Highlights From Practice 8 of Packers OTAs

Jordan Love committed the cardinal sin of quarterback play to kill a 2-minute drill. Plus, it’s the Play of the Day, Player of the Day, attendance and more from Packers OTAs on Tuesday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the No. 1 offense nearing the red zone during an end-of-practice 2-minute drill at Green Bay Packers OTAs on Tuesday, Jordan Love broke Tom Clements’ three cardinal sins of quarterback play.

As explained by Aaron Rodgers late in the 2021 season:

“We always had three mortal sins [as] the quarterback: Don’t throw late down the middle, don’t make any blind throws and no premeditated decisions.”

On first down from the defense’s 29 with 33 seconds remaining, Love scrambled right. He threw it late. He threw it over the middle. It may or may not have been a blind throw. It may or may not have been a predetermined read.

But it was a wounded duck to Christian Watson that was intercepted by safety Tarvarius Moore.

“That’s a mortal sin – late over the middle. That’s exactly what I did,” Love said. “But there is a time and a place, depending on the coverage, things that are going on, if the DB falls or something like that. But, yeah, given the circumstances right there, that was exactly a mortal sin right there. Late over the middle, ball kind of floats, DB has a chance to go make it, Christian, he doesn’t really know where the DB’s at, so it’s hard for him to kind of go up and get the ball.”

On a blustery day on Ray Nitschke Field, Love was 15-of-23 passing. He threw one touchdown to Romeo Doubs. More on that later. It was the interception, though, that no doubt will be the talking point when Clements, Love and the rest of the quarterbacks watched the film afterward.

“I think it’s a great learning experience, and you’d rather have that happened in practice than in a game,” LaFleur said. “Certainly, there’s going to be those moments. There is for every quarterback.

“When you talk about the situation, you’re talking about a 2-minute, end-of-game, no timeouts, sometimes you’re a little bit more aggressive, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I think you just have to go through those experiences and try to learn from them and get better from there both when they’re good and, obviously, when they’re bad.”

Plays of the Day

During a red-zone period, Jordan Love threw one of his best balls of the spring for a touchdown to Romeo Doubs.

On third-and-5, Love lobbed one into the corner of the end zone. Doubs made a leaping grab, then held onto the ball for dear life as safety Innis Gaines tried to slap it free.

“Going to the back pylon, there was a defender over me and Jordan threw the ball away from the defender. It was pretty much a back-shoulder play and I was able to make a play on it,” Doubs said.

Of holding onto the ball, he said, “It’s tough because the defender, their goal is to get the ball out of the receiver’s hands to make a play on that. Just making sure that we work on those things, just making sure we execute the littlest things, and we’ll continue to benefit off of that.

While Love blundered on his 2-minute, rookie Sean Clifford led the offense to a touchdown. On fourth-and-3 from the 8, Clifford lofted one over cornerback Tyrell Ford to receiver Jeff Cotton, who somehow got both feet inbounds along the sideline.

“I had seen him sitting on the goal line” Cotton said of Ford. “I feel like I cut the route a little short but Sean put the ball in a good spot so I was able to make a play on it.”

Player of the Day

Rookie cornerback Carrington Valentine was the first of Green Bay’s four picks in the seventh round. With starters Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas not on the field, he’s been getting some first-team reps.

On Tuesday he made them count.

First, his tight coverage prevented a completion to Romeo Doubs. On the next play, a third-and-goal from the 10, he broke up a pass to Doubs. Valentine flexed, then celebrated with safety Innis Gaines, cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles, safety Darnell Savage and one of the coaches.

With Alexander, Douglas, Keisean Nixon and Eric Stokes guaranteed four spots on the cornerback depth chart, it might be Valentine vs. Corey Ballentine, who was re-signed in free agency, and Jean Charles, a former fifth-round pick, for the last spot or two on the roster.

