Tuesday’s takeaways
First-round draft pick Jordan Love has looked indecisive and less than comfortable in coach Matt LaFleur’s offense, so LaFleur told the quarterback to stop holding back and just fire the ball where he thinks it should go. Love did a much better job of that, but he also reverted to his finesse game during the live tackling period. Love, who took all the QB snaps in the 14 plays with live tackling, led an impressive five-play, 63-yard drive on the first possession. He found tight end Jace Sternberger open down the sideline on a broken coverage for 28 yards. He hit receiver Malik Taylor over the middle for 11 and then hit Sternberger on the run in the flat leading to a 21-yard gain after Sternberger broke linebacker Kris Barnes’ tackle. On the next series, Love had a first down at the opposition’s 49 and had H-back John Lovett matched up with safety Vernon Scott down the field. But he got cute with the throw and laid it up instead of leading Lovett. Scott intercepted the underthrown pass.
The live drills bring out the best in some players and the worst in others. For running back Dexter Williams, who does not get a lot of carries in practice, it brought out the best. He had only two carries — rookie AJ Dillon had three — but on the first, he blasted up the middle fighting his way for a 9-yard gain. A player later, he veered to the left and cut back perfectly for another 9-yard gain. Williams looked quick and decisive on both runs. The absence of preseason games hurts the most for a guy like Williams, a sixth-round pick in ’19, because the coaches know all they need to know about Aaron Jones, Jamaal Williams and Tyler Ervin and aren’t going to cut Dillon, a second-round pick. Williams has to make the Packers feel they can’t cut him.
QB watch
The play of the day was a third-and-10 at the 16-yard line during a move-theball drill. With the defense throwing a double-coverage blanket on receiver Davante Adams, Aaron Rodgers put the ball up between cornerback Jaire Alexander and safety Adrian Amos and let Adams go over them for the catch. The pass was perfect and Adams made a brilliant catch. After scoring, he threw the ball into the empty Lambeau Field stands and was mobbed by excited teammates.
Injury report
Missed practice: S Raven Greene (undisclosed), T Rick Wagner (arm) and DL Montravius Adams (foot).
Non-football injury list: RB Patrick Taylor, OL Simon Stepaniak. Physically unable to perform list: LB Curtis Bolton, OL Yosh Nijman, OLB Greg Roberts.
Three players dropped out of practice and went into the locker room: OLB Randy Ramsey, CB Kabion Ento and DT Willington Previlon. Only Previlon returned, but he watched the rest of practice from the sideline.
Bits and pieces
Punter JK Scott likes Lambeau Field in August. He was very good in the previous Lambeau practice and was even better the second time. He started off the punting drill with punts of 54, 61, 59 and 59 yards. In order, their hang times were 4.73, 4.7, 4.71 and 4.5 seconds. For the day, he averaged 51 yards per punt.
Kicker Mason Crosby had missed just one kick since camp began, but he missed two Tuesday. One came on an extra point in which long snapper Hunter Bradley bounced the snap and Scott had to dig it out. The other was a miss to the left from 48 yards out.
Inside linebacker Oren Burks didn’t fold despite rookie Kamal Martin taking away some of his snaps. In the liveaction drill, Burks shot a gap and laid a big hit on Dillon for no gain and on the next play dropped into coverage nearly intercepted Love’s pass to Sternberger.
The longest play of the day was a shot down the middle of the field Rodgers hit to receiver Allen Lazard. There was confusion between the safeties and linebackers on the play and Lazard ran right past them for what might have been a 75-yard touchdown.
Quote of the day
“It felt like the flow was pretty good. Definitely have to get used to or get back in the flow of calling plays, both myself and (defensive coordinator Mike) Pettine, just to make sure our tempo is on point and the guys are getting the calls in and are able to communicate at the best of their ability so we can have success.”
— LaFleur on how practice inside Lambeau Field went.
Practice schedule
The Packers are off Wednesday and return for at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.