5 Early Takeaways from Packers Training Camp Practices
By Paul Bretl
Rodgers said there would be some long days for the Packers’ offense
Aaron Rodgers ended the first training camp practice on Wednesday, telling the defense that it was “1-0 offense.” However, it was the defense who ended the week strong–which is likely how things will play out more often than not.
Among the starters, there really doesn’t appear to be much of a weakness, or at least on paper, when it comes to this Packers defense. The interior defensive line room is the deepest it’s been, and Green Bay had two of the more productive edge rushers in the game a season ago.
At linebacker is De’Vondre Campbell and Quay Walker, both of whom are very capable against both the run and the pass, which will allow the Packers to stay in their base defense more often, thus creating more challenges for opposing offenses when it comes to deciphering what the Green Bay defense will be doing. Meanwhile, this could be the best secondary in the game.
The Packers’ defense has top-five potential this season, while the offense, on the other hand, is going through some changes. There are question marks at wide receiver, the team is still without Robert Tonyan, and as just discussed, they are missing their two best offensive linemen.
Add it all up, and this is a recipe for some long days for the offense, which there have already been.
"“It could be a long training camp for the offense. I like the way our defense is looking and playing, and just on paper, it looks like they’re going to be pretty formidable,” said Rodgers on the Pat McAfee Show a few weeks ago. ”So there could be some growing pains for the offense, which would be great for us, it would be nice to take our lumps from time to time and help us to get better facing a really good defense like that.”"
As Rodgers mentions, hopefully, this is a good thing for the offense, in the long run, having to go up against this caliber of defense daily. Iron sharpens iron, as they say. But in the process, there will certainly be some growing pains.