Highlights From Practice 6 of Packers Training Camp

Jordan Love had a big day, but was he the player of the day or involved in the play of the day? Plus, depth-chart notes, assorted highlights, injury updates and more from Tuesday at Packers training camp.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – There’s a reason why the Green Bay Packers shocked the world by drafting quarterback Jordan Love in the first round in 2020.

Whether or not Love can keep Green Bay’s quarterbacking brilliance alive for a fourth and possibly fifth decade remains to be seen, but he delivered a reminder of his talent at Tuesday’s training camp practice.

He did so early. On his first pass of the day, Sammy Watkins streaked diagonally across the field against speedy cornerback Rico Gafford. A perfect pass by Love delivered a big gain.

“He just ran a deep over route, got behind the safety and I just threw it up there to kind of let him use his speed to go get it, and he made a great play,” Love said.

He did so late. On one of his final passes of the day, he fit a pass into the tightest possible window for a touchdown to Romeo Doubs in the back corner of the end zone.

“Those are definitely the fun ones,” Love said. “When you connect on a play like that, a receiver makes an awesome play, those are definitely the fun ones. It just lets you relax a little bit, you get to celebrate the touchdown, and remind everybody that we’re out here having fun and it takes some of the pressure off.”

The throws were brilliant. His poise under pressure was, too.

After a poor two-minute drill on Monday, Love delivered a strong bounce back on Tuesday to eliminate the “sour taste” from his mouth. But, as he well knows, tomorrow’s another day.

“I try to be hard on myself,” Love said. “One of my old coaches would always tell me, ‘It’s never as good as you think it is, and it’s never as bad as you think it is until you watch it on film.’ So, without seeing it on film, I look at it as it wasn’t a perfect day.

“There’s things I wish I could improve on, some throws I missed. Yeah, I made some good throws and those are awesome, but I’m trying to be (better than that). With ‘12’ right there, you see him every day and how consistent he is, and that’s where I’m trying to get to — continue to grow and be consistent every day.”

Player of the Day

Jordan Love’s fantastic day was worthy. But let’s go back to the play before his deep connection with Sammy Watkins.

On the final play of Aaron Rodgers’ first segment of plays, he saw rookie receiver Romeo Doubs streaking across the field and away from his defender. All Rodgers had to do was float it over All-Pro linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, who was stationed perhaps 25 yards from Rodgers and 10 yards in front of Doubs. He couldn’t. Campbell used every bit of his 6-foot-3 5/8 frame, 33 5/8-inch arms and 34-inch vertical leap to make an incredibly impressive deflection.

There might not have been a bigger free-agent re-signing by any team this offseason than the Packers’ retaining of Campbell. For years and years and years, Green Bay suffered through mediocre-or-worse linebacker play. Campbell is a stud. He showed it throughout the day, whether it was the one-on-one coverage and pass-rushing drills against the running backs, an immediate tackle of Aaron Jones after a short completion or an in-the-hole collision with AJ Dillon to prevent a red-zone touchdown.

Play of the Day

Those aforementioned passes by Jordan Love certainly would qualify. So wouldn’t Campbell’s breakup. But let’s pick out something fresh.

The deep red zone – inside the 10-yard line – was one of the focal points of the day. With the ball at the 6, Aaron Rodgers dropped back to pass but hardly had a moment to survey the defense.

Left tackle Yosh Nijman and left guard Jon Runyan appeared to attempt a double-team block against outside linebacker Rashan Gary. “Attempt” is the right word because Gary blasted through the two blocks and was in Rodgers’ face in the blink of an eye. Rodgers wound up throwing a jump-ball to running back AJ Dillon in the corner of the end zone that Dillon couldn’t haul in with a one-hand attempt.

Packers Depth Chart Notes

- In one of the big notes of the day, rookie fourth-round pick Zach Tom got the call at right tackle with the No. 1 offense.

- With Tom promoted (for the day, anyway), the No. 2 line consisted of left tackle Cole Van Lanen, left guard Michal Menet, center Jake Hanson, right guard Sean Rhyan and undrafted rookie right tackle Caleb Jones.

- Cornerback Jaire Alexander didn’t participate in team drills. With the No. 1 defense, Rasul Douglas and Eric Stokes were starters, as usual, and Shemar Jean-Charles manned the slot.

