Here’s What Happened at Packers Family Night

The Green Bay Packers’ eighth practice of training camp, Family Night, was held inside Lambeau Field on Saturday night. From Jordan Love to Anders Carlson, here’s what you need to know.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Aug 6, 2023 1:16 AM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Two players under intense spotlights, Jordan Love and Anders Carlson, delivered the fireworks before the post-practice fireworks at the Green Bay Packers’ annual Family Night practice on Saturday night.

With 65,222 fans in attendance, Love’s final pass of the night was a spectacular touchdown and Carlson capped a sensational night with a 51-yard field goal.

Here is everything you need to know from Family Night.

Jordan Love’s Day

In his first Family Night as the team’s starting quarterback, Love started slowly. His first two passes were deep shots to Romeo Doubs against Jaire Alexander. The first was underthrown and broken up and the second might have been a touchdown but was overthrown. In his first sequence, Love was just 1-of-5 with the lone completion being a screen to Luke Musgrave that might have made it back to the line of scrimmage.

Up next was a red-zone period. Love was 2-of-4 with touchdowns to Aaron Jones on an extended play and to Jayden Reed, who got wide open over the middle. One of the incompletions appeared to have been caught by Reed.

Love was 5-for-7 the next two periods. Critically, that includes four third-down conversions: two to Doubs and one each to Reed and running back Tyler Goodson.

That set the stage for the 2-minute drill, which we’ll get to later.

In all, Love completed 11-of-19 passes with three touchdowns. He didn’t throw an interception, nor was he close to throwing one.

“I thought Jordan did really good throughout this entire day,” Doubs said. “He took the shots he wanted to take, was really clean backed up, really clean in 2-minute. Move-the-ball periods was really good, red zone was really good. That’s our Q. I know he’s willing to get better, just like the rest of us.”

Player of the Day

While Jordan Love has huge shoes to fill in replacing Aaron Rodgers, the same is true of rookie kicker Anders Carlson replacing Mason Crosby.

Carlson entered the night having made 16-of-27 field goals, a 59.2 percent success rate. For some context, no kicker since 2007 has made less than 60 percent of his attempts in a season. So, while Carlson can kick with tremendous power, can he kick with accuracy? And can he handle the pressure?

Well, for one night, he was fantastic while under pressure. Carlson made 9-of-10 field-goal attempts. The only miss was a 50-yarder that was short following an atrocious snap by rookie Broughton Hatcher. The distances were 38 yards (extra point), 40, 44 and 49 yards during his first set, 43, 45 and 50 yards (the miss) during his second set, 51 and 53 yards during his third set and, finally, a 51-yarder at the end of a 2-minute drill.

“I think any time you get in an environment like that, it can’t help but build confidence for him,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “Yeah, I was super-proud with the poise that he showed and the execution. So, if we can get that, I think we’re going to be A-OK, because he’s got a big-time leg. I think you guys can see that and just really happy for him.”

Play of the Day

Christian Watson (Photo by Seeger Gray/USA Today Sports Images)

The second-to-last period of the night was the starters vs. starters 2-minute drill. It started in disastrous fashion, with Jordan Love and Josh Myers botching the shotgun snap. Coach Matt LaFleur gave the offense a mulligan, meaning a fresh start with 2 minutes on the clock and 75 yards from the end zone.

Love needed only about half the time. First, he found tight end Luke Musgrave running wide open on a crossing route. Including 11 yards after the catch, the play gained 30. Next, with premier cornerback Jaire Alexander getting the rest of the night off, Love zeroed in on Christian Watson going against backup Corey Ballentine. First, it was Love to Watson for 20 yards to the 25. After a 4-yard run by Aaron Jones, Love went deep to Watson, who won a jump ball over Ballentine in the end zone for the “winning” touchdown. It was a perfect throw and a big-time play by Watson.

“l think we’ve known that about Jordan in terms of just the resiliency and the poise he possesses,” LaFleur said of Love responding following the snap snafu. “That’s one of those characteristics that you can’t coach, and he definitely possesses that.

“That tends to be life for a young quarterback. It’s going to be a roller coaster and there’s going to be some really good moments and there’s going to be some moments that you want to have back. And I think that’s just the nature of playing that position, and so to have a guy that is resilient, that’s not afraid to go out there and learn from every rep, good or bad, that just speaks to the character of him.”

Injury Report

Left tackle David Bakhtiari dropped out of practice on Tuesday, didn’t practice on Thursday and didn’t practice on Saturday, either.

LaFleur swears it’s not an issue.

“You guys have seen what his situation’s been the last couple years,” LaFleur said. “It’s just one of those things that we’re going to have to be very flexible with. And what I love about it is I know he’s working really hard. Got a lot of confidence. We’ve just got to find ways to get him to Sundays. So, this could be the case throughout camp. It could be the case throughout the season in terms of just how much load we put on him and how his knee reacts. You’ve just got to be fluid with that situation.”

New Injuries: LG Elgton Jenkins (illness), RB Lew Nichols (unknown).

