Defensive Domination: Everything That Happened at Packers Family Night

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Until the final moment of Packers Family Night, the only Lambeau Leaps completed by the offense on Saturday were by the quarterbacks who successfully threw the football into a hoop.

A hoop, of course, is an inanimate object. The Green Bay Packers’ defense was animate and adamant.

“We played great,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “I thought we just did a good job of being on our details. Obviously, we didn’t run much of our stuff – everything was pretty simple – but everybody did their job and we went out there, played fast, ran to the ball. We could have done a little bit better with getting the ball – punchouts, getting some interceptions – but, for the most part, we played clean and I thought it was good.”

The offense scored one touchdown all night. On the final play of the practice, Taylor Elgersma completed a 23-yard touchdown pass to receiver Will Sheppard. That was it. Meanwhile, Omar Brown had three interceptions and Carrington Valentine and Kalen King had one apiece.

With the Packers streaming the practice online, coach Matt LaFleur kept his best offense locked in a vault.

“I would say it was pretty vanilla tonight,” he said. “The way we treat it is no different than a preseason game. You’re still running your system and plays that you practice, but there’s not a whole lot of window dressing to it.”

So, as he was eager to join his family outside for fireworks, he wasn’t overly concerned about the slog that it was for Jordan Love and the No. 1 offense.

“I just want to see guys go out there and compete and, if given opportunity to make plays, then we expect them to make those plays,” LaFleur said.

Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Anthony Belton (71) hypes up the crowd during Family Night on Saturday. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jordan Love’s Day

Jordan Love didn’t get the No. 1 offense into the end zone, which isn’t good. On the other hand, he was 17-of-25 passing, which isn’t bad.

Love started 5-of-5 passing, including a completion to tight end Luke Musgrave to convert a third-and-6. Later, with the offense starting with the ball near its own goal line, there was a period in which the goal was to get two first downs. Love got it done by completing 3-of-4 passes, with a pair of completions to Musgrave getting the required first downs.

In 2-minute, Love and the No. 1 offense started at the 25 with 2:00 on the clock and one timeout. After a completion to Musgrave, Love went deep to Matthew Golden but the ball was over Golden’s head and Carrington Valentine made a tremendous interception in which he reached as far as he could to grab the ball before it hit the ground.

The offense got a mulligan with a series against the backups. Starting at the 35 with 1:34 on the clock, Love drove the offense to the necessary field goal. First, it was a 10-yard completion to Golden. Next, facing third-and-7, Love completed passes of 6 yards to Malik Heath and 9 more to Heath for a first down on the defense’s 37 with 36 seconds remaining.

Love then fired one to Romeo Doubs for a gain of 18 to the 19. Two incompletions preceded an 8-yard pass to Golden to set up Brandon McManus for a 29-yard field goal.

Player of the Day: Omar Brown

As a freshman at Northern Iowa in 2019, Omar Brown was an FCS All-American after intercepting six passes. That included a career-high two interceptions against Illinois State.

Family Night wasn’t a game, but he intercepted three passes on Saturday. After his third pick, All-Pro Xavier McKinney put his arm over Brown’s shoulders. What did he say?

“Man, just keep balling, just keep being consistent,” Brown said. “We’ve still got a long camp ahead of us, got a preseason game coming up, so really just keep stacking days and keep balling and keep being consistent.”

With Omar Brown surrounded by reporters at the end of #Packers Family Night, safety Xavier McKinney walked over and yelled "MVP."

Here's the story of the star of the ninth practice of training camp. ⬇️https://t.co/WV3m7PeOPL
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 3, 2025

Play of the Day: Jordan Love

This wasn’t so much a great play that happened on Saturday. Rather, it’s a noteworthy play for what it could mean for the season.

After three consecutive completions, Jordan Love dropped back and didn’t see anyone open. What he did see was a running late, which he exploited for a gain of more than 15 yards.

During his two seasons as the starting quarterback, Love ranks 23rd among quarterbacks with 75 rushes. Love doesn’t have the speed of Lamar Jackson, who is second among quarterbacks with 287 rushes. He doesn’t have the power of Jalen Hurts, who is first with 307 rushes. But he is far too gifted athletically to not take off from the pocket. Oftentimes, those are the easiest yards on the field. And, with sidelines available and the opportunity to slide, it’s not exactly a dangerous play.

“Absolutely” Love should run more, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said last week. “Anytime you get an opportunity to escape the pocket or the defense gives you a rush lane to run through, I think that’s a huge weapon. And Jordan has that ability to make some big plays down the field. So, yeah, and we encourage that for sure.”

Packers Injury Updates

New injuries: WR Savion Williams (unknown), TE Tucker Kraft (groin).

Old injuries: WR Christian Watson (knee), WR Dontayvion Wicks (calf), WR Sam Brown (ankle), CB Nate Hobbs (knee), RB Emanuel Wilson (knee), RB MarShawn Lloyd (groin), CB Kamal Hadden (hip), linebacker Collin Oliver (hamstring), DE Arron Mosby (groin), LT Rasheed Walker (groin), offensive lineman John Williams (back), G/T Travis Glover (shoulder).

Returning from injuries: Nobody.

Kraft missed all of practice while Williams missed the final couple periods.

“I think he’s been dealing with it for a few days, so he’s just kind of been powering through, and we felt like it was best just to give him a couple days and let that thing calm down,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Kraft’s groin injury.

