Here’s What Happened at Practice 4 of Packers Training Camp

Once again, the defense won the day at Green Bay Packers training camp on Friday. From Play of the Day to Player of the Day and everything in between, here’s what you need to know about Practice 4 of camp.

Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney (29) runs through a drill on Friday at training camp. / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jordan Love missed his fourth consecutive day of Green Bay Packers training camp on Friday as he awaits a contract extension.

Is an end in sight? The Miami Dolphins on Friday handed Tua Tagovailoa a four-year extension worth $53.1 million per season, which puts him third in average salary at the position. Other than the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, Tagovailoa is the last quarterback in this cycle that can help frame Love’s extension.

The Packers need Love. For the fourth consecutive day, the offense had to do pushups after being outclassed by the defense.

Here is everything you need to know about Friday’s practice.

Jordan Love’s Day

Once again, Jordan Love was in street clothes watching the offense rather than conducting it.

“Obviously, you’d like to have him out there,” coach Matt LaFleur said before practice. “The way I look at it, it’s out of my control. So, I’m just going to focus on the guys that we have in there and continue to challenge him from a mental standpoint. He’s getting good work in post-practice.

“But, obviously, we’d all love him to be out there, and I think that’s going to help put our team in the position possible just him getting that rapport with everybody and leading not only our offense but our team.”

In his place, Sean Clifford once again directed the No. 1 offense.

Player of the Day: Entire Defense

Rashan Gary was a menace. Again. Jaire Alexander was barely challenged. Again. The linebackers were active. Again.

It was another day of dominance by Jeff Hafley’s defense – with the obvious caveat that Jordan Love hasn’t taken a snap.

The offense ran a total of 11 plays in two red-zone periods. It failed to get in the end zone.

On the first play, Gary and Kenny Clark got in the backfield so quickly that they collided near quarterback Sean Clifford; the play was ruled a sack and Gary was shaken up for a moment. Unfortunately for fill-in right tackle Kadeem Telfort, Gary stayed on the field to get a sack on the next play. On the third play, Clifford threw incomplete to Christian Watson in the back of the end zone and wound up on the turf because of the pressure.

On the fourth play, third-and-goal from the 4, Clifford connected with running back Josh Jacobs a bit short of the goal line. On the fifth play, third-and-goal from the 2, Clifford completed a pass in the flat to Watson but cornerback Carrington Valentine and safety Evan Williams combined to keep him out of the end zone.

After a special teams period, the offense ran six more plays. Jacobs followed center Elgton Jenkins and guard Sean Rhyan on a sweep but probably was stopped by linebacker Isaiah McDuffie for a meager gain. The second-to-last play and the fifth play of the series was our upcoming Play of the Day by safety Xavier McKinney.

The final play, third-and-goal from the 4, was a run by Jacobs in which he got in the end zone. The offense celebrated but Lukas Van Ness touched Jacobs at the line of scrimmage.

“Man, we got a lot of playmakers on this team,” McKinney said. “You got them in the back end. You got them in the second level. You got them obviously on the D-line. 

“We’ve all done a great job of working together. You could see a lot of special talent on this defense, and it really shows up. It shows up every practice that we’ve been out there, so we plan to keep that rolling.”

Play of the Day: Xavier McKinney’s Pick-Six

On the second-to-last play of the day, a red-zone period, the offense had a second-and-goal at the 6. Defensive end Kingsley Enagbare raced around right tackle Kadeem Telfort to get immediate pressure on quarterback Sean Clifford.

In reality, the play probably would have resulted in a sack but the coaches let it play out. Clifford rifled one into the end zone, which was intercepted by safety Xavier McKinney for a 100-plus-yard pick-six.

“It was actually my man who was going across, so I just picked him up, doing my job and the ball came to my man and I knew I had to make a play,” McKinney said. “I was able to do that, which is good. It felt good to get my hands on one this time in camp. Hopefully, we can keep that rolling.”

Packers Injury Report

Activated from pre-camp injury lists: CB Corey Ballentine (hamstring), G Donovan Jennings (knee), OT Caleb Jones (hamstring).

“It felt good,” said Ballentine, a key backup and top player on special teams. “It felt good being out there with the guys, running around.”

Returned to practice: LG Elgton Jenkins (veteran rest day).

New injury: CB Robert Rochell (calf).

Old injury: RB MarShawn Lloyd (hip).

Also did not practice: C Josh Myers (personal).

PUP: TE Tucker Kraft (pectoral).

Packers Practice Highlights

- The veteran kickers each got their opportunity. Incumbent kicker Anders Carlson made 5-of-6 attempts ranging from 40 to 50 yards. The miss was the 50-yarder, which hit the left upright.

“There’s always going to be great days and there’s always potential to have some stumble days, too,” Carlson said. “So, it's all about staying in the present day, staying in the moment, whether it’s 6-for-6, 5-for-6 or something worse. I think starting off well is the right way to do it, but it’s all about the next one.”

Veteran challenger Greg Joseph made all six attempts.

Both players are 11-of-12 during camp while rookie James Turner, who kicked on Monday and Wednesday, is 8-of-12.