Old Injuries: OLB Rashan Gary (PUP list; knee), CB Eric Stokes (PUP list foot), WR Grant DuBose (Non-Football Injury List; back), C Jake Hanson (elbow), TE Josiah Deguara (calf), LT David Bakhtiari (knee).

Returned From Injury: None.

Lineup Notes

- The battle at center remains on hold. With David Bakhtiari out, Yosh Nijman played left tackle, Zach Tom played right tackle and Josh Myers played center. With left guard Elgton Jenkins out, Royce Newman stepped into that spot.

- Without Bakhtiari and Jenkins, the No. 2 offensive line included Cole Schneider at center and James Empey at right guard. They weren’t on the team last week.

- The Packers continue their rotation alongside safety Darnell Savage. This time, it was Jonathan Owens’ turn to run with the first unit.

- In the big 2-minute drill, Green Bay’s defensive front four had first-round pick Lukas Van Ness and Justin Hollins as the outside linebackers and fourth-round pick Colby Wooden and 2022 first-round pick Devonte Wyatt as the defensive tackles.

Practice Highlights

Dallin Leavitt holds his daughter before Family Night. (Photo by Seegar Gray/USA Today Sports Images)

- Family Night started in cool fashion. In past years, the team has been introduced as position groups. This time, coach Matt LaFleur let the players and coaches run onto the field with their families.

“It was supposed to be better than that,” LaFleur said. “We were trying to get everybody to come out at the same time, which certainly wasn’t the case. But it’s Family Night and wanted to give our kids a chance to run out of the tunnel and maybe a pretty cool memory, and I think they got a kick out of it.”

- Rookie tight end Tucker Kraft had his best night. First, he was excellent as a blocker. He had one of the key blocks on a touchdown run by AJ Dillon and also was out front as Dillon got into the open field. He also caught two passes from Sean Clifford, one that converted on third down and another for a touchdown.

- The third-team pairing at linebacker had excellent nights. Safety-turned-linebacker Tariq Carpenter intercepted two passes late in practice. The first came when he stepped in the passing lane and made a leaping pick of a pass from Clifford. The second came when rookie safety Benny Sapp jarred the ball loose and Carpenter’s hustle put him in the right spot to grab the rebound.

“It’s practice at the end of the day. Don’t really mean much,” Carpenter said. “I’ve got to stack them at the end of the day. That’s how I feel. I still made some mistakes tonight, just got to do my job.”

Jimmy Phillips, an undrafted free agent from SMU, was physical during a live-tackling period.

- Undrafted rookie receiver Malik Heath scored two touchdowns. The first ended with Heath dancing with the fans following a Lambeau Leap. The second was a long catch and run, though Colby Wooden probably had a sack.

- Speaking of Wooden, the No. 2 defensive line of Wooden, fellow rookie Karl Brooks and second-year player Jonathan Ford had strong nights. Brooks had two sacks during the backups vs. backups 2-minute drill.

“I think those are two guys that give us some juice on the interior D-line,” LaFleur said of Wooden and Brooks. “And they’re going to get a lot of minutes or a lot of snaps. It’s going to be a gradual process, but they’re two guys that we’re going to have to count on.”

- Speaking of that 2-minute drill, Sean Clifford led the way to a field goal. A big-time breakup by Carrington Valentine made it third-and-6. Brooks probably had the first of his sacks, but the play continued and Clifford scrambled for 16. A 21-yard completion to Tyler Davis put the offense in scoring position before Valentine broke up another pass and Brooks got his second sack.

- During one-on-one pass-rushing/blocking, second-year guard Sean Rhyan continued his impressive run by winning a pair of reps against Devonte Wyatt. Also, Yosh Nijman went 2-0 against Justin Hollins, Zach Tom went 2-0 against Lukas Van Ness and Josh Myers went 2-0 in a pair of heavyweight battles against TJ Slaton. In all, Rhyan went 6-0 (also swept Jason Lewan and Colby Wooden).

- During passing-game one-on-ones, Romeo Doubs beat Shemar Jean-Charles for a long touchdown, Keisean Nixon had a breakup against Doubs but was beaten by Jayden Reed, and undrafted rookie Duece Watts made an impressive deep grab against Corey Ballentine.

- During one-on-ones with running backs against linebackers, Quay Walker intercepted a pass by Alex McGough to AJ Dillon

- Veteran punter Pat O’Donnell kicked three times in swing-away situations and averaged 53.7 yards with 4.51 seconds of hangtime. Powerful Daniel Whelan kicked four times and averaged 51.0 yards with 4.58 seconds of hangtime. With the ball near midfield, Whelan’s one attempt hit at the 6 and rolled out of bounds at the 4.

Packers Training Camp Schedule

The Packers will practice once in front of the fans next week: 12:30 p.m. on Monday. After that, it’s off to Cincinnati for a joint practice against the Bengals on Wednesday and the preseason opener on Friday.

Quote of the Day

Coach Matt LaFleur, when asked about Jordan Love’s strong finish:

“First of all, what an incredible atmosphere. I think that was the most people that I’ve experienced in our five years here. So, got to give it up for our fans just showing up for us. And it’s a great experience, a great environment for a lot of our young players. And, certainly, to end it offensively with Jordan, I thought it was a great job.”