For professional football players, putting on pads for the first time at training camp is like taking off the training wheels for someone who already knows how to ride a bike without them.
Before it happens, we can’t really deduce much. Fortunately, the Packers strapped on shoulder pads Tuesday at Ray Nitschke Field. For the first time, they conducted one-on-ones, with defensive linemen opposing offensive linemen at one practice field and pass-catchers opposing defensive backs on the other.
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I followed the latter, so updates on every rep can be found below. Don’t worry, I’ll follow the other group tomorrow.
Here’s what we’ve learned so far this week about a team that is 11 days away from its preseason opener against the Texans at Lambeau Field.
First look at one-on-ones
Below is a list of every rep taken by defensive backs against wide receivers or tight ends during Tuesday’s one-on-one period and the result. Disclaimer: The results are what my untrained eye saw. For example, if I thought Aaron Rodgers overthrew a receiver, I marked that down. Sure, the receiver might’ve run his route incorrectly and Rodgers’ throw was actually where the receiver should’ve been, but you’ll have to trust my judgment on these based on my viewing angle, which was admittedly far away based on where we’re allowed to stand during practice.
Another note: Any catch for a pass-catcher counts as a win, even if it resulted in just a short gain. Incompletions could either be a win for the defensive back or the result of a bad throw, in which case there’s no way to tell whether the ball would’ve been caught or whether the defensive back would’ve made a late play.
Reps in bold are ones that really stood out to me for the winner.
- WR Juwann Winfree def. CB Eric Stokes
- S Darnell Savage Jr. def. WR Winfree
- WR Randall Cobb def. CB Chandon Sullivan
- QB Rodgers overthrows WR Allen Lazard, guarded by CB Josh Jackson
- WR Equanimeous St. Brown def. CB Ka’dar Hollman
- WR Amari Rodgers def. S Innis Gaines
- TE Isaac Nauta def. S Henry Black
- WR Devin Funchess def. CB Jaire Alexander
- WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling def. CB Alexander
- WR Winfree cooked CB Stokes off the line but dropped a catchable pass
- S Adrian Amos def. TE Jace Sternberger
- CB Shemar Jean-Charles def. WR Reggie Begelton
- CB Kabion Ento def. WR DeAndre Thompkins
- WR Chris Blair def. CB Hollman
- WR Amari Rodgers def. S Vernon Scott
- WR Winfree def. CB Stokes
- WR Malik Taylor beats CB Stanford Samuels, but a bad throw from QB Jordan Love
- TE Bronson Kaufusi def. S Christian Uphoff
- WR Begelton beats CB Jean-Charles, but a bad throw from QB Kurt Benkert
- WR St. Brown def. CB Jackson
In the future, I will do my best to jot down what kind of route the pass-catchers run. This drill moves fast, so I didn’t think of that in that moment. Hey, we’re all in preseason mode!
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— The Athletic Wisconsin (@TheAthleticWISC) August 3, 2021
Bakhtiari update, or something like that
Neither Packers coach Matt LaFleur nor David Bakhtiari shed too much light on the first-team All-Pro left tackle’s return timetable from a torn ACL suffered in practice on Dec. 31.
Bakhtiari remains on the physically unable to perform list and rehabs inside the Don Hutson Center while the team practices outside. He’s away from the view of reporters, so we can’t even update you on what exercises he’s doing.
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While Bakhtiari remains out, Elgton Jenkins has taken the majority of first-team reps at left tackle. He’ll start there Week 1 in New Orleans if Bakhtiari isn’t ready.
Bakhtiari said his left knee feels “good,” but added Tuesday, “I’m not going to set any dates or expectations. I think it’s going to be a fun ride, and we’ll kind of all figure it out.”
LaFleur said the Packers will prepare as if Bakhtiari won’t be ready for the Sept. 12 season opener in New Orleans. That’s not to say they think he won’t be healthy by then, rather a mindset to have so they’re prepared for the worst-case scenario if it arrives.
Despite playing in just 12 games last season — he missed three following an injury to his ribs and one with the torn ACL — Bakhtiari was named a Pro Bowl starter and the best left tackle in football by the Pro Football Writers of America. It goes without saying how badly the Packers need him back, even if Jenkins provides one of the best blind-side insurance policies in the NFL.
