Watch: Action From Green Bay Packers Minicamp
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers minicamp is under way, and four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers is on the field.
With Rodgers among the veterans who missed the first two weeks of the voluntary OTAs, this will be a key week in building a foundation for the start of training camp in late July.
“The more these guys can get around each other, the quicker they can start to build that chemistry that we know is so important in determining our success on the field,” coach Matt LaFleur said before practice.
Rodgers is 38 and entering his 18th season in the NFL. Of the rookie receivers, Romeo Doubs is 22, Christian Watson is 23 and Samori Toure is 24.
“He has been a captain, a leader of our football team for a long time,” LaFleur said of Rodgers. “These guys have grown up watching him for a really long time. To be in a huddle with him and be on the same field as him is pretty exciting for those young guys.”
LaFleur said everyone who is under contract is present. Receiver Allen Lazard is not here; he has not signed his restricted free agent tender.
With new personnel and some changes on the coaching staff, the minicamp and next week’s final days of OTAs will be important as LaFleur looks ahead to training camp and not the daily winners and losers.
“Right now, we’re trying to train these guys in terms of how to practice and again lay the foundation for what we want it to look like come fall,” LaFleur said. “It’s a process for us as coaches, too. There’s a lot of new faces in all three phases and we’re learning these players and what they do well. There’s going to be some adjustments, I guarantee, that are going to be made coming out of this in terms of maybe some things we might have to tweak schematically whether it’s offense, defense or special teams.”
Here is a look at some of today’s practice. We will have much more throughout the day and this week.