Green Bay Packers: 5 Quick Takeaways from Day 3 of Training Camp

Day 3 of Green Bay Packers’ training camp practices is in the books. Here are five quick takeaways from what we heard and saw.

The Green Bay Packers’ third training camp practice of the 2020 season came and went, and it was their first padded practice as well. Despite fans not being able to attend, the Packer reporters have done an excellent job of keeping everyone in the loop. So with that said, here are six quick takeaways from Tuesday’s practice.

Injury scares

If you’ve been paying attention to the rest of the NFL, there are several teams who have already suffered injury losses this season. And unfortunately for the Green Bay Packers, they had several close calls on Tuesday.

We saw Montravius Adams get carted off, Za’Darius Smith leave practice early, and David Bakhtiari was shaken up as well. The silver lining in all of this is that none of the injuries appear to be too serious.

Ian Rapoport would report that Adams suffered a sprained toe. Matt Schneidman of The Athletic saw Bakhtiari walk off with the rest of the team after practice under his own power and without a limp. Meanwhile, afterward, Matt LaFleur said that Smith left for precautionary reasons.

Robert Tonyan impresses

Unlike in year’s past, when the Green Bay Packers had several veteran tight ends of the roster, this year, the unit is relatively young – excluding Marcedes Lewis – and that potentially means more opportunities for Robert Tonyan.

Tonyan is coming back from a hip injury that cost him five games in 2019, but even when healthy, he still didn’t see much playing time. However, at least through the first few practices, he’s been targeted heavily and has Matt LaFleur’s attention:

"“He worked extremely hard this offseason. You can tell, his body, he looks in great shape. He’s got a much better understanding of what we’re trying to do on the offensive side of the football.”"

Injuries hampered Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s 2019 season

We all know the story quite well by now, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who played an important role through the first seven weeks of the 2019 season, saw his snaps and production fall off a cliff during the second half of the year.

When asked about this, Valdes-Scantling mentioned that a knee and particularly an ankle injury contributed to the on-field issues:

"“That was the first time in my career that I’d ever really been injured,” he said. “I was able to play the whole season, fortunately, but I wasn’t myself and it played a part in how I played”"

This something that Matt LaFleur also alluded to recently as well, yet even with the ups and downs, Valdes-Scantling’s confidence in himself hasn’t waivered:

"“When you’re battling through injuries you’re going to have some bad days, but I never lost confidence in myself.”"

Jordan Love has work to do

Coming out of Utah State, it didn’t take watching much Jordan Love film to see why the Green Bay Packers fell in love – pun intended – with him. He’s athletic, has good size, and an NFL caliber arm that can make just about any throw. But on the flip side, he’s still a bit raw, and that was evident as Love, Aaron Rodgers, and Tim Boyle were going through footwork drills on Tuesday.

While Rodgers and Boyle are in sync and look very fluid, to put it simply, Love doesn’t look like either of those things. As Andy mentions in his tweet, LaFleur has pointed out that Love’s footwork is a work in progress.

However, this shouldn’t raise any red flags for anyone. He’s a rookie in what has been an odd offseason with less time on the field and in the building, and it’s only his third practice. We knew Love needed time to develop, and he has that.

Packers’ secondary looks really good

The Green Bay Packers secondary is young, talented, and confident, and they looked every bit of those three things on Tuesday. Jaire Alexander was all over Davante Adams, Josh Jackson had a nice day – which was very encouraging to see – while Adrian Amos and Kevin King each came away with red-zone interceptions.

After practice, LaFleur had some high praise for this Packers’ secondary:

"“I think we’ve got a pretty talented defensive back room,” Head Coach Matt LaFleur said. “There’s a lot of competition there and you look at our starters in particular, I feel as good about that group as any in the National Football League. They’ve still got to go out there and do it on a daily basis, but I think they’re guys that love to compete, they’re young and they’re hungry.”"