LaFleur lays down law on camp tackling
GREEN BAY - News and views from Green Bay Packers’ training camp practice:
Wednesday’s takeaways
Matt LaFleur really doesn’t want his players tackling to the ground in training camp.
The Packers coach sent a message to his team when he benched safety Josh
Jones for the rest of practice after Jones threw running back Tra Carson to the ground during a team drill. Jones might have been reacting to Carson running over cornerback Tony Brown on the play, but that didn’t matter to LaFleur.
“I told (Jones) to get out at that particular moment,” LaFleur said. “That’s not what we want to be about. We’ve got to take care of our teammates. We are a team. We need everybody, and so that’s just kind of how we operate.” Jones’ tackle nearly started a fight between some offensive and defensive players. When Carson popped to his feet and went after Jones, the two immediately drew a crowd from both sides of the ball. It didn’t appear any punches were thrown, and LaFleur said he has a “zero-tolerance” policy on fighting.
The Packers conducted their first two-minute drills of training camp, and the first one, matching the No. 1 offense and defense, ended with
Marquez Valdes-Scantling making a big play, a diving/falling catch against Jaire
Alexander on a pass from Aaron Rodgers for a 33-yard touchdown. Alexander had inside position and was running stride for stride with ValdesScantling. But the wide receiver battled his way through Alexander and then made the extended catch as he went to the ground. There was plenty of contact between the two players, and Valdes-Scantling might have been guilty of offensive pass interference, but no penalty was called. Because it happened within the final two minutes of a half, the play would have been subject to replay only if the replay official initiated a challenge.
QB watch
Tim Boyle had his best day of camp in his battle with DeShone Kizer for the No. 2 job. In one team drill Boyle beat a blitz with a quick slant to Trevor Davis that probably would have broken open for a nice gain. And Boyle put up a field goal on his two-minute drill that simulated the end of the first half, including making his best throw of the day, a deep out on a line to Equanimeous St.
Brown. Injury report
One injured player returned to practice, safety Darnell Savage, who had been on the non-football injury list after having his wisdom teeth removed. A new injury was running back Aaron Jones (tight hamstring)and cornerback
Javien Hamilton (hamstring).
Still out were offensive tackle Jason Spriggs (trapezius), running back Jamaal Williams (hamstring), outside
linebacker Kendall Donnerson (hamstring) and defensive tackle Fadol
Brown (calf).
Bits and pieces
JK Scott went through his first pooch-punting period of camp. He hit 14 punts from various yard lines near and beyond midfield. Three were touchbacks, while the rest were downed at or inside the 10, though the drill probably didn’t simulate game conditions because the gunners were allowed to start downfield and had an easy time getting in position to down the punts on the fly.
Cornerback Kevin King practiced but didn’t take a lot of snaps in team drills. That included sitting out the starters vs. starters two-minute drill. The Packers perhaps are being extra careful with his health after he missed 17 games his first two seasons with shoulder and hamstring injuries.
Wednesday’s practice was the longest of the six practices in camp so far at 2 hours, 19 minutes. LaFleur still hasn’t hit the 21⁄2-hour mark, which was common early in previous Packers camps.
Practice schedule
The next practice is 10:15 a.m. Thursday at Ray Nitschke Field.