Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
David Bakhtiari suffers ankle injury during Family Night scrimmage
Green Bay — Just as the Green Bay Packers are getting their right tackle back from injury, they suddenly have uncertainty on the left side.
David Bakhtiari, their all-pro left tackle, left the field near the end of the Packers’ Family Night practice Saturday night. Left guard Lane Taylor said Bakhtiari told him he got his foot caught underneath him, indicating a rolled ankle. Coach Mike McCarthy said his left tackle had an ankle injury.
“I don’t have enough information to answer (the severity),” McCarthy said immediately after practice. “I know it’s his ankle, but that’s all I know.”
NFL Network, citing a source, reported Sunday that Bakhtiari suffered a sprained left ankle and would miss some practice time.
After trainers evaluated him on the bench, removing his left cleat and sock, Bakhtiari was carted to the l ocker room. He only limped slightly and was able to walk unassisted to the cart.
Bakhtiari remained i n the l ocker room after practice, but there was a sense among teammates that his injury wasn’t serious. Still, Bakhtiari is one of the Packers’ most important and talented players, so the sight of him being carted to the locker room is always unsettling.
“That’s my boy,” Taylor said. “I don’t want to see him get hurt, banged up or anything. Hope he’s OK. I feel like it’ll be all right. So we’ll see tomorrow.
“Not 100 percent sure, but I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Center Corey Linsley added: “I’m hoping it’s not (serious), but you never want to say anything until you get all the results and all the information.”
The Packers had been getting healthier on the offensive line. Right tackle Bryan Bulaga returned to practice last week Friday, though he was held out for precautionary reasons Saturday night.
With Bakhtiari out, Kyle Murphy
replaced him at left tackle. The bulk of Murphy ’s reps in camp have come on the left side with the Packers’ secondteam offense, though he has gotten some reps as a first-team right tackle behind Jason Spriggs.
“Just gotta be ready to take reps whenever,” Murphy said. “Yeah, obviously Dave got nicked up a little bit, but probably not too bad, tough guy. It’s always next man up.” Alexander, King held out of practice: At the end of Monday ’s open locker room session with the media, Packers rookie cornerback Jaire Alexander
jogged across the room without limping to retrieve something from his locker.
So Alexander’s absence from Monday ’s practice because of a groin injury indeed appeared to be only precautionary. Alexander said he tweaked his groin his first time covering a deep route Saturday. He did not take any reps the rest of practice, and his availability for Thursday ’s preseason opener against Tennessee would seem unlikely.
But Alexander said his groin feels “pretty good” and the injury isn’t major.
“They definitely want to take these precautionary measures,” Alexander said, “especially because it’s preseason. If this was a playoff game, who knows? It’d probably be a different stor y.”
Alexander wasn’t the only defensive back held out Monday. Second-year cornerback Kevin King missed practice because of a right shoulder injury. The severity of King’s injury is unclear, but he has a history of left shoulder injuries. It was a year ago during training camp when King’s left shoulder dislocated, l eading to a chronic problem throughout the season that eventually required surgery and led to him being placed on injured reserve.
Safety Kentrell Brice returned to practice less than a week after being carted off the field with an ankle injury. Brice went down during a special teams drill July 31. He did not take team reps Monday and appeared to drop out, removing his shoulder pads by the end of practice.
Brice was placed on injured reserve last season with an ankle injury. He needed “ankle reconstruction” surgery last November after tearing his deltoid ligament. Brice said he was initially concerned he broke his ankle, but Xrays showed no break.
“Immediately what went through my mind was I just had surgery in November,” Brice said. “I’m not trying to do this again. I just started praying.
“It wasn’t broken, so it was a positive outlook. Once they told me it wasn’t fractured or broken, I just started walking on it. I figured sprain, bruise, something like that. I’ll be all right.”
Ryan is out for the season: Linebacker Jake Ryan tore the ACL in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season, according to a source familiar with the results of an MRI he underwent last week Tuesday.
Ryan was injured in practice and carted off the field. Surgery will be scheduled soon for the fourth-year linebacker and he will face a 9- to 12month recovery. Ryan also tore his right
ACL in college at Michigan.
Ryan is in the final year of his contract and will be a free agent in March, which means he would be close to being cleared for practice, but teams will want to see where he is before signing him. He will earn his $1.907 million in base salary this season.
