Pick-six rundown of the Green Bay Packers’ 11th training camp practice

For the first time since 2005, the Green Bay Packers held joint training camp practices with another team. With the two practices against the Houston Texans complete, coach Matt LaFleur “100 percent” would love to do it again.

“I’d like to do it multiple times if we could,” LaFleur said.

The opinion is not shared by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t do it for another 14 years,” Rodgers said.

No fan of preseason games, Rodgers disliked the joint practices for a similar reason. While the practices provided physical competition for the linemen and perimeter players, much of a quarterback’s game is played between his ears. Just like the exhibition games, when teams hide their latest and greatest plays and stick to vanilla schemes, both teams did the same in advance of Thursday’s preseason game.

With Rodgers not expected to play Thursday and an off-day coming up Friday, Rodgers is looking forward to running his new offense again on Saturday.

“I like the scheme. I mean, I do. I like the scheme a lot,” he said. “I like the stresses that it puts on defenses. I like the marriage of the run game with the (play-)action. I like our concepts from both stack alignments, bunch alignments and from wide alignments. I think it’s going to be very tough to get a bead on what we’re doing.

“We do more under-center stuff, which I’m totally confident with and comfortable under center. I feel like that allows us to get some more one-high stuff as many defenses basically have checks – if you’re in the gun it’s two-high, if you’re under center it’s one-high. I think it’s going to allow us to open some more things up, get some one-on-one opportunities outside. Just this minor frustration is when you do so many fun, schematic stuff for eight or nine days and then it gets kind of cut back for a couple days. But we’ll be on next week, probably playing, and looking forward to just practices.”

Injury report: A camp-high 13 players missed practice, including arguably the team’s top three running backs. Aaron Jones (hamstring) and Jamaal Williams (hamstring) remain out, while Tra Carson (back spasm) joined them on the sideline. That left rookie Dexter Williams, recent additions Corey Grant and Darrin Hall and fullbacks Danny Vitale and Malcolm Johnson.

Also out: WR Trevor Davis (stinger), CB Kevin King (hamstring), CB Josh Jackson (foot), ILB Curtis Bolton (groin), OLB Kendall Donnerson (hamstring), OLB Greg Roberts (core muscle), C Corey Linsley (bicep), OT Jason Spriggs (trapezius), TE Jace Sternberger (potential concussion) and DT Fadol Brown (calf). Starting OLB Preston Smith (back tightness) dropped out of practice.

Without Linsley, Lucas Patrick took the first-team center reps.

Offense: The offense was a disaster, a fact driven home by four feeble two-minute drills that started at the 30-yard line with 59 seconds remaining. Rodgers threw a short pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling that gained 3, followed by a throwaway, a false start and a pass to Geronimo Allison that was broken up by linebacker Zach Cunningham.

Up next was DeShone Kizer. After a completion to Robert Tonyan that was erased by a penalty, Kizer was almost intercepted on a deep pass to Jake Kumerow and was sacked. The drill started over at that point, with Kizer overthrowing Kumerow and getting sacked. Tim Boyle had a little success, with move-the-chains completions to Allen Lazard and J’Mon Moore before an incompletion, a gain of 0 and another incompletion.

Afterward, LaFleur was upset about the lack of urgency.

“You’re going to have some good days, some bad days,” he said. “The only thing I want to stress to our guys is, it doesn’t take talent to give effort and to have a sense of urgency, and we’ve got to do a better job of that. And it starts with the coaching, too.”

Defense: Mike Pettine’s crew thinks it can be good. Really good.

Rookie defensive tackle Kingsley Keke grew up about 15 minutes from Houston. He grew up a big Texans fan and enjoyed the couple days of competition. “I think I did really good. I showed some signs, some flashes of what I can do and I know I can do. I just want to be consistent. That’s the main thing to earn coach’s trust is doing it every single time I’m on the field. That’s what I’m focused on is being more consistent. I know I can do that. I’m excited.”

Special teams: Punter JK Scott got off to a horrendous start. His first four punts averaged 37.3 yards with 3.74 seconds of hang time. His final five punts were much better, with a 51.6-yard average and 4.61 seconds of hang time. His final punt was a 51-yard bomb with 4.80 hang time that resulted in Kumerow making the “tackle” immediately.

Schedule: The Packers will not practice on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s 7 p.m. preseason game against the Texans. After a day off on Friday, Green Bay will go back to its usual Packers-vs.-Packers practices at 10:15 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

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