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Everything You Need to Know About Practice 4 of Packers Training Camp

Here’s all the news and highlights from Packers training camp on Sunday, including the injury report, the winning unit, key plays and much more.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love throws a pass at training camp.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love throws a pass at training camp. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – To honor his Nigerian ancestry, Green Bay Packers right tackle Zach Tom changed his last name to Bako-Bewele.

“Especially when I start having kids and stuff, I want to have a name that I can pass down where it represents where they came from, where I came from,” Bako-Bewele said after Sunday’s practice at Packers training camp. “I just feel like people will see that name and have a good understanding of who I am, where I come from.”

His grandfather on his father’s side is “full-blood Nigerian,” he said. On that side of the family tree, Bako is his grandmother’s last name and Bewele is his grandfather’s last name. 

Bako-Bewele considered making the change back when he was at Wake Forest but started the process in March.

“I haven’t even gotten into that,” he said of talking to the league. “Right now, I’m still working through all the legal stuff. I got to get a new Social Security card, new driver’s license, all that stuff, so it’s still not technically finalized yet, but we’re right there.”

The new name was reflected on the back of his jersey at practice and the nameplate above his locker.

Bako-Bewele has taken part only in individual drills through the first four days of practice following offseason knee surgery.

“It’s good. It’s getting better. It’s getting better,” he said. “Hopefully I can start doing team within a week or so, but I’m out there moving around. I feel good, look good, so it’s time to get it going.”

Packers Training Camp Injury Report

Returned from injury: CB Kamal Hadden (ankle), C/G Jager Burton (hamstring).

Hadden returned on Sunday, only to suffer a dislocated pinkie during individual drills. That his pinkie was pointing the wrong direction hardly bothered him considering his foot was pointing the wrong way when he suffered a horrendous injury against Baltimore last season.

Trainers popped the pinkie back into place and Hadden was back into drills.

“I done see my ankle, you know what I’m saying?” Hadden said with a smile. “Once you seen something like, you ease into everything else and everything else is kind of like let’s get things going and just move on.”

Burton took part only in individual drills after leaving the first practice of training camp.

New injury: CB Carrington Valentine took part in individual drills at the start of practice but sat out the rest of the day due to an undisclosed injury. Rookie Brandon Cisse took the first-team reps opposite Keisean Nixon.

Old injuries: Edge Micah Parsons (knee), RB Chris Brooks (hamstring), LS Matt Orzech (calf), Brant Banks (hamstring), TE Luke Musgrave (neck), DT Jordon Riley (Achilles), DT Javon Hargrave (knee).

After returning from his torn ACL on Friday, Kraft took part in limited individual drills.

“I think he did a great job,” coach Matt LaFleur said before practice. “It wasn’t shocking to me. I think we’re obviously taking it slow with him because he’s such an important player to us. But, yeah, I think he handled everything great.”

Player of the Day at Training Camp

Perhaps the most unsung player on the roster is defensive tackle Anthony Campbell. As a senior at Miami in 2024, he had exactly one tackle.

Campbell went undrafted last year and started the season on the Seahawks’ practice squad. He joined Green Bay’s practice squad for the last couple weeks of last season. He’s had a few productive pass rushes but has to rank among the team leaders in passes defensed. He swatted down two passes on Sunday and added a strong pass rush.

“I haven't been counting,” he said. “I've just been doing my job. Whatever the coaches say, I just try to put it on the line and do what I got to do.”

We’ll have more on him later.

Play of the Day at Training Camp

The Packers spent a period working on a specific end-of-half situation. With the ball on the defense’s 20 with 19 seconds on the clock and no timeouts, the No. 2 offense dialed up an exquisite hook-and-lateral play, with Tyrod Taylor completing the initial pass to receiver Bo Melton, who lateraled the ball to running back Pierre Strong for what appeared to be a touchdown.

The play was ruled down at the 3, and Taylor hit Skyy Moore for a touchdown on the next play.

We’ll have more on that play later, including Melton’s breakdown of what makes it work.

Which Unit Won the Day?

By our count, the defense is 4-0 headed into the first padded practice of camp.

During a third-and-goal drill, the No. 1 defense won three of four snaps. First, Lukas Van Ness beat Jordan Morgan and batted down a pass by Jordan Love. Next, back-to-back passes from Love to Jayden Reed were snuffed out by Javon Bullard.

Finally, on third-and-goal from the 2, Love hit Bo Melton for a touchdown between Keisean Nixon and Bullard.

In the aforementioned drill that included the hook and lateral when the backups were on the field, the No. 1 offense also started from the defense’s 20 with 19 seconds and no timeouts. Love went deep on the first play but Nixon broke up a pass to Matthew Golden. The play was blown dead before the pass, though, with Evan Williams “sacking” Love.

