Rodgers Wants More ‘Game-Like’ Practices
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers saved their best for last.
In the final practice before full attention turns toward Week 1 next week, coach Matt LaFleur conducted what he called a “game-like practice.” Practice was split into four quarters. Get stopped on third down? Punt. Score a touchdown? Kick off. Two-minute drills were mixed in. College officials were on hand to police the activities.
“It was the best practice of camp,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. Even better than the joint practices against the Saints, he added.
The offense dominated Day 1 of training camp. Rodgers called the defense “chumps” afterward. Exactly 35 days later, who won the final practice?
“The offense,” Rodgers said. He said he threw touchdown passes to tight end Robert Tonyan and receiver Randall Cobb in a two-minute drill. Tonyan also caught one of Jordan Love’s two touchdown passes. Rodgers said AJ Dillon had four catches during one series.
“For us older guys, it was like a preseason game,” Rodgers said. “Conditioning-wise, I wish we would’ve done a couple more of those. It was basically like a game.”
Beyond the competitive aspect of having starters vs. starters and backups vs. backups, the practice was totally unscripted from a play-calling perspective. That, obviously, is how it will be against the Vikings in a week-and-a-half.
“I thought it was a good opportunity for our guys to go out there unscripted, hear calls, see how they go out there and execute,” LaFleur said, “making sure they communicate and the effort and all the little things we’re looking for are there and we’re ready to go.”
Reporters weren’t allowed to watch, so it’s not known if David Bakhtiari and/or Elgton Jenkins were the offensive tackles. Both players practiced, at least. “We’ll see when we get out there,” LaFleur said when asked if they’d be doing 11-on-11 drills.
Other than the preseason version of the No. 1 offensive line, which had Yosh Nijman at left tackle and Royce Newman at right tackle, and rookie linebacker Quay Walker, the starters sat out the three-game preseason. So, LaFleur put together a competitive practice before giving the team a four-day break before hitting the practice field on Monday to start prep for the opener at the Vikings.
“I feel we had a great day,” Cobb said. “We had a lot of guys making a lot of plays. We were dialed in on the communication. That’s what you want to see, especially in a practice that’s right before three days off and really having that laser focus, having that competition that we had today, and really getting out there and making it kind of game-like for us since we didn’t play in the preseason. I thought it was a great day for us as a receiver group, as an offense. We’ll look forward to continuing that momentum into practice next week.”