- Veteran defensive end Preston Smith, the team’s oldest player at 31, had his most impactful day. First, he blew into the backfield to stop a toss to AJ Dillon. Later, he had an excellent pressure against left tackle Rasheed Walker.

- Tight end Tyler Davis, who is coming off a torn ACL, had his most impactful day, too. He caught two passes, including a short one that he took up the left sideline for a big gain.

“Anytime someone goes through a major injury like this, you don’t want to just go from zero to 100,” he said. “You want to gradually build back into it. We’ve been working through that stuff, but everything’s going well so far.”

- Rookie tight end Messiah Swinson had an impressive all-hands catch on a bootleg pass from Jacob Eason.

- Speaking of tight ends, Luke Musgrave made a leaping catch for a gain of about 15 on a pass by rookie Michael Pratt.

- On the next play, rookie linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper stormed into the backfield to stop running back Jarveon Howard. Hopper makes a play or two like that every day.

- Assistant defensive line coach Vince Oghobaase was so fired up when defensive tackle Jonathan Ford stormed in the backfield that he charged toward the action and might have been able to touch running back Emanuel Wilson. On the next play, he was fired up again when Colby Wooden foiled a toss to Ellis Merriweather. He wasn’t quite as excited when Wooden wound up on the ground on the next play.

- Wilson’s off to a strong start to camp. His cutback runs have routinely picked up nice gains.

- The defense went 11-0 in that aforementioned red-zone drill. The offense’s one chance came when Sean Clifford fired one to Dontayvion Wicks in the back of the end zone. Wicks looked to be wide open but Clifford, who was under pressure, threw the ball just the slightest bit behind Wicks. Wicks dropped the ball.

Packers Lineup Notes

- With center Josh Myers out for personal reasons, Elgton Jenkins slid from left guard to center, Sean Rhyan moved from right guard to left guard, and rookie Jordan Morgan stepped in at right guard. The tackles were Rasheed Walker and Kadeem Telfort.

Jenkins said “it’s looking like” he’ll be the backup center this season.

“I like it. It was the position I got drafted at,” Jenkins said. “Right now, we’ve got Josh at center and I feel like he’s taken big steps every year and he’s shown a lot of improvement this year at center. So, right now, he’s not here, so I need to fill in that role. You know things happen during the season where players get hurt, things happen. So, I’ve just got to be ready when my name is called.”

Jenkins said he needed to “clean up” some technique. He had a couple off-target snaps.

- Anthony Johnson spent most of the day as the safety opposite Xavier McKinney. Rookies Javon Bullard (Monday and Wednesday) and Evan Williams (Tuesday) had lined up with McKinney on previous days.

“Ant, man, that’s my guy,” McKinney said. “He’s obviously very smart, very instinctual. He can make plays all over the field.”

McKinney and Johnson got some snaps together on Friday, as well.

- Eric Wilson continues to run ahead of second-round pick Edgerrin Cooper as the third linebacker in the base defense. Cooper, though, gets a player or two every segment. At one point, Walker and Cooper were the linebackers in nickel. That had been the domain of Walker and Isaiah McDuffie.

Packers Training Camp Schedule

The Packers will practice at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The heat will be cranked up – literally and figuratively.

First, highs are expected to be in the mid-80s with high humidity. Second, Saturday will be the first full-pads practice of camp.

“I feel like it’s going to change a lot, get the pads popping, guys being able to get under guys and things like that,” Elgton Jenkins said. “So, we’ve just got to have good technique, good fundamentals and get our hands on the defensive line and just have good effort and make sure we stay out there competing.”

Quote of the Day

Coach Matt LaFleur on quarterback Sean Clifford, who threw three interceptions on Tuesday, two on Wednesday and another on Friday.

“I think there’s been a couple of good plays and then a couple of plays that he’d like to have back. We’re early in camp. I think a lot of times, like we’ve talked about, the brunt of the blame is going to come on the quarterback. I do think that there’s some situations where he’s given guys opportunities and we’ve got to have that mentality from a wide receiver standpoint or an offensive standpoint, ‘If that ball’s in the air, it’s my ball or nobody’s ball.’ There were a couple of those that came up.

“And then just guys just being detailed. The offense threw like five picks the other day, which is maybe a record. But it’s not all on the quarterback. Yeah, their No. 1 job is you’ve got to take care of the football and you are ultimately responsible for the football. But the guys running the routes, whether it’s receiver, tight end, running back, whoever it may be, they’ve got to be detailed in what they’re doing, as well.

“And when things aren’t quite right and a guy’s a little off, whether it’s alignment, the depth of a route, whatever it may be, and these balls get batted up in the air and bad things tend to happen. Usually (if) that ball gets batted in the air, it’s going to end up in the defensive hands. We had a couple of those the other day.”

More Green Bay Packers Training Camp News

There are diva receivers and then there are the seemingly divine receivers employed by the #Packers. They are an all-for-one and one-for-all bunch filled with equal parts skill and selflessness.

With only one ball, how will they stay that way?⬇️https://t.co/hjV4lA2B6R

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 26, 2024

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