Packers Training Camp Highlights: Practice 8

Here's practice video and more from a quiet day at Packers training camp.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – After two hard days of practice and another coming up, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur took it easy on his players on Monday.

With the players working in helmets but not full pads, there wasn’t a single live rep at practice. The 11-on-11 segments, with starters and key players on one side of the field and young backups on the other, were at a jog-through tempo. Even the punting period came with a ball fired out of a JUGS machine.

Tuesday’s practice will be an important one. It will be about as close to a preseason game as LaFleur can create, with LaFleur and defensive coordinator Mike Pettine calling things on the fly rather than going with a daily script.

“I thought our guys had two pretty intense days the last two days – Saturday and Sunday – and we got to finish it off [on Sunday] with a live period with our younger guys,” LaFleur said. “Tomorrow, we’ll be in Lambeau. It’ll be a longer practice. There will be a lot of call-it situations, so the guys may not know what’s coming or going to get thrown at them. I think it’ll be a great test to see where we’re at as a football team. We’d like to keep it pretty physical. I’m not saying we’re going to go to the ground, especially with our older group, but there’s a good chance that we’ll finish it off in a similar fashion as we did yesterday with some live tackling for our younger guys.”

Injury Report

Missed practice: S Raven Greene (unknown), RT Rick Wagner (unknown), DT Montravius Adams (toe). Adams wore a walking boot to the practice field on Saturday but has been in normal shoes the last two days.

Dropped out: None.

COVID-19: None.

PUP: LB Curtis Bolton (knee), OLB Greg Roberts, OT Yosh Nijman (elbow). Bolton and Nijman have been going through extensive on-field workouts the past several days.

NFI: RB Patrick Taylor (foot), G Simon Stepaniak (knee).

Returned: CB Jaire Alexander (unknown), S OLB Za’Darius Smith (foot/ankle), TE Marcedes Lewis (unknown).

Plays of the Day

None. There literally was nothing noteworthy about the day other than some top-secret personnel stuff that can’t be reported.

Links of the Day

- Aaron Rodgers got off to a slow start to training camp. Was it Rodgers? A lack of personnel? The defense? Turns out, it was Rodgers. After watching some decade-old film, he’s been much more efficient.

- Kicker Mason Crosby said he tested positive for COVID-19 at the start of training camp. He felt fine, so the positive test came as a big surprise. He was out about two weeks, though you’d hardly know it based on his start to training camp.

- LaFleur was more than a half-hour late to his media availability because he met with the team’s leadership council immediately after practice to discuss the shooting in Kenosha. Later, the team issued a statement.

The Next Day

The Packers will practice in Lambeau Field at 10:10 a.m. Tuesday. That will complete a stretch of four consecutive practices.

Last Word of the Day

The last word goes to Rodgers, who was asked what he thought of the offseason personnel moves, which were slanted more toward building a running game than improving the passing game.

“It really doesn’t matter what I would have preferred or not. What matters is the guys that we have in camp right now and trying to get on the same page. I think if anything, it says they have a lot of confidence in guys like Allen Lazard, Marquez (Valdes-Scantling), EQ (Equanimeous St. Brown) coming back from injury and Jake (Kumerow) – the guys expecting jumps in Years 2 and 3 for a lot of those guys, and we expect it as well.

“It’s nice getting Marcedes (Lewis) back. He’s such a great blocker for us, he does some things in the passing game, he’s a great leader in the locker room. I think Robert Tonyan coming back from his injury has been really good. Jace (Sternberger) is going into Year 2 and, obviously, we added Jo (Josiah Deguara) to the mix as a versatile guy who can do a number of things for us. The run game, we have a number of backs. We have three guys who played extensive time for us when you count Swerve (Tyler Ervin) into that number, and we added AJ (Dillon) to that group, as well. We’ll be looking at the next couple of weeks, what packages seem to fit best with our personnel, but I would expect there would be a good amount of ‘12’ [one back, two tight ends] just based on the talent we have at that position.”