With each passing day, UW-Whitewater product Matt Blanchard looks like a legitimate NFL quarterback. On Saturday, he completed 6 of 8 passes in team drills, including a tight throw in traffic over the middle to Jeff Janisfor about 12 yards and a well-timed, rhythmic slant to Myles Whitefor about 8. It was the first practice in pads, and Blanchard seemed sharper than he was Thursday and Friday.

JSOnline  wrote:

Of the two young players the Packers have moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker in the past year, Carl Bradford is having the tougher time. The 2014 fourth-round draft pick moved inside the final week of training camp last year, but after practicing there all last regular season and a full offseason this year, he opened camp behind Nate Palmer for the No. 3 job inside.

At Stanford, one of the knocks on WR Ty Montgomery was that he dropped too many passes. But so far in training camp, he’s caught just about everything thrown his direction. On Saturday, in the first padded practice of camp, Montgomery took the first rep fielding kickoffs, showed good burst on an end-around and then had the catch of the day when he went high to reel in a deep ball from rookie QB Brett Hundley against fellow rookie CB LaDarius Gunter down the left sideline. It was the kind of splash play that gets everyone’s attention, including the head coach.

Maybe it’s because DE Datone Jones will be suspended for the first game of the regular season, so the Packers coaches are limiting his reps with the starting defense. But the 2013 first-round pick isn’t getting many first-team reps so far in camp, and on Saturday morning, when the defense’s top players were outside for their early practice work, Jones was one of the defensive players inside the Don Hutson Center playing on the scout team as the starting offense got its work done. Then, in one-on-one pass-rush drills, Jones lost twice to guard Josh Walker, although he did win against tackle Fabbians Ebbele. For a player with a lot to prove this summer, Jones is off to a slow start.

He (QB Matt Blanchard) needs to flat out beat Tolzien to make the team.

Originally Posted by: nerdmann