The offense rushed back to the line of scrimmage and clocked the ball with 2 seconds to go. Love’s desperation throw to Golden once again was broken up by Nixon, this time at the goal line.

Highlight Plays

– The Packers really need Savion Williams to become a playmaker as a true receiver. On the second play of the day, Williams ran through a zone and caught a bullet from Jordan Love for a big gain.

– The next two plays were won by the defense, with Barryn Sorrell and Zaire Franklin stuffing MarShawn Lloyd and Lukas Van Ness storming into the backfield to force Love to throw it short to Jayden Reed.

– In a span of three plays, Donovan Jennings had two too-high shotgun snaps to Tyrod Taylor. After the second, John Williams went from left guard to center and Jennings moved to left guard.

– During a red-zone period, Love went 2-of-6. He completed his first two passes. First, despite immense pressure from Lukas Van Ness against fill-in right tackle Darian Kinnard, Love checked it down to tight end Josh Whyle; the coaches were excited about rookie Dani Dennis-Sutton’s coverage on Whyle.

Next, Love hit Matthew Golden on a crossing route against Brandon Cisse. On third-and-6 in the scripted set of plays, Love went up the seam to Whyle but linebacker Zaire Franklin’s coverage was impeccable.

The series started over. First, Love went deep to Christian Watson. The pass was off-target as rookie defensive tackle Chris McClellan had a big-time rush against Jacob Monk and Van Ness once again got the better of Kinnard. After a run, Love on third-and-4 threw incomplete to Bo Melton against Cisse; Melton might have tripped and Cisse had an easy breakup.

– With the backups on the field in the red zone, an end-around to Savion Williams went nowhere because linebackers Ty’Ron Hopper and Isaiah McDuffie and edge Collin Oliver were among the defensive players who saw it coming.

On the next play, Oliver beat left tackle Dalton Cooper cleanly for a sack. Later, defensive tackle Jaden Crumedy stuffed Jaden Nixon.

– On a windy afternoon, Daniel Whelan was bombing one punt after another. Golden muffed one kick, Skyy Moore misjudged one ball that went over his head and Nixon misjudged one ball that was short.

– Rookie kicker Trey Smack made 3-of-5 field goals into the teeth of the wind. The makes were from 28, 33 and 42 yards. The misses were from 39 yards – it hit the flag atop the left upright – and 45 yards. After the 39-yard miss, coach Matt LaFleur walked up to the officials and had a brief conversation. After their talk, the officials stopped signaling.

– On a third-and-goal series of plays, Kyron Drones started by hitting Damien Martinez for a touchdown on a wheel route. After an incomplete pass, Drones and Kaden Prather connected for a touchdown. On the final play from the 2, Arron Mosby sacked Drones almost instantly.

Lineup Notes

– Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon continues to shuffle his defensive tackles. On the first snap of the day, Warren Brinson, Nazir Stackhouse and Karl Brooks were the No. 1 trio. Moments later, it was Chris McClellan and Jonathan Ford.

– Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper seems to get a couple edge snaps every day. On one, Barryn Sorrell was the other edge and McClellan, Ford and Brooks were the defensive tackles.

– With Carrington Valentine out, the No. 1 corners were Brandon Cisse and Keisean Nixon and the No. 2 pairing was Benjamin St-Juste and Jaylin Simpson.

– What a day for John Williams. Last year’s seventh-round pick started the day as the No. 2 left guard. Later, he became the No. 2 center. Finally, he took some reps at left tackle – his position at Cincinnati. That was part of a No. 3 line that included Dillon Wade at left guard, Dylan Barrett at center, Josh Gesky at right guard and Travis Glover at right tackle.

We’ll have more on him this week.

– The No. 1 punt team had a line of Isaiah McDuffie, Arron Mosby, long snapper Cal Adomitis, Barryn Sorrell and Ty’Ron Hopper, with Javon Bullard and Pierre Strong as the wings and Nick Niemann as the personal protector. A bunch of players cycled through as the gunners; Mark Perry and J. Michael Sturdivant took the first rep.

Packers Training Camp Schedule

The Packers will practice on Monday and Tuesday, with both starting at 10:30 a.m. (though the players don’t exit the Hutson Center until about 10:50 a.m.). Monday’s practice will be the first in pads.

The team will have a day off on Wednesday and a closed-to-the-public practice on Thursday before Family Night on Friday.

The Last Word

Don’t call Collin Oliver “Baby Micah.”

“I think that was a rookie-year thing,” he said. “I love Micah, but I just don't want to entertain that at all. Just being honest.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.