Here’s Why Toure ‘Looks Unbelievable’ And Is Ready to ‘Snatch’ Opportunity

Through diet and work with a trainer, Packers receiver Samori Toure has put himself in position to win a starting job.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – It’s one thing for a coach to rave about a player when asked specifically. It’s another to praise a player unprompted.

That’s what Green Bay Packers receivers coach and passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable did with second-year receiver Samori Toure on Thursday.

Asked about the challenges facing a young receiver corps, Vrable went off on a tangent.

“If you guys would see Samori right now, you wouldn’t even recognize the guy from last year,” Vrable said. “He’s probably of everybody the one that everybody around the building is like, ‘83 looks unbelievable right now.’ He’s put on like 8-10 pounds, he’s worked his butt off, and he’s just grown into his own. You feel comfortable in your own skin, and you play fast and you play with confidence.”

That’s exactly what Aaron Woods had in mind.

Woods, a former CFL player, is the owner of Grind Time Fit and Elite Grind Meals in Beaverton, Ore. After Toure graduated from Westview High School in Portland, Woods was hired as the school’s strength coach.

“My very first time being the strength coach, he came out as a graduate and we broke him down,” Woods said. They’d worked together periodically while Toure starred at Montana and then Nebraska.

This, Woods said, was their “first official offseason together.”

It worked wonders. Toure dropped a couple pounds of fat and gained about 8 to 10 pounds of lean muscle. He’s bigger and stronger. He’s faster and more explosive. He’s more dynamic and more flexible.

He’s prepared not just for camp, Woods said, but the “championship quarters” that win and lose games.

“Our foundation is in strength training,” Woods said. “These guys are at such a high level with actually playing football and being a receiver, but a lot of the guys, they miss out on the strength training, a lot of mobility, flexibility, range of motion and, really, the mind-set.

“Everybody’s good enough to play at that level but it’s a mind-set. Who’s mentally strong enough? Who’s mentally tough enough? Who’s physically tough enough and prepared for the long days?”

Woods’ program was all-encompassing. He had Toure limit or eliminate the unhealthy calories and set him up with a meal-prep program that includes three or four meals a day and a snack. With a change in diet and offseason workout regimen, Toure has changed his body composition.

“Samori’s always had a slender body type,” Woods said. “When you’re a slender guy like that, especially if you don’t prepare yourself for the camps and the preseason and the long NFL season, your body starts to break down. We wanted to put about 10 pounds on him going into OTAs and camp.

“He’s going to be running a lot more and training a lot more, so you’re going to lose 5 pounds, easy. We want to keep him at that 192-ish level. And then we wanted to instill good habits. Wake up, get a good breakfast in you. Eat your lunch, make sure you get an ample amount of protein, take your vitamins, take your supplements, recover.

“I tell guys the lifting weights, that breaks your body down. It’s the recovery that builds your muscle. It’s getting 8 hours of sleep, hydrating, doing all the little things – massage, chiropractor, cold tub – to prepare yourself for the next day.”

As is the case for any second-year player, this is a big offseason for Toure. Coming out of college, players go straight from the playing field into Scouting Combine training – workouts devoted to fast 40-yard times and the like. That leads into the NFL Draft and right back onto the field.

Players going into Year 2 can focus on running plays instead of running for the stopwatch.

“Samori, he was drafted, he got a little bit of opportunity, got a little buzz. It’s keep him hungry. Hungry and humble,” Woods said. “Don’t be satisfied with your rookie year. Don’t be satisfied with anything. Always be grateful and thankful for the opportunity that you have, especially to play in the NFL.

“But you want more. You want to be a starter. If you’re not training, mind-set, physically, everything to be a starter in the NFL, then you’re cutting yourself short. You’re almost disrespecting the game because you’ve got such a great opportunity to be in the NFL, which less than 1 percent do, so why not maximize your potential?”

Toure has a great opportunity in front of him. With Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb signing with the Jets, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Toure are the only receivers on the roster who played last season. While the Packers drafted three receivers, including Jayden Reed in the second round, Toure figures to start OTAs running with the starters as the primary option in the slot.

“I remind him every single day,” Woods said. “I think that he already knows that he has the ability to do that and he kind of has an opportunity to slide into that starting position. But it’s more, ‘No, this is an opportunity and go take it. Don’t wait for it. Don’t just slide into it. Go out there, work your butt off and go snatch that.’”

In other words, he’s no longer “Captain Casual,” the moniker given to him last season.

“Last year,” Woods continued, “I think he was like, ‘I’m a rookie, I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know what to expect. I have enough ability to produce.’ Going into this camp, he’s like, ‘No, this is exactly what I want and I’m going to go get it.’”

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