Playing With More of an Edge Will Give Packers an Edge

Is it 2025 or 1995?

Based solely on the volume of practices at Green Bay Packers training camp, you’ll figure out pretty quickly the calendar has turned. Based on the intensity that has accompanied the first two padded practices? You might think we’ve gone all the way back to days when teams practiced twice a day.

Of course, the center of the controversy and physicality that has accompanied these practices is new starting cornerback Nate Hobbs. Hobbs became the center of attention in non-padded sessions, when he ran through receiver Dontayvion Wicks to break up a pass.

The discussion of Hobbs being even louder on Monday, when he tackled running back MarShawn Lloyd to the ground during Monday’s practice. Lloyd suffered a groin injury on the play; Hobbs has been exonerated for his role.

Practice on Tuesday featured another minor scuffle, with left tackle Rasheed Walker being disciplined for playing after the whistle on defensive end Kingsley Enagbare.

Matt LaFleur was not happy after practice, and there is logic behind that.

If a practice rep gets too physical and a player gets significantly injured, that’s the exact scenario everyone wants to avoid. The NFL is already a war of attrition; that is simply the nature of the sport these men play. Losing a player before the season starts, however, leads to a lot of unanswered questions.

Despite all those things being said, the chippy nature of training camp could be seen as a breath of fresh air.

Back in 2013, then-Packers defensive tackle Mike Daniels tweeted as the Seattle Seahawks finished off a 43-8 drubbing of the Denver Broncos that he wanted his team to be the bad guys for once.

Plenty of talking has been done over the years, but with little action to show for it.

Even as recent as last year.

“We consider ourselves as bullies,” All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney said after the Packers pushed around the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field in November. “We understand it’s going to be bully vs. bully sometimes and we’re going to see who’s the bigger bully. That’s kind of what it was today.”

Of course, the last time we saw the Packers on the field, Carrington Valentine was getting dribbled off the turf at Lincoln Financial Field by Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert.

The Packers attempted to bully the NFL’s biggest bully, only to realize the two teams were in a different weight class.

That leads to this year’s start of training camp. While LaFleur may want to keep things reigned in, there could be positive effects to the heightened physical nature of the team’s first padded practices.

General manager Brian Gutekunst took notice of last year’s playoff loss, and agreed to a point that this year’s change could be positive.

“We’re trying to become a certain kind of football team that can win and win deep into the playoffs,” Gutekunst said on Tuesday. “There’s a certain kind of physicality you have to have and Nate Hobbs brings all that. That’s why we brought him here. It’s very important that all our guys have that kind of edge to them.”

Gutekunst did point out that he did not feel physicality was a problem over the last couple years. While he may feel that way, the sight of Goedart pummeling Valentine had to stick with him through the offseason.

That edge is something that has been missing in Green Bay for one reason or another.

It’s something Daniels had in the past. It’s something that Charles Woodson had when the 2010 team won its Super Bowl championship.

Beyond that, the edge Gutekunst wants the team to possess has been missing from a team that has gone 14 years without winning a Super Bowl. When the pressure would ratchet up, the Packers would wilt.

Some of the greatest teams in sports history have had players with an edge. They brought a certain toughness to the team, even if they were not its best player.

The most recent example in Wisconsin would be P.J. Tucker. Tucker was not the best player on the Milwaukee Bucks team that won the NBA championship in 2021, but he was incredibly important. Last year’s Super Bowl champion, the Eagles, had known pest C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the secondary as one of those players. He wasn’t their best safety, but he gave their defense an edge and mentality that his team would never back down.

Maybe Hobbs will bring with him an edge that the team has been missing. A positive is that it appears the Packers at least have players they do not have to talk into playing this way, but rather they need to be pulled back.

“We’re asking these guys to fly around, be physical and make plays. To back off sometimes is not easy,” Gutekunst said. “But we want them all to be good teammates and keep each other healthy. But the same time, I’d rather be pulling the reins and making sure we got enough guys in that room that have that kind of edge.”

On the other side of the ball, even though the Packers featured a run-first attack last year, offensive coordinator Adam Stenvich sees the need to play with greater physicality.

“Anytime you get to those playoffs, you get to that position, however you are, where you’re at is going to get exposed,” he said on Wednesday. And I think that's one thing we talked about, and one thing we're going to focus on, is making sure we're the most physical football team on the field when we go out there and play. That's going to be a big thing for us.”

Gutekunst believes to go deep into the playoffs, there’s a level of physicality they must possess.

Despite what he has said about teams from recent years, they have not been physical enough when the games have mattered the most.

Last year’s Super Bowl champions are in the same conference as the Packers. Their identity is built around the offense moving you against your will. The San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions all figure to be back in the playoff hunt this year, as well.

If the Packers want to find their way back to the Super Bowl, they’ll need to continue to throw it back to 1995.

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