Green Bay Packers: 3 Big Takeaways from Family Night Practice
By Paul Bretl
Despite the rain, the Green Bay Packers were able to get through a majority of their annual Family Night practice with over 34,000 fans in attendance. We saw plenty of 11-on-11 work for the first, second, and third teams, and a two-minute drill as well.
If you missed anything, you can find all of my observations here, and below are three big takeaways from what took place.
No injuries for the Green Bay Packers
This is by far the most important note from last night.
Injuries during practice are always a possibility — we saw Randy Ramsey suffer a major injury earlier in the week — but on a rainy night in Green Bay where field conditions were less than ideal, fortunately, no injuries occurred, and the Packers remain healthy overall.
As noted by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky beforehand, Ramsey, Chris Blair, Equanimeous St. Brown, Kenny Clark, Juwann Winfree, Josiah Deguara, Kamal Martin, and those on the NFI and PUP lists did not participate.
Starting defense wins the 2-minute drill
Due to the weather conditions, practice was modified in an effort to squeeze in as much as possible before the rain worsened—this meant that we only saw the two-minute drill ran once, although it was the starting offense against the starting defense.
Throughout the training camp practices up to this point, the offense has primarily dominated the 11-on-11 drills, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, this was the top-scoring offense in football last season that is now in Year 3 of the Matt LaFleur scheme, and they’re also returning a majority of their contributors.
The defensive side of the ball, however, is still learning a new system — which takes time — and they’ve also been without Za’Darius Smith, Kingsley Keke, and Kevin King. But last night, they came up with the stop.
The scenario was that the Green Bay Packers’ offense had to go about 70-yards in two minutes, and they needed a touchdown, not a field goal. The drive would really take off when Aaron Rodgers found Robert Tonyan over the middle of the field for a big gain as he found the soft spot in the zone coverage—this has been a common occurrence for these two during camp so far.
Once over midfield, however, the defense did do a nice job of taking away any big-play opportunities, forcing Rodgers and the offense to nickel and dime their way down the field—eating up the clock. The drive ended at around the 15-yard line when Rodgers’ fourth-down pass to Davante Adams fell incomplete in the end zone.
Standout Performers
Kabion Ento: Ento saw some snaps earlier this week with the starting defense when in their dime formation, then on Family Night, he forced two pass breakups. You can read more on Ento’s performance here.
Jaire Alexander: No surprise that Alexander is listed, but he too was able to force a pair of pass breakups.
Devin Funchess: The big question with Funchess is, how quickly can he shake off the rust after missing almost two full seasons? Well, perhaps that’s what we saw Saturday as he came away with a few receptions, including a deep-out route from Jordan Love.
Funchess, along with Winfree, St. Brown, and Malik Taylor, are competing for the sixth wide receiver spot.
Chandon Sullivan: Everyone has been wondering who was going to emerge as the primary slot corner this season, but up to this point, it’s been Sullivan. He had another good performance on Saturday.
Jordan Love: As has been the case, there were ups and downs—which is still to be expected, but Love once again impressed with a few beautiful throws.
On that pass to Funchess mentioned above, Love went through his progressions, working his way across the field before finding Funchess. Footwork and going through his progressions are two big areas of emphasis for Love, so this was great to see.
On another pass to Reggie Begelton, who has been a favorite target of his, Love effortlessly threw the ball about 45 yards from a clean pocket and dropped it over two defenders perfectly. Unfortunately, Begelton could not hold on to the pass in the rain, but it was a terrific throw, nonetheless.