“Valentine had a great day,” LaFleur said. “I thought CV has done an unbelievable job. You can really see the body movement skills that he possesses, and he’s been working hard. I think there’s been some great lessons along the way, but he’s a guy that certainly has the talent. It’s going to be on him to put it all together and go out there and do it in the preseason.”

Taking Attendance

Absent: CB Jaire Alexander, CB Rasul Douglas, OLB Jonathan Garvin.

Present but out with injuries: S Dallin Leavitt, WR Dontayvion Wicks, CB Eric Stokes, OLB Rashan Gary, C/G Jake Hanson, WR Grant DuBose

Back at practice: CB Keisean Nixon, RB Lew Nichols, TE Tucker Kraft.

DuBose hasn’t practiced since being drafted in the seventh round.

“I think anytime you’re talking about a young player that hasn’t been able to participate in practices, yeah, those are valuable reps,” LaFleur said. “And we talked about it the other day after practice, just how meaningful these reps are for these young players, especially when you’re learning something new.

“It’s one thing to sit there and learn it in the meeting rooms, on the board, watching the tape, but it’s another thing to go out there and do it. So, I think you do naturally fall behind, and it’s going to be on him to try to – you try to stay into it as best you can mentally and try to get those mental reps, but there’s nothing like those physical reps.”

More Packers OTAs Notes

Love to Musgrave. pic.twitter.com/gy74Zslhde

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) June 6, 2023

- The last of the nine voluntary OTA practices will be held this week. Next week, the mandatory minicamp is set for Tuesday through Thursday.

- Left tackle David Bakhtiari took first-team reps. Last week, he was limited to individual drills.

- It was a potpourri on the offensive line. With Bakhtiari and left guard Elgton Jenkins seeing limited action, Caleb Jones played left tackle and Royce Newman played left guard with the No. 1 unit. Rasheed Walker, a seventh-round pick last year, also got some first-team snaps at left tackle. Yosh Nijman took the No. 1 reps at right tackle. Zach Tom was the No. 2 center after sharing No. 1 duties with Nijman at right tackle last week.

- Rookie kicker Anders Carlson still has not kicked with media present.

- During a special teams period, veteran Pat O’Donnell punted 11 times while first-year player Daniel Whelan got zero attempts. With the wind at his back, O’Donnell unleashed a bomb that traveled 66 yards with almost 5 seconds of hangtime. He also drilled a 60-plus-yarder that a retreating Samori Toure couldn't quite grab.

Punting to the goal line, Rudy Ford and Keisean Nixon made plays that would have pinned the offense well inside the 5.

- Devonte Wyatt and Kenny Clark might have had sacks in a live situation.

- Rookie safety Anthony Johnson almost intercepted Danny Etling.

- On a receiver screen to Bo Melton, undrafted rookie safety Benny Sapp beat the block to limit the catch to a minimal gain.

- It was a day of near-misses for rookie Luke Musgrave, who bobbled a tight end screen and lost a yard and couldn’t quite haul in a bullet from Jordan Love on third-and-6.

- Rookie running back Lew Nichols dropped two passes during individual drills and bobbled one during 11-on-11. Nichols was a reliable receiving threat at Central Michigan, which was a reason why the Packers added him in the seventh round.

- The aforementioned touchdown to Cotton was one of his two. He also hauled in one from Etling, though it appeared Sean Rhyan would have been flagged for holding Chris Slayton. Speaking of holds, Jones appeared to have one against Lukas Van Ness.

Quote of the Day

As was the case when OTAs were open to reporters last week, Jordan Love showed his rapport with Romeo Doubs.

“I think it’s easy when you got a really good player,” Love said. “They just kind of make it happen. It’s easy to get them the ball. He’s catching it. Romeo’s catching it really well right now. He’s running really good routes and he’s getting open, so it’s easy to throw it to open guys, but he’s been doing a really good job and I mean we’ve had that connection. We’ve done a lot of stuff last year so just continuing that connection has been great. He’s doing a great job.”

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