Thursday LaFleur: Making Magic With Musgrave

Historically, rookie tight ends have made a limited impact. It could be a different story with Luke Musgrave, who will be a focal point of Day 2 of Packers-Patriots joint practices.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Aug 17, 2023 11:20 AM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Tight end is a notoriously difficult position for a rookie to make a sudden impact. Could Green Bay Packers draft pick Luke Musgrave smash that trend?

Over the 20 drafts held from 2003 through 2022, only 13 rookie tight ends reached 500 receiving yards. Of those, just three reached 600 yards.

The Packers’ history is especially dismal. If you take the top four rookie tight ends in franchise history, their combined yardage figure still falls short of 1,000 yards. Green Bay’s rookie records are 34 receptions by Bubba Franks in 2000, 363 yards by Franks and four touchdowns by Ed West in 1984.

With each day of training camp, Musgrave looks more and more like – dare it be said – a game-changer and potential star. During Wednesday’s joint practice against New England, Musgrave ran down the seam for a 25-yard touchdown and got the ball on a jet sweep – yes, a jet sweep to a tight end.

“Yeah, we did do that,” quarterback Jordan Love said with a smile.

While that play didn’t exactly work, it shows how coach Matt LaFleur and his staff are prepared to put a lot of eggs in the rookie’s basket.

“We’re trying to figure out all these guys and you’re going try to put them in maybe some uncomfortable situations to really push the limit and try to get the most out of them,” LaFleur said before Thursday’s practice against the Patriots. “I do think he’s got a really unique skill-set and the fact that he can really run. We’re going to keep on pushing it.”

But, again, there’s the history. Franks is the only rookie tight end in franchise history to even reach 250 receiving yards. Among second-round tight ends over the last 20 years, Seattle’s John Carlson caught 55 passes for 627 yards in 2008 and Rob Gronkowski started his legendary career with 42 receptions for 546 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2010. On the other hand, six failed to even reach 50 yards, according to Stathead.

Is it a fool’s errand to bet against that history?

“We’re going to throw as much at him until we’re like, ‘All right, that’s probably too much,’” LaFleur said. “Right now he’s doing a great job of being able to handle it, so we’re going to keep pushing him.”

It’s easy to see why the Packers have fallen in love with Musgrave. In fact, at +10000 at FanDuel Sportsbook, he seems like a good long-shot bet to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. At 6-foot-6, he’s an inviting target. Unlike some players, he seems faster than his stopwatch speed of 4.61 in the 40. The touchdown catch on Wednesday was an easy one – some good scheme by LaFleur led to a coverage mistake – but Musgrave has the tools to make that play however it’s defended.

“I expect to get open,” he said after practice. “I’m fairly confident in myself and my ability to get open, so whether I get open or not, I expect to usually on those plays.”

Here’s more from LaFleur before Day 2 of joint practices.

Luke Musgrave (Photo by Wm. Glasheen/USA Today Sports Images)

LaFleur said he’d like to do two sets of joint practices next year.

“I just think there’s so much to get out of it, especially when you’re going against people that you know or respect how they go about their business and how they run their operation. I think there’s just so much good out of it.”

LaFleur, on the play of rookie defensive linemen Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks:

“Both of those guys have done a really nice job and they’ve got to continue to stack that. They’re obviously young players, but I think they’ve provided a spark in terms of some internal pass rush that we’re definitely going to need. I think that’s the name of the game in this league in terms of if you can get teams into those passing situations and get pressure on the quarterback, you’ve got a much better chance of having success defensively.”

LaFleur didn’t think Malik Heath scored during the final seconds of a 2-minute drill on Wednesday. There was some hidden upside to what transpired.

“I think it provided some really good conversation in terms of, No. 1, I think he was out of bounds at the half-yard line. It looked like his hand touched before his knee. In a real game, hopefully, we don’t have everyone coming off the bench so we can go clock the ball. That was a great situation to be in in terms of if you don’t score there, you’re going to be pressed against the clock in order to get the ball clocked on the half-yard line.”