LaFleur didn’t have any information on Williams, who missed time earlier in camp with a concussion.

Packers Practice Highlights

Getting this party started early@emplifybellin
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 3, 2025

- During one-on-ones, the highlight for the offense was Malik Willis’ long touchdown pass to Malik Heath, who was just too physical for rookie cornerback Micah Robinson.

- Moving onto 11-on-11 action, the defense set the tone at the start. On the first play, defensive tackle Kenny Clark stopped Josh Jacobs near the line of scrimmage. On the second play, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper turned on the jets and stopped an end-around by Matthew Golden for a loss. On the third play, Clark again stopped Jacobs.

- On the fourth play, Jordan Love completed a pass to tight end Luke Musgrave to convert a third-and-6. Key to the play was running back Chris Brooks picking up a blitzer, which is something he did so well last year.

- Rookie receiver Savion Williams, a third-round pick, has missed a lot of camp due to injuries and was unable to finish this practice. When he’s been out there, he’s been impactful. On his first snap, he caught a pass from Malik Willis for a gain of about 25.

- Sixth-round pick Warren Brinson has made an impact with the pads on. He stuffed rookie running back Amar Johnson at the line. Later, Brinson had a strong interior rush to force an errant throw by Love.

- On his second dropback of the night, Love was sacked by Lukas Van Ness, who barreled through left tackle Jordan Morgan.

- Another day, another bad snap by one of the young center candidates. Donovan Jennings, who is learning the position on the fly, air-mailed one to Sean Clifford, who had no chance. Jennings was taken out of the lineup for the next play.

- Two of the big storylines of training camp are the development of first-round receiver Matthew Golden, who has elite speed, and the transition from receiver to cornerback by Bo Melton. Love went deep to Golden but Melton was in excellent position to deny the completion.

- When the read is there and the timing is right, Malik Willis has been superb. When things aren’t quite right, he sometimes has struggled. With all day in the pocket but nobody open, Willis threw a pass to the right sideline to Julian Hicks, which cornerback Kalen King read for the interception.

- Rookie linebacker Jamon Johnson had a pair of impressive run stops against rookie linebacker Israel Abanikanda.

- Of course, that wasn’t Abanikanda’s fault, just as it wasn’t Amar Johnson’s fault that he was stuffed on back-to-back runs by Karl Brooks and Kingsley Enagbare.

- Earlier, we mentioned Carrington Valentine’s interception of Love in 2-minute. Valentine has four interceptions during training camp, second only to safety Omar Brown’s five.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine (24) does a Lambeau Leap after intercepting a pass during Family Night. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“Yeah, another guy that’s making the most of his opportunities,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I love how he competes and he’s done it from Day 1. He’s really invested the time into this thing. He’s transformed his body, as well. So, really excited about what he’s been able to do and really excited to see him throughout the course of the preseason.”

- Willis led the No. 2 offense’s 2-minute drill. Starting at the 35 with 1:20 on the clock and one timeout, Willis completed a pass to Will Sheppard for a gain of 10 on third-and-1. However, rookie defensive end Barryn Sorrell beat rookie offensive tackle Anthony Belton for a sack, which pushed the ball back to midfield with 24 seconds remaining. Willis’ checkdown to Johnson was tackled in bounds to end the drill.

- Kicker Brandon McManus’ ridiculous training camp continued. He was 8-of-8. His second set of three kicks included field goals of 50 and 54 yards. He added a 51-yarder later. For the summer, McManus has attempted 37 field goals and made 36.

“I don’t want to jinx anything here,” LaFleur said of McManus. “I’d rather not say too much about him, but he’s been pretty consistent.”

- The announced crowd was 59,175, down slightly from 60,887 last year and 65,222 in 2023.

Packers Lineup Notes

Green Bay Packers center Elgton Jenkins (74) blocks for quarterback Jordan Love (10) during Family Night on Saturday. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

- With starting left tackle Rasheed Walker sidelined, the No. 1 line consisted of Jordan Morgan at left tackle, Aaron Banks at left guard, Elgton Jenkins at center, Sean Rhyan at right guard and Zach Tom at right tackle.

- With starting cornerback Nate Hobbs sidelined, the No. 1 secondary consisted of Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine at cornerback, Javon Bullard in the slot, and Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety.

- That one change in the secondary is really the only change throughout all of camp. For just about every snap at every practice, the defensive line has been Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt and Lukas Van Ness and the linebackers with Quay Walker recovering from ankle surgery have been Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie and Isaiah Simmons.

- Undrafted rookie defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse continues to take second-team reps ahead of veteran Colby Wooden and sixth-round pick Warren Brinson.

Packers Training Camp Schedule

The Packers’ next public practices are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the upcoming week, with all three sessions starting at 10:30 a.m. After an off-day on Friday, they’ll kick off the preseason on Saturday night at Lambeau against the New York Jets.

Quote of the Day

With the calendar turning to August, Week 1 is inching closer.

“It’s time to go, time to focus,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “I’m laser focused – more than I was last year. So, for me, it’s just continuing to grind, continuing to find ways to improve and, not just for myself but continuing to elevate these guys around me. That’s going to be the main thing. I’m trying to have the best safety room in the league. I think we’ve done a great job with building that. I think tonight everybody got to see what we have in our room. We’ve got a special room.”