Here’s What Happened at Practice 4 of Packers Training Camp

Jordan Love had one of his best days with the Packers. Plus: the Player of the Day, Play of the Day, highlights, injury updates and much more.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 29, 2023 4:12 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Now in his fourth season with the Green Bay Packers, Jordan Love hasn’t had many days like the one he had on Saturday at training camp.

In fact, at least in front of reporters, he’s had only one. When Aaron Rodgers skipped the 2021 minicamp and Love had the full complement of receivers, he had one absolutely sensational performance that had the Clarke Hinkle Field buzzing.

After two tough outings from a completions vs. attempts perspective to start this camp, Love was 16-of-22 passing against the No. 1 defense on a sunny Saturday at Ray Nitschke Field.

Love opened with completions on a bootleg to the right to Christian Watson and a bootleg to the left to Samori Toure. Later, he went play-action and threw a perfect deep corner route to rookie Jayden Reed for a big gain over Keisean Nixon.

He went 3-of-5 the next period, with a bad overthrow of Watson, who was sprinting behind the defense, and a pass breakup by Rasul Douglas.

During an extended eight-play sequence, he was 5-of-6, with the lone incompletion being either a wildly inaccurate pass or (more likely) someone blowing his route.

During an end-of-game/half sequence in which the offense needed to move the ball into field-goal range with one play from the defense’s 43, Love connected with Watson for 10 yards.

That set the stage for a practice-ending 2-minute drill. He went 4-of-7 – one incompletion was a throwaway and one was a clock-killing spike of the ball – to move the ball to the 1 to set up a 19-yard field goal. The big play on the drive was today’s Play of the Day.

Through three days, Love is 28-of-50 passing (56.0 percent) with two touchdowns and one interception.

Jordan Love has fun with teammates at training camp on Saturday. (Photo by Tork Mason/USA Today Sports Images)

Play of the Day

Any quarterback can complete a high percentage of passes by throwing a bunch of low-difficulty passes that gain a few yards at a time. Winning quarterback play means some explosive plays. And in a 2-minute drill, it takes clutch throws.

On third-and-3, Love delivered both. With a defender in his face, Love resorted to a somewhat-funky arm angle to uncork a deep shot to Samori Toure. Toure used an out-and-up to get past cornerback Rasul Douglas and caught the ball along the sideline while taking a shot from safety Darnell Savage for a gain of 33.

“It was a perfect ball,” Toure said. “It can’t be more perfect than that. If he throws it any more outside, it’s out of bounds; anymore inside, the safety makes a play on it. He put it in a perfect spot.”

The catch was of high quality, too, considering he got hit in a noncontact practice.

“I know how our DBs play,” he said. “They’re competitive, they want to make plays on the ball. I saw D-Sav coming out of the corner of my eyes and I just tried to secure the catch and stay inbounds. … I’ve been playing receiver a long time. You start to expect the hits and brace yourself for it.”

Player of the Day

Obviously, it’s Jordan Love. But enough about him.

Punter Daniel Whelan, who is challenging veteran Pat O’Donnell, showed a massive leg. Kicking with the wind in his face as well as at his back, he punted 12 times for an average of 52.0 yards with 4.57 seconds of hangtime. His ninth punt, with the wind at his back, was an absolute rocket of 64 yards with 5.33 seconds of hang time that allowed the flier (aka the gunner) to be in the ace of the returner.

Whelan crushed O’Donnell’s numbers from Friday, though all of Whelan’s punts were bomb’s-away situations. There’s also the holding component on field goals that will be taken into consideration when rosters are picked next month.

Injury Report

Left tackle David Bakhtiari dropped out of practice but didn’t leave the field with a trainer so is probably fine. Yosh Nijman moved in with the No. 1 offense.

The big scare came during a lengthy punt period. All-Pro returner Keisean Nixon fielded the ball, made a cut and went to the turf. And there he laid for probably a half-minute, surrounded by most members of the team.

He got up and walked off on his own. During the next period, Nixon was back with the No. 1 defense as the slot.

New Injuries: LT David Bakhtiari (perhaps nothing), TE Tucker Kraft (right leg).

Old Injuries: OLB Rashan Gary (PUP list; knee), CB Eric Stokes (PUP list foot), WR Grant DuBose (Non-Football Injury List; back), WR Dontayvion Wicks (concussion).

Returned From Injury: None.

