LaFleur dials back practice
GREEN BAY - News and views from the Green Bay Packers’ training camp practice Thursday:
Thursday’s takeaways
Coming off full pads practices Tuesday and Wednesday and approaching a night practice Friday, coach Matt LaFleur decided to go with helmets and shorts Thursday. The practice was more like a jog-through and only the 2-minute period was ultra-competitive. “When you go three hard days in a row you’re more susceptible to injury,” LaFleur said. “We went hard yesterday, dialed it back today. We did more above the neck stuff and then tomorrow we’ll get after it pretty good.”
The practice lasted an hour and 35 minutes and ended with a 25-minute walk-through in which goal-line and short-yardage were a highlight. The practice at Lambeau Field on Friday night will feature competitive “movethe-ball” periods, but there will be no tackling. The players will be under “thud” rules, which means they can stop an opponent’s momentum, but they can’t take him to the ground.
There have been times during practice when it has seemed like LaFleur is taking too much time to get the play into the huddle and the offense is standing around. Quarterback Aaron
Rodgers said it’s the result of LaFleur altering the script in the midst of a drill so he can get a look at something different.
“Matt will look at his script and not want that and so we’ll have to change it,” Rodgers said. “I think I’ve burned all my timeouts, so we didn’t have any delay of games — if we had five or six timeouts. But that’s kind of the growth process for us on offense.”
Not having running backs Aaron
Jones and Jamaal Williams, both out with hamstring injuries, is giving rookie
Dexter Williams a lot of extra snaps, but every day the two veterans are out is a day the running game’s development is stunted. Play-action is such a big part of LaFleur’s offense that the Packers must run the ball effectively this season.
“We need to figure out what’s going on in the backfield,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, with Jonesy and Jamaal out, we need somebody to step up, really a couple guys to step up in that group and start to make some plays.”
QB watch
The radio communication between LaFleur and the quarterbacks has not been consistent. LaFleur said the signal from the walkie-talkie he’s using to radio plays in doesn’t always come through well.
“We’re working through that now,” LaFleur said. “We’ve got the music blaring, so I think those walkie talkies pick up a little bit more of that background noise. So, he (Rodgers) just asked me to enunciate a little bit better.” The system on the practice field is not what is used during games, so there shouldn’t be a problem inside the stadium.
Injury report
LB Curtis Bolton left practice because of illness. LB Mike Tyson did not practice for a personal reason.
Still out are T Jason Spriggs (trapezius), RB Aaron Jones (hamstring), RB Jamaal Williams (hamstring), OLB Kendall Donnerson (hamstring) and DT Fadol Brown (calf).
K Mason Crosby (calf) and CB Josh Jackson (foot) are on the non-football injury list while LB Greg Roberts (core muscle injury) is on the physically unable to perform list.
LaFleur said Crosby is getting close but would not kick Friday night.
Bits and pieces
LaFleur will have college officials work the Friday night practice and then NFL officials will come in to work the two days of practice with the Houston Texans
on Monday and Tuesday. The NFL officials typically visit training camps and work a few practices as part of their preparation for the season.
The script for the two practices against the Texans was worked out during the offeason between LaFleur and Houston coach Bill O’Brien, LaFleur said. The Texans will practice on Clarke Hinkle Field by themselves before the joint practice periods begin.
In order, the players who took turns
returning kickoffs Thursday were Trevor Davis, Jawill Davis, Teo Redding, Corey
Grant and Darrius Shepherd.
Rookie outside linebacker Rashan
Gary gave the offense a free play at the end of a 2-minute drill by jumping offside on Rodgers’ hard count. There were 7 seconds left in the game and the ball was inside the 10-yard line. Rodgers hit tight end Jimmy Graham for the touchdown, in part because the defense thought the play had been stopped.
Rodgers acknowledged he has been throwing a lot to receiver Davante Adams to help Adams gain confidence in the scheme. He said he has also tried to do the same thing with Graham. “That’s the key for this offense,” he said. “We need our important guys we really count on to have confidence in the scheme.”
Quote of the day
“They definitely have the work cut out for them. It’s going to be sad definitely at this point. I’ve had different years where you know how things are going to kind of pan out, but this year is definitely going to be the hardest one.” — Adams on how difficult it will be to choose wide receivers for the 53-man roster.
Practice schedule
The next practice starts at 6:45 p.m. Friday at Lambeau Field for the Packers’ annual Family Night event.