Monday Post-Practice Update
August 03, 2009, 4:55 pm Link To This Post
News & Notes
LB Clay Matthews took all of his team (11-on-11) reps with the No. 1 defense today, while previous starter Jeremy Thompson worked with the No. 2 defense. It's the first time Matthews got significant snaps with the top unit.

For the second straight practice, the special teams units practiced run-on field goals with the clock winding down. K Mason Crosby struggled on Sunday night, going 1-for-4 from 40 yards out. He was better on Monday, making 2-of-3 from the same distance.

During the fourth straight practice in full pads, tempers were a little hotter, and T Breno Giacomini and DE Alfred Malone got into a bit of a shoving match after one play.

During some red zone work, there was crowd noise being piped in through speakers to simulate a visiting stadium for the offense.

The practice concluded with the 2-minute drill. The No. 1 offense drove 60 yards for a touchdown, scoring on the final play, a fourth-and-goal from the 9 with 1 second left on the clock. QB Aaron Rodgers hit TE Donald Lee in the back of the end zone for the score.

The No. 2 offense didn't fare as well, completing only one pass and getting called for a false start. That unit went four-and-out.

Plays of the Day
CB Charles Woodson continues to shine. He broke up a pass to TE Tory Humphrey in the back of the end zone early in practice, and then later on a blitz, he jumped over a would-be blocker and got a hand on the ball as Rodgers cocked to throw it. Rodgers hung on, but he was disrupted enough he ended up throwing the ball away.

S Nick Collins had an interception near the goal line during red-zone work, stepping in front of WR Ruvell Martin and snagging a low pass. During 7-on-7, CB Al Harris timed a strip of Martin perfectly after he caught a crossing route, and Collins recovered the fumble.

LB Aaron Kampman blew up one running play, shaking the block of TE Jermichael Finley and getting into the backfield on RB Ryan Grant. The effort drew praise from OLB coach Kevin Greene.

The offense had its share of touchdowns during red-zone and goal-line periods. In addition to the TD to conclude the 2-minute drill, some of the nicer catches were turned in by Lee on a leaping one-handed grab, TE Spencer Havner on a sliding catch near the pylon, and James Jones on a deep fade route to the back corner.

Injury/participation update
DE Johnny Jolly is out for perhaps a week with a sprained ankle. He was replaced in the base defense by DE Justin Harrell, and his spot as a nickel defensive tackle was taken by DE Michael Montgomery.

G Daryn Colledge dropped out of practice and was seen with a huge ice pack on his right thigh. Duke Preston, Tony Moll and Jason Spitz all worked at left guard in his place.

T Jamon Meredith also dropped out of practice with what appeared to be fatigue or cramping issues rather than an injury.

CB Brandon Underwood did not practice, and his injury was not specified.

Remaining out of practice were LBs Nick Barnett (knee) and Brad Jones (back), CB Jarrett Bush (abdominal) and NT B.J. Raji (no contract).

Is it me or has there been absolutely no mention of Kregg Lumpkin? Is he injured or something?

"TheEngineer" wrote:

Tuesday Evening Post-Practice Update
August 04, 2009, 9:34 pm Link To This Post
News & Notes
In what was by far the most spirited, physical practice this year (and perhaps in the last couple of years), a few different altercations erupted throughout the course of the evening. LB Desmond Bishop had been laying some significant hits on the running backs during team drills and eventually got into it after a play with C/G Jason Spitz. The mini-scrum prompted Coach McCarthy to call the whole team together and issue a stern plea to knock off the extra-curriculars.

But then a couple of periods later, LB Brady Poppinga laid a monster hit on RB Kregg Lumpkin after he caught a short dump-off pass in the flat. Lumpkin was de-cleated, popped right back up from the big blow and kept on running. Other offensive players came to Lumpkin's defense and went after Poppinga, and the confrontation escalated for a few moments. Shortly, order was restored and practice continued.

Early in practice, the quarterbacks were doing an interesting ball-handling drill out of a basketball workout. Using both hands, they were rotating the ball around one leg and then in a figure-8 between both legs, trying to get as many repetitions as they could within a given time frame. The drill is presumably designed to work on their hand speed and strength while handling the ball.

