Here’s What Happened at Practice 7 of Packers Training Camp

On a sweltering Thursday, the offense got in the last word against the defense at Green Bay Packers training camp. Here’s the Play of the Day, Player of the Day, Jordan Love’s day, highlights and more.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Aug 3, 2023 6:04 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas, in language unfit to print but unmistakable in meaning, told the offense it wasn’t very good. But, at the end of the day, it was the defense that had to do up-downs at training camp on Thursday.

Here are the highlights from a sweltering practice.

Jordan Love’s Day

Starting quarterback Jordan Love went 8-for-16 passing. What really got Rasul Douglas fired up was the starters vs. starters 2-minute drill.

With 1:50 on the clock and the offense needing a touchdown, Love got things rolling with a 14-yard completion to Romeo Doubs. That was a positive after back-to-back four-and-outs the previous days.

Then the defense tightened the screws. On first down, linebacker Quay Walker made a beautiful, leaping pass breakup of a pass intended for Christian Watson. On second down, Love went deep to Watson. The ball was right on the money but it appeared Douglas raked the ball loose as they toppled to the ground. After Love missed Doubs on third down, Douglas unloaded on the offense, nonstop, until the next snap, in which Love scrambled for 11 and out of bounds with 1:06 to go.

Three consecutive completions to Bo Melton, Luke Musgrave and AJ Dillon moved the ball to the 20 before Love rushed the offense to the line and clocked the ball with 10 seconds to go. On first down, Love’s wobbler to Jayden Reed was broken up by safety Jonathan Owens. On the final play, Love threw a really good ball to Samori Toure in the end zone but rookie safety Anthony Johnson made his first big play of camp by jarring the ball loose.

With the drill complete, Douglas again let the offense have it. Finally, running back Aaron Jones had a conversation with Douglas, and Douglas toned down the competitor and turned into a good teammate.

“He was like, ‘You guys suck,’ blah, blah, blah, ‘Matt’s not helping. You guys can’t get anything.’ I said, ‘Hey, we won the competition, though,’” Jones said in reference to a 4-minute drill earlier in the day. “I just had to remind him because we’ve been doing up downs and push-ups the whole camp, so I’m like, ‘Hey, we won the competition today’ and then after I’m like, ‘Hey, bro, we’re all teammates. We’ve got to pump some of these guys up,’ so just trying to give him a friendly reminder.”

In six live practices, Love finished with completion rates around 50.0 percent five times.

Player of the Day

In the wide-open battle to be the No. 3 running back, Tyler Goodson’s explosive playmaking ability was on full display, just like it was last preseason.

During the backups vs. backups 2-minute drill, Sean Clifford’s throw into the flat to Goodson turned into what appeared to be a 38-yard touchdown but the play was blown dead at the 8. That set up the necessary touchdown. More on that later.

During a truly live period featuring the team’s young players and live tackling, Clifford faked a jet-sweep handoff and gave the ball to Goodson, who burst through the middle and was off to the races for a 39-yard touchdown. Off the bench, left guard Elgton Jenkins ran onto the field to celebrate before Goodson was in the end zone.

“I had to change my aiming point, which was inside leg of the tackle,” Goodson explained. “The five-technique on the defensive side did a good job of doing his job and forcing me inside. Once I pressed my aiming point and got the linebackers to come over the top, I put my foot in the ground, got my shoulders square and it was a big gash from there and all I had to do was run.”

Linebacker Quay Walker also had a strong day. He’s just so good in coverage. When he gives up a catch, it requires an almost-perfect pass to get it done.

Play of the Day

In the aforementioned young-guys period, the first play was a handoff to Emanuel Wilson. At 5-foot-11 and 226 pounds, Wilson is a big dude and he runs like it.

Wilson plowed through cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles near the line of scrimmage, then ran through a couple other defensive backs on the way to a gain of about 20 yards.

“I was just playing football, really,” he said. “From the start in the huddle, when they called the play, I was ready to hit the hole and run.”

Wilson was a Division II All-American in 2021. He went undrafted and spent some time with the Denver Broncos last year but failed to make their roster. He was out of football all season but kept working for an opportunity there was no guarantee he’d ever receive.

The Packers signed him in May.

“Getting that phone call, it was a good feeling,” he said. “It was a good feeling just because I had an opportunity to play football once again.”

Injury Report

New Injuries: TE Josiah Deguara (calf).

Old Injuries: OLB Rashan Gary (PUP list; knee), CB Eric Stokes (PUP list foot), WR Grant DuBose (Non-Football Injury List; back), C Jake Hanson (elbow).

Returned From Injury: WR Dontayvion Wicks (concussion).

Practice Highlights

- Why did the defense have to do up-downs? The competition period was a 4-minute drill. The goal for the offense is to get the one first down required to secure a victory.

The drill was semi-scripted. For instance, on Jordan Love’s first opportunity with the starters, his pass to the flat to Christian Watson was given a 4-yard gain when in reality safety Jonathan Owens made the play at or behind the line of scrimmage.