Asked how Ryan might be replaced, defensive coordinator Mike Pettine told reporters, “Well, certainly we have experience in a guy that was very productive last year in Blake ( Martinez). We have the rookie, O.B. ( Oren Burks), who has flashed some things. Still, the transition from the college game to the NFL, it takes some time. ...
”It’s tough for those guys to come in, and it overwhelms them a little bit at first. And especially now, we’re working off the entire inventory. ... And once we get to game -plan situations, we really cut it down. That’s going to help a lot of our guys that have a lot stuff running through their head.
“Ahmad Thomas has flashed, certainly, some coverage ability i n the days so far. And then we have some other, younger guys. We’ll see how it plays out. It’s a big loss.” Packers claim linebacker: A few hours before the start of their Saturday night practice, the Packers said they have claimed linebacker James
Hearns off waivers from the Dallas Cowboys. He will fill the final spot on the team’s 90-man roster.
The 6-2, 265-pound Hearns was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Louisville by the Cowboys on April 30 and was released Aug. 3.
Hearns played in 39 games with 21 starts for Louisville and recorded 97 tackles, 171⁄ sacks, 28 tackles for a loss, 2 nine forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and five pass deflections. As a senior in 2017, Hearns tied for the team lead with seven sacks.
Hearns was part of an off-field incident in December of 2016 when he was shot in the elbow at an off-campus apartment while celebrating his teammate Lamar Jackson’s winning of the Heisman Trophy.
Asked about the incident at the NFL scouting combine, Hearns said, “We were just at a party, wrong place -wrong time kind of thing. There was an altercation out front between some other guys, and they ended up shooting, hit-
ting me and two other people that night. It wasn’t one of those things where they were coming for me or anything.”
Hearns will wear No. 49 for the Packers. Banged-up backfield: Devante
Mays feels fortunate that the hamstring injury he suffered in practice last week Friday wasn’t worse, but the Packers’ second-year running back will probably be held back for a bit so it doesn’t turn into something worse.
Mays’ backfield mate, Aaron Jones, has also been sidelined with a hamstring injury since early in camp and the medical staff has not yet cleared him to return. Jones thought he would be back last week, but the Packers tend to be cautious with hamstring injuries.
“It’s nothing major,” Mays said Monday. “It’s a small tweak. It’s a small pull. If I had to play this week, I definitely would.”
With Mays and Jones sidelined, general manager Brian Gutekunst signed street free -agent running back
Akeem Judd, who spent part of last year on the New York Jets practice
squad but was released in May.
Judd was an undrafted free agent out of Mississippi last year. He rushed for 826 yards as a senior and averaged 5.0 yards per carry.
In a series of roster moves, the Packers placed Ryan and li nebacker C.J.
Johnson on injured reserve and released guard Ethan Cooper.
According to Mays, Jones is very close to returning to the field. The Packers play their first exhibition game Thursday against Tennessee, but it’s questionable whether Jones would play even if he were cleared this week.
Before Judd was signed, the only healthy running backs the Packers had were starter Jamaal Williams, veteran
Ty Montgomery and first-year free agent Joel Bouagnon.
McCarthy understandably won’t want to overwork Williams and Montgomery, so Judd will probably receive a crash course so he can play against the Titans. McCarthy ’s options at fullback are limited, too, because Joe Kerridge dropped out of practice after aggravating a right shoulder injury.
Mays said that when he does get
back, he feels he’ll be able to pick up where he left off.
“I think things were going pretty well,” Mays said. “Special teams was going well and running the plays was going well, too. I feel like they do (know me) to a certain extent, but on the other hand, I feel like they don’t fully know.
“So, it’s kind of hard.” Clark relishing run-stuffing role: On a day when Aaron Rodgers’ nolook touchdown pass overshadowed everything else, Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark’s one -armed tackle was worth remembering.
In the Packers’ run-oriented combo drill last week, Clark was unblocked in the backside A-gap after running a stunt with Martinez. It’s unclear whether the Packers’ offensive line blew an assignment, but if they were counting on a defensive tackle being unable to chase down the play, they were wrong.
Clark chased down Williams and, before he could get out of the backfield, tackled him with one arm.
“Once t he offensive line started flowing that way,” Clark said, “I knew where the play was going. Once I planted my foot in the ground, he was almost into the line. I just had to get a good angle, the best angle I could, and try to make that play.”
The tackle showed a glimpse of what the Packers might expect from their third-year defensive tackle this season. Clark had a solid second season, finishing with 41⁄ sacks – all of them 2 coming in the season’s final month. But Clark said his “bread and butter” is being a run stopper.
