6 Things to Watch for at Green Bay Packers Mandatory Minicamp
By Paul Bretl
Mandatory minicamp for the Green Bay Packers begins on Tuesday, June 7th, and runs for three days until June 9th–and as the name suggests, unlike OTAs, players have to show up, or they will face fines.
Before these practices begin — which are open to the public — I have six things, in particular, to watch for over the coming days.
How often do we see starters playing on the Green Bay Packers Special Teams unit?
Following what was simply an awful season on special teams that eventually played a key role in the Green Bay Packers losing in the playoffs to the San Francisco 49ers, Matt LaFleur told reporters that the team would look into utilizing more starters on special teams.
This is also something that new special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia would talk about recently as well. Now, it’s not as if there weren’t any starters or key contributors on special teams in 2021, but for the most part, their roles were small. Of Green Bay’s key starters, Josiah Deguara led the way with 136, per PFF ($$), and for reference, Oren Burks had the most special teams snaps with 356. But for the most part, any contributors who did play special teams were on the field for fewer than 50 snaps.
Of course, with more starters on special teams, the risk of injury increases, and we saw this against the 49ers with AJ Dillon suffering a rib injury on the kickoff team. But if the Green Bay Packers are truly trying to turn this unit around, playing some starters needs to at the very least be considered.
During OTAs, we’ve already seen De’Vondre Campbell, Adrian Amos, and Aaron Jones taking special teams snaps. With everyone — or we assume everyone — participating in minicamp, it will be interesting to see how many special teams snaps Green Bay’s key contributors take and who those players are.