“It’s almost like when you take something away, you don’t realize how much you enjoy it,” Bakhtiari said. “It is a grind, but being away, I’m like really itching to get back out there. I don’t like seeing other people do my job, but it’s all part of the course I have to play. Like I said when it happened, there’s this road I have to go down. It’s a long road and I don’t like it, but the only way to get to where I want to be is I’ve got to go down that road. So I’m currently down there right now. We’ll see when it ends.”
SnackGate is over
Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander recently said that rookie first-round cornerback Eric Stokes doesn’t bring in enough snacks for the defensive backs. When Stokes says the snacks are in his truck and Alexander tells him to retrieve them, he said, Stokes claims he doesn’t know where his truck is parked.
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It seems Snackgate at Lambeau Field has come to an end, though, and Stokes’ pockets are a little thinner because of it.
“See, I actually brought snacks in,” Stokes said Tuesday. “I actually had my snacks. I took them out of the truck, I put them in the room and he just kept saying, ‘Hey, man, I’m going to keep saying that you need to bring more snacks.’ Sunday, I went to Target and I bought a lot of snacks. Like, a lot of snacks. That’s when he came in here and he literally said, ‘Rookie, you are totally cool with me now.’ The snack issue is a done deal now. It’s full right now. I know for a fact they’ll be gone by Friday.”
Stokes said he purchased four or five jumbo bags of different candy, including Snickers, Twix and Reese’s cups. He bought two big packs of Skittles and four or five variety bags of chips. He bought two cases of Chips Ahoy cookies, Dum Dums and even pistachios at the request of safety Adrian “Smash” Amos.
“God, it was a lot,” Stokes said. “… That’s weird, but Smash loves pistachios. I had got some more different stuff, so the room is filled with pretty much junk food. Let’s just say that.
“… If the nutritionist walked in, I don’t think he’d be pleased.”
Stokes didn’t want to throw his fellow rookie cornerback Jean-Charles under the bus, but …
“It’s really only me,” Stokes said. “Shemar (Jean-Charles) helped me out one day. There was one day we went to Walmart and we went half and half on one, but I’ve done it like three times. The other ones, it was all on me. Even when the snacks get low, everybody points at me. They don’t think Sherm. They don’t think about none of the other people we got that are first-years as well. They always come to me.
“I mean, it comes with the price. You know? First round, that’s what they always say. ‘You got the big bucks.’ And I’m like, ‘Hey man, if I keep buying snacks, y’all team dinner or rookie dinner is gonna be cut.’ So it’s going to be either or.”
From the best QB-WR tandem in football lighting up camp to MVS making fun of Kenny Clark's weight or head size on a daily basis, here are 20 things we learned from the first week of Packers training camp: https://t.co/lkGGD5ZSuM
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 2, 2021
Why Rodgers has always been Smith’s favorite QB
Well before he became a Packer, even well before he entered the NFL, linebacker Preston Smith decided that Aaron Rodgers was his favorite quarterback.
In short, Smith is from Atlanta and the Packers beat the Falcons in the 2010 divisional round en route to their Super Bowl title. Smith’s mom was a diehard Falcons fan and season-ticket holder. She was also the person who would take her son on official recruiting visits in high school. Travel back from official visits would conflict with Falcons kickoffs around that time of year, so Smith had to wait until the Falcons’ season was over to go on official visits in January 2011.
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Rodgers completed 31-of-36 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns in a 48-21 win over the top-seeded Falcons, ending their season and allowing Smith to go on official visits.
“Who’s this Aaron Rodgers?” Smith thought watching the game. “He’s dicing the Falcons up. He’s having his way. You could call him Burger King. He was having his way.
“Ever since that day — and they ended up winning the Super Bowl that year — he’s my favorite quarterback. And just having a chance to be on a team with him, I was in awe when I first signed, of course knowing I would be here and he was going to be here, walking in the locker room and seeing him in person, interacting with him, it’s almost like being starstruck.”
Another early retirement
The Packers announced Tuesday that undrafted rookie wide receiver Bailey Gaither (San Jose State) had decided to retire. He becomes the second Packer to retire in the last three days, joining second-year offensive lineman Simon Stepaniak.
(Photo of Eric Stokes: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