- For most of training camp, La’Darius Hamilton and Tipa Galeai formed the No. 2 tandem at outside linebacker. On Tuesday, it was Jonathan Garvin who joined Hamilton.

- The first rep as gunners on the punt team went to Rico Gafford and Amari Rodgers. Romeo Doubs got the first shot as punt returner.

- Jack Coco remains ahead of Steven Wirtel at long snapper. That’s not going to change based on this practice. During an extensive punt period, Wirtel had four snaps that Pat O’Donnell had to reach down to catch. The snaps weren’t awful. They just weren’t good enough.

- Safeties Dallin Leavitt and Innis Gaines have gotten some looks in the slot.

Packers Injury Report

Undrafted rookie offensive lineman Cole Schneider, an impressive prospect, injured his right ankle at practice on Monday and didn’t practice on Tuesday. He was wearing a walking boot late in practice.

Cornerback Jaire Alexander focused only on individual drills but his absence from 11-on-11 work was not injury-related.

Returned to practice: None.

New Injuries: C Cole Schneider (ankle), TE Marcedes Lewis (rest).

Old injuries: WR Malik Taylor (shoulder).

Non-Football Injury List: CB Keisean Nixon (groin).

Physically unable to perform list: K Mason Crosby (knee), WR Christian Watson (knee), RB Kylin Hill (knee), LT David Bakhtiari (knee), OL Elgton Jenkins (knee), TE Robert Tonyan (knee).

Packers Training Camp Schedule

The Packers are in the midst of five consecutive days of practice. Wednesday’s session will be closed to fans; coach Matt LaFleur said it will be a short practice at a jog-through tempo. The team will practice again on Thursday (10:30 a.m.) before Family Night on Friday at Lambeau Field (7:30 p.m.). The team is off on Saturday.

Extra Points

- On the final play of a one-on-one coverage drill, Romeo Doubs got behind Eric Stokes and hauled in a beautiful deep ball from Aaron Rodgers. Afterward, Stokes slammed his helmet to the turf. By the stopwatch, Stokes is a quarter-second faster than Doubs. You wouldn’t know it, though, considering how well Doubs has played.

- Here are the results from the starters-vs.-starters matchups in the one-on-one pass-rushing drill. Yosh Nijman, 2-0 vs. Rashan Gary; Jon Runyan, 2-1 vs. Devonte Wyatt; Dean Lowry, 1-1 vs. Josh Myers; Kenny Clark, 2-0 vs. Royce Newman; Zach Tom, 1-1 vs. Preston Smith. Clark worked over Newman on both of his reps and Lowry destroyed Myers on their first snap and got a good push on the second.

Tom broke down his matchup: “The first one, he bulled me and I think I sat down pretty good on it. On the second one, he faked like he was going to bull me and then worked the edge. I lunged at him. Again, that’s just one of those technical things that I need to get better at and knowing when to throw my hands.”

- Down the field, in the one-on-ones between linebackers and running backs, AJ Dillon beat linebacker Quay Walker for one catch and beat him again in pass protection. Later, Walker used his quickness to beat Dillon in a blitz.

The rookie running backs, Tyler Goodson and BJ Baylor, got obliterated by blitzing linebackers Krys Barnes and Ray Wilborn.

- Another excellent day by veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed. Run or pass, he’s been a factor every day. He might have had two sacks of Aaron Rodgers, including a late pressure just before Rodgers threw a touchdown pass to Allen Lazard.

- Speaking of defensive tackles, T.J. Slaton continued his strong start. He swallowed Baylor for a negative-yardage run early in practice.

- On special teams, coordinator Rich Bisaccia had the JUGS machine firing punts of varying distances. The returners – Romeo Doubs, Amari Rodgers and Ishmael Hyman – had all sorts of problems running up to catch the short ones. When Doubs caught one late in the session, the crowd cheered. Hyman also had a nice catch.

- Left guard Jon Runyan snapped for one field goal. Punter Pat O’Donnell fielded the ball off the grass and got it down for Gabe Brkic, who made the field goal.

- Don’t sleep on cornerback Kiondre Thomas, who played special teams for four games last season for the Chargers. Love threw a beautiful deep ball to Doubs but Thomas was in perfect position and denied the completion.