermoss. We were doing our live stream
before the first day of the NFL Draft, and in
the middle of it, we caught word that Aaron Rodgers
had signed his extension, and Rob and I ended up
getting into a big argument on camera about the scale
of it, because I said it was the most important
thing that's going to happen all draft weekend. Rob pushed
back on me on that because he's like, we all
(26:56):
knew this was gonna happen. We all knew this is
gonna happen. Well, the Packers drafted Aton Jones, and then
you know, Aaron Rodgers did a press conference the same day.
I mean, you asked the modern fan, you know who
they're going to know more about at that point, It's
gonna be Aaron Rodgers. But I digress. Yeah, but it
brought me back to that moment where getting a deal
done right in the eleventh hour there before the start
(27:17):
of the draft. I mean, obviously the Packers didn't have
a pick that day, but when you factor in being
able to extend Reid, obviously Micah Parsons and what he's
brought to this football team in that defense, I'd say
it was still a good opening round there for Green Bath.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, and Brian Gudakunsk has made no secret of his
desire to have guys like Christian Watson, Tucker Craft, DeVante
Wyatt in the plans long term here as well. And
obviously there's there are things that need to be worked out,
both on the financial side and on the health side
with a couple of those guys and all that. So
(27:54):
that's that's what's on that's what's on the radar coming up.
But this was this was sort of the first of
we we didn't know what order they were going to
go in necessarily, this was sort of the first one,
and hopefully it's the it's the first of several, because
you see these these guy these guys are the foundation, right,
These are the guys who have who have come in
(28:14):
within the last four to five years, been brought into
Green Bay and and they are they are the foundation
of what the Packers are doing on the field. They're
also the foundation of the leadership in the locker room
and all of that that we've seen and and hopefully
there are more of these extensions to come.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I was thinking about this a couple of days ago too.
I don't know, and again I offer no predictions, but
I don't know if I can ever think of a
more of a shoe in for an extension independent of
even the knee injury over the last eight years than
Tucker Craft is. Yeah, I was thinking, I'm like, I
think DeVante Adams made a lot of sense in eighteen
(28:55):
when they got they got him and Corey Linsley done
I think on the same day or close to it. Yeah,
But there's been a lot of these where we weren't sure, right,
we didn't know what was gonna happen. Christian Watson last year.
There was times where some of these defensive players that
they've extended, we weren't sure if they were gonna come
or they were gonna go. Even Aaron Jones, both of
Jones's contracts, I didn't really know whether or not he
was gonna be back in Green Bay. But Kraft just
(29:18):
he makes sense for the team, He makes sense for
the for himself. And I'll tell you what, man, if
Tucker Craft can stay healthy, he is the bona fide
definition of a tight end. You want to see in
this offense for ten years, right, just a decade, See
where he takes the whole thing. See where he just obliterates,
you know, franchise records and build an offense around him. Packers.
(29:40):
There was there is years, Mike where you and I
we would sit in the off season be like, Okay,
so who's gonna be the tight end next year? Right?
I mean from the Jared Cook transition to Martell's Bennett
to Jimmy Graham. The Packers kind of had to keep
digging and digging and digging, and now I think they
found one of the topest sending stars in this league
at that position. Yeah, and it's just too bad about
the kne injurycause I think if not for the injury,
(30:01):
we might already be talking about it being done.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Well he and Yeah, I think we would be talking
about his extension already being done, and we'd be talking
about heading into this year. How his twenty twenty five
season shattered all the Packers single season tight end records
because he was on pace receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.
He was on pace in twenty twenty five to have
the best single season by a Packers tight end in history,
(30:23):
and unfortunately, right around the halfway point, it it ended.
But we know Tucker. We've were interested, obviously to talk
to him again when he gets healthy, but he's not
going to let this stop him.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
This is also why I wanted them to draft a
tight end so badly, because we're at the point now
with Tucker going into your fort dude, you just want
to get as many young tight ends around him as possible. Right,
he can have his own little tight end you over
in South Dakota. Yeah, the way that this thing is
going in, the personality type that he has, Yeah, yeah,
no doubt. It'd be fun.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Well, we've got the Rookie Minichamp coming up this weekend,
so on next week shows we will talk about our
first impressions actually getting to see these guys up close,
meet some of them, talk to them and whatnot. But
for now we'll call it a rap on this edition
of Packers on Script. It'd be sure to follow all
of our coverage of the team and everything with Rookie
Minni Camp this weekend. We'll have it all for you
on Packers dot com for Wesiammike, thank you for tuning
(31:17):
in everybody. We will see you next time.
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