“I feel like I’m comfortable,” Clark said. “I feel like things are coming to me way slower than they ever were. Now it’s just up to me just to put all that stuff together and make plays when my number is called.
“I want to be a great player in the league.” Hanging around: Rookie punter JK Scott boomed some punts during practice reaching a high of 4.93 seconds in hang time.
He had only two punts that were under 4.4 seconds and had four that were in the 4.8-second range punting some against a full rush and some against a half rush.
Scott started focusing more on hang
time during his senior year at Alabama and is continuing to do so. He said he does not have a set hang time he expects to reach on average over the course of the season.
“I wouldn’t say I’m looking at those numbers,” Scott said. “If I can get that ball in the right place and my steps are right, then the hang time should take care of itself.
“That’s what coach (Nick) Saban instilled in me at Alabama. He’s so big on the process. Don’t look at the scoreboard. Do everything you can do on your play and everything should take care of itself. That’s my mentality.”
Odom shows improvement: If the Packers didn’t think they had something with rookie linebacker Chris
Odom, they wouldn’t have kept him on the roster for 16 games last season with a total of 59 snaps played.
What they saw in practice last week had to validate their decision some.
Odom won’t get the benefit of the prospect label this time, which made his performance even more important. On the fifth day of practice, Odom spent a good deal of it in the backfield, showing he could be a good fit for the hybrid end/linebacker position in Pettine’s defense.
“I’ve been here since the season, so it’s time for me to show my improvement I made,” Odom said. “I think today was a step forward. I think it just goes to the improvements I made ever since training camp has started.
“I just have to keep on making improvements. Today wasn’t perfect.”
When the Packers claimed Odom off waivers from the Atlanta Falcons, he was a 6-foot-4, 273-pound defensive end. The scouting department looked at him as someone who could slim down and play outside linebacker in the Packers’ 3-4 defense.
Odom didn’t get much of a chance to show what he could do last year. He was inactive for seven games and did not play in two others. Most of his action came on special teams.
Over the off-season, Odom worked on preparing himself for Pettine’s defense, which could be in a 3-4 one week and 4-3 the next. It means some of the outside linebackers are going to play a defensive end position in certain fourdown alignments, so Odom wanted to make sure he was quick enough to play
outside and strong enough to play inside.
He dropped 20 pounds and the improvement in his pass rush was evident in practice.
“Now that I’ve been an outside linebacker, I know how to do both,” he said. “So I know how to be a hand-down true defensive end in certain situations or I can stand up and be an outside linebacker.
“(It helps to be) a universal player. The more knowledge you have, the more you’re worth.”
New helmet rules: McCarthy said his team will be well-prepared for the new use -of-the -helmet rules that will be enforced this season.
The NFL wants to crack down on players leading with their helmets and this off-season came up with strict guidelines and penalties for helmet contact both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
McCarthy said teaching of the new rules began in the spring and tackling form is addressed in all of the drills the players perform on the field. NFL officials who are in town to work three training camp practices, will go over that and other rule changes and em-
phases with the players.
“You can just see with the communication from the NFL officiating department, a number of emails, particularly the video that’s been moving around the league,” McCarthy said of the emphasis. “We’ve already taken a l ap through it.
“We have a segment of our team meeting, game education, that we’ve been able to cover most of it so far and it’ll be good to have officials here the next three days. We’ll go back through it with these guys.”
McCarthy said he’s all for taking the helmet out of the game. He said his players have been taught the proper way to tackle, but he does expect a learning curve to take place because of the changes.
For instance, a running back can receive a 15-yard penalty for lowering his helmet on a defender in certain situations.
Players can be ejected for any of these three uses of the helmet:
1. Player lowers his helmet to establish a linear body posture prior to initiating and making contact with the helmet
2. Unobstructed path to his opponent
3.Contact clearly avoidable and player delivering the blow had other options
“I think clearly you have to remember what we’re trying to accomplish here,” McCarthy said. “It’s a number of things. No. 1, the number of egregious hits in the league last year; the goal is clearly to get those out of the game. The helmet is not a weapon.
“So it’s really, from my viewpoint, the emphasizing the proper tackling techniques and this and that. Once again, I know history will tell you in my time going back through all the rule changes – if we can get it early enough as coaches and get it a part of our training, we’ll achieve the goal.”