Practice concluded with another 2-minute drill. The offense needed to go 60 yards in 91 seconds for a touchdown, and on the strength of back-to-back completions to TE Jermichael Finley (25 yards) and WR James Jones (18 yards), QB Aaron Rodgers got into the red zone and all the way down to the 10. But on fourth down with 21 seconds left, his pass over the middle bounced off the hands of WR Ruvell Martin.

Plays of the Day
LB Aaron Kampman was tough for the offense to block against the run, as in a span of a handful of plays he got into the backfield to swallow up RB DeShawn Wynn twice.

The defense also had two interceptions during team work, with CB Tramon Williams taking the ball away from Jennings on a quick slant over the middle, and S Nick Collins cutting in front of WR Jordy Nelson for a pick on a little deeper throw. Moments earlier, Collins had made a break for a potential INT on a hook route to WR Donald Driver, but Driver made the catch and spun into the clear for a big gain.

Other big plays from the defense included pass deflections at the line of scrimmage by LB Jeremy Thompson and DE Cullen Jenkins, a fumble forced by S Anthony Smith when he punched the ball out of RB Tyrell Sutton's hands (recovered by Collins), and a scoop fumble return by S Aaron Rouse when the ball popped out of the pile.

For the offense, non-drafted rookie WRs Kole Heckendorf and JaRon Harris each made diving catches from QB Matt Flynn in 7-on-7 work. Jones caught a deep ball down the right sideline from Rodgers off play-action when the secondary had a bust in coverage, and Martin made a tough catch in the end zone with CB Al Harris in tight coverage on a short fade.

Sutton also had a nice run into the clear on the right side, and on a sweep left near the goal line got a great lead block from G Evan Dietrich-Smith to get into the end zone.

Injury/participation update
CB Brandon Underwood returned to practice, while C/G Duke Preston (back) and WR Patrick Williams (hamstring) sat out.

CB/S Jarrett Bush (abdominal), RB Brandon Jackson (shoulder), G Daryn Colledge (thigh), DE Johnny Jolly (ankle), LB Nick Barnett (knee), LB Brad Jones (back) and NT B.J. Raji (unsigned) remained out.

Here's what I saw and learned on the fourth stop of my training camp bus tour:

# Packers coach Mike McCarthy is very content with the progress of both second-year reserve quarterbacks, Matt Flynn and Brian Brohm. Even though Brohm, a second-round pick in 2008, has made noticeable progress, it seems apparent that Flynn, a seventh-rounder last year, is making just as much progress, if not more.

# McCarthy isn't buying what others are selling, that the offensive line is a question mark. Getting RB Ryan Grant back on track is an expectation, not a hope.

# Rodgers shouldn't get anything but better and he has a stable of receivers that many quarterbacks would covet.

# Capers has a significant track record of defensive improvement in his first year, almost everywhere he has coached. He's clearly a great teacher because the thickness of his defensive playbook rivals the most sophisticated offensive playbook. Part of the trick is hiring coaches who know his ways -- in addition to defensive line coach Mike Trgovac, his staff includes outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene, who built a sack-filled career as a player under Capers, and secondary assistant Darren Perry, who served under Bill Cowher in a similar scheme.

# Biggest sell to make for Capers is to defensive end Aaron Kampman, who reportedly isn't happy about being moved to outside linebacker in the 3-4 scheme. But Capers will occasionally let Kampman put his hand down and, yes, he can refer to the same concerns Jason Taylor had in Miami in 2006, the same season Taylor won the AP Defensive Player of the Year award when Capers was running the defense.

# While the Packers have been unable to sign their top pick, nose tackle B.J. Raji of Boston College, their other first-round pick, USC outside linebacker Clay Matthews, started working with the first unit the past two days.

# McCarthy believes the NFC North will compare favorably with any of the league's best divisions, expecting the Vikings and Bears both to be improved, not to mention his own team. Yes, even the Lions will be better.

# The Packers' expanded practice facility outside the Don Hutson Center has made a lot of coaches, players and fans very happy.

# Fantasy alert: It's easy to see why the Packers expect big things from tight end Jermichael Finley, a 6-5 specimen who was a third-round draft pick from Texas.