Lineup Notes

- First-round pick Lukas Van Ness had taken nothing but third-team snaps for the first two days. During the starters vs. starters 2-minute drill, it was Van Ness and Preston Smith at outside linebacker.

- Mostly, though, it was Smith and Justin Hollins as the No. 1 tandem and Van Ness and Kingsley Enagbare with the No. 2s.

“It’s just the rotation we have, throwing guys out there and giving them a chance to compete, an opportunity,” Van Ness said. “So far, [position coach Jason] Rebrovich says stay at his hip and when a guy is ready to go out, make sure you’re ready. Every time you get that opportunity, make it a good one. To me, it doesn’t mean anything – first, second third-team reps – they’re all valuable opportunities to go out there and play.”

- During that 2-minute drill, rookie Luke Musgrave took all the tight end snaps. While he hasn’t made a lot of plays at this early stage of camp, it appears the position is his to lose.

- The No. 1 offensive line had David Bakhtiari at left tackle and Zach Tom at right tackle. On Thursday, Yosh Nijman was the right tackle.

- Tom doubled as the third-team center, at times, with Jake Hanson getting the No. 2 reps.

- The No. 1 defense started with Rudy Ford joining Darnell Savage as the safeties, but Jonathan Owens and Tarvarius Moore got first-team reps with Savage, as well.

“I think it’s going to be one of those things that’s going to be pretty fluid in regards to who’s running with the 1s, who’s running with the 2s,” coach Matt LaFleur said before practice. “We’re going to rotate those guys quite a bit. I think that’s when things start to clearly define themselves and the separation starts to happen.”

Practice Highlights

- Rookie kicker Anders Carlson made 5-of-6 field goals to start camp. On Saturday, however, he made 2-of-7. During the opening period, he missed from 45, 47 and 49 yards, with the last coming after a bad snap. During the second period, he missed from 50, connected from 51 to loud cheers from the fans and missed from 53.

- After losing on third down and having to do push-ups on Wednesday and in the red zone and having to do up-downs on Thursday, the offense lost the 2-minute drills on Saturday. The punishment was more up-downs.

“It’s a big deal but today, to be honest, I don’t think we won,” linebacker Quay Walker said. “We gave up too many yards. We lost today, to be honest with you.

- Speaking of the 2-minute drills: The No. 1 offense almost scored a touchdown. After the big Jordan Love pass to Samori Toure vs. Rasul Douglas, Patrick Taylor ran for 5, Love completed pass to Romeo Doubs for 9 and Taylor ran for 6 more to the 1. There was mass confusion on whether Taylor scored, though, and probably a half-dozen seconds ticked away while the officials pondered the meaning of life.

Finally, Love clocked the ball with 6 seconds left. On third-and-goal from the 1, Love completed a pass to Luke Musgrave, whose reach the for the goal line fell short of the mark. Carlson kicked the 19-yard field goal on the final play.

The No. 2 offense led by Danny Etling went nowhere, and the No. 3 offense led by Sean Clifford went nowhere after a first-play completion to Jadakis Bonds.

- Douglas gave up the big play but had two breakups to continue a strong camp.

- It wasn’t just Love who had a good day. The running game was clicking, too, kick-started by back-to-back big runs by Aaron Jones.

- A fake end-around to new receiver Cody Chrest created a huge void for rookie running back Emanuel Wilson.

- A couple plays later, an end-around to receiver Malik Heath was destroyed by outside linebacker Kingsley Enagbare and cornerback Corey Ballentine.

- A couple cornerbacks fighting for roster spots, Shemar Jean-Charles and Kiondre Thomas, had breakups on back-to-back plays. Rookie seventh-round cornerback Carrington Valentine added a breakup later.

- Devonte Wyatt would have had a sack in a live situation.

Packers Training Camp Schedule

Sunday will be a total day off, as mandated by the collective bargaining agreement. The Packers will practice at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with all three practices being open to the fans, before next Saturday’s Family Night. Monday’s practice is scheduled to be the first in pads.

Quote of the Day

Quay Walker said he’s prepared for opponents to push his buttons after he was ejected twice last season.

“I’m already prepared. I know most teams will label me a hothead so I am already preparing for what’s going to happen and things like that. I’ve just got to be ready for everything that’s going to come. I know it’s going to come Week 1, with it being a rivalry game. Every week, teams will try to go at me, so I’m already preparing for it.”