The curtain is about to come down on the Packers’ 2022 training camp and pre-season. The final full pad practice was held Monday on Ray Nitschke Field. The team will have another workout Tuesday before departing for Kansas City to play the Chiefs in the Pre-Season finale Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur said before practice he still hasn’t decided whether starters will play Thursday night. He wanted a better practice effort than he got from the squad on Sunday before making the call. Every player will dress and go through the pre-game warmup process but how many will keep the uniform on and get some snaps remains to be seen.
The defense has frustrated Aaron Rodgers and the offense all summer and that was the case again. During a third down drill, Eric Stokes had a fine pass breakup and Rodgers was noticeably unhappy. Tyler Davis who’s had some issues with penalties and mistakes had another when the offense began a backed up period inside their own 10. A false start moved the offense back five yards and Davis to the sidelines. LaFleur said they still have a lot of confidence in Davis because of his speed and receiving skills but he hasn’t been helping himself in the battle for spots behind a healing Robert Tonyan, veteran Marcedes Lewis (who got another veteran’s rest day) and Josiah Deguara.
The team remains very light at the safety position as camp comes to a close. Darnell Savage has been out with a hamstring injury since Family Night and Vernon Scott injured his shoulder last week against the Saints. Dallin Leavitt is also recovering from a shoulder injury suffered at San Francisco. Shawn Davis is working with the one’s alongside Adrian Amos for now and recent arrivals Micah Abernathy and De’Vante Cross are getting plenty of reps. Innis Gaines has returned from a hamstring pull and rookie Tariq Carpenter also returned to practice on Monday.
While light at safety, the strength at corner continues to show. Rasul Douglas and Stokes both had active days and vocally let everyone know about it. Jaire Alexander helped out Rodgers and Tonyan during a special teams drill. The Pro Bowl corner spent a few minutes working with Tonyan on routes with Rodgers throwing the ball during a special teams period.
The defense finished the day with a couple of stops against the first and second team offense in the last 11 on 11 work, the two minute drill. The starters at least got into position for a field goal with Rodgers completing passes to Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard and Deguara. The backups finished with a nice leaping grab by Christian Watson over Rico Gafford from Jordan Love.
Young receivers were the biggest question going into this year’s camp and now that they’re coming out of it, Aaron Rodgers talked at length after practice about the development of Watson, Romeo Doubs, Samori Toure from the draft class and the still young holdovers like Amari Rodgers and Juwann Winfree.
David Bakhtiari made it back to back days working individual drills after getting activated off the Physically Unable to Perform list on Sunday. Players still sidelined in the rehab group include Leavitt, Savage, Kylin Hill, Akial Byers and Mason Crosby.
Even though Ramiz Ahmed has displayed a strong leg in camp, hitting both field goal attempts against New Orleans, the Packers might be getting increasingly concerned about Crosby’s availability once the regular season begins. They reportedly worked out four kickers on Monday including Chase McLaughlin and Matt Amendola who have kicked for other NFL teams. It might just be compiling a ready list if Crosby isn’t ready or Ahmed loses his accuracy.
A couple of visitors to practice on Monday included a contingent from the Milwaukee Bucks. General Manager Jon Horst and Vice President of Communications Director Dan Smyczek attended practice and visited with the Packer staff.
A GM chat. Brian Gutekunst visits with Bucks counterpart Jon Horst.
And former Packer Terrell Buckley, then General Manager Ron Wolf’s very first, first round draft choice in 1992 returned to Green Bay and LaFleur let him break down the team huddle at the end of the practice.