# Tuesday night at the fights: The Packers had back-to-back fisticuffs in front of an energized crowd. That prompted McCarthy to assemble his players and give them a loud chewing out (though many players broke the circle laughing). There was at least one more fight and a vicious hit. Afterward, McCarthy told the media: "I probably shouldn't say this, but we went 6-10 last year and didn't have one fight all training camp."

# A.J. Hawk, the Packers' first-round pick in 2006, is being outplayed at his linebacker spot by Desmond Bishop, who was the second of two sixth-round picks from Cal in the same draft. At the very least, Capers has another linebacker toy to play with in his 3-4 scheme.

# You barely heard the F word around here. Favre, that is.

Thursday Morning Post-Practice Update
August 06, 2009, 12:04 pm Link To This Post
News & Notes
Unlike Tuesday morning, players were in full pads for the morning session. Several veterans got the morning off and were not at practice but are scheduled to practice tonight. The healthy vets who sat out were CBs Charles Woodson and Al Harris, LB Aaron Kampman, NT Ryan Pickett, WR Donald Driver and TE Donald Lee.

For the first time in camp, LB/TE Spencer Havner switched from the white offensive jersey to the green defensive jersey and worked as a backup linebacker. He had been working strictly as a tight end thus far. Havner is on several of the special teams units as well.

Special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum was using a megaphone to communicate to the players during one of the special teams drills.

When punting from out of their own end zone, Jeremy Kapinos and Durant Brooks got off to a rough start. After one solid kick by Kapinos, Brooks shanked two out of bounds and Kapinos shanked one as well. The poor efforts elicited groans from the crowd. Both punters got straightened out and improved after that, with Kapinos hitting one to the opponents' 40-yard line and Brooks booting one to the opposing 37. Both of those were roughly 60-yard punts. After moving the line of scrimmage out to the 15, Brooks boomed another one nearly 60 yards, to the opposing 27.

The No. 1 offense scored once again in the 2-minute drill, driving 65 yards in just over a minute. The situation had the offense down 13-7 with 1:22 left and two timeouts. With the defense jumping offsides, QB Aaron Rodgers took a shot deep down the field to TE Tory Humphrey that S Aaron Rouse intercepted, but the turnover was nullified by the penalty. Rodgers then hit WR Greg Jennings for 14 yards, WR Ruvell Martin for 22 yards, and Jennings again for a 12-yard TD with 18 seconds left on the clock.

QB Brian Brohm got his crack at the 2-minute drill as well, and things looked promising when he found TE Evan Moore wide open for a 50-yard gain down the sideline to the 11. A pass interference call then made it first-and-goal around the 2, but then the drive stalled out. Brohm's QB draw was stopped at the 1, a lob into the back of the end zone to WR Jake Allen was caught but out of bounds, a throwaway to avoid pressure brought up fourth down, and then a pitch to RB Kregg Lumpkin was fumbled and recovered by DE Ronald Talley.

Plays of the Day
LBs Jeremy Thompson and Desmond Bishop almost had interceptions. Thompson jumped up at the line of scrimmage and got two hands on a Brohm pass, but couldn't bring it in. Bishop was downfield in coverage and cut nicely in front of the receiver on an underthrown ball, but he couldn't secure the knee-high pass.

On offense, WR Jordy Nelson made a nice spin move out of a stop route to avoid CB Trevor Ford and find a lot of open field. TE Jermichael Finley made another big catch from Rodgers, beating the coverage of S Charlie Peprah. Jennings' first catch in the 2-minute drill was a tough grab in traffic while falling onto his back.

Injury/participation update
Players on the one-a-day schedule -- S Atari Bigby, C Scott Wells, T Chad Clifton and DE Cullen Jenkins -- did not practice, though Bigby took a few snaps in the opening jog-through in his shorts.

CB Jarrett Bush (abdominal), G/C Duke Preston (back) and G Daryn Colledge (thigh) all returned to practice, but Bush dropped out again later. S Anthony Smith and CB Pat Lee also dropped out, but their injuries weren't specified.

Remaining out were RB Brandon Jackson (shoulder), LB Nick Barnett (knee), LB Brad Jones (back), WR Patrick Williams (hamstring), DE Johnny Jolly (ankle) and NT B.J. Raji (unsigned).