That set up a third-and-3, with running back AJ Dillon barreling up the middle for the first down.

On the first play of Love’s second opportunity, Aaron Jones got the toss and appeared to be close to a first down but was given a gain of 4. Ultimately, on third-and-3, Patrick Taylor plowed up the middle for the first down.

- During one-on-ones, the offensive line had a strong day against the defensive line. Left guard Elgton Jenkins and defensive tackle Kenny Clark had three titanic battles. Jenkins got Clark to the turf on one.

Devonte Wyatt used a late spin move to get inside of right guard Jon Runyan. Lined up at right tackle, Zach Tom beat Preston Smith twice. On one, Smith tried a spin move, got nowhere and called it quits.

Second-year offensive lineman Sean Rhyan continues to beat up on rookie defensive tackle Colby Wooden; he’s 6-0 the past two days. There aren’t many more entertaining blockers than 6-foot-9 offensive tackle Caleb Jones. His length is ridiculous and, once engaged, the rep is over.

- On the other side of the field, rookie tight end Luke Musgrave, rookie receiver Dontayvion Wicks and undrafted rookie receiver Malik Heath had impressive wins. Undrafted rookie fullback/tight end Henry Pearson’s drop turned into an interception by safety Dallin Leavitt.

- On the first play of 11-on-11, Justin Hollins’ deflected Love’s bootleg pass to a wide-open Musgrave. Two plays later, tight end Tyler Davis provided the lead block on a nice end-around to Romeo Doubs.

- Love’s read-option runs went nowhere on Tuesday, but his first try suckered Kingsley Enagbare and resulted in an explosive gain. Enagbare got his revenge on the next play with a likely sack of Love on a bootleg. On the next play, Love zipped a seam shot to rookie receiver Jayden Reed, with Love’s fastball barely beating linebacker Isaiah McDuffie and providing a nice gain.

- Anders Carlson went 4-of-6 on field goals. In both three-kick sequences, he missed his first try (41 and 47 yards). On the missed 47-yarder, the timing might have been messed up between the snap of Broughton Hatcher and the hold of Daniel Whelan. His final kick of the day was a 54-yard bomb with plenty of distance to spare. Carlson is 16-of-27 during camp.

- During the backups’ 4-minute drill, linebacker Eric Wilson tackled running back Lew Nichols for a loss of a few yards on first down and safety Tarvarius Moore prevented a third-down completion to tight end Tucker Kraft. Also on defense: Sixth-round rookie defensive tackle Karl Brooks probably would have sacked Danny Etling and undrafted rookie outside linebacker Brenton Cox ranged down the line to stop Tyler Goodson.

- During the backups’ victorious 2-minute drill, Sean Clifford was 6-of-10 passing. After a throwaway on first down and a drop on second down, he ripped a bullet over linebacker Tariq Carpenter to receiver Bo Melton for the first down. On third-and-goal from the 13, he threaded a pass to tight end Tucker Kraft, who was dropped at the 1. With the final seconds ticking away, Clifford raced the offense to the line and threw a touchdown to Malik Heath, who beat Carrington Valentine on a slant.

“I’m still getting comfortable with everything,” Heath said. “They switched me to another position to see if I know the other positions. I’m getting comfortable every day with the Z position and I’m just trying to stay consistent and keep stacking days.”

Lineup Notes

- With David Bakhtiari getting another day off, the battle at center was put on hold. Yosh Nijman played left tackle and Zach Tom played right tackle rather than center.

- At outside linebacker, the starters were Preston Smith and Justin Hollins (rather than first-round pick Lukas Van Ness). It was Smith and Van Ness during the 2-minute drill, though.

- At safety, the starters were Darnell Savage and Jonathan Owens rather than Savage and Rudy Ford, but Ford and Tarvarius Moore got action, as well.

Packers Training Camp Schedule

- After an off-day on Friday, the Packers will host their annual Family Night practice on Saturday. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and the practice is set to start at 7:30 p.m. Will this Family Night stay storm-free? The forecast is calling for partly cloudy skies and a low of 65 with a chance of showers “developing late,” according to WBAY-TV.

The Packers will take Sunday off and practice on Monday, with a 12:30 p.m. start instead of the usual 10:30 a.m., before heading to Cincinnati for a joint practice against the Bengals on Wednesday and a preseason game on Friday.

Quote of the Day

Rookie quarterback Sean Clifford on his successful 2-minute drive:

“I think it was good to get a drive like that. It felt really good for the guys around me. I know they were really excited to get it going, get a spark. We also won the 4-minute with Jordan’s crew. It was a good day. I thought that we bounced back pretty well. The defense has been doing a hell of a job, so being able to go out there and having a lot of competition back and forth, back and forth, that’s what great teams are made of.

"(Penn State) coach (James) Franklin always talked about how if a practice just goes one way, that’s a bad sign. Being able to have that competitive – defense wins one period, offense wins another, or even within the period, back and forth – I think that’s always healthy. I saw it a lot today. I thought as a group we did really well.”