5 Early Takeaways from Packers Training Camp Practices
By Paul Bretl
With four training camp practices under their belts, the Green Bay Packers have an off day on Sunday.
So based on what we know and have heard up to this point, here are my five biggest takeaways through the first week of practices.
Jordan Love’s Confidence Continues to Grow for the Packers
If we flashback to last preseason, one of the areas of emphasis for Jordan Love was that Matt LaFleur wanted to see him ‘let it rip.’ Trust what he sees and let it go.
"“If there’s one thing to just encourage him to continue to do is ‘Hey man, you’ve got to let that sucker rip,’ said LaFleur following the Houston game via NFL.com. ‘When you see it, trust what you see. Don’t worry about being perfect. Don’t worry about throwing a perfect, on-target pass. Usually when you do that, you’re not as accurate. You’ve got to let the ball go.’ But by and large, I think he did a really nice job.”"
Confidence in the system can play a big role in this improvement. At the time of this quote from LaFleur, Love had gone through a rookie season without offseason programs and no preseason games. He was just coming off his first live NFL game–even if it was only the preseason.
Now we fast forward to today, and Love has a year’s worth of experience taking the No. 2 quarterback reps and has even seen some action in a few regular season games. And with that, his confidence has grown.
As Tom Silverstein would note on Friday, LaFleur told reporters that he has seen the biggest improvements come with Love’s operation in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage.
The end result is Love trusting what he is seeing on the practice field, him putting some zip on the ball, and that has then led to improved accuracy, which was an issue for him last season.
"“I think the confidence is there,” Packers receiver Randall Cobb said of Love during minicamp via ESPN. “Just watching him process things a little bit quicker than he had before. I always thought he threw a great ball, but it’s all about doing it with a defense in front of you and putting it in tight windows."